AL Cy Young Winner Tarik Skubal, Rex Ryan, An Awesome Snow Game On TNF, Week 12 Picks And Preview + Fyre Fest
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On today's part of my take, we have a twofer for the people. We have AL Cy Young winner, Tarek Skubal. Awesome interview with him. And then we have future and former Jets head coach, Rex Ryan, talking ball. We're going to do week 12 weekend picks and preview. We have Thursday night football to discuss, which was almost the most Steelers game ever. And then the Browns and Jameis in the snow.

Found a way. We're going to finish with Firefest of the Week. I think we have some business, too, from our president, Pug. So that will be in Firefest. Doesn't Pug have to speak to the people? Max, doesn't he? He's got some business? Yeah. I didn't know that you knew about the business. I don't know the business. I just know Pug is planning on speaking. State of the pod. State of the pod. State of the pod.

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Okay, let's go. A.W. Hill. A.T. Mike Tate. Bernard Mike Tate.

Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Score big with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE and opt in to the NBA Cup double-up promotion to score your profit boost pack. That's code TAKE only on DraftKings Sportsbook. The crown is yours. Today is Friday, November 22nd. And goddammit, PFT, I didn't know that my life was incomplete, but it is now complete because I get to watch Jameis Winston play football in the snow.

The horse is preparing for battle, but victory comes from the Lord. Yes. Jameis Winston, November 21st, 2024.

Horses don't really prepare for that. Oh, horses do. Horses know. Oh, no. Horses are like, what the fuck? Why the hell am I here? No, a good horse. I wish I was running in a race or just in a field somewhere. A good horse knows. Like, you know a good horse knows when it's going to race, right? Yeah, I don't know. Horses are like, fuck this, man. I don't want to get stabbed by something. No, I think if you have a horse that's got a dog in it, it knows. Yeah. So we got to watch Jameis play in the snow. It was for the...

For the fourth quarter, it was going to be the most Steelers shit possible. And by that, I mean they look like dog water for the entire first half. Their offense couldn't do anything. Then they get a touchdown. Then they get a fumble. Then they get another touchdown. You're like, holy shit. Just continuing the conversation of the Pittsburgh Steelers every single year where it's like, I don't...

I think they're good, but I don't think they're good, but they're really good. I think they're really good still, but we saw this coming on Sunday night when we did the pod. We said Thursday night against the Browns, let down. Now, by the time the weekend actually rolled around at that point, I flipped back on myself and thought maybe the Steelers can do it. But yeah, the classic letdown spot. This is the Browns Super Bowl. And also shout out to the lake. Yeah. The lake came to play tonight. The snow was gorgeous. It was artistic out there.

They're trying to take snow football away from you. They're trying to build a dome in Cleveland. And that's not going to look right at all. Seeing the Browns playing good weather, like indoor weather, in late November, December, maybe January. That's not going to look right to me. But, you know, simultaneously, like the most Pittsburgh shit ever.

And also the most brown shit ever in that fourth quarter. Jameis with what appeared to be a back-breaking interception. I don't know if he could see the Pittsburgh defensive players. They were wearing white jerseys and white-out conditions. He was making crazy throws, scrambling out of the pocket. His helmet was falling apart.

And then at one point, he just kind of didn't see a defensive player like old school Jameis. Yeah. Hit him with a perfect pass. But it was a great game. It was a lot of fun to watch. Yeah. He was full Jameis with the scramble for the touchdown, then the interception, which we all saw coming. Because Jameis, when he throws an interception, he like...

He builds up the confidence to throw it in that he will almost throw an interception on like a couple plays in a row. And then he'd be like, all right, now I'm ready. I'm just going to throw the interception now. He was like, all right, can I do this? Can I do this? Yeah, I'm going to throw the interception. I agree the weather. They're trying to take this from us. This is what they're trying to take from us. The Kurt Warners of the world, the Pete Priscos of the world, our good friend Pete Prisco.

decided to do the football in the elements sucks tweet, then closed his replies. Sad stuff from our guy Pete Prisco. We got to remember to bring that up next time. That game was awesome. And the winter and the snow was awesome. I'm going to push back a little bit on the Steelers being really good. I don't know if they are. I think they're good. I think that the Steelers in a normal home game,

As opposed to an away game in the snow. It's different. It's different. But explain this. Their offense looked like shit in the first half. There was no snow. They did look like shit in the first half. And I just don't know. Russell Wilson can do some things, but I also am just...

I don't know. I don't know if I trust them. You know what it is? And I know they can beat the Ravens because they always beat the Ravens. Well, Dan Orlovsky says that you can't beat the Ravens kicking only field goals. Yeah. So I don't know if they can. Yeah, that's true. It's a mystery. I think what the root of my thinking that the Steelers are really good is is the fact that they've had just terrible-looking offenses the last couple years. And we've all thought to ourselves with this defense and some of the pieces they have on offense –

If they just get good quarterback play, they'll be an awesome team. And now for the most part, I don't think that Russell Wilson is a bad quarterback. I think he's probably average, maybe a little bit above average. And he loves throwing the ball to George Pickens, keeps him involved. He spreads the ball around. He uses the middle of the field sometimes, which is better than what you can say for the Steelers for the last three, four years.

So I think what I'm in love with is the fact that they do have that average to sometimes good quarterback that they were missing. I'll make a deal with you here. I think I'm comfortable saying the Steelers are pretty good. Okay. Really feels. Yeah, I think they're pretty good. I think they're pretty good. Can I talk you up to they're really pretty good? Really good plus. No, that would be.

Another pretty good plus. Pretty good plus. Pretty good plus I could do. Pretty good plus? I can meet you at pretty good plus. What about really pretty good plus kind of? Sometimes. Yeah. If you add a sometimes, I'm okay with that. At home, post-renegade. Really pretty good plus sometimes. I don't think there's ever. Every now and then. I don't think there's ever been a coach who's better at coaching football. Motivated. Like getting his team ready and holding them to the high standard of the standard.

While also simultaneously being the biggest idiot when it comes to the end of half scenarios. And end of games. I mean, that was, yeah, that was, that was crazy. Mike Tomlin, the back and forth with the penalty. I don't know why you, why you decline that penalty or accept that penalty. Sorry. Like,

Yeah, he accepted it. They went from fourth and two to third and seven. He declined it twice. Yeah. And then he accepted it. The Browns were clearly very hesitant to kick because their kicker stinks and missed a bunch of kicks last week and it was bad weather.

Put the pressure on them. Have it be a fourth and two. And then he accepted the penalty so they get third and seven. And then he takes a timeout that he had no reason to take. And then you're in a situation where a first down kind of just like burns all the time. It was just...

It was a debacle. I also didn't really understand fourth and two putting Justin Fields in the game to throw the, or no, sorry, that was third and two because they did end up punting, but it was a bad punt. Putting Justin Fields to throw a deep ball to George Pickens, like that's Russ's ball.

I don't know. The end of the first half, too, with the timeouts. Yeah. Didn't make a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah. Where he was like... He kind of always is like halfway in, halfway out. Yeah. He didn't know if he wanted more time on the clock when he got it back. The timeouts were really strange. I would much rather have a coach that was like that than the other way around. Yeah. That could not motivate his team, but then during the games, managed the game really well with a shitty team. Yeah. Like putting whipped cream on shit. Mike Tomlin's a really good coach, but...

This was a winnable game that I think the Steelers are going to be very upset when they look back at because they have some really tough games left because they have to play the Bengals who are obviously still fighting for their life. They've been fighting for their life since week one. Browns again.

Then Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs, and Bengals to finish. Tough. This could be the game where they look back and they're like, what the fuck was that? We should have won that game. We could have won that game. And it's the difference between winning the division and being like a six seed or something. Yeah. Getting a home playoff game would be huge for Pittsburgh. Yeah. And so that was disappointing for Steelers fans. Disappointing, especially given the schedule coming up. I think I'm going to stay strong in saying that they're really, no, they're

Pretty good plus...

The one thing that does concern me with the Steelers, their defense. They have a very good defense. TJ hasn't really been anywhere to be seen for the last couple weeks. Miles Garrett was a beast tonight. Miles Garrett was really good. You know what I'm saying? TJ, yes, he was getting double teamed a lot. He was getting chipped. They were keeping the tight end a lot to give two guys on him. But still, I feel like TJ Watt has not... He hasn't been playing up to TJ Watt's standards the last couple weeks. Yeah. And credit to the Browns because...

A team that quits felt like the Browns had kind of quit to have a game like that against your rival. That's still fun. Oh, yeah. In the snow. It's so memorable. Primetime, national audience, snow, Jameis. Bryce Underwood went to Michigan like an hour before kickoff. Yep. So Indiana is going to come in to Columbus, and that's a scary proposition just because Ohio State

If they win, everyone will be like, well, yeah, you were supposed to beat Indiana. And if they lose, like, holy shit, Ryan Day. Yeah. Everything's falling apart. It doesn't count. This is not counted under Ryan Day can win the big one if he wins. Yeah. But if he loses, then it's Ryan Day can't win the big one. Yeah, yeah. So it was good for the Browns to show some fight. Yeah, Miles Garrett was everywhere. And Jameis is just fun. In the snow, it's fun. His pregame speech. Actually, there were two of them. Now we get two.

pieces of content from Jameis before every game. One of him talking to his team, one of him talking to a reporter. Yeah. And the one where he was talking to the reporter before the game, Kaylee Hartung, he started off super serious, super serious, laser focused in. Then halfway through something hit him.

It looked like he took ecstasy. Yeah. And he just woke up and started smiling and laughing. I just love Jameis Winston. We need more Jameis. This was a good night for Browns fans. This was your Super Bowl. And if you don't win any other games for the rest of the year, guess what? This one you'll remember forever. And shout out all the shirtless, like,

Very fat Browns fans. Those guys rocked. It felt like there were a hundred of them in the stands tonight. Those are like the true... Those are what we mean when we say football guys. Those are what we mean when we say like, you know, Rust Belt, Cleveland. Those guys were fucking awesome. Yeah. And they were just... There were so many. One guy had like a little...

stickers on his nipples, which I liked. Keeping it classy for the kids. I like that. Kids are watching. But again, they're going to try to put more domes on stadiums. And one day, we're not going to have snow football anymore. Everything's going to be sterile and indoors. And we'll look back. And all us old timers will say to the young kids, like, you know, they used to play football outdoors in the snow. And then the kids will be like, oh, that's so old. You guys are so old. They'll think of that the same way that we think of

Like playing baseball at the polo grounds. With like 500 feet to dead away center field. It's going to be a sad day. Kurt Warner is going to be just spinning, smiling. Okay, let's kick it to ourselves. We've got weekend preview. Then we have AL Cy Young winner, Tarek Skubal, which was an awesome interview. And Rex Ryan, which also was awesome. He's going to be the Jets head coach again, I think. Let's kick it to ourselves.

Hank, what do you got?

Pat's at Dolphins. Probably a lot of New England people going down for the weather. Nice weather in Miami. You can get into the game for as cheap as $61. $61. And there's some lower level seats I'm looking at on the super deal that are $150. Okay, so hit that GT Picks deal for great seats. Just pull up your chosen event. Turn on the GT Picks setting at the top of the screen or browse the best local GameTime Picks deal near you on your GameTime app homepage. What are you waiting for? Hank, if...

Maybe Hank's now. No, you got to be here Sunday. Someone's going to buy those Patriots versus Dolphins tickets with Game Time Picks. Download the Game Time app today. Use code PMT to easily score great deals with the new Game Time Picks. What time is it? Game Time. We're also brought to you by ourselves at Pardon My Cheese Steak. It's football season. It's cheese steak season.

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Find a Pardon My Cheesesteak near you or order yours now at pardonmycheesesteak.com. Use code AWL, AWL for free delivery with Pardon My Cheesesteak. Okay, boys, week 12 in the NFL. We've got six buys. We've got, I'll say it, not the best slate.

Yeah, but we say that on the weekends where we tend to have good games. Oh, of course. I expect there to be chaos. But on paper, I was struggling to figure out what TV is going to have sound on Sunday. So what's crazy is the Cowboys are going to have the A-team for broadcasting. Right. Who do they play? They're playing the Commanders. Oh, so that should be sound. That should be sound. I mean, if we want to listen to Greg Olson. Well, I was thinking...

I was thinking Lions and Colts. So Lions and Colts is going to be interesting just to see how... I think that the Lions are just going to beat the fuck out of the Colts this week. Okay, well, let's start with that game. Let's hop right into it. All right, so Lions and Colts. I have the Lions. I wrote down the Lions this time. All in DraftKings Sportsbook. Lions and Colts. Colts plus 7.5. Over-unders 50.5.

Bang. There we go. The Lions are the third best team in DVOA history. I saw that. Of all time. I saw that. So they went back and I don't know how they do it on the computer. They just have the computer watch film for all the old teams. I don't know. I think Aaron Chast just watches all the film. I think he just has like an AI scraper that goes back to the NFL films library and just watches and tells you what to... But whatever it is, third best in NFL history.

uh, through 10 games. So there's still some season left. Uh, they're behind only the 2007 Patriots and the 1991 Redskins. That's where the lines, that's how good these lines have been offensively. Yeah. I actually think the Colts are going to be in this game. Okay. Hank, you want to, do you want to, I'm staying away. I'm staying away. Um, listen, I, the lions are the best team in the NFL. Um, I'm not going to, you know, pretend that that's not the case. Uh,

Alex Anzalone being out, where's the green dot is now their second obvious, you know, big time starter that's out with Aiden Hutchinson been out for a while.

I think Anthony Richardson, I was impressed with how he played against the Jets. Shane Steichen feels like maybe that time sitting down helped him. Shane Steichen, having him run a little bit more, it's going to be a little bit harder when you have a dual-threat quarterback and your green-dot guy is out. I know that we're going to talk to Rex Ryan about the Lions, and he makes a really good point about how they get all their players involved and bought in.

I don't think the Colts are going to win this game, but I think they're going to keep it close. And it might be the dumbest thing ever, but I'm... Actually, no, I haven't been bad. I had the Texans against the Lions. Texans covered. I had the Lions last week against the Jaguars. They killed them. So it's not like I've been going, trying to go, you know, ooh, I'm going against the Lions. I just think seven and a half. Colts really need these games. Lions are really, really good, but...

It's hard to play a whole football season and dominate everyone. Yes, Hank? Does this go against... I feel like it goes against a lot of what you've said about Anthony Richardson and the Colts up to this point. Correct. I said last week he looked great after sitting for two weeks, and it felt like Shane Steichen had that good balance of how to use him correctly. So...

So maybe he's a different guy. Maybe he's getting better. Run the football, run the football, and then throw a deep pass. Yeah, that was a game-winning drive against Jets. Just because I have a take doesn't mean I can't be... No, no, I'm not going to you. I'm not going to you. I'm saying just because... Whoa. Whoa. I'm not. I'm not. I'm telling you, just because I have a take doesn't mean I can't change it if he starts to be better. Agreed. So I thought that was a very impressive game against the Jets.

And maybe they're starting to figure things out with Anthony Richardson. Yeah, so the key is going to be if they can run the ball, if Jonathan Taylor can run the ball. I forget how many touches he had last week. It wasn't nearly enough. To be successful long-term, Jonathan Taylor has to run the football. And they're going to try to do that against the Lions. The problem is the Lions' defense is very, very, very good against the run. Now, Anzalone being out, that makes a big difference. Yeah. We'll see how they – who's going to fill in for him? Is that going to be Rodrigo? Might be.

Let's see. They have another guy. I don't know who's going to wear the green dot. And again, the Lions are really, really good. Their offense is a problem. Like, this could be a game we turn on and the Lions just do what the Lions do and just dominate them from start to finish. I just think this is one of those situations. The Colts have their back against the wall. They look at the playoff picture. They got to win some of these games down the stretch. And it's a little bit of...

If the Lions keep blowing everyone out, everyone's going to be like, oh, well, that's easy. Mark it as a win. Yeah. Minus seven and a half. The Lions are my until further notice team. Yeah. But again, they didn't cover against the Texans. I'm going to assume that the Lions will beat anybody. That was like a historically bad game from Jerry Goff, too. It could happen. They still won. No Hungry Dog for this? No. I thought I could maybe get you enticed. No. Oh, you've been burnt by the Colts with the Hungry Dog, too. And the Lions, like after last week, I got...

Beyond burned. Pants. So I'm just going to stay away. The Jaguars are really bad. You're going to like the Hungry Dog this week. Oh, interesting. So Bears? Maybe. Definitely. Definitely maybe.

Did you see everyone, all the Lions or a couple of Lions players changing their Instagram avatar to Dan Campbell wearing the biggest pads ever in high school? No. Look it up. Look it up, Max. It's the funniest picture. They are the biggest pads I've ever seen in my life.

And, I mean, Dan Campbell looked like a beast. There's a picture, too, of Dan Campbell from his basketball team in high school, and he's just outfitting the coaches. He's got his hands on the coaches' shoulders in the team picture. It is crazy that people used to play football in those pads as recently as when we were kids. There it is. The one all the way in red. The one in red. Yeah, that's pretty good. No, that one. Yeah, look at those. Those were the biggest pads I've ever seen. That looks like when Tom Brady would put that giant coat on on the sidelines when it was too cold outside. And then click on the basketball picture. There's three kids underneath.

Yeah, he's like Inspector Gadget. Click on the basketball. Look at that. This is a team basketball photo. He's just got his arms on both of the coach's shoulders. He's the coach, yeah. Yeah. He's just been an alpha from day one. I love that. Yeah. I love it. And he'll die for them. Again, I could be foolish. It's not like, ooh, I think I see something wrong with the Lions. The Lions are just really fucking good. I just...

Seven and a half is a lot of points, and maybe the Colts can keep it close. Until further notice, I will be betting on the Lions. Until they show me otherwise. It also would be on brand for the Lions to do this the week after. Right. I'm staying away, but it would like... Oh, you're starting to say the NFL makes no sense again. No, I'm just saying it would be fitting.

What you're saying, and I agree with, if you've been watching the NFL for a very long time, you have to remind yourself this over and over and over and over and over again. You're never as good as you were last week. You're never as bad as you were last week. That's just how you have to look at every single game. What are you going to do for Colts tickets? So Colts tickets, what should we do? Maybe a Colts fan that can bite their own kneecap? What about a Colts fan who can show us a picture in the biggest pads they have?

Old school, high school? Yeah. Okay. I want to see the biggest pads you can get. Yeah, if you're an Indianapolis Colts fan, you want to go to the game, we got two tickets for you. Just tag PardonMyMeme on X.com, the everything app. It's all happening on X. Tag memes and one of the biggest shoulder pads. Get two tickets. Yeah, two tickets. Tag memes. And don't say anything about the Jets. Do not. Do you want to say what you said earlier? No, I don't want to say that. Say it. I don't want to say that. All right, Hank, you say it.

I said something very mean to memes earlier. Very mean. I just told memes, like, if you think that all the stories about the Jets have been humiliating, just wait. There's more. There's more. The walls are back. The walls. Not from me. From the walls. The walls told me. Memes, you're wearing a Russian hat today? You look good.

You look crazy. You look like you're in Fargo. You're going to put a body in a wood chipper. This is a part of my take hat. Yeah, we sell it. Oh, yeah. I like that. Let me see the flat. Is that the blue one? Oh, yeah. Oh, that's a cool one. Those are nice. Those are nice. That's the guy that you see and you think to yourself, like, I might be in danger. That's why I feel so bad about threatening him. You haven't shown the part of my take side. Oh, there we go. Oh, that is a cool hat. Is it in the store still?

Probably not. Okay, I want one of those. Yeah, so memes, the worst is yet to come. There's going to be more stuff. The worst is yet to come. The walls tell me. It's not me. Okay, next game. Vikings at Bears. Bears plus 3.5 over under 39.5.

I'm very nervous about this game because Brian Flores feels like he's going to fuck shit up. The good news is he's been blitzing less the last couple weeks. Yeah, I mean, you can't keep up blitzing forever because you eventually got to get a pass rush home with four. Russia in the wintertime will catch up to you. Yes, exactly. But yeah, I'm nervous for this game. The only thing I'm hoping for is...

It is outdoor game Sam Darnold. This is the third game in a row, road game for the Vikings. He's had a little bit of issues the last few weeks, so maybe the Bears' defense keeps him in the game, but then Justin Jefferson also scares me. So this is a crazy stat. The Vikings have the best rush defense in the NFL. They're letting up 74.4 yards per game. That's the third best of all time. You know what the other two teams are? Hmm.

The 1994 Vikings and the 2007 Vikings. Oh, wow. It's just what the Vikings do once every 10 years. They're like cicadas? They have an outstanding rush defense. Yeah. So I actually like DJ more this weekend, though, because their past... Some might say, yes, their rush defense is very good. If you look at not necessarily yards per carry, but in terms of yards per game.

Teams just like to throw the ball against the Vikings. So their offenses are getting a higher percentage of their yards by passing the ball as opposed to rushing. So I feel like Caleb Williams continues to take that next step. Looks good. I like DJ Moore. It could be good. This could be good. Stay out of the dumps. I haven't been out of dumps. Bears haven't really done anything super embarrassing this week. It's been a few weeks since we've had a clean week like that. I do feel...

Thomas Brown makes me feel a little more confident because if this was a game with Shane Waldron, I'd be like, Caleb Williams is going to get sacked 15 times and it's going to look god-awful. But the fact that he was able to get the ball out fast and they schemed guys open quick hopefully will help against the Blitz. Yeah. So, Hungry Dog? Offensive line looking good? This is in the Hungry Dog. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of pressure.

Pats are too. Spoiler. Oh, wow. It's a big, big weekend. Let's do that game. Patriots and Dolphins. Dolphins minus 7.5 over under 46. Let me just, before you even start. Please. You talk about the 14 point and how it looks and how 14 points in some situations is more or less than depending on what the score is. Correct. This 7.5 feels so much...

more gettable than the cold seven and a half. Okay. Because you have to assume that the lions would score like 35 points. And so you need to score 28 points. I'd agree with what you said. Yeah. Seven and a half feels like a lot, but then reverse it. An ungettable seven and a half is actually the bet you want to make.

Maybe. Because a seven and a half that you look at and you say, oh, that's easy. Seven and a half. That's bad. So is it Drake Mays' pinpoint accuracy that's making you so amped up about the Patriots this weekend? Because you guys haven't beat the Dolphins in Miami since Tom Brady.

No, and that's a good, usually with the Patriots, it's like all the trends reversing. The Dolphins have always been like the boogeyman, even when Brady was there and the Patriots are good. So this is the trend we can reverse in our favor. Got it. Got it. So you're the team that no one wants to play in that division. I think so. You're dangerous. Yeah, you're the spoiler. You want a stat that will help you? Please. So from Sports Info Solutions, on the season, the Patriots are fourth worst in success rate against five or more pass rushers.

But since Drake May has taken over, they are the 12th best. So that's the Blitz. And Miami, their defense is top five in success rate allowed when they bring the heat. So this is actually not a bad matchup. Drake May is good against the Blitz, has improved this team overall against the Blitz with his feet.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to probably not bet this game, but if I had to, I'd probably take the Patriots plus 7.5. I've also become a big graphs guy. There's a lot of good graphs for Drake May. Yeah.

Those are the graphs that I just mute. Yeah. I see a graph that's bad, and I just go. It's like making plays out of the pocket, and then Drake Mays in the top right with, like, Lamar Jackson. Right. You're talking about the ones that have, like, the headshot of your quarterback, depending on where they are on the graph. Or the EPA. There's, like, four quadrants. I just click the not interested in this information button.

Some of them are just too confusing for me. I don't think I'm reading any of them correctly. I just know where he's bunched. Top right. The quarterbacks he's near. I'm like, I like this graph. This is a good graph. You want to be in the top right, and you never want to be just completely by yourself, no matter what quadrant you're in, because it feels like something weird is about to happen. We should start making graphs where the good part is bottom left. Just confuse people. That would fuck you up. I don't know how to make a graph, but if you could...

So, Hank, week five, you remember this matchup? Mm-hmm. You remember who was starting at quarterback for each team? Nope. Jacoby Brissett. Jacoby Brissett and Snoop Huntley playing quarterback. The Dolphins win 15-10. Which team do you think had the better upgrade? Bigger upgrade, Tyler Huntley to Tua or Jacoby Brissett to Drake May? Tyler Huntley to Tua. Bigger upgrade. Jacoby was a fine quarterback, good guy. Fine guy. Yeah.

What was the stat you had the other day? It was like most passes went off interception or something? Like lowest interception rate? There also was a Thursday night football game where you guys said, is Jacoby Brissett the guy? I'll never forget that. We started off the show. Browns. Today is blah, blah, blah. Is Jacoby Brissett maybe the guy? We asked a question. That's what we do at National Sports Podcast. We ask the questions. We start the discussions. The answer to that was no, which, by the way, congratulations to us for nailing that. Mm-hmm.

I also think at the start of the year, I said, Jacoby Bursette will get you seven wins. You said seven or eight wins, and then I looked it up, and it was like, ooh. Yeah. I still do have that future that I haven't cashed out of yet lingering there. Patriots over five and a half wins this season. Hey, they could win a couple more games. Jacoby Bursette is exactly what we should have said. Yeah.

But he's all that. He can contribute to NFL. Snoop Huntley, no offense. Yeah, no, no. Jacoby Brissett is great for a spot start. Maybe two. No offense or no offense? Both. Hey, I mean, Tyler Huntley almost won a playoff game in Cincinnati. Tyler Huntley, pro bowler. Yeah. Yeah. When like everyone dropped out. You remember that? No. It was like two years ago, three years ago. Tyler Huntley made the pro bowl. Oh, we should do that. Set a reminder, Hank. Let's say July 15th.

Third week of July, let's make the worst Pro Bowl team ever. Okay. Because these are ridiculous. Mitch made a Pro Bowl. Mack Jones made a Pro Bowl. We should make the worst Pro Bowl team ever. Okay. So Tyler Huntley, this was the 2022 season. He made the Pro Bowl in which he started four games and he passed for 658 yards with two touchdowns. And just every other player was like, no, thank you. Yep.

I mean, that's, hey, that gives me hope that one day I can make a pro bowl. Yeah. Enough people say no. Okay. So, Hank, you feel good about this game? Yeah, I'm excited for it. Good. I'm happy you're excited. Went in Miami, beat the Dolphins. Run the table. Yoffs. Maybe. I mean, the Dolphins need to win this game for our Thanksgiving sake.

So Thanksgiving is Bears-Lions, which should be a disaster. Giants-Cowboys, which is gross. And then Packers-Dolphins at night. If the Dolphins are playing for something, that will be an interesting game. If the Dolphins are not, it's going to be like, damn it, what just happened? Yeah, I think they could. I think they could be playing for something. Well, yeah, they got to win this game. Yeah. Again, haven't won in Miami since Tom Brady.

So it's a tall order. Big time order. Big time order. All right. Next up, Cowboys at Commanders. Commanders minus 10.5 over under 45.5. PFT, you got to demolish them. Got to crush them. Anything less than a crushing is bad. Here's why I like it. Well, obviously, the Cowboys have not been great recently. Their defense is bad. It seems like Dan Quinn...

took not only himself out of dallas's defensive equation but also he brought a lot of guys from dallas that followed him to dc i feel like they're going to be more into the whole revenge thing than the cowboys the rest of their defense being like oh fuck these guys you know um yeah i want to see i want to see 30 points on offense i want to see under 20 points on defense then i'll be very very happy yeah you the cowboys are on quit watch officially quit watch uh

They have Trey Lance packages, which you got to be worried about. Very worried. I'm actually, I'm happy that Trey Lance isn't starting just because you don't know what you're going to get with Trey Lance. It's true. You know what you're going to get with Cooper Rush. I also think that the commanders like Jaden Daniels feels like he's finally healthy because he practiced full week practice, got a little mini buy. You got to kill. At what point should I start to be concerned if Lattimore is not playing?

Oh, good question. Because I saw that he didn't practice on Wednesday. He was doing like sideline drills on Thursday. I'm very excited to get Marshawn Lattimore into the secondary. I'm excited to see what changes he can bring to the defense because we need another cornerback big time. And I feel like I've been very reserved, been like, it's fine. He's going to be healthy. He's going to be great when he's healthy. At what point should I start to be like, do we get fleeced?

after this game because in theory this is a it doesn't matter if you have them or not and you need them for the playoff run yeah mini bye commanders coming off the mini bye haven't had our bye week yet we've got a bye week in December which is fucking insane it's crazy to wait this long

So, I don't know. I feel like this should be a game where the Commanders come out and beat the fuck out of the Cowboys. You have to beat the fuck out of them. I want the Cowboys to hate me. You have to beat the fuck out of the Cowboys. And what stinks is I want these rivalries against the NFC East that hasn't given a shit about the Commanders over the last...

25 30 years yeah um but this is not even the year that i can reignite the rivalry with the cowboys because i feel like the cowboys have just straight up given up yeah they stink their offensive line is a mess i think they've got three uh three subs coming in this week yeah um eagles fans are obviously rooting for the cowboys right yeah yeah for sure you have to have to yeah rent free

Rent-free Max. Rent-free. Maxie. Maxie. I mean, that's just math. Ding dong. That's just math. By the way, the Commanders and Cowboys, they're the opposite of the Steelers and the Ravens. Since the beginning of 2019, they've played each other 10 times with 9 of those 10 meetings having a final margin of 10 points or more. An 8 of 10 with a margin of 15 plus points. Yep. So...

This is not the Ravens and Steelers. So even though it's a big spread, it's okay. And I do like there's been some good vibes shifting in D.C. this week. So we're trying to build a new stadium because our current stadium falls apart on opponents and leaks sewage. So we're trying to get a new stadium in the next five years. And something passed through the Senate this week saying,

saying that the DC City Council can now lend out the RFK Junior, or excuse me, the RFK Senior Stadium to the commanders if they want to. Oh, so they'll use that temporarily. Which, no. So it would be like a 50- or 100-year lease that they would give to Josh Harris to build a new stadium there. Got it. And having a stadium that's in the city is going to be so fucking awesome. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah. Okay. The second that Dan Snyder sold the team,

Senate and the DC City Council said we're open to negotiate now they just said we don't want we don't want the stink of you inside of our city but he gets out now they're cool we're tired of dealing with that asshole yes bucks at Giants Giants plus six over under 41 I feel very bad for Drew Locke

Yeah, what's going on with Drew Locke? Did he do something bad to Brian Dable? I don't know, but his press conference where he was like, yeah, they brought me in as QB2, and I guess I'm still QB2 doesn't make sense to me because the Daniel Jones sitting makes sense. You don't want to have to pay this guy more than you've already paid him. It's over.

but Drew Locke was the number two, and then you're saying, no, actually, it's Tommy DeVito who's going to be the quarterback, and they were kind of like... It's just weird. I feel bad for Drew Locke. He looked really sad when he had his press conference or he was talking to the media, and then there's also...

like weird things coming out from all the teammates. Uh, Dexter Lawrence said, talking about Daniel Jones, he's the QB one to me. He's the best quarterback on the team. And then there was a report. Uh, one offensive player said, we're not idiots. They did it because of money. So be it. But Daniel has been all class. Never complained is now being completely disregarded. The team record is bad. You can't point fingers everywhere to try to blame him as trash and making him third string is weak as fuck. So, uh,

Yeah, it feels like there's – and then there was a real quick cleanup that Dexter Lawrence said that he talked to Dable and Dable hasn't lost the locker room, which if you know, we have a theory and it's, I think, proven true. If you have to say someone hasn't lost the locker room, that means they've lost the locker room. Yeah, so real quick point of clarification there. Daniel Jones is not the third string quarterback.

Yeah. He's the fourth string quarterback now. Yeah. So they signed Tim Boyle. Yeah, that was the player just saying it's bullshit. He's third. Yeah. So he's now fourth, which is crazy, but I understand it. If you're going to bench him, then you don't want him coming into the game and getting injured. I get that. But what doesn't make any sense to me, and I like Tommy DeVito. He was fun for a couple games last season. Drew Locke is a spark quarterback.

He's the guy that will go in there and he'll just try to force the ball into any tight window, make some awesome throws, some really boneheaded mistakes too. But he's like the definition. If he has a good day, he's the definition of a good spark quarterback. And they just pass that up for Tommy DeVito. I don't know why. I think they're trying to lose. Are they trying to sell tickets? I think they're trying to lose. Get the Italians? Maybe, but you could just get Rizzler to come to the game. That's true.

I think they're trying to lose and try to tank for a quarterback. Yeah. Which would make sense. Also, I like the Bucs regardless of who they're playing this week because they're getting Mike Evans back. Correct. And they've been playing everybody really tough. And they've had a hard schedule recently. Yep. And they've been competing really, really well against some very good football teams. Yeah. And so now this to me feels like the Bucs finally being able to be a competent all-around offensive football team. And I feel bad for whichever team they were going to play this week.

it will be interesting with Tristan. Worf's is a game time decision. That will be big because the one thing with the giants and they still have it is the, is their defensive line is very good. So Baker under pressure, not my favorite Baker. Uh,

But I agree with you. Mike Evans coming back, for Baker, it's got to be like, this is incredible. I can now have a guy who's super tall and gets open all the time. Also, we should mention that Daniel Jones, he hasn't been completely cut out of the practice. He's getting reps at scout team safety. So the old Mac Jones...

That's got to be very sad. I feel bad. You know what? I feel bad for Drew Locke. Drew Locke's the only one I feel bad for. Daniel Jones made a ton of money and has been bad for six years, and he should just be happy. He's going to live an awesome life doing whatever he's doing. I feel like he is the rare first-round draft pick that could –

seamlessly into being a number two quarterback for a long time. Yeah, but he said, Daniel Jones is going to have an awesome life. He's probably going to have like super athletic kids. One of them is going to be a better quarterback than him. Yeah. He's going to have hundreds of millions of dollars to just hang out, get a hot wife. He's going to be fine. Drew Locke, like he doesn't have a lot of chances. If he's not going to get a chance here, where's his next chance? I like that take because you're doing the same thing that the Giants did with Drew Locke, or excuse me, with Daniel Jones. But you're saying like, just give Daniel Jones children sometime.

Yeah. His kids will develop. Yeah, exactly. He will. I mean, he came, remember, on draft night? Yeah. Came from a very athletic family. Yeah, so let's sign his kids to a future contract. Yeah. Okay. Chiefs at Panthers. Panthers plus 11 over under 43. Hank, do you want to? Nope. Oh, boo. This is the NFL makes sense game? Maybe if the Chiefs had won, but I had the Chiefs. No. Yeah. No. I'm not getting burned by the Chiefs twice in two weeks. I mean, in their last one.

The Chiefs are 0-1. The Panthers are 1-0. Yeah, and the Chiefs need to bounce back, and this is the perfect team to bounce back against. Yeah. Isaiah Pacheco possibly back. Patrick Holmes is 0-3-1 as a road favorite of double digits. Does that make it a little interesting? 0-3-1 against the spread? Against the spread. No. Okay. How about this? Because it's Hungry Dog. The Chiefs are 1-4 against the spread in their last five games. Don't make money betting against the Chiefs.

I just said the Chiefs are 1-4 against the spread in the last five games. So you actually literally do. You'd be swimming in money. We're talking hungry dog. You'd be rich. My mind only thinks wins and losses. I think the Panthers might stick around in this game a little bit. A little bit. Not a full bit. I'm saying... Like a quarter? Like a Jaguars? Down six and a half. Oh, okay. Yeah. Up 3-0. Jaguars up 3-0. Could be up 3-0. Ten minutes in, Jaguars had the lead. But they will not win this game.

It would be crazy. What will we think of the Chiefs if they lose to the Panthers on Monday? Well, if you're looking ahead to future takes, this is the game where if the Chiefs lose, then you'll start to get people saying,

I don't think that the Chiefs can win a Super Bowl. Yeah. They've got real problems. So maybe the Chiefs want to lose this game. They might want to. Because they're not enough. Yeah, not enough people are saying that the Chiefs can't win the Super Bowl this year. Like the Chiefs right now, they've gone through a little adversity. They've had some bad injuries. There's an FBI memo that got sent out to all professional athletes saying, watch out, there's a South American gang that's robbing your houses when you're gone. Because Mahomes' place got broken into. Kelsey's place got broken into. Shit.

And this is a way game. So they might be thinking about, oh shit, let me just check my ring cam real quick. But if you're looking for the media to start doing the thing that they do every single year, which is saying the chiefs, this team isn't good enough to win the super bowl. Again, this would be a game that you would want to lose. So, or even I could even see them maybe winning it, uh,

With like a last second field goal with their backup kicker. Yeah. And then be like, well, they won, but they're not looking good. Yeah. And then they'll win three Super Bowls in a row. Harrison Bucker not kicking? Wasn't he hurt? Wasn't he hurt last week? He was hurt last week. I just don't know when he's coming back. Yeah, he went on IR. Okay. So yeah, he's out. So yeah, that's...

Maybe that's the story. It's like, oh, the Chiefs found another kicker. Yeah. Or Kelsey kicks a game-winning field goal. Harrison Bucker's at home with a shotgun right now. Yeah. Not my house. No. Yeah, he's protecting the land. Okay. Last early game. Like I said, it's not the best. Do you guys think? What do you think for Sounders? Should we just test out a couple games? I think Commanders.

That's a 10.5 point spread. That's the biggest spread of the week. It's the A team, though. And it's the Commanders. Okay. Well, is it the A team? It's Greg, right? I feel like that's Greg. Or is it Tom Brady? Tom Brady's the A team. Yeah, but which one? Greg is my A team. I was going off what you said. No, no. That's, yeah. I don't know. Maybe we should do a blind poll when everyone gets in. Yeah, I mean, I'd be down. Bears are in the Hungry Dog. I'd be down for Vikings-Bears, too. I don't want to subject people to that.

I want just a good game. I think Vikings-Bears will be a good game. It's a low spread. I just want a good game on TV. Maybe we just play TV roulette, and it's like if this game stinks, we're just going to change it. Or we just put the four box in the middle. No, I don't like the four box. You don't get the high definition. We'll start with one game, and then maybe we'll set limitations. Like, hey, if there's not a touchdown in this game, we're changing it.

You know what's so weird is to go back and watch games from like 2002, 2003 when HD was coming out. Villanova, Maryland's at 12. Oh, yeah. We can put that on sound. The HD back then is not HD. No. At all. It looks like you're looking at a magic eye poster. It's fucked up. No. Watching games back then when there was no yellow line too. Oh, how did we ever do it? Are there...

I was watching a Florida State-Notre Dame game from the early 90s the other day, and there was no score on the screen. You just had to guess. Yeah, how does that happen? They just pop it up every five minutes. I always remember the line. When did the line become the line? The line came around... Do you remember a time before the line? No. It's probably late 90s, early 2000s, maybe. I do remember the SD to HD switch, and even just...

going it was used to be so cool to be like wow let's switch to hd holy shit because they had both channels yeah so you could like last it with the hd and the standard d and be like oh my god the hd is so much better and you just see it in real time there were so many people that when they made that switch you realize this this face was not meant for hd 1998 was the first yellow line september 27th 1998 ravens uh at bengals

That was three. Yeah. So you don't remember life before the yellow line? Yeah, my age two season, I guess. You just had to guess. You had to kind of guess. That stinks. And they would literally not put the score and the time. They would just put it up every now and then.

Down in distance. Just kind of have to keep it in your head a lot. The best part of every game around this time of year is when they come back in from commercial and they'd have the Thanksgiving score bug up. Yeah. Or the autumn score bug. The potpourri. Yeah. The cornucopia. Yeah. Reminding you what season it is. Yeah. Okay. Titans at Texans. Texans minus eight over under is 40 and a half. Hank, I like a lot of bad teams this week.

You love the Titans. I'm not going to do it. I do. I do like their defense and they, and I, I'm still like leery of the Texans. Here's a fun fact though, uh, from Brett Coleman. So this is why I'm not going to bet the Titans. Uh, the Titans have punted 48 times this year, sixth most. And the average return against them on those punts is 17.3 yards. Their average net is only 37.4 yards. Uh,

As a high punt volume team, that overall loss of average yard field position per drive is staggering. So 37.4 net on every punt is insane. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. For a team that punts that much. Did you guys see Daniel Hunter did a Eurostep move? Yeah. That was so sick. How do you guard against it? They're doing Eurosteps on the pass rush. Eurosteps with spin moves put into it. So sick. They're traveling. Yeah. They never call traveling anymore. So sick. The Titans...

Kind of a – well, they are like one of the biggest bummer teams right now to watch. Will Levis had a very bummer quote. I think he was trying to make a joke about it, but he said that he feels good since coming back from the injury. He hasn't thrown as many chest passes in games since he's been back, so that means that his arm's doing better. Okay. Because Will Levis, the knock on him this year, he's thrown like the craziest interceptions. Doi dois. The doi doi plays. But I don't think he's one of the top interception getters in the league, right? Like if you look at just the stats –

But the ones that he makes, they've got exclamation points on them. He might be pretty high up there. Let's see where he's at. Jordan Love is pretty high up there. Will Levis. Oh, no, he's good. He's got eight. He missed a couple games. He's got eight. His leader is Geno Smith, Jordan Love, and Patrick Mahomes.

No, that's reverse. I think it's... I don't know why it's... He's like fifth. He's eight in seven games. The leader has 11 in 10 games. Yeah, he's tied for like... So it's like interceptions per game. His rate's up there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But the ones that he does throw are way more memorable. Yeah. Yes. They leave an impact. He throws great interceptions. Yeah. Jordan Love has 11 in eight. Yeah. So that's...

For sure. Quite something. Okay. Afternoon games. They're not going to be wearing the Houston Oilers throwback. I don't think so. Can you look that up, Max? That's actually very important. That will make a difference if they wear the Oilers jerseys in Houston.

I just think this might be the week that something crazy happens. And I've been saying that for college, too. I'm probably so stupid. It's probably going to be all favorites, and I'm going to look like an idiot. I just think we're going to have a couple weird outcomes this week and be like, fuck, how did that happen? Max, look up Titans uniforms because they have the rights to the uniforms, not the Texans. I feel like this would be provoking the city of Houston if they wear the Oilers uniforms. I'm not seeing anything about it.

Okay. I feel like it would be talked about if that were the case. Yep, it would be talked about. Yeah. Okay. Broncos Raiders. Broncos minus six overrunners, 41 and a half. Or sorry, 41. Did you guys see the power ranking of NFL animal teams who would win in a fight? It's pretty good. It's got to be the line, right? It had Grizzly Bear one.

Does Pat the Patriot get a musket? No, it's just animals. I guess a human is an animal. We learned that Mount Rushmore season. It was Bears 1, Bengals 2, Lions 3, Jaguars 4, Panthers 5, Bronco, Wild Horse 6, Rams 7,

And then Colts, Eagles, Falcons, and it's all the birds. And then Dolphin last. You got Dolphin last? I think that's... Dude, a Dolphin, it depends on if this is a home game or an away game. If it was a bird playing in the ocean, the Dolphin crushes him. I think the only thing I really... I feel like a Ram would beat a wild horse, but maybe not. But, I mean, a bear would probably beat up a tiger. I mean, just by...

The size. Now, do we know that the Chicago Bears are grizzly bears? I don't know specifically what type of bear. If it's a black bear, that's an issue. There's also none of these mascots are beating lightning, so... What? The Chargers? The Chargers. Like, no animal could defeat lightning. What about defeating a year? The 49ers.

I thought that was a minor. Vikings would probably beat all of these, right? Wait, you think minors? Like children? No, like gold miners. No, it's the year. How many bears died in the year 1849? I imagine a lot. But how many people died? A lot. A lot. A lot of people. Yeah. I don't know. This is just...

Kind of fun, I guess. And the Seahawk makes no... Because there's no such thing as a Seahawk. Yeah. That should automatically be 14. It's a figment bird. Yeah. Team is named after the prospectors. So, you know, Hank's kind of right. Named after the prospectors who went out there in the 1849 gold rush. So those people, they probably got eaten by bears. Or they killed bears to eat. They did a big hunt. Yeah. Where's Buffalo? Where's Buffalo Bills?

I don't know. Yeah, I feel like a buffalo might take down a bear. Yeah, I don't know. A buffalo would not take down a bear. I think it would. What? You know how big buffaloes are? Buffaloes are huge. You have no idea how big you're telling on yourself for not ever seeing a buffalo. But a buffalo doesn't... What are they going to do? Just try to eat them? They've got horns. Yeah, and a bear has claws. A buffalo runs directly at a bear downhill behind its pads. Steamrolls. How big is a buffalo?

1,300 pounds. How big is a grizzly bear? Probably bigger. 350 more. Wait. It says right there, grizzly bears prefer to hunt large adult bison. The bear likely loses to the buffalo. Very large males can weigh 2,000 pounds. Far beyond the weight. Wait, but it says a grizzly bear hunts bison for food.

That's what they do. That's the AI overview. But you're also just being given grizzly bears. Well, yeah, I took grizzly bears. It's not like you're the Memphis Grizzlies. You could have been the Chicago Grizzlies. I don't think... I think a bear would beat a bison. Bison are also like... They just kind of sit around. They don't do anything. It says adult female bisons can wear... It says wolves can kill bison. Well, yeah. Wolves can also kill bears. 14 wolves. Yeah, bears can kill wolves.

I didn't see a bison do anything crazy. Dude, a bison. You've seen a bison do something crazy? Yeah, that's why they put up the signs in Yellowstone, because every year, bison run over Japanese tourists. Yeah, I mean, humans. Well, humans would lose. Well, not me. I'm built different. I'd beat all these animals. That's just me. This is from Cora. They're never wrong. This person says that, personally, I feel like the buffalo would defeat the bear. Oh, okay.

Okay. So there we go. Personally, they've got sharp, deadly horns. The horns could easily stab a wolf and also a grizzly bear.

The horns would likely get through the fat. Should we watch this whole minute 30 video? Yeah. Yeah. I think we should. NFL preview. Animal A versus Animal B. Who would win? Today, we pit the powerful grizzly bear against the formidable American bison. Both titans of North America, they boast impressive physical attributes and unique abilities. The grizzly bear is the most powerful animal in the world.

The grizzly bear, weighing up to 600 pounds and standing seven feet tall on its hind legs, is a ferocious predator known for its incredible strength and endurance. With a bite force of 1200 psi and claws up to four inches long, it can tackle large prey and defend itself effectively.

Grizzlies are also agile, capable of running up to 35 miles per hour, and possess sharp senses of smell and hearing. On the other hand, the American bison, North America's largest land mammal, can weigh over 2,000 pounds and stand six feet tall at the shoulder. Ooh, ooh, ooh.

Its sheer size and muscular build make it a formidable opponent. Bison are known for their speed, able to run at 40 miles per hour, and their thick, curved horns, which can grow up to two feet long, are lethal weapons.

They roam in herds, displaying complex social behavior and utilizing their strength to fend off predators. In a hypothetical confrontation, the grizzly bear's agility and predatory skills would offer a significant advantage. However, the bison's size, speed, and horn defense are not to be underestimated.

Ultimately, the grizzly bear's versatility and relentless attack strategy might edge out a narrow victory. Thank you. But it would be a hard-fought battle. That's fine. Never said it would be easy. This person's full of shit. Yeah. Flash of the beast. No, I think we just have to go off the flash of the beast. Yeah, we have to go off that. Also, to point of order, the face bear logo is a grizzly bear. Like, that's a grizzly bear's face.

And technically, the Buffalo Bills are not named after buffaloes or bison. They're named after Buffalo Bill, a frontiersman. With a gun. With a gun. That probably hunted bears. Yeah. So that's probably why they didn't put...

Okay, that's a fair point to make. Yeah. I just feel like the Bison is on... You know what? I mean, that guy just told us. He did a whole video of it. You got to respect the outcome. I've always said nature makes no sense, so I'm going to take the underdog. It was a good fight. Hard-fought fight. Probably got hurt along the way. But winner, grizzly bear. Fade the bear after the fight against the buffalo. That's fine. Seahawk could come clean it up. Yep. Yeah.

All right. So Broncos Raiders. I forgot that's what game we're talking about with this. Give me the Broncos. Okay. Yeah. The Raiders offensively just get the ball to Brock Bowers. Continue to do that. Yeah. Defensively, I don't know what the fuck they're doing.

Yeah, the Broncos have the third best O-line. The Raiders have the 26th best pass rush. That feels like a bad matchup. And then on the other side, the Raiders have the 25th best offensive line, and the Broncos have the second best D-line. So that feels like a bad matchup. Yeah, shout out to the Raiders' offense last week, by the way, because they kept it close. It was very close into the fourth quarter. And Miami never had to punt the entire time. Yeah. So, I mean...

The Raiders are going to get their ass kicked. Yeah. Yeah. But we'll monitor Sador Sanders' Twitter feed. Yes, that will be very important. That will probably be the most important part of this game. Yep. Okay, 49ers at Packers. Packers minus one and a half over under 47 and a half. Jordan Love has been intercepted in each of his first eight starts. First time that's happened since...

Case Keenum in 2018. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. This is also the first time this season that the 49ers are underdogs, which is kind of crazy. Yeah. There were six and a half point favorites last week lost outright. Too much time on the clock for Geno Smith. Too much time on the clock for Geno Smith. Do you think this is a Robert Salah revenge game even though he left the 49ers willingly?

Uh, is he still an active member of the Packers coaching staff? He is. He actually was credited with, uh, installing one of the deep shots to Christian Watson against the Bears. So yes, I do think that has something to do with it. Yeah. He, it seems like he's doing a pretty good job, but I also don't know how much of a revenge factor it is because the guy that they had take over for Slav when he left, um,

Was Ryan's right after him? I think it was Ryan's. Yeah, it was Ryan's first, then Steve Wilks. Then when Steve Wilks took over, the defense hasn't been as good. But yeah, what the hell? I'm going to count this as revenge. I'll throw this out there. This has been shared all over Packer Twitter. I've been tagging it in a bunch. It's one of those side-by-side 2010 Packers, 2024 Packers. And it's like similarities started the season at Philadelphia. Yeah.

QB play in the first half after Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love made their first playoff appearance. Goes down the list 6-3 at the bye week. Did not win the division. Sixth seed. The current Packers are currently the sixth seed. Won Super Bowl exactly 14 years prior. So all the signs are saying the Packers are going to win the Super Bowl. Okay. I don't like those signs. Do we have a moon stat about them? This is the time of year where you get the moon stats going. Yeah, I don't like those. Did you see Matt LaFleur's quote too about...

praising Rashid Walker's performance. He said, I don't want to pat you on the butt and get poop on my hands. That's good. Good quote. It's a good quote. Although Dan Campbell would do that. Yeah. Not to get your hands dirty. Yeah, right. Do you see what Terrell Owens said about Debo? No. This is a great quote from Terrell Owens. And bear in mind, it's Terrell Owens. Literally, Terrell Owens said this.

debo is not playing up to debo standards debo seems like he's more focused on his pre-game attire than he actually is the game if we can shift that focus maybe we can energize and create some more production from an offensive standpoint oh trell owens said that debo is too concerned with off the field stuff okay and he needs to focus on his playbook trell owens what we all turn into the old man take at some point yeah to says it that's exactly right uh

Kittle's going to play. Love that. He's a Bears fan still at heart. He's like, I'm playing the Packers. I'm going to play the Packers. There's also some weird 49ers fans being like, maybe Shanahan, it's the end if they don't get to the playoffs this year, which, please. How many teams? How many teams right now? I mean, I would...

Let Mike Shanahan be the GM and Kyle Shanahan can be the coach. If it was a guarantee that your team could get Kyle Shanahan as head coach next year, how many teams would fire their coach? I think it's half. I think more. Probably more, but I'm just saying half just like if you just hired someone and you're like, oh, he's kind of doing okay. But a lot. Yeah. A lot. A lot, a lot.

Yeah, I mean, it would be crazy if they I don't think it's going to happen, but it'd be crazy. It would be nuts. I don't think that I don't think it'll happen either. Yeah. This is also a battle between two bad red zone teams. Packers are like 47% scoring touchdowns in the red zone and the Niners have struggled, but they have Chris McCaffrey back now.

I like the Niners, but that's just because I see these two teams and I pick the Niners. I don't know if Brock Purdy is hurt because some of the stats you could point to from last week especially might suggest that. So he didn't throw the ball beyond 20 yards at all, and he only had six passes that went from 10 to 19 yards.

So 19 targets were less than 10 yards. So I don't think he's hurt. I think one, obviously, Kittle was out, and that helps a lot in the passing game. It's like another dude that you have to worry about. I also think Debo's taking a little step back without people maybe fully realizing. And then, you know, Brandon Ayuk's not there. So it's not that Brock Purdy's hurt. It's that everyone else is a little worse.

But they're not going downfield. That's the thing. Yeah, but that's because Debo's not able to get open. George Kittle's not able to take pressure away from Debo. I think all the parts mix together. I think they'll look better with Kittle on the field. You're probably right. Yeah. Okay. Last afternoon game, Cardinals at Seahawks.

I'm ready to fully believe in the Cardinals. You're going to crown their asses? I might crown their asses. Crown their ass, big cat. I don't know. Listen, I probably won't bet this game because you never know what Seahawks you're going to get. They are the ultimate trick-or-treat team. Could it be Geno looking incredible, or could it be Geno running after snaps that get thrown over his head and getting safeties and that shit? I just know the Cardinals feel like a very sound football team through and through off the bye week.

They see it. Their eyes are there. They have the NFC West. If they could string together some more wins, especially in the division. They're undefeated in the division right now. Yeah, I like the Cardinals. This one would be very good for the Cardinals to win. Put them two games up over the Seahawks. Yeah. And so they'd have, you know, not only the advantage in wins, they'd have the tiebreakers all locked up. And you would think that... I mean, maybe it won't, but between the 49ers and Rams both playing good teams, one of them might lose. Yeah. Or both. So it could, like...

There could be a world where the Cardinals win this game, the 49ers lose to the Packers, the Rams lose to the Eagles, and you're like, holy shit, the Cardinals are really in the driver's seat. Are we about to see the unlocking of Marvin Harrison Jr.? Maybe. Are we going to unlock him for the second half of the season? And...

Now that I said all that, I agree. I think maybe we're going to unlock them. We should. But just playing out that Cardinals up by like two games? No. The NFC West is the Big 12. You don't see that happening. No, everyone's going to... Whatever happens, it's going to get it so that everyone's tied. It's going to make it so that the Rams somehow pull it out in the last week of the season. Yeah, they're all going to be tied somehow. Hank, what is the rest of the Hungry Dog? You didn't tell us. It is the...

Raiders pass Bears. Wow. Raiders. Raiders? The Raiders? The Raiders. Explain that to me, because we kind of glossed over the Broncos, Raiders, with talk of Grizzly Bears and Buffalo. I think we did a good job on that preview. Walk me through that one, though, Hank. Everyone is Bo leaving. Okay, so you're betting against us. No, I'm betting against myself, too. I've been Bo leaving before you guys were. I've been on the Bo train for three straight weeks. Okay.

So you think that just too many people like Bo Nix right now? You and Sean Payton both. Sean Payton's now having to, like, de-recruit Bo Nix a little bit because he loved gassing him up when he was shitty. But now that everybody loves him, he's having to be like, let's pump the brakes on Bo. Okay, he hasn't really done anything yet. You're also being mean when I had Broncos money line against the Chiefs. Were you being mean?

I had the Broncos money line too. I don't know. What does that even mean? Hank can't exist, Max. What does that even mean? That's a true. What was I doing that was mean? I think you just called it that they were going to miss the field goal. That's him knowing ball. Yeah, that was. He knows ball. I wanted them to make it. It's too bad you don't know ball. I.

I realized that as I was saying it. I just remember saying, fuck you, Hank. And I thought it was trolling. I also had the Bears against the Packers, and it was the same feeling. It's like, they're going to miss this. That one, I knew they were going to miss because I needed it for the over. The fuck you, Hank feeling is like 50% of all of our memories.

Yeah, because... Sitting in the gambling cave. You know what? Hank is right a lot. Yeah, he is. And when he's right about something that you're personally invested in, then it does feel personal. Yeah. But you have to separate that from... Oh, no, you don't. Okay. You don't have to separate. You actually have to make it even more personal. Two things can be true. He's a piece of shit.

And also he's right. Yeah. And when he's right, make sure that you make it as personal as possible. I think maybe I just didn't want you to say it out loud because I think that I was thinking it too. But you were like, this is Chiefs magic. This is Chiefs black magic. And I was like, shut up, shut up. And he was right. And he was right. And that's why I was mad. Yeah. Okay. Last game. Eagles at Rams. Rams plus two and a half over under 49. Question for Hank and PFT.

How much of the disaster of the Sixers impacts the Eagles? A lot. Zero. I think it all crosses over. Yeah. You can't have one without the other because they feel bummed out. Yeah. They're driving into work. They want to be going into a day at the facility, coming off the high of a 76ers win. Instead, you've got Joel Embiid flopping on free throws. That's going to bleed over into the game. Yeah. It wasn't...

You're going to see the – He does that all the time. Like if he thinks he's missing a free throw, he reacts. If he has it come weird off of his hand, he throws his hands up because he feels like he missed the free throw and he's mad that he missed the free throw. But did the free throw go in? He's a passionate guy.

I don't know. I didn't even see the clip. So he thought that he missed it. And won. He got and won on a free throw. So that's even worse. Oh, you've never shot a free throw and been like, oh, that's a miss. And it actually goes in. No, because when you're in the zone, you know it's good the second it leaves your hand. That's also worse. He just wasn't correct. He actually had a good game last night. When someone says short and then it's a swish, that's the worst. Yeah, correct.

I don't think it was a swish. Actually, I have no idea. I only saw the clip. I don't think that the Sixers affect the Eagles. I think if the Eagles lose this game, then the hate towards the Sixers is going to be amplified by a thousand like that. It's more that the Eagles, if they lose on Sunday, then it's bad news for the Sixers for the next week. Assess?

That makes no sense because the Eagles are... No, that makes perfect sense. But Philly fans, like the Eagles look so good right now and Philly fans are so mad at the Sixers. The one good thing they have going for them is the Eagles right now. So if the Eagles lose, then they're going to take their frustration out at the kid they don't like. Yeah, they're going to come home smelling like gin and they're going to throw shit at Tyrese Maxey.

We should talk about the elephant in the room. If the Eagles lose, then no one will care about the Sixers because the only thing that they will care about is the Eagles. Nick Nurse is obsessed with elephants. I went back, did more research. Day one when he got the Raptors job, he had them draw a giant elephant on the whiteboard and be like, say hi to the elephant. I want everyone in the room to say hi to the elephant because we need to address the elephant in the room. Yeah. He's obsessed with elephants. He swayed me. That's actually insane. It's crazy. BFT, he gave me the facts after his, like, yeah.

Apologize to Raptor Reports. I don't give a fuck. I will not be apologizing to anyone. And it makes no sense. And also, if the coach says elephant in the room and that's like jargon, locker room jargon, wouldn't that jargon pass off to any of the players in the room also?

Wait, so you're saying because he says it so much, it's actually more likely that it came from somebody else? Like a player knows that they could say, I'll say elephant in the room and that will get him off my train. And it's just saying the word. If you just say things enough in a locker room, it becomes everyone's. Everyone says it. At that point, I would say that Nick Nurse would be using the term elephant so much that that would be a distraction.

Like if the players are smart enough to be like, this guy says elephant all the time. So I'm going to say it to the reporter. That's a concern to me that Nick nurse, every other word. I'm not saying what Hank is saying. I'm just saying that if that becomes like a part of a team meeting of like talking about the elephant of the room,

People will start saying elephant. Other people on the team will also be like, we talk a lot about the elephant in the room. Tyrese Maxey goes, this is the elephant in the room. Well, at that point, the elephant in the room becomes the elephant in the room that you use it so much. And also, the leak said that Tyrese Maxey said that he was the elephant in the room. What does that have to do with Nick Nurse? The leak said, the quote is that Tyrese Maxey said the elephant in the room is Joel Embiid.

What was the quote? It said Tyrese Maxey said the elephant. He said the elephant in the room. You already proved that you didn't know what quotation marks were, though. So I'm going to look this up. I think the Eagles win this game. It's going to be a slow start. These are two of the worst three teams in terms of scoring in the first quarter. Yeah. What do you got? Do you got it? I'm pulling up the article right now. He's pulling up the article, Max. Just chill out. Who wins, Grizzly Bear or Elephant?

Discuss. Elephant. This line is too short. Oh, so you're nervous. Yes. I think Eagles minus two and a half is easy, and that makes me think it's hard. Oh, I think it's the right line. If it was Rams plus three, I would hammer the Rams. I don't know. It's going to be a fun game. Exciting game.

I'm excited for this game. It's really going to test the Eagles' defense, because I think the Eagles' defense is for real. They've got a great secondary now. This is going to test it. What was last week? What? Last week wasn't... Commanders had the best offense in the league going into last week. I mean, the Commanders do not have... No offense to the Commanders. Do not have Cooper Cup and Puka Nakua. Yeah, we have Terry McLaurin, who got put in San Quentin. Yeah. And absolutely locked out. But that's what I'm saying. This is now...

An offense that has these weapons that are like Puka and Cooper get open against everyone. I swear we had this exact conversation last week about the commander's offense and the Eagles defense. I understand the Eagles. I'm saying the Eagles defense has played very, very well. I think they're for real. This is an elevated test from the commanders.

Is it not? Would you take the Commander's offense or the Rams offense right now? I don't think it's as far as you think. With a healthy Jaden Daniels, I think I would take the Commander's offense, if you look at it by the numbers, with a healthy Jaden, they're historically good. Cooper Cup and Puka Nakur are matchup problems beyond belief. I also agree with that. I think that you can say the offense overall is better for the Commanders, but their weapons on the outside are better for the Rams. I would take the Rams offense.

over the commanders right now. I think the Rams offense is very good. It's not a slight. I'm telling you that I think they're very good. It feels like a slight. It's definitely not a slight. You guys have a very good receiver in Terry McLaurin. They have two very, very good receivers that get open against everyone. Yeah, receiver for receiver, I would agree with that. But when you take into account... Well, Matthew Stafford's pretty damn good. I would take Jaden over Matthew Stafford. I looked up the quote.

The quote, Max, surprisingly, you're incorrect about it. The quote from the source was Tyrese loves Bigfella, but this is the elephant in the room. So the quote is not saying that Tyrese used the phrase elephant in the room or whatever. I mean, it seems open and shut to me. Max, you said it before. We're having like five parallel conversation. You said before that, you know, the Eagles have looked really good, but they haven't played like the best offenses. Yeah.

When did I say that? When we went through it and you were like the Giants and whoever else they beat, the Browns. I said this today? No, no. Like last week or two weeks ago. You're like, I'm excited to see. It was maybe before the Commanders game. Yeah. It's just another test. Yeah. Yes. Obviously, everything's a test, but everything's a test for everyone. Not everything's a test. The Cowboys are not a test anymore. Yeah, but I'm saying every time you play a good game, I guess it's another test. But like...

You could say that about any big game. No, I wouldn't have said it going up against Cooper Rush. That's not a big game. Well, it's a rivalry game. Yeah, is this a big game? This is a huge game. Yeah. Must win. No. Not a must win. Not a must win. Okay. No, you said no, not a must win. Oh, it is a must win. No, a must win.

You said no. You said it wasn't. No. And then your brain caught up with it. You're like, I'm doing it again. Is that a comma or a quote? That's up to interpretation. Oh, okay. I like how you're doing that. Okay. So we have to figure out what you mean by that. But you're saying no, a must win. Correct. That is my statement. Minus two and a half. I feel like I want to hammer the Eagles, but I won't because that.

Oh, guess what? Next week's going to be a test, too. Yeah. Ravens. That's kind of why I'm worried about this, because I feel like we might be looking towards the Ravens. Yeah. The Eagles have not the easiest. I mean, you have to play the Steelers as well. We get the Panthers in between there, and then we finish Cowboys Giants. Yeah. Okay. Should we do our TD parlay with conviction? With conviction, boys.

We won last week. That was huge. It felt good for the AWLs. It felt finally good to get a win there. Let's get a conviction pick from all the boys. I'm going Jonathan Taylor. Jonathan Taylor. I like that pick. Didn't score last week. It's only minus 105, so it's not going to like it. It's a solid pick. That's a good conviction pick. Isaiah Pacheco. Minus 165. Isaiah Pacheco.

Minus 165, you said? Yep. All right. Let's add Mike Evans. Coming back. Okay. Plus 155. Plus 155. Let's take a shot here. What do we got? Right now, that would be...

Plus 700. Okay. That's good. So we'll see where it goes by game time. But right now it would be plus 700. That's some good conviction. And you can bet it on DraftKings. The DraftKings Sportsbook. Every day is game day at DraftKings Sportsbook. Now through the end of the year, it's extra special. All customers will get a special daily promo every single day from Profit Boost, Odd Boost, No Sweat Bets, and more. There's something for everyone. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Now use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. And take advantage of special daily promotions online.

Only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Okay, boys, should we do our picks?

Our picks. What is the records?

I'm still 500. Okay. I think we're all really bad. I'm in last...

I'm behind PFT by a game and a half, and I hate everything this weekend. Oh. I kind of do too, Max. I kind of hate everything as well. I'm at 12 and 10. Hank's 11 and 11. Big Cat, 10 and 12. PFT, 9 and 13. Max, 7, 14, and 1. I hate everything this weekend. Max is also up first. Max, up first. Let's go. Maxie. I am going to go Bears plus 3 and a half. Okay.

Bears plus 3.5. Against the Vikings at home against the Vikings. Bears plus 3.5. Okay. Okay. PFT. I'm going to go with the Detroit Lions minus 7.5 at the Colts. I will take the over 47.5 Cardinals and Seahawks. I will take the under 41 Bucks Giants. I like that pick. That's a good pick. Thanks. I kind of like the board this week. Oh.

What do you think DeVito's going to do? Terrible. Nothing. Six points. Okay, memes? We'll go an under 51 Ravens Chargers Monday Night Football and Cardinals plus one. Cardinals plus one. Okay. I will be taking the New England Patriots plus seven and a half. Okay. I'll take the Denver Broncos minus six. Okay. I'm going to take under 40 and a half Titans at Texans. I like that pick.

That's a good pick. Thank you. It is a good pick. That was my pick. No matter what happens, that's an outstanding pick on my part. Yeah. This keeps happening as I get fucked right before I'm supposed to go. You went first. Yeah, you should have taken it. I know, but then I get... I don't get prepared. I keep thinking... What about the over in the Bears-Vikings game? No, I already have the Bears. Double tip. I am going to go... No, now I have to do totals. Totals stink. Can I do...

Can I do... You can do whatever you want, buddy. No, I have no conviction, and I'm the worst at this. Convict. I am going to go over 46, Patriots-Dolphins. Okay, I like that pick. Good pick, Max. Good pick. Hank winced. Drake May. Drake May is good. You've told me that Drake May is good. You said he gets two... If Drake May can get me two touchdowns,

Four touchdowns from the Dolphins. Yeah. What's that math? A lot of touchdowns. 14. 42. Fuck. A lot of touchdowns. And a rushing touchdown from Ramondre. Maybe some field goals. You said two touchdowns. You said two touchdowns. I feel like two touchdowns from Drake May.

There should be enough points. So many touchdowns. Okay. Before we get to our interviews, we've got Rex Ryan and AL Cy Young winner. Tarek Skubal. Let's do fantasy fuckboys. Brought to you by Body Armor. Real hydration. Real ingredients. Packed with electrolytes, vitamins, and nothing artificial. Body Armor sports drinks.

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What's up? Yo, yo, yo. Yo, what's up? What's up? My name is Angelo Woodroos. Angelo Woodroos. How you doing? I heard you on the radio the other day, Angelo. My stardom, Cooper DeGene. Cooper. Cooper. Great white hope. The Caucasian cornerback. We got a Cooper-Cooper matchup. Cooper-Cooper's getting shut the fuck down. Cooper-Cooper. White on white crime. Cooper DeGene's gonna shut him down, lock him out, beat him the fuck up. Nice. My sit-em, Jerry McCain.

Why? Six is only a good player, but he fucking paints his nails. He's making TikToks. Oh, I never root for a guy with painted fingernails. I don't care how good he's playing. Put him on the bench. Make him learn some fucking discipline. You should polish your game, not your nails. Yeah. You should be...

watching film not making YouTube yeah that's where YouTube's I guys that make the YouTube don't make you sleeper yeah podcast P with Paul George yeah free ass father podcast but you know he's 2 and 13 you can't get on the court they can't win the fucking game but he's still out there putting out podcast just grinding tea it's a good podcast when you want to go to sleep where you from Angelo I'm

I'm from fucking Matty Onk. Okay, I like it. Nice. I like it. Good shit. Good shit, bro. Good shit, bro. What's up? I'm Tommy DeVito. Tommy. I'm starting quarterback for the New York Giants this weekend. My stardom is putting your beers outside to keep them cool. Nice. Because it's nature's refrigerator right now. It's cold outside. National podcast. Put your beers outside. Keep them cool. Don't have to worry about taking up fridge space. Get them off the deck. Yeah. Yeah.

My sit-em is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh, I thought it was going to be shorts. My sit-em is going to be shorts and Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm sitting the Steelers because, as my good friend Dan Orlovsky told us today, you can't beat Lamar Jackson by just kicking field goals. Oh, shit. They beat Lamar Jackson by just kicking field goals last week. Oh, shit. People forget that. Oh, shit. Danny, you forget that. And then my sleeper is being a chill little guy.

Bye.

I'm Tommy DeVito, I'm just a chill little guy Here I am, Tommy DeVito, hands in my pockets How do you silence an Italian? Make them put their hands in their pockets Now I'm a chill little guy What's up fuckers, it's Frankie Roast Beef My stardom is Adam Schefter The guy's just stooping girls While he's breaking news He's such a hornball, good for Schefty Hey Schefty, good scoop Good scoop, double scoop I'm not driving No

My sit-em is Coach K. He's now third all-time with wins in college basketball. Gino, good Italian. Gino Ariema. Good man. Number one overall. Coach K, see ya, bitch. Dropping down the list, Coach K. See ya. How's it going down there, little guy? How's it going? The Stanford women's coach. We all know her name. Sleeper.

My sleeper is Kyron Williams. He's going to run. Yeah. That's it. He's just going to run. He's going to run. He's going to run. Kyron Williams. He's going to run. He's going to run. No, he won't. What's that? No, not against the Eagles defense. No. No running for Kyron Williams. Okay. Against the great white hole. Dude, Shefty. Shefty is definitely in the list of guys I don't want to think about having sex. Oh, I do. Oh. I do. He's probably a very hard worker. Oh.

Those little hips just going. Yeah, I didn't want to see. I didn't want to have that visual. He pulls out Chef Bomb. Yeah, but he's committed to the game. Okay, let's get to our interviews. Let's start with AL Cy Young pitcher, Tarek Skubal, and then we'll do Rex Ryan. Before we get to Tarek, he's brought to you by our good friends over at Chevy. There's a reason why we've never done the Mount Rushmore pickup trucks, and that's because for part of my take, there's only one pickup truck. It's the Chevy Silverado. Why?

Why is that? Silverado is a partner. It's a partner that we can depend on. We've all spent time driving and using the Silverado for all kinds of part of my take jobs, adventures, shenanigans. It got us cross country to the Super Bowl. It helped us dig the biggest hole ever in the state of Ohio last year at Grit Week. And it also helps us give fullbacks the recognition that they deserve with the Low Man Award. Low Man Award, the trophy watch list coming next week. Stay tuned for that. Thanks to the Chevy Silverado for sponsoring that. They have legendary grit.

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Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest, fresh off the AL Cy Young win. It is Tarek Skubal. Also, his birthday. He won the Cy Young on his birthday. Tarek, first of all, congratulations. Was that the best day of your life? I mean, that has to be up there, right? Yeah, I think, you know, for sure. My wife probably won't like the answer, you know, the best day of my life.

Our child being born is probably maybe a little bit higher than that. But it's definitely close. It was a really cool, really special day.

All the way around, friends and family, all that stuff. It was a ton of fun to celebrate a birthday with the Cy Young Award. Yeah, so I got to ask you, you, I mean, everyone knew you were going to win, but was there a part of you, like, when you woke up and you're like, what if I don't win? What if something crazy happens? Because it was obvious you were going to win, but still, there's got to be a little small part of you that's like, wait, I have all my friends coming over. My wife bought me a new car. What happens if something crazy happens and I don't win?

Yeah. Am I allowed to cuss? Yeah, of course. Oh yeah. Okay, cool. Uh, I, I basically woke up and was like, I really hope they don't fuck it up. You know, that's what I thought. Um,

But yeah, I didn't really know. Obviously, when the voting comes out, I didn't know if it was going to be unanimous. Obviously, the other guys that were on the ballot obviously had great years. And you can make arguments all the way around for whoever you want to make arguments for. So that was pretty cool, too, to win it unanimously. I think that that's pretty special. Yeah, and you got the car. Did you get it before or after you got the Cy Young? After. So I got the award. I mean, the backstory on that is my wife at the beginning of the year

Kind of jokingly said, you can get it because I've always been on a new car for whatever reason. Every time I get a car, I just want another car. It's like that toxic thing that happens. And beginning of the year, I was all off season, last off season, I was talking about getting a new car. And she goes, OK, if you want to sign a young award this year, I'll buy you a new car. I said, all right, cool. So I've been giving her grief about it. Like, hey, I'm going to win and you don't have a car for me.

and I got done wrapped up with the interview stuff yesterday and she's like hey I want to go outside I said am I going to get like a pie in the face what's going on is this where the champagne goes and

And then there's a car sitting in my driveway and I'm like, there's no way you just got me a car. And she's like, yeah, this is your car. And I was like, I didn't, I was so shocked. I didn't believe it. I mean, that was kept under wraps really well. That's awesome. That's a great present. Yeah. So your name is Tarek spelled T-A-R-I-K. Are people surprised when they see you for the first time?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yes. That's an easy yes. You know, my name has been butchered my whole life. I stopped even caring how people pronounce it. You call me Tariq Tariq. It doesn't matter to me anymore. And I don't think that they expect to see me. I mean, I didn't realize this, though. Your name comes from Arabic and it means strike.

So I just learned that last week. I got asked the question, like, your name means strike in Arabic. I go, I mean, cool. That's really cool. And just so happens to be kind of my job is to throw strikes. So, yeah, I thought that that's pretty interesting. Yeah. So at what point this season did you know –

that it was like more than, I mean, you, you obviously have been a good pitcher and your, your path to the, uh, the pros and everyone's been talking about you, but at what point were you like, okay, this is different. I'm on a different plane this year. I'm every time I get on, on the bump, I'm going to just go eight innings and 11 strikeouts and everything. What, what, what was there a moment that clicked that you're like, I got different stuff this year?

I think when I came back from surgery last year, uh, I mean, the second half of last year was pretty special and, and dominant as well. If you look at the numbers, um,

uh, it was, it was a pretty special season. And then I had a good, healthy off season. And when I got into spring training, I, my body just felt good. And, um, you know, throughout the whole season, I think I made 31 or whatever starts. I felt good for, you know, 31 starts, which is, I don't know if a lot of guys can say that. And, uh, you know, I felt good in between and there's some lulls and you take your bumps and bruises and stuff, but, um, I felt good. And, um,

I think when you're healthy as an athlete and you can just continue to work on things and continue to get better. And I think that that's, you know, where greatness happens. And I was able to do that for a full season. So I think that that was just the most important thing, but I don't, I don't know if there was one start, you know, I go back to the Cincy game where I think I struck out 13 and that was pretty special just because that morning I was told I was an all-star. And then I went out and had that performance, you know, and I was like,

this is all kind of happening. You know, when I've never put my name or myself with all-stars or with, you know, Cy Young guy, I just have never really associated myself with that. And then when that start happened, I'm like, holy shit, I am an all-star. And then, you know, you start thinking of yourself like I am actually that much. Like I'm good. I'm very good at this game. And that confidence, you know, was able to kind of ride with me the rest of the year. Your 13 strikeouts has to feel so awesome. Just no one can touch you.

I watched that start probably, I mean, 20 times after. I'm like, I couldn't get hit that day. You know, I'm like, this is unbelievable. It's a feeling that it's, I mean, I just got done golfing. It's like a pure, like, eight iron, you know, and it's like, that's the best feeling in sports. Yeah. Yeah, I have to imagine throwing, like, 102 miles an hour feels pretty good, too. Is that the fastest you've thrown? Yeah, that's the fastest. In-game was, like, I think it was 101.6 this year, I think, was to...

It was Therese Hoskins too. And he fouled it off. I'm like, dude, my hardest heaters are always fouled off. I'm like, why, why are you missing? Miss them? Yeah. I'm throwing this as hard as I can for you to miss it, not to foul it off. But yeah, that was, that was the hardest heater I've had. Are we still working on velocity? Like what's the, what's the peak once you hit like 102 or are you like, yeah, I think I can dial it back and reach back a little harder and throw 103. Are we happy with 102? Yeah.

I give it hell when it's 102, it's everything I got. There's nothing else in there. It's not like, oh, I'm saving 104 for next season. It's pretty much I'm throwing it as hard as I can. You know, my velocity spikes in games. It's because I'm actually just throwing the ball as hard as I can and not really worrying about where it's going as much. Yeah, so when you throw a turbo slider,

When you throw the turbo slider, do you tell yourself in your head, you're like, this is going to be a turbo slider? Because that just sounds cool. Like, you're like, it's going to be a slider, but turbo. Yeah, I...

Whenever the pitch comes through, I just think, throw the shit out of this to this spot, and that's it. And then I throw it. That's really with every pitch. I think it's a pretty simple approach when I'm on the mound. It's like fastball up and in, and I'm like, all right, throw the shit out of the fastball to this spot. Whether it goes there or not, it probably doesn't really ever go there. I think that's one of the biggest...

Like people are like, oh, I'm a command guy. You know, I hit spots. It's like, no, you really never do. Like it's like 20% of the time you're hitting it. So I mean, I'm focused on the spot, but if it goes there, awesome. If it doesn't go there, I, you know, at least I gave it everything I had. Do you think with the Cy Young, I mean, I think you had this before, but do you think with the Cy Young, you're officially a Haas? And is that the, is that the pinnacle of pitching to be a Haas? I consider it the pinnacle.

Yeah, I mean, first off, to have the respect of you and Dave that day when, what was that, in Cleveland? Yeah, we're like, this is the Haas stuff. This is what we're talking about, where you're screaming at people, and it's like that energy of a guy who goes on the mound in the playoffs, who's like a bigger dude, who's throwing hard, and it's like he's, even if his stuff isn't perfect that day, he's going to just Haas his way through it and just like through pure strength and power win the game. That's Haas.

Yeah, no, I first off to have the respect of that for that tweet to be formulated and sent out. I was like, holy shit, I made it. You know, I'm like, this is it's like making making Pinching Ninja for the first time. You're like, holy shit, you know, I made it to this. So to get that, that was pretty cool. But yeah.

But, yeah, I think that, I mean, the Haas thing is pretty, I mean, I think it's a hilarious one. But, two, it's something that, you know, as a pitcher, you want to take pride in, you know, being in the biggest games or, you know, big moments, you know, when a team needs it and you just kind of show up and do your thing. I think there's a ton of pride to be having that. Yeah, I forgot it. I tweeted Scooble's a Haas and Dave tweeted Scooble's a Haas like,

three seconds apart. Yeah. It was like a minute apart. I walked in, I walk in the clubhouse after the game. And I think we, we had just like came back in game two or whatever. And I think we hit a home rough class, a, which never happens. He doesn't give up any runs. Um,

And we win and I check my phone and our PR guy comes over with his phone and has the tweets set up from YouTube. And I was like, holy fuck, that's really cool. Yeah. That's how you know you're shoving. Yeah. This hoss is going to shove. No, but it's really like we've been playing baseball for a very long time.

There are certain guys that you can never actually be a Haas. Jacob deGrom is incredible. I don't think he has – he's a little too skinny for Haas. You know what I mean? It's a John Lester. You got to be a little fat. Not fat, but there's something about – it's like the power behind it. Yeah, the power behind it where you're like, I trust this Madison Bumgarner Haas.

John Lester Haas. You know what I mean? Like these guys are like, they just go up there and they're like, I'm going to throw 150 pitches if I have to and win this game. Do you have to be left-handed to be a Haas or are there right-handed Haases? There's right-handed Haases too. You can go either way. But lefty does make it kind of cool just because it's a cooler thing. To be a Haas as a batter, you have to be fat.

As a pitcher, you just have to be big. You have to be broad shoulders, big frame. But if we're going to call a batter a Haas, he's got to be probably 260. Yeah, it's the pinnacle then. You can win a World Series with a Haas. You need a Haas. It's different than an ace. It's an ace plus almost.

Okay, so Haas is here. Haas is, like, higher. Every Haas is an ace. Not every ace is a Haas. Is this right, Max? Max is our baseball guy. Am I right on that? Yeah, you guys are just contradicting the things that we've said in the past. What do you mean? That's fine. Well, I'm talking about Haas is for pitchers. Oh, you're talking about the Mount Rushmore. Oh, yeah, Mount Rushmore. That's different. That's different. You're not allowed to cry about Mount Rushmore, Max. Am I right, though, that every Haas is an ace, but not every ace is a Haas? That's right.

That's a fact. Is Bartolo Colon a Haas? Yeah, Haas. When he was at his peak. Prime Bartolo was throwing 97, 98. He was always kind of bigger and fatter. His workouts are tough. It looks unbelievable. John Lackey, Haas.

That guy was a hoss. Roger Clemens. David Wells. There's a lot of hoss out there. The Rocket might be the biggest hoss. That guy is huge. Was your mom still mad at you for swearing, though, in that game? I think that was the game where you just looked at the crowd and you said like a million F-words. You're like, fuck everything. Fuck you all. Was she actually upset? Yeah.

Um, so she called me the next day. Well, I called her the next day, like talking about the tweet and I kind of like the interactions that may come of it. Or if you want your account private, like go prep, you know, all that kind of stuff. Um, uh, first off I was like, that's hilarious. Um, and second, she's like, sweetie, you can't be doing this, you know, talking to the other teams fans. Like it's, it's a dangerous thing for you. Like you just got to play baseball and get back in the dugout. And I'm like,

you should have seen the amount of middle fingers and booze and like, fuck yous that I had to where I'm like, all right, I got to reciprocate something, especially on that day. You know, I, I was obviously having success and, um, was able to pitch in and out of situations, you know, big moments and, and keep my team in a series when we're down one, nothing already. So like there was some stuff already going on and there's a little bit of dugout stuff, you know, coming back and forth. And I thought that that it all led to that moment. And, uh,

Yeah, I think that that was, I locked eyes with a fan and he was like double birding, you know, fuck you. And then it was just right back to him, you know? And I was like, oh shit, I probably shouldn't have done that. You know, that felt like too much of a real interaction. No, it's good. But it was, it was funny. You know, it was, it was good all the way around. I feel like they, they begrudgingly respect somebody that talks shit back to him. If they're backing it up, it's like, if you're going to give the double birds and he's going to strike somebody out, he's allowed to say, fuck you to me.

That's how I would think of it. It's playoff baseball. Yeah. You want that out of playoff baseball. It's October. It was fun. I mean, that environment, too. Hats off to those fans. That place was rock. That place was buzzing. Like, that place was – that was a really good environment for a full-season game. And we played in Houston, too, and Houston's loud. And obviously they have the history of, you know,

all the rings and all the winning there, but I thought Cleveland was a better environment. Yeah. With, uh, with Detroit, it feels like there's been so much momentum that's built up over the last six months. Like you guys put together an amazing run and you have to feel like shit. This kind of sucks that we don't get to play baseball with each other anymore after the season's over, but there's gotta be just an insane amount of, uh, tightness on that team. And you've got to be pretty pumped about next year. So what does that feel like going into next year? That's going to be different from what you were able to do this year.

Yeah, I think, you know, going into spring training, my goal for the season was just to make the playoffs. You know, I wanted to at the beginning of the year, believe it or not, we were supposed to like I was like, all right, let's just win our division, you know. And then all of a sudden our division was one of the best divisions in baseball and we had three playoff teams in there. And it's like I didn't predict that first off. I think if you ask anyone, they'd all say that, too. But then, you know, I wanted to play in the playoffs. And then you kind of see that we were sellers at the deadline, you know, got rid of guys, you know,

And then just the youth movement. I think we were the youngest team in the big leagues the last month and a half of the season, and we did something really special. And all those guys are coming back. I saw a tweet the other day that we don't have anyone leaving, I think, from the roster that we had. No one's leaving with free agency. They all can be tendered contracts and in arbitration and stuff like that. So that's pretty special. And then obviously whatever additions they make,

you know, in the off season is only going to help us, you know, help our team, you know, wherever they see fit. And yeah, but I'm excited, you know, to get back to spring training with the boys and do it all over again. It was weird though, you know, we got eliminated and, you know, I think in the moment it sucks, you know, obviously, you know, I give up a grand slam and I can like sit and pout about it or whatever, but our team was like

all right, cool. Like we're going to be fucking back next year. There was no like pouting. It was like, all right, we're good. You know, Hey, we lost today, but we'll be back next year. You know, there was no like doubt or like,

you know guys weren't like upset it was just like hey we're gonna be back there's no panic and i'm like that's i thought that that was really cool uh just to see our guys right after you know a big moment and the media is shoving cameras in your face and wants to get the emotional reaction and our i think it was pretty unanimous from our whole team look at that word i just used um there we go um yeah i think our whole team was kind of like no we'll be back you know there's no sweat in this um

It was a hell of a run, but we're ready to do it again next year. So I thought that that was really cool. So do you want to use this time right now to announce your new contract?

There isn't one. Real question off that, because I know, does it feel good at least seeing every single tweet about you? Like, it's like, you know, the Tigers account or ESPN or like MLB tweets, like Tarek Scouble, AL Cy Young, every single response is like, pay him, pay him everything. It's just, it's just everything.

Yeah, no, it is cool to have the fan support or whoever's running the Twitter accounts to have the support of they want me to be in Detroit long term. I think that that's really special, obviously, just because they've been very supportive of me and my journey when I wasn't so good three, four years ago. So it means a lot for sure. Yeah, no, it's the fans love you. The Detroit fans obviously really, really want you to be there for your whole career, and it's cool to see. You're going to be so rich. Yeah.

So rich. I hope you guys are right. No, I am right. You

You're going to be a rich motherfucker. Listen, we took a shit in your agent's office a few years ago. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We interviewed Scott Boris, yeah. In Newport? Yeah, yeah. We took a shit in his office. Yeah, I stayed in there for too long. It was kind of embarrassing. I was late for the interview. Did you have a protector or not spraying? No, it was both of us at the same time. Yeah, I was sitting on his lap. Yeah. Oh, back to back. Yeah, it was going through my legs, right?

You got to make sure you pee first. I got you. I got you. That's awesome. He gave you the whole tour of everything? Yeah, he did. That place is really cool. It is cool. It's also very intimidating. He's an intimidating guy. I'm happy we don't have to negotiate against him. I do have to say, speaking of the fans, I got to at least shout out our guy Detroit John. Detroit John, who has the Twitter handle ScoobleIsGod. He's the one who handed me the envelope with the bet –

Tarek Scouble to win the Cy Young. He said to me, because I ended up giving him a little money because like, hey, I want 30K off it. I'm going to rip you off a little. He told me... You should have put more money on it. I know. I know. I probably didn't have it in my account at the time. He said, if you ever have Scouble on the pod, can you please just tell him I exist? I would do anything for him, including death, if that was needed. So you got one guy who will die for you. Who will die for me. Yeah, that's...

That's more than zero, so that's awesome. Yeah, Scooble is God on Twitter. He will die for you. I might throw him a follow. What's his tag? Scooble is God. Well, that's literally his at. Yeah, that's his at. I got you. Really straight to the point. I think he likes you. I think he likes you more than a friend. Hit him with a follow and then hit him with a DM that just says, hey, this is God.

I want to know what his bet slip looked like. I mean, he had to have, if he's telling people to hammer it, you have to take it yourself, you know, right? Yeah, I would assume so. It is going to end up costing me money in the long run because now I'm just going to get people handing me random stuff that I'm going to have to bet. But that guy's a let Detroit. John is a legend forever in my eyes because that was, you're already, you're already net positive. So it's, I mean, it's how it's money. Yeah. Exactly. Another one to hit. Yeah.

Exactly. It's like angel investing, you know, a little bit of money here and then you just need one guy to hit it and you make more money. Yeah. That's gambling. Where do we go from here for you? Cy Young, like you said, in the middle of the season, you get the news that you're going to be an all-star. You start believing in yourself more. Maybe your expectations for yourself...

start to increase because you're like, oh shit, everyone is saying you're one of the best pitchers in baseball. Maybe I really am. Now you're the Cy Young winner. What do you add? What do you add to the arsenal? What do you work on this offseason? The one that sits right here. Oh, the ring. Yes. That's...

I don't really like making the game selfish. It's a team sport. It's not just me versus another team. It's individual in an aspect of it's me versus the hitter and there's that stuff going on. I just want to win. I think the best thing in sports is winning. It cures everything. I had a bad game. We won. Who cares? On to the next day. Yeah.

Yeah, I just want to win. I think, you know, individually, triple crown Cy Young, obviously you want to do that again and maybe some more all-star appearances and, you know, put that on the resume. But it all wouldn't mean as much if I don't have a ring, if not, you know, multiple. You know, that's why you play, at least that's why I play the game is to win World Series rings and go perform on that stage in that environment. That's...

That's when baseball is at its purest. There's no more individual stuff. That's what was awesome about the postseason this year. Nobody gave a shit if you were 0-4 with four punches, but that fifth at-bat, you bonded the guy over to second base and we scored him. You had a hell of a day. I think that's when the game is at its purest. That's kind of where I'm at mentally. I'm going to

you know, individually, I'm going to look at, I just want to be healthy. You know, I think I'm going to do everything I can to be healthy, but that's kind of where the individual stuff ends for me. It's more, it becomes a team thing and, and, and world series ranks. Yeah. I like that. I also like calling them punches. How many punches were you aiming for next year? Punches are good. Punches. What I have this year, 228,

Let's just go for 229. Why not be it? 229 punchies. 229. 229 punchies, yeah. I'm going to bet that. Are you going to bring back the mustache? People are asking.

Uh, I think I look horrible with it, but I think it's a fun thing to do, uh, in an off season. You know, I think when I got a hat on, it actually looks great. But, um, other than that, I look really old and, um, it's not really cool to be old in my sport. I want to look youthful. Yeah. Like I just turned 28. Like that's not that cool. You know, you're young, but you're also kind of old. Um,

So, yeah, I don't really like looking old. I'm trying to play my sport and feel young. Mustache, though, adds to the Haas energy, I'm just going to say. That's a fact. And if you ever watch baseball from like the late 80s or the 90s, everybody looked like they were 40 years old. A little Rod Beck. Yeah, if you were 21, you looked like you were 50, basically. That could be Siggs and Beers related, though. That's true. That's true. That's true.

Listen, the haters are saying something and I want to address it. The haters are saying you're scared to come to our office and do the gauntlet because half your team came and you didn't show your face.

I had, well, one, I was, I think I, one, I think they came right before opening day and I was starting the next day. I didn't really want to fuck with my routine. So that was one. That's probably not a great excuse. But two, my wife and son were there and they were, I didn't want to leave them in the hotel room by themselves. I just felt like a shitty dad. Yeah. No, you're right. I should, I should have brought them. I just didn't really think.

You know, there's going to be six guys, my wife, and then, you know, at the time it was how old was he at? This is going to be bad math out of me, but I'm not good at math. Five months old. Let him do the gauntlet. Yeah, he can do the gauntlet. He can crawl pretty good. He's not to walking yet, but he's crawling pretty good. Yeah. You got to come next time. I mean, the guys came here. It was great. I want to say. Yeah.

Whenever we play the White Sox or Cubs, I don't think we go to the Cubs next year, but whenever we play the White Sox first series, I'll make sure to get in there and do the whole thing. And I think that'll be fun. I think, who did it for us? Tork this year? Yeah. He did good. The only problem was I think there was a question on Sporkle where the question was something like, name the largest cats and he didn't get tigers. Yeah.

That's not good. Yeah. Hey, he went to ASU. It's the whole kind of thing. You know, he's always been a baseball player. He's always been a baseball player. He hits the shit out of a baseball and that's great. Yeah.

But yeah, I think I actually, I actually remember I pulled it up on, uh, I was watching it live. I watched this whole thing live. I think they like, you guys put out a tweet, like he's about to go. And I watched the whole thing live and I was like, damn, you did pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. You'll have to come next time. You got it. We got to have you come here. No, for sure. Yeah. For sure. Strike max out. That would be awesome.

Yeah, do you have any advice for Max? So Max lost our Fantasy Baseball League, and he's got to pitch two innings against an unnamed, for now, college team. I think I did it in, what, 30 minutes last year? Yeah. I got six outs in 30 minutes. Pretty good. Max is feeling a little...

a little less confident in himself. He used to play baseball. He was the Matt Stairs of the CAA. How many home runs did you hit, Max? Three home runs one year. Three home runs, 50 at-bats. We'll say that. So he can dial it up to about 60, 60 miles per hour? Yeah, I'm about 60 right now. I got a flat ground in. It wasn't great. I think I topped out at 63. I want to pause. Why do you only have 50 at-bats if you're a good hitter?

Because I wasn't that good. I played one year. I think there's a full legit defense behind you. Somewhat legit. So the college team is going to have the infielders, and then I'm going to be catching big cats in the outfield. We're going to have four outfielders, though. Yeah, four outfielders. But it's like it's Barstool Sports and Jerry. It's Brandon. Yeah, it's not going to be great. It's probably equivalent to two and a half. Outfielders, yeah. Like.

real outfielders. Yeah. I'm like three quarters of an outfielder. Hank's like three quarters of an outfielder. Brandon and Jared are like the half. When runners get on, like it's a situation stuff. Like they can turn double plays. Yeah, they can steal. Yeah. They're bulks. Double play would be huge. I didn't even think about that. My advice would be to throw it very slow. The slower, like you're trying to gain velocity. I think once you get to like 65, 70 miles an hour, that's when guys start, are going to start unleashing on it. Like, cause it's, it flattens out a little bit. It's less loop.

So my advice would be to hone in a really slow pitch over the zone. And I think that you will do really well. That's good. Good advice. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that that's when position guys get in there and you can kind of see they get a little amped up and they start letting it rip because there's VLO guns everywhere in the stadium and they want to start lighting it up. We're just like, oh, yeah, I can throw 74. It's like, yeah, you're going to throw 74 and it's going to get 110 out and it's way gone. So if you want to get outs, the guys that I think are really good are guys that throw it over the zone. And with baseballs too, like the slower you – this is going to sound like nerdy, but –

The slower you throw it, there's more times for, like, seam effects to happen, and, like, your ball will cut and sink, and it'll be a little awkward to...

to hit. So I think if you can like dial in a 45 mile an hour fastball and like throw it on the two seams, don't throw it on the four seams, throw it on the two seams, it'll cut for you and do some cool sinking stuff. Yeah, I wasn't planning on throwing four seams at all. That was really good advice. I actually was, when I was doing my warmup, I called it a sinker. It's really not, but like I was just throwing fastballs just with both of my two fingers on the one seam.

I don't know what scene you're talking about. I don't know. I don't have a baseball, and I probably sound dumb, and I'm not saying it correctly. This is a Cy Young winner right now. I know, but we're just talking. Yeah, we're talking ball right now. Actually, I got one over here. Okay, I would throw it. So this is the baseball. Yep. Throw it on these two seams. Okay. Okay.

And throw it like 45 miles an hour. All right. I love this. I didn't think I was actually going to get good advice here, but this is great advice. The AL Cy Young winner is giving you advice.

Like these seams, you know, does that make sense to you? Should I do that thing where you put a little bit more pressure on one of the fingers or is that too much? No, no. Okay, I'm thinking too much. I'm thinking too much. Yeah, no, you're trying to, you know, just keep it simple. So do that and just throw it straight, meatballs. Yeah, yeah, like throw it right down the middle and it'll cut sometimes and it'll sink sometimes and it'll be like you're throwing two pitches and –

Whoever's catching, good luck. If they shoot a nice little hit, that's also tough. Yeah, yeah. It'll do some weird stuff. Because I've noticed when I throw, like I throw a – it's not a sinker, it's a two-seamer. But when I throw it less hard, it cuts, and it's a nightmare. And I can only throw that pitch as hard as I –

I have to throw that pitch hard to get it to go the way I want it to go. Got it. This is great. So that's like the whole – it'll be – that'll be a good pitch for him. Yeah. All right, you're going to have to – I'll send you the video when it comes out so you can give him some advice because he's going to lose the league again next year. He was so bad this year. Will this be like live or will this be like – No, we'll tape it and then we'll do – and then we'll put it out. And Joe Buck will hopefully announce some of it again. So –

Oh, hell yeah. It's fun. That'll be fun to watch. Yeah, yeah. All right, so, Tarek, this has been so awesome, man. You're the best. I have one last question, Roback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, Roback.com. It's not actually a question. It's just don't let Scott Harris pretend that he's, like, the smartest guy in the room, okay? Because he's actually a regular guy, too. Right.

I've known him for a long time. He's a regular dude. He's a whiz kid, but he's a regular dude. Yeah, he's smart. He's great at his job, especially the pitching department. He's dominated that. I think it speaks about, one, who we've hired, and then two, the guys that are developing on our team. So he's really good at that stuff. But I enjoy him as a person too, a guy to grab a drink with. He's a...

You can tell, too. You can tell, you know, in his younger days, he probably got after it a little bit. Yeah. And he tries to do, like, all the numbers and analytics and be like, oh, I went to UCLA and all this shit. And it's like, no, he's a regular guy. He's a fun guy to hang out with. But he tries to be a whiz kid sometimes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think his job...

He has to do that to keep his job. Yeah, yeah. No, I get what you're saying, Don. I think that that's why he's a good fit for us. He needs to pay you more, though. Yeah, he does. He does. He's not that good with numbers. I'll tell him that. He does. Hey, relay the message. All right, well, Tarek, thanks so much, man. We really appreciate it. Congrats again. I appreciate it, yeah. Thank you guys for having me.

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Part of my take is sponsored by BetterHelp. This month is all about gratitude. There's a person that we don't get to thank enough out there.

It's sometimes hard to remind ourselves that we're trying our best to make sense of everything in this crazy world that isn't easy. Here's a reminder to send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself. I've done therapy in the past. It's helped me get through some periods of loss. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge.

Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash PMT today. Get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash PMT. Now here's Rex Ryan. Okay, we now welcome on a good friend of the program, recurring guest. It is Rex Ryan. You can see him on Get Up with the takes talking NFL. Maybe back into coaching. Let's start there, coach.

Are you going to maybe save the Jets? I'd like to. There's no doubt about it. I've let everybody know that I definitely would be interested in that job, even though I got a great gig. You know, I do Sunday NFL countdown, do get up, as you mentioned, and things. And it's hard to beat that job. But, you know, I think I have some unfinished business, especially with that franchise. That particular franchise is, you know, it's –

My dad was there forever. He won a Super Bowl. It's super close to me. I just think that...

I would get back in it if I thought I could make a difference, and I think I could make a big difference with that team. So what is the issue right now with the Jets this season? It feels like a season from hell. Is it something that is foundationally going to take a while to fix, or you think it's something that, like, hey, if they do this, this, and this, we could be back in it? I think if I took over, it'd be turned in about two minutes. Yeah.

Because I think it starts with the passion and the energy that I would bring to that building and

And the we're not going to take any any poop mentality either. Like, you know, we're going to kick your ass and we don't care if you like it or not. But with that, it comes responsibilities and accountability from that from that football team. I'll take every bullet. I get it. I want my players to play fast and I want them to be relentless. And right now, here's what I see with that football team.

I see a team that plays with effort. Everybody in the National Football League plays with effort. But I see a team that doesn't play with the enthusiasm that you need. And I think that would change in a second. The minute I got there, it would change. And it would have to, or the guy would be down the road. So I think that's the biggest thing. And then obviously, that offense is about 20 years behind its time.

You know, like that thing is, you know, that was, that's the old West Coast type stuff. And, you know, there's guys, boy, they talk like they're freaking geniuses. And the great thing is I love going against them. I can tell you where every damn play is going. Well, I've been coached for eight years and can tell you every play. And so I think that's something that needs to be flushed out. And you've got to start new. You've got to have...

you know, get up with times offensively, use your, you know, come out of the huddle quick, use shifts, motions to help identify things and get yourself in a great play. And, you know, there's people out there that obviously, quite honestly, be a hell of a lot smarter than me, but those would be the guys that you would hire and, and, you know, bring some energy and excitement, you know,

I think that's the missing thing, you know. And obviously, you know, I could think you got to stack up wins. And with this team, I look at a team, this Jet team, from a physical standpoint, from a personnel standpoint, this team is close to being a dominant football team when you look at it talent-wise. Why the hell they're not playing to that level? I don't know. And again, I'm not, you know,

I'm trying to, it's crazy, but I know when I get an opportunity to interview for it, I'm going to get the job. That's how I feel about it. If I, if I get that opportunity, great. If not, they want to go a different direction than, than so be it. But I can tell you one thing. I never had this kind of talent when I coached the Jets, never close, never close to this kind of talent.

So I'll just leave it at that. Yeah. All right. So how big of a voice would you give Mike Greenberg in your administration as coach of the Jets? Personnel? Does he get personnel choices?

Yeah, absolutely. Greeny would be in charge of who we're drafting and all that. No, I tell you what, though, and that's the thing about with Greeny and the Jet fan base in particular, man, it is a passionate group. And that's why the other thing is I know there's a lot of great coaches out there, but...

I think I'm the guy for the Jets. And the reason for it is I connect with the Jets. That Jet fan base and all that, all these other guys that you bring in, they ain't close to connecting. I've already done it. All right? They're no different than me. I grew up a Jet fan. And with my dad coaching and that lineage that we have there, and I get the passion. I get all that. And they know, look, we might not win every game, but I'll be Dan if we don't think we can. And the other thing would be,

every single thing that we have to give you, we're going to give you. And that's it. That's my thing for my players. That's all I want is everything you got and a little bit more. And I think that the fan base of New York with the Jets in particular, they appreciate that. And, you know, like I said, we might not win every game, but you're going to know damn well you're in a fight.

We've got an absolute psycho Jets fan, Memes. He's our producer here. He actually makes Greeny look kind of – I actually think Greeny might be the problem. Have you had that conversation with him? What's Greeny's record as a fan of the New York Jets? You've got to flip it on him. Yeah, no. I'll say this, though. I appreciate the loyalty of that fan base because you're right. It's been a lot of down years. There's no question about it. Only one Super Bowl.

Super Bowl III might have been the greatest Super Bowl ever, but maybe the biggest Super Bowl in NFL history because it led to the merger of the AFL and the NFL. But

I mean, you got to just appreciate the loyalty and all that, but they deserve a hell of a lot better than they're getting. Yeah. I hope you get an interview. Yeah. It'd be good for the NFL. Yeah. So coach, I got a question for you. We're at this point of the season where we have all the contenders we feel like in our head. And then we have a lot of teams that are playing for nothing.

If you are a coach and you've got a team that's playing for nothing, how are you getting them motivated to get up and play every single week when you know, hey, look, we've got two wins right now or three wins? How the hell are we going to get the most out of this team? What is the message when you're trying to do that late in the season? Well, unfortunately, I've been in that situation before. You know, my last year with the Jets, like, whew, that was a rough one.

But you know what's funny? My guys never stopped playing. And they were always in it. And I think what happens is, first off, it's

the relationship you've established with your players and things, it's not something that, you know, I'm going to be Winston Churchill and come up with some speech overnight. Now I'm going to give them the play. No, that has to be built in from jump. And that's from, you know, the way you connect with your players. They got to understand. I'll tell you about any players, whether it's today's game, you know, 20 years ago, 30 years ago,

you know, they got to know that you care about them. And I certainly do. You know, I understand this game. I've been around it all my life. The players are special, special people. But I think they have to know about, like, it's not always going to go great. But this is what we've said from jump. This is what I've asked you to do. And it starts with you as a coach.

Like I see some of them right now just mailing the thing in. Where the hell? I see coaches, no passion, no whatever. They're like, hey, let me go to my freaking yacht. Well, go to your yacht. You know what I mean? But to me, that was never about it. And I would always tell my team, I said, hey, look, if you need to see somebody, you know, and how I want you to play the game, watch me, watch me.

Because I'll be damned if I'm going to quit. I'll be damned if I'm letting go of that rope. And my guys would never do it. They would play their asses off. And I'll stand by anything. Bad season's good season. I'll always stand by the effort, the enthusiasm, and the passion my players played with.

And I coach with. Yeah. Yeah. So in terms of like giving your team a spark this time of year, there's a couple of things that you can do as a coach. One, I mean, you're talking about the enthusiasm. I don't think that was ever a question for you, but you also see some coaches trying to do the spark where they, they just figure, okay, what the hell we'll start the backup quarterback this week.

We'll put somebody else out there. Have you ever seen that work? Like, I actually do think Tommy DeVito might be a spark. He might be a spark guy. But then you've got other coaches that put in backup quarterbacks that might not even be nearly as exciting as a starting quarterback and hope for a spark just because of, you know, a different person in that role. Have you ever played that game of musical chairs? I did it one time, and it was brutal.

Who was it? I was so pissed at Sanchez. We had played Arizona the week before, you know, the week before. And what might go down as the worst game in NFL history, I think was scored might have been seven to six or something that we won the game somehow. But Sanchez, you know, and I love Mark, but he had a brutal game. Absolutely brutal game. And,

I finally just looked over. I said, hell enough's enough. And I put Greg McElroy in. All right. And Greg wasn't gifted with the physical NFL skillset. Greg was one of the smartest dudes I've ever been around in my life. Um, and I knew he'd do the right thing, whatever, but,

We put him in, and we come back, and he leads them down, and we get in the end zone, and we win the game, albeit an awful game. But the next week, I'm sitting back going, all right, you know what? To hell with it. I'm not just going to throw out Sanchez again. I was so pissed at him, so disappointed. And I love Mark, but I thought he needed to ride some pine.

just so he can, you know, he can understand that this is a possibility. And so I put in Greg McIlroy and we get fricking annihilated next week by, by the chargers. It was brutal. And it wasn't Greg's fault that the poor guy, bless his heart. I think he got sacked like nine times or something like that. I mean, we weren't very good obviously, but, um,

but I tried it one time. And when I see the Giants, the only question I have with the Giants is why not drew lock? Yeah. He'd been the backup of the whole season. And now you're going to put Tommy DeVito in there. That's the only question I have. Like,

Wait, you just brought this guy in to be a backup? Yeah. Is there something in his contract that if he starts, you know, you got to pay him more money? I don't know what the deal is there. Yeah, it's very bizarre. It feels like a weird locker room right now. So if I were to say, and I'm not going to hold you to this, but...

Your life is on the line, and you get to pick five teams that can win the Super Bowl this year. What are the five you're picking? You're dead if another team wins. Right. I got you. Well, I can tell you one thing. I don't need but one.

I mean, I truly believe it. I think if Aiden Hutchinson doesn't get hurt, I think Detroit would have walked through this thing. Yeah. Would have walked through it. And the fact that my son coaches there is probably another reason I'm taking them. But I feel that confident about this team. This is a real football team. And all you got to do is like you want to see what your team thinks of their coach. Watch how they play.

Why tell this team, like, they got little receivers down there pumping it 100 miles an hour going downfield to block for these running backs. I mean, they are so selfless.

And I just love it. And they, I mean, man, it's a, it's such a tight group and they built it the right way, man. They, they built it through, I mean, character was important. You know, the love of, of, of the game playing, playing the game is important to these people. And man, it's a whole team of that. And they're bad asses.

So I love Detroit. I absolutely love Detroit. Now, obviously, you're going to take Kansas City because Patrick Mahomes, we've seen Andy Reid. I think Steve Spagnuolo is one of the greatest big game coaches as an assistant coach. He does a tremendous job there. And what I also know about Andy Reid is they're going to start running the football. If they want to win games, they start running the football. And that's what they do in the playoffs. I think that'll bode well for them.

I love Josh Allen. I think he's my favorite player in the league. And their defense has actually played better than I thought. So I think you have to consider them. Philadelphia, to me, talent-wise, has the most talent in the National Football League. And the Sirianni now, he has the formula. Run the ball more than you throw it. Heavy up the protections for Jalen Hurts. And let him use his legs, too. Like,

That's going to be a tough out, man. That team right there is playing really well. Vic Fangio, who worked for me a couple years in Baltimore, is a tremendous coach. He does a great job with that defense, and their young players are flying around. So those are teams right there. I guess that's four, and then the fifth wild card for the group is Baltimore. Oh, so no Pittsburgh. No Pittsburgh for me. If Pittsburgh wins the Super Bowl, you're dead.

I'm dead. Okay. I'm dead. Yeah, I'm dead. And here's the thing. I think Pittsburgh matches up great with Baltimore. I don't think they match up as well against these other teams. Yeah. So I think that's the issue right there for me. And Baltimore, look, guys.

I mean, you, me, everybody should be able to be a hell of a coach for them. You know, an offensive coach in particular. When you have a Hall of Fame quarterback, all right, in his prime, you have a Hall of Fame running back, maybe just outside his prime, but pretty damn, you know, pretty impressive, leads the league, whatever.

You've got first-round picks all over the place at receiver. You've got two good tight ends. You've got two Pro Bowl offensive linemen. Like that, they should be unstoppable. And then on defense, this is the team that was the number one defense in the league last year with pretty much the same players. I get it. You lost Patrick Queen. You lost a couple guys. But, you know, they added Wiggins, who I thought was a tremendous corner out of Clemson. Like, they ought to be, you know, they ought to be kicking some butt. So I think that team...

At the beginning of the year, I thought they were the best team in the league, and they were 1-2. Because I just know from a talent standpoint, they're phenomenal. Yeah, there's one team in the NFC that everybody was talking about at the start of the year. A lot of that talk's quieted down. They haven't played well. The 49ers.

So from our standpoint, as just dumbass fans watching the game, I think our analysis is that they're just not fun to watch on offense anymore. They used to be fun. They used to be unpredictable. Their running game was a thing of beauty in the past. Even if they were just carving you up on the ground all game, the way that they would do it would be really interesting to watch. What's going on from your standpoint as a defensive coach? What's wrong with the 49ers? Well, I think offensively, you know, last week they never had Kittle. They really missed him.

Because Kittle's not only just a great receiver and obviously one of the best red zone receivers in the National Football League, but he's also a tremendous blocker. So they missed him.

I still like how multiple, as you mentioned, how multiple they are running the football. I think that's, you know, it's fun to watch. They just get, you know, McCaffrey back. So I expect them to get better that way. My problem that I'm having with them is on the other side of the ball. I think their defense is not, not close to what it's been in the past. And it was interesting. They, they, they fired the defensive coordinator last year after the Superbowl. Right. And they,

I don't know who they added or whatever, but I think it was the dude Staley from the Chargers who we see the difference between their defense compared to what the defense is now. You know, so I don't know if that was an upgrade or not. I don't think it was. So I just don't have the same kind of faith that I've always had in their defense. I don't think it's a top defense anymore. So,

uh maybe talent wise but they're not playing that way certainly yeah what what about uh the cardinals are the cardinals for real i like what the cardinals are doing and kyler murray's been playing great i want to believe in the cardinals because it's kind of a fun no one thought they would win the nfc west it'd be fun if they were in the playoffs like i'm i'm i'm rooting for the cardinals well yeah and i can tell you this i mean i respect the hell out of their game and and what they've done i think

the general fans and this one I am now initially at the beginning of the season, I'm like, Oh, you know, Cardinals are finesse or whatever. Oh no, they're not. They're just the opposite. This is a physical ass football team. And,

And so to me, absolutely. And you know who they remind me of? They remind me of the Lions two years ago. Oh. When at the end of the year, nobody wanted to play them. And I can tell you right now, nobody wants to play the Cardinals. Now, look, their defense isn't up to, you know, up to where they want it to be. But, man, that offense, whoo.

They are physical as hell. And I think, I mean, I'm not going to be shocked when this team, they may get in. I think they will get in this year. But going forward, next year and the year after, watch out for them. I think they're building a monster out there. They're building a bully. And, I mean, I love the approach that their team took because this is not the Arizona Cardinals'

you know, under Cliff Kingsbury. This is a way different football team, and it's one built on physicality. Yeah, interesting. And it has been a lot more fun to watch Kyler Murray. When he's being decisive and he's taking off, he's as electric of a playmaker as they come. Yeah, no. I mean, look, guys...

Like how talented is Kyler Murray? I don't know. He's what the eighth pick overall and major league baseball, you know, with the A's and like this guy's, you know, first overall pick, he is an absolute freak. And I always love when people compare him to, you know, Bryce young. Well, you know, they're the same. No, they're not the same size. All right. Bryce young is short. Like Kyler Murray is short, but he is not small. All right. This is a size speed league. He is a jacked up dude. Um,

But, I mean, he – I would hate to have to stop that kid. Yes. Like, I see him sometimes just make the entire football team miss. Like, he is an absolute freak. Yeah.

Yeah, there's another quarterback drafted first overall place pretty close to us. Big Cat here is a Bears fan, but we're inundated here in Chicago. We talk about Caleb Williams. He's looked pretty good the last couple weeks. He's been getting better, I think, over the course of the season. What do you see out of the Bears? I know you said that the loss this last weekend was the best thing that could have happened to them.

So maybe for all the Bears fans listening, listen to Rex. Why was that loss actually a very good thing? Minus the Packers part, Rex. Come on, coach. You know that part. Here's the – and I get that. But here's why. This team's not ready to make a run yet in the playoffs. All right? You're going to have a new head coach in there. All right? You're going to get a better draft selection and things.

And I think it's good because you don't want to go into next year having the same damn coaching staff. Agreed. All right. You know what I mean? So I think that's why I'm saying what I'm saying. If they could get – Ben Johnson is going to be a superstar. In my opinion, maybe the next Bill Wallace. Like, so to me, if you could add him, like, oh, my God, this team. Because this is a generational talent. He really is. And here's how I can prove it. All right?

When he throws the ball on time, so inside of three seconds, he's in the top three in the league in QBR, all right, with almost like an 80 QBR. When he holds the football, and this is a typical thing for young quarterbacks, when he holds the football...

His QBR goes from 80 to 3.5, 3.5, historically bad. All right. Historically bad. So basically what it's telling me is when he knows exactly where he's going with the football, he's lights out.

When he's not sure, if you're trying one, he's not there, two, three. If he's got to play that position like a 12-year veteran, he's not there. Of course he's not there. So I think a lot of that comes down to coaching. I think the kid is going to be a phenomenal kid. And I tell you where I was really excited. If I'm a Bears fan, I'm super excited about this, what I heard.

that he got up after the offensive coordinator was let go. He got up in front of the entire team and owned it, took responsibility. That, to me, blew me away. I'm like, that's exactly who the hell I want to block for. That's who I, you know, I mean, I would be proud to be that kid's teammate. So, to me, if he's got that kind of thing, showing a little bit of that kind of leadership with the skill set he has,

Man, I'm telling you, like, I think he's going to be a superstar in the league. I really do. I'm not surprised he struggled. I knew he'd struggle.

especially when I saw what he was doing offensively and how they set him up that way. They set him up with players but not the staff. And I think next year they set him up with the correct coaching staff. I think they're going to be loaded. What I'm hearing from you, Rex, is that you're looking for an offensive coach to come in. So are you officially taking your name out of the potential opening for the Chicago Bears? No, I'm just thinking right now to myself if –

I mean, I would hire Ben Johnson instead of me. And the reason for it is I think he's an absolute superstar in the making. I think I'm pretty damn good. But I think this kid right here has a chance to be outstanding, like Hall of Fame type guy.

All right. I know the way he prepares. I know all that type of stuff. And to see him with a talent like Caleb Williams. Oh, that would be, that would be, you know, tremendous. Yeah. The head coach though, guys, the head coach is not just about, you know, an offensive minded coach, a defensive minded coach. That's way overblown. The number one job of a head coach is leadership. And it's,

It's connecting, connecting with your players, connecting with your fan base. All those type of things are important. All right. And obviously it's about the organizational skills, you know, setting up things and and then a style of play. What is your style of play? You know, does that represent the community that you're coaching in? Does that represent the, you know, what you have for a vision of your football team?

that's who needs to be a coach. Now, do I think it's a perfect fit if Ben Johnson went there? 100%. All right, so if not for Ben Johnson, what are the other names that you're seeing right now, whether defense or offense, that are doing stuff that you're like, that guy's going to be a great head coach? I think Aaron Glenn. I think Aaron Glenn, he's the guy without question –

Even when you hear about players, who the number one coordinator is, who they would want to play for, it's always Aaron Glenn. The guy was a former player. We've seen it before. Dan Campbell had great success, right? Went back to his team, and then you had D'Amico Ryans has done an outstanding job. Both of them former players, and then get the opportunity to come back.

I think, I think Aaron Glenn has it. And when you hear him interviewed, I'm like, that's a dang head coach. So I think he's got a chance to be, to be really special too. Um, you know, so those, those are the two guys, the two coordinators that really jump out to my mind. You hear about Todd Munkin's name thrown out. And I think we automatically do that because he's with the best players. You know, sometimes those guys kind of get, get lumped in there. These are the best players and things like that. But, um,

And it sounds crazy, but, you know, there's a lot of good coaches that are probably on maybe not the superstar teams, but maybe we'll see down the road. But those are the two coordinators that really jump out to me. Yeah, you talk about leadership and how that's the most important job of a head coach. I'm curious, when you were in the league, when you were coaching –

how much of an effort would you put into adding new wrinkles to how you're going to lead the team or different speeches that you're going to give? Or at the end of the day, was it just you're going to go in there and you're going to be you, and you might try to get up there and try to do something else, but at the end of the day, Rex is going to shine through, and having a consistent leader might be more appropriate than having a guy that's always trying to incorporate new things. Well, I can say this. I would just be myself. A player can see through a phony in two seconds.

you know, a guy that's really not him. We, how many coaches that we see out of Belichick's tree go in and try to be Bill Belichick. Yeah. Never works. Right. Never works. There's only one Bill Belichick. And if, you know, so I think there's where people fail, uh, go in, be yourself. And if you're a, you know, you're a, you know, a nasty mean mother. Okay. That's you. You know, if you're a, you know, I always love this, the players coach,

I think a player's coach is maybe the biggest compliment you can give a coach. All right. Players coach sometimes gets people think, oh, well, you know, he's just a nice guy. He's whatever. Let me tell you something. A player's coach means they love respect.

That coach. Why? Because he loves and respects them. Those are the things that you look for. And he can lead. He can coach your ass hard. All right? Yeah, he can pass you on the back, but he can also get after you. And I think that's, you know, whatever's needed. Whatever's needed is what a player's coach is. And I think it gets lost sometimes. Well, this guy won't smile. He's stoic on the sideline.

That doesn't mean he's tougher than that damn players coach that you talk about. Yeah. Because more times than not, he's probably not even close. Yeah. At this point in the season, I'm always curious. You have what you do well. Is there any changing things drastically? Let's say you're a middle-of-the-road team, or maybe you're even a team that is doing well. Are you changing anything at this point in the season, or is it like, hey, we just got to go with what we've got and keep trying to win football games?

Well, you know what? That's a great question because the NFL is a week-to-week league.

And so what you do schematically can vary. I mean, like it's crazy, you know, like you can go one week. We're going to play. We got to, we got to play an eight man front. We got to blitz the hell out of this team. The next week we got to play, you know, coverage. We're going to drop eight. A lot of times it's, it's a chess match thing. Each week is, is different. And that's why so many times you'll speak college coaches come in the league and fail miserably.

because they're not NFL coaches. This is the men's league. They're a college, and they're, hey, here's the system we run, and that's it. That's great. But when the coaches know what the hell you're going to do, schematically, you're not giving your team the best chance to be successful. So that's why I love seeing this guy's a West Coast guy. If all he is a West Coast guy, we'll beat the dog out of him.

All right. They'll be lucky to kick a field goal. Like, so it's got to change. You know, it is based on week to week. So the preparation, I think part of the energy and, you know, on when you're when you're in that locker room or, you know, in the meeting rooms, two things I know.

Because I have a philosophy, all right? You've heard of like a KISS philosophy, right? That's keep it simple, stupid. I thought that was for somebody else. I had a KILL philosophy, keep it likable and learnable, all right? And once it's likable, like, hey, look, I was a good student in maybe two classes. I like those classes, you know what I mean? So my class, anytime you're in front of your team and you're presenting to your football team,

It's going to be like, I got the answers. Like, check this out, man. Here's what we're going to do. So that's a big thing right there. But the other big thing is including people, including your whole, like, I'll take, even when I was coaching in Baltimore, I would sit back and take every guy that was going to play that week would be starting in something for me.

It might be a three safety defense. It might be a, you know, we call that Spartan because the guy, the guy coming in was from Michigan state. We call, you know, whatever. We had a corner. All he could do is blitz. All right. Well, all right. Batman, get in there. Batman defense. You got to have something that gets them all going. And here's what happens. Your, your practices are a zillion times better.

A zillion times. Because I may play. I don't know how many snaps I'm going to play. I'm going to start. All right? On game day, they all get in there. Guess what happens when you win? Everybody wins. That whole locker room, everybody's part of it. And it's just like, and they're proud to wear that, you know,

the Southwestern Bulldogs, you know, Jersey, like they're proud to be part of that team, but you need to include them. And that's where I love what Detroit does. How many times have we seen Detroit put extra linemen in a game? You know, nobody plays backup linemen. They do. You know, I used to with the jets, you know, whoever, like,

You'd include your roster. Yeah. And that's what you do. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. So what coaches out there do you think this year are doing the best job of that? Like getting guys to play for them? Obviously, Dan Campbell, I think, is doing an amazing job there. I think Mike Tomlin's done. Yeah. Like, how the hell? Really? They're going to win again? Yeah. So Mike Tomlin, in my opinion, and I remember last year when they were saying that he may be available.

And I'm like, hell, every team in the league would hire Mike Tomlin. Every single team in the league. He's an amazing coach. But the greatest thing is he's an amazing communicator. And it's just like what I think is important. I think he does great. He connects. Like, he's amazing. And so to me...

I think he's done an amazing job there. I think Harbaugh's come in and done a great job. Jim Harbaugh's done a great job. He took over a team that really had no freaking guidance. All right. It was super talented, but had no guidance. You know, they stood for absolutely nothing right now. He's like, no, we're going to have a tough football team. We're going to run the ball. We have a Hall of Fame talent at quarterback and they're starting to use him more and more.

but he wanted to emphasize the physicality that we're going to be a physical football team at the beginning of the year. Now he's able to really –

you know, take that part of it, but also add to this magnificent talent that they have at quarterback. So I love the way they're playing and they flip their defense overnight. They went from dead ass last in the league because they brought in the right coordinator. All right. They brought in this Jesse Minter, his, uh, his dad, I actually coached under his dad, Rick Minter at the university of Cincinnati. And, and, uh,

And not only me coaching there, but some other decent coach, a guy named John Harbaugh was there, a guy named Mike Tomlin he coached. He coached with Raheem Morris. Like it went on and on, the list of coaches that were there. And by the way, they fired him because he couldn't keep his good coaches.

Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. These are some of the best coaches in the NFL. But either way, he grew up in and around that Baltimore Raven-type style of play defensively, and he's done an amazing job there. Yeah, great strength and conditioning coach too. Yeah. Ben Herbert, right? Yeah. We got the chance to spend some time with him. That's an underrated thing right there. Strength and conditioning.

Strength and conditioning thing. Cause guess what? Guess how many coaches know anything about strength and conditioning? Uh, that'd be zero. Nobody, but it's so damn important. Yeah. And like, I remember we had, we had some, I had a great strength coach and it was like, we would make improvements sometimes during the season. Yeah. Like I was like, damn, like how the hell is this guy? But he gets it done. And, and,

You know, there's where like Cincinnati Bengals, they got to look hard. Like, why isn't this team in the playoffs every year? They should be. Okay. But they got to look hard at what they do at the beginning, you know, the beginning of the season, because they can't beat anybody the first two weeks of the season.

Like their record is atrocious. That means your team's not physically fit, ready to take on an NFL season. It's a good point. So I think, but that's where that strength and conditioning staff is vital, I think. Do you want to have a complete psycho as your strength coach or do you want the assistant strength coach to be the psycho? I don't care. Just as long as they get it done. But I think part of it is like, again,

guys that can teach, but know what the hell they're doing. And do they have that passion, that, that energy, that, that fire and all that? That's what I love. You know, get a guy that could make me go in a weight room and lift like what? Okay, let's go. You know, I might be short on ability, but this dude's getting me everything out of me. Yeah. There was an old coach named Steve Watterson who was with the Titans for a hundred years, the Oilers. All right. And

And I love that guy. But I heard a story about what he did. He had, so Chuck Cecil was 100 years old playing for him. And, you know, big hitter, you know, great hitter and all that type of stuff. But Chuck couldn't bench 135. You know what I mean? And so what did he do? He never had Chuck Cecil work with the other, his teammates or whatever. No, he had Chuck come in early.

and to get his lifted in because he wanted Chuck Cecil to be at his very best. He never needed to embarrass him or anything like that, but he was going to get Chuck at his very best. That's what real street coaches do. They sit back. It's not about an embarrassing thing. I don't want a guy hiding in the weight room, you know, because I'm, you know, a guy's not strong firsthand info. That's what I used to do. All right. So these guys, the great ones,

You know, every program is built for the individual. You know what I mean? And yeah, can we do things collectively? Yeah, sure.

but we also are never going to embarrass the player. We're going to get them at their very best, and that's how these great strength coaches work. Yeah. Okay, so, Coach, this has been awesome. I have one last question for you. It's a rowback question, rhoback.com. Promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase, Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com, promo code TAKE. Always love having you on. We touched on it briefly. Give us a pick.

Actually, you know what? Give us your favorite pick for Sunday. Do you have a game that you love? I mean, I'm trying to run them down. Well, my other part was if you could just give us a winner for Monday Night Football, the Harbaugh Bowl, because everyone's going to be tuning into that. I think it's going to be a great game. I think it's going to be an amazing game. But I'm going to go with John. Okay. I'm going to go with John strictly because –

It's hard for me to ignore a Hall of Fame quarterback and a Hall of Fame running back. I mean, look, last week we saw him get beat. How did they get beat? They ran the damn ball 13 times with that kid. You know, with Derrick Henry.

Why? You know, and guess how many carries he got, guys, in the fourth quarter? You guys know. Zero. Yeah. How the hell does Derrick Henry not carry the ball in the fourth quarter of a game like that that you know is going to be tight? I think they get back to it. I'm sure John's going to be like, hey, Todd Munkin, dude.

Run him till his damn tongue is dragging. I want to see 30 carries from Derrick Henry. I would not be surprised if that doesn't happen in this game. A physical game. He's one of the guys that you have to keep going. He softens up a defense over the course of a game.

And at the end of the game, he's able to run dudes over that probably would have tackled him in the first quarter. And this is what we saw from the Ravens last year in the playoffs. It's mind-boggling that they would make the same mistake again. I guess better to make it now than to make it in January. Yeah, I mean, clearly last year, I couldn't agree more. Last year, they were the best team in the National Football League. I don't think it was even a question. And then to handle that game, they had six runs to the running backs in the playoffs.

I thought that was crazy. I never thought I'd see it again. Then I saw 13 carries with Derrick Henry. So, yeah, I mean, I'm with you on that. It's like, golly, you know, you just want to see the big guy go. And you're right. This dude doesn't get going until he carries it, you know, 12, 13, 14 times. Then he starts going. And then by the end of it, what I've noticed is guys start making business decisions. And tough guys. Like, tough guys. Like, you know what?

Damn, the shoulder, you know...

I'm not coming up there and hitting them with the same enthusiasm I had at the beginning of the game. A lot of times that happens. I've seen tough guys. All of a sudden, not so much anymore. So, yeah, I think that could be the difference in this game. Just feed the beast. Yeah. All right. Love it. All right. Well, Coach, thank you as always. Hopefully you're coaching the Jets next year. Yeah, good luck. Yeah, we'll see. I will announce my official endorsement of Rex Ryan to the New York Jets. I'll match. Yeah. Yeah.

Memes, do you agree? Memes? I also agree. Okay, there you go. We got a clean sweep. We got three people right here. All right, thanks so much, Coach. Appreciate the time. My pleasure, guys.

Welcome back to another Fire Fest of the Week. It's brought to you by our great friends over at Morgan & Morgan. You know what really sucks? Having to wait so long and having it just hang over your head that you have to pitch to a Division I college baseball team. You know what else really sucks? Getting injured. But you know what doesn't suck? Calling Morgan & Morgan so they can help you get what you deserve.

Okay, Fyre Fest time. Henry? Yep.

Lay it on us. I got some karma. Oh. You're getting a new karma? Karma. A sick karma? Not getting a sick karma. I think I knew as soon as I said it. I think I said it in the beginning that I'm just saying this out loud, even though I know I'm not going to do it. That clip got clipped and put on social media, so I was getting hit up by people that I know don't listen to the podcast and I haven't talked to in a while that are like, what kind of car are you getting? Like, what's going on? New car, new car. And I was like, oh, man. Didn't.

Didn't think this was going to happen. That clip had people hitting me up being like, dude, your car's not sick. Swear to God. I know. I was like, it's apparently not. You know, when things break through and it doesn't, even though it's a big show, it's

There's still times when I know things have broken through the bubble just based off of like, I have friends that listen to the show and they'll hit me up about the show. But there's people when they hit me up about the show or parcel things. I'm like, where did you see this? Where is this coming from? Out of all the clips from the show to break through, I have no idea why that one. You just want a new car. No, it's also I've long thought like it's just completely random. There's random shit. Like the most random shit will break through.

At random times. And I think my car also heard the clip and got mad at me. Oh, no. What happened? It was snowing. Snowing bad. I didn't even know it was supposed to be snowing as hard as it was. Lake effect, probably. I was pissed that it was... I thought it was going to be a dusting. I wanted a dusting to start. And then it was dumping. Dumping. And I'm on the way to work. I'm in a big line at a red light. So I was stopped. It was going very slowly. You know.

Put the gas on for a second just to move up. And then when I hit the brake, my car just slid. Yeah. The car in front of me was like a maintenance truck or like a working truck where they just had one of those big, you know, nut bolt things at the end to like latch a trailer onto. So that just like punctured my grill. Oh. And that car was fine. And I was just like, it wasn't, thankfully I wasn't going fast or even like, I was, I literally tapped the gas and,

And then hit the brake and just slid right in front of me. Yeah. The guy was like, oh, I'm so sorry. You were right. I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. My car's just fine. Yeah, your fucking car just killed mine. Now, the people out there that would say, like, Hank might not be that good of a driver, what would you say to them?

I say my records proves itself. I drove a fucking bus across the country in the blizzard. Yeah. Yeah. Fact. And I've driven it through a city. What about the fact that, I mean, that was some bad. Multiple cities. That was some bad karma. You should have said that about your car. I know. You really dissed your car. I know. Karma. Shit. What are you going to do? I'm going to get a new grill. You're getting a new grill? Are you going to get a new car?

We've tabled that internally. Your car's total, Tank. When the sun comes out and it's summer, that conversation. But it's dark. It gets dark at 4 o'clock. It's snowing. There's no need for a sick car at this moment. Okay. What about a sick grill, though? I am going to get a sick grill. You get a sick grill, and then you feel like it's a sick car. Yeah. I don't need a new car. I never did. I sure never said it. Damn.

Oh, man. I'm sorry, Hank. Karma. Karma. Karma.

Hank is going to put his car through like Pimp My Ride and just put a bunch of different mods onto it. He's just going to get a golf club? You should get hydraulics for it. That's the van. Turn your car to a golf. The van is the fun project. Okay, PFT. My Fire Fest of the Week is very closely related to something that happened this afternoon when five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood

flipped his commitment from LSU. He had been committed to LSU since, I think, January of this year. Uh-huh.

And he flipped it today to Michigan. That's fine. It's all well and good. Whatever. Kids change their mind. People come in with money sometimes at the last minute. In this case, people have been saying it's up to $10 million for Bryce to flip his commitment from LSU to Michigan. We happen to work for a very wealthy Michigan booster who has been publicly saying, I will fund good quarterbacks to come to Michigan. Mm-hmm.

I have to go to LSU tomorrow and play a concert with Pup Punk. I forgot about that. LSU fans are not happy with Barstool Sports at the moment. I don't have it as bad as... There's some people that work here that they went to LSU. They're close to LSU. And they're getting blamed for it. They had nothing to do with it. But...

I have to go actually there and see LSU fans and students face-to-face. And I love LSU. And they're going to take their hatred of Dave out on me. Okay, so let me try to help you a little bit. And people can spread the word at LSU to treat Pup Punk with respect. I have a little bit of insight into it. I know Dave is involved. I do not think Dave used his own or Barstool's money. Okay. So that maybe helps a little.

I know Dave has been involved, but I do not think it was his personal money. Myself, Rome. Yeah, I don't think anyone. Caroline, Robbie, Frankie. We had nothing to do with it. Yeah. Anyone that's a student and sees him gloating about it. Like, they're not going to worry about the details. But I also think it's an easy person to blame. I also think students aren't the ones that are like going after Megan. And I think it's like.

you know, 40 year old dudes. Yeah. Who are, who are sitting online yelling at 18 year olds. I think that's more than, I don't think the pop punk, the pop punk,

crowd and the people who are tweeting like in dming mean things to bryce underwood are the exact same venn diagram there's a little bit of overlap but not totally probably not but fred's we're playing at fred's that's a big place i forgot about people there and it's one of my favorite places in the world uh we're gonna have fun no matter what um i didn't do it there's no blood on my hands yeah i didn't do it well there could i mean there is

There is blood on your hands. How? I mean, this podcast has helped build Barstool Sports, which put Dave Portnoy in a spot where he could maybe get a quarterback to flip from LSU to Michigan. I didn't do it. If I had known. There's a little bit of blood. If I had taught and you had gone back and told me the day before we started part of my tape, in 2004, Michigan will flip an LSU five-star quarterback, I would have said, I'm going to bleach a report, Dan. Good luck with this whole podcast thing. Sounds like it's going to be a hit.

Just a tiny bit, not a lot. I'll say right now, listen, I got a little blood on my hands. I disavow. I won't be in Baton Rouge, but I got a little blood on my hands. It has been funny seeing people say, like, I'm done with college football. This is ruined college football. This is going to happen every year. Players, they've been getting paid for decades. Also, can I just say one thing for LSU? And I know this isn't going to help. He's from Detroit.

If he was from Baton Rouge, I would be like totally understand bullshit, everything. He's from Detroit. Yeah. So like, and when you get a guy committed at this point in college football, in the weird world that is college football, you don't really have him until he shows up on campus. Kids flip all the time. You could flip him back. You could flip him back. Flip him back. Do it. That would be a power move if you flipped him back. It would. They can't say shit to you if you flip him back. Yeah, flip him back.

Do it. Anyways, come see Pop Punk at Fred's tonight, Friday. And PFT only has a little bit of blood on it. Just a little bit. Just a tiny, tiny, little small amount. My pinky's got blood on it. Yeah, I mean, Dave was involved. He was involved. He was involved. I know that. Okay, my Fyre Fest is... You guys know I don't really sleep to begin with, but I have, and this is for all the parents out there, I finally hit the point...

My three-year-old, my daughter, came into my room on...

on Wednesday morning maybe, like 6.30 in the morning, and she went right up to my bed and she said, hey, daddy, I figured out how to get out of my crib. That's bad. So that's over. So I have now six months where I'm going to have to deal with that because that's how it works with kids. You hold them in the crib for as long as possible until they – she has been able to get out of – physically been able to get out of that crib for about a year now, but she never had a click. And then I found out the next day through conversations around the house that

It was my five-year-old that taught her how to get out of the crib. So they're colluding against me. The teamwork. And now I'm going to have every single night. Like little raptors. If it's anything like my oldest, every single night for the next six months, my daughter will come into my room at two in the morning and be an inch from my face and say, hey, can we get up now? And that will happen every single night for six months. Have you thought about putting a top on the crib? Yeah.

Yeah, I don't really want to do that. At that point, it's just a cage. Yeah, it's a cage. It's really one of those things as a parent. You have it in the back of your head. You know there's a day that they will figure out how to get out of the crib. You just hope that day doesn't come for as long as possible. And then when it does come, you're just like, God fucking damn it. I'm just thinking through other dog training options, which is basically the same thing as raising children. Either the cage or I would say shot collar for a dog. I don't know if you'd want to do that with your children. Yeah, maybe an electric fence. Yeah, electric fence.

Invisible Fencing. My daughter stays in her crib. Oh, it's so bad. It's so bad. She's an invisible fencing girl. They colluded. It's so bad. So bad. But also, like, good teamwork by them, right? Yeah, I guess. I'd rather they not do that. But, yeah, good teamwork by them. They're working together. Yeah, he showed me. Okay, great. All right. Do we have Pug in here? Where's Pug? Pug.

Ladies and gentlemen, from coast to coast, sea to sea, our president, the one and only Pug. He's waving. You're watching on the video. He's waving. Okay, Pug. So... Oh, teleprompter malfunction? Mr. President...

How we doing? How we doing? Okay. Hey, Pug. Yeah. Stand up to recognize. Mr. President, what would you like to say to us? For people who are confused right now, we decided on election night that we were going to elect our own president. So we elected Pug as the president of Pardon My Take and Blake Bortles as the vice president of Pardon My Take. So this is Pug's first State of the Union. State of the Pod. State of the Pod. Yeah, really just...

Just a policy update, I guess. Okay. A single policy we will be adding starting right now. Okay. So the two people who have not gotten a lottery ball, PFT, memes. Well, I have gotten a lottery ball. Going forward, you will now be picking each other's lottery ball. Oh! Memes is a fucking loser. Yes, pug! Until further notice. Yes, pug! Blake also approves. Pug. Pug.

Pug, before... Wait, hold on, Pug. We got to stick together, memes. We got to stick together. He has blood on his hands. Yeah, he does. Memes, you do too. Yeah, you do too, memes. Yeah, the numbies that you've put up on social for this pod, those line day port noise pockets. Yep. Pug, question for you. Yes. Did you have any other further conversation with Blake Portals? No. It was just the preliminary conversations. Yeah. So I don't think Pug realizes this.

Blake, in the nicest way possible, basically told Pug, I do not care about this. Please do not talk to me. So last night I was sitting there and I see Pug tweet, does anyone know how to get in touch with Blake Bortles?

I think he was just tweeting at me. It was kind of like the ticket fiasco all over again, where he's just too afraid to ask me. And he just decided to tweet it. So I then put Pug and Blake Bortles on a text chain together. And I said, Blake, I put our producer Pug on this text. Pug is the president of PMT. You're the VP. You guys should be connected.

And then Pug responded, Thanks, Big Cat. What's up, Blake? Didn't want to make any new policies for PMT without safe from the VP. I'll throw some ideas your way and let me know if you have any as well. Look forward to working together. To which Blake replied, Pug, the pleasure is all mine. Hell of a campaign we ran. I want you to know whatever thoughts, ideas, or wild hairs you get, feel free to act immediately. Yeah.

I will always support and keep the border in check. Chat soon, VP. That was the nicest way for Blake to say, just do it, dude. So now we have a king. Yeah. We have a monarch. We're going to have to get Blake more involved. So I was wondering, like,

Did Pug text Blake on the side? Because that would have been so funny if he did. You need to next time. I just wanted to get his approval at first before I went forward. He gave you full approval. Now that we have that, we're good to go. He literally said, whatever you want to do, you can do.

All right, so PFT is picking memes number and memes is picking PFT's number? Yes. That is so diabolical. So if... Oh, this is the bet. Yeah. No, no. So if PFT picks memes number and memes number comes up, memes has gotten it.

The number PFT picks goes towards memes and the number memes picks goes towards PFT. Now, hypothetically, if that happens, we all agree that we won't give that guy shit and be like, oh, you've never got it on your own, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Not right. Cool, cool. Okay. Numbers. PFT 99. Oh, good work. Thank you, memes. I'll take three. Memes will have 77. 17. Okay. 11. 94, Pug.

That's Jack. What's my number? 77. All right. 21. I feel like those are heavy numbers. When does Jack have to get ridiculed for not getting it? He's got to at least be able to go for a few months. I think he's got to go a year. Yeah, he might. He might have like five years. He's heavy. 46. Phone president. Sorry, man. All right. We'll see you everyone Monday. Love you guys. Hey,

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