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cover of episode Michigan State HC Tom Izzo, NFL Free Agency, Myles Garrett Re-Signs And Geno Smith Traded, Who's Back And Monday Reading

Michigan State HC Tom Izzo, NFL Free Agency, Myles Garrett Re-Signs And Geno Smith Traded, Who's Back And Monday Reading

2025/3/10
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Pardon My Take

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主持人: 很多球员选择与原球队续约而不是进入自由球员市场,这很令人费解。迈尔斯·加勒特与克利夫兰布朗队续约,是因为球队提供了巨额保证金,这再次证明了金钱在体育中的重要性。他的续约也提高了其他边缘冲锋手的市场价格,让其他球队在交易时不得不支付更多费用。 Max: 我认为迈尔斯·加勒特续约克利夫兰布朗队是正确的选择,因为他得到了巨额的保证金。 Hank: 我对迈尔斯·加勒特续约感到惊讶,因为我之前认为他会尝试交易或选择离开。 Memes: 我同意金钱在球员的决定中起着至关重要的作用。 Max: 乔什·艾伦的巨额合同是联盟对顶级球员价值的认可。不要轻信NFL球员合同的早期报道,因为它们通常不准确。西雅图海鹰队交易了吉诺·史密斯,他们的计划可能是签下萨姆·达诺德。今年的自由球员阵容很弱,很多球员选择续约。达万特·亚当斯加盟洛杉矶公羊队可能意味着亚伦·罗杰斯状态下滑。匹兹堡钢人队签下DK·梅特卡夫改变了球队引援策略。华盛顿指挥官队放弃乔纳森·艾伦是因为他性价比不高。纽约喷气机队可能对贾斯廷·菲尔兹感兴趣,这将是一个有趣的尝试。如果杰梅斯·温斯顿加盟匹兹堡钢人队,球队将获得极高的关注度。 Hank: 我认为西雅图海鹰队交易吉诺·史密斯是正确的决定,因为他的合同实际上是一份短期合同。 Memes: 我认为贾斯廷·菲尔兹是一个不错的球员,但他需要一个更好的机会来证明自己。

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The NFL free agency period is underway, with surprising re-signings like Miles Garrett's mega-deal with the Browns and significant trades such as Geno Smith's move to the Raiders. The podcast discusses the impact of these moves on the market and the upcoming domino effect of player signings and trades.
  • Miles Garrett re-signed with the Browns for $123 million guaranteed.
  • Geno Smith traded to the Raiders.
  • Josh Allen signed a record-breaking contract.
  • Devante Adams signed with the Rams.
  • The future of Sam Darnold is uncertain.

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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. As we progress through the season, every fan knows that big wins are hard to come by and tough losses are even harder to accept.

But you know what isn't hard to accept? Discover. Believe it or not, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. You heard that right, 99%. So make a good call for your wallet and get Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card.

On today's part of my take, we have our good friend. I can say good friend now because he's been on twice. Coach Tom Izzo, Michigan State. Huge win on Sunday. A little controversy. Also won the Big Ten title outright regular season. So awesome talking to him. It is March. It is Tom Izzo.

We also are going to talk some NFL free agency, which is about to open, but we had some huge moves happen over the weekend that we're going to break down, talk a little college ball, a little NBA.

Who's back of the week? And we have a Monday reading. So let's get to all of it. It's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season? You are with the all-new way to get in on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. DraftKings is the home of the NBA.

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Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG.co slash audio. Okay, let's go. A-W-N. Yeah. R-N-I-T. R-N-I-T.

Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Take to the rack with DraftKings Sportsbook. Every point counts. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers. Get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just $5 only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, March 10th. And oh boy.

Do we have sports? We got a lot of sports. It's all happening right now. It's all happening. It's the start of the legal tampering window. We got NFL news. We've got conference championship week. We've got NBA drama, both on and off the court. We have sports. A lot of sports. Let's start with NFL because it is the official league. The tampering window has opened, even though there's been a ton of deals.

Well, it's interesting because there's a lot of guys that are deciding not to test the free agent market. Correct. And re-signing with their teams that they were going to be leaving. But they're doing that before they were legally allowed to be tampered with. Correct. Which is very interesting just to point out. That is. So, yeah, let's start with the NFL. The biggest story, I would say, is Miles Garrett is staying put. So Miles Garrett, who said, who mockingly said, because his GM, Andrew Barry...

was quoted saying the goal was never to, or sorry, he said that we envisioned him going from Cleveland to Canton when his career is over talking about miles Garrett wanting to keep him as a Brown. And then miles Garrett, a couple of days after that said the goal was never to go from Cleveland to Canton. It has always been to compete for and win a super bowl. He wanted to go to a championship contender, uh,

And then there was a material change to the tune of $123 million guaranteed, a four-year deal averaging $40 million a year. Everybody's got a price. I think the Browns just show that they are committed to winning. Yeah. The Browns football organization is one that is putting their best foot forward, trying to deliver a championship. And Miles Garrett said, you know what? Now I believe you. Yeah. I think that we're actually going to do it.

And step number one towards committing to a championship is to pay miles Garrett, a shitload of money, $123 million guaranteed. That is a lot of money. It is the largest contract for a non quarterback. Uh, it, it just, listen, we always knew it was always about the price.

but this is a good reminder. It's always about the price. It doesn't matter. Anyone can say anything. The money talks. And I think Pete Prisco always says that money over everything does not matter. And the money talked here. I do. So he'd signed this contract on Sunday. Uh,

Max Crosby had the largest non-quarterback deal that he signed earlier last week, which was $91.5 million guaranteed, $306.5 million. I think there should be a new rule that if you sign the biggest contract, whether it be the biggest quarterback contract, the biggest non-quarterback contract, you should get seven days to wear the crown.

Miles Garrett should have had to wait seven days. To take that crown away from Max Crosby. Max Crosby should have had seven days where he was like, yeah, I had the largest contract, non-quarterback contract ever. Yeah.

And then Miles Garrett. It was too quick. It's like in the... Was that the AFC Championship or was that in a regular season game where the Bills kicker and the Chiefs kicker went back and forth breaking each other's records? Right. Longest field goal. Give it some breathing room. In like 15 minutes. Yeah. It would be nice. I mean, Max Crosby at one point was the highest non-quarterback. For about four days. For about four days. And then Miles Garrett took that from him. And Miles Garrett is...

LeBron could learn a lot from Miles Garrett about how to stay loyal to Cleveland. Yeah. Like he decided he wanted to check the market out there, maybe go to a warmer climate, build a super team. And then he said, you know what? I'm not going to break those kids' hearts in Cleveland because they mean something. I want to be here for the city of Cleveland. The losers in all of this, I would say, are...

the Dallas Cowboys, the Cincinnati Bengals, or anyone who's trying to trade for an edge rusher and has to pay them because the price has gone up. Yeah, Micah Parsons is now going to take that crown. Trey Hendrickson, Jamar Chase, all these guys, the price just keeps going up and up and up, and it does feel like more than ever, the better move is to just get the deal done earlier than later because the price is just always...

When you have a guy like this and you can put Micah Parsons in that group and Trey Hendrickson, Jamar Chase, like I said,

The price is just always going to go up. The cap has gone up significantly. The price is going to keep going up. And so those teams are looking around being like, fuck, we just screwed this because now we have to pay a lot more money. I did think that Myles Garrett was going to try to either sit out or force the trade. I didn't think that he was going to come back. I thought it was always going to be the money. I was surprised when they announced that he's staying this morning. Yeah. Also, Max is probably in the same boat. You guys had

you had thoughts of Miles Garrett wearing your team's uniform. Max and I are both losers in this one, too. Although you can make the argument that we're both winners in this one because part of the reason why we each wanted him was to keep him away from the other team. True. Yeah, I had no problem with that news. Yeah, so congrats on winning this deal, Max. But if you want to trade for Trey Hendrickson, you've got to pay him a lot of money now. You're going to have to pay him a lot of money.

For sure. But you won't have to give anything up in terms of the trade. So that's kind of nice. Yes, that's true. And then Josh Chase also is going to get. Yeah. Yes. And T Higgins. And then Josh Allen just broke Deshaun Watson's record for guaranteed money. 250 million guaranteed.

the total i think was like 330 million on six years but it's i think it's five years fully guaranteed 250 million guaranteed biggest guaranteed total given to an nfl player ever josh still has not paid us from his second contract that he got so he owes us 10 of 250 million guaranteed with interest 25 million dollars guaranteed to part of my take that's

That's a lot of getting excited about Josh Allen you can buy. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's a lot. But this is the Bills did it right because the Bills, Josh Allen, I think per year, Dak Prescott is still getting paid more than Josh Allen. But Josh Allen, this was a correction to the fact that like, hey, he was still under contract for what? Four years or something. It wasn't like they needed to give him a new contract. They probably moved some money around, did the cap shit that everyone knows and understands.

but they're like, let's get this done now. Money in hand. And he didn't have to, he didn't, you didn't have to pay him more than Dak Prescott per year. And also thank you to the bills for doing that. Just that we can keep saying like Dak Prescott actually is the highest paid player in the NFL. Cause that's funny to say. Right. And we also, we threw around the idea and this is a loose idea. We're not going to actually enact it, but if AWL is one to enact it and maybe tweeted them, we thought maybe we would,

Throw out there that we're going to stop doing the podcast if Josh Allen doesn't pay us the 10% that he said he would pay us. Yeah, because otherwise we're looking like schmucks here. Right. So if people want to tweet him and just be like, hey...

you're the fate of part of my take is in Josh Allen's hands, which are very big hands by the way. Uh, that'd be fine. Yeah, that's totally fine. I'm not gonna tell people what to do. I'm willing to say that we won't put out a podcast. I'm not willing to not put out the podcast, but I'm willing to say, to say that publicly that we will, we will cease. So, uh, that those are big news. There's making a sandwich and then there's crafting a sandwich. And when I want something perfectly crafted, I go straight to Boar's head for

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Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at boarshead.com. Then we had Geno Smith getting traded to the Raiders. Yeah. So Geno Smith gets traded to the Raiders for a third round pick, reunited with Pete Carroll. Felt like the... I mean, we knew this from when they gave Geno Smith that new contract a couple years ago, and it was...

Basically, this is the season where everyone, we should put this PSA out there. Don't ever believe whatever the newsbreakers tweet in terms of years and money because they're just getting that directly from the agent. About 50 minutes later, you'll find out what the actual deal is. And Geno Smith, when he signed his new contract with the Seahawks, and we found out afterwards that it was essentially like a one-year deal, I think, that they could cut him. Yeah, every contract at the most is really two years. Yeah.

So, but so they were never all the way in on Gino. Gino's all the way in on Gino. Gino thinks he deserves a lot of money, which I mean, I think he's a pretty good quarterback. You can do a lot worse than Gino Smith, but now he's on the Raiders. Did you hear the rumor that the Raiders initially?

actually knows, I think it was the Seahawks initially wanted to trade Gino Smith and DK for Max Crosby, which that would have been crazy. That would be a wild trade trades like that never happened in the NFL. Yeah. There was also a tweet, uh, that someone had from combine week that was on a plane. And he was like, I just watched Pete Carroll walk up to, uh, John Schneider. I bet you they're trying to talk about Gino Smith getting traded. And,

And it was like two weeks ago. Trying to spot. Yeah. Do the thing where they saw like the Dallas Mavericks and the Lakers talking to coffee shop. Yeah. Be like, this is the origin. This is the origin. It all went down. I did Pete Carroll and Gino Smith. Are we qualifying that as like a reunion that everybody's wanted to see? I mean, it definitely was the Gino Smith's career was saved by Pete Carroll.

Yeah, well, Pete Carroll was the head coach. Yeah. But it's not like it's Pete Carroll's playbook. No, but it was Pete Carroll calling the shots and Geno was saved. Yeah. I mean, he was nothing. What I like about this, though, is just that the Raiders do have a plan. Yeah. Whereas last year, it felt like they got into midsummer. They're like, oh, fuck, we don't really have...

We have a quarterback. We've got two backup quarterbacks. Yeah. But now they have one. Now the Seahawks. Do the Seahawks have a play? Seahawks then trade DK Metcalf to the Steelers. Granted, you PFT, you were talking about it on Friday. I just wanted to see it bad. DK and George Pickens together is going to be fantastic. What does the Seahawks play? Is the Seahawks plan to get Sam Darnold? Because is it crazy to say that I think I would maybe rather have Geno?

That and Sam Darnold? Yeah, probably because Sam Darnold's probably going to cost more right now. I don't know. I don't know what Geno's new contract will be. Yeah, I don't know either, but I don't think it's... They're kind of the same. Yeah, kind of the same. Like, right now, Sam Darnold, the way that he played last year, makes me think I would rather have Sam Darnold for most of the year. Yeah, I was going to say. Until the end. Yeah. Whereas Geno, I feel like Geno from like two years ago,

That would line up with Sam Donald from last year. Yes, yes. But it's the musical chairs. And then there was a rumor that Aaron Rodgers... So Aaron Rodgers looks like the Giants. But then there was a rumor that the Vikings could be interested in Aaron Rodgers, which I think we all are rooting for. Well, actually, I'm not because I don't want to have to play Aaron Rodgers. But it would be funny just for the Favre story arc. Yeah, the Brett Favre career. But yeah, the musical chairs...

are very interesting right now with Gino going to the Raiders and now another Sam Darnold because we thought the Seahawks weren't going to be a Sam Darnold destination. Now it feels like Seahawks, Steelers possibly still. I don't know where else would Sam Darnold go. I don't know, but I don't know how the Steelers are going to manage the DK Metcalfe

And the George Pickens situation. I'm excited to see how they do it. That's why I wanted this to happen. It's the funniest possible combination of receivers that you could get. I would almost just say run it back with Justin Fields and Russ Wilson and just give one of those guys their own quarterback. Deep balls to – I mean, they are – with DK and George Pickens, they're basically building the whole plane out of just –

Go routes. Yeah. Just fucking run. Just two freaks on the outside. Just run as fast as you can down the field. You can't double both the freaks. No. You can double one of them. I want it so bad. I want them to say I'm afraid they're going to try to trade George Pickens. Also, they both were number 14. Yeah. So I'm excited to see how they resolve that one. That should just be a battle royale. Also, Sam Donald wears number 14. Oh, yeah.

So we could just have maybe like college rules. Everyone wears 14. Also, DK Metcalf, another reminder of which you don't even remind people. The Miles Garrett, it's always about the money. DK did say he wanted to go somewhere warm. Pittsburgh not known for its tropical weather. Well, that's interesting you brought that up because I looked it up. It is warmer than Seattle. Okay. On the average. So in terms of weather in Seattle, we got in football months,

It's 67 degrees, 59 degrees, 51 degrees, 46 degrees. In Pittsburgh, it's 78 degrees, 65 degrees, 53 degrees, 43 degrees. Okay. So every football month besides December in the regular season, it's actually warmer in Pittsburgh. Okay. So he's going to get warm. So he is going to get warm. What are you looking at me, Max? You got to look, Hank. I got nothing. I don't know.

I didn't mean to give a look. All the big... It feels like the... I was reading... I think Albert Breer had an article. He pulled the league and the quote was that this free agent class is trash. Trash. Because a lot of these guys... Miles Garrett, you know, I know he wasn't going to be a free agent, but a lot of these guys are...

Uh, resigning like Ronnie Stanley signed with the Ravens. Uh, obviously there's been a franchise tag on T Higgins. There's been a franchise tag on, uh, who, who is, Oh, Trey Smith. Right. So there's, that was what I heard. It was trash. I mean, what wide receivers out there? Devante Adams, now a Ram. He's a Ram.

He wanted to go someplace warmer too, I think. Yeah. No, I think he said he wanted to play on the West Coast. That also might mean that Aaron Rodgers could be washed. It also might mean. Because Devontae Adams, wouldn't you think he would be like, oh, I'm going to wait to see where Rodgers goes? And he's like, no, I'd actually rather just go with Stafford. There's a good chance that Aaron Rodgers just wasn't around his phone this whole weekend. That's true. So Devontae's like, hey, I'm trying to make my decision if we could speed this up. And Aaron was in a tree stump somewhere in Portland, Oregon.

Yeah. That might be... Yeah, they had a little gnome knock on the door and be like, hey, Devontae's trying to reach you. He's like, no, it's fine. I'll go wherever I go. Devontae taking over Cooper Cups. Am I crazy to think that he's going to be pretty good on the Rams? Yeah, he's going to be very good on the Rams. I feel like that's a great place for him to be. Yeah. No, that was a huge signing for the Rams. Who are the Chargers going to get? The Chargers... Shane is very upset. The Chargers have a lot of cap space and they don't have anyone. I'm trying to think who else...

What other big... Oh, Tommy DeVito re-signed. The Giants. Congrats to the Giants. Zach Bond with the Eagles. That was big, Max. Like, that's the thing is a lot of these guys are staying with their teams and getting paid because I think the problem is the cap goes up. The cap went up significantly. Everyone can afford to keep their guys. Yeah. Zach Ertz, back to the commanders. Zach Ertz. Daniel Jones. Daniel Jones deciding between Minnesota and Indianapolis and possibly Pittsburgh. Hmm.

Are you just throwing Pittsburgh in? I just threw Pittsburgh in. I feel like Pittsburgh, they might not know what's going to happen. All they know is that Mike Tomlin, this is actually a little bit different from Mike's normal MO, which is to draft insane wide receivers. Yep.

This time he's bringing in a crazy guy from out of town. He's outsourcing his craziness. Yes. And DK, again. I don't think DK's that crazy. He's crazy on the field. He's a live wire. Yeah, yeah. He's a live wire on the field. He's not a crazy guy in the same way that George Pickens is crazy, in the same way that Antonio Brown is crazy. But he will get thrown out of a couple games. Yeah. There'll be some... You'll want that out of your wide receiver one, though. Yeah. Yeah, no, he's a dog. There will be some significant...

There will be some funny moments where both George Pickens and D.K. Metcalf are costing them 15 yards on the same drive. Well, if they have a bad quarterback, that's going to be the problem. Yes. That's why they should get their own quarterbacks. They should. D.K.'s like, Russie, he's my guy. You don't talk to Russie. That's another one where we don't. And then George Pickens is like, you don't talk to Jussie. That's my guy. We don't know. Similar to the Pete Carroll, Geno Smith, were Russie and –

George or DK Metcalf, were they tight? I'm going to go out on a limb and say they had their moments. Okay. I think...

DK had enough good games with Rossi where he's like, okay, I can get excited about that. You know what? The situation is fluid. I don't think they were tight. I don't think they're tight. Didn't Russell Wilson not talk to the team? Yeah, I don't think anyone probably was tight with Russell Wilson, but the situation is fluid. You don't know. He might have been humbled when he had to take a team-friendly deal in Pittsburgh because the Broncos are still paying him like a billion dollars. Yeah.

Yeah, I think Hank's right. Nobody's really that close with Russell Wilson. So I'd say probably he's happy. He was happy when he was getting thrown the ball in Seattle. He had some monster games with Russell. Yeah. All right, what other big moves are we waiting for? I mean, I'm excited. There's going to be – who's out there, though, still?

Because, oh, Aaron Jones got re-signed in Minnesota. Yeah, we're looking at a Chiefs re-sign, Nick Bolton. That was another big free agent guy that people thought was going to get a lot of money. Patriots, Harold Landry. That's a good signing, Hank. Yeah, there's not... Who's going to be the biggest name that goes on Monday? Because it will happen pretty quickly, right?

I know the Bears are looking to maybe get Khalil Mack back and Dahlman center, which would be awesome. Godwin, I feel like is probably going to stay. I want the Bears to get Khalil Mack. I would very much like that on a deal that makes sense. But the cap went up. Cap went up. This is why I'd be such a terrible. Well, there's a million reasons why I'd be a terrible GM. But if you give me more cap.

I'm spending all of it. Yeah, you don't get to keep it. I'm also just assuming the cap will always go up. That would be a very bad assumption on my part, but I would do that. All right, you got it. So Sam Darnold is the biggest name. Josh Sweat, a big name. And then Milton Williams, so a couple Eagles. And then you had Drew Dahlman, who I think the Bears hopefully will sign, which would be nice because then they'd have their interior of offensive line set. Yeah.

Yeah, look, a lot of these guys have already re-signed with their teams. I expect Godwin to go back. I feel like he'll be in Tampa again next year. But if not, that is the guy that the Chargers should get. Yeah, Tevin Jenkins is going to be good somewhere because he's going to stay healthy. And I'm going to be like, fuck, that's going to happen.

What are the commanders going to do now that they lost out on Miles Garrett? Trey Hendrickson? I think Trey Hendrickson. I think that's what we're looking at. It's going to be a spicy meatball. Very spicy meatball. Very spicy meatball. I'm excited. So I don't think you can announce. You can't announce the signings until Wednesday, correct? Wait, I thought Trey Hendrickson still had a year left. Is he not? I'm pretty sure you'd have to trade for him still. I thought he just wants new money. And they're not going to pay him.

uh let's see he is an un yeah yeah he's got he's got one more year one year left so he so yeah so they're gonna they'd have to trade for probably not the same price tag that you'd pay for miles garrett though right because miles had i feel like he had more years left he's gonna they're probably gonna they'll give him a new deal no matter what oh yeah he'll he'll he'll get a new deal wherever he go wherever he goes but to trade for him you'd have to

It'd have to be a second at the minimum, right? Let's see. The Cincinnati Bengals aren't eager to pay edge rusher Trey Hendrickson. The commanders are positioned well to trade for the star. What is it saying? It might be your first rounder, right? Could be.

Cause it is, you're picking at the bottom of the draft. Have you, have you thought about it? No, I haven't. So we're in Indy. It was funny. Cause we're in Indy. And I was saying to somebody like, it's just not that much buzz around the draft this year. I feel like it's not as much juice as it normally is. And then this person was like, well, dude, when was the last time you picked in the twenties in the draft? I was like, Oh yeah, that's a great point. Like if it's not your team that's active in it, you're like, Oh, not kind of, kind of a dull draft season. Right. Right. Right. Um,

I'm excited, though. I'm juiced. A lot of teams getting some new players. Oh, yeah, you guys released Jonathan Allen, right? Yes, we tried to find a spot to fit him. How did you feel about that? So Jonathan Allen...

I like Jonathan Allen a lot. He played on some really shitty teams, and he played very well on some really shitty teams. And he had that famous quote last season where he was like, I'm fucking sick of this shit. I'm just sick of this shit. This shit sucks. Fuck this shit. And I was like, God damn it. He's right. He's right. And if he wants to get traded, I wish him the best, but he just wasn't worth it to bring back next year. And so I hope he finds a good place. I feel like we could have traded him somewhere for not a lot of compensation, and we said...

You know what? We're going to set you free. Yeah. Find your own spot. Yeah. You're a good player. Yeah. Memes, did I see a rumor that the Jets might think about doing Justin Fields? You did see that. They're very interested. Oh. Strong interest. And are you interested in? Yeah, it would be good to have a mobile quarterback for once. Okay. That's... You always say...

Memes. Saying mobile, mobile is insane. You say it every time, and I had to address it. Thank you for addressing that. It would just be interesting to see a quarterback run around a little bit. Yeah, there were moments last year where you're just like, the yards are right in front of you, Aaron, just run. And he couldn't run because he's old as shit. So you put Justin Fields in that scenario, he gets those yards. Yep. Memes. Let me ask you this.

You produced this show called Pardon My Take. Yeah. You were probably one of the people, if not the person, who edited the majority of the roller coaster of my experience with Justin Fields. Does that not give you a sense of like, oh, this is bad? Young quarterback. You had a front row seat. You not only watched it in real time, but then you would go to your computer and have to edit it and watch it back.

And then post it. Yeah, but we're in Chicago, got to watch a lot of Bears games. And? And that Atlanta Falcons game when the entire stadium's just cheering, Justin Fields, Justin Fields. He was a stud. He has those games where he is a stud. That's true, he does. I want you to be honest with me. How many times have you said the words, Justin Fields' ass? I think it's probably a lot. No, not that many.

He was good at times. When he would break out for one of those runs, you would just be like, oh my God. I know, but memes, you are the biggest hater in the world and you especially hate our quarterbacks. When they play poorly, you're the first guy to be like, that guy's ass. Correct. He also didn't have an offensive line there. All right, let me ask this a different way. It's wild the justifications you're making for him. That's verbatim what Big Cat was saying. I'm telling you, let me ask this a different way. Max, Hank, you guys also, producers of Pardon My Take,

Hank, more of a co-host. Shout out to Kaz. You guys saw it front row. Would you want Justin Fields on your team? No. God, no. Me, no. Memes, maybe. Like, what option does he have? I like Justin Fields as a guy. Awesome guy. But he's...

You can't be like, this is our plan. But what would the plan? Sam Darnold. But everyone's saying Sam Darnold. Aaron Rodgers. Daniel Jones. I think I would rather have Justin Fields than bring back Aaron Rodgers.

You run. It actually wouldn't be the worst idea. Daniel Jones is fast. Now, hear me out. He's faster. Yeah. What if the Jets signed Aaron Rodgers and it was kind of like you got divorced, you moved out, and then you started dating again? Like, oh, man, I really like this person. If you love something, set it free. Yeah. Why not? Memes. But what if Justin Fields has that redemption arc like Sam Darnold did with the Jets? And then we go. But it's the Jets.

Your team sucks too, Ag. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's a fair point. Also could be a good rebuilding quarterback. Could be a bridge quarterback. Could be a good enough quarterback to be bad next year to get a good quarterback. I mean, this is where we start to look at the most impactful free agent being James Winston. Yes. Why isn't his name out there?

He'd be awesome in Seattle. Yeah, he would. He'd be awesome in Pittsburgh. He doesn't get enough in-person meetings. Do you think Jameis throwing to DK and George Pickens, that would be... All right, so if Jameis Winston went to the Pittsburgh Steelers, I'm going to make an executive decision right now, and you guys have no choice but to follow along, but you can also tell me I'm crazy. If Jameis Winston is quarterbacking for the Pittsburgh Steelers and DK Metcalf and George Pickens are on the Pittsburgh Steelers,

The Pittsburgh Steelers are playing every game in the middle TV next year. Yeah. With sound, every single game. I'm down. Jameis Winston is the antidote to the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive struggles. Whatever disease they have in Pittsburgh, for the last, what, six years? Yeah. Seven years? You get Jameis in there with DK and George Pickens throwing go balls.

It's a different team. God damn it. The vibes are different. Also, Hard Knocks. Do it. Can we please get Hard Knocks in Pittsburgh? Do it. They made the playoffs. Fuck. Yeah. Stupid Hard Knocks rules. So who's eligible for Hard Knocks right now? It's teams that did not make the playoffs and don't have a first year head coach. Okay. So that would be the Dallas Cowboys? Not a first year head coach. The Seahawks. Seahawks.

The Giants. This is some good podcasting right now. Giants will definitely not let them do that. Titans. Titans would be eligible. Yep. Colts. Colts would be eligible. This is some good podcasting right now. Dolphins. I feel like they might do Dolphins. Dolphins might do it, yeah. Cardinals are up there, yeah. 49ers. That'd be fun. That'd be a fun redemption arc. Bengals. Bengals would actually be... If they...

If they go into the year with all these guys not under contract, if Trey Henderson doesn't get traded, I feel like they would do the Bengals. Yeah. Right? I think the Dolphins, too. Yeah. Guessing hard knocks. I completely forgot that the Steelers made the playoffs. Do we miss football? Yes, we do. We do very deeply. I told you guys the other day, it was a moment of weakness, but we were talking about...

They were talking about the weather and like, you know, the calendar year. And I said that I just need what March madness is one of my favorite times of year. And then as soon as March madness ends, it's like,

It's almost football. Yeah. That's how my brain works. Well, cause March Madness. I'm like, well, summer's in front of us and then it's football. Here's how it goes. March Madness ends. Then there's the masters, which means that it's getting warm. Yeah. And then after the masters, you got the draft, which is football season. Pretty much. My, my entire point was that, uh, I love life in the calendar year from March 1st till the end of the Superbowl.

Yeah. So it's pretty much from the end of the Super Bowl till March 1st. I'm like, this fucking sucks. February. Life sucks. And then you get through it and you're like, we got everything in front of us. We got summer in front of us and then football.

I think football season starts after the draft because then you got rookie minicamps. You got OTAs. You got some other stuff going on. You got piss tests. Yeah. Okay. We're going to talk some other sports real quick. But before we do that, no bull. If you're going to work out, you've got to try out no bull footwear. Best shoes, the most comfortable for both in the gym and on the go.

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Should we talk about Stephen A versus LeBron? Yeah. So on Thursday night, late, Stephen A Smith and LeBron had a little do to do after the Lakers game in the middle of the game. Oh, it's the middle of the game. All the time. Larry David sitting right there, which is very funny. It was literally just a curb your enthusiasm episode. LeBron went up to Stephen A Smith. It was caught on camera. Stephen A Smith.

would never have talked about it publicly if it had not gone viral. It was just too viral. Stephen A. Smith would never talk about his interaction with another player. He would never mention anything of the sort. But the fact that he basically was forced to talk about it by LeBron getting him his face. Why did LeBron go up to him? He went up to him because he took some umbrage. LeBron took umbrage with Stephen A. Smith's remarks regarding Bronny James. Yes, he went up to him as a father, not a basketball player. Stephen A. Smith was like, you should have just made...

contact with me in a private meeting. I actually have no problem with LeBron doing this just because I do actually think that LeBron is... Is LeBron James a better father than he is basketball player? Yeah, I think... Didn't we determine that on Friday? The fact that he got Bronny drafted. No basketball player has ever done that before. But I do think he went up to him. Like Stephen A. Smith played the role afterwards. He got in his very serious tone.

And was like, he came up to me as a father. But I think the issue LeBron had was when Stephen A. Smith a couple months ago was pleading with LeBron James as a father, stop this.

When you say as a father, I think that's where it becomes a little bit more direct, a direct shot. And LeBron, like he grew up without a dad. He, I think he, he takes being a father very seriously. Obviously you have to talk about Bronny and you can say like, Hey, Bronny shouldn't be in the NBA. This is crazy. But saying LeBron James as a father, stop this.

That probably pissed LeBron off. And I would understand LeBron being like, hey, don't do that. It was Stephen A. Smith saying that LeBron James is not being a good dad. Right. Essentially by getting... When I think he's actually being the best dad ever by getting his son an NBA contract that he shouldn't be getting. Correct. So in a weird way, I do think the whole situation, and I've maintained this, Bronny is the big loser in this. Bronny's not a loser, but he's the big loser in this in the fact that he's been put in a situation where he's talked about...

In this way. And like Stephen, a Smith is going on first take and talking about LeBron as a father. That sucks. This, this probably sucks for him. He probably wishes in a, in a world alternate world that he could be on an NBA roster that isn't with his dad on it. And people talking about him as a player and not him as LeBron side project. The only way for LeBron to win this interaction is if he uses, he flexes the remainder of his muscle in the NBA. And he says, well,

fuck it, we're drafting Stephen A. Smith. Yeah. I'm going to force Stephen A. to get some minutes in the NBA and just watch him get swatted into oblivion. That's a great idea. How awesome would that be? That's a great idea. LeBron, if you want to get back at him, this is the best way to do it. Yeah. Hank, did you have a problem with LeBron doing it? No. And LeBron's been playing good in the D-League, but it's also LeBron. D-League. Oh, G-League, sorry. LeBron's going to come up to you and talk to you about that.

Everyone resurfaced the tweet of LeBron from last year, which is just him saying lightweight hilarious is funny. But he was like, yeah, I'm watching League Pass and Bronny's better than a lot of these cats. It's lightweight hilarious. That was a bad tweet. Bad tweet. But also as a father again, I get it right. Like as a dad, he's like, my son's better than these guys. Like if LeBron had gone up to Stephen A. Smith and said, do not talk about my son.

I would 100% be on Stephen A. Smith's side being like, that's ridiculous. Your son is in the NBA. He has to be talked about. Does he get talked about more than every other rookie? By a long shot because he's LeBron James Jr. But I think the father part, like if Stephen A. Smith calls him out as a father...

I think LeBron has every right to be like, dude, don't do that. I think it's kind of fair play for both sides. Yeah, I don't think Stephen A even has kids. Does he have kids? Oh, yeah. Dude, Stephen A fucks. Are you kidding me? I think he might have a kid. No, Stephen A has his boys swim.

Yeah, he's a confirmed sex haver. But I think it's fine for Stephen A. Smith. Like, LeBron, you got your son drafted to be on your team. Probably shouldn't be in the league. He's not that great. He's not really playing. He is playing in the G League. Still a great dad move, but also part of what goes with that. Correct. You should have at some point thought Stephen A. Smith is going to have some thoughts. Right. The scrutiny is fair until you say you're stopped this as a father.

That's where it's like, hey, dude, what are you talking about? He's a pretty fucking good dad. I'm defending LeBron again. I think Stephen A. Smith was like, you're forcing me to talk about your son. Yeah. Not a good father move. I also don't think it was very funny timing, but from what I looked into, it was taped before, but it came out on Friday.

that skip and steven a are reunited charisma who's back of the week yeah and also skip is in in a do-to-do with uh kd because he said skip said that kevin durant is uh looks like he's semi-retired yeah he said well then kd came back at him and said we're both washed yeah yeah yeah uh okay we also had yokich have the first ever 30 2020 just insane insane

It's crazy. It was overtime, but it doesn't matter. He's so good. It looked so easy for him out there too. Everything was in slow motion. He was doing the crazy passes where only he knows where the ball is going to go. And he knows it like two passes in advance. And he still doesn't look like he's really enjoying himself that much. And then after the game, do you see SVP got the exclusive interview with Joker? Okay. And SVP was like all of us. He was fucking pumped because we,

We've never seen that before. And it was such a great game. And it was so fun to watch. After the game, he's like, I know you don't really get amped up, Jokic, but is there a part of you that's like, this was really fun out there? This is amazing. I can't believe I did that. And then Jokic, his response was, you know, I go out to try to play basketball.

He did not give a fuck. I love it. He was like, I wish I had been with Horst instead. He did not give a fuck that he just dropped 30, 20, and 20. Face of the league. Does not care. But that's what makes me love Jokic so much. Yeah. And we have a real MVP debate going with him and SGA. People are choosing sides and diminishing. We on this show would never diminish anyone in any kind of postseason award debate. That's crazy. But it's...

It's a good debate. We're having it. And it's the classic voter fatigue versus best team in the league, OKC. I think it's going to be SGA, I think. I think so, too. I think voter fatigue actually matters. But if I had a vote...

He'd go to Jokic. I would vote for Jokic too. Probably every year until he retires. He's so fucking good. He's so goddamn good. And he basically just, he runs everything. He runs the, he's the point guard. He's the center. He's everything. There's making a sandwich and then there's crafting a sandwich. And when I want something perfectly crafted, I go straight to Boar's head.

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Okay. College basketball. It's March. Do we have any thoughts from this weekend? I saw NC State fired their coach off of a Final Four appearance. Everyone was like, how can you do this? Maybe because it was the flukiest Final Four. No. I mean, it was an incredible run. Nothing to take away from NC State. But if Virginia had fouled up three in the ACC tournament, he would have been fired last year. Mm-hmm.

It's still kind of weird. Still kind of shocking that after a team goes on that run, they fire the coach. Yeah. But like fans don't care. No. We forget about that shit within a month. Yeah. Very quick. Also, we had Cal drop some bars. I don't know if you saw. I said, everyone put us in a coffin. They forgot the nails. I like that one. I like that one a lot. The Omaha St. Thomas game, they're not scoring points. They just have started the second half and they're not scoring points.

Sorry to yell about that. Would this be how many in a row? 16. We had the craziest win ever on Saturday for the Kentucky-Missouri. I was at a birthday party, Climb Zone, and

I had all the dads huddled around an iPad getting... They were... Like, it trickled around Climb Zone that, like, the 14-0 man was in the building trying to go 15-0. And it was, like, a whole scene of people just being like, oh, shit, is it gonna happen? How did the wives feel about it? My wife wasn't there, so she didn't know, so that was good. Listen...

Were there any wives huddled around in the No they're not a six year old birthday party Anyone any parent can back me up here When you go to a birthday party It's you just let your kid go They just had the fucking time of their life It was an arcade climb zone laser tag They were having the best time ever They didn't even know it like Kids go to birthday parties and they're just like see ya Yeah for sure They fucking love it What percentage of kids birthday parties at a trampoline park End with everybody uninjured

100% health. I don't know about uninjured, but there's always tears. Yeah. We survived without tears, which it would have been my tears if that over didn't hit. But we survived without tears. That's good. Yeah. And it's March. We're conference tournament week. Also, the Auburn Alabama game is awesome. Awesome. That was such a fun game to watch. Huge win for Alabama. Nate Oates was riling up the crowd afterwards. He was feeling himself a little bit. Yeah. Auburn fans were getting upset about that.

I mean, Bruce Pearl does do semantics as well. I think it's fair on both sides. There was some litter that was thrown. Yeah, they were thrown. So I think University of Tennessee fans broke into the arena and they threw trash. Yes. Yes. But it's the best March. And I also, the Badgers had the worst loss ever. I've downgraded my expectations.

That's a shame. Yeah. No, thanks, Hank. I've downgraded my expectations. They'll be back. It's back. You go on a little run into the conference tournament, they'll be back. I had a moment during the Duke-UNC game, and I've talked about not caring as much about Duke over the years, and obviously it started with Caleb back in the day, but they did the celebrities in the crowd during that game, and it was Belichick first and then Drake May, and I was like, yeah, yeah. And I was like, shit. You think they talk to each other? Definitely. Definitely.

You think so? Yeah. I mean, spending time with Gruden, it's an insight into a true football guy's mind, which Belichick is as well. Like,

They're just talking X's and O's. You know that he's just there. Like he could talk to any football player and just talk about their film or whatever it may be. You know, Belichick's watching Drake May. You know that he doesn't take his personal feelings with the Patriots when he's talking to a player like they just they can just talk ball. Yeah. And that goes for any football player with any coach ever without without Belichick. Drake May would not be there.

True. Just a fact. That's a good point. Did you feel like were you rubbing it in like any UNC fans' faces? Do you get pleasure out of beating them in a down year? No. No? No. Yeah, UNC's in trouble. UNC's in a lot of trouble. It was a good game. They fought hard. Yeah, they were on the road for a second. Duke's just really good. Duke's just really, really good. Okay, anything else? People were giving online. I saw there was a clip of a UNC fan crying in the stands after, and they caught her crying.

saying at least they tried really hard. Yeah. And people were giving her shit, which I don't,

Oh, what was that? I don't know. Max is finding something. Max is pulling up a picture of a chick in a bikini. Wrong. Tap holding, loading 4K, Max. Wrong. I was trying to get addiction. Batty. I was going. I was trying to pull up the video that they were talking about. Accidentally. I accidentally pulled up Twitch instead of Twitter because it's X. The everything app is all happening on X. Action. Batty addiction. Batty. And this was just the first picture that came up. That's an interesting picture on a boat.

Wow. Good job, Max. Now I'm just not going to find the video. Well, you got to put that into the show. You got to put Addiction Batty into the show for the viewers. She is on a boat, isn't she? Please subscribe to the YouTube. Yeah, we'll add Addiction Batty to the show. Shout out to everyone who punched the ticket to the dance. Drake.

Big win. They deserved it to be in anyway. High point. Yep. I think Lipscomb got in. This is the best time of year. It's going to be. It's conference tournament week. So we'll have someone on to talk some conference tourney week. Maybe our friend Stanford Steve. But yeah, I love this. I love these two weeks. Sunbelt finals are semifinals on right now. JMU looks like they're probably going to lose Detroit. A lot of time left. A lot of time left. Don't feel great about the spot I'm in right now. Same. Remember last year, though? Yeah, that was fun. So fun. Yeah.

All right. Your point's so bad. I need points. Have you been betting or fading? Nothing. Nothing. Do we believe him, Max? We believe him.

I've heard from Jerry was Jersey Jerry thought he was breaking news to me. He was like, I was playing Call of Duty with Hank the other night and he was like, Oh, it was two PGA two games. Like, I can't wait to fade big cat and in conference tournament in the tournament. And he thought he was like telling me, I was like, dude, he's literally said it to my face seven times and it hurts every time because I know he's probably right. And he's going to have like the best tournament ever.

But so it goes. So it goes. Maybe not. I mean, that win Saturday was... God touched me there. There might be something else going on. God was on my side. God was on my side. We'll see how this game is dead. I'm dead. All right, let's do who's back of the week.

Uh, who's back the week is brought to you by truly, truly unruly is the first high ABV hard seltzer that actually tastes good. Truly unruly is a hard seltzer that breaks all the rules, drinks light parties hard with 8% ABV. It hits hard, but still tastes amazing. It's the official hard seltzer. Pardon my take. Find truly unruly at a store near you or visit truly hard seltzer.com. It is, it was 60 degrees in Chicago today. We had the, the, the clocks change. We've got some light late in the, you know, in the afternoon, uh,

It's about to be golf season. It's about to be beach season. It's about to be backyard barbecue season. It's about to be truly season. It's about to be truly. We're going to get unruly this summer. So find truly unruly to store near you or visit truly hard seltzer dot com. All right. Who's back the week, Hank? Yeah, my first one was shorts. Another treacherous winner of Chicago survived. There's like two cold weeks.

Now it's 60 degrees again. So all the people that said Chicago is going to be so tough, the winters are so bad. There has been snow in April here. Yeah, we're going to probably get a couple more just like shitty days that are going to be tossed in there. Some false shit. We're just going to get some. We're going to get like a 30 degree day out of nowhere. We got mid 60s this week. Yeah. All you need is a couple nice. Like today was really nice. Tomorrow is going to be really nice. The clock's changing. The clock's change. Like the end is near.

Summer is here. It's going to be 63 on Saturday for the St. Patrick's Day celebration. That's pretty good. That's dangerous. Either who's back was the Celtics as a national NBA championship favorite. Is LeBron hurt or is he just... It's LeBron. If they won that game, he would not be hurt. I need two weeks before the playoff stretch.

It's I need two weeks before the playoff stretch. Yeah. It takes some time off. The Lakers, the Lakers are scaring me. They've been, you know, they won eight straight. They were playing really well. Uh, and it, you know, the conspiracy of how does Luca end up in LA? The NBA needs a Celtics Lakers NBA finals for ratings. Yep. I hope that happens. I do too. I hope that happens. Uh,

The Celtics love Luka. They love hating Luka. They love D-ing him up and showing the world that he's not as good as people says he is. Showed it again last night. Al Horford, 40-plus. Maybe not 40-plus, but he's so old. D-ing up LeBron. D-ing up Luka.

It was just a beautiful sight to see, and with no Porzingis. Yeah, he had Luka locked up pretty good on a couple things I saw, where Luka was just traveling all over the gym. He was taking like seven steps. And he got kneed in the face on that Al Horford dunk. Yeah, he got pickpocketed on one end, kneed in the face on the other. It was just great to see. You're having the time of your life. You're calling him out. You're calling LeBron out. Yeah, there was a little bit of concern with LeBron, Luka, team of destiny. Could this be the team that beats the Celtics? No.

But you want to play him now. Yeah. So you're rooting for the Lakers in the playoffs. Okay. I like that. Yeah, I put two futures because obviously Celtics are such heavy favorites, but I did Celtics to beat the Nuggets in the finals and Celtics to beat the Lakers in the finals. Are the Celtics have any chance at the one seed or no? No. Okay. I think they're probably six or seven back. Cavs don't lose. It's crazy. Cavs are really good. Yeah. They're seven and a half back. Yeah, the Cavs are awesome. They're a really good team. You're not scared of them?

I'm a little concerned, but we're the champs. You got to beat the champs to be the champs. Okay. Can't be scared of a team that hasn't done it. Okay. PFT, your who's back of the week. My who's back of the week is Skip and Stephen A. Yeah. Skip and Stephen A have reunited. They're back together. They taped an episode of, I believe it was Skip's podcast, right? Which if you had asked me whose podcast would it be, I would say probably Stephen A. Right. Great booking by Skip to get Stephen A to go on his show. Yeah.

Maybe the LeBron thing had something to do with that. Maybe Skip saw LeBron and Stephen A yelling at each other, and Skip was like, come talk to me about this, my son. This is friendly territory for you to get all the feelings off your chest about LeBron. But I'm pretty sure that was what I was hoping. They saw that and was like, finally it's time. Let's get back together. Yeah, it's like LeBron parent trapped him. I think the report came out on Friday that they had already taped it earlier in the week. Ah.

I hope the case is that it was LeBron focused and they talk about that for the whole time. But I'm pretty sure that the report came out Friday that they taped earlier in the week and the LeBron thing happened late Thursday night. I mean, if they taped and then that happened, Skip had to call up Stephen A and be like, we need to do like an appendix to this. We need to do like another segment because this is going to be what people tune in for. Yeah. I agree.

I'm just very excited. I will be too. Because if you did not live through the first take years where it was Skip and Stephen A., it was perfect television. Yeah. Just two guys who have never been wrong in their lives, disagreeing on everything. It's one of those we were lucky enough to be born at the same time that those two guys found each other and were on TV. And it was perfect. It was perfect. All right. My who's back is baseball injuries because Garrett Cole's out for the year.

Bad. Tommy John. Bad. Tommy John. Not good. Bad. Really bad. They should never change the rules about shaving your face. Facts. That's absolutely true. This would not have happened if he was clean shaven. That's true. Your face is connected to your shoulder. To your elbow? Your elbow. Without a doubt.

Max, what do you get? Oh, Giancarlo also may have season-ending surgery. See, I'm telling you. I'm telling you. It all went downhill. Shit. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Jalen Brunson got hurt, too. Fuck. Second guy's grow a beard. That's bad. They got St. John's basketball, though. Max, are you excited for your Philz? Yeah, I don't know. Okay. Just say birds. Just say birds. Birds are getting older. I mean, I'm going to be excited for opening day. We'll see how it do, but I don't have...

the highest of hopes for the Phil season this year. Got it. Got it. Oh, also National Sports Podcast. Ovi scored again. Oh, yeah. So what is he, 10 away? Empty netter at the end. I think he's nine. Single digits. I think he's nine away. He's 886 right now. Damn. Yeah. Single digits. It was an open netter, but it was also from center ice.

Backhander off the boards. So it was a sick goal. That is a sick goal. And also, if you're a hater that says, boo-boo-boo-boo, too many empty netters, another empty netter for Ovi, you have to be winning the game to score an empty netter. Yeah. So that's pretty good. Also, National Sports Podcast, the NHL trade deadline, Brad Marchand, trade to the Panthers. Tough. Very sad. Very, very sad. Again, not a diehard Bruins fan, but... You're a puck head. I'm a puck head in the playoffs, and...

So you won't be doing pop this year. That was the very, very – it's tough that he went to the Panthers. Like that hurt. It's tough to get over our rivals, hated rivals. And truly the end, the final person of someone who won a championship for Boston when I was still in high school, last player on any of the teams. So sad, sad, sad day for young Hank. And he wanted to stick around too.

Yeah, it sounds like the Bruins fucked it all up. I know that you're not supposed to pay a guy based on what he's done for the team. But some guys you should. But a centerpiece like that, I feel like he wasn't even asking them to break the bank, right? He said, I'll come down. I think he had a face-to-face meeting with them. He said, I'll bring my request down. If you can meet me in the middle, we'll make something happen. I don't want to play anywhere else. And they said, okay, we'll talk about it. Pack your bags. Go to Florida. Yeah.

All right. Should we get to our interview with Coach Tom Izzo? Awesome interview. Part of my take is sponsored by BetterHelp. Let's talk numbers. Traditional in-person therapy can cost anywhere from $100 to $250 per session. That adds up fast. But with BetterHelp Online Therapy, you can save on average up to 50% per session. And this month, BetterHelp is giving you the biggest discount on starting therapy that we've ever offered on this show.

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incredible run that his Michigan State Spartans are on right now. It is head coach Tom Izzo. Coach, first of all, congrats on the title. I know you got more work to do, but I wanted to start with that because I know we got to talk about what happens when a team stands on a logo and what goes on with that. But I want to talk with your team and how they're playing right now.

So like three weeks ago, you guys were 19 and five. You were lost three of four. You had a gauntlet coming up at the end of the big 10 schedule. You ripped off seven straight wins to finish 26 and five win the big 10 outright. How, what, what changed and how, how, how are we here right now where you guys are looking prime for a deep run in March?

Well, to be honest with you guys, my staff did an unbelievable job. I mean, we spent a lot of time. Uh, we felt like, uh, you know, we've got a good team, but it's not a talent laden team. And, uh,

So we started working together more. We became very good defensively. We just couldn't make a shot from three. We're shooting it good. We're getting to the line. We're making free throws. We're scoring 80 points a game. And I said, if we ever make some threes, we could be really good. Well, we got a little better with now we're making threes and, uh,

You know, we're still maintaining our defensive stuff. I think the players and my staff did an unbelievable job, and I've gotten along for the ride.

That's too humble. Yeah, this might be one of your best coaching jobs that you've ever done this year, considering where you came to the season, what the expectations were, and then how you guys are playing. I also just love the voice right now. Your voice sounds like March basketball. Are you going to take a couple days off? Are you putting yourself on a word count for the next couple days, trying to gain that back?

You know, guys, the only time I lose my voice is when I don't sleep. And I haven't had a lot of sleep lately, as you can tell by how I look. But, no, you know, we are taking a day off tomorrow. We've been on a grind, and now we don't play until Friday. So, guys deserve a day off. But, you know, you'd really like my team. My players, they've worked their tail off. They've been selfless. They've sacrificed for each other. And it's kind of...

a good team to cheer for, and yet we still make our mistakes. You know, we have our times when we don't...

take care of the ball, or we kind of go through these little stretches. And so we got to try to correct that this week. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, today was the big win against Michigan. You guys had already wrapped up the big 10 title. So obviously you're playing for your seniors, but you know, the effort was there and you guys, you guys killed Michigan. We had a little, little dupe to do at the end of the game with some Michigan players standing on the logo when seniors are going to kiss the floor and Trey Holloman took it in under his own hands. I got to start with Trey.

He was made in an Izzo factory. How do you always get these guys? He's a dog. He's got so much heart, and it's down to the thick headband. I feel like you always got the dogs with the thick head. When they put on the thick headband, it's like that's an Izzo guy, and you know you can go to war with that guy. So would it be safe to say that he's kind of the heartbeat of the team and you liked what he did there, kind of standing up for the Spartans and for all the home fans and everyone there?

Well, I didn't love what happened, you know, because the game was going along pretty good. They came back, give them credit. And we have a tradition here and it's been a tradition for 30 years. And I didn't even see all of it. You know, Dusty's done a good job with his team. But, you know, we've gone through a few things over the years with Michigan and, you

You know, that hits home a little bit, but I would never do anything on somebody else's court. We did not celebrate the Big Ten championship at Iowa. You know, I wouldn't do any of that. But we are going to celebrate at home when we win. And I think it just got out of hand quick. I don't even know totally what happened. I do know this.

Our guys are kind of trained by the guys before them, not by me. You know, when Mateen Cleaves comes back or Steve Smith is there, even back to Magic Johnson, I mean, you know, Draymond Green, I mean, the rivalry is a rivalry. I mean, you're not supposed to love your rival, but you're supposed to respect them and

I felt like, you know, Trey was sticking up for not only his teammates, but all the players that have come before him that got a chance on this special day to kiss the ass and kind of

Kind of symbolize, you know, what we are here. You know, we're not flashy and this and that. We're just kind of grindy. You know, we get down and kiss the floor. I mean, that's not always good, you know, to kiss the floor. There's a lot of people, but on that floor. Yeah. What we do. And I hope that doesn't take away from.

You know how good we played in the game. And they came back in the second half and played good also. Yeah, I loved it. Listen, you're on the right show because we're a big supporter of rivalry should be. You shouldn't like your rival. That's what makes sports fun. Those moments are what we tune in as fans. And I love Trey Holliman doing that, standing up for him. Hey, listen, there's a pretty basic rule. Don't stand on another man's logo.

You can't do that. Can't stand on another man's logo. Get them off there. And if there's one thing I know about the university of Michigan, they don't tolerate postgame theatrics at midfield or at half court. That's just not in their deal. So they were probably shocked to see something like that. I, there was a funny moment though, as all this was being cleaned up, you had your arm around dusty may. He had his arm around. You guys were talking to each other. What was set? Were you guys, were you explaining to him? Cause I don't think that dusty knew about the tradition. Were you,

letting him know, hey, Dusty, this is what we do when we win at the end of the season. Well, we do it when we lose. I mean, Draymond Green's senior year, we lost the game.

I mean, it's tradition. It's not tradition when we win or tradition. This is what you do. Some guys have been there four years, blood, sweat, and tears. That's what we do. And I just told Dusty that. But he was at Indiana, you know. He's been in the state at Eastern. You know, I think he's done a hell of a job this year with his team. And I give them all the credit. But let's be real here.

Nobody is disrupting us from kissing the ass. Yeah. Yeah. Can't do it. 15,000 people and probably 600,000 living alums watching for that moment. And we would have done it if they would have beat us. Yeah. This is just about winning guys. Draymond green lost that game to Ohio state. I think we had one or two other guys, but that was devastating. They hit a last second shot.

Beat us by one. And Draymond, we had to live that. You know, he had to kiss the S on a loss. So it's not something we do as frontrunners. We do it because it's who we are, what we are. It was started by Sean Respert. It was reinvented by Mateen Cleaves. Those are two of the greatest players that ever played here. And it's going to continue, hopefully, forever.

The rest of my life, but definitely as long as I'm head coach, it's going to continue. I got a question about that because I learned something today because we were trying to get you on this afternoon and you had your mother in attendance and she's 99 years old and it dawned on me with those genetics that

Are you going to coach for another 20 years? I feel like you're never going to stop. You're going to coach forever. I mean, your 99-year-old mother was at the Breslin Center today. I heard reports that she was handling the stairs just fine. So, like, you're going to coach forever.

Well, I got 29 years to catch her, so who knows, you know? But I tell you guys, it was a thrill of mine. I had my family there, my grandchild there, my 99-year-old mother, and a lot of former players came back. And like I said, Michigan and Michigan State this year, rivalries aren't rivalries if both teams aren't good. That's another thing about rivalries. You know, you don't have a rivalry. I mean...

My first three years here, I couldn't call it a rivalry. We got beat by 20 every night. And then we went on a stretcher. We did a lot of the beating. And, you know, then John Beeline came along and we, I think, had a very tough rivalry, but a very respectful rivalry.

But knowing you guys, the way you are there at Barstools, I would probably figure that you'd like us to drop the gloves and have a big hockey fist fight. Yes. Full on, bro. I know. I would appreciate that. That wouldn't go over big for me, but I guess once in a while I understand how you guys feel. Yes. Yes. We love rivalries. We love bad blood. Have you ever kissed the ass?

By the way, it's kissing the S, not kissing ass. Yeah, are you an ass kisser? It did definitely sound like the first time you said it, kissing ass. I've done that a lot, Michael. But you only do that on your last time in Breslin. This is my last time in Breslin. When it is...

I'm positive I'll kiss the ass. Yes, got to. Speaking of Breslin, I got a question for you. So I'm a Badger. We played you guys last Sunday. What do you do? It's the Izzo magic. There was a moment in the game where where Tanjay went up, got

called and won uh they went to i think commercial break and they're like ha just kidding it's ball out uh out the side there was no foul there and then you guys went on a 10-0 run and ended up winning the game pretty easily was that just you just talked to the ref and you're like hey listen that's not gonna happen in my house you guys are crazy man you know the moment i'm talking about the game swung on that moment i'm not an excuse guy but it swung on that moment

What do you think? I had Uncle Guido doing the refereeing or what? I don't know. I'm just asking. Just asking questions. Yeah, the truth of it is, and Greg Gardner and I talk a lot. He's one of my favorite guys, so believe it or not,

I guess I got to like you a little bit because I love playing in the job he did. I think he was coach of the year this year. When you look at where they were picked, 12th, 13th, he reinvented his team. He's done an unbelievable job. It's too bad that he has some alums that turn out like you guys. You didn't put a dot on that. No, I didn't talk to the official. Those guys make mistakes, you know, once in a while as coaches.

Once in a while. Yeah, they make mistakes. Yeah, it was an interesting mistake. So about Greg Gardner, the Big Ten as a whole, because you played Iowa on Thursday night, and Fran McCaffrey, they've had a bad season, and you talked afterwards. You're like, look, this guy's a great coach. You've got to stick with these guys. You don't want to make a mistake and move on. You've had some years in your career where it's maybe not been up to expectations, but

What does it feel like when that kind of the walls closed? Do you feel that? Are you like, hey, look, I'm trying my best here, but it's it's year to year and the ball doesn't bounce your way sometimes.

You know, there's a lot of things that happen, especially now with this transfer portal and everything. You know, it's, I mean, I look at Greg Gard last year, struggled a little bit, right? Yeah. And then, and you, I hope you weren't one of them that was leading the charge. Never said a bad word. That guy did an unbelievable job this year. I mean, not only did he reinvent his team, but he reinvented his style. You know, they were scoring 90 points a game. Yeah. Bo probably was turning over in his bed out there.

It's Palm Springs. But I was really, no, I just think that coaches nowadays are in trouble because everybody thinks because you're paying players, you should win. Well, other people are paying players too. Yeah. You got a lot of problems with these kids leaving and coming and going and

And you can be up one year and down the next. It's going to be, you know, I saw where they just fired the guy at North Carolina State. Yeah. Yeah. He went to a final four last year. Now, I don't know the particulars to it, so I'm not speaking about it either way. But, you know, there's administrators out there that are.

are crazy too you know it's not just coaches that are crazy there's administrators that are crazy too yeah it feels like the whole college sports the pressure has just been ramped up even more in terms of urgency and and just like win now win now and if you don't like you said the nil has changed the landscape for it and even in the offseason if you don't if you don't add guys that your fan base is excited about going to the next year they almost like put you in the hot seat preemptively where where were spartans fans with you this offseason

Were they excited about this year? I don't know. You know, I'd do something really good that would probably bother you guys. I've never been on Twitter in my life. That's smart. And I'm starting it. No. So they were probably upset with me. I don't know, but...

I didn't know it. I tricked him. I just didn't read anything, you know. My wife has a rule here. There's no newspapers, no online stuff, no anything. So I just kind of do my job. But it is getting harder. You are so right in college athletics in general. But I think we still – I think you'd be surprised. You know, it's not –

40% of the people are 30 or maybe even 20. It's 10% of the people are 15 that make all the noise. Right. And somebody believes them because sometimes administrators, you know, they used to be former coaches, right?

And so the coach understood what was going on. Now some of them are not former coaches, and I don't think they understand, you know, one big injury. Like Franny. Yeah. He lost the freshman of the year last year. The guy was averaging almost 17 points a game. He's 6'10". And all of a sudden you don't have him. And, you know, in sports they do it a lot in football. They say, well, the theory is next man up.

Right? You always hear that line, man up. If the next man up was as good as the guy that was there before him, he would have been a starter. So next man up isn't the same man. True. Especially when there's not as many men. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's like you got five. Good luck if you lose one. You're going to have to coach that guy up. When did you realize, though, that this year – was it when the three started falling? You realized that this team might be special? No, because the three started falling just –

Maybe a week or two ago. You know, we took our team to Spain. We did a bunch of stuff this summer to try to keep the culture and camaraderie. I was really lucky because I had some guys coming back. Jeremy Fears, who was injured last year, you know, he's come back. I get a guy like Jace Richardson, whose dad won two Big Ten championships and a national championship here.

I think they knew what the culture was. What has really impressed me about my guys is the, the way they bonded together and pulled for one another and, um, the, the, the selfless acts, you know, the sacrifices they made of maybe a few minutes here, a few points there. And, uh, I got to admit, it's been one of the more fun teams I've had to coach now. Sometimes we're not as good, but, um,

We found a way to hang in there, and I'm proud of them. Yeah, Maryland 3-2, the buzzer beater. It started to feel, and you had quotes talking about, like, you know, these guys understand Michigan State. And I was like, uh-oh, this is a problem for the Big Ten because this is Izzo. There's something I can kind of, I've been, you know, I know you from afar for a long time. I can tell when you start to get a little swagger. I can tell when you feel like you got some guys. And that happened a few weeks ago. I was like, no, this is a problem.

Well, in that game, you know, the only thing I was frustrated with is we had pretty much been up eight or nine points, you know, and we screwed up at the end. So we need the heroic play and everybody made it out to be. We were lucky. I thought we played pretty well. Most of that game. Yeah. It's not the Izzo swagger that does it. Cause believe it or not guys, I never shoot a shot, never get a rebound or make a pass. These guys have,

have taken on their own personality. You kind of hope each team each year has something that they can hang their hat on. You know what I mean? You always want them to learn from the players before them, but you also want them to bring their own identity. This team has been different than most teams before them. What's been the same is they got good guys. I think they play for the name on the front and back.

I don't think it's just that way where you play for the name on your front anymore. Those days are kind of gone. But if you just play for the name on your back, you got problems. So I think this team has found a way to play for both. And I'm really kind of proud and excited about it. And I'm also enjoying it, you know, and, you know, me, I don't enjoy a lot of things. So this is good.

Are you still daring teams to zone you? You threw that out there a couple weeks ago. You said, I dare you to zone us. Is that still standing now that you're hitting your threes? Well, when I say dare them to zone us, I mean, listen, we played Indiana, and I went to the press conference and said I did a poor job.

Don't blame the players. We did not prepare enough for it. They played like 2% zone. We hadn't worked on it as much. And so it wasn't only that we didn't shoot well, we didn't execute well. And that was, you know, I mean, there's times when coaches got to look in the mirror and say, you know what, I didn't do my job. And I said that in front of everybody and everybody.

And, but I vowed then we're going to be making sure that never happens again. So we're working at it harder. But at the end of the day, as you guys know, you can work on anything all you want. If the ball doesn't go in the hoop, it's like hockey, you know, or soccer, you know, you can pepper that goalie, but if it don't go in there, you don't score. Yeah. And so, uh,

There's a combination. We needed to get better at what we do. We needed to make some shots. But we have to execute better, and that's what we've improved on. Now we're starting to make shots, and then we'd be a much better team. Have you had to break out the football pads this year? You guys laugh about that every time my old players come back. That's the first thing they talk about. I did it because I was mad.

And we had so much fun. I'd have done it again. I just afraid this day and age, some lawyer come in and sue me, you know, I'd get fired. But the guys love it. It's another part of our identity. So maybe someday I'll shut off the cameras and lock the doors.

And go ask Jonathan to borrow some football gear. That was fun, man. Nick Saban sent over 12 sets. It was awesome. Yeah. Hey, quick question about your bobblehead. Do you see your bobblehead? Do you think they did a good job with your bobblehead? They have an Izzo counter for wins because you're going up there in all the records, like I said, but you broke Bobby Knight's Big Ten record.

win record. You just tied him for the conference record. You just keep going, going, and going. But they made a bobblehead. I think they could have gotten a little more ism. Maybe put on that crazy leprechaun sweater that you wear. Something like that. No, I don't look at my bobblehead. I haven't seen my bobblehead. I'm sure it's not...

I'm sure it's not very good. You know, my bobblehead doesn't have to be that big. I'm not that tall. So I don't know what the bobblehead is, but I keep saying, I don't win those games. The players win those games. And I mean that, I mean that out of my heart. And, but I also, you know, guys, it's, it's, it's been an interesting three, four years and yet,

We won a championship, I think, in 18, 19, and 20, and now another one in 25. So we're in a little bit of a down stretch there. But right now, how good we are, I don't know. Like I said, it's not the talent-laden team that maybe you normally see, but it sure has been a fun team to coach, and guys are getting better.

And I think they believe in each other and they play for each other and get better than that. How much importance do you put on the tournament now, on the conference tournament? Is this something where it means a lot to you? It would mean a lot to the program if you guys won the whole thing? Or is it, let's just go out there, let's work on some stuff, we'll try to win. But if we don't win, it's not the end of the world. Yeah, I don't think I'd ever admit that. But the truth of the matter is, you know,

Winning the regular season is so important to me because it's that 20-game stretch, you know, and you get lucky or unlucky in three games and you might be in or out here. But I still think it's important because it teaches you how to play when it's one and done time. In other words, if you lose Friday, you're done. And so that's where we had a stretch today. We didn't play very well. And that's the first thing I told our guys. Hey, guys.

If this happens in the NCAA tournament or the Big Ten tournament and you go down, you're out. You just get another chance. So those will be things we'll be working on this week. So it's still important to me.

But it doesn't supersede the 20-game grind that we just went through. Yeah. All right, Coach, I got one last question. This has been so much fun. We love having you on. We appreciate you giving us some time. Rowback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rowback.com. Promo code TAKE. It's actually a two-part. Load him.

Man, I can't even understand you. Slow down. It's a two-part question because I got – can you sit up for a second? I want to see the Positive Vibes Only sweatshirt. It looks awesome. Wait, let me get that in frame. See if you can get it in frame. I want to get the – there we go. Positive Vibes Only. I love that you're wearing that. I don't know if you – I would imagine in like the – you know, when you're preseason and you're coaching the guys tough, you're probably not like, hey, guys, Positive Vibes Only, that's all we're going to do.

I don't know if that matches your style. You can tell me if I'm wrong. You don't seem like a total positive vibes only guy. Yeah, you're probably right about that. But it's hard not to be positive when you just went through this 20, you know, game grind and we...

On the Big Ten championship, right? So at least for tonight. By tomorrow, we'll be back to dog-eat-dog. But tonight, we're into the positive vibes. I like that. So my last question, my real last question. You've been coaching for 30 years. You've seen it all. You've been in all these tournament settings. Do you kind of relish getting into March Madness, into the Big Dance, knowing that

You have a little bit of an edge because you have seen it all. And that quick turnaround, that's what I love about the tournament where it's like you play Thursday, you play Saturday. The coaching staffs do – players make the plays. You've said it a million times. But the coaching staffs do matter because you have such a little prep time for the

for the opponent, it can be a team you never seen style. You never seen. Do you feel extra confident though, going in being like, look, I've seen it all. I know how to coach on 24 hours. I know how to get my team ready quickly on a quick turnaround. You know, honestly, I would say that's one thing that I'll give my staff's credit of over the years. I think we have had enough experience in the eight final fours and the things we've done that quick turnarounds are a key. So honestly,

I feel really comfortable that we'll have our teams prepared, but you still got to play well. But I think the experience, even for a player, experience matters, you know, and I think experience matters in that respect as far as preparing them.

but you still got to play the game. Yeah. Yeah. How are we feeling about the talk of expanding the tournament? I know that they said that they might look to add eight teams, 16 teams. There's all these plans out there for the future. Where do you stand as a coach? Yeah. You know, I was involved in a lot of things. I was on a lot of committees, but this last couple of things that have happened, I've kind of just decided I care about the game a lot. I work for a guy who loved the game. I mean, he,

He cared more about how the game went sometimes than our own team. But I would say this. I'm not really putting enough time in to figure out what's right. I hope they do what's right for basketball, what's right for the players in the game.

and not just for money or something else. I hope it's, you know, the best interest of basketball. And I don't know what that would be until I really sat down and observed it. But right now there's some younger coaches out there that I really respect. They're on some of these committees that I think will fight those fights. And in the meantime, I'm going to just, they want my opinion. I give my opinion and you're going to say, well, what's your opinion?

I worry if they expand it too much. You know, we have already it's tough because we have Cinderella. You know, football doesn't have Cinderella. Everybody that's in there. I mean, I've been beaten by a 15. Right. You know, my good friend Tony Bennett, you know, was beaten by a 16. You know, I mean, it happens.

In football, that will never happen because that team will never be in there. So the more you expand it, the more those kind of things happen, which you guys all like the first day. Right. But TV doesn't like it the second round. No. So it's always fun and exciting for you guys. And meanwhile, I'm sitting home ready to –

you know, whatever. And, uh, but I do respect the little guys too. Cause I was a division two guy to start with. And, and I have great respect for Cinderella. I have great respect for, uh, what VCU did back when Shaka was there, you know, that was, I was pulling for him, but now that I'm on this side, I, uh, it's scary. You know, I, we, we faced middle Tennessee state, for example, uh,

And we were really good. And Denzel Valentine, I mean, I thought I had to make it to a final four. And we were, I think, one in the country defensively. I think they shot 58% in the field and 54% from the three. I mean, they just beat us. And that was kind of bone crushing, you know? Yeah. I don't know what I hope for. I don't want it to be too watered down.

And yet I want everybody to get a chance that deserves a chance. Yeah. Good answer. All right, coach. Thank you. Rest that voice. And you are very humble, but incredible year, incredible team. And we're excited to watch you guys in March.

Well, you know, the only person who'd be more excited than you two that I did come on is my son. Cause he spends all the time watching you guys. So clean your act up, do a good job. Talk good about everybody. Be positive. Positive vibes sometimes. Positive vibes sometimes. Then it's dog eat dog. All right. Thank you coach. Appreciate it so much. Take care. Tom Izzo was brought to you by Proper 12. You

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Have you not read this? I'm just looking at this picture of Izzo you posted. Oh, yeah. Positive vibes only. He looks like he's a hostage. Looks like a hostage. A good rule of thumb is if you're posting something to am I the asshole? Yeah. You're usually an asshole. Yeah. All right. So this one is am I the asshole for letting a neighbor make pack lunch for me? My wife used to pack lunch for me, but I noticed a while back that she stopped making lunch like she used to.

Already bad, bad start before she would get creative with it. Take her time. Try new recipes. Put little special touches here and there. Then I felt like it just became, okay, what are the kids having? I'll just make an extra one and give it to them.

Or give that to him. I would make my own lunch, but for one, it's not the same as when she makes it. Ha ha. And two, I work in construction, so by the time I come home, all I want to do is hit the sheets. And all the places to get lunch near the construction site are expensive, so I'd rather just bring something from home. So I brought it up to her one day, and we talked about it, and she told me that she had so many things to do in a day that she didn't have as much time to put her energy into making my lunches like she used to. Seems...

reasonable. It also seems like the lunch might be a metaphor for something else in this relationship. Yeah. Well, it's so far we've learned that this guy, uh, is mad that his lunch wasn't made well. And also when he gets home, he goes right to bed. And also she spends more time making the kids lunches than she does making his lunch. Yes. Uh, God damn it. You got to make technical free throws. You have to make technical free toast. That's a sidebar. Uh,

Wow.

Fast forward, I have a day off, so my wife drags me to a Bible study that was being hosted at a neighbor's house. The food was so good that I kept going back for more. After my third plate, the woman who had made the food and I started talking, basically she told me that she was flattered that I liked her food so much and that she was training to be a chef and that she had more food that she would like me to try out. I told her that that would be perfect because I always am looking for different things to try and whatever food she made, I could just pick up in the morning and take with me to lunch.

Okay. So you're asking your neighbor now to make you lunch every day.

Does that also entail like you going over to her house first thing in the morning? Well, yes. Good question. And picking the lunch up? Yes. We exchanged information. The next day she sent me an address to her home, which turned out to be right on the way to work. Wow. And not too far from the construction site. So that's where I've been getting lunch for the past few days. This does seem like a big metaphor. Yeah. Like my wife, it was great when we first got married. The lunch was fantastic. But my neighbor. She would do special tricks and it would be, you know, try something new all the time. A lot of variety there. Yeah.

Then it got stale. Kids showed up. But then I met, then I met my neighbor and man, she makes a fucking hot lunch. Yeah. And met her at Bible study. So, you know, there's nothing there. Right. This is, he's hitting all the cliches. I,

I told my wife that she'd have to make lunch for me anymore and she didn't say anything until today. She said she said she thought I was getting lunch from the store and I said that I don't see why that matters where I'm getting it from. She said she doesn't want me to pick up lunch from there anymore. I told her she was being unreasonable for no reason. We had a big argument a few hours ago and she's still mad. Am I the asshole? I really don't see what the problem is. She doesn't have to worry about taking time out of her day to make lunch for me and I'm getting quality lunches again. How is this not a win-win for everybody? I'm confused.

This guy's the most guy brain ever. It's just lunch, baby. He is like, he's just quintessential guy. Like, well, I like special lunches. You didn't make me special lunches. I found special lunches. Win-win. There's no difference between me getting the lunch from my neighbor and me buying it at the store.

There's no difference. It's somebody else made it. Why don't you get upset if I go to Wendy's during the day? All right. Edit. I know what you guys are implying, but it can't be because she thinks I'm cheating. I told her that she can literally check my hours when I arrive at work. I have to clock in. If I was going over to her place to cheat, I would be clocking in late unless you come fast. Yeah. Check my location. Yeah. Uh,

Edit two to clarify one. I complained once, but after I saw how bad she felt, I didn't complain again and quietly kept eating the lunch. She made good guy hero. Good guy to stop making it seem like he intentionally went out looking for another woman to make me food. She's a chef. She saw that I enjoyed her food and came up to me and offered again. She's a chef in training. Obviously she wants people to try out her food. Please stop making it seem like it's more than that because it's not. I love my wife.

She's a chef. I wonder if this guy, because he's going to construction every day. Do they do trades at lunch and construction like they do in elementary school? Oh, yeah. Show up with Dunkaroos. Elementary school, you roll in with a pack of Gushers. You can take five people's sandwiches for that one thing. Absolutely. So I feel like on a construction site, you probably are able to wheel and deal and upgrade. And he probably just, since she wasn't doing a good job making his lunch anymore, he was probably just left out of the trading circle. Yeah. Yeah.

And at three, well, basically, it seems like it's unanimous that I'm the asshole, but he must have just been getting roasted. But I really came here hoping to find out why, and no one really explained to me why it's wrong for me to eat food that a chef offered to me, especially since my wife has already said...

in that she's usually too busy to make lunch the way she used to. I thought this would be easier on her and let her have more time in her day to focus on other things, but somehow I wind up the bad guy shaking my head. Thank you for all the responses, but I think I'm going to keep eating at the chef's house.

I can't stress enough this dude is just like he has the most like caveman brain I like that he his whole point of view is I thought you'd appreciate it yeah I thought that I'm doing this for us no one is telling me why this is bad I'm doing it for us babe I thought you'd be happy that I was going over to her house every morning yeah picking up food here's a reason it might be why your overstressed wife who's uh busy taking care of your kids maybe doesn't love the fact that

you love the food that your hot neighbor is making for you. And maybe because she was still going out of her way to make you lunch every day. Yeah. Your wife was making you lunch every day and it just wasn't up to your standard. It wasn't special enough. It wasn't like it used to be. Yeah. I editorialized hot, but we all agree this chef is hot. Oh, for sure. Bible study chef, hot. For sure. And she's also like,

she is definitely unhappy in her marriage if she's making lunch for a random construction dude. Yeah, does her husband know that? No. How would this guy feel if he came home and there was another guy that was just mowing his lawn? A construction dude is pulling up to his house every morning being like, where's my food?

Yeah, he's pulling up. He's got his hard hat on. He looks like a village person. Maybe just only wearing the vest. Probably got some sick tattoos. Edit four. Last edit. Wow. She locked the bedroom door, so I guess I'll be here reading responses from time to time until I fall asleep. How did I get here? I love this dude. I kind of agree with him. I love this dude. It's just lunch. If this dude wants to come on, we can have his back and just be like, dude, we still don't understand it. That food, like...

Yeah, it's just lunch. Why didn't she make you special? She doesn't put the treats in there anymore. Win-win. This is crazy. By the way, she's training to be a chef. Could mean a lot of things. Oh, yeah. It could just mean like she likes cooking food. Yeah. And it's been her dream. Like when she was a kid, she saw a movie about a chef and she's like, oh, that'd be fun. Yeah. And she just thought about it for a couple years.

Or she could actually be in school. My guess is that she just enjoys cooking. Yeah. And the guy's like, she's training to be a chef, man. She's training to be a chef and that she's someday going to just be like making food for the whole Bible study. All the boys on the construction site. Yeah.

I hope she's an inspiring food TikToker. Yeah. She has 500 followers on TikTok and is really trying to blow up her page. Yeah. Yeah. That would be great. I love this dude, though. What a meathead. Absolute meathead. All right. Good show, boys. Great two weeks coming up. Memes, welcome back. Numbers? 33. 38.

Three has never been pulled memes? Not here. Okay. I gotta pick a new number. I go 60. You guys go first. 99 per 51. 21. Shane, do you want to do 15 seconds on the Chargers? Go. Um...

Did we already start? Yeah. You have five. Mad so far. Very disappointed. Upset. Give me one name you want. Fast. Devontae Adams. I don't know who's available. Justin Jefferson. Okay. All right. Justin Jefferson. Good call. 56. Three. It means you're not going to get this, so I don't know why you're saying that. 25. 25. Love you guys.

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