Andrew Luck In Studio, Brian Windhorst On The Shocking Luka Trade + Monday Reading Live From Super Bowl Week In Nola
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On today's part of my take, it is Super Bowl week and we have an awesome interview coming for the people. Andrew Luck, we've been looking to get this interview done for about seven years. He came into

HQ, actually Sunday morning and before we left for New Orleans. Really, really great interview. Awesome to talk to him. He autographed our AFC finalist banner. He did. So very cool guy. I think everyone's going to really enjoy it. Hot. Some people are saying hot. We also called the emergency Brian Windhorse bat phone and got him on for 15 minutes to talk about the Luca trade to the Lakers, which shocked everyone. Yeah.

We're here in New Orleans. We're going to talk a little Super Bowl. We have a Monday reading for the people. Time capsule. It's a Monday time capsule. We do this every Monday before the Super Bowl. Yeah, and it's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. This ain't the little, itty, bitty, teeny, tiny bowl. This is Super Bowl 59. Get in on the action at DraftKingsSportsBook.com.

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Okay, let's go. I love guys who like football. And guys who like football, they like me back. And I like them back. And even guys that don't like football, they try to avoid me because I'm always trying to get them to like football. Football.

Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. For new customers, get $200 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just $5 only on DraftKings Sportsbook. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, February 3rd, and welcome to Max Week. Yeah. Not Max.

Max, Max, Max, Max, Max, Max, Max, Max. Oh yeah, there's a little football game going on too. It's like, it's mega. Think about it. Instead of mega, it's just Max. We're taking the show to the max this week. Yeah, it's Max week. I don't know. I'm dialed. I'm dialed on the birds. I don't know what you guys are trying to do. You're not wearing any Eagles clothing. You're wearing a dog. You're wearing a dog on your shirt right now.

He's wearing Casey. Yeah. Row back. Row back. But the real story is Luca got traded to the Lakers. Oh, I thought you're going to lead with Dwan Aban or signed with the fever. That too. Yeah. Big time stories everywhere. But yeah, Luca Donchic instant championship contenders. That is big time. Fever are actually building a bully. Yeah. Uh,

Hank doesn't know because he's a misogynist. That's true. False. Luka Doncic traded to the Lakers late Saturday night, shocked the NBA world, traded for Anthony Davis. So the official trade, not listen, I'm not saying that it's max week, but the official trade was Luka Doncic, Max

Maxi Kleber, Markeith Morris, and then the Mavericks receive Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and 2029 LA first round pick. Two Maxes in the trade. And now Luka can't get the Supermax. He can't get the Supermax. And then obviously the Jazz also got in there because Danny Angel sniffing a trade and was like, I want in. They traded Jalen Hood, Shefino, 2025 Clippers second, 2025 Mavericks second. I don't even know how the Jazz get into it, but

So it's not hyperbole to say this is probably the most shocking trade in NBA history just because Luka is 25 years old. He's one of the top five players in the NBA. He just took his team to the finals yesterday.

And he gets traded to the Lakers with no bidding whatsoever. There was a mystery team. There was a mystery team, which I think was added just to make Nico. What's his name? Nico Hollins. What is his name? The Mavs GM. Yeah. Am I thinking of Nico Collins? Let's call him Nico. Nico. Make him feel a little better. But it seems like they did this deal. Nico Harrison, guy who screwed up the Steph Curry to Nike deal. It's crazy because...

It feels like the Mavs could have gotten way more for Luka, and instead he goes to the Lakers, and now I don't even know what to... It was a true what-the-fuck trade. Shams actually had to say, I have not been hacked. Yeah, this is serious. Let's kick it over to Magic Johnson, who had a great reply. Summed it up nicely. Luka Doncic will definitely make the Lakers a championship contending team. He'll take the pressure off LeBron because of his scoring ability and playmaking. It will make every Laker better.

LeBron James will be a positive influence on Luka, teaching him his championship mentality that includes taking his conditioning seriously. I actually do believe in that part, like that if... What?

That's magic calling Luca fat. Well, I mean, Luca's been called fat. I mean, there was a report that he's 270 pounds. I think it's discrimination against big boys that they're basically trying to drag Luca through the mud being like, the guy's just so fat he can't. We had to trade him. When in reality, you didn't have to trade him. It made no sense to trade him. I mean, Mark Cuban even, I know he's not the owner of the Mavs anymore, but remember a few years ago when he said, like, if you made me decide between my wife and Luca, I'll see you at the divorce proceeding.

Yeah, I mean, Luka's everything you want. If you're a fan of the Dallas Mavericks, that sucks because Luka, he got you to an NBA Finals last year. Who cares if he's 270 pounds, if he's scoring 40 points every game in the playoffs? You need a guy like that to get there. You need, as Big Cat said, you need a top five player. He's one of the best players in the NBA. In the NBA, the Celtics we looked last year, they had Brown. You got to have a superstar. Yeah, you have to. I mean, this is...

It's shocking. I don't understand what the Mavericks were thinking. If you're a Mavs fan, I feel so, so sad for you because you get a guy like Luka and he's going to be part of your life for 15 years and you're like, we're always going to at least be competing because we have Luka Doncic. And then he gets traded at 25 years old to the Lakers. I don't know how the Lakers keep getting away with it. I also...

Is there any chance that Jerry Jones was involved in this because Luca was, you know, the Cowboys have been so bad. New coach. Luca's the star in Dallas. Get him out of town. I don't know, but I recall a trade that didn't go through way back in the day. Chris Paul. You remember that trade? And David Stern was like, no, I'm not going to allow this for the good of the league. It feels like this is obviously AD is a great player. He's very good defensively. He's like,

been all NBA first team defense what like seven times it's a Hall of Fame player he's awesome he's an he's a top 15 player so this is not I'm not saying that it's something where the commissioner should step in and be like no this trade can't happen but

If this trade happens and there's nobody else offering anything for it, if you don't put it out for bid across the league, it seems like maybe you owe something. Maybe you're in debt to the ownership of the Lakers. Maybe you need a favor from the Lakers at a later date. Hmm.

And you're playing nice with them. Maybe the league needs the Lakers to be good, and they're like, LeBron's getting old, and we got to put a superstar in Los Angeles. I mean, that is the history of the Los Angeles Lakers is they just go from superstar to superstar. I mean, before even Magic, Kareem, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic...

Kobe Brown, Kwame Brown, Smush Parker, like all these guys, Steve Blake. And now they go LeBron Anthony Davis to Luca. It's crazy. It's crazy. It is. So I was looking at the Lakers roster earlier today. You've got LeBron. You've got Luca. You've got Austin Reeves. You've got Dalton connect.

Why are Hank and Max making eyes together? The Celtics and Sixers are playing right now. The Sixers just blew a 20-point lead. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.

Okay, keep going. Okay, so the roster. Yeah. They were literally making like, fuck you eyes. Well, no. I was trying to communicate the score of what is going on. Got it. Okay. Max is locked in on the birds. Philly sports. Got it. You've got LeBron, Luka. You've got Austin Reeves, Dalton Connect. How many balls are there in the NBA? How many balls? There's one. On the court at any given time. Well, actually, there's two. Lonzo Lomelo. Yeah.

Yeah, when they're out there. Yeah, yeah. But there's one. So the Lakers, I guess you can score your way to maybe a playoff series win, but I don't know. I feel like it's a great move long-term for the Lakers. I don't know if they're going to be good this year. They'll be good. I just don't know if they'll win the title. There's more moves to be made. There's more moves, but this is – That's not going to be their roster on Thursday. It doesn't matter for like –

LeBron might not win another title. Luke is 25, and they just have him now. They're going to give him the max. He's going to stay in L.A. They're going to build a whole team around him. The food is healthier in L.A., too. Yeah.

Yeah. He's going to go to Erewhon and be like, what the fuck is this? He's going to lose 10 pounds just looking at it. The conspiracy is when you see what other players, all-star players, all-pro players, what the teams that traded them got back in return compared to what the Mavs got for Luka. That's where the conspiracy really gets hot because it's like,

Kevin Durant, they got a million picks. Paul George, the Thunder, got a million picks. I mean, we're going to talk to Wendy, but the Spurs have nine first-round picks, I think. You don't think the Spurs would have given up nine first-round picks for Luka? Mm-hmm. I mean, yeah. Kevin Durant was four first-round picks in Mikael Bridges.

And Luka is younger than that. And, like, it just makes no sense. I don't understand it at all. They traded Mikael Bridges for, like, three years. I don't understand any of this. It was shocking. I feel like everyone's still in shock. The big loser in all of this is the Mavs fans. I actually think the Mavs might. I mean, Anthony Davis, like, they'll be a good team, but it's the win. Anthony Davis is a very good player. He's 31 years old. Luka's 25. How bad do you think it must feel for Anthony Davis? You're like, I'm an NBA champion.

all pro like unbelievable player. And everyone is just like, what a terrible trade. This is one of those situations where it's like, if you, if you, uh, like two people that, that cheat on their significant others and then get together, it's like that relationship eventually is going to end up with them cheating again. Um,

Anthony Davis got traded to the Lakers when LeBron was like, we need help and we need to get everyone out of here. And then I'm not saying LeBron said it this time, but that's how he got there. That's how he gets dinner. He had no idea. He had no idea. He found out just like the rest of us. Yes. Now, did you see the press conference that Jason Kidd did with Nico?

No, that was awkward. Well, it was also the entire Mavs team sat out today. They basically protested and they lost by a billion to the cat. It was very awkward. You had Nico sitting next to Jason kid who looked like he was in a hostage tape and Jason kid didn't know about until the trade happened either.

And then Nico was like, yeah, you know, this might be one that we look back on. Maybe, you know, it could be the greatest thing that happened. It could be bad. And Jason Kidd is just like, Jesus Christ. What is... Did he like lose his... Something happened. Something happened. Something has to have happened because otherwise it makes no sense. And it can't just be Lucas fat. And obviously we had the clip of Nico after they won the Western Conference last year taking the beer out of Lucas' hand. Maybe that's where the rift started. You never take a beer out of another man's hand, but...

But something had to have happened. It can't just be Luka's 270 pounds. He's not bad. Luka also twisted the knife. I feel really bad for Mavs fans. But his statement where he was like, I love Dallas. I thought I was going to be here for my whole career and win a championship. I'm sad it didn't happen. If you're a Mavs fan and you read that, that's devastating. Did you see the Mavs fans with the casket? They had a casket outside of American Airlines Arena. It was just like he died. I mean, I don't know how you –

How do you get off the mat if you're a Mavs fan? You just went to the finals with Luka. Yeah, he's a little pudgy. Yeah, he's a little out of shape. He's 25. I do think he's going to get in really good shape with LeBron. That's where it's like if you trade him because he's fat, that's a fixable thing. But he's also not. The thing is, he's not fat. He might be a little pudgy. He doesn't play defense. Yeah. Well, he's not in the best shape that he could be in, and that obviously you need him to be in better shape. But I do think he's in better shape. I think he's in better shape. He's in better shape than Zion. Yeah.

Well, that was the thing is Zion's got to be like, I would imagine Zion was like watching this trade happen. He's like, wait, they can trade you because you're fat. Like, this is going to be bad. That was James Harden's entire strategy. Yeah, right. It's true. Yeah. Yeah. But he was just like, oh, I better try to get in better shape. Oh, no, I'll get traded to the Lakers. Yeah, right.

You guys already just said what the score is. That I wasn't even looking. That was Hank. You guys are not locked in. Max is not locked in. I'm locked in. Max is not locked in. Max also isn't wearing any birds gear. Why aren't you wearing any Eagles gear? It's a long week. It's Sunday. It's Sunday. We saw a woman with birds gear. Question. Do you have enough Eagles gear to wear for eight days? With me? No, in life.

In life, yes. So why would you just pack eight days worth of Eagles gear? It's Super Bowl week. I will wear Eagles gear every other day. Like every other day, meaning you wear it tomorrow, then not Tuesday, then you'll wear it again on Wednesday? No, I'll wear it. Every day this week? Yes. If there's another Eagles fan that walks by you, they don't know to say go birds. Incorrect. I think they look at Max and they know. They see his eye. Someone did it in the lobby today. Sorry.

right when they as they were giving me shit about not wearing eagles gear and that no one was going to say go birds some guy walked by right away said go birds go birds i would be head to toe on commander's gear if we're in this game max head to toe you basically were i've been thinking his clothes stolen come on one point game yeah one point game it is it's sad because i i got here and i just looked at outside and i was like how awesome would this week be if the commanders were in the game i would like our chances

If we were playing this game, I really would. Even after losing by a lot? No, no, because if we were in this game. No, but what if they had just been like, you know what? You guys are going to the Super Bowl. Like if every Eagle got arrested. Yeah. If they shut down the team, there's still time. Would you still like your chances? No. Okay. No, but if we had beaten the Eagles. Yes, I would have agreed. If we had won, I would have loved our chances. I would like your chances as well. Yeah. All right. So anything else on Luka? I just.

It's baffling. The Mavs. I need to, I need, I need to cube it unfiltered. That's what I really, I don't know that I'm sure it will release some type of statement.

But I would love for him to just... And people are blaming Cuban, which I... Obviously, he had nothing to do with it, but he did have something to do with it because he sold the team and Mark Cuban never in a million years would have traded Luka because he understands the NBA. And when you have a top five guy, you don't trade him when he's 25. And that's all like Windhorse and all the other guys on TV, the insiders are like, I've never gotten reached out by this many GMs and people within the league being like, this makes no sense. That's what... None of it makes sense to anyone except for

Nico. There's going to be some other stuff that happens. That is very weird. I feel like we're going to see the Athletic is going to write a post-mortem on this trade in like two months. Yeah. That's when you're going to get the real ones where it's like, here's exactly everything. We'll probably hear something later on this week, but I don't think we're going to know the full story for a while. And I don't think that this is done.

Hey, credit to the NBA. It's Super Bowl week. Yep. And all it took was the most bizarre trade of all time to get us to talk about the league. They are going to trash Luka this week. There's going to be a lot of, like I even saw something like, well, they don't know his injury might take him longer to get back. Who cares? He could have been out for this entire year. You still don't trade him. Oh, they were worried about giving him the Supermax. Who cares?

It's crazy. Fourth of July, Kevin Durant Warriors was like the last time. Yeah, we're shocked. And that was, you know how shocking it is when you saw actual players like Kevin Durant being shown on the sideline and him being like, what? How is this? I just don't understand the part that I can't get over. Like, take out the fact that it's shocking Luka got traded. Like the Mavs, they'll be good, but only for a couple more years. Who knows what's going to happen with the Mavs?

Everyone wants Luka. Why didn't you just say, hey, Luka's available? Every team would have lined up to give everything for Luka. That's the part that makes you do the wind horse fingers. Right. It's like, why? Why this guy? And then why don't you give every other team an opportunity to bring their best and final offer, and then you get a fucking King's Ransom? Because Luka even said he had no idea about this, which, again, you're right. We're going to find out more in a couple months, but...

The only way that this trade would make sense is if Lucas said to them, hey, I'm never signing the Supermax here. All I want to do is go to the Lakers. And then he has to do whatever he can to get him to the Lakers. But still, even then, you're a GM. You have the leverage. Go fucking trade him somewhere else. I don't think that would happen. What player would be like, I don't want to sign the Supermax? Players sign with shitty teams for Supermaxes all the time. That's how Bradley Beal ended up in Phoenix. But...

But the thing is with the GM and his statement that he put out afterwards, he said like, this is us getting ahead of what could be a tumultuous summer as we decide whether or not to give him the Supermax. He basically didn't want to have to make a hard decision. It's not a hard decision. So he trades. Yeah. Like, I don't know. Simon Supermax put him on Ozempic.

That's an easy decision. I don't get it. None of this makes sense to me. I'll be baffled forever for this trade unless something crazy comes out. It's like Luka actually is going to retire and move back to Europe. What about the International League? What about it? What if they have super maxes?

We have a Supermax at home. I floated this on the plane. I don't know if that's what Max is bringing up. That they're starting a new internet. There's a lot of shit that's loaded out on the plane, by the way. This might not be meant for the podcast. Since Max brought it up, I was like, oh, what if LeBron, when he starts his international league, he gets the Saudi oil money in and Luka knows that he's going to be able to get paid $500 million.

Was this before or after the Hank said that we have like five years max left to live? Maybe that's why Nico did it. Maybe Nico is under the line of thinking of Hank where it's like, we only have a five year window on life. I'm just trying to like kill time.

Luca being 25 means nothing. He's like, have you noticed that we don't talk about the bridge in Baltimore anymore? Something's up. The dolphins? By the end of it, I had Hank. There's an underwater volcano that's going to go off and no one cares about it. I think Hank fully believes that we're living in a simulation right now. This is not a podcast discussion. You brought up the simulation. I know. I got you deep into the simulation. I didn't even know about the simulation until you brought it up. But now you think you're living in one. No, you think you're living in one and you're trying to indoctrinate me. Oh, wow. I refuse.

You're too real. Yeah. You are too real. I was just trying to like have some light combo with the boys. Like about we're all going to die. Yeah. Oh, while we're on the plane, let's talk about some plane accident. Yeah. Memes. Oh, yeah. Some British tick tocker predicted that there would be a plane crash of of social media company. So

Social media, a couple. A couple. Yeah, a couple. We're a couple. I'm just going to enjoy all my time with you guys. So the International Basketball League, that could be a thing. Worldwide Wob said, I will say this, something I've been made privy to this morning. The timing of the International Basketball League is not a coincidence. Oh, was I right? Worldwide Wob. Source. Question. Answer. Score. Oh, I was looking at Twitter. Answer.

Yeah, it's over. Salt Zero Five. Minute 12 left. Stay locked in on the birds. Yeah, who cares? I want the Sixers to tank anyway. Other sports. Well, there was one other person that weighed in on this trade, Schefter. Adam Schefter. And I think we have to discuss this with him at the Combine. But he tweeted out, No. No.

Not even close. You don't agree with that? First of all, I don't know. Ages are different. I told him that Lamar Jackson plus Joe Burrow plus. Who is who in this situation? That sounds like a streaming service. Yeah. Like he's exchanging two different. But in that, there's no ADs. The one that I saw that made sense for the NFL would be like after the Bengals went to the Super Bowl because they lost in the Super Bowl, like the Mavs lost in the finals. It'd be like treating Joe Burrow for like Dak Prescott.

You'd be like, why? Why would you do that? If Dak had won anything. Yeah, I guess if Dak had won. The bubble champion. Matt Stafford. Yeah, the bubble champion. Yeah, Matt Stafford would be a good one. But yeah, like trading Joe Burrow in his prime right before, like to someone who's also good, but I guess, yeah, Matt Stafford's more because Dak is 17th ranked quarterback. Someone who's older, it's like, why would you do that? That makes no sense.

But nice try, Schefter. But I like him getting involved. Yeah. And then everybody else was just putting trades in NFL terms all day. Do you think Woj would have known about this? I think Woj... Is this a Woj vacuum where we were surprised because Woj isn't with us? Here's what I like to imagine happened. I like to imagine that Woj got the scoop. Yeah. And he had it first. He knew it for a week. And he looked at his phone and there was a moment where he thought to himself, I'm about to go back to the old me. Yeah. Yeah.

And then he smiled and he goes, nope, I left that life behind a long time ago and put the phone away. Yeah. And just didn't log on for about 12 hours. He's beer man in the St. Bonnie student section. He's like, no, this is the life I live now. Yeah. I'm here with my people. Yeah. Yeah. I like to think he knew he should have. He should have just tweeted being like, I knew about this. Yeah. Yeah.

Just to piss everyone off. Just eyeballs. It was waiting for this to come out. Crazy story. Oh, yeah, that's right. They told me about this two months ago. Just give us the eyeballs next time you know something. You don't have to break it. Yeah, you can do that for every single one. All right. Other National Sports Podcast news.

Coach Cal going back to Kentucky, dropped his nuts on Kentucky. That sucked for Kentucky fans. I also, did you guys see there was like multiple people being like, don't boo him? Yeah, that was a big conversation. Yeah, fucking boo him. Yeah, boo him. Boo him. He wanted to leave. Boom. You could celebrate him when time has passed and he's not coaching the SEC anymore. There'll be a night where you can have Cal come back and celebrate the 2012 team and all that shit.

You boo him when he comes back right now. Yeah, agreed. He's a league rival. Yeah, exactly. Boo him. Boo the fuck out of him. Chip Kelly's back in the NFL. Yeah. Raiders. Love that. Is he just going to bounce around? I kind of like this. Yeah, I think so. I don't know if one place can tie old Chip down. Yeah. But yeah, he had a great season at Ohio State. His stock was at a high. It was at a premium. It was. And so Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly, I...

Do I like what they're building in Las Vegas? I think I might. Yeah. Oh, I forgot this one. Stat hole sports. Our guy, he did mention that Luca was 300 points away from breaking the all time Mavs record for points scored, which is held by Michael Finley. Michael Finley is a part of the front office.

Oh, interesting. So maybe Michael Finley was like, can't lose this stat. What? Breaking Moose. Breaking Moose. Luka's actually 300 pounds. Sacramento is finalizing a trade to send De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs in a multi-team trade that moves Chicago Bulls' Zach Levine to the Kings. Yes! All right, they did it! All right, so De'Aaron Fox to the Spurs. De'Aaron Fox on the Bulls would be fun.

No, we want to lose. I feel like that's a great trade for the Spurs. You and I are in a losing off. Lose, lose, lose. Where do the Spurs give up? Terms are not out yet. Okay, so it must be somebody really good. No, that's great. That's great for the Spurs. I want to see Wimby in some actual serious playoff time this year. Wait, so what else is in the trade? De'Aaron Fox to the Spurs. So what do the Bulls get?

They even get a pick? Big Cat Sweet right now is finally, let's lose some games. No, it's the Bulls actually did it. Lose, get picks, lose some more, more picks. I mean, they shouldn't. I'm tired of being the 10 seed. Yeah. And losing the playing game. Bulls need to get...

You want the balls together? And draft solo ball? The Chicago would be electric. Yeah, the Chicago balls. Yeah. The Chicago balls. Glennie's their coach. Yeah.

All right, that was good breaking news. It doesn't hit like the Luka trade, though. No. Nothing's going to hit like the Luka trade. That wasn't where we're... I was in bed. Everyone remembers where they were. I was also in bed. I was in bed, and then I didn't sleep for like an hour and a half. I was ready to go to sleep.

One last check, and then I was like, there's no way this is happening. I was sleeping. I was so exhausted from the Taylor Mathis versus Jeff Nguyen spaces that I had to go to bed. I was sleeping, and Stephen Chase's tweet broke the news to me. What was Stephen Chase's tweet again? It was so fucking dumb, and that's how I found out. And I was so pissed. A baby that was conceived during the Mavericks-Celtics finals would not yet be born, and Luka is no longer on the Mavericks.

What a stupid fucking tweet. I read it like four times. I was like, what does this mean? And then I finally read the quote tweet underneath and I was like, holy shit. It just means less than nine months. It happened, yeah. All right. Should we do who's back of the week? Yeah. Who's back of the week? And it is a new sponsor alert. Big one. Hit it. Hit it. Hit the new sponsor alert sound. Get it. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

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Who's back of the week? Fantastic, fantastic drinks for the golf course. Let's go. Yes. Especially the Berry Blast, my favorite. Way to work golf into it. And my who's back of the week is Rory McIlroy. Oh, yeah. He's smashing. Nice. What did he do? He won the AT&T Pro-Am at Peel Beach. Okay. I saw it. 27th one on tour. He nuked a drive like 340 yards and then hit a 7-iron 220. Yeah. Easy eagle. If I had that distance, I'd be so good.

The Bulls got no picks. All right. Kevin Herter, though. Kevin Herter. Red hair. He's a friend of ours. Yeah. Fuck yeah. Herter injured. They just got rid of Levine. They weren't going to get picks. I think we said this with Russell. They weren't going to get picks. So they just offloaded Levine, basically. Yeah, but they're going to get picks when they keep their pick by not finishing in the playing game.

They're getting worse. I'm updating my tweet. Okay, no picks now, but picks coming, I think. You got to get worse before you get better. No picks now. You got to get real bad. But picks when they lose. Do you guys have cap space? And keep their picks. Well, yeah, because Zach Levine was taking up a lot. Picks when they lose. That's the plan. Balls. Chicago balls. Picks in the future. Maybe. Picks in the future, parentheses, maybe. Okay. Rory McIlroy.

Golf doesn't start until the Masters. What are we doing? But this is a tune-up for the Masters. This might be his year. This is the Masters tune-up? Oh, his year to what? Blow it and finish second? No. This is the year he might turn around. You think so? Kind of after this weekend. I like Jake Knapp. He's a great swing. A little long shot. A little younger, but yeah. Yeah. 20,000 to one. Okay. I like Max Homa.

I do too. It's Max Week. It's Max Week. It's Super Max Week. It's Super Max Week. Birds Week. Yeah. Birds Week, Max Week. Okay, PFT, who's back? Truly's really good. Do people call him Truly in Edelman's? I think I might should. Pass me one of those Truly in Edelman's. I like that. I feel like that's got legs. Yeah. My who's back the week is Six Nations Rugby. Rugby's back. Oh, you guys are just so on brand right now. Yeah.

Listen, if you can't get up for Six Nations Rugby, there's something wrong with you. Check your ticker. It's great.

Wait, you don't like Six Nations rugby, Hank? Was this – I forget what day. Was it Thursday we were in the cave or maybe Friday? Friday and Saturday morning. Can you turn on some Six Nations? He was just like, what? Yeah. Well, he's going to start watching. It's incredible. England-Ireland had a great match on Saturday morning. It's a perfect thing to watch on Saturday morning when there's nothing else if you don't want to watch soccer. Sevens? No, no. It's full 15s. Yeah, so it's 80-minute games.

actual starting national teams for all these countries and they just beat the fuck out of each other it's incredible to watch are we in it no we're not one of the six nations oh it's like the four aces i probably couldn't name all of them uh italy wales england that's like one nation ireland no these are the six nations france and then uh who's who's the six nation australia

All blacks? I was watching some Jordan Mailata. I think Six Nations. He's a problem. He was an issue on the pitch. Is that what they call it, the pitch? Yeah, the pitch. Focus on football, though. Scotland. Scotland. Six Nations. So we're going to win? We're not going to lose. We're going to finish second like Rory. No, we're not in it. This is the U.S. Oh, okay. So we're not going to lose. We're not going to lose. That's a guarantee.

All right. My who's back the week is Kanye West. The Grammys were tonight. He had his wife fully naked. Hot. Not fully. I guess she had a sheer. A sheer. She was wearing a sheer. Also wasn't invited. Wasn't invited. Hot. Oh, really? No. I saw he got kicked out on a court of him not being invited. Not the nakedness?

So I assume when he read the tweet, it's like, oh, he's getting removed from the Grammys because of nakedness. I was like, no. Yeah. My general rule is if you're not invited somewhere, don't show up naked to that place. But I also think there should be a rule if you're as hot as his wife, you should be allowed to be naked. It's not a problem. Like, hot people should be let...

the hot people should be able to get naked. He kind of got cocked by Luca trade too. Cause he was doing his like once a year, random like Twitter pop in tweets, a million things. Yeah. So, and that probably would have been what people were talking about this morning. Like, Oh, did you see Kanye's crazy tweets? And,

Nope. So he tweeted, Kamala seems like a very nice human. I just want to say sorry to her kids. And I was like, oh, that's weird. And then I didn't realize that it was because he had just deleted a tweet that said, I used to want to fuck Kamala until she lost. I don't fuck losers anymore. Yeah.

And he spelled losers with two O's. I also like how he said anymore that he recently was fucking loser. Yeah, Kim Kardashian, she's a loser. And then also my who's back is the Royal Rumble.

So it happened. Jey Uso won. Very popular with fans, but huge surprise he won. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins were both eliminated by CM Punk. I'm just reading Brandon's text to me. Punk was eliminated by Logan Paul. Speed took that hit. Yes. I Show Speed was speared by Braun Breaker. Braun is Rick Steiner's son. Cody beat Kevin Owens in a ladder match. Was it John Cena's last match ever? What? I thought I saw that.

Oh, no, he's on a retirement year. It was his last Rumble. Yeah, his last Rumble. So, yeah, that happened. I mean, the spear was awesome. It was. I should speed like needs. That was legit. He took a big time bump. Max Hoosier, who's back the week? I normally don't do who's back the week. Arsenal. Arsenal.

Zah was excited about an Arsenal win. They beat Man City. 5-1. Yep. I was going to say 4-1. Quite a result. Might have been 4-1. Quite a result. Quite a result for the footy. Huge result. Bad result for Man U today.

Bad result for the lads. Are they getting relegated? No, but they're getting towards the bottom of the league. It'd just be very funny if Man U got relegated. That would be awesome. I'm rooting for that. Yeah. That would be very funny. Me as a fan of the footy, rooting for that. Max, you're out of your walking boot. Yeah, but it'll be back on during the Super Bowl. Oh, okay. I have it with me. If anyone missed Max's performance in the case race, go watch it because he was...

Lay in the boom. I was going to have some bumps. Lay in the boom. I was drawing. That was not a Coke reference. That was like an actual wrestling. Yeah. Did you have any athletes reach out to you? Colin Gillespie. Yeah. Nice. That was awesome. That's huge. No. Any others? Colin. Colin. Oh, I was saying Colin Gillespie. Yeah. That is weird that there's two guys. Colin Gillespie. Yeah. One of a legend. And what do you say? Animal. Animal.

Exclamation point. Oh, nice. Nice. Okay. Let's get to our interview with Andrew Luck. Then we're going to talk to Brian Windhorst. Then we have a very special Monday reading. And we're also going to get a prediction from Max on the Super Bowl score, which we're going to do every single show this week.

Before we get to Andrew Luck, he's brought to you by Mountain Dew. You can add a blast of refreshing tropical lime flavor to your game day with Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Mountain Dew Baja Blast, it's always been part of my game day ritual. You hear that sound? That's the sound of a mountain. Big Cat just opened up a mountain into the mic. Hank, crank one. Crank a dew. Crank a dew.

That is the best. The boys are cranking do's. Oh my gosh. I like cranking a do right at halftime. Gives you energy for the second half. Put your fours up when fourth quarter hits. Mountain Dew is the absolute best and the tropical lime flavor of Mountain Dew Baja Blast is as refreshing as hitting a game winning kick. It's as refreshing as your team winning in the playoffs. It's as refreshing as the Super Bowl.

Can't wait. Big game this week. We're down in NOLA and we're drinking some Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Ride the Baja wave on game day. Grab Mountain Dew Baja Blast for you and your crew wherever refreshing beverages are sold. And now here's Andrew Luck. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest.

This is a long time coming. It is Andrew Luck in studio. It is so long time coming, Andrew. I don't even know if you realize this, but you

Your good friend and our good friend Sam Schwarzenegger is here. He's been working on it for probably six or seven years. But there was a moment where this podcast was going to read a book just to try to get you on this show. Do you know how hard that is for us to read a book? And we were willing to do it to try to get into your book club to have you come be a guest. So we've been waiting a long time for this.

That's amazing to know. I do think you can do it. I know you can. I believe in you guys. But that's like, just to put it in perspective, our listeners, we've been doing this for nine years, are nodding along being like, holy shit, that's...

like when they're like, oh, do you pay for guests? No, we don't pay for guests, but we did almost read a book for Andrew Luck. Yeah, we tried to read the book. We bought Boys in the Boat. I think that was book one of your book club. And we got through like the first page and we're like, this isn't for us. Then we had Blake Bortles on the show, a friend of ours. And so we said, you know what? Instead of doing a book club, let's just do the Blake Bortles Wikipedia club. Yeah. Where every time he's on the show, he'll pick a different topic. We'll all read that Wikipedia page and then we'll discuss. Yeah. Did it lead to substantive discussion about new topics? No.

Yeah, there were. There were a couple new topics. I'm trying to remember what we went over. I mean, the big one was that Blake learned that snow is wet. He had not realized it being from Florida. From Duval. Yeah.

Oh, man. All right, let's start there because I have a million questions. But when you see an introductory press conference from a coach, knowing that you've lived it, are you like, should we as stupid fans judge this? Or is it like this is all just the same shit? Liam Cohen doing the Duval. Oh, you didn't? You just had that quote. I don't have heavy internet presence or access. Honestly, everybody needs a friend like Sam for many, many reasons, including I know about you guys because he will send me text messages constantly

Back in the day of big cat soccer takes. Yeah, they were bad. That's how I know about you. Yeah, they were always bad. No, they were great. I loved it. I mean, we do think that. Yeah, you got to give me context. Yeah, yeah, we'll skip that. The phone thing, do you still have a flip phone? No, when my daughter was born, I realized I needed pictures. Yes. It was a deep...

Primal need to take pictures of my daughter and share pictures of my daughter and now that's fair. I see pictures of my dad How long did you I mean that flip phone thing that was real you were just like I don't want to be attached to the internet I don't want to have people be able to text me all the time and call me all the time I want a flip phone. Yeah, it was real obvious. I don't think I thought too much about it I had in high school and I Did not feel the need

to upgrade per se and I still am happy I didn't upgrade until when I upgraded and there's still a massive part of me that wants to go back but having a real job and like look at me now I got two phones baby two iPhones two computers so you're texting like non-stop now I'm trying not to yeah but when you got two it's like yeah you are on call with your real job you are the GM of Stanford

Yeah. Is that fair to say? Is that the official title? Oh, it's absolutely fair. Yeah. So how is that? What is your day-to-day like? Day-to-day is a lot. We hopped in during the transfer portal. And when I say we, I mean the assistant GM as well, also named Sam, different Sam than that Sam, also Stanford grad, a great guy. But we hopped in during the transfer portal. And the day-to-day during a transfer portal was,

was a lot different than the day-to-day now of like, okay, the roster, there's some solidity around it. You obviously prepare for another portal in April, but different focus now. Feels a little bit like a nine-to-five job, not like, oh my gosh, I've got to call this pairing up of a

20-year-old wide receiver from University XYZ and discuss many things about why Stanford makes sense for him. So it's been a lot. It's been like drinking from a fire hose in many ways, but I love the school, love the university, and we're on the right path. Were you watching tape of some of the transfer portal paths? The system that we had, I inserted myself of watching the quarterbacks because I felt like that's –

Yeah, like I had to. I played quarterback. Obviously, that is where my expertise is. And I'd watch a little bit else. But, no, I trust our folks, our guys and gals, to go through the process and make sure we're getting out there with –

with kids that can play ball and handle the academic regular. So let's just say me and Big Cat are five-star recruits, both play quarterback. What's your pitch to us? Because we're also getting offers from Miami, LSU, Ohio State.

James Madison, all the big dogs, University of Texas. Wisconsin. And then you want Stanford to be in that. You want us to be Stanford football players. All right, there's a couple things. One, John Elway, Jim Plunkett, myself, Kevin Hogan. Incredible history. Our head coach, quarterback.

When I went to Stanford, head coach was a quarterback, Jim Harbaugh, your guys' best friend, I understand, right? - Yes. - Awesome. Two, we are competitive in the NIL world. And the Stanford decision both is NIL here and now, and then I think in many ways OG NIL of like you're gonna be connected to the best network in the world in whatever industry you want to go in. This place produces leaders at a scale that no other place in the world does.

I mean, Stanford is special in that way. And you're going to have a long NFL career. You're going to crush it in college. You're going to go to bowl games. You're going to do all that fun stuff. And then at some point, you know, you're going to have to transition to be a podcast host and a, you know, running –

multi-billion dollar media conglomerate and you're going to want to know stanford people to help you get there okay question uh that was a really good uh speech and and we're very interested in stanford if we attend stanford will we have to read a book yeah baby okay all right so we're out we're out my conditions i just want i want to have a phone call with tiger woods oh can you make that happen absolutely oh okay tiger tiger was an honorary captain for us twice while i played

I think he's been honorary captain a few times. There's a great story. We lost both of those games, though, so I got like a bone to pick with Tiger about that. But...

It's a great story about Tiger that David Shaw, our old head coach, used to say, and he was our coordinator when I was earlier in my career at Stanford, where David played for Stanford. So they got back at like 2 or 3 AM from like Corvallis or somewhere, played a game on the weekend, and it was raining. And it doesn't off rain up in Palo Alto and on campus.

Although it is raining today, I think. When they get back, it's like 2 or 3 a.m. They're riding their bikes back to the dorms. And there's a guy standing in the grass in the courtyard between the dormitories with some type of club whacking the ground. People are like, who is that? What's going on? So Coach Shaw walks over.

And it's like, Tiger, what are you doing? He's like, it doesn't rain enough here. I need to practice in the rain. That's perfect. I love that. Committed to it. Did you, when David Shaw was your head coach, were you ever like, hey, maybe we don't punt every time? No. Okay, all right. That's just a gambling thing where he has punted in like,

I think probably on the plus 35. I think I've seen him punt before. He likes to punt. He's not punted on the plus 35. I believe so against Northwestern. I'm pretty sure I could find him punting. Okay, the internet will tell us. All right, I'm going to find it. David Shaw's worst punts. I mean, I have a...

He liked to punt. He liked to punt. There was times when he liked to punt. All right, so how are you feeling physically? Do you still have any nagging injuries or do you feel good? I feel great. I am grateful for where my body is at. I can ski with my kids and ski with my dad and ski with my friends. I can go surf. I can fly fish. I can hike. I can camp.

I can try to play old man pickup basketball, but that's hard. Like you got to be in shape. Yeah. And I'm not in shape enough to do that. Just find somebody that's equally in bad shape and you say, hey, let's just not run. I'll defend you. You defend me. We're not going to say any picks.

will hang out at the three-point line. Yeah. That's a good way to do it. But you don't often get to just do that, though. Yeah. Sometimes you actually have to play defense and box out. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I don't like that. Every time I play basketball, if I just get through without an injury, I'm like, that's a good day. It's a win. That's a great day playing basketball. That's a big win. And it's fun to play pickup hoops. Yeah. Genuinely fun. Yeah. It's good to just get a sweat going.

that is get a sweat going not get injured that's a successful workout for me um your coach at at stanford jim harbaugh great friend of ours we all know he's a little he's a special guy he's a very different guy when was the first time that you realized that hey jim harbaugh is wired a little bit differently from everybody else uh that's a good question good question thank you great question great question thank you yeah fantastic question

He certainly has a charisma and an energy that comes off of him that is authentic. And it's part of what I think drew a lot of us recruiting-wise to Stanford at that moment. He was hired after a 1-11 season and some down years. And so to go there around that time, I think you took a leap of faith. I certainly took a leap of faith. But I think...

I think the 17-year-old Andrew, myself, realized that he was going to get the most out of me as a quarterback. That it was going to be hard and challenging. But that's, I think, what I wanted. And I think what a lot of the guys who went to Stanford wanted was to be pushed and to become the best version of the football player they could be under him. I'm trying to think of specific moments. I do remember sitting in his office with my father.

Like my dad took me for spring break out to out to the west coast to like do like unofficial visits or whatever and then go ski in Tahoe which was an awesome father-son trip and go to a San Jose Earthquakes game which was super fun too. I remember sitting in his office and we were sitting there during construction and Jim was like I don't mind don't mind the construction they're building me a bathroom. We're trimming fat we're cutting drag really efficient.

I thought, yeah, this guy's thinking about efficiency on football so he can have his own bathroom. And his bathroom's a little bit controversial. I think there's a great Pete Carroll quote about it where he's like, well, we at USC walk down the hall like everybody else. The rivalry rocks. That's wasted energy. Yep. Cut and drag. Trimming the fat. And that...

That was how the experience for playing him was like. I mean, you were cupped on your toes. There was a lot of energy. You were pushed, pushed hard. It was challenging. You know, football's not an easy game.

It's not easy to be a good team. It's not easy to develop players. And he certainly pushed us and challenged us. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he is a great coach, and you see it even with the Chargers this year. They're in a rebuilding year, and they went to the playoffs in his culture. You just see it in the postgame and how much everyone buys in. Was that immediate when you got to Stanford? You're like, okay, this is –

Like everyone's bought into what he's selling and you can feel it in the locker room and you can feel it in training camp. That's a good question. Thank you.

I'm going to stop saying good question. Yeah, we're going to do that every single time. No matter what. When you say good question, then we all compliment each other. But it's a very effective technique in terms of like if you get asked a question, then you say good question, it gives you like five seconds to think about what your answer is going to be. And then we just compliment each other. I'm hedging for time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I forgot the question. Yeah, it was such a good question. Can you ask that good question again? It was such a good question. Like in terms of culture, when you get to Stanford and you're watching how he deals with the team and how he coaches the team, was it immediate where you're like, okay, I made the right choice and what he's doing and what he's building here is going to be special?

Yeah, I didn't doubt that for a second. And the staff was awesome. Coach Shaw, Willie Taggart. I mean, we were around an amazing staff or strength coach Shannon Turley. But I also think like as an 18 year old, part of me, I think once you get there, you're just like, I just want to do everything right and be a good teammate and be a player. And you don't I.

I wasn't thinking too big picture about it. And I certainly didn't go in and I decided to go to Stanford. So why would I go in and doubt what this was all about? Right. So I don't think I was thinking too, too, too much sort of at the meta level about it. And then we, I think the proof does have to be in the pudding on things, right? Like, and we, I think when I, while we registered in my freshman year, we won more games in the previous year. So you can point to that as proof of progress. And then,

And then I think we understood that this was going to work, and it sort of did. And also, like, I got to play around there with some really incredible football players. Like, last night, Sam and I had dinner with Jim Dre, the tight ends coach for the Chicago Bears. He was one of the older guys in the locker room.

When we came there, he was an incredibly tough dude. He tore everything in his knee on punt before we got there and walked himself unaided across the field to get off. Then he comes back and he's a second, I think he ended his career at Stanford, a second team all-conference, Pac-10 at the time, RIP.

with 17 catches. Right. Like what tight end gets a second team all conference? Right. But he was tough. He blocked. He did everything right. So we played with a bunch of good players and had a lot of fun and bought in. Yeah. Did they call the big guns when they were recruiting you? And did they have Stanford Steve give you a call? No, I didn't talk to Stanford Steve until I'd made it. Okay. Yeah, then he gave me the time of day. Yeah, then he was like, all right. I love you, Steve. By the way, fourth and five from the Northwestern 37. Okay. Punt.

Is that plus 35? I'm just saying punt. It's plus 30, plus 37. I mean, that's a, that's a crazy punt with Christian McCaffrey, 10, three game, second half, fourth and five on the Northwestern 37. I remember these things. That is impressive. I'm, it's,

He was the winningest coach all time in Stanford football history. It doesn't matter. For me, it's like I'll just – if I ever meet him, I'm just going to be like, why'd you punt on the 37 in 2015 against Northwestern? That game was here. Yeah, it was. And it was – I just – I'm pretty sure I bet Stanford because I was like, oh, there's no chance that, you know –

Northwestern's going to beat Stanford, and then he punted on the 37, and I was mad for life. I'm so uncomfortable. You talk about betting on Stanford right now. You guys were good. No more. What about the bowl game against Oklahoma State when you guys – did you guys – you ran the same run play, was it 13 times in a row? Was that it? No, not the bowl game versus Oklahoma State. Who was it? I need to check the archives with Sam. It was against USC? Sam just said that you punted, what, 30 –

You only punted 34 times when you were the quarterback. Okay, well, you were a little different than, yeah. I mean, you don't have to have your teams punt that much. So, all right, so the— A punt can be an incredibly effective play, though. From the 37? Like, I got to play with Pat in Indy, and he had an all-pro year as a punter. And, like, when you're pinning guys in the 10 and the 5— Oh, this was a touchback, by the way. It's a 17-yard punt. Yeah.

So there you go. Next topic. Walked right into that one. I do love the fact that you enjoy a good punt. Jim Trestle, he loves the punt. He's got a good sweater vest too. Yeah, he's the biggest fan. It's the only play in football where it changes possession.

Yeah. Like designed by design, by design, by design. So what was the hardest thing that you had to do at Stanford? You said that it was like you want to challenge yourself. You get there and you're like, oh, this is this is really hard playing competitive college football. What was the hardest thing that stood out? And you're like, OK, this isn't this isn't high school anymore.

We had tough practices. Now, as a quarterback, football practice is fun. I think as a lineman, football practice isn't fun. Yeah. Right? So, like, we used to, like, freshman year, redshirting, you know, and maybe redshirting's not in vogue anymore, and I'm not sure why. I think one of Coach Taylor's, our head coach's,

quotes that we were talking recently. I was like, Andrew, you know, not all experience is good experience. You know, you can go out early in football and be damaged in a sense. Right. But redshirting, we used to have these Wednesdays of just like grinder, full padded scout team. You know, we were running the scout team. I maintain we may have had one of the better scout teams ever in the history of college football, like David DeCastro, John Martin, Sam was center. Yeah.

Griff Whalen, Chris Owusu would come down and play. He was an all-American kick returner, fast, incredible. It was awesome. But these would be like 30 play periods of full pads against the state. And we called it the death march. And we would just sort of hum the Star Wars, whatever it is, the whole time.

But we survived those and I think we proved our mettle to each other and I think that sort of helped us build this mythology that we are a tough team. Even when we're red-shirting, we're doing 30 plays in a row of run to get our guys ready. So that was fun. And balancing school and sports is hard. I mean, it is hard. We do read books and go to class and turn in our work and do all the little things right. And so...

While it's – you've got to go earn it, and I certainly believe that about Stanford. I also think it's why Stanford's so special for me and why I believe in it. The hard things genuinely have value to them. And stuff that's given to you for free or for nothing is cheap at the end of the day. And there's nothing sort of cheap about the Stanford experience. What was it like being –

For two years straight, everyone being like he's the number one pick, he's a generational talent. Because I always find that...

to be interesting to have that kind of pressure on a college kid when we've seen it a couple times where like a guy stays and everyone just is like, hey, they're talking about him. And then what ends up happening is you kind of get picked apart a little bit because it's two straight years of being the number one pick. And you're like, hey, this is kind of crazy. Just because I stayed, you're going to pick me apart now. Did you feel that pressure of everyone talking about you like that? Bad question. Okay. Bad question. So look, like I think –

Did my friends talk about that? No. Not at all. Did my teammates talk about it? No. Not at all. Did my girlfriend who's now my wife talk about that? Not at all. Did friends on campus, professors? No. And I had a flip phone and I wasn't scrolling through whatever it was at the time. So I think I was aware of the pressure. I also knew I'd earned. But part of it was like I'd earned –

I was aware also of how good I was at football. Right. So like, okay, cool. People think I'm the number one pick. Yeah, I understand why. I'm probably the best player. Right. That's got to be a cool feeling. Yeah, it was okay. And I don't mean that in like a...

Like, yeah, my ego liked it for sure, but it was also like, I don't know, when you know, you know. Right. It's like earned confidence. Yeah. And I knew that we, and I was on a team that earned all of that confidence. Right. Like, it was not bravado.

I think it was more of a level of self-awareness that like, okay, yeah, I get it. Cool. But like I wasn't surrounding myself with it in a day. Like there wasn't a slow drip into my brain. Right. Of go out your number one, your number whatever. That's a very healthy way to deal with it because I don't know how I don't know a lot of 20, 21 year olds that would be able to deal with it that way. Having the whole world talk about you that way for two plus years of having

hey, you're the number one pick. Whole world, though? Yeah. There's a lot of people in the world that don't care about it. They all love football. No, that's not true. Those are losers. Yeah. We don't care about those people. They don't listen to the show. They don't exist. Why do you get out of bed in the morning if you're not doing your mock drafts? The whole world that I care about is what I should have said. Okay. Thanks, Big Cat.

As you go through that process, you're interviewing, all the teams are bringing you in, they're talking to you. Actually, our colleague, John Gruden, said that you blew him away on the whiteboard. I have some questions from Coach Gruden. Yeah, so Coach Gruden fell in love with you immediately. I'm assuming that you talked to a lot of teams that were not ever going to be in a position to draft you.

But how did those interviews go with teams that just kind of wanted to... I'll be honest, I didn't talk to teams that weren't in a position to draft me. Not in a... Like, I think they didn't want to waste their time. They didn't want to waste mine. Like, I should say, like, the 49ers staff was all my old Stanford staff, by and large. So, of course, to talk to them and hang out and chat, like, when at the combine and show up, I wanted to get that experience and go to the room where everybody's sitting there and grabbing. Like, you know, that was cool. But, like...

I only really spoke with Indianapolis and Washington. Yeah. Yeah. So in...

And again, like, I think I knew. Yeah. You know, and Indy did make it somewhat clear eventually that like, yeah, we'd like to pick you. Yeah. Yeah. And just having, yeah, the horseshoe and luck next to it. Oh, yeah. I felt like it was destiny at that point. It's destiny. Yeah. Do you want your Gruden questions right now? Sure. Okay. The first one is he said you have the greatest snap count in history. So he wants you to do the snap count.

He's like, you've got to get him to do the snap count. Let's talk snap count for a sec because this is like such a niche part of playing quarterback that I worry so much with this whole like clap thing. Okay. And I think there's value to the clap, et cetera, et cetera.

But I think Pat Mahomes is incredible at it. I bet if your stats, if your analytics team, I saw the whole analytics quarter. Have you seen our analytics team? It's these three guys. Big analytics team. How many PhDs between the three of them? They're just going to Google it. And they'll probably Google it incorrectly. But I bet if you look at how many offsides he's drawn over his career since starting, I bet it's going to be probably the highest.

ever it's because the refs cheat yeah yeah yeah i don't know anything about that rogers right and then rogers yeah so those two i i really enjoyed certainly aaron because he was older and i you grew up watching and i remember you know all the free plays i feel like he would just hit a touchdown every other game to jordy nelson on a free play that was busting they'd throw it up or randall cobb like it was awesome or james jones uh and then when i got to

Stanford Jim Harbaugh would do like a lesson for us on cut he's like you gotta you gotta have you gotta have a voice to play quarter you gotta have a voice you gotta have a sense gotta be gravelly it's gotta cut it's gotta cut through it's gotta cut through everybody you gotta cut gotta cut and so he wanted us to have not like ready it had to have like there had to be it had to cut you know how to go so

I embraced it. I think part of what I loved about playing quarterback was there's all these little things that you actually can work on. And working on a snap count was something that was fun and enjoyable. And then, we didn't draw a bunch of people off sides at Stanford, not at all. But we were doing double counts and long counts because we actually had play calls where we killed and alerted things and needed to see what the defense was doing. So I was...

I feel very fortunate I was taught how to play quarterback while I was there. Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, the way Greg Roman taught run game to me, it was a gift. I think I got to, one, it was awesome. That's the identity of our team in many ways was this very physical, tough, smart run game. And also when I got to the NFL, I felt like I'd been prepared to handle a run game. And if you can't,

And if you can't operate a run game in the NFL, there's only so far your team's going to go. Right. I think I truly believe that. And then, yeah, snap count. Once it got to the NFL, though, Bruce Arians would dog my snap count in the first minicamp because I would sit there and go like, sigo, run.

And 80. To draw it out because I was thinking, I was like, oh, fuck, this is overwhelming. NFL defense. And you know, BA and his voice, which I can't do a great impression of.

who was amazing as well and worth probably a podcast series on him as a coach. Yeah. He had some very nice things to say about you, too. Yeah, we've had him on a couple times. I have very nice things to say about CA as well. So we asked Bruce Arians if you were to take all the quarterbacks you've ever coached, because he's coached so many great quarterbacks, and if you were to piece them together by body part, by brain, okay, whose legs are you putting on here? Whose right arm? Whose brain? Whose heart? Right.

whose hips are you taking? And he goes, I'm going to stop you. It's just all one person. And the answer is Andrew Luck. Yeah. For everything. That's very kind of you. So he thought that you were, you were the best quarterback at everything that he'd ever coached. But I'm sure that there was something like when he, when he was working with you that you guys just clicked immediately and kind of got each other. He was awesome. He was, he taught football and looked at football in such a different way. And like he, he treated, he coached everybody hard and like hard. And

And it was, and I, and I appreciated that so much. And then he'd, you know, he'd, he'd cuss you out or like, you know, whatever, very colorful, like an odd mixture of like East coast and Southern accent. I don't know quite where it lands, like real pirate filled language. And like, he'd tell Bear Bryant stories like, Oh my God, he coached under Bear Bryant at some point. That's, that's neat. But, uh,

Like with the snap count, he was like, Andrew, what are you doing? Speed it up. Like we got to go. And this was part of his thing. Bruce had a – he didn't care about time of possession. He cared how many points – he wanted a point a minute. If we couldn't get a point a minute, what's the point of holding on to the ball? What does it matter? He was awesome. And then I realized in snap – like –

I'm going to go back to the snap conference that's related to Bruce. Bruce was really fun to play with Adam for a year, and it was an incredible year too because Coach Pagano got sick with leukemia and Bruce took over. I was certainly very focused on playing quarterback because you have to be. It's too...

overwhelming of a position to think about much else requires. But like, it wasn't only honestly until I retired and looked back like, oh my God, like Coach Pagano was going through, like he was in a cancer ward five blocks from the stadium. Like that's, that's scary. Right. And so BA like guided that ship and then certainly got the opportunity to be a head coach and have this amazing success which I was super stoked for. But yeah,

With snap counts, because we got to go back to snap counts. Gruden said you have the best ever, greatest snap count in history. It wasn't. But I started to realize Anthony Costanza left tackles. I think there's two personalities that play left tackle. Either you're completely type B and just chill, or you are as neurotic as neurotic can be and just so focused on everything to help give you an advantage because it is a tough position to play. I mean, really, really, really tough position.

And so I realized that Anthony and I started having these conversations about how to help each other, how to help each other and realize snap count was needed. Like to absolutely, you know, and it's obviously there's self-preservation as part of that. But, uh, we, you know, we,

yeah, realize like when you're under center, you know, on the hut, if you're doing a hard count, you need to do your flex, your bottom hand to make it look like the ball is about to come. So if you had a three tech or a nose who got the jump on hand, like you use that, um, you had to marry snap counts and words from, from previous. And I, and I wasn't,

This was an iterative process, so I was certainly better at it at the end of my career than not. But snap counts. I hope football doesn't lose snap counts because they're too good. Did you try to get me and Big Cat to jump? Yeah.

So there's a couple different ways, but like the biggest way is this. Everybody knows, you know, hut is like the word to go. So I preferred the hut, hut, hut rhythm as opposed to the hut, hut rhythm. Right. So, so when on one would be like, so go color number, color number, hut, you know, so go green 80, green 80 hut. And that's the ball snap. Yeah. And so then a hard count.

The one I preferred, the one I settled on, the one I'd consider as part of my, like, it's my baby. And I'd be curious if other coaches or other quarterbacks think about this. It was like, so go, Green 90, Green 90. I jumped. I jumped. That was awesome. Yeah.

I don't do that enough. Yeah. I mean, it's your baby. Yeah, I'm just going to start. I'm just going to go walk to the airport. I'm going to walk through Midway today. Thinking about that all day. That's great. I'll be like, got you to move. Yeah. Yeah. Great question by Greg. All right, so here's the other question. This one's not as nice. He said, I thought he had the ugliest beard in the history of quarterbacks, and I studied this carefully. What?

It's a weird question. I studied this carefully because I actually believe Gruden. Does John Gruden not study anything? Yeah, right. I believe that he literally had like a big board of all the beards and was like, yeah. I believe in second chances. I believe I deserve a second chance with my facial hair. It looks good now. Yeah, yeah. I think we're in the same sort of, I can't grow as well of a mustache.

Good of a mustache. Yeah. But it does get long when it gets long, it gets a little unkempt. Oh, it definitely was on camp. Yeah. What time when you play quarterback, do you have to shave though? Yeah. What time you got to cut drag, you got to trim the fat, you got to focus on what's important. My beard was not important. So you, you had, you had that, uh, I read that incredible article, uh,

in 2022 about you and like post football and everything in the decision. And, and you had that quote of like, you don't have time for basically anything else. If you're a quarterback in the NFL. And that one quote, I can't remember who said it to you. Like if you're a quarterback in the NFL, you have to think of yourself as God's gift. Otherwise the, the doubt creeps in.

And that's gotta be a weird feeling to have to hold yourself to that and be like, I have to control everything and only think about this one thing. Not exactly healthy, I would imagine. Yeah, and I think this is an idea that I would certainly love to keep fleshing out and talk to others about. Yeah. I think it is fascinating. And certainly the...

The quote comes off as quite extreme, and maybe in real life it's not as extreme, perhaps, but I do think there are kernels of truth in there for sure. Well, I mean, you're a quarterback, and they call it the most important position in sports for a reason. It is the franchise rests on the quarterback's shoulders, whether they want it to or not. Yeah, I do, when I think about it, and whatever, had the time to process and think, I do think when you go on the field as a quarterback...

You cannot leave any room for doubt. And I think one way of doing that is... Especially if it's connected to preparing and working hard and being on it, etc. But you have to go out there thinking that you are God's gift to this thing. And it's... That's a level... It is an intense level of confidence. Yeah. And I do think you...

You know, and I grew up in football. I had – like my dad was my Pop Warner coach. He played quarterback. So obviously as a kid I had a schema and like I want to be like my dad. I want to play quarterback. And then I had great high school coaches, Coach Allen, Coach Green, Coach Sanders, you know, Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw at Stanford. So I was taught that you had to work hard. You didn't just roll the ball out there. You know, preparation was part of it. And so that was part of what I knew I had to convince myself –

You can do this, dude. Yeah, you're talented, all this stuff, but you're putting the work in. And you're putting the work in with a team. And that was the only scheme I knew. And yeah, I did not, while I played, do a great job of tending to life outside of it, including relationships. And thankfully, didn't burn too many bridges and mess too much up irrevocably. But it's an odd...

It's an odd balance, I think, for those playing the position. Yeah. And frankly, I haven't talked to many others about it that have played quarterback in the NFL sort of at that level. And it is something I'm curious to hear from others about. Yeah. Of how they sort of psychologically handle it. Right. Yeah. Right. I think the great quarterbacks kind of see that same burden and that same responsibility. They have to throw themselves into it because they feel, okay, it's on me in

in order to go out there and, you know, do the best for my teammate, do the best for my coach, I'm going to need to be the most prepared person in the world. But then there's some guys that are just like, no, it's a job. It's fun. But they don't reach that high level of success. Would you say that, like, did you get burned out on playing quarterback? That's a good question. Good question. Thank you. Damn it. No, it's okay. It was a good question. I can tell you meant that one. That one was a good question. Like, is there a burnout factor? I don't know.

not about being court, maybe a little bit about being quarterback. And I think in, in that article you referenced big cat that, you know, I think I, I addressed that to a certain degree injuries adding up, you know, I think is a common theme in any professional athletes, uh, sort of coming to an end in a career. And that was certainly a big, a big part of mine. And yeah. And yes, parts of it, I think got,

got tiring. Maybe that's too light of a way to say. Maybe burnout is, yeah, part of it for sure. Was football still fun for you at the end? No. Not like a game. And I found the fun in it again, though. Not playing, which is, I'm not going to say full circle, but I think in the windy way that life works. I did not love football when I, and I did not love football

like you need to to play quarterback. I think I also realized that to go back to playing quarterback, you're either all in or you're not. To me, in my mind, the scheme of how you emotionally invest, physically, psychologically, spiritually invested in quarterback is binary. You either aren't or you are 100% in. And I hit a point in my life where I was like, I am unwilling...

to the 100% end so I can't do it. Yeah. And the article was, like I said, really great because I feel like you were able to fully explain it. And I, reading it, was like, oh, I think I understand the complexity of this because as fans, we just see it as Andrew Luck just walked away from something that everyone would dream, their dream job. Like, how could he do this? But were you shocked yourself when you came to the conclusion, like your own conclusion? Were you like, oh, shit.

I actually think I can... I do kind of want to walk away because I feel like that would be a very illuminating moment where it clicks and you're like, oh, man. Absolutely. It was by far the hardest decision of my life. And then when it did sort of finally, when I allowed the sort of...

When I allowed myself to ask the actual question that mattered. Right. And then... And allowed myself to give an answer to the question that was truthful. Mm-hmm. It was like, whoa. Okay, this has been hard. But yeah, this is what I have to do. Right. So there was a moment of clarity. It was the hardest decision of my life, but also like the most clarity I've had about something. And look, I did not feel alone through that as well. And I can't imagine going through a process feeling alone. Right. Through that like...

My girlfriend at the time, her wife, my agents, my friends, I mean, Sam flew to Indianapolis to talk to me and this was kick butt like,

Man, it feels amazing to have people that love you around you. We all deserve that. And then I'll say this. It was my dream to play quarterback, and I feel so grateful and privileged that I got to do that. It was awesome, and it did not end fairytale-esque by any means. You have an AFC finalist banner. It's a great banner. For us, you don't have a Super Bowl banner. How many guys can say they have an AFC finalist banner? Not a lot.

Not a lot. Not a lot. Because they don't make those manners. When they hung that up, were you like, oh, God. I didn't pay one bit of attention. I have no idea when it was hung up or taken down. I understand that you guys have had a story about it for a while. This is back to you having a flip phone, which is smart. Yeah, which is cool, but like...

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So, all right. So when you do make the decision and you, I always felt bad that it like got leaked, obviously with Schefter. And then you have the moment on the field that, that had to be like really hard to have to have it be rushed. Cause you had it probably in your head. Like, Hey, this is how I want to do it. I know it's a big decision. I know it's going to shock some people, but then have it kind of taken away from you where someone else reports it and you don't get to say it. And then you have to deal with the fans on the field and everything that sucks. Yeah. I ain't gonna lie. It was difficult. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, also like you survive, you move on. I felt a couple of things. One, I'd, I'd written a draft, a couple drafts of like a retirement press conference. It wasn't like going to be a happy retirement press conference, obviously not like, you know, like you, the traditional ones you see, um,

But I'd written a couple drafts and shared it with Matt Conte, our PR guy at the time, and I still think so. So he at least had a copy of something for me to talk about after the game. So I was thankful about that. I felt good about it. I was like, you know, this is like writing a...

It's like writing a paper for school and you actually put in a couple drafts and get notes back from the professor. Right. Yeah, good job, Andrew. There you go. Pat on the back. Two things. I told... I had taken the opportunity to tell the guys on the team on Friday and Saturday morning that I'd been with for a while. That's good. That I'd felt very much like tethered to, like T.Y. Hilton. Yeah. Who I love. Yeah. And who I... Like, who made playing football, like, fun. Yeah. Like...

Like, throw him to a dude like that. I don't think people understand how fun it is when, like, you have a connection to a receiver like that when you're rookies together. And, like, fun. And so that was, like, the real bittersweet stuff was telling him and Jack Doyle and Anthony and Quentin Nelson, who I didn't... You know, we played one year together as a rookie, but, like...

just like a lovable and loving guy. Yeah. And Ryan, so I'd had the chance to tell in Clayton gathers and, and some of the coaches. So at least, at least I didn't have a chance to tell everybody. And that's, that's what hurts. Cause you know, being a teammate, but like to a certain degree, I was also quitting on them. And I understand that, like, that's, it's hard. That's hard. And it's not, it's, it's hard to celebrate that. Yeah. And that's a part of me that like, yeah, I get, you know, it stinks. I, I live with that and own it and that's okay. It's part of me.

Yeah, the other thing is during the game, like I remember there were eight minutes left and I swear I felt like the cameras turn on me or something and like immediately, like I don't know if you've had this experience in life where there's just such certainty that something has happened. Right. It's like, oh shit, it's out. Yeah. I know it's out. And I just remember going and standing next to Anthony Costanzo, I think Mark Lewinsky and Ryan Kelly. Yeah.

and just standing between them and just like, hey guys, I'm just gonna stand between you for the next eight minutes. - Protect me one last time. - And I'm gonna stand, and again, I felt, I didn't feel alone. And I think, I don't mean this in a cheesy way, like I felt like,

they had my back, you know, for those eight minutes. And I was, and I'll be forever appreciative of that. Yeah. Indebted to that because they were great teammates in a moment. They didn't have to be. Yeah. Yeah. And then after this all comes out, were you aware that OJ Simpson had just drafted you for his fantasy football team? Yeah. You didn't think of the fantasy owners. That was my one. Everyone was doing the drafts. And then OJ, God rest his soul in front of the program. He drafted Andrew Luck and you just blindsided him. Did you ever apologize to OJ for that? I,

unaware did not yeah i had no need to apologize yeah no no but the thing think about that question but think about the fantasy owners you were on oj's can't cut list which is a good place to be that is huge place i don't get it don't explain the fantasy owners though that it is always fun we mock it because it's like a player will get like a like a gruesome injury like week two and immediately people will be tweeting like

oh, my fantasy team screwed. It's like, yeah, but that guy just got really hurt. Like, think about that. So yeah, you screwed the fantasy owners over that late in the preseason. What do you guys, what do you, what do you guys enjoy mocking most?

I mean, there's a lot. Can you give me a good question? Darren Revell, probably. Yeah, Max. A lot of things. Basically, our whole show is basically the fact that sports are taken too seriously and it's just a joke. That I know about this show. Yeah, yeah. Like, it's all...

Can I interview you guys for a second? Yeah, go ahead. The genesis of it. Good question. Yeah, good question. Great question. Good question. You can say talk about. Reporters love doing that. Talk about the genesis. Well, the genesis of it was more of a good statement. Yeah. Maybe it was. There's a choice. Talk about that. Tell me. Enlighten me. Indulge me. So no, we got very lucky because we started this at a time when podcasts were very new. What year?

2016. So we're coming up on nine years. So like now everyone has a podcast. We were not that podcast didn't exist before 2016, but there was definitely a wide open lane for us. And our goal from the very beginning was, uh,

We have to have fun and make sure people know we're having fun because sports are supposed to be fun. And I think the world got very serious around that time as well. So we became a little bit of a breath of fresh air where it's like, hey, we're not going to burden you with any big picture things, with any politics, with any serious topics. We're going to watch sports and we're going to make fun of sports and make fun of ourselves more than anything. So that's been the big thing. And you did screw over the fantasy owners. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, specifically OJ. Yeah, specifically OJ. Tell me more about the genesis, though. Were you guys listening to sports radio? Like, I used to listen to sports radio driving into school in high school. And like, we're...

I think me and big cat both had the same point of view when it came to like the sports media ecosystem, which is, you know, they took themselves very seriously. You would get dressed up in a suit and tie to get on TV and scream and yell about the national football league. And it was like, they weren't, they weren't treating the viewers with respect. Oh,

Almost. It's like they became so self-important when they were talking about this stuff. And then I also became obsessed with the comment section. Anybody that would like comment on an article and their mindset that they almost took the league more seriously than people who were being paid to write and talk about the league. And it became just this giant, like big...

of our big ball of gas and bluster of everybody that was obsessed with insisting their viewpoint was correct. And it was just very funny that they were taking it so seriously. So me and big cat started following each other online. And then we met up, had a beer and said, at some point we should do a podcast together. And then, you know, time ticked by for about a year.

brought us to the right spot and we're like okay let's do this yeah that's awesome yeah so the etymology of pft commenter yes is that you were actually commenting i was obsessed with the comment section and you and you were injecting a levity and humor and not so serious takes i would in the comment sections or were you just reading them i would read the comment section and then i i created an account and a character that was like what if you gave

your typical comments are their own blog and then gave them like a long form place to write about everything. And they had the stupidest takes on everything possible. And so that's kind of where I was. So we, yeah, we intentionally have very dumb takes that might have a kernel of truth, but we're mocking as well. Like actually when you retired, I went to in 2015, I went to the final four in Indianapolis. We had a,

We got like taken out to St. Elmo's. We went and sat in the basement where Peyton Manning used to do his dinners. I think you used to do your dinners. And I asked them what you order. And I think the waiter said chicken. And then like I was like, yeah, no shit. Andrew Luck retired. He's a chicken guy over steak like that. That's my take now. You know what I mean? Like something like that where we're mocking this entire idea that like you aren't allowed to retire when you want to retire.

Like you owed it to us. Cool. Yeah. So, but you did owe it to the fantasy owners in OJ. So wait, wait. So the real question though, when you retire, because I think everyone thinks this, was there ever a second where you got a call or you're like, Oh, maybe I want to come back because that's, I think that's the part that people always are drawn to, whether it be Barry Sanders or Calvin Johnson or anyone who walks away a little bit early. Brett Favre. Brett Favre. Brett Favre.

They always think in the offseason or just random times like, oh, maybe Andrew Luck will come back. You know what I mean? And so it's a dumb thing that fans do, but they have that in the back of their head for a very long time thinking, oh, yeah, maybe he's going to come back. There was never a second where it was even like a little bit of, ooh, maybe, maybe I should do it. Nope. I mean, that's pretty awesome because I don't think –

having that clarity and having that ability to be like that's it yeah because i'm sure you got calls no i said the one from uh was it frank right texted you being like message in a bottle i sent it out an sos i have a great relationship with yeah yeah and nick sirianni and stoked for him uh as well but no i yeah i would stay friendly with frank and yeah but yeah no and like again like

I love football in a different way right now. It's why I volunteer coached at Palo Alto high school for the past couple of years. It's why I'm back in this position for many reasons, you know, at Stanford and, uh,

But just not as a quarterback. Yeah. I do have some tape for you that I want to watch real quick. Max, if you pull it up. One of the things I loved about you quarterbacking is I feel like you were in the mold of like, I don't want to swear on camera. You probably don't remember this, but this is tape of you

You short-circuited when you swore by accident. Do you remember this? I absolutely remember it. Okay. There's more context here. You literally short-circuited. I've never seen someone's brain short-circuited live on air. All right, go ahead. Look at the film. Look at the highlights. He's the guy that...

She makes plays. Oh, sorry. She makes plays and, you know, just gets it done. I apologize for that. You were so mad at yourself. It was just a swear. You were like devastated. My beard's not that bad. I didn't say your beard was bad. Gruden said your beard was bad. Oh, John. Coach Gruden, my beard's not that bad. I'm also like, you know, late 20s, not early 20s.

I did say that was about Griff Whalen, who was my college roommate, a walk-on, Toledo, Ohio, Sylvania, Southview, earned a scholarship, had a legit NFL career, also one of Sam's roommates as well. One of my best friends in the world. That was after the Denver Broncos. 2015? Uh...

I want to say. Okay. 2015. What's the timestamp of the Twitter thing? Oh, this was just me after you retired. I just said, now you can swear whenever you want. Oh, thanks. Yeah. And that was Peyton coming back to Indy, which is like cool, like electric atmospheres. There'd been a lot going on that year. We were sort of going like this. And then that year we were going like that. And I lacerated my kidney in that game with like seven minutes left. Oh, no.

- Oh no. - When a knee got me. So I ended up in the emergency room the next day 'cause I was not feeling so very good. And so I think that's truly authentically how I felt in the moment. Griff Whalen just made fucking plays that game. - Yeah. - And we won. - Yeah. - And that was cool. - Yeah. - And then yeah. - And Ahmad Bradshaw caught a touchdown to sort of ice the game.

Yeah, awesome. Also, anybody that sees you retire and is like, that fucking pussy, I would kill to play quarterback. Yeah.

you lacerated your kidney in a game. And you just described it as I wasn't feeling very good. Yeah, most reasonable people, if they went out there and they did something at their job where they went home one day with a lacerated kidney, they'd probably talk to their wife and be like, you know, I don't know if this is the right career for me. I think that's a completely fair conversation to have.

And then there is a flip side to it, though. So once you reach that decision where you say, I'm confident, I no longer, my heart's not in it, it's not fair to everybody else if I keep playing, it's not fair to myself if I keep playing, that's got to be a great moment of clarity where you realize confidently, this is what I want to do. And then after you actually walk away, there's probably going to be some time where you have to establish a brand new identity for yourself because your job is

if you're an NFL player and a quarterback especially, for so long, that's been a big part of your identity. And so did you feel like, I don't want to say empty if that's the right word, but did you feel like, okay, I need to separate myself and start my own new identity at this moment? Before I answer that, I'll go back to the job thing and the lacerating kidney. It was such a privilege to play quarterback and to make money doing it. It was awesome. So I never once felt

Pity for myself for playing the position and getting paid. Amazing. Right. Amazing. Two, identity. Yeah, it was way more... Being a quarterback was way more of my identity than I realized. Absolutely. And discovering...

I don't mean this, maybe it sounds mumbo jumbo, but like having to learn about myself and discover a new one. And like we had our first daughter born a few months after I retired. That certainly helped provide purpose. Like obviously there's a deep biological purpose, you know, of like kids, you know, and tending to them. But my wife also like,

I was processing COVID hits. We're all together with a little baby. I was processing football. I'm in a career. Finding myself. Had some amazing people through it. Still in friends, etc. She turned to me one day. I'm an out loud processor. I just talk. Most of it is air. She turned to me one day in the middle of COVID. I was like,

is it possible for someone to talk about themselves more than you right now? And I said, probably not. I kept doing it. We made it through. But yeah, a big part of it was identity. And I think it's like,

you know, sort of locating myself, who I am in the world and grounding me in. And I think that was part of the process. Yeah. Did you ever, did your dad call you up when he started the XFL? Did he call you and say, Hey, Andrew, I can get you 25 million. Really? You want to come back for one season? I really used you for a game. Bad question. No, not at all. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I mean, it's, it's,

Reading that article, like I said, everyone should go read it because it did feel like I... So you do read, man. I do read, but it's an article. It's about sports. And it took me... I think I... That wasn't a short article, as I remember. I think I stopped and started four different times. You made it through. Yeah, but I made it through. Four quarters. Four quarters. Hey, when you got to the fourth restart, you're like, four quarters? Did you give yourself one? I put up the fours. I was like, hell yes. Put up the fours. Oh, man. Do you ever dream of football? I have dreamt of football.

Like, do you have memories of like games and stuff where you're dreaming, you wake up, you're like, oh shit, that was no, no. I, I, the last time I dreamed about, dreamt about football, I want to say was like showing up to a locker room without like the equipment and freaking out that like, where's my helmet? I can't go. Like the embarrassed dream. I don't know. Yeah. Like the, yeah. What the heck? Like the freak out.

You're never actually playing, but like I don't have the helmet and my hip pads. Where are my hip pads? Right. I need my hip pads and my tailbone pads. Yeah. I'm going to hurt my tailbone. I think it's a pretty common dream. Most people have it just about like high school. They show up for the last day and they haven't gone to that class all semester. Yeah. You just think about that like football, like, oh, I'm not prepared. But it was once. I don't remember what it was, but I remember waking up thinking like, oh, that's weird. Do you still watch the NFL? Yeah. Yeah.

I do. Do you find yourself like rooting for the Colts? Do you find yourself rooting for quarterbacks? I have a, I absolutely have a soft spot in my heart for the Colts. It was a, it was a, I mean like spent age 21 drafted there. Like I felt like a kid when I was drafted there. My, my girlfriend and I went there. Like we, we grew up in a sense there. Uh,

our daughters were born there like a highs and lows memories like life was lived there lived i very much feel that so i absolutely have a soft spot there uh and and guys like quentin nelson and ryan kelly who's a free agent now like braden smith uh jack doyle played after like jack doyle's one of my favorite teammates ever so of course root for those guys uh when when when things happen um

And then watching the NFL, for me now, is who do I know on the team, if anybody, which gets fewer and fewer guys every year. And now it's more what coaches do I know that are coaching on the teams. And so this year it's like watching Zach Ertz play for Washington. Yeah.

It's like, I've known Zach since he was 17. I was 18. He's a year behind me in school. Like we, we worked out together. I accidentally whack. One time I was, you know, we went through a phase where we were stretching with like those long wooden staff, like staffs, like, I don't know, like felt like a movie or something. And I was sitting there with it behind my back and I turned and I just whipped it around and I whacked him right in the, whacked him right in the face. And,

And Zach didn't beat me up, which was good. We always worked out together. But it's like I root for him. Yeah, sure. And Tavita Pritchard's the quarterback coach in Washington. And Tavita and I were teammates. So I root for him, of course. And then Nick Sirianni and Vic Fangio are on the Eagles. Yeah. During the thing. So...

I try to root for them as well. It becomes like my fandom, like my team fandom is like soccer, US national team. Like that's what I'll get fandom or like watching Stanford men's hoops or women's hoops or any Stanford team. Like that's where I let myself just be like a, like a fan. Yeah. Cause it's fun to be a fan. Right. Like really fun to be a fan.

But when watching NFL, it's more, hey, can my guys make it out healthy? Right. And can they go ball out and win? Yeah, I love that. Yeah. I remember, I think it might have been right before the draft, you might have done like a walk and talk with Peter King at some point. And you fascinated him with your love of architecture. Yeah.

Are you still a big architecture guy? Big architecture guy. Yeah. Yeah. So I have a couple, I have a tough architecture. Also, I grew up reading Peter King. Yeah. Yeah. And like, so that, that was fun for me. Like I love, like I loved reading, you know, I love getting sports illustrated. I love reading like Rick Riley in the back, the last page when I was doing that comment. Like I would, I died for the Houston Chronicle in the mornings in Houston because Norman Chad had its syndicated column, you know, like the nationally syndicated column there. And I felt like, like that type of humor hit me as whatever a 15 year old.

Yeah. So it was cool. Like those were pinch me moments in the NFL, like walking with Peter King. Yeah. You guys were looking at the architect. Was that in Chicago? I don't remember. It might've been, but so he, he great architecture boat tour here by the way. Great architecture. Great. Yeah. How many times have you been on it? Two times. Yeah. It's awesome. It's very fun. All right. So, uh, are you familiar with the premise FMK? Fuck, marry, kill.

So you got to fuck one, you got to marry one, you got to kill one. No, no, no, no, no, no. He's going to search the short circuit again. I'll listen to the question. I reserve the right to not answer a question.

Fuck, marry, kill, Doric columns, Ionian columns, Corinthian columns. Good question. Good question. Not answering it. Could you rank them? Yeah, I rank them. Yeah, look, if I'm remembering correctly, the Corinthian column is a bit too flowery for my aesthetic taste. Doric has a level of simplicity and very much form is connected to function, which I find pleasing. Yeah.

And Ionix, yeah, it's cool. It's groovy. Yeah, okay. I think that's fair. I think I would say marry Ionian. I think I would kill Doric, and then I would have sex with a Corinthian column. That makes sense. But you don't settle down. That makes sense. What are your thoughts on Soviet brutalism? No positive thoughts. Yeah. Yeah. Coach Groovy?

Coach Gruden. The Soviet brutalism is also inextricably linked to the use of concrete. Yes.

Yeah. So that's my thought. It's like designed to kill your soul. Yeah. Coach Gruden actually said that he was shocked that you knew every part about cement. I don't know why that shocked him. I went on a cement kick, read a book. I certainly did not know every part. Yeah. He was just like that guy. He knows everything about cement when I told him you were coming in. So I don't know. Do you still know everything about? No, I never did. Okay. And certainly do not. But I do think what's fascinating.

- About cement. - Yeah, let's go, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the good stuff. - I think they just realized, they just proved this. Roman stuff has stood for a long, long, long time, like way longer than the roads and bridges we've been building here in the world. Not just here, but sort of here.

And they realized that somehow baked into the property of this, man, I'm going to mess this up. But when Roman cement like fixes itself, when it cracks, like something about oxygen and water getting in activates like a self-healing mechanism. I think like researchers in Australia, I could be completely wrong in the language I'm using, but just Google it. What else have you been reading about?

I've been on a sci-fi kick lately. Oh, okay. I think when I realized taking a job, being general manager, like I'm using brain power again a lot. Yeah. It was real stuff and et cetera. And so at the end of the night, I'd say I like to read before going to bed and I've

I've been on the series, the Red Rising series of good sci-fi. Is this a book or a show? It's a book. Okay. They'll make a show eventually. Yeah. And then we'll watch it and then we'll say that we read it. Do you watch Severance? Say that again? Do you watch Severance? I don't watch Severance. You should. I know what it is. Cool. That's the second person in the last two days to tell me about. Jack Muhort, my old teammate in Indianapolis, I was talking to him because I'm going to Toledo and staying with him tomorrow. Yeah. We were talking. He was like, you asked the same question? Yes. Severance is very good.

But you're reminding me of, we had a Game of Thrones book club in our Stanford locker room back in the day. We would get into real, there were four or five of us

myself included, that when I read, are you Game of Thrones people? I've watched the show, yeah. Okay. The red wedding scene came up in book whatever, I want to say three, and I read it and stormed into the locker room like very emotionally shook by this thing. And we had a big, it turned out that all of us were in the shower yelling about Game of Thrones at the time, like, you know, the whole thing. And a few people walked in, like, what the heck are these guys doing?

And so I felt like the cool kid when the world was freaking out about the Red Wedding episode, I was like, nah, you don't know about everybody who already knows about this. Who's had years to emotionally process what just happened. We're ahead of you guys. All of y'all, we are ahead.

That's incredible. Did you find yourself ready for it when it came out? The show? Yeah, yeah. When the Red Wedding specifically happened. Well, I didn't really watch the show. Oh, okay. Yeah, I read the books. Yeah, you're like, I already know everything. I mean, I picked episodes here and there. Just, you know, whatever is cool. Yeah.

Well, I'm going to start reading about it. I'm going to read one book about cement this year. You don't have to do that to yourself. I'm not. I'll read a Twitter thread. Yeah, that's a good point. A good one. A good Twitter thread. Just really break down that. So wait, so American soccer real quick. Are we going to win the World Cup? Oh, yeah. We are? Why not? Do you think we would be better if we had like LeBron, Wemby...

on the team. Not Luka and Wemby because they were in other countries. No, they would be on our team. You're better than that. They would be on our team. You're better than that. Joel Embiid. Embiid, he's American. Yeah. Shake SGA playing.

I have no idea if we would be better or not. The answer is yes. If we just put our best... Oh, he'd be so good. Our best players. No, we just do that to troll and get people upset. OBJ was an incredible soccer player, I want to say. I believe it. I believe it. So wait, we're not going to win anything, though. I'm so hopeful. I'm eternally optimistic as a U.S. soccer fan. The World Cup's going to be here and in Mexico and Canada. And...

Yeah. It's fun to be a fan. It's fun to be a fan of your national team. Yeah. It's fun to win, though. I got to go to the Olympics. My wife's a producer for gymnastics on television, so she was working, and I was just having the time of my life rooting for Americans, bringing my daughters to stuff, and having 59 Stanford athletes there, including...

friends of ours that were, we were freshmen together, like Katarina Stefaniti or Eric Shoji. It was amazing. Like watching Katie Ledecky swim was so cool. It's fun to root for America in sports. It's really fun. I like really, really, really fun. I enjoyed that a lot. And my wife, but she stole the tickets to the women's gold medal match soccer. Uh, so she got to go with her friends and I was, that's the one thing I was jealous of her about from that trip. She got to go to that gold medal match of the women and,

Watch us win. Yeah. And we love winners here. We love winners. We just love winners in America. And I'll tell you what, the roster that we have right now, I've been telling Big Cat this for the last two years, going into this World Cup, that is the best roster that the U.S. will have ever had at that point. Just looking at the players that play competitively overseas, the

That's as talented as we've ever been, I think. And if we're going to do it, it's going to be at home in this World Cup. So get all in right now on USI. I'm with you. Get all in. Maybe I don't have as deep a perspective as you, PFT.

No, I just gave you everything I know. Yeah, good. Well, I like it. I'm all in. And I do think it seems like at scale, we have a lot of guys competing in really important places around the world, and the MLS is stronger than it's ever been. Like our domestic game is stronger than it's ever been. And I'm thinking maybe our new coach, he's very close with Messi. Why not just have Messi become a U.S. citizen? Yeah. It doesn't work like that, though. No, it does. He's already cap-tied to Argentina. You can do whatever you want. No, you can't. You can't do it.

Oh, he's captied? Oh, no. We can't figure out a way around that. No. By the way, 20... People would never allow something illegal to happen. That's not a problem that money can fix. 2014, USC versus Stanford, 4th and 13 at the USC 32 punt.

And then fourth and 22 at the USC. 29 punt for a touchback. That's a nine-yard punt. So I don't think we'll ever get messy on the U.S. roster. And I'm very excited. And I'm very excited for the World Cup. You get the show now. You get the show. Anytime we talk about soccer, one of the things I was stoked about when I was –

I was still playing professionally and I was in Europe for something in the off-season. I was like, I gotta go see Christian Pulisic play. He was still playing for Borussia Dortmund. So I hopped in the car. I was in Amsterdam and I drove over and I reached out to his agent. So I got to watch the game. Unfortunately, he maybe even played like 10 minutes at the end of the game. It was like versus Hoffenheim or someone, I want to say. But I got to have pizza with Christian afterwards. And like, you know, I'm a fan. He's younger, but I'm a fan. He's a cool dude. So I'm stoked for what he's doing right now. Yeah. Uh,

And then I hope somehow, some way, we channel the attitude that Clint Dempsey brought to the soccer team and to just sports in general because that dude was so fun to watch. I loved watching him from East Texas. It was an amazing story, and he was tough. And one of my favorite sports quotes of all time was Bruce Serena when he was the – I think he was the men's national team coach at this point – asked about –

Like, what made Clint different or special? He was like, because he tries shit. And, like, Clint did. And he was so fun to watch. He was never scared. No, never scared. Like, all those clips of him getting – I mean, watching the clips now, they're on the internets and the YouTubes and such. But, like, watching him play, like, that was an attitude that I think resonated with a lot of us watching. You need a guy like that to beat Mexico. Yeah.

That's not afraid of Mexico. Yeah, he was the best. Maybe Joe Scali's our guy. You think so? He's one of the defenders on the team. He's one of our security guys' nephews. Yeah, really? Which is pretty cool. Or Staten Island. Staten Island guy. We need some Staten Island tough guy on our team. East Texas or Staten Island. Yeah. One of the two. Fourth and 11 from the Cal 34. Ten minutes left in the game. Punt. I mean, you're not going to beat the 29. 29 is crazy. That's like a piece of art.

Okay, I have a serious question for you. Oh. Hypothetically, the Colts make it to the Super Bowl, but Anthony Richardson and Joe Flacco both get mono. Mm-hmm. And they can't play. Yeah. They weren't kissing each other. It was fresh for your college. They were kissing somebody else. Yeah. And you get a call. Andrew, can you play in the Super Bowl for us? You don't even have to practice. You probably want to practice. You have to practice three days.

and then playing the Super Bowl. What do you say? No, thank you. Appreciate it. And I'll tell you why. That's cheap. You've got to go all season. You've got to earn it. You've got to earn that right. You've got to earn it. Yeah. I'd be hyped for the Colts, though, if they're there. What if Jim Irsay calls you up? He's like, hey, we've got this new technology. We're turning injuries off for an entire season.

Would you come back and play? Injury's off. You literally cannot get injured. I'd ask to be able to invest in the technology. Okay, all right. That's actually a smart answer. We need to get this technology. Did Jim Irsay ever show you his guitar collection? His guitar collection's sweet. Yes. It seems like it's pretty awesome. I grew up listening to classic rock because my dad's a classic rockophile. The first concert my dad took me to was ZZ Top in Houston, which is like...

Yeah, it's a great gateway concert into live shows. It's amazing. And I went to Springsteen. We actually came to Chicago one year to see the Stones at whatever the basketball arena is. United Center. United Center. And so going into his office, he does have an incredible guitar collection. And then when you go to Stanford...

you realize the Grateful Dead is a thing. And Jerry Garcia, and we have friends that are deadheads, and the dead used to do impromptu shows on campus back in the day. There's a whole culture in Palo Alto around the Grateful Dead.

So to seem like a Jerry Garcia guitar actually meant a little bit of something to me. Yeah. And the Beatles drum set. Yeah, he's got it all. It's cool. He's convinced, and I think he's convinced me that the technology will exist one day to extract all the sounds that have ever been played out of an instrument and just have it play. I guess the best way to say it is he believes if you buy a guitar from Eric Clapton, somewhere in that wood,

It's the actual music and the actual notes that were once played. And eventually we'll be able to hook a machine up to it and get that exact sound out of the guitar. Do you believe that? Cool. Yeah. I believe it. I believe it.

I, if he believes it, I believe it. Things I don't understand. I just believe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, all right, that sounds cool. Healthy way to live life. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, would you rather that that technology existed? I would, yeah, I would choose to live in that world. Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh,

Well, this conversation is devolved. It always does. This has been so awesome, though. We really appreciate it. I have one last question for you. It's a rowback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rowback dot com promo code take. Go right now. Huddle hoodie is the new one that I love. Rowback dot com promo code take.

You do that so well. Stop. I do it every time. Wow. We have a Roback question to finish every interview. Shout out Roback, our wonderful sponsor. Again, so well done. Is there one pass that you think of and you're like, yeah, that was it. That was it. Remember me for this one pass. This one play. Remember me for this. No, but I would assume there's one that you could think of and be like, man, did I absolutely fucking crush that.

It's funny to think of interceptions I've thrown more than I think of like sweet tutters. Right, right, right. No, I'll be honest. Part of what was so fun, what was so... Frank Reich asked me this, like, what do you love about football? We were sitting talking once before I retired. I said, like, dude, I get to throw the ball to my friends. Yeah. You're playing catch, yeah. It's really cool. That's awesome. Yeah, and so there is not one throw.

There's not one throw to rule them all. But throwing to T.Y. Hilton and Jack Doyle and an amazing year with Eric Ebron. We had an incredible year together. And Kobe Fleener and Griff, I got to play in the NFL with my college roommate, Griff Eland. He caught touchdowns. He ran a bang eight on Skinny Post, I think, on one of the Texans' corners in the big game. This is an undrafted

guy a walk-on receiver who's playing that's awesome kobe fleener and i played together in college you know so i i feel very fortunate that i got to throw the football to my friends um and especially ty hilton like i'll say this again i don't think it's fun to play with a guy who's different and he was different yeah and i'm not sure he gets the respect he deserves for what he did on the football field he brought he brought an attitude that was that was just awesome and like uh

We probably couldn't have come from two different places, but it's part of what's amazing about sports and football in particular. I know this is an unserious podcast, but I will be serious. We're friends. I don't get that otherwise. My life is way better for that, and that's just one micro... I got to play with Frank Gore, who's awesome, by the way. No one knew...

pass protection better than Frank Gore. The dude got football. He would pick stuff out before I would pick it out. He'd start yelling at the linemen about what technique to use. He is the teach tape on how to be a pass-protecting running back. And he's also the teach tape on how to be a gap-scheme running

running back like the dude was unbelievable I got to play with Ahmad Brashaw from Bluefield West Virginia yeah right like he's a dog and tough he caught eight touchdown passes one year like that that part of that part of football I think you know I say grateful like yeah I got paid and I get to make choices in life that I know others don't I get privilege and it's amazing but like

It's more that like I got to play football. I got to throw a ball to my friends. Yeah. Nerd out over snap. Like who gets to get a portion of my salary went to, to finding, to finding a better snap count. Yeah. I got paid to sit in a room and go out to practice.

practice and think about and talk to left tackles and guys all right this all right this week guys we're going to use black as the color that's the the live color we're going to do a triple count we're going to say it three times we're going to go yes i go hot and then i'm gonna go kill kill kill because last week we did kill kill kill and we ran the ball and then we're gonna red 80 ready hot hot hot and then we're gonna go black 80 by you know like yeah it was awesome yeah what type of life is that that is awesome and now i get to be back in football in a different capacity with stanford at an alma mater that i love and uh

And people are counting us out, and they're wrong to count us out. So get on early, just like the U.S. national team. Yeah, now's the time. And this interview has been everything we wanted for, you know, it's been a seven-year wait, and I want to say that this has been so awesome to have you here. And also, you're making us better podcasters because you got a little emotional there, and you mentioned Frank Gore, and I didn't mention the fact that he has enormous balls, and I used to take videos of him running without any type of underwear on, and his balls would be flopping everywhere.

I was this close to saying it, but I was like, you know what? Let me let Andrew finish his moment. So thank you for making us better. That's good discipline. I'm really proud of you. If they zoom in on my face, I was just like, I'm really proud of you. Look at this. Look at the picture. Look how big his balls are. That's insane.

I think you get the show now. If there's not one pass to remember you by, what about a half? What about that playoff game against Kansas City? Yeah. How cool was that? We've had some good halves like that. Also been part of some bad halves. Yeah. Some of them in New England. How fun was that? How fun was that half? Yeah, that was cool. Actually, Alex and I were talking about Alex. Alex Smith's awesome, by the way. I mean, like...

You want a role model in life. Like that dude is cool. But we were talking about that recently. We live not too far from each other and get to run into each other every now and then. And that one, I was glad to be on the other side of it. The ball bounced our way. I think they lost like four guys in the secondary throughout the game. Right? So like we were rolling. But I do remember one play from that game. We were in a timeout.

And we had Fleener, T.Y., and another receiver. I wasn't sure who. Ready to go. I don't know what down in distances was. But we were sitting there. Pep and I were talking. Pep Hamilton. I was sitting there like, let's switch. Originally, Kobe was supposed to run a clear out post and T.Y. was going to get the corner. And I was like, I think one of us or either T.Y. was like, they can't run with him right now. They just can't run with T.Y. Hilton. So let's put T.Y. on the post and Kobe on the corner. So we came out of the timeout.

We did it. I remember looking in the huddle at TY and saying something like, run, motherfucker. Like, run. Like, run. You're going to get it. Like, you're going to get it. And BA used to, Bruce Arians used to just call TY, little motherfucker. Come on, little motherfucker. Come on, come on, come on. All

All the time. And, oh, is that what cussing on podcasts feels like? That's a good feeling. But so he did. He ran. And he took the top off and the ball, you know, protected it up. And the ball made it there and he scored. But it was fun to feel like the first half was everything could go wrong. And the second half was sort of everything was just going right.

It was an awesome game. It was a great game. It was an awesome game. Well, Andrew, thank you so much, man. We really appreciate it. You're a recurring guest now, so you have to come on anytime we ask. I don't know if you knew that. You didn't read the fine print for that. That's right. You're Stanford fans now. Yeah, yeah. Listen, when we want to push Stanford because little old Stanford needs some NIL money, we'll help you.

Stanford doesn't need anything. You guys got it. Turn that fire hose on. All right. Me and Big Cat were also thinking about, as quarterbacks, we want to start a company that just need one drop of blood.

and then you could examine that, and then you could change the world. Do you have contacts that can help us? There's old Theranos office space. I think that's available. Okay. Yeah, we're in. Good. Let's do it. We're in. Come play quarterback. No, good luck. We'll be rooting for you. Yeah, we will. It's fun when Stanford gets in the mix. Your guys' team with Harbaugh, it was fun just watching you, especially like –

Watching Pete Carroll be like, this isn't supposed to be happening. Stanford's not supposed to beat us. It was just fun to watch. I had fun watching Stanford after too. Watching Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love on Coach Shaw's teams. We'll get there. Great mascot too. The best. The tree. Thanks so much, Andrew. Appreciate it, man. My pleasure. Andrew Luck was brought to you by Dove Men's.

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Spray up. I'm going to spray right now. Spray up. It actually smells really good in the studio right now. Might be because it is Sunday night and we haven't lived in here all week yet. But my money's on it coming from Dove Men's and their whole body D.O. And now, here's our good friend, Brian Windhorse. Ooh.

Okay, we now welcome on our very, very good friend. It is Brian Windhorst. He is an insider. You can see him on ESPN. You can listen to The Hoop Collective, a great, great podcast, all things NBA. Windy, we hit the Windy bat phone. Basically was like, hey, can you please come on for 10 minutes to tell us what's going on? You have not slept. You're all the way in LA now. What the hell's going on?

Cat, in my career, never have I had my phone go crazy like this. I'm talking about players, head coaches, assistant coaches, executives, referees, agents, lawyers, workout guys, you know, and they all had the exact same question.

we don't understand what don't we understand what's going on and i don't have a great answer this was this is one of the most shocking transactions i've and i i mean i can't speak to the nhl or whatever

It's one of the most shocking transactions in American sports history for the magnitude and the way it came out of the blue. Yeah. So, so let's talk about that part first. So this shocked everyone. So were the Mavs just, they weren't shopping Luca. They just did a deal with the Lakers. Is that, is that correct to say? Yeah. So as far as I understand, and like, I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't have the full 360 of this yet. I'm trying, but,

But picture this like you had a really nice house, all right? And you wanted to sell the house. How would you go about that? Would you put it on the market?

uh to get a lot of offers um probably and let's say you had somebody that you specifically wanted to sell it to you wouldn't sell it to that person for a discount because if you're going to buy something off market you know if it's something of high quality which luca donchic certainly is you have to you have to overpay for like if i'm going to keep this off the market you got to pay me like everything i want so think of think of luca like like a super nice beachfront house

But that's not what happened here. This was a pocket sale that went down where they got a discount. The Lakers got a discount. That's not to put down Anthony Davis, but Luka is a 25-year-old, not even in his prime yet, megastar. I mean, Luka Doncic has made more first-team All-NBAs than Steph Curry has. Yeah. Okay? So the fact that this trade would happen, that they would trade a 25-year-old –

in their own conference where if this goes sideways they could be beat over the head with this for the next decade to do it you know clandestinely where it doesn't hit the open market and and to do it like in this nature is just absolutely nobody can get their mind around it yeah i've seen some people say that the the mavs are in win now mode they they were already winning now i don't i don't understand what like what what addition how is this going to help them win now more than luca would

basically they're like, okay, we're not going to take the 25 year old with warts. Definitely has issues. Definitely could hold them back. Like no doubt about it, but they're basically like, okay, we're going to take the 31 year old and the 33 year old or whatever Kyrie 33 or 34. And we're going to say, that's what we're going to do. Yeah. And who guys, who knows what they could have gotten if it was on the open market. Like there's some teams out there that are holding enormous amounts of draft picks. So granted you wouldn't have Anthony Davis, but yeah,

Mikael Bridges got five first round picks. Mikael Bridges has never been an all-star. Luka has been first team all NBA five times. He's 25. Right. It's shocking. And then the one piece that nobody's talking about, the Utah Jazz were involved in this trade. Yeah.

Why was that? Oh. Can you imagine? This is what I'm thinking. Justin Zanuck and Danny Ainge. Can you imagine? They get a phone call in the last couple of days. Hey, we need you to take on a salary as part of a deal. Okay. Who's it going to be? Jalen Hood-Shifino. Okay. Maybe we'll do it for a second round pick. What's the trade? Oh, it's Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. Okay.

I'm sorry. What did you just say? Like the jazz has rolled in the situation. Like they must've been, can you imagine them on these conference calls? Like they, like the, I would pay good money to see the video of them listening to the conference call going, do you believe this? Like they're putting it on mute. They're going to do it. Can you believe they're actually going to do it? They're going to give Luca to the Lakers. Yeah. Yeah. We'll take the 2025 second. Yeah. Okay. Back on mute. Oh my God. I can't believe this. Like this is unbelievable. I can't even imagine what it was like in the jazz offices the last couple

days. Yeah, and the Luka, like, personally, he had to have been shocked. He also loses out on the Supermax, so how much money does he end up losing because he can't now sign a Supermax with the Lakers? He could have with the Mavs. How much money does he end up losing out on? It might be $100 million. Jesus. So, you know, I'm not Bobby Marks. I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but here's the thing. When you...

Supermax means you get 5% more of the cap per year. It's something like, it's worth like something like 70 or 80 million. The difference between getting the supermax or not the supermax at Lucas spot. So part of that is an extra year that you get, which would be at like 50, 60 million. He's eventually going to play that year and get money. But he also is when you build your next contract off, you're, you're building it off a lower contract. So that's a lot of mumbo jumbo. It's taxing.

It's tens and tens and tens of millions. Plus, he plays in Texas right now. For like half or so of his games, he pays no state tax. Now he goes to California where he's going to pay 14% state tax for almost all of his games, most of his home games and all those games in California. It's going to cost him millions of dollars a year in state tax. I'm not saying like that.

is why that makes a big difference. But you tack all that on, it's potentially a $100 million slap in the face to this guy who thought he was going to be a maverick for a long time. So was there any inkling that the Mavs were thinking about? Was there any just through sourcing, like Luka is not happy or the Mavs aren't happy? So it was really as shocking as shocking could be.

I mean, I think the Mavs are frustrated, have been frustrated with them. I mean, he's a guy who frustrates you. He's also a guy who's so amazing you live with it. And certainly at age 25. I mean, maybe in a couple of years, if the things weren't working out, if he had a couple more pouting sessions where he killed them in the playoffs. But age 25, if there is a reason why this happened, like a precipitating event, maybe that is true. I don't know it. And I'll say something else.

There's people that have been trying to figure out like, well, why the Lakers do it? Was there like an issue with AD and JJ Redick? Was there an issue with AD and LeBron? The Lakers did it because they got Luka Doncic. Right. The end. Right. The end. You know, I know that they were probably annoyed that AD did that interview with Sean Strani the other day where he was like, get me a center. I'm sure that didn't,

make the Lakers weak, but they did this because of Luka Doncic. That's why they did it. They have now a succession plan for LeBron. Now, how does LeBron work into this where it's like, does LeBron say, from a basketball fit, I don't know how much it fits, but you just figure that out later because it's Luka and you just go get him like you said, but is this LeBron like, hey, I'm going to play for three more years now because I got Luka with me?

Yeah. So we're waiting to hear on that. So I, I'm not going to speculate on that. Um, I do know that LeBron has an incredible affinity for Luca. He's loved him for a long time. There's some, you know, he's tried to get into business with them at different occasions. Uh, they actually, I think fit together beautifully because you can take the stress off of LeBron having to play so much point guard, but they can, they can kind of play together. Um,

I could see LeBron being like, this could help me extend my career because one of the things that's happened over the last few years is LeBron has wanted Anthony Davis to take on more of a role. He's really been like pushing that and supporting that, not just because Anthony Davis is a really good player, but because LeBron's like, I can't carry this load. So I could see LeBron saying I'm bought in here. I could also see teams calling the Lakers and saying, Hey,

You just picked up a 25 year old. Do you want to offload your 40 year old? Now LeBron has a no trade clause, but I could see that those calls coming. I will say this though. The Lakers roster is now lopsided. They have no center starting quality center. Their best center right now is Jackson Hayes. So they got to find a trade between now and Thursday where they get some sort of center. Also Austin Reeves. I'm not sure how he fits.

This is actually one of the amazing things about this trade is that the Lakers did this deal and somehow are still holding a first round pick 2031 and holding Austin Reeves. Yeah. Nobody understands that, but they still have those two things. And maybe there's a world where Austin Reeves stays. Reeves is having a great year, but Reeves is only really successful when he has the ball. Right. And now he's going to be down the line. So we'll see what happens. That may be not be something that happens till later. They may try it out, but yeah,

They now have too many ball handlers. They have no perimeter defense and no rim protection. So the Lakers have been on this. They've won eight out of 10. They've been playing really good. Now their team's a little lopsided. So,

Lakers are going to have to make some more moves either by Thursday or certainly by the summer. Yeah. Very important question. Who gets the last shot? That's the most important question. Yes. One shot. Let's open first take with that tomorrow. One shot. I'm going to speak to Mr. Smith about setting that up. One shot. And if it's not LeBron, will LeBron be happy that he's not getting the last shot? I think...

in all honesty i think you want to follow lucas hands yeah i think lebron i think lebron would agree with that do you think is there another domino that's about to fall i feel like there has to be right no definitely i mean there's going to be i i kind of wonder you know how in college so right now there's like all these sort of large contract players that are sort of just dangling on the market zach levine brandon ingram jimmy butler d'aaron fox

I feel like this could be like... You know how when the conferences in college realign, there's all this sort of tension and then one team, one conference makes a move and then there's like 17 other conferences and next thing you know, Boise State is in the ACC? That is what could happen here. Not for sure, but there's been sort of pent-up stuff. This could be a cascading thing that ends up...

leading to some major movement by Thursday. We thought this was going to be a quiet deadline. We should have known better. Yeah. What if Rob Palenka last night, he's doing this deal and the Mavs say, we're ready to do this deal, but we demand Bronny. Does he still do the deal?

Big cat. That is an amazing question. Thank you. Here's the thing. Like I actually believe that LeBron didn't know. I know people don't believe that. But I think the reason they didn't, I think they don't tell LeBron because they don't want it on LeBron. He's got to make a decision on AD or not. Right. I don't think they want that. So,

But it would have been fascinating if they were like, we got to have Bronny. We need some minutes at the backup, backup, backup wing. You know, they would have to go to LeBron. And I got to believe that LeBron would say, send us Luka. Oh, man. You know, but that is remarkable. Fascinating. All right, one last question for you, Woody. Gun to your head, where does Jimmy Butler end up? Guys, I'm not sure he's getting traded. Wow. I think it's either going to be Phoenix or Golden State.

but Phoenix can't seem to find a home for Bradley Beal. And they've been trying for six weeks. And I don't know if that's going to happen the next four days and the Warriors have other options. And, you know, I think if it happens, I think golden state is more likely than Phoenix, but you know, but I got to tell you something, the easiest way you can look like a fool right now is to try to predict this trade deadline.

prediction for the trade deadline, that business is over because nobody saw this one coming. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Wendy, I got one last question. Rowback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com promo code take. What do we say to Mavs fans? Because I feel very bad for Mavs fans. They woke up. They thought you got a guy like Luca. He's 25. We know what the NBA is. You need a top five player to win a championship. Okay.

They had Luka in their minds for the next decade, and then they wake up and Luka's not there anymore. What happened? I don't even know how the fan base reacts to something like this. The only thing I can say is that when Nico Harrison...

Their GM did the Kyrie Irving deal two years ago. I thought it was a terrible mistake I thought that would not work. I did not think Nico made a smart move I told this to him to his face I saw him a few days after the deal and I said good luck with this one because Kyrie situation in Brooklyn had gone so poorly and Nico knew what he was doing. He knew the he knew the you know, Nico was previously at Nike for 20 years and

His number one client was Kobe Bryant. By the way, his agent was Rob Palenka. I think that might have had something to do with it. There's a relationship that goes back 20 years with Rob Palenka. I'll do it for sure. They first started doing business together in 2003 when Kobe –

came from adidas to nike which in today's day and age would be a massive story back then was like sports business journal but um but nico when he did that deal with kairi irving he's like this is what i think our team needs i believe in it i thought it was a mistake it's turned out to be a genius move it's totally transformed the franchise so i will just say while i don't understand this and i think this is potentially a catastrophic mistake i

Nico Harrison has got some capital with the Mavs fans, but my God, if Luca turns into this, if this pushes him into like focusing on the right things and getting rid of some of his bad habits and the Lakers have another era and Luca has a statue outside crypto and Luca puts up more banners, Nico Harrison will live in infinite. And that is on the table, right? It is absolutely on the table. What were those business deals that you were talking about with Luca and LeBron?

So LeBron really wanted Luca to be in his shoe brand at Nike. LeBron hasn't had guys like that. It's not been like Jordan where like guys wore his shoe and he wanted Luca to be the first guy to like be the,

in the LeBron shoe and he like recruited him and everything and ended up going with Jordan. And I'm sure Nike made that choice as well, but like he really, really wanted him to be in there. And then of course he drafted him in the draft and the all-star draft, but he drafted a bunch of guys in the all-star draft. Half of them he's gotten on this team. Half of them he has. I'm not, I'm not sure what to make of that. All right. Well, Wendy, you're the best. Thank you for picking up the bat phone. Uh, get some sleep. Uh,

And we'll talk to you. Hey, enjoy the Super Bowl, guys. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. We're off right now. We've got a flight right now. So thank you so much. Take care.

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Okay, let's wrap up. We got two things we got to do. We got to do Monday reading. And Max, while PFT pulls up the Monday reading, we were going to do this every single day, every single show this week. Score prediction for the Super Bowl. And you're allowed to change it however you feel. Like if you're not feeling super confident right now, and then by Friday you finally put on some Eagles gear and you feel confident, you can change it. Right now I'm going to go 32-24 Eagles. 32? How'd you get to 32? 32.

Couple two-point conversions. Okay. A couple of them? Maybe none of them. Is that a missed extra point there? Two missed extra points? Maybe it's four touchdowns all with two-point conversions. Touch pushes, all of them? Four touchdowns to all two-point conversions. Okay. And do you think that the Chiefs get their – you said 24, right? 24. Is that like backdoor 24? Like you're smoking them? Are they leading? They're up –

They're up 32-21 with five minutes to go. But I thought your final score was 32-24. 32-24. Okay. And then they get a field goal to make it a one possession game. Okay. And then they don't get the ball. They don't get the ball back. Wow. What was the halftime score? Uh...

17-10. I thought it was two. They can't get 17-10. 16-10. Okay, yeah. 16-10. Two touchdowns, two point conversions. I don't know how I get to 21, though. What's the best commercial? 16-7. No, 16-10, and then the Chiefs are like, oh, we got to start going for two. Yeah, right, right, right, right. So then it's 24-18-10.

And it's field goal. I haven't all thought out. Yeah. Don't worry about it. All right. So do this really nice Monday reading. What is it about? Monday? Well, it's the time capsule. Oh, yeah. It's the part of my take time capsule. What? We do this every Super Bowl. Every Super Bowl. We actually do. Yeah. So we're going to flashback.

A random moment in part of my take history. Okay. I hope you do a Super Bowl week moment. It actually is. Oh, wow. So it's exactly one year ago today. Wow. On the Sunday that we were flying out to Las Vegas. Remember, we landed and Adam Schefter tweeted out that thing about the commanders have arrived at the Super Bowl. Yeah. That whole thing. We're recording. We're watching the Grammys. Miley Cyrus looked fantastic.

And I get a text because I took a picture of Miley Cyrus on the TV and Max was actually in the picture that I took and I tweeted it out. And I got a text from our good friend from the Diana Rossini show, Diana Rossini, the host, the co-host of Diana Rossini. And she said, I know I don't like listening to this. Does Max live in New York? And I said, Max, who?

I sat next to a guy in a plane who is really big. Is Max big? Whoever you just posted a picture of. Ha ha ha, yes, he was in New York this weekend, she says. He's disgusting. He ate his food on the plane like a monster, was basically breathing heavy and smelled terrible. Don't tell him I said it, but I was so grossed out. And then I sent her a picture, this picture right here of Max that, was this the guy? It's Max wearing a Sixers shirt.

Ask me if he sat aisle row. If so, he farted during his naps. It was United Business. He sat right next to me ripping them during the nap with I think six or seven peas there. He is one of the most disgusting human beings I've ever sat next to. Ask him if he scarfed some burrito sandwich before we took off. I said, yeah, it's him. And she says, he's definitely single. Parentheses. Cute face, by the way. What a nice thing to say. Cute face.

Q-Face. Q-Face, yeah. He was completely in his own world. He smelled of hungover. He's also very unhealthy. Two sodas. LAUGHTER

Did you write this down or something? Amazing level of detail. I asked her. She says, no, I observed. I was so grossed out and bothered. God damn it. I thought it was done. The people get the point. I said, I said, I said, you're a great reporter. She said, thank you. He listens to his music way too loudly. I'm very concerned about Max's overall health. He's going to die by 25. He was blasting techno. He's 29 right now. He,

He just farted and belched. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. I don't want to be mean-spirited, but I change poopy diapers six to eight times a day. She needs to relax. And his farts smelled like my kid's diaper genie.

I recently read about a guy who got kicked off a plane for farting so much. And I texted my husband and said, I want this guy kicked off. Swear to God. So that was a year ago today. And now you guys are the best of friends. Now that made me want to hate her again. Oh, that's the best. Cute face, by the way. Yeah. Time capsule. Monday reading time capsule.

We always do that. We always do that. It's a yearly tradition. It's a yearly tradition. And I think we probably, I wonder what we're going to do for next year. Oh my God. Ripping farts. I don't think I was. Disgusting human being. I don't think I was ripping farts.

One thing I noticed about Max on today's plane ride, when he falls asleep, he tucks his arms. He pulls his arms all the way inside of his sleeves and then wraps them around his stomach inside of his shirt. So he's like hugging himself with just these loose arm sleeves hanging off to the side. It's very bizarre. Well, that was on a plane. It was a little chilly. It's almost like a blanket if you feel like that. Yeah. Hank took a nice nap. Got a little cranky when he woke up. We had to play the game of like who's going to wake Hank up. Yeah.

Because it's going to be. It just had to be me. Hank, do you want to educate the people on some of the stuff that you're saying? No. Come on. Just a little bit. No. But all this stuff keeps happening. Listen, there's a lot of things going on in the world. Why aren't we talking about the bridge?

People moved on from the bridge. Listen, we're in New Orleans. People moved on from New Orleans. It's a serious subject. You guys are trying to make light of it. I was just trying to have some playful banter on the plane. Should we bring up the bridge in New Orleans like every episode? No, it wasn't you guys specifically. I didn't say we should be talking about it on the show. We're part of the media. As we reminded Hank of all these things that we're talking about. The underwater volcano and the dolphins. Yeah.

Dolphins are swimming away. That's not a conspiracy. Volcanoes do go off. Underwater volcanoes? Yeah. I think it goes off once every like 50 years. Probably going to be an earthquake. Are you going to think that's related?

well yeah to the to the bridge no no no no you guys are trying to paint me and and label me crazy and and put this narrative out there and that's fine no he does think that we're part of the problem yo you're a simulation boy you're fucking when i told hank i was like the reason why we don't think about these things because life's hard enough and you just gotta kind of move on and keep it moving he just looked at me like you fuck it you're part of the problem

Yeah. Okay, good show, boys. Yeah, Hank, National Sports Podcast. Use your voice. Yeah. Sports podcast. Speak up. Sports. And bridge. We got a big week in NOLA.

Big week in NOLA. How many gumbos so far? I just had one. Just one? But I'm about to have two. Okay, nightcap. I'm going to end up having two today as well. We should get a total gumbo for the whole crew. For the four of us, how many gumbos do we have? Have you had one? No, I'm about to have one. I don't think I'm going to make it all week, but I'm... No, I want to try all the things, though. Like, I want a po' boy. I want some catfish. I want some shrimp and grits. Like, I'm...

I'm going to try and like poke all the things. And then diet starts next week. Yeah, this isn't helping the Diana. Diet starts next week. This is sodium week. Aren't you going on vacation? Two weeks. So you're going to start a diet a week before vacation? Skiing is basically a fitness vacation. That's so true. You're going on a fitness vacation.

All right. Well, we did the lottery ball back in the studio, so let's kick it to ourselves. Numbers, boys. I'm going to go with 76. I'm going to go three. I'm going to go 40. 11. I'm going to go two. Two? 11. That's one I guessed correctly for PFT. That's the one I got. No, that's the one you got, PFT. That's my ball. 71. That looked like 11. Someone guess 11?

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