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cover of episode Michigan Head Coach Dusty May, NFL Free Agency With Pete Prisco, Winners And Losers From First 2 Days Of Legal Tampering + Guys On Chicks

Michigan Head Coach Dusty May, NFL Free Agency With Pete Prisco, Winners And Losers From First 2 Days Of Legal Tampering + Guys On Chicks

2025/3/12
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Pardon My Take

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The show discusses the NFL free agency period, highlighting notable signings such as Sam Darnold to the Seahawks and Justin Fields to the Jets. They analyze the moves made by various teams, debating whether some teams were "offseason champions" and discussing the potential implications for the upcoming season.
  • Sam Darnold signed a large contract with the Seahawks.
  • Justin Fields traded to the Jets.
  • Bears, Patriots, and Commanders made significant improvements.
  • Teams that didn't lose many players were considered winners.
  • Texans' strategy of trading away offensive linemen questioned.

Shownotes Transcript

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

On today's part in my take, we have a twofer for the people. We have Michigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May, recurring guest. Last time we talked to him, he was at FAU, but we had a great conversation with him. March is on its way. We're here. It's one of the best two weeks of the year. We also have our good friend Pete Prisco on the show to break down NFL free agency. Also get into an Italian versus Italian fight about Jalen Hurts with Max, which was great.

We're going to talk NFL free agency. We've got hot seat, cool throne. We've got guys on chicks and it's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Hey, basketball fans, are you ready to win real money? Check out pick six from DraftKings when it comes to basketball payouts. DraftKings pick six dunks on its rivals, including prize picks. When you hit all your picks, you'll slam home higher minimum payouts on pick six than flex plays on prize picks.

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Okay, let's go. Yeah!

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And NFL free agency is all the way going, boys. We've got a lot of new faces and new places, including Sam Darnold to the Seattle Seahawks.

Sam Donald to the Seahawks. Good for Sam, by the way. Great for Sam. Just as a, like, whether you think Sam's going to be good going forward, pretty awesome that his career seemed like it was over and he just signed a $100 million contract to go to Seattle. Yeah, I think he played it right. Like, he played very well last year with the exception of the last, what, three games of the season? Yeah. So he had a great year here in this contract. Congrats to him.

I don't know that I would love the situation in Seattle right now because they have gotten rid of a lot of guys. You're not going to have the same weapons in Jefferson and Addison and Hawkinson. Yep. That's not going to exist out there. You're not going to have KOC. Yep. It's going to be different, but I am very happy for them. It's interesting. When you look around the league, you've got Sam Darnold signing a contract, Geno Smith on the move. Aaron Rodgers is going to get another job. Yep.

And Zach Wilson to the Dolphins. Every former Jets quarterback did something big this free agency. Is getting something big. And the Jets got the memes. You got your guy. You got your guy memes. Justin Fields is a New York Jet just like you wanted. Congrats. We got our guy. Happy for Justin. Happy for Justin. I'm excited. A lot of Bears fans have been DMing me.

He's a lot of fun. Big cats told me he's a lot of fun. He is. He doesn't. There's also a downside. Yeah. He's never had a good offensive line. We do have a good offensive line. We have good running backs. We're going to establish a run. We're going to be a run first team. And that's what's important here. I checked in with memes yesterday after it happened. And I had an honest conversation with him because I told him I was like, he is. He makes Sundays fun. Long.

Long term, I don't know if he's going to be your answer. And I said, if your expectations are not wildly out of control, it could be a fun time. And I asked him, what's the ceiling of the Jets with Justin Fields next year? He said nine and eight. And I said, that's actually a fine way to approach it. Yeah. You might be surprised. Yeah. That's the ceiling.

Well, he's betting on himself, so you just got to hope he just pops off. You just got to back him up. Yeah. And be like, if you're betting on yourself, I'm betting on you. Well, he's not totally betting on himself. Yeah, it's a two-year deal, right? It's a two-year deal, so he's actually not betting on himself. Yeah, but if he pops off this year, massive contract. Well, he's under contract for the second year. The Jets are basically avoiding the Sam Darnold situation where they don't want him to, if he pops off, they have him. Let me cook here. You're always betting on yourself. Yeah, I guess. But if he has a great year this year and then next year he's bad...

I think if he has a great year this year, then they won't play the second year under that contract. Maybe. And they'll give him an extension after one year. Or they could be like, maybe we've got to see another year and not make a mistake of Daniel Jones. Who? Daniel Jones, by the way. Incredible job of getting $14 million. I know it's probably not all guaranteed, but still. Yeah. Colts quarterback. You know how Meeam says if you don't like the Justin Fields draft?

trade, then you're racist. Yeah. That's how I feel about Daniel Jones. I'd agree. If you don't like Daniel Jones on the Colts, you have a problem with white people. Yeah, you do. You do. You do. You absolutely do. He's doing the Manning Brothers career arc. Yeah. Is what he's going to do. I think it's interesting having him, Anthony Richardson, and then you've got, obviously, Jonathan Taylor at running back. Why not just run the wishbone?

I don't hate it. I don't hate it. That's what the coach should do. Just run the fucking football. Daniel Jones might be QB1 by mid-September. There was an immediate Chris Berman that came to my brain when I saw this. He's just Indiana Jones. There it is. And he kind of looks like him. It's perfect. He should start wearing the hat. Wear the hat, Daniel. That would be sick. But yeah, the QB, I feel like means in a good spot. The Giants have no quarterback.

The Steelers have no quarterback as of right now. We're taping this in the afternoon. It feels like Aaron Rodgers is going to be a Steeler, and then I don't know what the Giants are going to do. I feel like it might be just a game of musical chairs, but whichever team Aaron Rodgers doesn't pick,

then Russell Wilson might just be the quarterback of the other. Yeah, that does feel like he's going to be like, oh, Aaron Rodgers is a stealer? Okay, I guess Russell's going to be a giant. Yeah, we got Aaron Rodgers at home, and it's Russell Wilson. Yeah, yeah. All right, so what other big... I mean, the Bears had a nice day. I am...

My take on free agency is if you have to, because everyone's like, oh, they're offseason champs again. The Bears haven't won anything with these guys. If you have to fix all the holes, that means you're a bad team. If you have to go into free agency. But with that said, I'm very happy that Ryan Poles did a good job of just beefing up the trenches on the offensive and defensive line. And it feels like what was a massive weakness is, I'm not going to go as far as say strength,

but it's looking a lot better than it was a week and a half ago. I think you can say that he signed a lot of players that were not on the Bears last year. Correct. Which would be a good thing. Correct. And the guys that he did sign are, for the most part, big, strong, athletic guys that should be upgrades. Yeah. And you invested in some skill positions last year, some of which panned out, some didn't. But you kind of looked at that last year. Now you're beefing up the trenches. I think it's a good idea. Yeah. I like what the Bears did. The middle of the offensive line is a lot better. The defensive line has some depth. Yeah.

Were there times yesterday in my inner monologue that I said to myself, Bears are back? Maybe. But that can't be confirmed. Six out of ten. It was in my brain. So I never said it. So it doesn't count. But maybe. Maybe. If there was a bracket for who had the best offseason, do you think the Bears would win? No. I think they might be in the championship game. No. I think we're looking at the two of them right here. I think so, too. I think it's the Bears and the Patriots. Yep.

Bears did okay. Commanders. Commanders did really well, too. Yeah, they got Laramie Tunsell and Deebo. Yeah, he was talking about us, too. Okay, I know, but I'm talking about... I think the Patriots did a good job. Max came up to me yesterday, and he was just like, Oh, what you're doing kind of reminds me of the Dream Team. You think you're putting together a Dream Team? We made a couple nice moves. This is not a Dream Team stat. We're not, like, putting together a Super Team. We got...

Debo, who was fat last year, who I think will still be good, it's not like he's at the peak of his powers right now. He was a fifth-round pick. That's where he traded for him. Then we swapped a third and a fourth round and then gave up a second rounder for Tunsell.

So it's not like we're getting all-stars. I mean, Larry Tunsil's very good. He's a pro bowler. And you got Kinlaw. I'm just pumped about Tunsil because now I have to do a gas mask bong. You do. Welcome into town, yeah. Also, I don't understand the Texans' strategy being like, we had a bad offensive line. Let's trade our best offensive linemen.

Yeah, they got rid of two of them. Tunsell, I think, was the best. He had a lot of false start calls and whatever, but I still think he's – I mean, it's really hard to play that position, and you can see the price for left tackles. Yeah, so I love Laramie Tunsell because then we can move – the guy that played left tackle for us last year, he was a rookie, not necessarily left tackle by trade. We're going to move him around for Sam Cosme, then maybe move him around again once Sam gets back. So I like the moves that we made. I'm pretty pumped about it.

it um one thing that i was thinking about the other day because we were talking about joe milton bazooka joe and with the patriots signing the pastor not josh dobbs to be your backup quarterback feels like the patriots are just burying joe milton like we're never they're actively trying to trade we're never going to get to see joe milton i you'd be great on the steelers hank are you excited about the patriots moves how many of the players uh were you do were you breaking down tape

I mean, Mack Hollins I've known for 10 years. That was a cool full circle moment. I met Mack when he was, I think, going into his junior year of college at UNC. He was Caleb's roommate. And I spent a year with Caleb living with him where he's like, Mack's going to be a pro. Mitch is going to be a pro. And I was, you know, in my head, Mitch was a backup. Mack was playing well, but he was UNC. I didn't necessarily think that was like a...

you know a pro path and you know to see him grind out he got drafted fourth been on a bunch of teams great special teamer it's cool that he's on the Patriots I'm pumped what about the other guys uh Milton Williams Max said he was good yeah Carlton Davis the reports I mean he's old but he's very uh durable and I don't know the other guys Harold Landry he was a rainbow guy in Tennessee yeah yeah Robert Spillane is a white linebacker played in Pittsburgh

So I'm excited. Yeah. What about... We need a receiver. We probably need another receiver, yeah. By the way, the winners of free agency are the teams that didn't have to do a lot. Like the Ravens just re-signing Ronnie Stanley. And Patrick Ricard. That's...

The Eagles lost some more players than the Ravens lost players, but the winners of free agency are the teams that were already good and didn't lose a lot of guys. They're the big winners in free agency because they were already good. The 49ers have also lost a lot of guys, some to free agency, some to trade. The most recent, I think they cut Leonard Floyd today, and he got signed almost immediately by the Falcons.

Yeah. So they're going to be a much different team next year. Also, we should say winner in free agency, the Cowboys all in because I don't know if you guys saw, but they signed a long snapper for three year, $4.45 million deal. So that's pretty big. All in my ass. Yeah. He's cooking. Jerry's up to something. They also re-signed Kevontae Turpin. Yep. True. True. Max, how do you feel about the Eagles losing a lot of guys?

That's the problem with winning Super Bowls is that you provide good players, and then those good players don't have contracts anymore, and then other teams can pay those players more than you can. So right now we're just offloading contracts, which kind of sucks. We traded C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Yeah, I thought he was going to be a leader. He was one of your co-leaders. Yep, Darius Slay retweeted something that kind of talked about that.

Yeah, no, but Gardner Johnson's actually been very mature about it. He did a Thank You Philadelphia post, and then he also was on some live stream he was talking about.

how it basically had to happen because he was like, I had to go. I just asked for them to send me to a contender because they have a lot of contracts that are coming up and the young guys got to get paid. So that's basically what he said is, we're not really saving that much cap space for this year, but we're saving a lot of cap space for the next couple years because we have a lot of guys on rookie contracts that are going to have to get paid. So even as he left town, he was being a leader.

Yeah, no, he actually... He requested a trade right now in order to make the team better in the future. He didn't request a trade. He just understood the trade. Okay. Like, he understood that if he's there, then Nolan Smith might not get paid, and Nolan Smith's got to get paid. It's a business. It's a business. Yeah, it was a business. What about Becton? What's Becton going to do? It looks like he's gone. We're not going to be able to afford to pay him either. We instead went and traded for, statistically...

The worst. Oh, the worst offensive lineman in the NFL. But Mekhi Becton was also a bad offensive lineman. And then facts coached Outland, coached him up, got him ready. So hopefully we can do the same thing. Had a lot of potential. It was a first round pick in 2022. So he's basically, you know, still a first rounder. We traded CJ Gardner Johnson for a first rounder. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That's good. Also winner Denver Broncos. I feel like they did a good job of beefing up their defense, which, you know,

The need to maybe just go and get... Try to splurge on some wide receivers when the wide receiver market wasn't robust. They avoided that and they're like, hey, let's get a really good defense. And they got some X-Niners to come and help them. I also... By the way...

Because I have bashed him, but I'm now back to being a fan. Ryan Poles, I also think, has done a good job of signing guys that their contracts will... It's about a two-year or three-year deal. Two-year, most of them. Where it's like, that's when you're going to have to pay Cale Williams if Cale Williams becomes great. Setting yourself up. Right. So it's like, you don't want to get into something that's like five years from now. I think that's why the Texans are getting rid of a lot of guys right now. Yeah. Is because they know that they're going to have to pony up for C.J. Stroud. Yeah. Also...

Stefan Diggs, I feel like he's going to sign a pretty decent contract.

Yeah. Right. He probably will. If you look at the free agent market for wide receivers this year, not that great. There's some guys in the draft that I think probably some really strong receivers in the draft this year. But if you don't get one of them, I feel like he's probably the best that you can do. Also, Giants fans, I think this is probably the end of the making fun of Saquon Barkley and not resigning him thing. But signing Darius Slayton for three years, 36 million when Saquon Barkley got three years, 37 million. Yeah.

That's the end, though. I think it's the end. But that was pointed out a lot of times. And it was also the one-year anniversary of the Eagles signing Saquon today. I saw that Shefty tweeted that. One-year anniversary. Really? It feels like everyone's just shitting on the Giants, which I get.

But just back off. They know what they did. Also, loser, the Bengals still have a bunch of guys that they have not paid that they need to pay. Yeah. And that seems like a pretty tough situation they're in right now. I have a question for you, Big Cat. Yes. Do you think that we've seen...

The last big quarterback move. No. I'm not talking about Aaron Rodgers. I'm not talking about Aaron Rodgers. Joe Milton. I'm not talking about Russell Wilson. I'm talking about a quarterback that has a job right now. Kirk Cousins? Kirk Cousins might be. I feel like Kirk Cousins may be to Cleveland. Or Giants. Because right now, Cleveland's move is Kenny Pickett. He could be Giants, too. He could also be a Giant. I think we probably have seen the last of the big. Why, do you have something? No, I just heard something on the radio the other day. It got me thinking. Go ahead.

Kyler Murray. Oh, yeah. Do the Cardinals love Kyler Murray? I don't think they should. I don't know if they should. And you got a coach that might need to shake something up. Keep his job. Interesting. I like that. I kind of. Yeah. I'm just saying, keep an eye on the Cardinals. Okay. It's up to something. Also, yesterday, the most important internet day of the year for NFL fans. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And I've been a big proponent of everything Elon's been doing with X.com, the everything app. It's all happening on X. You are the media.

What the fuck was going on yesterday, Elon? It was so bad. Then he started to claim that he was probably getting hacked by Ukraine. Buddy, you got one job, and that's to make sure that Adam Schefter can tweet on free agency day in the NFL. Yeah. I like the tweet our coworker Nate had that Trump asked him to turn off Twitter because the stock market was plummeting. Ah, interesting. Conspiracy. We also had... I tweeted something along the lines of, like, Elon, you're a real fuckhead for having Twitter break on today of all days.

And I didn't realize there is a group of people out there that ride for Elon harder than any fan base ever. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was vaguely aware, but, man, my replies were just, whew. I think they searched for Elon Musk. It's crazy. I didn't know we had fans of the dude the way that people root for their teams. Yeah, no, we got a lot of Elon fuckboys out there that just, they're his online defenders. Me? Yeah.

I would never root for another man like that and put all my hopes and happiness in how they do and how many interior offensive linemen they signed. Ryan Pose was cooking. Now, have you seen the meme that's legitimate criticism and they're firing a gun at Elon Musk, who's a poo? And then there's a guy jumping in to block the bullet and just says, weird nerds. No, I have not seen that meme. I have not seen that meme.

But I've done everything that I possibly could to support Elon through his x.com, the everything app takeover. And this is how he repairs it. You guys are big on Twitter. You must be getting paid a lot from their ads, right? No, not really. They just gave us the checkmark. We didn't pay for the checkmark. I haven't gotten a payout in seven months because it asked me to submit proof of my ID or something. I was like, fuck that. I'm not sending that in. I mean, I get like a couple hundred bucks a month maybe. It's not great. I thought it was going to be more.

If you're, yeah, if you're, if you are only getting a couple hundred bucks and it can't be worth it for anyone. Yeah. It was a bad day for Twitter to be down. Just very bad day. Send some of those 19 year, send big balls, the 19 year old guy in Doge over to take a look at Twitter's source code. Just get a fix. Fix that up for me. All right. What other, what other free agent, either teams or players? I, I, we're going to talk about Pete Prisco. We're going to get into depth with him about winners and losers.

I'm starting to believe it's kind of like our Sam Darnold Baker Mayfield clip from like five years ago. I might start to believe in Zach Wilson again just because that offense is set up to just

You know, drop back throw. Well, there's a lot of milfs in Miami for him to impress. That's probably the best city in the world for him to go to. That's true. Hey, pull up the free agent signing tracker again, Max. Let's just go. I don't want to miss anyone. Go up to the top. Oh, Puna Ford. That was big. Puna Ford for the Rams. That was huge. Got a big run. Rams are going to be good, man. Rams are going to be good. What are the Chargers doing? Can we see it? Go back to that.

Chargers got Najee Harris. Oh, yeah, that's right. Chargers got Najee Harris. I'm trying to look, see if we missed any big ones.

You're going too fast. I can't keep up. I don't know if you want me to go fast or slow. I want you to go medium. Traverius Ward to the Colts. Kyle Juszczyk got released. Yeah, that sucked. Be nice to have him in D.C. Be nice to have him in New England. The Bucs re-signed Godwin in, Levante David. And I think they got a pass rusher as well.

It didn't feel like... It felt like a lot of the big moves happened via trade. Yeah. Like on the week leading up and then Sunday night. And then there weren't... Once Sam Darnold went, there's some nice pieces. But again, it's free agency. Like you...

If you're getting someone like Drew Dallman is going to be a better center than what the Bears have had for a long time. But he's also not a perfect player because otherwise he wouldn't be in free agency. Right. That's just how it works. Ronnie Stanley didn't go to free agency. You know who else is a free agent right now? Trey Lance.

Oh. Trey Lance. Cowboys gave him draft picks for him. Didn't play him for some reason. Yeah. And now he's free to sign wherever. I think he's thrown like 400 passes as a NFL and collegiate quarterback. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Jameis is still out there. There's your big move. Yeah, Jameis is lurking. There's your big move. Probably a bidding war for Jameis right now. Also, is Derek Carr going to start for the Saints again?

That's kind of one of those things that I was like, oh yeah, I guess. I feel like. I guess so. I feel like Kellen Moore is going to look at Derek Carr and be like, yeah, I can work with this. Yeah. All right. We'll give it a shot. I just, I, his, his name popped in my head last night. I was just like, oh yeah, he is going to play for the saints. Yeah. Again, I'm going to do that. Let's see. Brandon Scherf. Has he signed anywhere? Nope. So there's some, still some, some names out there.

PFT, I like the Laramie Tunsil. I don't understand from the Texans. I like Laramie Tunsil. I like Kinlaw. Yeah. You did a lot of good things. Good moves. Memes is shaking his head no for some reason. Oh, for Kinlaw? Oh, Javon Kinlaw. That was the worst contract of all time. Oh. That we gave him? Oh. Here we go. The worst contract of all time. You guys just let Jonathan Allen walk and you signed Javon Kinlaw. There was a lot of shit. Wait, Deshaun Watson still is, that contract still is going. You're right.

Second worst. Second worst. What about Aaron Rodgers? Nah, he was a stud. He still got some ball left in him. Top five. Top five. You think that was the worst contract given out yesterday? No, it was so bad. It was so bad. Whoa, I didn't know. Yeah, you got some real animosity towards Kinlaw. He's the king of just like, all right, plays over, 15-yard penalty, Javon Kinlaw. You can't stop the run. You can't do much. He was on a proven deal last year and just didn't prove anything.

Bet on himself, though. Well, I mean, it sounds like you proved something if you got that much money. You love guys who bet on themselves. I do. I do. But now he's your problem. Now he's my problem. Coach Quinn. Coach Quinn. He's going to coach him up. Other than that, you did a great job. Thanks, Mames. Appreciate that. What else did the Jets do? Got a safety, a corner. They also told Peter Schrager that they're not going to leak any information.

What? We don't know. They could have signed more guys. Wait, so they leaked to Peter Schrager that they will be stopping the leaks? Yeah. They'll be announcing everything at 12 o'clock when the official...

Period starts. They're respecting the league year. Yeah, respecting the league year. So everything that got announced was from the agent or player side. Got it. You're not supposed to sign anyone right now. Yeah, but everyone's being signed. Right, but you're not supposed to. You're not supposed to. It's actually illegal. So we shouldn't... We actually shouldn't even... We should delete this footage. Yeah. Yeah. Delete this whole thing. I like the Jets, though, being... We're the only ones that are going to respect the official...

free agency deadline. Wait, does that mean there's going to be a flurry of signings that you're expecting? I hope so. But Justin Fields got leaked. Yeah, but that's from the player side. So the player side could leak it. But inside the building, I don't fucking know. So they're being

Players and their agents would leak it if they were signing with the Jets, though. Wait, so the Jets are basically doing, like, if you forget your significant other's birthday or Valentine's Day, you're like, wait till you see the present. I got you. It's coming later. It's in the mail. And then you have to rush out and grab something. That's what they're doing? Yeah, that's what they're doing. He also deleted that tweet immediately and then quote tweeted somebody who was just like, yeah, they're not telling anybody anything.

Okay. What about your boy, one of the saviors of the season from last year, Meme, Sasan Reddick? Oh, we got a conditional fourth-round pick for him. We got a fourth-rounder for him. So now he's with the Bucs, right? He's with the Bucs. What happened with that? Did you ever find out what the explanation was? You guys should have extended him when you signed him, when you traded for him. Yeah, we should have. And then it was just a holdoff between him and Joe Douglas. He never came in, got fat, refused to play. Okay.

Didn't get a contract. Went to free agency. I love me. Just break down to these things. That was such a weird, weird saga that went on. Yeah, it was. It was very weird. It didn't work out. He got a one year deal. Also, yeah. Congrats to the Bucks. Chris Godwin. Big re-signing. Yeah. Big re-signing. I was hoping he was coming to New England. They know what they're doing in that front office down there.

All right. Should we do hot seat, cool throne, and then we'll get to our interviews. We're going to talk more NFL free agency with Pete Prisco. And then we have Dusty May as well. We're going to actually start with Dusty May. Let's do hot seat, cool throne. It is brought to you by our friends at Reese's Reese's peanut butter cups are the perfect combo of chocolate and peanut butter. You can buy Reese's cups basically anywhere. Feed your fandom. Reese's cups are the bet.

a perfect compliment to the chaos of March, a drool worthy combination of chocolate and peanut butter to go wild for. I love Reese's and my number one, it's my one, one S tier. Uh, we have them in the office and I eat one a day. I, I love, yeah, Hank, you and I,

Well, peanut butter and chocolate, guys. Through and through. So, eat Reese's peanut butter cups. Feed your fandom. I'll be eating them all March Madness. I'm excited. Reese's is the best. The Lava Cup, too. Whew.

They're very good. They also brought into the office. The caramel lava cup. Yep. That is outstanding. Outstanding. They brought the four sleeve. Yeah. So that's just, you're ready to go. You know what I do with those? I take two out, and I'm like, I'm going to eat two and then leave two for somebody else. I come back. The two are still there. I eat the four. Yeah. Always. Always. Reese is the best. All right. Hank, your hot seat cool throne. My hot seat is Tiger Woods. Yeah. Took him. Ah.

All right. Okay. Is that his driving foot?

I don't know, but it's just injury after injury. Yeah, it's over. It's over. It sucks, but it's over. It's probably over. Yeah. He should enjoy his life. He's the best golfer I've ever seen. So go enjoy your life. Senior tour, maybe. That'd be cool. Just see him dominate. Get ready for it. Just get Charlie ready. And then just, yeah, play in the majors. Yeah. Get Charlie ready to go. Next up.

And then my cool throne is Superman punches. Yeah. This happened last night in the Utah hockey game. Simon Benoit. Benoit. I don't know. Probably Benoit. Probably Benoit. Yep. I like the way you say it. Benoit? Like Beloit, Wisconsin? Who was the bad wrestler guy? That would be Chris Benoit. Benoit. It was Benoit. What did he do? Why is he back? I thought it was Benoit. He just wasn't great at selling punch notes. He was a murderer. Bad guy. Was he on Adam Schefter's tweet?

We'll have to go check that out. Before Twitter. Was that 2007? Yeah, it was a long time ago. Oh, Justin Reed, breaking news. Is there no Benoit? No, it's Benoit. But I feel like there's someone out there that's named Benoit. All right, so if you're Benoit, hit us up. For Chief Safety, Justin Reed reached agreement today with the Saints on a three-year $31.5 million deal. All right, good for him. Good for him.

Yeah, so Simon Benoit threw a Superman punch in a fight. He kind of missed it. He dislocated his thumb. But then Hockey Guy Move was in the penalty box relocating his thumb himself. Love that. Relocating it? Undislocating it. Reducing the dislocation? Relocating. Is it relocating? You dislocate it. What's the opposite of dislocation? I think it's popping it back into place. Popping it back in. I like relocating. Yeah, relocating is good. Utah Hockey is big on that. Benoit.

Benoit. Okay. He was sick, but he lost the fight. Yeah, he got smoked. But the picture went all out. Yeah. You have that picture in your house forever. It doesn't matter. Don't ask me what happened afterwards. Yeah. I did the Superman punch. It was fun. It is an insane move to do in a hockey fight, though. On skates. Yeah. I respect it. All right. PFT? Yeah. I mean, Hank took my tiger from me, so I'll say my hot seat is doctors in Argentina because the guys, the doctors that were looking after...

My personal hero, Diego Maradona, maybe the best soccer player of all time and fellow short king, they are currently being put on trial for homicide.

for killing Diego Maradona. What? I guess we're about to find out what happened, but he was being treated for a blood clot in his brain. They took his cocaine from him? It had nothing to do with cocaine. The 2018 World Cup where Maradona is up in the stands in his private box, that was the box of the decade. Yes. Because there's this glass pane that's in front of Maradona and it's covered in...

In white powder. This guy was having the best time ever. So he died in 2020. And then he had that blood clot in his brain. He had surgery. It was a success. Then he goes home. Then he died shortly thereafter. And they're saying that the doctors actually killed him. He's been dead for five years. Yeah, pretty crazy, right?

That's crazy. Yeah. I say justice for Maradona. Yeah, I'd agree. He was the absolute best. I'd like to see the findings here. And then my cool throne is the Big 12 because they're playing their tournament right now and their court is the weirdest fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life. And the commissioner of the Big 12 said that it's actually a resounding success because so many people are talking about it. Oh, okay. So embrace debate.

The court at the Big 12 tournament, which looks like a magic eye. It looks like if you've ever put on a VR headset and asked you to scan the room to know where the walls and the floor are. That's what it looks like. They're playing. They're playing basketball on a Louis Vuitton back. Yeah, it's a Brooklyn Nets game. It's bad. I feel like if you're a player on the court, you probably don't mind it that much. But if you watch it on TV, it sucks ass. Yeah.

Yeah, it's hard to look at. It's hard to look at. Okay, my hot seat is UNC fans because I don't know if you guys saw, but Cooper Flagg's mom, there was a viral clip over the weekend of doing the on the head because he threw down a dunk.

And she released a statement and she said,

The celebration was a moment of being so proud of our kid and also a big fuck you to the entire Carolina fan base for being classless assholes. If you're a UNC fan and didn't like it, tough shit. Better luck next time. Go Duke. I love this. Yeah, that's good. That's awesome. That's also the- It's just apology for, I apologize for absolutely nothing. Well, it started soft. Yeah, it started like, it's rivalry week. Of course they're going to be chirping you, but you should be allowed to chirp back. That's a good response. I love this so much because never in a million years would you expect a Duke player's mom to be putting that statement. Right. Yeah.

It was very unduke of her, which is a compliment. Yeah, big time compliment. My other hot seat is me because my 16-0 streak has ended. 16 in a row. I'll never do it again. It was a hell of eight days. I'm sad it's over. And now I'm just going to go on tilt for a little bit and then hopefully find my way back to neutral, which is like...

Going like 46%. No, you got this. There's one thing about getting high. If you go on a 5-0 run, 6-0 run, you can chalk a lot of that up to luck. 16-0, you knew the game better than the bookmakers. Yeah.

I had one moment I would like to take back because I got into bed last night and I just muttered, I have nothing to live for anymore. And my wife was like, what did you just say? So that was bad. But in the moment, I was very upset about the 16th. I mean, it was fun. It was a fun ride. Thank you for everyone who rode with me. And congrats to Hank because he's going to fade me now and he's going to win a shitload of money. It's going to be a great ride. Yeah, you made a lot of people rich in March. Yeah. Thank you. And now you get to you put in the puts. It's the big short.

There's a bubble. You've made a lot of people rich in March. You saw me buying a boat. You made a lot of people that rode you during the streak rich, and now you're going to make the people fake rich. Yeah, now I'm going to give it all back, yeah. So you're Robin Hood. You saw me buying a stripper pole and a boat, and you called Michael Scott, and you were like, hey.

It's a bubble. We got to short everything. Hank's Ryan Gosling, and he takes out one Jenga piece, and it just says UNCW, and he smashes the rest of it with a baseball bat. Congrats. It's going to be a hell of a ride for you, Hank. You might go 16-0 the other way. It might happen. And then my cool thrown is Timothee Chalamet just because he's the man. And I saw him. Was it Kylie Jenner? Kylie Jenner rubbing up on him. I would have came.

Just going to say that. But does he have top five life right now going? It's pretty good. I mean, he's literally, how old is he? 23? 27. And he's got the world by his balls. He's universally loved. He seems like a cool-ass dude. He's got Kylie Jenner and her big jugs rubbing up on him while he's watching tennis. He's 29 years old. He's got everything in front of him right now. And he knows ball. And he knows ball.

He's probably not. Khalid's probably going to break up with him during the tournament. Yeah. He's going to be like, sorry, babe, I got to watch. I got to watch ball. You understand. Yeah. A good follow on Twitter. Big content guy had a funny tweet about how we're so dumb as sports fans that all you got to do is just like say one thing about ball. And everyone's like, dude, that guy rocks. Yeah. And I think Miami of Ohio.

What? Yeah, yeah. He was like, if Osama bin Laden had said, I really like what Miami, Ohio is doing this year, we all would have been like, you know what? That wasn't that bad what he did. Yeah, he's kind of a guy's guy. I mean, just hung out with the boys in the caves, had the monkey bars set up. Yeah, yeah. Essentially, Al Qaeda was just training camp.

It was the Gamelan Cave, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. Timothee Chalamet is proof that you can change an entire nation's perception of you by knowing ball. If Osama bin Laden would have declared his love for Miami of Ohio's football program, we would have been like, you know, we can always just rebuild those towers. Yeah. If Kim Jong got three picks right on college game day, I'm pretty sure we'd all just be like, that's just our culture. He ain't doing nothing wrong. Yeah. Yeah.

It's true. We're easy. Listen, Kim Jong-un does no ball. He does. Yeah. He's a massive fan of the 90s Bulls. Yeah. Big Rodman guy. Yeah. If you're playing 2K online and you don't know who you're playing against, it's at a weird time of day.

Chances are pretty good that it's Kim Jong-un in North Korea. Yeah, agreed. All right, should we get to our interviews? We've got two great ones, Dusty May and Pete Prisco talking more NFL free agency. And good luck to everyone in March Madness. It's here. We're going to get into Dusty May in a second. He's brought to you by Truly...

It is about to be an unruly boy summer. Pretty pumped about Truly being on board here. I love the Berry Blast. Big Cat, what's your favorite? Strawberry Smash. And then Hank, you like the Citrus Crush? Yes, sir. Yeah, Truly's good. Pass me one of those Truly and Edelman's. Truly Unruly is the first high ABV hard seltzer that actually tastes good. 8% ABV. It hits hard, but it still tastes amazing. 8% ABV.

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A little different this time. Last time was with FAU and his run to the Final Four. It is Michigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May. It is March. We're excited, coach. I guess we got to start with the elephant in the room. Sunday had a little dust-up with Michigan State. Did you know that you're not supposed to step on another man's logo? Was that ever coached in any of your meetings with the team?

Well, the size of the logo, I assumed after the game, we probably wouldn't be on the logo for senior night. But as the game was going on, I didn't know that that was uncharted territory, especially, especially we're shooting a free throw. And the time before that, the free throw situation before that, they, we missed it. They grabbed it, outlet it to half court and Cohen car was at the rim in about a second and a half. So we were actually imploring our guys to stay alert and,

And in case we missed the free throw to be ready to defend. And yeah, we didn't realize that it was going to that would inside a wrestling maneuver. But now we know. Yeah. And I would assume that you, you know, obviously you don't want players, you know, fighting at half court, but it's a rivalry. I would assume you're a sports guy. You love basketball. You know, that's rivalries are good for sports. This is what fans want.

Yeah. I, I, I'm a big fan of Joel Mazzulla with the Celtics. So I was very intrigued by his comment about how the players should, should fight a lot more. And I'm not sure I subscribe to that big cap, but the thing of it is, is there's already a player that came out and they told us the officials came over and said, Hey, they have a tradition. They're going to kiss the floor. And I I'd probably seen the Mateen Cleaves had done it before. And I'd even read where Respert had done it before after the fact, but

I don't watch a lot of Michigan State senior nights, so I didn't know the exact protocol and procedures. And even now, I'm a little bit surprised that they do it during the game. Typically, you take your seniors out, they get an ovation, they kiss the court, and they move on or they hug their teammates, whatever the case. And the officials told me this is going to happen. I said, great. And so I think it was Fidler, kissed the court, went out, took the applause, and

And then I forget the next player came out and something in our players were standing in the exact same spot. They're having to actually look like they're having a conversation. And by the way, we played it probably, probably weren't talking about the next assignment, but they're standing at half court chatting. And then just out of the blue, something angered Holloman and obviously came in with the,

with the, the, the aggressive maneuver and, and, uh, but yeah, now we know we'll, we'll, I guess put our, you know, hopefully we're not in this situation anymore, but next time we'll clear, um, the logo that covers about a third of the court and keep it rolling. Yeah. You got to respect the S kissing. Yes. Kissing is a big, a big deal there. Uh, so in a way, is this, could this be a good thing going into the conference tournament? Because in hockey, I always feel that way. If, if like,

Like the team I'm rooting for loses a big hockey game and there's a big fight at the end. You know, stir things up a little bit, get the sticks tapping a little bit, change the momentum. At least you guys are fired up, right? Going into the tournament. Could you could you spin this and be a good thing? Yeah. And to be honest, we were we were atrocious to begin the game. The first 10 minutes they they were playing at a different speed. They were they're playing 2X on podcast and we were at point five.

And the second half, we competed at a high level. We look like us again, even though we didn't really make shots. We took care of the ball. We defended much better. We played with more aggression and physicality. So it gives us hope that we can find our stride this last week or so against some of the most talented teams in the league. We haven't competed at the level we needed to or play as well as we could have.

Uh, but now a new season starts. We're excited for the big 10 tournament. Hopefully, uh, a Sunday would be a great rematch. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, your season has been interesting because you guys obviously, uh, started really hot in the end of the season has been, you know, the big 10 is tough. It wears on everyone. What is the message though? When it's like you lose three straight going into the tournament, uh,

A lot of this tournament, you know, because you've been to a Final Four, is getting hot at the right time. So is it drastically changing anything, or is it, hey, we just have to start doing the little things better?

Well, in the Big Ten now, there are breaks that you receive or you're on the wrong end. And our schedule, I think we played four games in the last 13 days against some of the best opponents. So where other teams had it earlier. And obviously, we have an advantage being in the Midwest where we're closer to most of the teams in the Big Ten. The West Coast schools have to travel more. There's just disadvantage and advantages of being in a league this big.

So now by us securing the double bye, we have some time to practice and rest. We really haven't had an opportunity to practice in a couple weeks because the quick turns and the mandatory day offs and whatnot. And we don't have the depth that a lot of the other teams have. We've got a couple reserves that have been injured and ill and haven't played. And so we've been riding really six guys during this stretch. So it gives us a chance to kind of

Take a deep breath, find a way to get healthy, and then also practice for a couple days and try to clean up a few things. Yeah. Do you have a message to any Wolverine fans out there that might be thinking about hitting the panic button? Because I think the panic button might be in the room. They might be looking at it. They haven't smashed it just yet. But to those fans out there, do you have anything to say to them?

Give us two weeks. These are the most important games coming up. And yeah, I wouldn't hit it quite yet. We still have a group. We've got a heck of a front line that's continuing to

to put up staggering numbers, even when they're not playing their best. And, and I believe that we're going to make some shots. You know, if you would have said we were going to shoot 30% over big 10 play, I would have said, man, we're done early. We're not going to get, we probably won't make the big 10 tournament. And that's what we ended up doing after being really 20 games in, we were one of the top shooting teams in the country, top 20 shooting teams in the country from three and top three or four from two.

And over the last 14 games or so, I think we're around 355th or 360th. So there's been a big drop off in shooting. One of the factors is one of our best shooters hasn't played in a while. But yeah, I think we're going to make some shots. We were really close yesterday. We generated some good looks that just didn't drop. So I think we're much closer than the scores indicates as of late. I got a kind of not a basketball nerd question, but obviously your team this year, very, very good.

Struggle with turnovers. That's been kind of the bugaboo all year for you guys. Is there a specific drill or is there something that you do as a coach where you're trying to fix that? Because I'm just curious. It seems like something that would be difficult to fix, but I'm wondering what, as a basketball coach, this is what we have to go through to clean this part of our game up because if we can clean this part up, we're probably a lot better of a team than people expect.

Early in the year, we attributed to we were playing a little bit faster than these guys had ever played. We were really trying to sell something for the future, the recruits, a system, a style of play.

And then we realized that we weren't really turning it over when we were playing fast. It was mostly just the decision-making, the ball movement. We've tried every drill. I've consulted probably 25 different coaches. There's actually a group of us that were really struggling earlier in the year with turnovers that we were communicating with each other about what we were trying to do. And so the other two guys that were down at the bottom with us, those guys have made, they made a nice jump late. So they were able to fix it.

and using the same ideas. So we just haven't been able to yesterday we did in the second half. But it's, it's a myriad of things. I think we had three or four turnovers on, on illegal screens. We've been trying, we've been imploring our guys to screen more and get their teammates open. So it's been a different problem every night where there haven't been real consistent themes. And it's, it's something where hopefully yesterday, the second half, the light bulb went on and we,

you know, hopefully we can figure this out before it's too late. Okay. A couple, I did one thing off that. So there was a turnover, a group text. Who else was on it? That's awesome. I,

I'll just say my good friend, Coach White at Georgia, who I worked with for a number of years at Louisiana Tech in Florida. And I was actually talking to one of his assistants this morning. I said, hey, I haven't checked your turnover numbers lately. They've won their last four or five games against really, like they've caught, they found their stride in the last five games. And I asked if their turnover numbers were down because I didn't have time to research it.

And he said drastically and asked him what they were doing. And he told me the two drills that they had done consistently. I said, yeah, we did those as well. They didn't work for us. I mean, that's awesome that you had a therapy group with the coaches with high turnover teams. The other thought is, have you thought about maybe making everyone on the team dribble around a basketball in Ann Arbor and letting the entire student body know, like, hey, you can pickpocket at any time,

Like these guys have to do a better job with the ball. Just really making it just playground rules. Well, Big Cat, actually, a lot of our issues are over dribbling. So we're trying to go the other way. We'd like for these guys to be passing through crowds, passing around the fans, walking the sidewalks. But it's something to think about. Okay, yeah. So you need to pair everyone up and be like, you guys have to go to class together and you have to pass. The ball can't hit the ground. You have to pass all the way to class.

I like it. Okay. Or just run the three-man weave for an entire practice. Yeah. The ball never hits the floor. I always loved that drill because it was really fun to do as a player, but I don't think it helps in a basketball sense at all, the three-man weave.

There's a lot of, there's a, that's actually a debate, ongoing debate amongst coaches and it serves different purposes. Catching on the run and whatnot is not that easy, but a lot of times the defenders have something to do with it, especially when you're playing a team as physical as Michigan State and as intense as they are and as deep as they are.

They have a lot to do with those turnovers, and you've got to find a way to slow down and make simple decisions and reads. I would just run a practice where I had five guys on offense and then I'd have eight guys on defense and be like, take care of the ball.

We've done that against pressing teams. It helps. Yeah. So what's Danny Wolf's ceiling? Because I love watching him play. You know, I'm a Badger. We played earlier in the season, and the Vlad-Danny Wolf pick and roll was, I had nightmares about it afterwards. It just worked, like, over and over, and you guys were just running it over and over. But Danny Wolf, he's an incredible player. And, like, what do you think his ceiling is as a player?

I mean, he's just scratching the surface to be honest, big cat. He, he can shoot it. You know, he's still learning to trust his catch and shoot shot. He's always been such a playmaker that his first instinct is usually to catch and dribble and drive. And we're trying to get him to trust his three ball more for his long-term future. And for us, we had, like, as I said, we haven't shot it well, but his ability to dribble the ball, make, make difficult passes. I mean, he's, he's got a special, special gift and,

and he continues to try to simplify his game to get his turnovers down. But that Wisconsin game was kind of their coming out party, and we're glad to do it against your alma mater. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a great story too, Danny Wolf. Like he usually when a guy transfers from an Ivy League because he went to Yale, it's like, you know, a fifth-year senior or something, and he's like going to be, you know, a role player. He should have been playing Power 5 basketball from the jump. He's that good.

And he's a little bit of a late bloomer. I think even his freshman year at Yale, he had several DNPs, didn't play a lot. And that summer he played with the Israeli national team and just part of playing more and having confidence. And then his sophomore year, he really exploded and became one of the best players in the Ivy league. And at his height, the situations worked out well for him too. I do think Vlad, his ability to get behind the defense and catch any, any basketball in his vicinity, um,

has really helped Danny as a passer and helped his production. And as you guys saw in the Barstool Imitation last year, that's a big target around that rim. Yeah. Coach, we take ourselves pretty seriously as journalists here, and one part of that is trying to dispel any fake news that goes around. So I want to give you the opportunity to get ahead of this because we have an internal reporter here, a person who works at Barstool Sports. His name is White Boy Rick. Yeah.

and he is a massive Indiana Hoosiers fan. He reported that you would be the next Indiana Hoosiers head coach. Can we just say, is White Boy Rick, is he on to something? Because I think it's fake. I think he made that up as a fan, but I'll give you the opportunity to say what you want about it. I'm going to go with fake news on that one. Okay. White Boy Rick is fake news. Sorry, White Boy Rick. All right, but off that.

You're staying at Michigan. I think you signed a contract extension. Congratulations on that. Part of you does feel good when your name just gets thrown out there, when you see Indiana and everyone's like, he could save us. That's got to feel at least good for the ego. You're never going to leave. You're a Michigan man, but that has to feel a little good where you're just like, yeah, let me read a couple Indiana fans being like, we need Dusty May right now. Actually, it doesn't because –

You're better guy than us winning games and, and, and people that the coaches and people that you really, really respect saying, saying nice things about you. Those are, those are the ones that the only ones that really matter, um, is as far as that other stuff, you know, it, you lose a game and it's not, but yeah, I'm very, very happy at Michigan. Um,

Um, I appreciate the opportunity that these guys gave me and, and, and I'm excited about the foundation that we've laid in year one. Yeah. See, all right. So you're a better guy than us because I would definitely, if I, if I were in your spot, I, there would definitely be moments where like players would try to talk to me and I'd be buried in my phone and be like, sorry, white boy, Rick and, uh, who's your bong rips are saying they need me so bad right now. Who's your bong rips nose ball?

It's hard to pass up a compliment from that guy. Like, this is awesome. I'm their savior. Now that we're on topic, I wasn't aware of the Hoosier bong rips. I'm assuming he's got a real keen eye for hoops. Quiet eye. He's got a quiet eye. They're red, but yeah, he's got a good eye. I read that you bike to work every single day. Did you keep that up throughout the entire winter in Ann Arbor, or did you take a couple days off?

I took a couple months off. Yeah, that was a Boca thing. And I tried it the first day it got cold. I tried it and I was about a mile up the road and my hands were frozen. So then I'm riding with one hand, switching hands.

And so, yeah, it didn't work out. I parked the bike. The sun, it's 60. My wife just texted me a little bit ago. I left early, and she said it's 60 today. Make sure you make your calls outside. Yeah. And so apparently we're going to get a little bit of that Boca weather now, and, you know, I'm excited for it. Did it hurt a little losing that as a recruiting, you know, chip? Because when we last talked and we last had you on, I think you said, like, hey, when recruits come here, I just say look outside. How did you get your FAU guys to come up to Ann Arbor?

Did you just trick them? Did you delete the weather app off their phone?

The spring, summer, and fall in Ann Arbor are amazing. So that's when we're doing most of the official visits. Okay. And so we brought a lot of guys up from the south. So they didn't get hit with the sledgehammer until about really November, December. And it was too late. They'd already signed up. They're already here. Yeah. And you got to just tell them, hey, look, in the winter, you're going to be locked in the gym anyway. We got to get you better. So it's like, this is no distractions. You're in the gym.

Big Cat, you're a heck of a salesman. Let me know if you're interested in us creating a GM position. I would never do it for Michigan. Although, actually, maybe I kind of technically am just by working at Barstool Sports. For the right price, yeah. Well, Dave, I mean, everything at this company is just geared towards Michigan NIL. So I don't know if you heard that. You probably did. You probably have been in all the meetings. I've heard that. Every podcast we do on Pardon My Take, like half of the proceeds go to Michigan NIL. People don't realize that.

I like that. I'm a big fan. It sounds like we have one of the best leaders, quarterbacks coming in. Yeah. He's made a great first impression. Yeah. Get on the phone with Larry Ellison. Be like, hey, I hear that your wife really likes this guy. This five-star recruit from DeMatha. Big fan. So we had Rick Pitino in studio a couple weeks ago. He said he's not even recruiting high school guys this year.

Is that something that you've considered or is it like we still got to do both because obviously everything's changed with the NIL?

We're going to do both. We signed two high school players early, technically three, and we brought one in at Christmas time to register second semester. We thought that would help his development for next year. So we're going to do accommodation of both. We do think for long term sustainability at Michigan are there's a lot more constraints in recruiting than there are other places as far as we can't take students.

third-year juniors. There's some things. So we have to have a feeder system and be developing some young players. And also just the way that we like to coach and we like to teach. We enjoy the relationship piece. We enjoy having lifelong relationships with them. So we're going to do a combination. We're obviously going to hit the portal this spring aggressively, but we're going to continue to recruit high school players as well, just not as many as before. What is a Michigan man? And can you become a Michigan man, or is it something that you're born with?

you're definitely not born a Michigan man. I'm evolving into one right now. So it's someone that this place, there's so much pride and esteem in

the connection the relationships the brand of Michigan what it stands for it truly is an honor to walk into the functions and meet the people that I'm able to meet as the coach and our players are able to interact with so we take a lot of pride in representing Michigan and and what it stands for and and and the Michigan man is real to us we're trying to find guys that are they're high achievers they're extremely motivated they care about other people and and you

And we've done a good job of identifying those in the first cycle. I know that you're always looking to improve yourself as a coach. And I read that you were reading the, was it the Know Your Why book? The Why Is Everything? The book with Shanahan, McDaniel, McVeigh. I think you might have read that this fall. What did you pick up from that that you relate to your job?

Oh man, the evolution of McVay, number one. I think we all go through it at a different stage. I know years and years ago, I was an assistant coach and we got fired and it caused me to completely realign my values. And I instantly became a much better coach, much better mentor, much better father. And so that's the one thing that really stood out. And then obviously just the Shanahan's, their forward thinking. I don't follow football anymore. I used to

Um, you know, when she, when you have kids and you have this job, that's just demanding, you, you can't spend six or eight hours on a Sunday watching football or, um, you know, I do, I do watch college football still, but, um, and, and so just the, the,

the evolution of what that coaching tree was able to accomplish and how the forward thinking and the connection amongst them, how they helped each other and how they saw things in people that others didn't see and had a different way of doing things. Cause especially for us starting this year, we felt like we had to be different in some way. We couldn't simply come in and try to play like Purdue or,

or play like Michigan State, be a carbon copy and beat them at their own game. So we went with the two seven-footers. We tried to do things differently, and it allowed us to be in contention in the last couple weeks of the season. And that's all you can ask for other than finishing the job. Yeah. So in the course of a season –

You have all these ups and downs. How many times would you say after a practice you're like, that was a Bob Knight practice? Because obviously you started your basketball career underneath him in Indiana. Is there a moment where you can be like, yeah, you know what? That was a Bob Knight practice. Like the guys, we worked them really hard and they felt it and we got a lot done. Can you pinpoint how many Bob Knight practices you have a year?

We didn't have any this year. Oh, no. We didn't have any. Maybe you need to get one this week.

We need to, we'll have a few, we'll have a few, but we, we had a lot of, you know, we brought some guys in that didn't practice all summer. We were shorthanded really until September was the first time we could actually scrimmage with a full group. So we just didn't have the manpower to really bang with the physicality and, and, and develop the habits that we needed to, to, to be a, there's a, I said it yesterday in the postgame press conference, there's a big divide between first and second. Yeah. And we learned that this year, but going forward, we're,

we do know to get there what it's going to take, and it's going to be whether we're willing to do it or not and then catch the breaks you need to as far as health and whatnot. Would he ever turn fouls off in practice? Would he ever be like, all right, we're going to scrimmage and there's no fouls?

Yeah. And even, uh, I was talking to Damon Stoudemire at Georgia tech and, and, uh, about this, this past summer. And one of the ways that he said is the best teams he's been on or been a part of in the summer, they would have basically like bodies on bodies practices and then bodies off body. We're like one day a week and they would just be able to foul the heck out of each other. You're simulating certain opponents and yeah.

And then other days you're simulating just playing good, solid positional defense, trying not to make contact. So your guys are comfortable and familiar playing against any different style because there have been times when Vlad will have an off game finishing around the paint and we'll be watching film and I'll say, what happened here? What did you see? And he'll say, the guy just moved out of my way. It almost threw me off because I was expecting contact. Right.

And so just, but yeah, we, you know, if you're healthy and you got a full roster, we, we didn't play with near the level of physicality and toughness that Michigan state did. I would love to turn off for practice. Just be like, go for it boys. And if you don't want your players to hate you, you can outsource that too. You can call up Dan Campbell, be like, Hey coach, come in, run a practice for us. Have our guys just beat the shit out of each other. And then you get to come in and be good cop later on.

I like that. That's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. And if you're looking for a GM, I mean, you can, you can copy what the, what the Bonnie's did with Woj. Call up Schefter. Schefter would probably jump at the opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Woj is actually a good friend of mine and we were talking throughout that process. And so I, I, I tried to make a few overtures and, and I was, I was turned down. Yeah. Yeah. Did you, did you actually want Woj to work for you or were you like kidding around with him about that?

No, I did without a doubt with the scope that he's able to – I mean, he's got a worldwide brand. That position – and I think he's even taken the position there to another level. I mean, I don't want to stitch on it, but he's in Belgrade recruiting right now at the ANGT tournament. I mean, he's cast a big net, but –

The exposure that he's provided, I think fundraising, I mean, a guy like that could provide. I mean, that's the biggest area the last couple years. The biggest impact of a position like that would be someone who has ideas and connections to generate revenue. Yeah. All right, so, Coach, this has been awesome. I got one last question for you. It's a Roback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, Roback.com, promo code TAKE.

In your introductory press conference at Michigan, you said you don't have hobbies. So I believe it, but also you got to have some hobbies. So what's your number one hobby? And you can't say family. You can't say family. So outside of basketball and family, what is Dusty Mays actual, like if you had to pick hobby? I love to travel anywhere in the world. Kind of a cop out. That's literally just saying my hobby is vacation.

That's a cop out. That's like Hank. Yeah, we have a guy who does that. I mean, I enjoy playing golf for about three whole nights. Okay, you're Hank. We have a guy who's for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And I enjoy talking crazy amounts of trash when we're playing pickup basketball. Okay. You love Joe Mazzola. You are Hank. Yeah, you're Hank. Wait, do you? Anything. I mean, I like to bowl.

I just, I mean, I do it three times a year. So anything to compete. I love to compete. I mean, my wife and I, we play cards. I mean, we'll play solitaire next to each other and I'll talk trash to her even though the hands aren't even, you know, just keeping scores. When we're, you know, cornhole. Okay. These are good hobbies. Any game where you compete. Yeah, I'm a gamer. I don't like to...

You know, in high school I worked at a video store, so I used to be a movie buff. So I finally have a guy on my staff that gets maybe 5% of my jokes. I can't really tell jokes in the office anymore. I'm trying. So I got some hobbies. It's just I don't – I'm not going to go play golf once a week or twice a week. But if we have an outing, I'll go out and hit the club and make some jokes. Okay. So and then you said do you still play pickup with the guy? Like do you ever get out there and like try to run with the guys?

No, Coach White actually started this tradition at Louisiana Tech years ago. Every day we'd finish practice and then we'd work the guys out or get some shots up or whatever the case. And then as soon as the players cleared the floor, it was coaches versus managers and GAs. Oh, I love it.

And it's great camaraderie. It's a blast. So we did that La Tech. We did it all the way through Florida. We did it at FAU every day as well. We had some gym constraint times there. So sometimes it turned into tennis matches with a group of guys other than one that had never played tennis before. And so, but yeah, anything to compete. So I had major knee surgery a couple of years ago, but I've recently started playing again. I've played probably three or four times this year now.

and try not to go inside that three-point line on either side. That's smart. What's the hottest you've ever gotten from three?

In a pickup game? Yeah. Legendary pickup games. In a real organized game, not very hot. Yeah. That's great, though. I mean, that is good camaraderie. I mean, we play hoops here in our office on Friday afternoons, and basically there's one guy who's a total douchebag who calls a bunch of fouls, and we all just hate him, and that's camaraderie. Absolutely. We're like, yeah, that guy sucks. Yeah.

Nothing brings a group together like a douchebag calling terrible calls. Yes, exactly. Yeah, shout out Nicky Spokes. We can all agree on that. And if this guy stands on the logo at the end of a pickup game, we all just beat the crap out of him. We've simulated it. Powerbomb him, yeah. You go cable guy on him? Yeah, absolutely. I got that reference. There we go. We got it. All right, well, Coach, thank you so much. Really enjoy having you on every time, and best of luck in March. Likewise, guys. Big fan. Thank you.

Dusty was brought to you by Venmo, where you can sign up for the Venmo debit card in seconds and add your card instantly to Apple Pay or Google Pay to use your balance right away with no monthly fee, no minimum balance requirement. Pay in-store or online with your physical card or a digital wallet. It's up to you.

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And now, here's Pete Prisco. Ooh.

Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest, a good friend of the program. It is the Italian Stallion. You can see him on CBSSports.com or CBSSportsHQ. He's

He's tan as tan could be. It's Pete Prisco talking some NFL free agency. Pete, first of all, thank you for joining us. I wanted to start before we get to free agent winners and losers. Did you feel extra vindicated because I think that you're the number one

guy out there who always says, Hey, everyone shut the fuck up. It's always about the money. Did you feel extra vindicated when miles Garrett decided, Oh, I actually want to stay in Cleveland because they offered me so much money that I can't say no. Of course. It's always about the mom. I mean, think about this for a second.

He does that, and then you have DK Metcalf who says, I want to go to a warm weather and everything. And what did he do? He ends up in Pittsburgh. Yeah. I mean, so, yeah, absolutely. It's always about the money. Like I said, I go around and ask players, rank them. I think they all rank first. Money. What do you think they rank second? Hall of Fame.

Of course. And then the ring is third. And you know why? Look around. Guys sell rings all the time on eBay. You can go find Super Bowl rings. You know what they don't sell? They don't sell their money on eBay. You cannot sell money on eBay. That's against the terms of service. Correct. But you could try.

I actually might try to list some money on eBay. See what it goes for. Yeah, if we sign the money? Yeah. Autographed money. Is that illegal? Yeah. $100 bill. Sell it for $1,000. You could do that. Yeah, it might be illegal. That might be illegal. You can sell bathwater on eBay. I'm looking for you, too. I saw that. So there's actually one exception. You're right for the most part. I think it's always about the money. Chris Godwin, though, I feel like he could have gotten more money elsewhere. But he likes Tampa. He likes Baker. He likes that offense. He wanted to stick around.

Yeah, and again, it's your own personal choice. What's the difference? Some people will say, well, what's the difference between having an extra $15 million and not and being comfortable in Tampa? And I think in that scenario, he did like Baker. He likes the offense. He likes where he is. And I'm sure the family wanted to stay there. So sometimes you've got to be happy for the family and they'd make a choice rather than you make the choice. But again –

$15 million is a lot of money to leave on the table when you're talking about generational wealth and you're passing it on down to your families. And that's why these guys always say, oh, it's not about the money. Maybe not right now for you, that $15 million isn't big, but as it hands down from generation to generation, it becomes big. So-

It's always about the money. And it's also with the NFL, you know, a lot of these guys get one crack at it. You know, you get one crack at your free agency. You're not going to be sitting there when you're, you know, if you're playing an offensive line or defensive line, you're not going to be 35 years old being like, I'm still going to cash in. So the money is always important. All right. Winners and losers. Answer this for me, though. I said this on Monday, and I wonder because you watched the tape.

I don't really understand what the Seahawks are doing because I would rather have Geno Smith than Sam Darnold. And I think Sam Darnold's fine. I get it. He had a good year. The time he spent with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, he gets reunited with Clint Kubiak in Seattle. I get it. But I feel like Geno Smith was a better option, and I don't really understand it.

Well, he's older. We forget that Gino, I mean, you look at Sam Darnold, he's only 27 years old. I mean, you think of him as an old guy, but he's not. So I think they've decided to go in a younger direction because the money was getting a little out of control from what you hear, what Gino was looking for. And he's going to get that contract from the Raiders. Again, I go back to what I said before, free agency.

Two years ago, if you would have said Sam Darnold, 35 million, Geno Smith, 40 million, Daniel Jones,

You know, is a guy that can come in and compete for a starting job. Justin Fields getting two years and, you know, 20 million, whatever. You would have said, what are you talking about? But that's how starved and, you know, these teams need quarterbacks so badly that they're going to push up these guys and they get desperate. And that's what this is. This is all desperation. You know how many times Geno Smith has thrown 21 or more, over 21 touchdown passes in his career? Once. One time. Yeah.

And then you talk about Sam Darnold. Yeah, he had a good season, but what about the rest of his career? And what about when the games mattered down the stretch, the last two games? He didn't do much there. So I think desperation really impacts what these teams do with the quarterback position. I was thinking about it more from Sam Darnold's perspective. And again, it's probably always about the money. I'm sure Seattle offered a lot more than maybe Pittsburgh might have been offering if they were in the discussion. But the situation that he's going into in Seattle –

I don't feel good about it for Sam. He's got one weapon. The offensive line isn't very good. And I just, he's been at his best when the situation has been perfect around him. When he's had great coaching, he's had an incredible assortment of weapons on offense. And now it kind of feels like he's taking that step back and he's going to be asked to do a lot of it on his own.

I agree with you. It's not a great situation. And here's the other thing. How many, both you guys, I know you said it at the end of the year, everybody did. Oh, Sam Darnold became Sam Darnold again. Oh my gosh. Right? You said it. You said it, right? And so that's the biggest concern for me is, was what he did over the course of the regular season and aberration and he get back to the norm. And now you're going to get back to being Sam Darnold again. That's the concern I have with Sam Darnold.

Right, and life is a little easier when you're throwing it to the best, if not one or two, wide receiver in the league in Justin Jefferson. All right, biggest winner. Biggest winner that you've got from free agency, and I put a caveat on this because I think you agree, Pete –

Uh, when you win free agency, you're basically admitting you're, you're, you're not a good team because if you have to fix your holes in free agency, there's a reason for that. Like there's the, the teams that were in the playoffs and made deep runs last year are not the most active because they're already good teams.

Correct. And you're overpaying for players. You're playing great money for good players. And so you get in the cap problems down the road. I get it. I get it. But some teams have to make those moves. Your team is one of them. Had to make moves. The Bears had to make moves on the offensive line. They had to fix the middle of that offensive line. And they did. At least they feel they did. Now, there are some concerns with those guys. I'm always playing the flip side of it.

Dolman is a wide zone scheme center. And in that offense, how does he fit? Because that's not what they do. You know, Jonah Jackson was essentially benched last year. Didn't play very well. They know him. And then you got Joe Tooney. He's a great player, but he's 32 years old. Now you're going to have to pay him after one year.

So they do come with these asterisks next to them, but on the surface, I think they're great moves. And I love the Grady Jarrett addition. That guy, look, 10 years into the league, he can still get up the field. He's still going to be able to push the pocket, and I think that helps him from that standpoint. So I think the Bears actually did a nice job, but in two years we might be looking back on it and saying those are more stopgap because they had to do it than having guys for the long term. I agree with that. The one thing I like what the Bears did in the fact that

They made a very big weakness, what seems like fixed for now. You never know how it's going to turn out. But more than anything, they can now go into the draft where they have three picks in the top. I think it's like 60 select or no, it's even higher than that, like top like 50 selections because they have that Panther second rounder.

where they don't have to reach. They can conceivably go best player available with those three selections instead of saying, we need to get offensive line right now. I hope they still draft offensive line, but that's the part where I think they give themselves a little flexibility when it comes to the draft.

You know what teams don't do a good enough job of doing is draft an offensive lineman in like the fourth or fifth round who might not start right away, but you're developing them for a year or two down the road when they do step in and start. And that's why offensive line play is so bad in the NFL. The development is awful. Here's the other part of it. If you look at free agency, you know what everybody did?

They looked at the Eagles and they said, look how big and physical they are. Look what they do. And all the teams tried to mimic that. You know, look at both of your teams. You look at going to get Tunsell at left tackle. They want to get bigger. They want to get stronger. And they have questions on that offensive line with Cosme being injured. What do they do? Do you move Coleman, the right guard? Do you move guys around? Where's Wiley go? And so now everybody's trying to copy exactly what the Eagles did by getting bigger and stronger physical up.

run. I don't know that you can say that we're all copying the Eagles, like getting big, physical, strong, fast guys to play offensive line. That's generally been a good idea in the NFL.

Oh, I'm with you, but you know how many teams have shunned that idea over the years by drafting skilled players and this guy and that guy? There's only so many. I say it all the time. There's only so many big people on the planet who can play the game of football, and you have to find those guys. If you don't, you have major problems. That is true. I do like the Tunsell move, though, just because of what you said. Coleman, maybe put him at right guard for a little bit. He's played some of that. Move him over until Cosme gets back. Then he's kind of a guy that you can put at any position as you move forward. But with the Bears specifically, I like...

I like what the Bears did getting bigger, stronger, better, up the middle. Because it's one thing to say we're committed to Caleb Williams and to making sure that Caleb Williams has the perfect environment to succeed as a quarterback, which is what they did a lot of last year. And it's another thing to actually do something about it. And I feel like you're actually doing something about it now.

You know, it's funny. We think back to last year before the season, everybody said, oh, it's the greatest situation ever for a rookie quarterback. And it really wasn't. It wasn't because of the offensive line. Now, a lot of that, he holds the ball and he's got to quit, you know, thinking he's at USC where he can turn a play that's supposed to go one, two, three, four into a big play by getting out of there after the first read and making play. And sometimes he did. And sometimes he made –

unbelievable plays but a lot of times he took those sacks 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage and it moves him back so he's got to be better now that they're better in the middle he should be better yeah I agree and he does have to be better all right other winners other winners that you saw

The guards, the guard market. I mean, my God, look at the money being spent on those guys. You know, and again, it goes back to the, to the Eagles theory on, you know, building on the offensive line. I mean, you got guys coming off major, you know, Will Freeze is coming off and fries is coming off a major injury and he just got a

major contract from the Vikings. You know, Ryan Kelly got hurt last year for the Colts, got a decent contract from the Vikings because they want to get bigger. James Daniels coming off an injury. They want to get a guard in Miami. He got paid. So the guards across the board got a lot of money. And again, it goes back to following what the Eagles did.

Pete, let me ask you this. How are you getting your news updates yesterday when X.com, the everything app, became X.com, the absolutely nothing app, when you couldn't refresh it, you couldn't get live information? What were you doing for free agency? You know, we were on the air, and so somebody on our air actually had a

Their Twitter was working. Mine wasn't. And so we were kind of going through that. And, you know, Jonathan Jones was on with us. And so he was getting some live updates. But, yeah, what the hell happened? I got up in the morning. I'm like, the worst possible day for that to happen. I know. It was awful. It sucked. It was awful. So one other team I like. Actually, no, give me another winner. I'll wait to tell you who I like until I hear from the expert, Pete Prisco.

I thought New England, even though they had to overspend for a lot of guys, they had to fill spots and they did a nice job. I mean, when you go get Milton Williams, to me, that's big for them because he's a game disruptor. You can put him in there. Then you add Spillane, and people say they overpaid for Spillane, but he's a good football player. Landry, they know, is a pass rusher. You get Carlton Davis to team with Christian Gonzalez, gives him a nice one-two combination. So I think the Patriots actually did a nice job. Having said that,

They still need a left tackle. They still need a big play wide receiver, but they have an early pick in the draft that they can address that way. Yeah. They did a nice job with, with beefing up that defense, especially in also like a Harold Landry played for Vrabel, like trying to get the culture left tackle question.

The Chiefs, I mean, that one was a little bit of a head scratcher. They got Jalen Moore, who was a backup in San Francisco. Now, obviously, he's Trent Williams' backup, so it's hard to break through. But am I wrong to say that the Niners have not had the best offensive line? They've had a lot of injuries, and he never broke through, even switching positions. Is that going to be the fix for Patrick Mahomes?

Well, I think he played okay when he went in. He did a nice job last year when he went in and played for Trev Williams. And I think that's one of those things where you're paying for what's going up rather than what he is. So they're speculating a little bit on it. They're going to move, you know, Sumatia to inside to left guard. And now you're bigger and stronger on that offensive line. So it makes sense. You know, did you want to get crazy? They were going to go get in a Ronnie Stanley thing until he resigned.

in Baltimore. So did you want to go spend a bunch of money on some of those other left tackles? I mean, look what Tennessee did. I know. They paid Dan Moore a ton of money and everybody in Pittsburgh wanted that guy benched over the years. Now, he was better last year and he is only 26th.

and it allows them to move Latham to right tackle, which is where he should play. But that's a lot of money for Dan Moore. Does it also not feel like, and this could be speculating here, but doesn't it feel like it's trending towards the Titans are going to take Cam Ward now? I mean, that's...

It feels like they need something, and Cam Ward, I think Shador Sanders has some question marks. He feels like he's dropping in the mock drafts, but Cam Ward at one, which will leave the Giants in a very tough situation, the Browns in a tough situation where they're just, I don't think they have a plan.

Their plan would be to look at next year's draft when there's actually a lot of really good quarterbacks in the draft. And that's a problem. And look, I've talked to a lot of guys in the league the last couple of weeks. They're not all convinced that Cam Ward's the end all be all either. I mean, somebody told me, look, he's got to throw emotion from the side. We're going to draft them number one overall. And,

And there's a lot to like about Cam Ward. There's also a lot to not like. They turn big plays when he should stay in the pocket into bad plays. A lot of those guys do. Shador Sanders does as well. So will the Titans take 1-1 overall? I'm not sure they will, to be honest with you.

You know, Abdel Carter is a heck of a pass rusher, and those guys are hard to find as well. And I think you might be in that situation where you say, you know what, we'll bring a veteran in, Levis. You know, guys, I take enough grief from saying it on your show about Levis that it didn't quite work out for him, but he's still there. So I'm not sure they're going to take a quarterback at one. We're Will Levis, guys. I like Will Levis. I think that the Titans and the Giants, they have to get a different quarterback, though.

if you don't get a different quarterback, you're pretty much saying, like, I'm okay with being fired. Because I feel like this is the last chance that Dayball has, at least for the Giants. If you don't win some games this year, you're gone. You were almost gone last year. So the one – we know a lot about how coaches like to save their jobs –

And the easiest way to save your job as a head coach is to get a rookie quarterback. Maybe you don't start him right away. Maybe you put him in after four or five weeks. He shows some promise towards the end of the season. Then you make your case and you're like, well, you can't change coaches now. We got something good working here. We needed some consistency. That's like keeping your job 101. So I feel like the Giants have to do something about quarterback.

Well, the Giants probably are in a little different situation because they're both going to get fired if they don't win. In Tennessee, you know, the new GM isn't getting fired after one year if they don't win. So it's not necessarily, you know, Callahan's decision to make whether they bring one in. So if you're the GM of the Tennessee Titans and you look at next year's class and you say, you know what, if we're not that good this year,

What about the Pittsburgh Steelers? Are we under the assumption that Aaron Rodgers is going to be the quarterback in Pittsburgh next year?

Well, I think it almost has to be. If it's not Pittsburgh, where is it? The Giants? I mean, and it doesn't sound like he wants to do that, so it has to be Pittsburgh. And here's the thing about Aaron Rodgers at the end of last year. Aaron Rodgers finished with 28 touchdown passes last year. That's more than Mahomes. It's more than Herbert. It's more than a bunch of guys. And he actually played well in the last five or six games of the season when he looked healthy. You know, he talked the year before about, I'm coming back at the end of the year with my –

He didn't look healthy at all last year for the first seven, eight games. He wasn't the same guy. He wasn't moving around. His motion wasn't the same. And that's a big part of who he is. But at the end of the year, he started looking like Aaron Rodgers. So I think if Pittsburgh were smart, they'd find a way to make that work. I would agree. Also, he should take George Pickens on an ayahuasca trip. I feel like that could fix everything with George Pickens.

And maybe Metcalf with him, too. Yeah. Because, you know, both those guys are going to be, you know, give me the ball, give me the ball, I need the ball, I need the ball. You know, for all the talk about Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin's a great coach, but why can't he get that guy in line? I don't understand that. He kind of likes it. What's that? I think he kind of likes having a crazy guy on the team. I think he gets off on it. Yeah.

You might be right, but these coaches, they all talk about, well, what's wrong? Like Mike McDaniel at the end of the year came to the podium and said, I keep finding them and finding them and they're still late. That's on you. Yeah. That's on the coach. Yeah. I mean, these guys got to, you can't allow that to happen. I wouldn't, it's just like, I wouldn't allow it to happen if I were him. Who's a, what team or move is a head scratcher to you where you're like, I don't know what, I don't know what their plan is here. I don't know what their path is. It just kind of making moves to make moves.

Well, the Aaron Banks signing in Green Bay is a little head-scratcher to me because of the way they structured the contract. But more than that,

He wasn't very good last year. You know, you talked about Moore. Moore was better than Banks last year, and some people think Banks was the worst offensive lineman on the line. And here he is getting a nice contract because they're going to move Elton Jenkins to center. And I don't know if that's a good move by the Packers. I think it makes them bigger. Again, we go back to that whole theory about getting bigger and stronger, but does it make you better? That one kind of was a little bit of a head-scratcher for me.

Okay, and then any other teams that you're like, hey, why weren't they more active? Or you thought they were going to do something and they just weren't able to capitalize on the first day of free agency?

Well, I thought Atlanta might look into the pass rusher market a little more, and they didn't. That one surprised me a little bit because I like the makeup of the offense. I think Pennix is going to be really good, but defensively, they need to get a pass rusher, and I think that surprised me a little bit because there were some guys on the market that they could

indeed go get. Now they don't even have Grady Jarrett to push the pocket on the inside. So I think pass rush could ultimately be their biggest problem next year. Do you think before the end, let's just say by the draft, by the draft, do you think Kirk Cousins is still a Falcon?

There's some bitterness there now. I mean, you know, you look at what happened with him at the end of the season when he kind of threw him under the bus by saying he was injured and he played injured. He was on the report. From what I hear, they weren't real thrilled with that. And now they can keep him for $10 million and keep him as a backup and make him unhappy. And so, yeah, I do think he's still on their roster. I wouldn't do it.

If Michael Penix is my quarterback, I don't want Kirk Cousins behind him at all. I don't think that's a good situation. Unhappy Kirk Cousins wants to play. I don't think he's going to be great about it. And people say, oh, he'll be wonderful. No, you're not. You want to play. You're not going to be the same guy you were when you were playing. So I think they need to let him go.

Yeah. What about what about the Niners? The Niners lost everybody. This feels like it's the start. It might be the start of a rebuild or it might just be the reality of knowing that you have to pay Brock Purdy. And so you have to start making some moves for the future.

But really, when you look at it, Devo Samuel wasn't close to being what he was. I mean, he got he was 20 pounds heavier last year. He looked like it. He was slow. What is he? Is he a receiver? Is he you know, if he gets in shape, it's a different story. But he wasn't the same guy last year. And you look at some of the other guys they lost. You know, losing Ward is big. I think that's important to them. Sure. The corner Ward. He didn't play as well last year. He missed time, but he had a lot of stuff going on. Yeah.

off the field. I think that hurts them. But 49ers still have stars. Let's not forget. When Trent Williams comes back, star left tackle. You have Kittle. That's a star. You go to the defensive side of the ball. You got Bosa. You got Fred Warner. There's still stars on that team, and stars usually show up. They just got to stay healthy. They lost Juszczyk, though. Come on. It's donated down. You give to the fullback. You hate fullbacks. Come on. What the hell is that? Where's your boy Russell Wilson going? Speaking of guys you hate,

Hate. I think my hate, it's not hate. It's a reality. I was right about him all along, and nobody ever believed me. Look, if it's take away the moon ball on the sideline, what does he do? He never throws to the middle of the field. He might be the guy, by the way, when all the chairs are taken, he doesn't have one. And so I don't know if he's going to be a starting quarterback anymore. Oh, wow. What about the Giants?

Do you get that desperate if you're the Giants? I think you have to. I mean, who are you going to play? If you don't – let's say Cam Ward goes 1-1 to the Titans, and you said that might not happen. What about the Giants going to get Cam Ward, though? What? Yeah. Yeah, all right. So what if the – all right, so let's say they get the Giants, get Cam Ward. Are you going to – are you going to start him week one? Yes. Okay. Just like –

And by the way, in listening and watching some interviews and talking to people about Cam Ward, he's got a little bit of the Jaden Daniels cockiness from a year ago that I love. I think, you know, there's something about that. And so you kind of listen to these quarterbacks. You kind of get a read on them, which is kind of why I'm worried a little bit about J.J. McCarthy. You know, there's a lot of I don't know if he's ready to take over as a starting quarterback necessarily.

it'll be interesting to see if the Vikings can make that work. Yeah, I mean, Kim Ward's story is incredible. His rise is... I mean, he's got that dog in him. All right, Pete, we got a really important thing we want to do here. This is really the reason you're on. Our producer, Max, diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, he is very upset at you because you have ranked quarterbacks every which way in the offseason, and

Somehow, Jalen Hurts is always ranked behind a bunch of guys who have not done anything close to what Jalen Hurts has done. So I told Max to prepare. Max is prepared. He said he's not going to...

What was the exact quote you said? I'm not going to speak articulately. Yeah, articulately, which is I was like, all right, we're off to a good start. So, Max, go ahead. You have the floor with Pete. Tell him what you think. Well, this isn't the first time you've had this debate with a Philly person. I already saw that you went on 97.5 and the Philly Sports Talk Radio and did the same thing. It's about that video, which I basically just want you to admit that it was clickbait because there's guys on that list who

Who you just can't make that debate for. Explain the list, Max. The list that he did, it was a social video, and the question was, who is the quarterback that you would rather have over the next five years? And it was Jalen Hurts compared to a bunch of different quarterbacks.

Some of them, I don't even, I can understand that you can make an argument for. Jaden Daniels, fine. Justin Herbert, disagree, but I don't know film, whatever. I understand there's film people that like Justin Herbert. I'm not going to argue Justin Herbert. You argued with me about Justin Herbert. I said people in Los Angeles would take him. Yeah, but you're not a film guy. You don't know film either. Okay, alright. So then where did you have problems? C.J. Stroud, Young, whatever. Trevor Lawrence, I respect you dying on a take. It's a

bad take but you you've been to the Trevor Lawrence guy since day one so you have to have you have to go there over the next five years the fact that you there's two quarterbacks that you just can't make this debate for over the next five years what makes you think that Dak Prescott and Baker Mayfield are both better options at quarterback than Jalen Hurts

Dak Prescott is 31 years old. Baker Mayfield is 30 years old. And they have shown nothing in the NFL for the first eight years of their career. What does Jalen Hurts need to show more of rather than those two guys?

It's just a clickbait video that you had to do if you're going to include Dak Prescott and Baker Mayfield over Jalen Hurts. You know what? Didn't Nick Sirianni call you out? Yeah. And you know what? Nick Sirianni called you out rightfully so because you probably wanted him fired just like every other Eagles fan. But more than that, every other Eagles fan probably bitched and moaned about Jalen Hurts. I

over the course of the entire season. And then he wins the Superbowl and all of a sudden he's, he's become the greatest quarterback in the history of the national football league. He's a good quarterback. Would I take Baker Mayfield over him for the next five years? Yeah. And by the way, you say, what did Baker Mayfield do when Baker Mayfield was in Cleveland? He was really good. Then he got hurt. He won a single wildcard game.

He won one playoff game with a very good offensive line and a very good run game, which you like to diminish Jalen Hurts for. There was the number three run game and the number one offensive line in the league. That's what Baker Mayfield has done. That's what you like to diminish Jalen Hurts for. Max prepared. Max, by the way.

I had the same argument with an Eagles fan in my building. And you know what I went to? Because you guys always go, he won a Super Bowl. He outplayed Patrick Mahomes. He won a Super Bowl. He outplayed Matt. So winning a Super Bowl, yes, it's a team thing. It's not a quarterback thing. We know that, right? We know that, right? All of a sudden it is now. Hold on, Pete. I'm going to jump in on Max's side. He's outplayed Patrick Mahomes in two Super Bowls. And he didn't win the one. Yeah. Now, you know what I went to? I went to the heart of the Philly fan.

he was trying to say that he's better because he wins his games. So Allen Iverson, did he ever win anything?

He went farther than Dak Prescott and Baker Mayfield. Did he ever win anything, Max? Did he ever win anything? One more than Dak Prescott and Baker Mayfield. The point being he's one of the great players of all time, but he didn't win anything. So you can't take winning something and just say, oh, Jalen Hurts is a great quarterback because he won. The offense is perfect. If you rank the position group on offense, go through the Eagles. Rank them one through four. Offensive line, pass catchers, running back, and quarterback. Where does he rank?

Where does he rank within that list? Yeah, it's a good thought experiment. Who do you have? I personally have the offensive line number one. He's fourth. They all compliment each other. But he's saying he's fourth. He's fourth. He's fourth. He's the fourth in the group. But they make each other better. He's fourth. Somebody has to be fourth. He's fourth. You would agree with that?

I don't know that I would. Yeah, no, he's got you. I don't know that I would. Yeah, he would. I rest my case. But what is that case? That the Eagles have a good football team? I know the 97-5 guys did this to you already. You picked them to lose every game in the playoffs. So you didn't think that they were that good.

I didn't pick them to lose. I didn't pick them to lose every game. Okay, you picked them over the Rams. You picked the Packers over them. You picked the Commanders over them. You picked the Chiefs over them. So you didn't think that they were that good. Yes, I was wrong about that. I was incorrect. And I will sit there and I will say I was incorrect at how good they were. And they're really good. But when has we gotten to a point in sports where playing well in big games doesn't matter?

Dak Prescott does not play well in big games. Dak Prescott puts up numbers against the Giants where he gets 400 yards and five touchdowns, and everyone's like, oh, look at Dak Prescott's numbers for this year. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the league because he beats the shit out of shitty teams, and then when he comes down to it, when he needs to show up, he never does.

He never does. He led the NFL in touchdown passes. Yeah, because he put up numbers against shitty teams and absolute blowouts. That's what Dak Prescott does. I would rather a quarterback who wins football games, carries the game. Once they're winning, they run the football, run the clock out, doesn't put up garbage time numbers. And then when it comes down to it and times that matter, he shows up. Jalen Hurts does that. Dak Prescott does not.

Dak Prescott's not the fourth if you went position group one by four on his team. Oh, so now the Cowboys have a bad roster? Last year we were talking about how their offensive line was the best offensive line of all time. And you know what they did? He went down 27-0 to the Packers. I'm not going to call Jalen Hurts a weak link. I'm not going to call him a weak link of the offense, but if number four is the weak link, then he's the weak link of the offense. But Pete, you didn't answer his question. When did we as sports come to the point where winning doesn't matter?

That's not what I'm saying. Winning, of course, winning is the only thing. Well, beside money, but winning is the second most important thing. And so, yeah, it matters. And look, Jalen Hurts played great in the big moments. Nobody's taking that away from him. Well, you are. No, I'm not. I never did. And by the way, quarterbacks, there's five elite quarterbacks, including Jaden Daniels, by the way. There's five right now. Then the rest of them are kind of lumped from six to 13 or 14. They're all kind of in together.

That's the difference. That's what the league is right now. And Jalen Hurts is in 6-15. It's just your preference. See, here's where I agree with Max. I hate that you're making me agree with Max. Putting Dak Prescott on there feels – that feels a little over the top. I mean, of all the ones, you could pick that one apart. But the rest of them, look, I would take Herbert over them for the next five years. I would take – who else? Trevor Lawrence? Yep. Trevor Lawrence? I would take Trevor Lawrence. That's crazy. That's crazy.

Trevor Lawrence has had four seasons, one with Urban Meyer, you have to wipe it away. Then Doug Peterson's offense was terrible, by the way. Also, Pete, that's basically saying if you take away Trevor Lawrence's bad years, he's actually really good.

Well, he was good two years ago, and he's been good when he's healthy. He's been hurt. Jalen Hurts was good two years ago. Yeah. Jalen Hurts hasn't had to learn a bunch of different offenses, though, has he, Max? No, no. He's actually had the same regime, offensive coordinator and play caller, every year of his career. No, he hasn't. No, he has not. I get it. That's changing every single year.

The bottom line is, with that offensive line, it makes it so much easier. What did Saquon Barkley average? 4.2 before he was touched last year? Dak Prescott's never had a good offensive line? Trevor Lawrence has never had a good offensive line. But you're using arguments for other people and not for others. He's willing to concede the Dak point.

The Dak point has been conceded. Well, the Trevor Lawrence thing I don't even care about because I respect that. He's had this Trevor Lawrence take forever and you die with it. Everyone knows that if you have a strong take, you die with that. So really now we're just arguing about Baker Mayfield because he's already given you Dak, so now we're on Baker. Yeah. And I think he's got a better case for Baker. How? Baker's pretty good. He's played well. What has he done? He's won a lot of football games. He played well for the Browns. He had a great offensive line. He got benched in Carolina. Yeah.

It's Carolina. Didn't Baker beat the Eagles? Yes, in an absolute dumpster fire of a year in Philly, Baker came in and beat the Eagles and then lost in the next round. Congrats. Well, I mean, look, Baker Mayfield, it's close. Like I said, they're in the same grouping, but I would take Baker. What did Baker Mayfield do this year? He played the Commanders. He had a chance to ice the game, and he fumbled in his own territory to lose the game.

Jalen Hurts went out and won football games. Baker Mayfield lost. We're looking at the most recent situation. They played the same team. Baker Mayfield put up 20 points. Jalen Hurts put up 52. 52 points. A lot of fumbles. Look, in a lot of those games, Jalen Hurts threw for under 200 yards, didn't he? Baker Mayfield threw for 180 yards in that game when he needed to throw the ball to win.

Jalen Hurts didn't need to throw the ball to win in those games that he didn't throw for 200 yards. Right, because he's the fourth option on the offense. Because they were winning the game. It's game script. This is Italian on Italian crime. I love it. This is a supreme debate. Yeah, two Italians just going toe-to-toe. Does he still want Nick Sirianni fired? That's what I want to know.

He does not. Nick Sirianni, my guy, never said a bad word about it. Yes. Yes, you did because you're an Eagles fan. And by the way, I lived outside of Philly when I was a kid. I know how my first football game was at Franklin Field. I saw the old Eagles play way back in the day. So I know how passionate Eagle fans are. I love them. They're great. They're nasty. They're vile. They're disgusting. They're everything you want about an NFL fan.

Way to date yourself there. Franklin Field, did you watch that game in black and white? You know, it was Joe Green's rookie year, by the way, when he was with the Steelers. And he actually got into it and threw a helmet across the field that day. I was a little kid, but I remember it. I love it. Well, I think that was a great conversation between you and Max. I respect the disagreement. I think you guys both handled yourselves well. I got Italian. I got Italian.

It's fine. Don't apologize for being a talent. Look, I mean, I got it. I can give it to him. I told Sirianni when I saw him at the combine, I said, for that little period at the end of the year, I was one of the most hated people in Philadelphia. People were coming at me nasty. And he said, now you know how I feel.

Yeah, that's true. We got another Italian in the booth memes. So I'm just curious. He's not going to get as angry as Max because he's a pretty chill guy. But do you like the Justin Fields signing to the New York Jets or are you racist?

No, I like it. You have to do something. You have to do something. Yeah. I mean, otherwise you're the Giants right now trying to panic. You know, you had to do something. I like, I think Justin Fields has talent. I think they can, if they can fix that, build that offense around them, get them creative. Yeah. I think you can make that work for a couple of years. Scott Turner. Yeah. Let him work his magic. Is there one signing that you have that's like underrated? One that only you love? I'll throw one out there too after I hear yours, Pete.

I think the bills did a nice job by adding Palmer to the offense. They need to get somebody who could go down the field. And I think Michael Hoyt's a good football player from the Rams. I think the bills quietly had two good signings and they kept their own and they made the quarterback happy. They've had a good off season. All right, here's mine. And this could be a crazy take. Uh,

I think Zach Wilson might be okay because Tua's going to get hurt at some point because he always does. That offense, like, you don't have to think a lot. I don't hate that. They need to do something where you get someone behind Tua that is not just like a total journeyman that, you know, you can't tread water with. I wouldn't be shocked if we see Zach Wilson play in Miami next year, and I think he's going to play okay.

Everybody likes the story of the comeback quarterback, right? Everybody points to Baker. Baker did it. Well, Baker was good early in his career. Zach Wilson's never been good. I don't see that one. All right. It's a bold take. It's a bold take. It is a bold take. I'm just saying. I'm not saying he's going to light the world on fire. I'm saying, like, say Tua misses five games. I think Zach Wilson would go three and two.

I will say this. He'd be better off than what they did last year trying to replace Tua. They were not prepared for that at all. Again, it goes back to the fault of the coach. Why weren't you better prepared for that to have somebody in there ready to go? So, yeah, I'll give you that. It's better preparation this time around. All right. I got one more name that maybe the Giants could look at if they get desperate, if they're not able to do something at quarterback position. Marcus Mariota. No. No.

No, come on. It's just a no? What's he only like 31? He's young. I mean, if you're playing Marcus Mariotti, you might as well just get your resume ready because you're gone. Come on. Give me a break. That isn't working. If they get desperate. The move that I like that's a little bit under the radar, the Rams getting Puna Ford. Good player up the field attacks. I think that is actually a really good signing for them. The Rams know what they're doing. I will say this. The Rams need to get faster.

You know, everybody raved about the Devontae Adams signing. He's going to be 33 in December. And you look at their offense. They have no speed on that offense. There's none. Nobody scares you. They brought Tutu Atwell back because he's the only speed they have. But everybody plays him in a phone booth. The running back's not fast. The wide receivers aren't fast. They're good players. They're not fast. They've got to get fast. But I feel like you passed over the Puna Ford thing too quickly. He just has to switch locker rooms. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a great signing. The Rams need a run signer. They can get after the passer already. They've got some good players on the outside. The Rams are going to be good on defense because their front seven is going to be good. And Puna Ford. How do the Chargers let a guy like Puna get away? Just go to another locker room, too. He's walked down the hallway.

Yeah. Well, if Aaron Rodgers signed with the Giants, wouldn't that be the same thing? Yeah, true. That's a good point. All right, Pete, I got one last question. Roback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com. Promo code TAKE.

Not free agency related. How about draft related? Because you were in Indy. Is there a guy that you have your eyes on? Maybe a quarterback because you watched the tape that everyone's talking about Cam Ward and Shador Sanders. What's Pete Prisco's quarterback that he's like, hey, check this guy out. He's going to be good.

I don't really love the quarterback class, but a guy I would take in the third or fourth round would be McCord from Syracuse. Oh, yeah. I think he's got – he stands in the pocket. He takes shots. He's tough physically. Not a great athlete. Makes all the throws. I think – and he played really well at Syracuse last year. I think McCord has a chance to be – if you draft him in the third or fourth round, he can end up being a starter down the road. I like that.

I like that. All right, Pete, you're the best. Thank you so much. Thank you for doing it. You know what I got to do before I get out of here? Yeah. The fourth option on that Eagles offense is who? Offensive line, running back, wide receivers, and then the quarterbacks.

quarterback yeah it is he got you on that i got it i have him slightly above dallas goddard if that makes any difference to you that's good that's really good he got you on that max that was tough you weren't playing for it was just that the eagles are good yeah yeah and which you which is impossible for you to argue against yeah you can't yeah he got you he checkmated you really good and i was an idiot who picked against them all year yeah all right pete thank you so much man we love you all right guys

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Exclusively in theaters March 21st. Check it out. It's called Locked. You're going to see it. Your friends are going to be talking about it. Go see Locked in theaters. All right, let's wrap up the show. We got guys on chicks. Hank. Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do it. Sup. Sup. Sup, Hank. Sup. Sup.

Hi. Hi. Sup? My name is Natalie. Sup, man? Oh, hey, Natalie. I'm from Los Angeles. Oh, I don't think we've ever done this. And I have a chick question. She sounds hot. Yeah. Natalie from Los Angeles is going to say it right off the rip. Hot.

Is it possible for a girl to give a guy the ick? And if so, what is it? But also, if a girl is so hot, is she just except from all icks? I think she meant exempt. Thanks, guys. Big Yakker over here would love to hear your thoughts. I think if she listens to part of my take, that's a major sub. If she listens to a competing pod, if she listens to New Heights, ick. What is the ick? What was it?

What? The guy pulls up wearing some of these. Yeah. She's going to get it. Yeah. She's going to get it. If a chick pulls up listening to part of my take on a cracked iPhone screen, she's going to get it. She's going to get it. She's going to get it. A white iPhone cracked. Yeah. Yeah. That's my opposite. Ick is when her iPhone screen is just demolished. Yeah. I don't know. What would be the girls? Yeah. What would be some X?

I'll say it. There's a lot. I think guys get the, I mean the, I don't like the word. Yeah. I think it's just like, it's, you know, the, it existed before the name existed, but it's just like red flags, I guess. Or I'll say it. And listen, this is not, I woman's brains is important. Not the smartest. That, that, that is a big egg. If they have them, if they don't, if they're not the smartest, I think that goes both ways. And then girls think the same way. If a guy's really dumb, definitely. Yeah. I would agree with that. Um,

Big Ick, if your girlfriend or wife doesn't make your lunch every morning before you go to your construction site with the special stuff. Someone said that that was eerily similar to a King of Queens episode. Hand up. Didn't really watch King of Queens. So if we got got.

Good job. You can get us with King of Queens plot lines all day. He wasn't a construction worker, though. He was a postal worker, wasn't he? Yeah, he worked for FedEx, right? No, the other one. UPS? UPS. UPS, yeah. You can probably get us on every... King of Queens was a big time, like, came on after Seinfeld and would watch some of an episode occasionally. I think it was different... Wasn't that different networks? Yeah, and also, King of Queens is way later than Seinfeld. But, like, I've heard...

It was on after a show. I see what you're saying. It was on after a show. I feel like it was big on the CW network. Yeah. And it would be like two and a half men, King of Queens and...

Maybe Seinfeld. King of Queens feels like a lot of... I think people liked it, but I think a lot of its ratings was on in a barbershop, on in the middle of the day, like at 3 o'clock, the CW's on, on it like a bodega. That's what... Yeah, it was either on right before or right after a show I would actually watch. Was it Everybody Loves Raymond? No, no.

I think it's closer, though. I think it's everybody. I would say our weak point in this podcast, if you want to get us, is any very generic sitcom that was very popular, not named the Seinfeld of the office. I think you'd get us. Absolutely nail us on Friends plot lines, too.

Big Bang Theory could get us. You could get us on How I Met Your Mother. Yep, exactly. Oh, I got How I Met Your Mother. Oh, you do? Yep. Okay. I've seen every episode like three times. But yeah, that would be the part of our armor that is very weak. Okay. Natalie, you're hot.

No one's talking about him. Hank. Hank.

No one's talking about the calves. I think having a Browns-themed kitchen is the funniest possible room to have. Yeah. You're never making anything healthy in that Browns-themed kitchen. Browns-themed kitchen, maybe also a Browns-themed dining room that you only use for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That would also be very funny. Yeah, that'd be good, too. It's like your fine dining room.

That one room in your house that you're just like, yeah, we sit in this room three times a year. But you know what I'm saying? Like, if your kitchen's Brown's theme, you always have some sort of, like, greasy roast that's cooking in the oven. You always have gravy on the stove. There's always a bowl of dog food, even though you don't have a dog. Yeah, just in case. This is an easy one, though. Say no Brown's kitchen. Every toilet's Brown. Brown toilets should be more popular. You hide the stains. Easy.

You should be like, listen, honey, we'll do every toilet in this house Browns. I think Browns themed laundry room could play too. Yeah. Garage. Garage seems like a Browns zone. Yeah. That feels like a natural setting for the Browns. Okay.

Next. Cavs? No Cavs. Cavs? Oh, you want to talk about the Cavs? Let's respect the Cavs. Cavs are really fucking good. She said, go Browns. Nobody's talking about the Cavs. You don't respect how good the Cavs are. You don't respect how good the Cavs are. No, I do. You overlooked them the other day. You were like, they never won a championship. We won a championship. No, no, no, no. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. No, no, no. Misrepresentation of what I said. They're...

They haven't won a championship. You have to respect the champions. The Cavs are their number one seed. They're going to be the number one seed. They've had the best regular season. They've won 14 in a row. Yeah, so? But again, your respect for the Cavs. I respect the Cavs. I'm excited to play them. If we're fully healthy, we will win. You just say we're the NBA champions. We are. That's your analysis of the Cavs. No, that's a fact. So give me some analysis of the Cavs. Cavs are a good team. Hot shooting team.

But I am not scared of them in the playoffs. I mean, it's not out of the question the Cavs could get to 70 wins the way they're playing. They're 54-10. They finish the season 16-2 at 70 wins. Diabolical big cap move, too. Super nice guy, but having the Cavs come in. Oh, yeah. I wasn't here that night. I know.

Max Struess wanted to stop by. He's going to come on the show this summer when he's back. But the schedule didn't work out. They landed at like 6 p.m. He had a dinner at like 8. He wanted to come by. I had to go home to do dinner with my kids. And I was like, hey, Hank, can you show Max Struess around? He's a great guy. Yeah, no, they were good guys. It made me like them, and I don't want them. You don't want to like them, yeah. And who else was there? Sam Merrill and then one of their equipment managers. Yeah. We will get them on, though.

Whatever. But the thing is, I don't think I've heard you say any of their players by name, except for Max Roos, which you were just kind of forcing to saying. Donovan Mitchell, not afraid. You have not said Donovan Mitchell, I think, ever on the history of part of my take. I don't think you've said those words. Donovan Mitchell. Okay, there it is. We just broke ground there. If they can make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, it'll be exciting. Okay. Also, get too hot too early. What? That's mean. That's mean, Hank.

No, I'm just saying it's going to be tough to keep this streak up. You gave a little look at Big Cat when you said too hot too early. Nope. Yeah, he did. He did. There was a look. It's fine. Was the camera on Hank when he said that?

It's fine. Troll Hank has been unleashed. We'll break the film down. Fader Hank has been unleashed. It's not trolling if you just are honest. Yeah. No, I told you I had no problem with it. We're going to be- You're calling me a troll. Well, you are a troll. Well, that was a troll move. You are a troll. That was not you being honest. That was you throwing a little jab in under the radar. And you are a troll. My radar is perfect. So are you. So are you. Yeah, I know. I know. We're all trolls. That's why we get along. Yeah.

Just living under a bridge together. You need to accept the fact that you're a troll. Yeah. I do. And I'm upfront and honest about it. Are you? Fading, yeah. I've been saying I'm fading once you lose for two weeks. Yeah, you have. I knew it was coming. Hey, boys, I have a really great boyfriend. Top tier kind of guy. And I have very few notes slash complaints. However, there is one thing.

He's addicted to the cry laughing emoji. It's nonstop. Every other text, there it is, just taunting me. I'm not that funny. At least not cry face emoji. Every other text, funny. Am I just being a happiness hater? Shout out to Average Height Kings. Shout out to Average Height Kings. All right. I think there's like a scale in terms of your response to something funny that applies to how funny you actually think that it is. So if it's...

If it's ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, that means you really think it's funny. I think that's funnier than crying. Two ha's is not funny. No, two ha's. Three ha's is very funny. Ha ha period means kill yourself. Yeah. And ha means, dude, that's fuck you. Yeah. Ha. But crying laughing emoji is better than ha ha.

Yes, but crying laughing emoji. You can't use you got to know your text relationships to like if the other person is using it, you can use it, but you can't be the only one using the crying laughing emoji. What I would say to him is

Why not just have him? My move is, you know how you add the thumbs up or the heart? I don't do the ha-ha adding thing. I do the exclamation point. Same. That's good. That's a good one. Where someone says something funny or interesting, just do the exclamation point. But if you do the crying, laughing emoji every time, that feels dismissive. It feels like you're just trying to move on. Unless you do like seven of them. Then you're literally crying, laughing, and almost dead. And what about LOL? LOL.

I don't like LOL. LOL is pretty much like go fuck yourself. No, LOL. I use LOL a lot. I use LOL too. It's more of like. It's like LOL then next sentence. LOL is more like breaking it up being like, hey, I'm joking here. Or like to break the tension of like, oh, LOL, I'm late. Yeah. I don't know. Something like that. Or just say something outlandish. It's like the ha-ha, just like LOL. Yeah. Like it could have been used like LOL after like one in 15 props. What about LMAO?

I use LMAO. I'm a bad texter, though. I'm probably the wrong person to be answering this question. You're the worst texter. I don't think you're a bad texter. Why is Hank a bad texter? Ask any person who's ever worked underneath him. Why? What do you do? I'm a short texter, which is dramatic. It's definitely a dramatic thing, but it's tough. I think girls are over texters and want more texting, and people think that I'm upset or being like...

because I just answer a question. Ah. Like, okay. That's the Dave Portnoy school. You're too honest. Yeah, you've been to the Dave Portnoy school. It's just like texting to me is a means to an end. And it's like, you have a question, here's an answer. And then they're like, why are you mad? It's like. I'm not. You asked a yes or no question. But you are kind of mad. And I said yes or no. You are kind of mad. No, I'm not. When you have to answer any question, you are a little mad. That is a fact.

If I ask you any question, you're just a little bit mad. No. Yes. I appreciate somebody who texts like Hank. Yeah, no. PFTs are the same way. But do you agree, PFT? When you ask Hank a question, he is a little mad at all times. He's usually mad that you're asking for his time. I have resting anger face. It's something I'm working on. I'm trying to find the light in life, but it's...

it's an issue it's a little bit it's been an issue for a few years my texting there's an underlying like five percent mad at any question no yeah you're you're you're a great texter thank you me and pft are probably on one side of the boat and you're on the other house texting to me is it's a means to yes a transaction it's like okay i have a question i got my answer good interaction

I just have to, when we're pushing this show and we're trying to plan, I have to push us with some texting. No, I know. And I feel like you text. Like, I text you probably the most. And I'm like, I feel like Big Cat's also texting, like, four or five other people. You're a texter. Communicator. Over-communicator. Do you feel like...

When you send the exclamation point or ha, like, are you hoping that that ends the conversation? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's the best way to end it. Yeah. Yeah. Just exclamation point and then just hope. Yeah, it's over. Yeah, because you don't want to keep it going. Like, you get in those situations where you keep going back and forth. You're like, this conversation has ended like six texts ago.

You know who I have a lot of respect for is the LMAO guys on Twitter. Yeah. Because they're just fucking with you. Yeah. That's like two middle fingers in your face. Yeah. If you put the LMAO on their conversation over, you lost. They're clowning on you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Getting a quote to eat LMAO feels bad. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Let's do numbers. Let's do numbers. The boys are coming in. I'm going to go with three. Oh, that was a tie. That was such a tie. That was a clean tie. That was an impossible tie. Oh, memes. What do we want to do? Rock, paper, scissors, shoot? I don't know. We can rock, paper, scissors, shoot for it. Do you want it? Do you want three memes? I want it. I also want three. I want it. All right. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot? All right. One time. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Ah, you got me. Should have stuck with rock. Three. All right. Also, Justin Fields is not three. In the graphic, he was. Yeah, he was. That sounds racist. Means what would you have switched to? Whatever Puna Ford's number was. What's Puna Ford's number? Does anybody, anyone here a big Puna Ford fan? I'm trying to find Justin Fields wearing number three. Puna Ford's 95. 95. All right, I'll go 95. We got to avoid some...

I'm concerned. About what? That it's exactly five years ago. Yeah. That's concerning. I know. I didn't realize it was to the day. Yeah. Big Cat was hot in March. Yeah. To the day. Yeah, we just got to hide in a bunker for two days. Yeah. I'd probably just kill myself if they did that again to us. I will go with... 99 Pug. 54. Imagine if we could just... 37. 17. What was yours, Max? One. Jalen Hurts.

Nice. Shouldn't it be four for being the fourth best? Nope. 58. Should we do another one? Yeah, let's do one more. Let's do one more. Oh, come on. 95. 95. I'll go... Meebs, you're never going to get it. Eight. One day. Go 17. How mad will you be if it's three right here? I'd be very mad. I'd be upset. We need it. Everyone else sticking with their numbers? Say it again real quick. 17.

I bet Puno would be a good guess on part of my take. 99 per. 32. 21. 75. Love you guys.