Grateful Dead Drummer Mickey Hart & Wright Thompson, Hard Knocks With Peter Schrager, Mt Rushmore Of Soft Things & Hank Has A B10 Team
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On today's part in my take, we have two interviews for the people. We have our good friend Peter Schrager recapping Hard Knocks episode two. So we're not going to start the show with it. We're going to talk about it with Peter Schrager, who does the Hard Knocks podcast. He has an insight into the Bears and how they film it. Also the Giants. We're going to also just talk training camp with Peter Schrager. Get us ready for some football training.

We also have an interesting different interview with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and Wright Thompson, the incredible author. They have a new documentary out on ESPN today called Rhythm Masters, which was very cool, very unique, something a little different for the people. And we're going to do Mount Rushmore of soft things. We have Hot Seat Cool Throne. We have FAQs.

We're going to maybe figure out who's ranked too high on the top 25 college football AP rankings. I think they're all too high. Maybe Brandon Ayuk.

Getting traded? I don't know. And also, memes is very upset as a Jets fan. So we've got a great show for you. It's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Throw another shrimp on the Barbie. Get in on UFC 305 action live from the land down under at DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of UFC. The middleweight's title on the line for the main event, but the card is stacked full of...

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And the Jets have a problem. Is it a problem? It could be a problem. You think it's a problem? Is it a problem when you trade for a guy and then he just never shows up? Well, so, uh, Hassan Reddick, uh, who was traded for by the Jets, uh, is at an impasse with the Jets because according to Hassan Reddick, they, uh, uh,

agreed to a new deal. The Jets are saying if they will only do a new deal once Redick shows up to camp and Redick is saying he won't show up to camp until there's a new deal.

So they're at an impasse. They got to meet on the Jersey turnpike. This is why you hold in. You don't hold out. I actually was. That's what they did with Darrell Rivas. Yeah. When Hard Knocks was going with the Jets a long time ago, he was holding out. They met at like a diner. Well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. They should do. The Jets should just run a training camp practice from Hassan Reddick's backyard. Yeah. And see if he shows up. Just bring it to his house. Well, the problem is I think he might be in Tokyo today. Oh.

Or at least he posted something on Instagram that made it look like he was in Tokyo. Either way, it is high time for the Florios of the world out there. The Rossinis, our guy memes, diehard Jets fan, is very upset about...

And I don't think he has a gripe other than it feels like the Jets are not handling this correctly. Well, when memes doesn't like the news, he blames the reporter. It's like if your house gets hit by a tornado, you blame the weatherman. The phrase, don't shoot the messenger, shoot the message,

just never has come into memes. His brain. I'm kind of with memes on that one. Of course, because you don't have, you can't shoot a message. Yeah. Someone gives you bad news. You hate that person. That person. Right. That's what we do. I looked it up and it looks like Hassan Reddick. He's, uh, he's scheduled to make 14.25 million in base pay.

He's missed 15 days of training camp, which means he's accumulated $850,000 in mandatory fines. Oh, no. And $300,000 in discretionary fines. Now, for every week that he misses, he's going to miss that week's game check as well. Oh, no. Which is 1 17th of the $14.25 million. So he owes the Jets over a million dollars right now for skipping work. Can you imagine if we fine people for missing podcasts? Hmm.

Can you imagine how much money we would make, Big Cat? We'd make a lot of money. Something to think about. But this dude hates work so much that he's willing to pay a million dollars. Sounds like they should trade him to the Bears. Memes. Your thoughts? So yesterday I was pretty fired up. Yesterday? This morning you were fired up. Yesterday count today? All of today? Yeah, that was calm. That was calm. Oh, that was calm fired up. You just told us to fuck off? Anything in the past was yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. This morning. You're like my three-year-old memes where she's like, yeah, I fell yesterday. And she's talking about a month ago. Yeah, I've calmed down since this morning. Okay. Not really. And? No, it is the Jets' fault. That was my first conclusion. Oh. But also Florio and Rossini's because they...

Told you. Yeah, she's full-blown Florio of the year. Wait, did you say she's full of balone? No, full-blown Florio of the year. She's full-blown. Full-blown. She's full-blown, but also full-balone. Full-blown. She's a system Florio. Oh, shit. That's the meanest thing you can say. Okay, so what are you going to do? Can you give him to the Bears? No, so I don't think he's going anywhere. Trade him back to the Eagles?

Flip him. Distressed asset. Memes was getting to the point today where he was just yelling other players' names and being like, take him. No, you should take that other player. Hank knows. Yeah, Hank, do you have any players that are in contract disputes? Matthew Judon. Oh, you do know. Okay, all right. And how is that going? They're working it out. Okay. Him and Mayo are on the sidelines having a nice conversation, seem friendly and good. Yeah. Friendly and good.

I think he'll be on the Patriots. Okay. I think they're friendly. I don't know if they're good. Friendly and good. This is the offseason. This is how it goes in the preseason. You've got to negotiate it. Sometimes it takes a little while, but the Patriots, unlike the Jets, are a classy organization. They're going to figure it out.

I can't really say the same for the Jets. Yeah, the Jets probably won't get it. Something seems weird where they traded for the guy, and usually when that happens, you negotiate at least the outline of what the terms of the new contract are going to be once you get there. The whole point of trading for him is you know he's going to sign the new contract. It's like when Chicago got Montez Sweat from the football team. They had a deal in place, and then they executed it. It's not just like a one-year rental. For the Jets, I feel like – I don't know if it's on the Jets, if it's on his agent or both.

Maybe both. Maybe both. Or Florio and Rossini. I'm going to call Rossini real quick because she needs to respond to allegations that she's a system Florio. That are some heavy allegations. Hank, I'm really proud of you for knowing Matthew Judon's contract issues. Thank you. We had a debate whether you would know. Fuck. What do you mean? I'm locked in. Yeah, that's why they call you Lockwood. I watched more preseason football last week than my entire life before this. Really? One game? Like three quarters. Yeah.

Yeah, memes might be right. Yeah, she's probably on the phone with none of her sources. She's busy talking to no one.

I said this to memes yesterday. I was like, oh, yeah, we'll take a son Redick back for a sixth round pick. And he was like, no, that his value would be way higher now than what we traded him for. No, legitimately. I think he's gone up. Yes. Like he was like, we would get more back than what we gave you. I don't think that's how it works. Memes. It might go down. You should teach a finance course. It might. It might.

Okay, so memes, you got to get that figured out because I don't want you to be grumpy memes, and this feels like we need to just get them on the field, right? Yeah, folks be positive. Just pay him. The salary cap is not real. That's a fact. The New Orleans Saints have taught us that many, many times. Just give him the money. You have like one, maybe two years of Aaron Rodgers. Just give him money. Let's have a good season. Yeah, just make another vaccine. Stop him.

What the fuck does that mean? Johnson & Johnson. He's right. We're about to get another pandemic. Let's get another pandemic. Bird flu. All the pass rushers you want. Bird flu's happened recently. Nice point.

That's what Hasan Reddick has when he doesn't play after leaving the Eagles. I love – I forget how much Hank can just exist and get in under memes' skin when it comes to the Jets. Yeah, listen. Or anything. Or anything. We hate on Hank a lot. A lot of it is deserved. But you have to appreciate the fact that when Hank is going up against somebody else, it's awesome. Yeah. We did the – we were doing stuff today. We did the – we had a little downtime and we did the Mount Rushmore of –

reasons why Hank can't exist and what were some of the things we came up with it was speaking or not speaking yawning you've gotten in trouble for both being hungry being hungry golfing having any hobbies any anything that outside of work that I any any activity well if your hobby was work then I wouldn't

No one's hobby is work. No, sometimes you get mad at him for doing work as well. Yes. Really? When I ask you work questions, you get mad at me. Well, you also trapped me in a conference call this morning. Yeah, that's the only way to do it. That's the only way to do it. I said to me this morning, he's like, hey, I'm going to ride with you. And I get in the car and he just goes, oh, by the way, we have a conference call that I added you to. Starts in two minutes. And then he showed up. And I know I couldn't go anywhere. Liking music?

liking music like yeah yeah you've been on his ass for liking billy strings well no it's just funny it's the only musician i've ever heard hank name i think he only knows one musician that's not true name another musician gucci mane oh nice okay fair um what else there's uh dressing nice yeah yeah or well just dressing no matter how you dress dressing

um we said being hungry yeah or just thinking about thinking about anyone else like thinking like you always think about other people being heartfelt towards you guys you guys get mad at me for that yeah oh wait it's always it's never ulterior motives not sure that's right you're always thinking about other people that's point proven right waking up early to work out or sleeping in too late to not work you can't exist yes sleeping or waking

You're not allowed to do. Now you guys are seeing. Yeah, no, it's tough. It's tough being you. I apologize for getting on your case, Hank. Yeah. Yeah. You're a great guy. I'm sorry. Cross I have to bear. Is that the expression? Vacations. Yeah. If you think you're Jesus, that's okay. Not taking vacations. Yeah. Wanting to get, you know, wanting to relax. Right. Illegal. Yeah. Illegal. And then not relaxing.

And then when I'm, yeah, when you guys get me riled up. Yeah, right. Taking your medicine, not taking your medicine. Right. Either way. Both suck for us. People, I hope people are understanding, like, this is truly what I have to deal with. Truly. Right. But also, it kind of works against you because we just described every part of your being is annoying.

In your mind. But yeah, no. But then you're like, I want you around more, which is my entire point. I love having you around. What is it? I love having you around. I think both sides can be right or wrong. I think that Hank is right when he says that he can't exist, and then we're right when we say that you're just annoying. Right. And also, at the same time, if I was really annoying, you would think you'd just cut me out. No. I love having you around just to see how you can't exist. Yeah.

I want to watch you exist to be like, no, stop doing that. Existing. Hank's great when it's directed at somebody else. When you focus all your energy on being somebody else's problem. I like that part. Yeah. I love you, Hank. I love you guys too. Oh, thank you. You finally said it back. You didn't say it back the other day in the car. Why? Why?

When we're fighting about on the way to, what were we on the way to? Oh, Hard Knocks. Yeah. We were on the way to Hard Knocks and you were stalling me. All right, so we are going to talk about Hard Knocks with Peter Schrager. The other news, J.J. McCarthy has a knee injury. Yeah, meniscus. Terrible loss. So I think we should go to our senior meniscus correspondent, Max.

who has dealt with one or two of these in last years. Max, what can we expect? How soon can we expect him back on the court? On the court? Yeah, on the court. Also, is he going to learn how to fall onto his neck as opposed to landing on his feet? He doesn't try to fall onto his neck. He should probably fall to brace impact if he were coming down from a dunk. But he's not dunking. He's playing football. But I'm telling you what I know. You asked me for my expertise. This is my expertise. Okay.

He could be back. He'll probably be back in like two months and then it'll linger for a little bit longer. And then we'll have like a couple of good games. And then if he has one bad game, you can just blame it on the meniscus. That's really the number one thing. Or he's just tired. Or he's just tired. Is he going to get fat? No, he's not fat. He'll be like really strong, really athletic.

Probably the best at his position. Is he going to play like he's fat? No. No. Other people would maybe say that he plays like he's fat, but he's not actually fat. He's actually really athletic. And if he didn't have his meniscus, he would be in better shape conditionally. So he is fat. Conditioning-wise. No, not fat, but just not as good shape as he would have been if he didn't tear his meniscus. Shit.

and it'll come back like within the next couple years like there'll always be the worry of you know the meniscus tore it could tear again it probably will tear again and it's always going to be in the back of your head and you always be like I want you know

What if he didn't tear the meniscus? What could have been. Yeah. Right. Shout out JJ McCarthy for being a tough motherfucker because he didn't... He tore his meniscus and then didn't report it until the next day. Yeah. And he was like, hey, should we check this out? It sucks. Like...

It just sucks. He did look really good in the preseason week one. Yeah, they have Sam Darnold, but the Vikings... That's a denial injury. That's like a, I'm going to sleep this off and I'll be fine. Which everyone does. The minute you get injured, especially if you're drunk and get injured, and you're like, I'm fine, and then you wake up the next day and you're like, I can't walk. That's what happened with my foot, yeah. I just walked it off, walked home that night, and then I woke up in the morning, nanobubbles didn't do shit. But it really does suck for Vikings fans because you're excited about your new quarterback, and then...

He should be fine long term, but it still is like... If he misses two months of his rookie season, that's big. Yeah, so I know that there are two different types of surgeries you can have on the meniscus. One is when you cut it out, and the other is when you repair it, right? You sew it back together? Yeah. And so if you cut it out, you can play on that after a couple weeks.

If you sew it back together, it takes longer to heal, but then you're better off in the long term. Right. You don't get bone on bone like D Wade had. Yeah. Bone on bone could be an issue. So, Max, which one did who I forget which player do you root for that had meniscus surgery? I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, was it Embiid? What kind did he have? Meniscus? I don't know. But did they was it the long one or was it the cut it out and he's going to come right back?

I think he said both, honestly. I'm not... Yeah, I hope he's okay. He looked great. Yeah, I feel bad for Vikings. It sucks. It's a shitty thing. You've been through it before with Teddy Bridgewater. I hope nobody threw up this time. Yeah, I hope he's okay. Was...

Was it the Derek Carr seven-year bump that we talked about? Because Sam Darnold is in his seventh year, which is crazy. Yep. That he's been in the NFL for seven years. But Sam Darnold is now going to be the starter. Yeah. Also, just a reminder that doing a fantasy draft before the end of preseason is insane. You got to do it Labor Day weekend. It's insane. Because Jameer Gibbs got hurt, too. Yeah, I think it was a hamstring. Is he okay, Huey?

He's going to be all right. Okay. He's going to be great. Because I saw there was some people who were concerned about that. But there's no worse feeling than being in preseason and getting that alert from Schefter and being like, wait, that's one of my guys? Especially if you have a rookie quarterback that you're excited about. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah. So sorry for Vikings fans. Okay.

Okay, before we do our Mount Rushmore, should we take a quick look at the top 25? And we also have some breaking moves. Breaking moves. Henry Lockwood. No, this has nothing to do with him existing, not existing, whatever.

Henry Lockwood, after doing an extensive search where he just got drunk at bars and called it work last year, he has found his Big Ten team, which is? The Washington Huskies. Oh, wow. So you went to a Washington bar last year? No. Oh. I didn't declare them my Big Ten team, for the record, but I am...

high on them so why are they your big 10 team uh because belichick is a defensive coordinator bill belichick steve belichick i knew that yeah uh wait did you actually think that bill belichick was going to be the defensive coordinator no but you you said that earlier and you didn't like you're like belichick's the defense corner i was like you have to say steve

Obviously, Bill Belichick's not the defensive coordinator. I understand, but you do have to say the first name in that. Okay, Steve Belichick, sorry. I didn't think that. I thought that was a given. Bill Belichick was on McAfee's show yesterday or Tuesday, Monday, whatever. And he was talking about how he's just been hanging around the team. And as has Pete Carroll.

So the Washington Huskies have maybe the greatest coaching staff. That's not an official coaching staff, but is a coaching staff of all time. Shadow coaching staff. You've got the old dogs getting back together. It does make sense for Hank to be a Huskies fan because they combine two of your great loves before games. They've got drinking and then they've got boats. You've got to go sailgating at some point.

I would love to. So how do you like your Huskies in the Big Ten West? Well, that's what I asked Big Cat before. I was like, are they in the cupcake division or the hard division? And I found out that it's one division. Yeah, it's all one division. That sucks for you guys. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But it's expanded playoff. My Big Ten knowledge was just like, it's Ohio State, Michigan, and then Wisconsin comes out of the cupcake. Yeah, the legends and leaders conferences. So it's like the Big 20?

Yeah, they don't change the numbers. Yeah, they haven't changed the numbers. 18. 18? Yeah. One conference? Yeah. How do they decide who gets to the Big Ten Championship? Top two. That's it? Yeah. Could be Michigan-Ohio State playing back-to-back weekends. That's cool. Yeah. Well, I don't know if that's cool. That's the thing. Well, you're just screwed. No, no, no. Well, no, because it's an expanded playoff, so you don't have to make it to the Big Ten Championship to be in the playoff. Got it. Yeah.

The situation of Ohio State and Michigan playing each other in back-to-back weekends would probably suck because both teams would then be in the playoff most likely, and then you'd have a Big Ten championship game that would mean, yes, home field advantage, but also it would kind of take a little away from the rivalry. Wait, would there be a possibility that they played three weeks in a row? I don't think they can play three weeks in a row because I don't think that's how – I don't think they would ever bracket them that way.

But the possibility exists. I don't think so because I think automatic qualifiers would get a bye. They always get a bye? Yeah, so I don't think it can exist. But we could get three matchups between them in the same year. Yes. That's on the table. Yes. It's tough to beat a team three times. Could happen in the SEC as well. Years that Georgia and Alabama play each other, they could play again, they could play again. Looking at the top 25, the thing that jumps out to me is –

That did happen. Wait, no, that didn't. Did that happen? Did Georgia and Alabama play each other three times when they played in the national title? I don't think so. I think that was just the second time. Which year? Because they did put the two year that means because they could in the SEC championship. Yeah. Yeah. They lost in the SEC championship and then won in the.

Yeah, that was the Bryce Young year. That's right. But the thing that jumped out to me was things being just as they should be, which is Iowa at No. 25. They should just stay at No. 25. And NC State at No. 24. Yeah, yeah, those two teams, they fit there. Iowa, it doesn't matter what they do, they should just always be No. 25. Georgia 1, Ohio State 2, Oregon 3, Texas 4, Alabama 5. This is the year that if Ryan Day, he's got the squad. His defense is going to be nasty.

If Ryan Day doesn't do it, then the Born on 3rd stuff is going to start to really come true. Big matchup, October 12th, Penn State, Ohio State. Whoa. Get ready for that in November 9th. Penn State will lose that by 10. Oh, no, that might be Oregon-Ohio State. I think that's the matchup on October 12th. Yeah, I mean, there's some great games. And Washington, Iowa. Oh, yeah, Hank, sorry, we forgot Hank was in the room. Yeah, Hank. We got to talk about his Husky. Are there a lot of U-Dub bars in Chicago? No.

I don't know, but it's got to be one to start one. Hey, why don't you give us a quick win loss for the Washington Huskies? All right. So they, I just looked at their schedule. They have a, they have a big pack. 12 schedule is what I'm calling it. Okay. Michigan's nine, but aren't they going to stink this year? No, this will be good, but there'll be, they will not be. I will tell you this thing. They will not be in the top 10 by October 5th. Okay. Mark my word. Your shot card. So that'll be a win. You just skipped to the fifth week. Well,

Well, yeah, I mean, Rutgers obviously win. Northwestern obviously win. Washington State, rivalry game, maybe not. Wait, where's Northwestern? Washington. Yeah, you would have to go to that if it was here. I would love to go to that. Also on a lake, right? Yeah. Yeah, literally this year because they're playing on the practice facility. Their stadium. I mean, I probably will try and go to one of those games. It's going to be a sick end zone cam. I'm a sucker for water. Iowa win, Indiana win, USC could be tough.

Penn State win. UCLA win. Oregon could be tough. So undefeated in two could be toughs. At Penn State. That doesn't matter. What if they do the whiteout? I think it is. Wow. For Washington? Yeah.

That's classic Big Ten rivalry. Are you talking shit about your own squad? If you're a Penn State fan and you're like, why? I did it for Minnesota last year. Yeah, I guess that's it. Hank, if I were you, I would say that's just a true mark of how respected Washington is, where Penn State's using their whiteout. It is the whiteout. Good point. Washington is the whiteout. All right, maybe we'll go. I would love to. This is great. We should do this content. Yeah, content. All right, so what's that, 10-2?

Eight and two. It was undefeated with two could-be-tough. One, two, three. We are going to do a full college football preview in the coming weeks. This is not it. So just don't. This is just our Washington Huskies preview. I was just looking at a list of teams and Hank talking about who's not loved. Hank's Washington Huskies that were Hank's Washington Huskies as of an hour ago. Yeah, I'm a loyal guy. He's smitten. It's going to wear off, Hank.

What? Your love of the Huskies. Not my love of the Belichicks. What happens when they play a late night game and Hanky's got some drinky? I'll just have to have some more drinky. I'm not a Saturday drinky guy. Not during the football season. That's not true. We did a bar crawl last year to look for your Big Ten team. That was day drinking. That was also work, Max. That was work. Sponsored. Shout out to Coors Light. I had to do that.

I had no choice. All right. Well, I'm excited to watch Hank. I'll tell you what. The Huskies have great colors and great gear. They do. You got that to look for. Cool fans, too. Yep. Spencer Hawes. Great stadium. Yeah. You're buying this. You're doing what every econ, because you taught us this with your econ class, buy high, sell low. Yep. Because they just went to the national championship. They've never been as good as they are. Yeah.

He's noticing the trend in the market. Hank's going to the moon. That's your problem, Big K. You're selling before we're on the moon. Their mascot is awesome. The worst time. Dubs. You just missed an insane season. Hank, get to know Dubs, the mascot. He rocks. He's a good boy. Also, the camera angle at the Husky Stadium is very high. Weirdly high. Wash up. We should make Penn State Washington a rivalry. Yeah. Make a trophy, Hank. That should be. You got to make a trophy.

I'm down. Okay. We'll make a trophy. I like that though. Wash up. Wash up. Do we have anything else before we do? Let's, we're going to do our Mount Rushmore. Then we're going to do hot seat, cool to run and get to our interviews. We have anything else before we get to our Mount Rushmore? I think we're, I think we'll cover it in hot seat, cool to run. Let's do our Mount Rushmore. It is brought to you by our friends at Morgan and Morgan. You got to check out Morgan and Morgan. If you've been injured, uh,

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Of soft things. Open-ended. I love it. Shout out. I think I screenshotted it. Oh, no, I bookmarked it. Do you guys use bookmarks? I do sometimes, yeah. Yeah, bookmarks are good. We've done this. We've had this conversation. What do you mean? Sidney Sweeney. Oh, yeah. We don't, but then I did after that. I forget. I did some insult ones towards PFT. Oh, yeah. Hank and I had a bookmark off. Matt. A.W.O. Matt.

Thank you very much for submitting this one. He submitted some good ones, open-ended ones. So the scores as of right now, after Hank didn't cheat, he went back to losing. Isn't that interesting? Very interesting. Max has 57 points. I have 47. Hank has 38. PFT has 38. We got a tie. Also, Max is talking about possibly clinching. What's your magic number, Max?

I don't know what you're talking about. You said before that you need me to win this because you would clinch. I didn't say that. You said that verbatim. So what is your magic number? What are you looking at, Hank? I'm looking at my bookmarks. I've never even seen this movie. Hank and I had a bookmark off. It's a quote tweet. It says, show the greatest I'm about to die moment in cinema all start. And I bookmarked.

movie reply I've never seen this movie so that was accidental Hank tweeted ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha when they announced that Dan Quinn was going to be the coach of the commanders I bookmarked it and then Hank bookmarked my bookmark and said your bookmark has now been bookmarked and I bookmarked that and then Hank said triple bookmark no bookmark backs oh and then I bookmarked one of yours big cat so what did you bookmark

Wait, what did you say, BFT? I was going to say somebody did an AI thick Miley Cyrus. Oh, I know which one you bookmarked. Because you retweeted it on draft night. No, this is 1224. It says, if the Bears don't at least get to the NFC Championship game next season, you do apologize to Hank. And you said, no, I will apologize if they miss the playoffs without any major injuries. Bookmark it. So you have to apologize to me?

No, you have to apologize to me. If they miss the playoffs. Without any major injuries. Major injuries. Okay. But then you should have to apologize to me if they make the playoffs. Okay. I'm Bears over 8.5 wins. Okay. All right, so Mount Rushmore of soft things. Who goes first? This is a big one for the boys in the bottom. We have eight left. Yeah, Hank and I are neck and neck. Who goes first? Plenty of time.

Who's up first? You're pointing in between me and PFT. I think it's me. I go last. I know that. Okay. So I go first. Big Cat, Hank, then Max. Okay. Mount Rushmore soft things. 1-1. I don't think this is a surprise. I'm going boobs. Correct. Correct 1-1. Boobs is the correct 1-1 pick. Yes. Yes. Boobs are back. Now, Sidney Sweeney brought boobs back. For a while, boobs were out. Now, boobs are officially back-back.

And I'm glad that they are. Yes. Very soft. Good one. And supple. 1-1. Max hates boobs, by the way. Boobs. Good pick. All right. Now I got to think. Now I got to think. I mean, that was a lucky first. I'm very thankful I got to go first. First pick, yeah.

I was going to say Hank after a loss, but I'm not going to do that. He's got his headphones off. Just Hank. Just Hank in general. Okay. I'll go my one-one. Well, my one-one was boobs. A dog's ears. Only one-one-one. A dog's ears. Dog's ears. Super soft. Okay. Yeah. You get a dog's ears. Super, super soft. They're like velvety. Yeah. Yeah, they're nice. Love petting a dog's ears. Love a good dog's ear.

I mean, this really doesn't even matter because there's no way PFT loses this draft getting boobs 1-1. No, there's a way. I'm not very good at Mount Rushmore's. Ice cream. Okay. You were asking us a question? Is there any particular type of ice cream? For the graphics, it's just ice cream. Okay. Was that a question? No, I'm just... That's my answer. Ice cream's not that soft. Okay, it's your answer. Soft serve. That's what the correct answer should have been.

Soft serve is what you would want on the graphic. But he said... For sure, you would prefer ice cream. I said I want ice cream on the graphic. But you would want soft serve on the graphic, but you said you want ice cream. It doesn't matter. What do you mean it doesn't matter? I'm going up against PFT. What just happened where you got your computer? I don't understand why...

What? You say he wins with boobs. He wins with butt cheeks was still on the board. Yeah, butt cheeks is there. Butt cheeks is my thing. Yeah, but hard, like a firm butt cheek. Yeah, like my butt cheeks aren't soft. No, but... Come grab my butt cheeks. You'll get some bone. Okay, well, I'm taking butt cheeks. Not all butts are soft, yeah. I mean, not all boobs. Fake boobs aren't soft. I didn't say fake boobs. I know. I said boobs. Correct.

Yeah, fake boobs are not soft. I'm maybe the world's worst person at identifying fake boobs, too. I'm worse. I think every boob is real. And then my next pick is going to be linemen with long sleeves. Okay. Pick. Good pick. Good pick. Is it me? Yeah. Sorry, I always get so confused with the draft order. Who's that? That's me. That's me being confused. Your voice. Wait, was that you doing an impression of yourself?

I will go with cotton candy. Nice. Good pick. Nice. Literally air. Yeah. Yeah. So soft it's air. Is air soft?

All right. Who's next? Okay. My next pick, I'm going to go with going to sleep early on a bachelor party. Yeah. Big time soft move. Yeah. I had a when everyone's there together. It's soft things, though. That's the Mount Rushmore. Soft things. I had taking a night off. Yes. Soft things. It's a soft thing. It's a soft thing to do. Got it. Not a soft thing to do. Yep.

It is. If you went to sleep at 9 o'clock on the first night of a bachelor party, I'd be like, that's a soft thing to do, bro. Yeah, it's a good pick. Okay. All right, I'm going to go. I get two, right? Yeah. Sorry, we get lost in drafts sometimes. I forget where I am. That's me doing an impression of Hank. Doing an impression of Hank. Impression of Big Cat. Okay. Yeah, it was an impression of you.

Me? Hank was doing an impression of you earlier and then was being sarcastic when he said he was doing an impression of himself. Got it. Yeah. What was the impression of me? Is it my turn? My turn? Oh, okay. Got it. All right. I'm going to go with... Sorry. Sorry. I get lost. I know. Me too. No. I can't exist. We have an impression off. I can't even exist. Okay.

That's pretty good. Sorry to the listeners for that one. That was Hank. He just yawned. I'm going to go with calling fouls and pick up. Mm-hmm. Well, okay. I mean, there's some times when you have to call a foul. Occasionally, but you know the type of foul I'm talking about. Yeah. And then toilet paper. Mm. Soft. All right. I'll go with...

Running out the clock in a video game when you're playing head-to-head with someone. Like kneeling, running out the clock. That is a soft move. Play to win the game. Play to have fun. Yep. Like just three minutes left and you just start running the ball and kneeling. It sucks. Soft. What was the fuck? Hank's just realizing that these things are better than what he's got. No, I was going to say, I had punting and Madden was my only non... But wait, Hank, I thought you said that it was supposed to be soft things.

I'm going to go with puppies. Okay. Okay. I had puppies. I did, too. It's a great pick. I took puppies off because he said dog's ears. Yeah, but it's a great pick. Yeah, it's way different. It's a good pick. Way different. Good job. I'm going to go with Ben Simmons. Good pick. Good pick. Now, this next one...

I'll go soft pretzel. Oh, good one. But is it soft? It's got the crunchy salt on there. It's got a little crust on it. I do love a good soft pretzel. I love a soft pretzel, but I wouldn't say that's the soft thing. Can you name what I just said? Soft pretzel. It's literally in the name. That means that it's softer than a normal pretzel. Kind of like yellow cheddar cheese. I'll wait for after. What? What?

Is there not yellow cheddar cheese? Yeah, there is. What? Say it. I don't want to give it. I'm done. I don't want to give anyone up. Say it, pussy. Soft cheese is a thing. I was going to say soft cheese. I was going between soft cheese. Bree is a soft cheese. I was just going to say soft cheese. Okay. Hank. You got to speak over here, Henry. He's just thinking. I don't know what he's doing.

I have a pick you wouldn't thought of, you haven't thought of, and I'm still debating whether I think it will look bad on a graphic, but it's also the softest thing in the world. Wearing... He doesn't know where the sentence is going. Matching outfits with your significant other. Oh, nice. You think that's soft? Yeah. I kind of like it when they do that in airports, though. It's like we're a team. No. Okay. Okay.

I have a pick. I think it's going to ruin my draft, but it's also like... To a family party. I think it's going to ruin my... That sounds very personal. I think it's going to ruin my draft. I was trying to get creative. That was just like you were just coming up on the fly. It was free ball. Yeah. All right, my last pick. It is the softest thing in the entire world, but I'm afraid that I'm going to get...

criticized by the awls but that's fine i'm gonna do it because i have to stay true to myself no pander pics like max surprise you didn't do meatball um a newborn skin is literally the softest thing in the world how's that gonna look on the graphic probably not good but i don't care because i have to stay true to myself yeah if you've ever touched a newborn skin it's fucking insane it's like did you want to say baby's bottom but but that no no because a newborn skin like it

Their hands, their everything. Their head, everything is like the softest thing you've ever felt. I had baby hair on my list. Baby hair is very soft. Isn't that a saying? Smooth. Smooth. Okay. You do have that. You have asses.

Yep. Every ass. No baby ass. I probably fucked myself there, but... All right, so you have butt cheeks, parentheses, not baby ass. Yeah. Butt cheeks above the age of 18. Yeah. I probably fucked myself there, but if the parent listeners of this show come through for me, because it is a fact. It's the softest thing in the world.

I mean, you're good. It doesn't matter. Why? It's a two-horse race. Well, no, if I keep losing. If you got two with one-one, there's nothing you can do. You just took wearing matching outfits with your significant other to a family function.

So, that's soft. You don't think you have any part in this at all? I still can't believe you didn't say soft serve. It was right there. Soft serve. I put it on a cone for you, Hank. Is there any particular type? Whatever. I'm ready to play NCAA. Okay. All right. Well, we don't know if it's a hat. Oh, that's true. Yeah. All right, PFD, your last pick. Okay. My last pick, I'm going to take...

I'm going to run the football. I'm going to say pillows. Nobody took pillows. I had it on there. Pillows is like the softest thing in the world. I like a hard pillow. I like one hard pillow, one soft pillow. Same. Okay. What got left off? Billy football's hands. Yes. Yeah. Soft hands. That's a good pick. Inside of a sweatshirt.

Marshmallows. New sweatshirt. Marshmallows is good. Jell-O. I should have said soft cheese. Why did you go marshmallow? Mashed potato. I'm upset I didn't say soft cheese. A velour jumpsuit. I had velour. Yeah. Your dick after you've been drinking. Jellyfish. Butter. I almost went Ben Simmons Carson Wentz back to back. There's nothing worse. I feel like probably over half the time in a restaurant they give you rolls with hard butter. Wait, what did he say?

Me? Yeah, what did you say? Carson Wentz. I almost put Ben Simmons, Carson Wentz back to back. Should have. Butter, yeah, no, I agree. The hard butter is the worst.

I had going home before midnight in college. Yeah. Playing beer pong with water and a side beer. Yep. I think that happened after when I was in college, but I've seen people do that and that's the softest fucking thing I've ever seen. Throwing flags on taunting. Yeah. NFL taunting rules. Blocking people on Twitter during an argument. I understand people block people on Twitter, but like when someone will get in an argument and then just block the person when like they're about to reply, that's the softest thing in

Blocking people on Twitter probably should have been taken. That would have looked really good on the thing. Apologizing? Yep. Kind of soft. Never apologize. Kickers when they have to make a tackle. Yep. Kneeling in the first half with timeouts in your pocket. I think that's soft. McVay. 45 seconds left. McVay. Fucking run a play. McVay. Hitting a guy after you gave up a home run to him.

But did he did he pimp the home run? It's soft, though. Unwritten rules. Don't strike him out. Respect the rules. Strike him out. Not betting on the Super Bowl. Soft. Yeah. Like not having an opinion on the Super Bowl. Soft. Telling on someone. Yeah. Getting mad about hard knocks. Yeah. I said getting mad about not talking on the podcast after you lose a game, even though your teams have won more championships than everyone else.

That's a good one. Yeah. When you get one little loss. Talking on the podcast. And then you just shut up. And you literally only talk when your team wins, which they do a lot. You still can't. Not filling out a March Madness bracket. That is soft.

Emailing your professor after they, after emailing a random person's professor after they make fun of you online. Yeah, and asking them if they'll kick you out of class because you made a joke about branding. Actually, though, Ravel also has like the hardest move when he put JFK's headshot in fucking 8K at like 8 in the morning. Yeah. Hank, do you have any honorable mentions, by the way? Yeah.

Hank, what are your honorable mentions? Hank went, he tapped out on his draft. What the fuck are you talking about? What do you got? I gave him all marshmallows, jello, mashed potatoes, velour, jellyfish. Jellyfish? Max, you don't fucking listen.

Uh, Huey, do you have the best of the rest? Cake. Oh. Cake? Yeah, that was the only thing I was thinking of. Soft serve cake or ice cream? Yeah, Max took asses already. Any cake. All cake is soft cake. Do you have any honorable mentions, Max? Oh, bunny rabbit. Rabbits. I was ripping them. Shit. Oh, sorry. Bunny rabbit is pretty good. I said soft cheese. I said kickers when they have to make a tackle. You would have loved that pick. Uh, Janikowski. Do you have any honorable mentions, Big Cat? Yeah, I do.

What about you? I already gave them. Getting mad at your co-hosts because you're so annoying and they're just so annoyed with you existing?

Hank. That could have been a good pick. Yeah, missing breakfast and then making everybody's life run to hell. Complaining about Mount Rushmore every season. Every Mount Rushmore season and then cheating on the rules that you gave out. Someone tweeted at me. I don't know if it's true or not. They said that you have been on record saying your wife helped you with picks before. Which one was it? Which wife? It was one.

So, you said that you've gotten in trouble for picks. Yeah, I've gotten in trouble for picks. Also, that's in the family. You can't put us in jail, right? I don't know. You went outside the family. I don't know how that works. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can't. Can you not...

If your significant other has to take the stand against you, isn't there the privilege? Yeah. So thrown out. Well, wait. Adriana went through that when she tried to go to that lawyer. They weren't married. They weren't married yet. She was thinking about getting married so she wouldn't have to testify. But if it's... And then Silvio killed her. But if you're... Yeah. No. That drove her out to that exit and she didn't know what was going to happen. The example that I said when I said I did talk to people about picks was I was getting chirped by someone on Saturday for my sandwich draft. And I was like...

shut up, dude. Wait, in real life? Yes. Wait, like at a party? Yes. It was someone I know, but they're like, oh, your fucking sandwich draft, dude, sucked. And I was like, all right, then, fucking genius, let's hear some steroid users. And they go, Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong. They gave me nothing. Man in the arena. And I came in dead last. It's man in the arena. And that's what I said. Yeah.

That's fair. But you also, the difference is she has maybe helped me with a pick or two. You said that Liam gave you all your picks for the pizza draft. Well, that was also in a different, that was a tainted error when you guys were. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It was pre-tainted. It was pre-tainted. You tainted it before. That was our point for this whole discussion on Monday. Your big claim about Mount Rushmore. All right. Spoiler alert. I suck at Mount Rushmore and I just complained to try and mask it.

I've also proven the Tate wrong this year. That was a hard move by you, admitting that. Yeah, I'm mad. Did you just apologize? No, he just admitted that everything. He copped it.

I try and muddy the water. I actually always respect that in a TV show or a movie where the guy that's on the stand gets so pissed off at the prosecutor that they just admit to massive crime. That happened in the Young Thug trial. The guy said, he's like, yeah, we went up and did that shit, like talking about a shooting. And then was like, well, you told me nothing I could say would get used against me in court, right? No, that was big of Hank. He literally just admitted to it all. Yeah, it's hard. He just said he sent it all out. Hard Hank.

That was a hard move by you. I just got a call back from Racine. Let's see what she has to say to memes. Is this Diana Racine? Yes, this is Diana Racine. Who am I speaking with? Hey, Diana, this is part of my take. Earlier today, memes said that you were on the air. You're on the air. You'll have to tape. Earlier today, memes said that you were a system Florio at this point for your reporting on Hassan Reddick. Do you have any comment to him?

I think that memes needs to understand that Mike Florio, Diana Rossini, Tom Pelissero, Adam Schefter, Ian Rappaport do not make the decisions for the New York Jets. New York Jets make the decisions for the New York Jets. So while he does not like the messenger of the news, it's not our fault. So I would say sorry, but I'm not really sorry. Okay. I think that's fair. Memes, do you have any retort?

Nope. All right, he doesn't have a retort. Yeah, you put him in a body bag. Good job, Diana. All right, maybe he should follow me on Twitter and I can give him more gits. Oh, wow. So you don't even follow her on Twitter and you're complaining about her tweets. Huh. That's soft. That's soft. Wow, that is soft. That's real soft. Oh, yeah. We talked about the Italian angler. I think he's got some self-loathing.

Yeah, something's wrong. It's basically if your name ends in a vowel, memes doesn't like you. So I'm never going to forget this. That's true. Okay. Well, thank you, Dinah. Okay. Bye, Max. Bye. Bye. That was soft by memes, right, Hank? Very soft. Insanely soft memes. All right. Let's do Hot Seat Cool Turn. That was a great Mount Rushmore, guys. More open-ended ones if anyone wants to tweet them at us. Those are the fun ones. Yep.

Because Hank just always goes with the most literal definition of it. Well, no, he gets mad at us for exploring the other options when he also has those other options. I told you, I'm bad. A lot of my anger is just directed at myself through you guys. Hank, do you want me to help you with Mount Rushmore? I mean, again, the sanctity of this whole contest has been... We're tied in last place, Hank.

Not anymore. You're not out of it. You had boobs. Yeah, I did have boobs. Boobs are great. That was pretty nice. Okay. Convenient. Yeah, very convenient. Although I'm the one who came up with it, so not convenient. But you knew the order. No, I didn't. You also don't. I also don't know the order any time. You're in the clear. I don't know the order any time. You just made fun of Big Cat for never knowing the order. Yeah, you said I don't know the order. Money in the water. No, you don't know the order of who's picking when. Oh, God. All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how would I rig it if I don't know the order day to day? Maybe you're playing the long game.

Kaiser Soze of the order. They never caught on for me to finish second place. Hank just lives life as devil's advocate. That is unfortunate. I've got like this mastermind and somehow my mastermind has me 11 points down from Max. It doesn't, but it just can't come in last. Which I could still. Okay. You might win, Hank. Sometimes you think that you're going to lose and you end up winning. You can't beat boobs. It's true. It's a fact. Boobs are a great thing. That on a quote card. Okay. Okay.

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Probably going to mess his pronunciation out. HaPoul Tel Aviv basketball team. Okay. Our co-worker, they just signed Pat Bev. Big contract signing offseason for them. He was on his own podcast, Pat Bev Show, Barstool Sports. With Roan. With Roan. Apologies. And he said, if a bomb goes off, I'm gone. When talking about playing in Tel Aviv. So, like, they got to... Check the forecast. They got to worry about their whole...

bullshit if they want to keep Patev. I feel like he makes peace happen. I feel like that's not an unreasonable position to take, though. No, it's not. And maybe Israel's like, well, we want this team to do well. He also said most of our Euro Cup games are in Bulgaria. So, oh, yeah, they should sign Zion. Wait, I'd be a good fit. Is he in where the regular season games? I don't know. If a bomb goes on off, I'm gone.

Well, he could say that about any team, though. Like, if a bomb went off at a Bucs game, he's probably gone, too, right? Like, in dead? Yeah. Yeah. No, like, he's out. Yeah. He might stay. He might stay. Yeah. He's got that dog. Okay. Good hot seat. My cool throw is Tom Brady. Why? He's joining YouTube. He's joining YouTube. What? He made a YouTube channel. He's going to start posting vlogs. He's about to take over. He's joining. Okay. Okay.

I thought he was on the board of directors. I mean, he probably will be soon enough. True. Raider Tom Brady? Raider owner Tom Brady. Yeah. Speaking of videos, disc golf video with Jimmy Tatro is out now. I may have taken mushrooms before. I mean, if Tom Brady starts making disc golf videos, we're in trouble. We're screwed. Is he going to do the Bryson thing?

Just breaking 50 on disc golf? Content creator, breaking 50, but years old, playing in the NFL. Oh. For the Raiders. Big, great series. Yeah. All right, PFT, your hot seat cool term. My hot seat is the big justice family. So I just found out who this family was yesterday.

Costco guys is what they're more known for. Right. So I've seen them, but I've opted out of them. And I'm sure that you guys have been through that over the years. Where you see something that pops up online, a trend, and you're like, I'm going to opt out of it. I learned about them. I don't want to be a hater, but I can't stand them. You fucked up. Well, you can hate them, but the Rizzler's electric.

Yeah. Which one's the Rizzler? The little guy. Okay. So apparently they're on the hot seat because I'm hearing that the dad had this arranged. He's been trying to go viral for years and years and years. Yeah. Am I getting it right? Pretty much every person who ends up going viral probably was trying. Is that the only problem that people have? There's rumors that maybe there's something else. I hope not.

I just saw someone being like, we're going to cancel big justice. Please don't leave big justice alone. So they do the Costco guys. They do the boom or doom scale, right? Yeah, no, I mean, it's terrible internet, but I like it. What's what have they done? Doom. Do they ever do doom or is it always boom? Yeah. Uh,

Their cousin made a pizza with like a bunch of like gross shit on it and they doomed it. They doomed that one? Yeah. I need to, well, I just found out who they are. So I'm like experiencing them for the first time. Just start, just go to the Rizzler. Just go to the Rizzler. They're fascinating to me. The Rizzler's electric. How many booms, what's the scale?

It's just a boom, boom, and then they can sometimes double boom. But I thought it was more, I thought it could be like three, four, five, six booms. Well, sometimes they do the buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, and they'll add a bunch of buhs before. Yeah, because it sounds like the ball scale. Boom. No, it's really just boom or doom. Okay, just one boom or one. It's binary. Hank doesn't like them. No, he's very upset. Costco guys can't exist. Sometimes they'll go to a place and they'll pick between two items, and they're supposed to boom or doom.

one of the items but then they both kind of end up they kind of end up booming both of them and they'll sometimes have the sam club guys on uh who are the indian father and son yeah that's kind of cool see hank it's like this i'm sorry it's getting together i'm starting to think that hank has a little anti-italian discrimination with him no i mean listen anyone can do their thing i'm happy that they're they're popular i'm usually don't share my my hater opinions um would you like it more if they were on a golf course doing golf videos

I it's not really my issue is not with them. I do think it's like an internet hive mind personality. Like, oh, these guys are electric. They're so funny. Like, they're not. Well, it's like people see other people saying they like them. And then they can I throw something out there? It's like a hive mind brain rot. Like, oh, this is the flavor of the month. We love these guys. Let me just throw something out there. No, you don't. So there's this thing called irony.

I don't, but no, I think that there's like, there's that section of the world where people understand irony and there's just like the sheep that are like, oh yeah, like we fucking love big justice. I think it's like a lot of things on the internet where it might be fun to watch, but then when you find yourself explaining what it is, you- Like listening to you guys just explain it made me want to- You start to like it less when you explain what it is because you realize it. Yeah. Dude, don't do that to the Rizzler. I like the Rizzler, I guess.

Rizzler did nothing wrong. No, he didn't. It's 400 foot. No, the Rizzler. The Rizzler is funny. And what's a little justice? I have no issue with little justice. The Rizzler does sick bike tricks. Yeah, he does. Have you seen the bike? I'm talking about the boom guys.

He did a video where he said he was going to do five bike tricks, and then he came back, he did one, and he was like, I kind of ran out of time. No, the other ones were too dangerous. The other ones were too dangerous. Which, I mean, practicing, showing safety is good on the internet. Yeah, it is. That's a good point, Max. Yeah. I appreciate that. I didn't know that this was going to have such a spirited conversation around it. Well, Hank's a hater. That's okay. Yeah.

Not publicly, except for this. And the Colts kid? Yeah, I was just about to say. Seth with Flo. That was a raw reaction. It was bad. I didn't realize that the chorus of that, it's the same as our God is an awesome God. Yeah, I love Seth with Flo. He stole that from church. And Seth with Flo saw it and everyone commented. He was like, thanks to the part of my take for shouting me out. And all the comments were like, Hank's such a hater. We'll get him.

Yeah, I don't want to be a hater. This is just my, like, I see this shit and I don't like it. I'm going to give you a doom. What do you want me to say? I'm going to give your attitude today a doom. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Double doom. I'll try and watch some more. I'll come around. I liked it. They did the Los Polos. The problem is the only thing you like is golf videos. Your only idea is mini golf. No, there's, that's a stolen joke. Yeah, well, it was a good joke because it's true. Yeah, it was a good joke. You didn't make it.

This Lois Poe That gets a boom Him and his dad His dad like said the same thing He's like who the fuck are these Like another Italian kid He's like who the fuck are these guys Started talking shit And then everyone was like The Rizzler's gonna get you The Rizzler's gonna get you Then they all did a stream together That was funny That was funny They remade the Bronx tale It was like five minutes long Again I think the more you explain The less I like it Yes I just want to watch the videos And smile Yeah

It's not me, but that's fine. It's the internet. It's like supposed to be... Do you. Everyone do you. Yeah, I'm not saying because I think one way you should... But yes, he's been trying to go viral for a very long time. He was a former independent wrestler. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, so he's...

He's got this in him. He's about that content. Yeah, like the people who found his early videos don't realize he was also a wrestler going on the independent circuit. You tell me an independent circuit wrestler wants to make money going viral online? No, duh. I mean, sometimes when you're an inventor, it takes you a few dud inventions until you get something awesome. People laughed at Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs. They fired him from Apple. Got fired. Then he took a loan. And then he came back and crushed him. Yeah.

Hank would have been such a Steve Jobs hater. Oh, my God. Yeah. Biggest. Because he doesn't golf. That's the problem. Hank's only YouTube videos are golf. If I went to your algorithm right now. There's one other thing. Boobs? What? Who? Billy Strings. Oh, yeah. Hit the line, Billy Strings. Imagine if Billy Strings did a- A golf video? Good, good.

Yeah. Billy Strings, come on the show. Do a video with us. Okay. Your cool throne? My cool throne is chess controversies. Have you guys heard of the chess controversy? Is it another butt plug? No. It's different. It's much more sinister than the butt plug. There's a Russian grandmaster, I think she is. She was competing in a tournament against her opponent who's from Dagestan. And before the tournament, they caught her on camera. She snuck into the room, went up to the board that they were about to play, and snuck

smeared something on her opponent's pieces and on her side of the board. And then her opponent got deathly sick. Oh, almost died. Ooh. So they went back, they reviewed the footage. It turns out that she sprayed mercury onto her side of the chessboard and almost killed her opponent. Holy shit. So there's no butt plug stuff in chess now. Hardcore. They're actually trying to kill each other. Yeah. It's almost like Belichick stuff. That's very hardcore. Belichick mate. Ah.

Okay, my hot seat. This happened late Sunday after we recorded, but Matt Kuchar, what a dickhead. What a douchebag. The worst. What did he do? Oh, Hank's going to defend him. Nice. Okay. I like this. It's spicy. The Wyndham Championship, they had bad weather Thursday and Friday. They had to fit in a bunch of rounds on Saturday and Sunday.

The course, the grounds crew did an incredible job. They got the whole thing in. Matt Kuchar was in 12th place. Didn't mean anything for the FedEx Cup. Didn't mean anything for pretty much anything. Hits into the group and head of him on 18 and then just picks up his ball and leaves and says it's too dark and came back on Monday to finish half a hole while everyone else had finished.

So he made people come back and sit there. It was actually very funny watching everyone clap. Douchebag move by him. Did he make his putt? I think he got the exact score he was going to get. He stayed at 12. So he two-putted. So Hank? No, he was like halfway up the fairway when he came back. Okay. Hank?

I'm not defending him because Matt Kuchar is a documented scumbag. He won a tournament. He had like a fill-in caddy. He won like I think a million and a half or $20 something, paid his caddy like five grand. Yep, I remember that. And there's been some other examples of him being a scumbag. So I think in this case, it probably is just him being a scumbag. But I did see a golf journalist who had a thread breaking down why he might have been doing it, basically saying that he was in the last group and the person he was playing with

had a four-shot lead. He had to play in the dark. He kind of blew his lead. And the group in front of them was playing super, super slow all day. There's a couple long videos of the guy who won, I think Rye, the two-glove guy, taking like four minutes on putts, like taking forever. And that Kuchar was basically standing up for the guy who lost the lead, but he didn't say it, which is obviously not good for his defense. And also, didn't that guy finish? Yeah.

He chose to finish, but Kuchar was saying he was going through the motions. He didn't say this, but this is what the guy was saying, that maybe he was just trying to set an example of the guy should have been playing faster in front of them

You got to take a stand. But that's not it. How is that taking? I don't know how that takes a stand for the guy he's playing with. If the guy he's playing with was like, oh, good call, Matt Kuchar. I'll come back Monday, too. I understand. Well, at that point, he was already out of the league. He already had lost. Sounds like he's taking him being a jerk and twisting it into here's why I'm actually a hero. Did Matt Kuchar write this article that you read, Hank? No. No.

And the other point he said was that if Matt Kuchar had just come out and said all this instead of doing the little coy shit, people probably would have had his back, but he didn't. That's true. If he had been public about why he was doing that ahead of time. I'm looking back now at the caddy controversy where he paid his caddy five grand, and then later on...

Kuchar said that McElroy cost him $300,000 due to the two-point advantage in their season-long FedEx Cup race. And then Rory said, and we all know what that money means to him. So apparently he's cheap. Super cheap and like a documented kind of scumbag. Maybe. How about this? Flights, they're cheaper on Mondays. True. But he had to stay an extra day. Way cheaper.

But you had to stay an extra day. PGA Tour had a funny tweet because they do, like, the, you know, every shot from, like, Brooks Koepka winning the U.S. Open or whatever, and they show a million shots. They did every shot from Matt Kuchar's finish Monday morning, and it was just three shots. Oh, I love that. Yeah, there was, like, a couple of random people clapping. Okay, and then my cool throne is...

Trump's comedic bone because he did the Elon Musk Twitter space. And listen, we don't get political on this podcast, but the telling the retelling of the high stakes stare down with Putin was one of the hardest times I've ever laughed. I'll play it for you. This is his telling of Putin and Trump negotiating the start of a war and what was going to happen.

And again, I said to Vladimir Putin, I said, don't do it. You can't do it, Vladimir. You do it. It's going to be a bad day. You cannot do it. And I told him things that what I do. And he said, no way. And I said, way. That's it. I mean, that's fucking funny. That's what all negotiations are, by the way. No way. That's the way. That's the subtext to every negotiation ever. Way. Way.

Just say way and walk away. Yeah. It's a five-year-old response. He got them with. Yeah. Deep down inside, we are all five-year-olds. Yes. Yes. No way. Way. Okay. Huey. My hot seat.

The WNBA. Oh, okay. I got a real story here. This one is legit. So there's a woman by the name of De'Erica Hamby. She was on our three-by-three women's basketball team. Okay. She is...

In a little dispute right now with the league of the WNBA and the Las Vegas Aces. Oh. So I'll give you the rundown before I give you the headline. Okay. That's how it usually goes. Yep. When you read an article, yeah. In June 2022, she signed a contract extension. In July 2022, she got pregnant.

Okay. And then what comes out afterwards... A baby. Well, she alleges that in the following months that the Las Vegas Aces were, quote-unquote, unhappy with her. And she's alleging that they were... So essentially in the contract she had, she was supposed to have team-provided housing and she was supposed to have tuition, school tuition for her daughter's...

private elementary school. She had an older kid. Older daughter, yeah. And she is alleging that the Vegas Aces did not give her that on top of the fact that they...

essentially wanted to trade her and wanted to push her out because she signed a big enough contract that they said was enough for two to three players. You know, the contract was a big enough contract. She's averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds right now. She's doing very well. But the contract, essentially, they...

essentially wanted a few different players for her contract is what Las Vegas is saying. Wait, read us the headline. Wait, so the Las Vegas Aces, they're owned by who again? What football player has an ownership stake in them, Big Cat? Tom Brady. Yeah, that's interesting because this doesn't sound like something Tom Brady would do to a pregnant woman, kick her out. Read us the headline.

So the official headline is she is essentially that. Oh, I got it right here. Sparks, De'Erica Hamby sues WNBA aces alleging discrimination.

I think you should have read the headline first. I don't know. It's kind of unorthodox. Well, hear me out. So this is the second time they're going into an investigation. The first time the Las Vegas Aces lost their 2025 first round pick. For a pregnant lady? For a pregnant woman. Whoa. So essentially, and she's saying that the WNBA did not do a good enough job. So essentially, they're going back. She wants them to go back and...

And yeah. So, and go through all that and also have to pay for her, uh, her money, the money she lost her, her, uh, her, uh,

fees, all that extra stuff. Yeah, which they should do. Which stuff that also, this would never happen in the NBA. Correct. Oh, yeah, because you can't get pregnant. Can you imagine if male football players could get pregnant and you're psyched about the upcoming season? Yeah. And then you find out Jalen Hurts is going to have a kid, so he's going to be out all season? Yeah. Yeah. That

That would suck. The discourse that would surround the league. Yeah. Essentially, that's why the Aces, in her words, are saying they weren't happy with her. Yeah. Because they signed this big contract. And she got pregnant. She gets pregnant a month later. Well, that's not her fault. Yeah, you should be able to get pregnant. I agree. You should get pregnant when you want to get pregnant. And sometimes you don't plan it. And it was literally a month after. People be fucking. Yeah, I started having sex once she got a big paycheck.

Yeah, that's true. To celebrate. That's true. Yeah. Paycheck. Yeah, paycheck sex. Guys love money. Yeah. We love chicks with money. All right. And your cool throne? My cool throne, the Dallas Cowboys. Oh. They are the first league franchise in, I think, U.S. sports to surpass the $10 billion evaluation. I love this. Good. I love this. No one's got more money than JJ. Yeah. And I love these lists. They're kind of like the...

U.S. News News and World top ranking of colleges. Yeah. Where it's like none of this. It's all made up. Every school has been at least rumored to be one of the top 10 party schools in the US. Yes. And every school is also like they're the small Ivies the public Ivies. Yeah. But it's the price is what it sells for.

Yeah. The price is the price. Yeah. I don't know. They say that he could sell the team for $10 billion. But again, it doesn't matter if no one wants to buy it for $10 billion. I think Jerry Jones would buy the team right now for $10 billion from himself. Yeah. How come they can't pay Dak and CD then? That's a good point. That's a good point.

Should be able to mortgage some of it. Yeah. Yeah. Take a second mortgage out. Okay. Let's get to our interviews. We got Peter Schrager. We're going to talk a little hard knocks. And then we have Mickey Hart and Wright Thompson. PFT, you got a couple words before that. Yes. Before we get to our interviews with Peter Schrager, I want to talk to you about my favorite people in the entire world, my favorite sunglasses.

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Try for yourself the shades that are rated five stars by over 300,000 people. And now here's Peter Schrager. Ooh.

Okay, we now welcome on our good, good friend. Two times in a week because he did join us on the Grit Week van for the Mount Rushmore of Yellow. You got an insight into the madness that is part of my take. It is Peter Schrager. He has the Hard Knocks podcast. He has Good Morning Football. He's a reporter on Fox. He does everything. Does anyone ever call you the Schragermeister? No, I like that. I like that. Nice cold glasses Schragermeister. Can I show you what else I am?

Yeah. Possession of this book. Is that me? This is the Aaron Rodgers unauthorized biography. I got a copy. I'm flipping through it on about 100 pages in. Let's go. Okay. There's probably a lot of slander in there. Unauthorized biography. Yeah. On the Bears. All right. So before we start, we should just address this was a win tonight for the three old guys sitting right here. We're not going to rub it in because it is live now on Macs.

But there was a delay getting the Hard Knocks episode up. And I know that PFT and I have been belittled, ridiculed, mocked for years now because we refused to cut the cord. Tonight was our Super Bowl because we got to watch Hard Knocks live and everyone else was mad about an app. So credit to us, guys, for never giving up. We did.

We did it. We did it, guys. I knew this time would come. And it's interesting you call it the Super Bowl. I thought of it more like training camp. This is like training camp for football season, especially college football season, when you know that there will be certain apps out there that aren't going to work on Saturday. And you're going to need these reps in the preseason to know that you need a redundancy plan in place. You need to know that you have good old-fashioned cable, nothing wrong with it. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. So just let's use this opportunity to get better.

I pay $200 plus a month to a cable provider every single month. I barely even turn on the TV, but it's all in preparation for this moment. I think it's akin to, you know, you see that Michael Rubin fanatics white party and like those who are in the know are there and they're all partying and we're all on the outside looking in, watching all of these Bears media members be like, does anyone have HBO action?

And just us taking photos of it and doing selfies, I felt like we were at the party and they were all on the outside looking in. It felt pretty good. I've said it before, but I have a dear friend who cut the cord. It was probably like eight years ago, or maybe it was like six years ago, and I was over his house for the USC Ohio State, whatever bowl game they were playing in.

And his stream kept on buffering and I had a lot of money on the game. And it was at that moment that I was like, I always have to have a backup plan. I know this is going to cost me too much money, but I don't care. I have to be able to watch my sports live. And tonight we won. So,

It was actually a great episode. It felt like they got back to football. It was like, and they, and they spread the ball around last first episode was a lot of Eberflues tonight was like, you know, Keenan Allen, Roma Dunzey. We have DJ more moment, Jonathan Owens. Uh,

So you watched these before, right? Do you get these before us? I get them like a few hours before they go live so I can do them. And then I interview a guest each week. So the first week I interviewed Erlacher, who was amazing. And then this week I just got off the phone with Ryan Poles, who has also seen the episode. And the GM and I were talking back and forth about it a little bit. And to your point, the first week was a lot of setting up characters. Here's Ibraflux's glow up. We're going to talk about his Ryan Reynolds hair.

This week we get Jalen Johnson and we get Keenan Allen going at it one-on-one at practice, actual football and great access that we don't typically get to see when we just have the shaky cam footage from training camp or someone's watching from like the crowd. Yeah. It was awesome. And then,

it sounds like Keenan Allen was conceding that, you know, yeah, this, this guy's been beating me all practice. Like this guy had the best of me. So there's offense gets a lot of press, but like, this was the episode for the bears defense. And I was, I know it was. And so I have to ask everyone should go listen to your, your hard knocks podcast, but can you tell us what, maybe a quick summary of what Ryan pulls is feeling? I mean, I,

I love him, but where's he at mentally with this team? Yeah, there was a quick little moment in the beginning of the episode where he's talking to Ian Cunningham, who is kind of his number two in Chicago. And he's like, have you noticed that Caleb's getting a little better on film? Like he's picking it up a little bit, the rhythm. And he's like, huh? So he was talking about it every single day. Like Caleb's picking up things that he didn't have the day before. He's picking up coverages that he didn't see week one now in week two. But I thought it was great. I was like,

I kind of liked Caleb in episode one because for that rookie show, you can go up there and you can be like, here's my college fight song or like, here's my favorite like new hip hop song. Instead, Caleb comes out. He's horrible singing John legends, ordinary people. I'm like, they're throwing shit at him and he just gets the piss taken out of him and he's smiling and he's laughing and he's an equal with Tyson Bajan to Austin Reed and Brett Rippon. And you're like, I like this guy. So I'm like, yeah,

you have to like that. And he's like, no dude, that's Caleb. Like he has never been an entitled guy. He comes right in and he's one of the guys. And he's like, if you think he's shitty singing, you've got to see him golf. And the best part about it is he's a horrible golfer, but like he comes out there and he like takes the swings and like, is not as not scared. A lot of these athletes have too much pride. Like Caleb's like, I suck at golf. I'm going to play and I don't care. And that's the ultimate confidence. So like, they're all happy. It's going well.

Yeah. Yeah. It does seem like, like they're pretty happy with him. I wonder if, if polls would have done the podcast, if Caleb Williams hadn't played that well in preseason week one, cause like we got to see him go out there and do stuff that only a couple of people can do in the NFL with his arm. And so he's like, yeah, probably a little bit of relief from Ryan polls. Like, okay.

At least I know I'm not a complete moron for taking this guy. I did get this booked on Sunday night. So that does that does make sense. The game was Saturday. I one last thing on polls. I thought it was interesting because a lot of these guys clam up when it's not like football. I was like, you were in Kansas City when they drafted Mahomes.

Like, would you have ever thought? He's like, what? He's like, no, I would have never thought like at that time that Kelsey would get through his rookie year. He was crazy. He's like, that's why we love Travis because, you know, Andy Reid found a way to make it work. And like, he said that he and Kelsey saw each other before a game last year. And the two of them did like the Paul Rudd, Sean Evans meme of like, look at us. And he's like, I'm a GM. And he's like, and I'm dating the number one pop star in the world. And it's like the two of them had a huge embrace. And I'm like, all right. So Paul has a personality. He was pretty cool. Yeah.

Yeah, he is. Other quick hitters, because we have some questions, Schrager, about the rest of the NFL, and we don't want to do all Bears, but these are just notes I took down, PFT, so you can add in anywhere. I love that they're scouting the refs. That was pretty cool. Craig Rolstrad. I believe that gentleman's name is Hattie.

I go deep. The kid who was talking to Caleb and is like, look, he's an athletic director in Seattle, and this is what he does. You're going to see him once a week. Like, that's how deep this is. I've never seen that before. That was cool. Yeah, that was very cool. Private investigators for the refs. It's smart. Yeah.

Yeah, I loved seeing the scene at the Museum of Ice Cream just because I've been to the Museum of Ice Cream three times, both in New York City and Chicago. I didn't know. Is that like a chain? It is. He's a history buff. Well, listen, you go to the one in New York City, is the one in Chicago the same? You've got to try it. Oh, you've got to go to the one in Chicago again. It's kind of like a hillstone. If there's a hillstone in any city, I'm trying that French dip there. I have to.

I have no problem saying I've been to the Museum of Ice Cream three times. I'm not worried about it. And then the other one, and this one was like a very dad moment. DJ Moore before the game in Buffalo, his daughter being like, what's the bumblebee's name and if? And like that's – if you have kids, that's the most kids thing ever where like the world could be on fire and your kid is just like –

this is for the game. One song. Yeah. Play that one song we listened to three weeks ago, uh, that has the cat in it. And I'm like, I don't fucking know what song this is and how, and how up to date, like if came out like in June. So I'm like, wow, that's not saying frozen. That's not beauty and the beast. That's not Aladdin. Like give me the if character. I'm like, I don't even, where'd you find if, okay. Again, cable guy here. I don't even know where to find if that's incredible. Okay. I stupidly didn't plug my mic in, uh, after I spent, uh,

The first 10 minutes being like, oh, I'm a genius for not cutting cords. And look at me. That was the most karma thing ever. So you could hear me through my headphone, my air phone, or I actually have...

wired headphones. You hear me through that mic? Now I'm plugged into my actual mic. Holy shit, that was a perfect way to start the show for me to be like victory lap and then, hey, you are the old fuck. PFT, any other thoughts about Hard Knocks before we talk about Schrager about other camp stuff?

Yeah, I just made a quick list of three things that Big Cat's going to get mad about during Cardinals tonight. I didn't get mad at all. Well, let me get to them. Let's see if you got mad. Because last week you got mad about a few things, how they portrayed our dear, sweet Caleb Williams. The first thing is I just predicted that Big Cat would yell at Max for not pressing the button. Did he? Did not. So maybe this is growth. Maybe this is progress.

Number two, you remember last week when you got upset when they showed Caleb Williams on screen when somebody used the word grinder? That was a joke, but yes. I was wondering if this week you got upset when Caleb was having trouble putting his shoulder pads on. No doubt. And then Rome was like, he was like, hey, Rome, can you get my strap on? Sounds like you're thinking about me while you're watching Hard Knocks. Keep going. Just sexually. Only sexually. Yeah. Okay.

That was pretty much it, honestly, because I feel like you would probably agree with Austin Reed when he got upset at Sean McDermott for challenging that rotation. All Austin Reed wanted was just one completion. Yeah. What is Sean McDermott doing? Let's be nice. Let's spread the ball around a little bit here.

Can I shout out Austin Reed's parents? We have a correct production team. I'm like, give me these parents' names. These people are great. Jen and Tom Reed, and they went to every one of his games from Southern Illinois to West Florida to Western Kentucky, and now he's been to Canton and Buffalo. I'm for those guys. Those are my favorite people. They're awesome. I also had on my list that you would get upset at HBO Max because you thought that maybe they were intentionally not letting people see the good Caleb Williams plays this week.

No, again, I was watching on cable, so I was not mad. Listen, my complaints about the first week, I admitted that I was maybe a little triggered, but there also were some real complaints in there. They showed football this week. I wanted to see football, and that's what they did. They showed a lot of football, and again, they spread the ball around. Like, I want to see everyone on the team, and it felt like that this week where they were giving a bunch of guys some love and

You know, like at the end when they were giving Austin Booker some love, like it was just –

I loved it. Like you're learning about all the running back at a Howard. He got a lot of love. Yeah, right. Right. Vilas Jones fumbled the ball. I've seen that before many times. Then he had some nice runs, but yeah, I, I'm, I have no complaints about this week's episode. I thought they did a great job. Also. I don't think that Simone Biles is human when they showed her climbing up that rope. That's just crazy. As a guy that used to like jump up and then quickly put one arm above the other and then just fall.

The fact that she can climb a rope to the ceiling in like three seconds is insane. Did you guys have that? The presidential like fitness, the national fitness. I was never presidential. At least national. I couldn't do like the, the, the flex arm hang long enough. Yeah. Oh, you did the flex arm hang. Yeah. Not good. Pull ups. Yeah. Yeah. I had, I always had trouble with the mile run. I was always like 30 seconds too slow to get presidential in that. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Schrager.

Give us three big stories that are going around in training camp right now and what's happening and maybe just some details because you're plugged in everywhere. Yeah, I've been to a few of them. And I'll say like one of the cool things at Jets camp when I was there was that the Hassan Redick story is like almost like a non-factor. And I'm not minimizing it. It's a crazy situation that you have a star pass rusher demand – not demand but request a trade, get traded, and they somehow –

didn't sign him to a long-term deal before they brought him in the building and he did the press conference and now he's not there and wants to be traded again but like it's i live in new york city i i'm amongst all these jet fans it's like last year they were burned so badly and they're like so scarred that they're not letting themselves get excited of all the practice i've been to the crispest practice i was was that was at this jets one and it's like they

They're really good on paper. They were really good on paper last year, but they added three really good offensive linemen to protect Rodgers. They added players on defense. Like I'm trying not to get too excited because, you know, I've been down this road with the Jets, but I'd say the Jets are running a very crisp defense.

nicely somewhat under the radar training camp and in a year where it looks like the Patriots, the Dolphins, and even the Bills might be taking a step back from where they were last year. Like this, I don't know. I don't want Jets fans to get too excited because I get it, but like that was one of the crispest practices I've been to all summer, maybe in the last couple of summers.

Oh, interesting. What about Brandon Ayuk? Is he going to get traded or are we just going to play the Will Brandon Ayuk get traded game all year? I do this daily morning show and it's like we have 32 teams and we have so many stars. In like multiple days, we've started talking about Brandon Ayuk and it's just like – now here's the wild thing with that situation.

It was – they thought they had a deal. Then both sides went dark and then it was like, oh, wait. Well, there's the Patriots but then Bernie Nunes. I'm not going to the Patriots. So it's really down to one team, the Steelers right now, and apparently there's a framework in place but you need Iyuk and the Niners to agree upon it because Steelers aren't budging. Here's the crazy thing. His agent is a guy named Ryan Williams who's a big agent in the league, whatever. They have a bunch of guys. Ryan Williams and John Lynch are like lifelong –

buddies like best buddies like ryan williams invited john lynch to his wedding like they are that tight so there's personal personal connections in this thing where to me that tells me all right at the end of the day if those are the two people who are running the business operation in this situation like they'll find a way to get iuk dressed and with the niners uh and playing with this team and there'll be a contract that both sides are happy with and the niners can go to bed at night but like for them to to to go and like dig their heels in on this one and then for

For Iuke's people to be like, well, he just – he cannot take a step on the field until he gets more money. I just have to think they both – it's a beneficial place for both of them. Like let's just get it done and find a way to make it happen. Wait. You said that he invited John Lynch to his wedding. Did John Lynch go to his wedding? Did he attend the wedding? John Lynch was at the wedding. Like lifelong friends. He was at the wedding. Yes. Okay. Well, yeah. That's always so interesting. Would you rather reach –

Like good morning football. Would you rather lead off for the next two weeks with talking about the Dallas Cowboys every day or talking about Brandon? I, you know, it's funny cause our show is on so early. So like I always make this argument and you guys can appreciate this. I'm like,

There are not that many Niners fans up right now. Like, I don't know if we need to start the first hour of the show talking about a second wide receiver on the 49ers, but I think it's a universal theme when you get the player that's like, I'm not coming to camp, but I am at camp, but I'm not taking part in practice. So, yeah, I don't know. Cowboys, that might sell better, but the IU thing is more timely. So, and then the last one that I had a question about is what are the Vikings going to do with J.J. McCarthy? Yeah. Yeah.

Look, that was that that's that's crappy news that we just we just got it today. Obviously, that his knees messed up and hopefully he'll be back. But that wasn't necessarily the plan week one. Anyway, the way I saw it or the way that I've been hearing it is that like and I know you can roll your eyes because we've seen Darnold, the Jets with the with the Panthers, with the Niners. We've seen Sam Darnold. Right. We get what we're getting. So.

Still in his 20s and everything I've heard is that as great as J.J. McCarthy's been, Darnold's been even better in camp. They signed him to a $10 million deal. They feel confident that Darnold was going to start anyway out of the gates. So this gives time for McCarthy. But that's a really good situation for Sam because it's Kevin O'Connell, who's a former –

quarterback in the NFL it's Josh McCown who's a like 18 year veteran in the NFL he's he's the quarterback's coach out there and then you've got Addison Jefferson Aaron Jones and of course that great offensive line so like if Darnold was ever going to have a chance to to get out and have a good start it's with this team and what they have um the McCarthy thing it's unfortunate because I think everyone was excited but again 21 year old kid like super young I don't think they were rolling him out out of the gates the first month of the season anyway

Yeah, so it sounds like they'll probably take the more cautious approach. It does suck. It sucks beyond belief to have your rookie quarterback have that, but you also have to think long-term. It's not just this season. They're not in win-now mode. Yeah. You know, PFT, I'll tell you this. You know, I talk to Cliff all the time, the offensive coordinator in Washington. Like, everyone's happy, and Poles is thrilled with Caleb, and I talk to Sean Payton, and he's thrilled with Bo Nix. Like, you have no idea how good this kid is. Like, great. Yeah.

like what they're getting out there in Washington. Like, I'm not trying to get you to gassed up here, but like, holy shit, bro. Like they're talking like this guy is the real deal in Washington. And Jaden Daniels has been everything they were hoping for and more in training camp, as far as leadership, as far as on the field. And we saw him attempt everything.

Three passes, but how calm did he look in that preseason game against the Jets, just moving the ball right up the field? Yeah, I mean, Dan Quinn called him Top Gun, which is an awesome nickname. It is awesome. He just buzzed the tower. He didn't get permission. But the first pass that he threw, Dan Quinn needs to teach him we're too close for missiles. Let's switch to guns. Because the first one that he threw on that little screen pass went like six feet over his head. I'm going to chalk that one up to adrenaline. It's two points.

He had family in the building. It was a noon start. He was ready to go, man. Yeah. I like how you said, I'm not going to gas you up too hard. And then you're like, holy shit, bro. Like I'm gassed. I can't get any more gassy than I am right now. I haven't felt this way in a long time. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm just desperate to have any like shred of positivity or, or hope. But yeah, I'm getting drunk on all the Jaden Daniels Kool-Aid. So I'm happy that you told me that. It's,

You said earlier that the Jets looked like they were having a pretty good camp. Things look crisp. I know you don't want to trash any teams, but can we put it this way? Which teams so far in camp have had the most questions about

Yeah, I'm curious what we get with the Patriots. And I know Hank is a key part of this group here. I just, new coach, rookie quarterback, the preseason debut for all of them didn't do anything to blow anyone's hair back. So this could be a really interesting transition year in New England. And, you know, to have IU like so openly say like, I'm not going to New England. Everyone just kind of shrugged their shoulders and nod. Like that's, it's not, it's a new era. I'll just say that.

Yeah. Counterpoint Joe Milton. Maybe he saw Joe Milton playing. He's like, ah, maybe. Fans of Michigan, fans of Tennessee, fans of college football have been hearing about Joe Milton for years. I think he's got a great rocket arm and we had him on Good Morning Football last year. He's a really good kid. But, you know, you go on the sixth round and accuracy has always been an issue. So I wouldn't I wouldn't put Milton ahead of May just yet.

It's phase one. We're in phase one of the Joe Milton experience. And anyone that's paid attention to him in the past, you know what's coming, but just enjoy the ride. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. And they used to do this with, I want to say it's either like Michael Bishop or Rohan Davey. Like they would take out Brady at the end of a half and they would throw in one of these just like rocket armed guys just to throw the Hail Marys at the end. Like Belichick used to do that. I think it's Michael Bishop from Kansas State.

I would not be shocked if we saw Joe Milton just throw a couple bombs during this season and they put him in there just to let him get one of those deep throws before the end of the half. All right. I have something for you guys. Yeah. Okay. I am so jealous of that Rob Dierdreck ridiculousness studio you guys have in Chicago where I'm at all hours watching just fun games happening.

Big Cat, I live in Brooklyn. Obviously, you used to live here. And I don't know since you left, but there's a craze in Brooklyn, and it's in Dumbo, and it's the sport called padel. Are you aware of what padel is? No. I've played it. You have? Okay. Yeah, it's the sworn enemy of pickleball. Yes, it's pickleball's evil twin. So it's two-on-two. It's like –

pickleball, but you can go in the kitchen and all those things. It's more tennis than pickleball, but there's glass walls and you bang it off the walls. And I've been playing it all summer. They have it at, uh, in, in Dumbo. And I am telling you guys, if you built a,

a Padel court in that Chicago gymnasium of yours. I will fly out once a week and I will play with you. I am so addicted to this sport. It's not just me. I'm at the court and like Andrew Schultz, the comedian walks in, he plays name drop. Doesn't say hello to me. Doesn't know who the fuck I am, but like still he's there. There are other people that like it's gaining steam. And I feel like you guys would love it. And big cat is so up your alley where it's like, no,

It's not tennis. You're not going to be, you're not going to be, that's what they're trying to do. They just, they're, they're trying to basically figure out different ways to play tennis, which is a boring sport to play. Oh, let's make it small. It stayed off the walls. Like, Hey, can you just admit tennis is boring? No. How dare you? PFT. Did you love it when you played? Okay. So I played one time and I got my ass kicked by a 65 year old.

All these boomers are creating games that they just don't even have to move. They're so good at it. And they know all the angles and they know how to like hit it off the wall and wait for it off the wall and hit it at just the right angle. It was humiliating. But like,

That's what they do though. I remember when you were doing those basketball workouts and I was so jealous of you. I'm like, yes, that looks fun. Like you're getting a sweat in. This is what this is. No, no, no, no. Because it's – the boomers have created games where they basically like shrunk tennis so they can stand in one place and be like, I worked out. That's what they're doing.

I'll tell you, you will sweat your ass off in this one. I think the boomers created these sports just so they can stick it to millennials. Yeah. So they can just kick the shit out of us at a sport and be like, see, I told you guys didn't work hard enough. They never sell their houses. So no one our age can own a house. They never leave their jobs.

So they never want to leave the presidency. They just – now they ruin all of our sports and recreation. I'm with you. Forget it. And what's the theme about all these sports? They just take a sport that already exists and just make it significantly smaller so they can cover all the ground. It's ridiculous. I will not stand for Padel. All right. I have one last question.

Schrager, it's a rollback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Who is going to be the week one starter in Pittsburgh? I think Russell Wilson. Yeah? Yeah.

I don't know the status of his calf. I just know that when they brought him in, it was like they put tunnel vision on. They're like, Russell's our guy. Like, we're good. Like, just feel that. And Fields, it's ironic because I remember covering, this is going to date me. I remember covering the Seahawks in like 2012 when your guy, Russell Wilson, showed up there. And it was the late Tavares Jackson and it was Matt Flynn. And everyone was like, it's an open competition. And Russell was a third round pick and won the job outright.

That's what they're saying in Pittsburgh. And I think like the irony is like it would have to take Justin Fields to have a lights out undeniable preseason. And it would have to maybe take a not 100% Russell Wilson with that calf for fields to start week one. But I think that's,

I think the plan is Russell Wilson week one. I think so too. Yeah. What about your guy, uh, Canalis? What about the, do we have any Canalis? Yes. Because I feel like, I feel like, uh, Canalis, uh, did you see the Canalis video that came out where they were doing the rookie show and he said, fuck it, I'm jumping in. And he's saying, Bob Marley, uh, every little thing is going to be all right to the team. And he's saying it perfectly. And you saw all is good in Carolina guys.

Okay, that's good. I'm glad that he's a good singer. That's important to have as a football coach. As an NFL head coach, it's good. Has there been any reason for optimism down there? I do feel for Panthers fans, you had a rough season one with Bryce Young, and the fact that C.J. Stroud was so good last year and he went second overall, it's tough. It's tough to make it through a season like that. Is there room for hope? Do we have hope in Carolina? Sure. And look,

They, they, this off season, they like really spent a lot of money on like guards. Like they spent, they spent a lot of money on like Robert Hunt from the, from the dolphins. Who's not a household name, but like they broke the bank on them. They just want to build up this like brick wall in front of Bryce young. And yes, he can see above it. And then in the draft, uh,

They got Leggett at wide receiver. They got Brooks at running back. So like they got the big guys up front and free agency and they got some weapons on the outside. Last year had never had a shot. It was dead on arrival as far as no weapons, no protection, no chance. And

Now you have an offensive head coach, and you brought a bunch of different skill position players in, and now you have an offensive line. So the hope is this team is a little bit better, but they're not like a playoff team in my eyes. Yeah. I mean, you're a David Tepper apologist, so.

I am. I loved his maniacal ways on Wall Street. I told you that last time I spoke with you. No, I haven't spoken to Tepper. I assume he's on a yacht somewhere somewhere nice. Yeah. All right. Well, Schrags, thank you so much. We'll see you again during the football season. Everyone listen to Hard Knocks podcast, especially now Ryan Poles is on this week's episode. And good one for us tonight.

For having Cable. Team Cable. Team Cable. Remember Tom Cable? We're Tom Cable, guys. Let's go. Yeah, I love it. I love it. It's grit week. Thanks, guys. Tonight was our night. Tonight was our night. Appreciate you guys. Hard Knocks podcast. Find it. Peter Schrager was brought to you by our good friends over at Verizon. I'm excited for the best time of year, football season.

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It is Mickey Hart, the legend himself from the Grateful Dead and Wright Thompson award-winning author. Uh, we don't read a lot of books, but we know Wright Thompson is a very good author. They have collabed, uh, for a new documentary that's coming out on ESPN. That's going to be out today as we're airing this. It's called Rhythm Masters and Mickey Hart experience. I was lucky enough to watch it. Uh,

and it's unbelievable. I want to say that from the jump. What you guys produced was incredible. Mickey, I guess my first question is, what made you want to do this project, and kind of like what was the fire that lit you off, like, hey, I want to combine my world of drumming and sports in such a beautiful way? Oh, thank you very much. I guess you might...

called the genesis of it all was with Bill Walton. Of course, Bill and I were good friends and he once...

He once mentioned to me that he thought basketball was very much like a band, you know, a basketball team, and putting a ball through a hoop into a net was like string music. And I thought that was very interesting, you know, that he thought that he saw the musicality in basketball.

And, you know, that started me thinking that, well, everything in this universe is full of rhythm. You know, vibration is the basis of all life. And it just extends on and on and on over the rhythm of life, the rhythm of anything. And the rhythm of the game, sports, for instance, was always intriguing to me since I started

When I grew up, when I was a little guy, I used to watch Bob Cousy, the great basketball player who kind of almost invented modern basketball. And I used to watch him. It was actually in black and white back in the day. And he was my first sports hero. And I thought, well, this guy is he's a great artist. I even knew that when I was a kid. And so there is the art of basketball.

sports and basketball, for instance. And all those things kind of keyed me and writing about rhythm and different walks of life and so forth was

It was another extension of the philosophy that rhythm is everywhere and you just have to find it. Yeah, it's fascinating. And Bill shows up a number of times throughout the movie. Right off the very start, I think he's the first voice that you hear in the picture. I'm curious to know how he introduced himself to you for the first time. What was your first experience like meeting Bill Walton? Him being a massive Grateful Dead fan.

Well, it was back when he won the championship in Oregon. And he came to one of our concerts. And I looked out into the audience. It was a small place. It wasn't much. It was a theater, kind of a larger theater. And I thought everybody was sitting down. And there was just one guy. And I thought, wow, why is the audience sitting down? There's one guy standing up. And I thought, wow.

my equipment man ramrod he said no no that's bill walton you know the basketball player you know the and i go oh really i loved to watch him in ucla i saw a lot of the games and i was a huge bill walton fan and um and i knew he was a deadhead and i just said bring him back bring him backstage and that's how i met bill walton it was at a concert and bill and i

Started a relationship, I don't know how many years ago, 45, whatever that, you know, and became best friends over the years. Yeah. I mean, we were lucky enough to interview him probably like six or seven years ago. And it was just, it was incredible. He was one of those guys that if you spent an hour with him, you felt like he was your best friend. And it was, it was a blessing. Yeah. Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Right. You are. We were talking before this. You are a deadhead. I have to know because I'm a huge deadhead as well. How cool was it to be in this project and get so close to seeing how Mickey works and how the creative process comes about for such a legendary guy like that? I mean, it's such a cool experience for you, I would imagine, as a deadhead.

Well, I would say this, you know, it's very cool, obviously, because you're like, you know, when you're 15 years old, these guys don't seem real. And then, you know, so you meet them. But I'll tell you, for me, less than a deadhead, it was like as a person who tries to have a creative life.

to see Mickey's work ethic, Mickey, close your ears. I hate giving you compliments in front of you, but like, but I mean his work ethic, that's exactly right. His work ethic and his relentless drive to be creative, to push himself, to stretch, to find the boundaries and move through them. It just was a real, it came,

Making this movie with him came for me at the exact right time in my own life, just as a reminder of how you approach a creative life and how you don't. And so, like, I don't know, you hear about these guys and you always wonder if the emperor has any clothes, you know, like what are these guys going to be like up close? And it didn't take long for us to understand that we were dealing with a mind at work.

with an incredibly smart, educated person who also had an intuitive sense of his. One of the things he said that really stuck with me is, as you get older, you grow into your instrument, not out of it. And that really struck me as a, we are on a journey that lasts a lifetime, all of us. And it was just a good reminder of

for me of how to be. I mean, I couldn't be more grateful for the experience and like making the movie is the tax we all have to pay to have the journey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And just hearing your voice, right. It just took me into fall. I just thought it was a Saturday morning and I'm ready for college football right now. Yeah. I can start talking about SEC football. Yeah, I know. I know you can. So did you have to kick him out of the recording booth? And do you want to do some voiceovers for this movie, Mickey?

- He's been right a lot of times helping to produce and write some of this chatter. It was a pleasure working with him and Tory, Champagne and ESPN in general. It's nice folks there receptive to ideas and very loose and allowed me to have creative freedom with this.

You know, that's really what it's all about when you're an artist. You have to have that kind of freedom to create something like Rhythm Masters, which I'm very proud of, actually. It's quite a good story. It takes rhythm into a whole other land and it exposes the idea that rhythm is essential in life. Yeah. Just in sports, but... And then, of course, in drumming, that's the basis of drumming is rhythm, but...

Just in general, you know, it kind of gives you pause and makes you think about, well, doing something right is in rhythm or wrong is out of rhythm or hate is out.

pieces in all that kind of you know the good rhythm and bad rhythm health is good rhythm disease bad rhythm you know winning is good rhythm bad rhythm is losing all of that kind of stuff uh was told in this movie so it's more than just uh a movie just about sports it's really uh tells a lot about it talks about life in general as well and it's very important especially

to keep your equilibrium and your balance when you're famous, you know, as sports figures would be and how they deal with it off the court. Especially, you know, all of these athletes that I interviewed had such a spiritual take on it. And very much like myself, it was very, it wasn't very different than how I think about rhythm and music and being in the now. And these things bring you into the moment.

And that's very powerful emotional payload, if you will, dealing in, you know, at sports at this level, you know, the rhythm master level. And, you know, it also informed me as well about, you know, Mario Andretti, you know, and Marshawn Lynch, you know,

Bob Cousy, you know, Phil Jackson, all of these great players and influences, influencers like Phil Jackson, who's not only a great basketball player, but a great human being and brilliant, you know, the Zen master, you know, really. And it was great to reconnect with Phil after a few years of not seeing him.

So yeah, it was really very nourishing for me to talk with all of these great players. Some of them are heroes to me. - Yeah, Phil Jackson talking about how he thinks about basketball and 4-4 time and the two beats for anything to happen was really interesting. There was one thing that you said that struck me and that was that you can go fast while you're not moving. So what does that mean?

Well, it's about the power of concentration, the mind and focus. And when you focus on something, you can go fast, you can go slow. When I'm up there and I'm playing like mad and I'm just going crazy, but inside I'm very calm and balanced and happy and so forth. So that allows you to be able to run a marathon or a sprint

or just stand still. Sometimes I'm very still inside and outside, it's just, it looks like, would look like a frenzy in a way, but that's not really what's going on inside. You have to really be collected and focused in order to go fast. And same way to go really slow.

You need to be able to have that balance to be able to encompass all speeds. So yeah, the mind is very powerful. So what the brain says, the body does. So this really, basketball, football,

Mostly it's about neurologic function. It's about how the brain operates and what signals it sends. And the brain is all about rhythm. You know, you got a trillion neurons firing every, you know, every second in your brain, and that's pure rhythm. So the ability to be able to coordinate your brain and your body movement, the idea of body-mind connection,

There's everything in sports and life and certainly in drumming. So you can go fast, you can go slow, you can stand still if you have the right headspace for it because sports and music create a virtual headspace where you go, which is not like everyday life like you're walking down the street.

or doing anything else. It's very different, but that's the high of it all. Yeah. I feel like you were about to say something, and I do want to just hear you talk. Well, I was going to say, when you talk about Mickey's relentless curiosity, the thing that drove it home for me was, I don't know if you remember last year's tour. The biggest two tours in the world were Taylor Swift, Aera's tour, and then Dead & Company's

summer tour. And so we were out in San Francisco for that last couple of shows. And after the last night, we went immediately back to Mickey's dressing room. I mean, the crowd is still sort of singing, not fade away. The drones are still up in the air and he comes in and locks eyes. And the very first thing he says is, am I going to have my sports highlights tomorrow? I mean,

You know, my ears are to quote Bob Seger. I mean, my ears are still ringing from the echoes of the amplifiers and he's already moved on. And I just like, you know, yeah, it's crazy that I actually had that question, Mickey, because it's, it, as a fan watching from afar, the grateful dead are counterculture and they're, and you know, the, the, the hardest touring band in history. And, and,

Like some people from afar might say, oh, well, they, you know, they're just playing jam band music, like whatever. But to hear and read the stories about your guys' work ethic and the days and years that you guys built, even before you became, you know, this incredible, you know, touring band.

You guys were playing day and night, and it feels like that work ethic and those hours put into it kind of get glossed over by maybe regular culture people and thinking like, oh, yeah, they're just out there playing their band. You guys put in all these hours. So what was it like when you were getting to that point where you can all speak the same language on stage in an improvisational way that is so hard to reach that point? And I think people don't give enough credit to how difficult, how many hours get into that.

Yeah, you bet. We practiced every day, all day. You know, there was, you know, we weren't sitting around smoking dope or anything. Right. You know, even if we were, we were playing, you know, constantly. So, and also, you know, it happened right from the beginning. You know, Grateful Dead music was magic right from the first, you know, drop of it. So it was just a matter of,

collectively getting it all together and presenting it to people because the music was something we were discovering. We were falling on every day. We learned something every day. The more you play, the more you learn. And, uh,

And we didn't care really about, we weren't into the money or into the fame. And we didn't have hit records. We didn't do videos. So I don't know about counterculture, but we certainly weren't totally part of the music industry. We were maybe in parallel with it, but we certainly weren't part of it. We were in our own Grateful Dead world, spawning our Grateful Dead mythology on our own with great songs.

and loving people all around. And we just had a great time in the early days. And then it just kind of blossomed over the years, very slowly, very slowly, like a turtle, as opposed to the hare. And we're the turtle. But we finished the race. And that's the important part. All those rock stars with their jewelry and stuff,

and the fancy hairs and all that, whatever, they fell by the wayside because it wasn't built on the right foundations. We were built to last, and I knew that right from the beginning. I thought it would, you know, we were thinking about doing this for the rest of our lives, even when we were kids.

We said, do you want to do this the rest of your life? Yeah. Yeah, of course you do. But it's hard to, you know, to actually manifest that. Yeah. You know, you can talk about it, but to actually do it, there's a lot of ups and downs and like rhythms, good rhythms, bad rhythms, fights, all kinds of things that we work through to be able to do.

come out on top, as it were. Like Wright said, it was a great tour. The Sphere was great. It was really an honor to be able to play there. And it was yet again a new experience for us. Yeah. And that nourished us. And so all this nourishment over the years, if you play, you get nourished. If you really play hard, you play like you really mean it.

And we meant it. We were not kidding around. It was none of that. You know, it was the music first. Yeah. Everything else followed, but the music was first always and still is. Yeah. The sphere was incredible. I was lucky enough to go. I basically spent the month after telling everyone everything.

how incredible it was and how my life will never be the same after going to the sphere. One, I mean, the drums in space, the visuals and what you put together there were just out of this world good. I know you can't say, but...

I'm hoping that the sphere is not done for dead and company and maybe there's a future dates coming up because I was lucky enough on, on the second night I went, uh, I was lucky enough to, to sit with John Mayer in his green room and he, I just spent 30 minutes profusely thanking him for keeping the music alive. And I want to thank you as well, but tell me there's going to be some more spheres dates or at least give me a wink.

Yeah, there's no reason why there wouldn't be. Okay, I love that answer. I love that answer. Let's leave it at that. Yes, yes, because all I've been thinking about is getting back to the sphere. I've got to get back to the sphere. So right at it, I'm not joking. PFD can attest to it. I've been telling everyone. Like the people that leave Avatar, they won't shut up about how great Pandora the planet looks and how they wish that they lived on Pandora. That's Big Cat with a sphere. Yeah.

It's like, I got to get back there. Nothing is the sphere. My life is not the same without being in the sphere. It's the next step. You know, we play stadiums, which are made for baseball and football. You know, we play places that are not meant for music, really.

or lights, you know, just pretty lame, you know, light show behind you one screen. And once you see the sphere, then you understand what the future is of music and visuals. And when they come together, it's very powerful. It was a real challenge playing in the sphere for a lot of reasons. Firstly, it's a new sonic environment that we had to get used to because we've never played it.

I mean, I thought it was suicide to play in a sphere, actually. I mean, sonically, it's just not done. But with all of the artificial intelligence and the 1600 speakers and the high-def visuals, we made it come alive. We put a lot of time into making it feel like the Great Flint, you know, just like us. And so...

And also to be able to stay focused

but 30 shows in the same place. We never did that. Maybe we played 13 or 12 days at Madison Square Garden in a row, but we never played 30 dates any place. So to be able to stay focused was also a big deal. Only playing three nights. Normally our pace is two nights on, one off, two nights on.

And once in a while we'll play three because of the vocals. It's hard for them to do four in a row. It's very, very hard. So yeah, I think that discipline was part of it. And as you get older, you have more discipline. And younger, the fuel is just youth.

But as you get older, then you've got to conjure another kind of power.

And everybody really is drama free. It's really a great band now. It's phenomenal. It's like just watching the iterations and it's just, it's great. I can't thank you enough. And like I said, the drums in space was incredible. I was one of the people laying on the floor. I don't know if you expected that to happen, that people were going to lay on the floor because of the vibrations, but that did happen.

Yeah, it gave me pause when they said, oh, they're all lying on the floor doing it. I go, what? You've got to be kidding. That never happened. People in Northeastern don't do that. In the sphere, you can feel the vibrations, especially in the seats. It's just haptic seats. There's speakers in the seats, and you can feel the vibrations. When I go downtown, when I go low,

But the visuals, looking up at the visuals and how it

kind of goes with the percussion, with the drums. The drums sound, for some reason, sound really good in the sphere. Better than any place else. Nobody can really quite describe the impact that the drums deliver in the sphere for me. And that was just a lucky, it was the luck of the draw that it just so happens that drums sound amazing in that place.

You know, Mickey, I was going to ask, you know, one of the things I thought in the sphere was one of those last couple of nights I was there, it reminded me of that. The power and the communal spirit reminded me of that story you were saying about after Woodstock, when you had your black lab and you could hear Sly and the Family Stone. And I just wonder if you would mind telling these guys that because that that makes the hair stand up on my arms still when I think about the sort of the communion of live music.

Yeah, well, that was a major moment. I remember being on the hill. It was after our set, I guess. And it was at night and there were fires going all on the valley. You could see them all over. And Sly was just killing it.

And they were all singing, want to take you higher, higher. So you hear 500,000 people going higher, higher. And, you know, I never heard anything like, no one's ever heard anything like that before. And I was good friends with the drummer, Gregor Rico, masterful drummer, amazing drummer. And he was nailing it. And it was total rapture.

Really, I mean, it was awesome. I mean, in the idea of awe, as in awesome, you know, really, you just had to sit back and go, wow, the power that we had. We weren't alone. It was 500,000 of us. No one's ever been able to assemble that, I bet in those days anyway,

you know 500 of thousand of anything people being friendly loving and here the music is taking you to a place that you've never been before now that's power and you talk about rhythm mastery well that moment that night they had it and also michael shreve master drummer master uh

with Santana. Michael was a student of mine years and years ago before the Grateful Dead. He was one of my students. And there he was on the stage playing just out of his mind. Just incredible. So I was really proud of him that night, you know, when he played, when he performed. So Woodstock was really...

It was very interesting and life-affirming, actually, for me. Yeah, it's very cool. And I'm sure you've gotten this question before, but I have to imagine that being in a band like The Grateful Dead, it feels like it was something that was always meant to happen. You guys fit in so well together. It's been such an amazing journey. People's lives have been changed. You've made so many friends. Was there a moment when you guys started to play? I'm sure you've played in other bands before.

But as you're starting to either rehearse or play your first shows with the Grateful Dead, were you knew that something was different and something was special about this band? Well, absolutely. When I first heard that, well, they were already just changed their names to the Grateful Dead. They were warlocks. The band was called Warlocks back then. And they just changed it to Grateful Dead. And I was invited to their concerts. And when I first heard the band, I

I couldn't believe it. I mean, it was so loud and it was so out there, you know, the music was just blossoming. It was a blues band back then and they were playing the blues like I had never heard the blues before. Then I sat in and that was it. You know, we just came together and said, wow, this is the Grateful Dead, you know, and so, you

You know, Jerry said, man, we could take this around the world, you know, and we did. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, you know, so, yeah, I knew it right from the very first moment that Grateful Dead music was special, really special. And over the years, we nurtured that, you know, and.

and created what you now know as Grateful Dead music. It's a genre of music, really. And we were improvisationalists. And that was different back then. You only improvised in jazz. Grateful Dead was like a big, loud jazz band, in a way, with a big backbeat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You could dance to this jazz and everybody was listening to Coltrane and all the great jazz guys. And I was listening to Indian classical music. So very complicated rhythmically. And that's one of the things I brought to the brew.

was that rhythmic complexity. Yeah. Yeah, and then we just shot from there, you know, that we took off. Yeah. I love the idea of a music executive somewhere listening to the Grateful Dead in the 19, I don't know, maybe the 1970s and figuring like, we got to figure out a way to recreate this and try to make it like commercial and try to come up with a formula for it while everything that you guys have done has been organic and just something that's naturally happened between you and your fan base throughout the years. Yeah.

Were there other bands that tried to copy what you guys were doing as it went along? And you're like, you don't have it, man. It's not the same. In the beginning, nobody could copy it because it was so new. They didn't know how to do it. I mean, when you invent something, then that's different. The people couldn't, at first they couldn't understand it because it was so different from

you know, than any other kind of music. And so intense back then. You know, remember, we were just kids playing hard, really fast, hard music, you know, and very complicated, actually. And then it got simpler. And when you started to learn how to

you know, work at these incredible tempos and being able to go three, four, five, even more hours every night. Back then there was no unions and there was, so we could play, you know, we could play till we dropped. At the Fillmore East, we would start at about 8.30 and wound up about seven o'clock the next morning.

So, you know, there was nobody to tell us to stop. We didn't. Now you have to, you know, now we've limited to three, three and a half hours, which is reasonable now. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I had a question for you. So you are your your life has been sports and covering sports. You wrote a great book.

called The Cost of These Dreams, Sports Stories, and Other Serious Business, which everyone, I should say, everyone go buy it on Amazon. It's a great, great book. But you've covered sports your whole life. Sports are your life. Was there something that you uncovered in making this and being around Mickey that you're like, wow, I never thought of sports this way? You know, that's a great question. I never thought about that exactly like that before. Yes. And it came through in several ways. One was...

Mickey was asking these athletes questions that it seemed to me that they had never been asked before and had been dying to be asked.

And so I think that, you know, athletes are physical geniuses who move through a grid with other people. And I think that sometimes they have trouble articulating. They'll say the game seemed to slow down and it sounds like a cliche, but really it's just a physical genius who can't find the vocabulary to say exactly the complex things that are going on in their heads. And Mickey was asking, I mean,

I need to just send you the full unedited Marshawn Lynch conversation. Cause we used, we used 90 seconds of it. And I'm telling you, that's the best sports interview I've ever heard. Yeah. And we, you should just run it because like,

Mickey got Marshawn and Marshawn got Mickey. They immediately understood each other as sort of fellow travelers along the same path. And, you know, that, that happened with Jack Nicklaus. I mean, Jack Nicklaus is famously prickly and I didn't tell Mickey that beforehand. I thought it'd just be a fun social experiment to see what happened. And, but so Jack started off prickly, but by the end,

he was putty in Mickey's hands. And so I think it's that these guys spend a lot, these guys and gals, men and women, spend a lot of time thinking about their interior life, their mental health. And I don't mean like

reacting to stress. I mean, literally, how do you process information? How do you deal with failure and success and egos and all of this? And so it feels like they were getting asked questions that they'd never been asked before. And, um,

have always wanted to be asked. There are three or four questions that became stock questions for Mickey that I'm definitely stealing. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'll ask everybody going forward three or four of these questions. And you're right because I'm watching it. Like I, the, the one of, it was phenomenal. Everyone should watch it. It's so unique and so different than, than what, uh, you know, you think like ESPN documentary, it's so different and out of the box from that. But the,

the Joe Montana part where he's describing a five step drop and a three step drop in the rhythm of it. And it's like, I almost got lost in it. I was like, Oh my God. Like I never, you, you just think like a quarterback drops back. That's something you see. It's a small part of the game. Uh, and just having him dissect it to such a minute level. It was, it was incredible. You're right. Like I, I didn't even realize it till you just said that point of having the guys talk about it in a way that they had never spoken about it.

I mean, I've written about Joe Montana. I've spent a lot of time with Joe and Jennifer Montana and wrote what I think is a very revealing story about him, which he said all sorts of stuff he never said before. And he said stuff on this interview with Mickey that I'd never heard him say before. And that was very early in the process, too. And I was...

it was interesting because Mickey said to me in our first conversation, we went up to his house in North somewhere in Northern California and he, that's right. And he was like, I can get them there. And I sort of clocked that. And like, I made a little note and it was like, Mickey says he can get them there. But I was like, all right, tough guy. Let's see, you know?

All right, big rock and roll star. Let's see how well you interview somebody. And just after Joe Montana, I knew this is going to be really special because Joe has been interviewed over and over and over and over. And this was new shit.

And so from that point on, I just I couldn't schedule enough interviews. Yeah. By the way, I read the Joe Montana piece you did. That was phenomenal. Again, go buy Wright's book. I can't recommend it enough. Read everything he's ever written. Yeah, right. Like, do you? I even forgot that I had written or read your Joe Montana piece. That was I remember reading it being like, wow, I'd never even like.

I feel like I actually know Joe Montana now. So Mickey, was there one specific interview? So kind of like the same question, right? Where you ask someone something or athlete revealed something that you had never thought of sports that way.

Well, of course, the Marshawn Lynch, like Wright said, was extraordinary because he talked about the spiritual side immediately. I walk on the field. I look at the nearest goalpost. I circle the field to the right. I circle the field to the left. I think about the people I'm going to hit and pray that they won't get hurt. And he was very...

Just all kinds of wonderful things. Then there's the Phil Jackson interview where he really lays it out. You know, two beats, one beat, two beats, more than two beats, you're out of time. So he really...

He broke it down. He put that quadrant. He goes here and here and here. And if you don't do this in two beats, and he talks about it in beats, which relates to drumming. You can say a beat is, everybody knows what a

a beat is and so phil was of course a very articulate very articulate and everybody bob koozie you know he just talks about the art of the game and and it is an art form and um uh in mario and treddy says the engine is vibrating it's like a song he says and when he said that i go

yeah, Mario. That's it. It is a song. It was really good. The game is a song. Yeah. A lot of athletes, they see it as musical. Yeah. And that really just...

You know, I heard how Bill spoke of it, but, you know, he was a deadhead, and he was talking about, well, I tell you, one time we were backstage with his son, Luke. Luke was the coach of the, what do you call it, the Warriors. And he's back there, and he's saying to Luke, he said, Luke, it's halftime. He said, okay, you got to come out the first...

Like with Bursa, you know? And then you bring it back to playing the band kind of a thing. And then you...

And I said, Bill, give the kid a break, man. You know, he's the coach. You know, we're just spectators here. But he saw it in musical terms. And that's one of the most interesting parts of it, besides the spiritual nature, which I knew athletes had to have it in order to access music.

the flow state

where everything moves and you're not even thinking about it and you're in the moment. And all of these things which rhythm masters have to know, if you don't know that, you're not a rhythm master in anything, whether you're painting the fence or you're a great carpenter or you drive a great semi, these are all rhythm masters because they were able to get into that flow state and to be, you know, in tune

in the now. So it doesn't have to be drums or drumming, or it doesn't have to be sports. You can be a rhythm master in anything. Yeah. If you know how to get into these states, these flow states, which is about consciousness. Yeah. Be aware of who you are and what you're doing and where you're going. And then also to be able to let it go.

And then just be in the moment. You can think over and over and over again, but you have to let thinking go and just be. And that's not easy when you're in the middle of, you know, when you're in the middle of that, you know, that cathartic moment. So that's what I brought back from this. I had a great time interviewing people

all of these athletes. And like Wright says, you know, some of them were a little, they didn't know how to approach the interview. You know, they thought this was going to be a straight interview about how great they were. But that really wasn't really on my mind at all because they were all great. That's why I talked to them. Yeah. Yeah. Getting down to the human level. That was the real outstanding part for me.

Yeah, you had these moments where you're looking up and Mike Piazza is talking about tigers and Ozzie Smith is talking about Newtonian physics. Yeah. And you're just like, where am I? Yeah. Yeah. I just was like, okay.

I mean, one of the things you learn if you're riding shotgun with Mickey is just hang on. Yeah. Like, you know, the circus is in town. And so, you know, my five-year-old thought Mickey was like some sort of magic creature, you know. Well, he is. She didn't know he was this cool. I know. But she didn't know that. She just ran right up to him and gave him this huge hug out of nowhere. And then I later found out that Mickey had given her cookies. So that was it.

But no, it just, man, the experience of watching him do this work as someone who was a fan of the music, you know, they say don't meet your heroes. And I mean, we're very lucky to report that, you know, he's got, he's an incredibly talented

incredibly talented musician, thinker and writer, but just also a good guy. Like we had fun. This was a fun project. There was very little drama, as he said, it was, you know, Tori Champagne who Mickey and I both call the adult in the room, uh, did a lot of work and, uh, really brought the thing home. And I just had a great time doing it. And I mean, I,

That's what I'm grateful for. Yeah. I mean, being able to tap into something that an athlete at the peak of their game has always thought in their own, either they thought it consciously or they've known it their entire lives. And it's how they go about their business. They think about approaching something as simple as a three-step drop.

in this very personal way that you can tap into and immediately have them speak in your same language that you understand. It ties back into just the universal nature of rhythm, which I think is a really interesting thing to dive into. And then you talked about getting in that flow state, being still but going fast at the same time. I think you discovered the zone. I think that's what being in the zone is.

When an athlete says like everything slows down, I think now we can do more work to quantify what the zone is and try to figure out how to get there. It's fascinating stuff to dive into. I'm curious to know as a drummer, there's to me, there might be a difference between sports at their highest level and playing music at the highest level, but maybe I'm wrong about this. And that's the, the inherent nature of competition that you have in sports and in music, it's,

I feel like it's not as much of a competition against somebody else beating somebody else as it is doing, you know, maximizing your own ability or playing to the highest of your capability. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there is a competitive drive in a lot of musicians. Yeah, maybe there are, you know, but that's second fiddle. Actually, the most important thing is, you know, when I go on stage,

I try to empty my mind and try to be very relaxed. And I try to make everybody on the stage play good. You know, I'm for them. You know, I'm trying to lay down a real good groove. So,

you know bob or whoever can you know just ride on it you know and have a great time and then i get down to business you know and but the most important thing is to make everybody feel like they're part of a team and there's no competition on the stage absolutely none and um you know

You might be competing in your mind with some other drummers, some far away, you know, thoughts and stuff. But really, it's it comes down to, you know, I think the empathy in music and the empathy in sports.

really important. People don't realize how much people care for their teammates. It's a love. You're attached to them in some way. You don't have to go home with them, you know, and hang out all the time. But when you're together, you feel this connection. And that's part of getting into the zone. Now, when you talk about the flow state, I

It really came together with me when I started writing my first book, Drumming at the Edge of Magic, in 1990, I think it was. And I started investigating these trance religions, Santeria, Condemblé. And most of the cultures out there in the world have to do with trance, Indian music and even music.

Even American music had that, you know, even the early rock and roll. There was these trance states that we would get into that we couldn't define. And then all of a sudden we realized that it was just focus and concentration and moving into these other mindsets and allowing the body to flow. And now we can articulate it.

And that's what's been happening in the last 30, 40 years is that we know a lot more about how to get into these trance states, which basically that's what all of these things are. Trance is not a bad word or anything. It's a strange word. When you go down the highway and you miss an exit and you're daydreaming, you're in a puppy trance. Yeah.

not harmful or anything and these things aren't harmful yeah but they're once you know how to go in and out of them and how to stay there then that's the key to be able to win and all of these rhythm masters that i interviewed are winners they know how to go there they know how to stay there and they know how to win yeah and that

Sports is just, you know, it's just a miniature of life is what we do with rhythm only in sports. It's all about rhythm. Without rhythm, there could be no sports. You know, just be running into each other and, you know, and not having no teams. You know, there was no teamwork or any of that stuff. So the basis of it all is rhythm.

whether they realize it or not. Now it's going to be an educational moment. This film could be looked at in those terms for a lot of people and allowing their minds to be able to understand what they're doing or what they did or other people looking at sports in a different way. These are very complicated things.

These are states of minds. These are not, unless you know what you're doing and how to get there and how to stay there, you can't win because you just swim it upstream. So that, it tells a lot of stories, this, this, this,

There's where the masters work. Yeah. So, uh, this has been phenomenal. We appreciate both of your times. I have one last question. It's a row back question. R H O B A C K.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. So everyone, please do watch rhythm masters, uh, out debuting tonight on ESPN. As you're listening to this, uh, Mickey, I, I, this is a dumb question. I'm sure you've gotten a million times, but, uh,

When someone asks me, you know, what is your, explain your love for the Grateful Dead. I basically say, listen, the beauty of it is that I don't even know what my favorite like song or show is because it changes every day and I'll find a show that I'd never heard. And that will be my favorite show or a song that something unlocks in my brain. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm listening to this song and I never listened to it this way. But is there a specific example?

time and place that you look back to and you're like everyone has their own favorites but your own personal like that's that's where it was that was what i look back at and i daydream about maybe that year or that little era or whatever it may be uh that you just something that unlocks in your brain when you find yourself you know kind of drifting off well one show was really uh

In Cornell in '77, that '77 show in Cornell, there was a few songs that night that was superb, just beyond anything we've ever played before. But there are nights just sprinkled all through the 60 years of playing. When you play good, that's it. If it's even one song,

sometimes it happens and then the rest of the songs you can't quite get it but whenever the magic happens then then it then that's everything you know that's your whole life remember i've been playing most of my my life in my whole life actually pretty much i've been playing for 70 somewhat 75 years so uh

You know, it's everything. You know, you put everything you have into it and it gives it back to you, you know, in a lot of ways. It makes you happy and it does things to you physiologically, whereas it reduces your stress. It makes you a better life. It makes you learn how to love.

Because that's what music does. And that's what sports does. Yeah. You know, you can't play great sports and not love it. And so you learn about love. You learn about empathy. And you learn about the good. Yeah. So it's much deeper than just playing a sport.

The benefits you get from it are extraordinary. The more you put in, the more you get back. The longer you can stay there, the better it is. And never quit. Never stop it unless you have to. And that's, of course, a lot of times it's ripped away with injuries and so forth. Same thing happens in my work.

all the time. You know, you have to overcome them and you have to heal yourself and come back again. So it's just not like getting up there and playing the drums. You have to train. Every tour I train for months to get up there and be able to relax and just, you know, not hurt myself. Yeah. And the same way in sports, you know, so you have to understand that these players are really...

They put in so much time. All of us, any professional that's at this level, you know, has to give their heart to it. And there are benefits to that when you give yourself up and your heart to something. It is really hard to describe, but what you take away from it and what you take from that power into your regular life is

is really what's important. I hope that the people don't leave the music at the hall, you know, at the venue, that they take that feeling home and do good with it. And that's really the payoff for me. If I know that's happening, then...

I've done a good job and I feel great about it. Yeah. It was not just about the concert. It's about what you do with that feeling. Yeah. Well, Mickey, thank you so much. And right. Thank you so much. Everyone go watch it. It was an incredible movie. And Mickey, I'm, I'm holding you to it. You did say that you guys were going to,

do some more sphere dates. That's me. You might not have, you might not have exactly said that, but that's what I took from it. So that's not exactly what you said, but that's exactly what I heard. And it's all, yeah, it's all up to interpretation. So I didn't say it. Yeah, but yeah, but that's what he meant. Yeah. That's where you bet. So thank you so much. This was a thrill and we really appreciate it. Everyone go see rhythm masters and thanks so much guys.

Thanks for asking. Thanks for asking. Good questions, guys. Thank you. Thank you. It was a pleasure. Appreciate it.

That interview with Mickey Hart and Wright Thompson is brought to you by our friends over at Peacock and their new show, Mr. Throwback. If you're looking for a new show to binge, check out Mr. Throwback on Peacock, starring Adam Pauly and Ego Wotum. Follow Danny, a down-on-his-luck memorabilia dealer who's looking for redemption by reuniting with his middle school teammate, NBA legend Steph Curry. That's right, NBA great Steph Curry goes from the court to the screen in this comedy mockumentary that's pure gold. It's got a lot of

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Okay, let's finish up. We got a couple FAQs. It's been a long show. Long show. Long show. Way too much talking. A lot of fun. Way too much talking for myself. Listen, football's going to be back soon. This was fun. I had fun today. Yeah, don't worry about it, Hank. Once football's back and the Patriots are in gear, I'm sure you're not going to be talking at all. Yeah, too much Hank and too much hating from Hank, and that's all right. But I will say this, memes...

He sent me some hater questions. I was like, send them. And then he just instead sent me questions that are going to make it look like I asked these and they're set up questions. So... Oh, no. Rude. Long time AWL. Memes can't exist. I've noticed that it seems like every single guy in the crew now loves the West. Colorado Grit Week, Arizona Super Bowl, Chill Week. Have you ever thought...

Again, I did not pick these questions. Have you ever thought about a winter trip out west? Oh, winter trip out west. We don't really do winter trips. Thank you guys. Would love an Apres ski trip after the Super Bowl. Maybe hit the slopes. Check out some of the sports scenes. And it's a vibe. Apres ski. Much love. Yeah. What is it? Apres? Apres?

I pray after ski. We, uh, we don't usually travel that much in the winter time because we've got football on TV and then we've got the, uh, the Superbowl. I guess we did go out West last year for the Superbowl to Vegas. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, we don't really travel that much in the winter time. I, I love it out West. Yeah. I had great time. We're going to go to Tahoe every year. Grit week will not be out West next year. Uh,

Um, we did, I think we've actually talked about San Diego week. We've kind of done a good, if you look at the grit week year after year, the last time we went out West was five years ago. So this was the first time in five years that we did. It just happened that we did Tahoe. Um, yeah, Tahoe will be every year.

Yeah. I mean, the West Coast is a hidden gem. It is. Los Angeles. People don't talk about it. Los Angeles is great. California. California. Malibu, hidden gem. They should write some songs about California. I don't think that would play. The Boo. Where is the furthest place you would travel if it meant you got to interview one of your white whales? White whale. So like Katie, Belichick, Miley. Who else? Yao Ming. Brady. Brady. Yao Ming, white whale. Key West. I would go to Brazil. Brazil.

They would eventually be back. Brady probably wouldn't be in Brazil. I don't know why. Columbia. It wouldn't make sense in my head. I'd be like, aren't you coming back? Hank, would you go to Hawaii to interview Tom Brady? Yep. Wow. That's far. That's far. Hawaii, I'd go to Europe, Japan. But I would just simply say, aren't they coming back? What if the answer was no? Katie's never coming back.

He might not. He was having fun on that water slide. Dude, I love that water slide pick. He is the most relatable. Put your arms up like a little kid. Our last one. Hey, guys. Just curious how close of friends you are outside the show. Do you consider each other more of coworkers or friends? Family. I think, yeah, it's closer than friends. Actually, Mickey Hart kind of got on it where it was like he had a line there in the interview where he was like,

Maybe you're not spending every second outside of it, but when you're in it together, there's no bond like it. Yeah. And that's kind of how it is. I mean, I spend... Outside of my immediate family, I spend the majority of my time with everyone in this room. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're not going out on Friday night because we're spending...

70 hours together. Yeah. And, and also like if you've got three kids, it's probably not, you can probably can't be like, Hey, I'm going to hit happy hour. I would say, I would say it's close. It's, it's as close to family as you can get. Like I consider you guys my family. Yeah, I do too. That's what I'm saying. Like it is, it's,

It's family. I was thinking about that the other day. Like, the fact that we've been working together for eight years? Nine years? Eight years. Eight years? Is it eight full years now? Eight full years. Eight and a half. Eight and a half years. Eleven for me and Big Cat. Yeah, eight and a half years. And...

Like most shows, if you work with anybody for eight and a half years, there will be little petty conflicts that end up driving the show. Not us. Not us. No petty. Not that. And the fact that we've avoided going at each other's throats at all. Yeah, completely. It's actually great. It's very healthy for me and Big Cat to have Hank in this. Oh, yeah. He absolutely is. He's nuclear deterrent. Yeah. It is crazy, though. Listen, like, I mean, even what?

What recently was Jesus and Mero, you know, the whole documentary about Francesa and Mad Dog just not speaking off air. Yeah. Like we are very blessed. What? No, it's what you do. I mean, I think that you guys have joined in hating me and that has helped you guys. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. It's a very useful position. I was thinking the other day, I don't know if I said this on the show, but.

I feel like the first 10 years of your life, you don't really remember or like you're not really in control of. It's basically your parents, you know, they set up your playdates, they set up what you're doing, they set up your hobbies, whatever. And then 10 to 20, you're kind of in more control. You know what you're doing, you know what you like.

So it's basically 10 to 20, 20 to 30 for me, and it's like half my life has been with you guys. Yeah. I texted you guys when you guys were out. Right. I get what you're saying. Yeah. The last week of August when I was here and you guys were out, I texted you, like, what, day two? And I was like, I miss you guys. Because it was, like, obviously there's a lot of people that I work with here, and I love all of them. Except for Brandon. But it was very weird.

not having you guys here i was just like i kept on like kind of wandering around being like oh i wonder what max is up to i wonder what pft is up to oh shit they're not here yeah so don't ever leave again okay hank no what do you mean no i will leave again vacations i feel like coming to work is a vacation no it's about to be it that that is true uh well you don't think that

I do. I just like, again, we've been doing it for so long, I've said this a million times. We work a lot. I like to recharge and refresh. Play a lot. And by recharge and refresh. Come back violently hungover. Super hungover. It's the air and water show. That's true. On Sunday?

It was on Sunday. Just for the record, too, I wanted to say that, Hank, for a moment I felt bad for saying that you were hungover on Sunday's show. But it was, like, to me there's hangovers, irregular hangovers, like don't mention it. Your body, like, couldn't, your whole aura was zapped out of you.

Yeah, I was fully depressed yesterday. It was shocking to see you even try to come up with words. Yeah, that's fair. I wanted to let everyone know. I was in a full state of depression. But it was worth it. Post-elevator depression. Yeah, it was worth it. All right, good show. Let's do numbers. 20. 17. 8. 56. 3. Shane? Shane?

I gotta wait for Pug. I always go after Pug. But 21. Pug's gonna take 99. Pug is 99. Here he is. Here he is. Say it, Pug. 99, Pug. By the way, Pug's dream is to have somebody recognize him at some point when we're out. So, please, next time you see Pug, just go up to him and be like, Pug, I dig your vibe. Please, I'm sorry. 61. Love you guys.

I'm in love with the way you

I'll be coming for your lover. Take on me. Take on me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

Please let me say it again.

Take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me, take on me,

If there's anything better than getting a few of your favorite things from McDonald's, it's getting a few of your favorite things from McDonald's for less in the McDonald's app.

Delicious. And what could be better than two of your favorites for $3.99? Like the four-piece McNuggets, McDouble, or hot and spicy McChicken. So stop in for twice the delicious. Prices and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Single item at regular price. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba. This is an important message for anyone who has used Uber or Lyft.

Hey, can I ask you something? Have you ever felt uncomfortable or unsafe during a ride share? Maybe something happened that just wasn't right. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual misconduct like groping, kissing, or worse by an Uber or Lyft driver, you may be entitled to significant compensation, even if it happened years ago. Call 866-613-3476 to get a free case review today.

There have been thousands of claims against Uber and Lyft for this type of misconduct and abuse. Call 866-613-3476 now to see if you qualify. Don't miss the deadline to file. You deserve closure and a financial settlement. Call 866-613-3476 today. That's 866-613-3476. Paid for by the Sentinel Group.