Thanksgiving Special With Fred Smoot In Studio, CFB, Week 13 Picks And Preview, Kirk Cousins And PFT/Hank Rivalry Continues
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On today's part of my take, we have an extra long Thanksgiving special for the people. We have Fred Smoot in studio. We have Kirk Cousins. We're going to talk college football. We're going to talk Monday Night Football. We're going to do a weekend preview. We're going to do a Thanksgiving preview. We will tell everyone exactly in the spot that they can stop the show if they unfortunately have to work on Friday as is tradition. We say it's like when you go out of town and you leave food for your cat.

Yeah. And then, you know, you have it on a timer. We're going to put you guys on a timer. So you get your Wednesday episode, then you get your Friday episode. Yeah, exactly. So we're looking out for the AWL sending you into a long week off with Thanksgiving. And it's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings, getting some holiday shopping done this weekend. Pick up some touchdowns. They're on sale at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Whatever.

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Okay, let's go. A.W.

Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. Grab some TDs with DraftKings Sportsbook. They're on sale from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code TAKE to opt in. That's code TAKE only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, November 27th.

And John Harbaugh, unfortunately, owns Jim Harbaugh. 3-0. Jim Harbaugh saying, before the game, I laid down my life for my brother, but I would not let him win a football game.

I enjoyed the hardball bowl. The Ravens are very, very good. Chargers, Quentin Johnson decided to start dropping balls again at the worst possible time. But that was a Ravens. Like, the Ravens dominated that second half. And they are who we thought they were, a Super Bowl contender. I think the Ravens dominated the second half and also the last two minutes of the first half. Yes. Going forward on fourth down. That was crazy. That was a great call. And you know what? I'm going to say it. If it hadn't worked out...

I would absolutely kill John Harbaugh. Oh, duh. But it worked out, so he's a genius. Yeah. But if it didn't work, fire him. I feel like that call on, what were they, on their own 20? 19, 20. 19, yeah. I feel like that call was the Harbaugh Bowl getting the best of him, where he's like,

I normally I wouldn't do this but against my brother I gotta fucking you got to you got to fucking do this this was their Super Bowl for sure their mom and dad were watching was their anniversary they were watching with Tom Crean yep that should have been the Manning cast last night absolutely it should have been Jack and Joni and then Tom Crean I I uh I walked away from that game not really changing my opinions on either team like Ravens are really good the Chargers they have to

I think the Chargers are good, and they have to play perfect to beat a Ravens-like team. I do wonder, little thought I had when I was watching the game, is there a chance Hank

bet the Chargers to miss the playoffs? Well, Hank cashed out of his Chargers Super Bowl bet, which is pretty much the same thing. Do you think he... I didn't. You did not? I didn't. Are you sure? I'm positive. 100%. Again, DraftKings Sportsbook, they have a great feature, the Barstool betting group. All my bets go in there. So it's trackable. There's proof. There's a, you know...

Fully documented history. Yeah. No chargers to make the playoffs has been placed. Fully documented history of your troll bets. Not troll bets, just smart, good plays. If you want to win some money, follow me on the draft. How's the hungry dog doing this year? It's up to units, which is positive. Yeah. Right? Like you want to be positive when you gamble. You want to be positive about things. Yeah, plus two units is good. You want to have a positive mindset. Derek Henry.

Continues to be a beast. It is the return of the running backs and the fact that Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley are complete game changers in today's NFL. And I do think that...

Some of the reason why they got Derrick Henry was just because he's so fucking big that they will not forget to put him in the game late on. They'll keep him going. He's a giant looming presence on the sidelines, so if John Harbaugh is starting to think, let's get cute with it like we did in the playoffs last year, Derrick Henry, he's so big that you're like, oh shit, yeah, we have that guy. Let's keep running him.

And he just... He wears you down. He tenderizes you over the course of a game. And it also just further proves what we already know, but... I would tackle him by his chain. Yeah, well... Why don't more people do that? Just reach in, grab the chain. Akib Tlaib, he would have fucking ripped his throat out. They... The...

When he gets outside and it's just one-on-one, Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry are the same, but they do it in a different way. Saquon Barkley, when he gets out in space one-on-one, you know he's going to make a guy miss. There's just nothing the guy can do. Derrick Henry, when he gets out in space one-on-one, the guy just can't tackle him.

especially if we're like the NFL has gotten a little, the edge rushers have gotten a little lighter. Like the teams are playing, you know, too high safety in the, in defensive linebackers are a little bit there. It's not Ray Lewis anymore where it's like, you know, these guys in the upper 200 pounds, it's just Derek Henry can just bowl over people. And it, it,

We're stupid. We have dumb opinions, but it just needs to be reminded that situation is so, so important in all the sports, but especially the NFL, because if Derrick Henry was still on the Titans and Saquon Barkley was still on the Giants, they'd be having okay years on bad teams and we wouldn't be talking about them. But when you put them on good teams with a ton of talent around them, that's hard to defend. Yeah.

You get the best of both where it's like, yeah, running backs still do matter, especially when you have an elite one and they're the cherry on the top of a really good football team. Yeah, maybe the Giants were right to not pay Saquon Barkley. They were...

They were wrong to pay Daniel Jones, but I do think that— I know what you're saying. It's that a good running back on a good team is worth the investment. A good running back on a bad team, it'll just kind of make you a little bit less bad. If the New York Giants had Saquon Barkley this year, and this is where I feel bad for Giants fans because it's basically a constant, the clip of Mara and Joe Shane talking in the offseason—

That's just being hammered in their head, and memes does the – he's trying to deflect from the Jets where he just keeps posting, like, rushing yards for the Giants, rushing yards for Saquon Barkley, touchdowns for Saquon Barkley, touchdowns for the Giants. All those insult stats. If Saquon Barkley was on the Giants this year, would the Giants have –

maybe one more win. Yeah, at least like they would still be a bad football team because they don't have everything else. They don't have a quarterback. So I, yeah, I think the, the running back position is like, if you already have the foundation and a good team and then you add an elite running back, then it's yeah, that's, that's where running back becomes very important and takes you to a Superbowl level. It's definitely worth it. And,

There are a few games where you can look back on and be like, one play really did kind of change the outcome of this game. And then this one would be Quentin Johnson dropping that wide open pass. And then probably still would have lost, but that was a 30-yard gain. It was a 30-yard gain at least. And it was huge in terms of what happened right afterwards. They give the ball away, they punt away, and then the Ravens go score a touchdown. It feels at that point like it's out of reach. Now, in that instance...

If he catches that, the Chargers have a pretty good chance to win that game or at least come back and make it very, very close down the stretch. Now, I have a question for you about the way Justin Herbert handled that. Yeah. So he drops that. That's kind of been the knock against Quinn. He's had some bad times in the NFL. He's looked pretty good this year. His hands don't always work. They don't always work. It's okay. It happens. So when he drops that pass, Justin Herbert goes back and immediately throws two more passes to him in the fourth quarter. Yeah.

and he drops both of those as well. Do you think that that was the right thing for Justin Herbert to do, to be like, I trust my guy, I'm going to try to build back his confidence? Or do you think it was very mean of Justin Herbert to keep throwing the ball to him? Or was it dumb of Justin Herbert to keep throwing the ball to him? Is there an option C, that the Chargers don't have elite wide receiver talent and you've got to kind of just do what you get? Like Joshua Palmer was getting these deep targets. It reminds you that...

The Chargers are the whole team at a lad. Yeah. The conch is awesome. But the Chargers are, I feel like an elite wide receiver next year away from being a real, real threat. Yeah, because it is like when you throw it to Quentin Johnson in crunch time, he's had a nice season. He's kind of recaptured a little of what we thought he was going to be when he was drafted at TCU. Yeah.

But it is a reminder that, oh, man, if they had T. Higgins or, you know, one of these guys, you know, a DJ Moore or I don't even know, like you can list a bunch of guys where it's like even a Jordan Addison.

What if they had Zay Flowers or Jordan Addison, Big Cat? Hypothetically. The two receivers that were drafted right after Quentin Johnson. That would be nice. I think it's kind of funny that we're talking about the Chargers and we're like, they're a good receiver away from being a really good team, which goes to show you how much Harbaugh has completely flipped what the Chargers were on its head. The knock against the Chargers in the past was always kind of a soft team.

Couldn't run the football. Couldn't stop the run. Their defense is very good. Yeah, J.K. Dobbins getting hurt was obviously big. Yeah. You can't really rely on him to be healthy, unfortunately. But he's changed the Chargers up so much that they're sometimes winning games that they would have easily lost in the past 10 seasons. And instead, we're talking about them like they just need a great wide receiver. Yeah. Which is all they used to have. Yeah, they used to have. And it's – I mean, this is a rebuilding year for the Chargers. They're going to be a playoff team, and I still –

I still would take, like, the Chargers can beat anyone. Again, they have to play a perfect game. They can't have the Quentin Johnson drop. I have a fun fact for you about the Ravens and their dominance. You ready for this? The Ravens, the only team to hold the Baltimore Ravens under 20 points this season. Who is it? Let's see. They lost to the Raiders, but I think that was a high-scoring game. It was recent, within the last three weeks.

The Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay, yeah. So the only team to hold them under 20 points. That's how good the Ravens offense has been. Before that, who's the only other team to hold them under 20 points? The Steelers. Cowboys. Week 18 of 2023 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Before that, who was the only team to hold them under 20 points? Steelers. The Steelers, week 5 of 2023. The Ravens, as long as they don't have to play the Steelers...

We'll just dominate anyone on offense. Yeah. So the last three times they've been held under 20 points, it's been the Pittsburgh Steelers. That was from Alex Cazorra. Sorry for butchering your name. But, yeah, that's what the Ravens offense is. It's just elite. And I didn't even think, like –

Lamar, it wasn't like one of those nights. He had a couple moments where you're like, holy shit. But it wasn't a true Lamar has taken over this game. He played good, not incredible, and they still scored 30 points. He did have that sick touchdown run where he did the exact same thing he did in his high school highlight. Yes. Where he just stopped at the corner and let the guy go right by him. Yeah, did you see? The charges right now, I've got them, what are they, 35 to 1 to win the Super Bowl? Yeah, well, you don't have them. No, no, I'm looking at the odds right now. Yeah, yeah.

You can hop back in. I think I might hop back in on the Chargers to win the Super Bowl at 35-1. Yeah. What do you have, Matt? I have 40-1 and 35-1. So hop back in. Be a friendship thing. Not you, Hank. You're not in the friend group. By the way, you mentioned that Lamar touchdown run. So Kevin Clark had an anecdote. He called the high school coach of Lamar Jackson. Yeah. His name is Don Hanna, and Lamar Jackson did that –

kind of play against him in high school. And Don Hannah said, like he was questioning whether he should be a football coach after Lamar Jackson did that. He said, there's something I'm not doing to put my kids in position to be successful. The feeling stayed with Hannah for a long time. Jackson had made him question his own coaching and,

Fast forward two years later, and he's watching Florida State and Louisville, and can't believe what he's doing against one of the top teams in college football. I feel a lot better. Fast forward another two years later, he's doing against the NFL, and no one can tackle him, and he's like, oh, actually...

I'm fine, I maybe should be an NFL coach. Yeah. So Lamar Jackson had a guy basically questioning his existence for like a five-year span off of how great Lamar Jackson is. There's a good lesson in that. Don't blame yourself so quickly for small mistakes that you make. Yes. Because maybe other people make those mistakes much more publicly than you. Yes. I like the idea, though, that the Steelers have built a defense kind of specifically to beat the Ravens.

And if you can beat the Ravens, then it'll make you pretty good against everybody else too. Right. Right. Yeah. You just need to find a way to play the Ravens. It's basically a Kirby Smart Alabama situation. They have one team to beat. If the Steelers ever have to play the Ravens in a Super Bowl, I'm taking the Steelers. Yeah. I mean, you might not beat every team all the time, but if you can beat the Ravens consistently, then you'll be hitting probably like 60%, 70% against the rest of the NFL. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Do we have anything else from week 12 before we get in? So, so the plan today is we're going to talk college football. We're going to do the, the Thanksgiving games with the pick. And then we are going to have an interview with, uh, Fred Smoot. And then we can, everyone who wants to stop can stop. If you have to work on Friday, you can stop. Uh,

Then we're going to do all the Sunday games, and then we're going to finish with the interview. Great interview with Kirk Cousins. Try to close your eyes and figure out who's Kirk Cousins and who's Fred Smoot. Yeah. Bet you can't. Yeah, it's going to be tough. Where's Hot Seat Cool Throne? Hot Seat Cool Throne is right before Fred Smoot. So it's basically the regular show, and then we add on Friday's show at the end with another interview for the people. Let's do a little college football. By the way, it's brought to you by our friends at Game Time.

Game time, the exclusive ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. Football season is here. We can't wait to get out to some games this fall with the help of Game Time, the official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. You know how much we love Game Time. Now with their brand new Game Time Picks feature, they're making it even easier to get to a game. Game Time Picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets online.

I was looking at tickets. Rivalry weekend, Hank? Camp Randall, Battle for the Axe. Yes, need it. Very cheap, very affordable tickets. You can get in for as cheap as $35. Okay, so if you want to go see Wisconsin hopefully keep their bowl streak of 22 years alive, you can go to Game Time Tickets and just pull up your chosen event, turn on the GT Picks setting at the top of the screen, or browse the best local Game Time Picks deal near you. On your Game Time app homepage, what are you waiting for?

Buy those tickets to see Wisconsin and Minnesota on Friday. Download the GameTime app and use code PMT to easily score great deals with new GameTime picks. What time is it? GameTime. Okay, week 13 in college football was, I don't want to take a victory lap, but I'm going to take a victory lap because, and I think I speak for all of us here, we were all on the side of the 12-team playoff rules. The 12-team playoff is going to be great.

Anyone who says the regular season won't matter is not seeing the big picture. Not the names of Tom Fornelli. We saw on Saturday a chaotic, chaotic scene all across the country in games that would not have mattered if it weren't for the 12-team playoff. Ole Miss, two-loss Ole Miss team losing to Florida. That game doesn't matter if it's a four-team playoff.

Two loss Alabama, losing to Oklahoma. That game doesn't matter if it's a four-team playoff. We had Texas A&M losing late to Auburn. That game doesn't matter if it's a four-team playoff. So having these games means so much. And I know, you know, you're like, well, a two-loss team shouldn't even be in the conversation. Well, they are now because it's a 12-team playoff. I loved it. I loved every second of it.

It basically started, the Saturday started where Indiana was the big loser because of how Ohio State treated them. And by the end of the night, the big winners were Indiana and Tennessee because the SEC spent all the early slate watching Indiana lose and being like, told you so, we're going to get six teams in. And then they pissed down their leg. And now the SEC is littered with three lost teams that maybe one of them gets in, but

That might even be too much. Maybe not. Yeah, so if you're an Indiana fan, your Saturday went as follows. Never daunted. Game starts, first quarter, never daunted. Second quarter, I'm starting to feel maybe a little bit daunted, but I won't publicly say that I'm daunted. A touch of dauntness. Second half, you know what? I'm definitely daunted, and maybe it's okay to be daunted. Maybe we're not ready to be undaunted just yet. Then the SEC games start.

We're fucking never daunted. We're never daunted. Yes. Now you get to point to the scoreboard for SEC teams and anyone that says to Indiana, well, maybe, you know, you shouldn't get your ass kicked by Ohio State and just point to the rest of your schedule being cupcakes.

Well, guess what? Now the SEC and teams like Notre Dame, you can't make the schedule argument anymore because Indiana, if you just look at their losses and you look at their wins and their overall strength of schedule, you can't say that you should be in over Indiana anymore. Yeah. So it was crazy. And now I'm going to take – I've been a big –

Pro college football playoff guys since they announced it. I think that having a 12 and eventually 16 playoff is awesome. It's good. Every other sport has a tournament like this. I'm going to do devil's advocate for Tom Fernelli because this thought crept into my head on the drive-in this morning.

Is there an argument to be made that teams like powerhouse teams are losing more frequently because they don't have that same sense of urgency every single week? Like you have to be perfect or else you do not get into the 14 playoff. No, I don't think that's the case. I think it's the parody of the NIL and the transfer portal has made it. So it's a lot more flattened out. And again,

It's not like this year is... I mean, this year has had chaos, but we still have an undefeated Oregon team. We still have a one-loss Ohio State team. We still have a one-loss Texas team. And one... Like, so...

There still would be a four-team playoff that we just never paid attention to five through 12, and now we are. You know what I mean? The conversation on Saturday would have just been Ohio State, Penn State almost losing to Minnesota. By the way, shout out James Franklin. That fake punt was awesome. It would have just shifted our eyes to we're only watching those four teams play.

and not the rest of the teams that are still eligible for the playoffs. Like if you're Georgia, you don't think that there's like a small, small bit that's like if all these games are must-wins, they come out, they play just a tiny, tiny bit more focused or harder against Ole Miss? No. I mean, I think Ole Miss was just the better team. They were the better team that day. Yeah, yeah. It was a thought. It was a thought that I had. Now, I'm still in favor of the playoffs. Tom's point, and I understand Tom's point, is that the –

Like, Notre Dame losing to NIU in the past would have been a catastrophic loss that ended their season. You do lose a little of that. I agree with Tom there. But Notre Dame's playing good ball right now. Like, I know that Army... I had Notre Dame versus Army. I thought they were going to kill them. They killed them. Army was undefeated going into that game. I want to see Notre Dame. And I don't know if Notre Dame can win the entire thing, but they could probably win a playoff game, maybe two. I do think...

There's been such a mess at all these conferences. I mean, the Big 12 has eight teams still could get into the Big 12 championship game. I do strongly think that if your name's not Oregon, Ohio State, or Georgia, you're not going to win the whole thing. But I'm happy about the 12-team playoff. So it's kind of like we're going to get to the same thing at the end, but it's going to be more fun during the season because you have these crazy results that –

Alabama losing to Oklahoma. Alabama already would have had just a disappointing this season is over before Saturday night. Then having that, it's like, holy shit. How do you not make the 12-team playoff? You're Alabama. Could you see Tennessee going on a little run? Tennessee also was a big winner throughout this Saturday. Everything that had to happen in Tennessee and more happened. Yeah, I said that. Indiana and Tennessee were the big winners. I'm still a little nervous about Nikko.

Yeah, but I've seen flashes here and there from him. He hasn't been good this season, don't get me wrong. But he's had a couple plays, a couple games where I'm like, oh, this guy's really good. And anytime I see that out of a young player, I'm like, what if they just become that player? Yeah, the other big winner we should say is the ACC because now...

SMU and Miami in a collision course to which I'm not ruling out more chaos happening this weekend. I think rivalry weekend throughout the record books, there could be more chaos and we don't even see, but SMU and Clem or SMU and Miami is,

Both of them should get in now with a bunch of three loss sec teams. They should. Yeah. And Texas A&M, by the way, is still alive if they win out. So if Texas A&M beats Texas, they'll be in the sec championship game. And if they win the sec championship game, they're automatically. So there's another big story that happened after Oklahoma beat Alabama, Brent Finnebles, the, the under fire coach, I would say for Oklahoma. I think that's fair to call him. He,

He spent his Saturday night at a Taco Bell in Norman after beating Alabama. He and his daughter spent $94 at Taco Bell. How many daughters? I'm going to guess two. Okay. I'm going to guess two daughters. That's a lightweight order. That's $94 at Taco Bell between a football coach and two daughters. I can do that no problem. He might have had like $70 worth of orders. Yeah.

So I don't know how that breaks down, but I do know that that's kind of a big boy... It's a big boy order to do that with your daughters. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, hey, he deserved it. They rushed the field twice. Yeah. They rushed the field. There was rushing the field everywhere. Hank already pointed out, because he seems to only care about our teams losing PFT, that Nebraska rushed the field on Wisconsin. It's a big win for Nebraska. Yeah, they deserve it. They haven't been to a bowl game... In like a decade. Yeah. Been a bad, bad football team. Yeah. Really bad. And...

Shout out our good friend Dana because he turned around that offense. Yeah. Good. Shout out to Dana. Also, news breaking this morning, Mack Brown has been fired.

Oh, I thought he was going to come back. Mack Brown has been fired by the University of North Carolina. He said he wanted to come back after he tried to retire halfway through the season. He quit. He quit after JMU beat them, I think it was 70-50. Yeah. He quit for 24 hours. I don't even think it was 24 hours. I think it was like a five-hour quit. Remember, he told his team, I don't think I can coach you anymore. And then on Sunday...

They talked to Mac Brown's assistant, and he was like, he'll be at work on Monday. Yeah, he says this all the time. This is Mac. So do you think Mac gets another job or he goes back to TV? I would say he's probably done. Probably going to TV. Yes, I would say he's probably done. That's interesting because now we'll see. I mean, if Kirby Smart wins the national title this year,

We're going to have, there's how many national title head coaches will be, will there be? Like, it'll just be Kirby Smart. Just Kirby Smart, right? No, and Dabo. Yep, Dabo. And Dabo. Because Jimbo's gone. Yeah, Harbaugh's gone. Harbaugh's gone. Edo's obviously gone. Urban Meyer's gone. Saban's gone. Saban's gone. I don't know if we're forgetting someone. I'm sure we are. Fucking this up. No, I don't know. I think we're right.

I think that's it. I mean, obviously, Ryan Day or Dan Lanning could join the crew this year. Yeah, I think that's it, right? Yeah, it's crazy. Mack Brown was the best part of the trivia question of how many head coaches currently have a national title. Yeah, that was the do you know ball question about Mack. Last thing I wanted to talk about with college football, do you want to do a new segment? A new segment. It's called our unbiased take on...

On the Heisman Trophy race. Okay. Okay. It's hot. Why is it so hot in the studio? All right. So, quick.

So unbiased take on the Heisman Trophy race. I have a couple things I would like to say to Heisman voters that might be listening. Listen. Here, put your laptop down. Okay, all right. Put my laptop down. I have some stats I have to read as well. I'll find them on my phone. So unbiased take on the Heisman Trophy race. The first thing I would like to say is, so I believe the Heisman ballots go out

on Monday and you can send them in as early as you want or you could wait for conference championship weekend to happen. We know how politics have worked in the last whatever decade actually going all the way back to 2000 fraught with you know maybe some voter fraud some irregularities. What I would like to say to the Heisman voters is send in your ballot early. Make sure your ballot gets counted and

You get that ballot on Monday or Tuesday, you fill it out, you send it right back. Nothing in conference championship weekend can change your opinion. Yeah, and there's nothing to stop you from registering in multiple states either. You don't have to worry about signature verification if you're in California. I know sometimes it'll take the voters from California maybe two months to process the vote, so you should get them in now just so you have a higher likelihood of them getting counted. If you're...

If you look at it, I think it really comes down to two guys, Big Cat. I think it's Jenty from Boise State. Ashton Jenty having a great year. He's having a great year. Fantastic year. You know, they're saying that he's doing things that haven't been done for like 30 years or so. Hold that thought real quick. I'm holding the thought. I'm holding space for that thought right now. Unbiased, unbiased, unbiased Heisman Trophy talk. Can you say that last sentence again? Yeah, Ashton Jenty is doing stuff that, you know, people are saying that it hasn't been done for 30 years or so. Yeah, um...

Melvin Gordon in 2014, I can't remember what team he played for. He had 2,587 yards, 7.5 yards per carry, which is the same as Ashton Gentry, 32 total touchdowns. Now Ashton Gentry right now has a little over 2,000 yards and 28 total touchdowns. So he could get to those numbers. Melvin Gordon played in, I think it was the Big Ten.

Yeah, and didn't Melvin Gordon, he put up some of those stats against a very vaunted Nebraska defense. He ran for 400 yards against Nebraska. A really tough defense with great linebackers. Another random guy because we've never seen this before. Again, Ashton Gentry having a great year. No, no, like he's having a great year.

Monty Ball, I don't know where he played. 2011, he had just south of 2,000 yards, 39 total touchdowns. And he was fat. And he was fat, and he did that. I think he was in the Big Ten as well. We also have just random guys. Kevin Smith, who played for UCF in 2007, he had 2,500 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns. And Rashad Penny, who actually plays in the Mountain West,

in 2017 had 2,248 yards, 7.8 yards per carry, which is more than Ashton Genting, and 23 touchdowns. So it seems like we maybe have seen this before. Again, we're very unbiased here. This is our unbiased Heisman Trophy take. Yeah, and Barry Sanders did it a long time ago. All-time great. Nothing to take away from Barry Sanders. He had some very, very impressive stats that are, I think, currently, as they stand, better than Ashton Genting's. So Ashton Genting is doing stuff that has...

Almost never been done before, with the exception of those, what, five people that you mentioned? Well, actually, I want to give credit to Ashton Gentry real quick because he has done something that's never been done before as far as I know. He had nine total touchdowns against Utah State and Georgia Southern. I don't know if anyone else has done that.

So a third of his total touchdowns came against Utah State and Georgia Southern. So he has done something that no one's ever done. Yeah, but overall, big picture, zooming out, very impressive season. Incredible. I'd say one of the best seasons for a running back of all time. In the last five, ten years. Five, ten years, yeah. Now, wait, Georgia Southern, they beat Ole Miss, right? Yeah.

I don't think so. They lost Ole Miss. Yeah. They had one big – oh, yeah. Utah State, I think, has four wins. They beat James Madison. That's what it was. So you're right, Big Cat. Pretty impressive season. Travis Hunter was the other name that came to mind. Oh, who's he play for? I don't even know. I don't even recognize that name. He plays for the Colorado Buffaloes. Ask me what position he plays.

PFT, what position does he play? He plays two positions, Big Cat. What? Oh, is he kicker and punter? At the highest of levels. He probably could. He could be like Sammy Ball. And he also plays a little bit of quarterback, too. They do a lot of direct snaps. So really kind of three positions for the Colorado Buffaloes. He plays wide receiver, cornerback.

And, yeah, occasionally he'll take some snaps as the quarterback in some running situations. Now, he's doing things that nobody has ever done in the history of college football. Not even in the last five, ten years? Not even in the last five to ten years, no. And it's like every time you put the ball in his hands, he scores a touchdown, which is pretty impressive.

And he doesn't get bottled up in halves either. I've noticed that. Sometimes you can say about other players, they might be bottled up for a little bit, but you give them enough reps, they're going to break one through. You can't bottle up Travis Hunter. Right. You can't bottle him up. Right. The guy is, he's a beast. He is a ball hawk and he's dynamic with the ball in his hands. And he's probably going to be invited to be to the awards for the top defensive back in the country. And also the

the top wide receivers in the country. I believe that's Politnikoff. And is it Jim Thorpe? Yeah. He'll probably be nominated for both of those awards. I got a question for you, PFT. So does he...

cornerback and wide receiver, does he play over 100 snaps a game? Yeah, even more than that you could say because you don't take into account the penalties as our good friend Joe Klatt would tell us. So when you look at the total snaps that he plays, it's way over 100 snaps per game. Yeah. So, all right, last question about this guy Travis Hunter who I'm just learning about. So he plays both sides. He doesn't score touchdowns, does he? All he does is score touchdowns. Did he score a couple on Saturday? He had a pair of touchdowns on Saturday. But Colorado, you said that he played for Colorado. Yeah.

They lost to Kansas. So did Kansas throw for like a million yards or did they run for a million yards? No, they ran the football. Oh, they ran the football. So actually he did his job and he, if you watched the game, which I didn't, but I'm just saying I might have watched the game. They just didn't throw at him because he's such a good corner. They don't really throw at him, but even when they don't throw at him, he still manages to get interceptions. That's crazy. Yeah. Wow. Any questions, Hank?

No, I feel like it seems like there's no media bias whatsoever. It's not a popularity contest. People are I've seen people say that doesn't really make sense. Like this isn't has nothing to do with this popularity or, you know,

The sexiness of it. It's just strictly numbers. Well, I mean, PFT just explained it. Like, it's one guy who we've literally never seen this happen before. And then another guy who we see it happen every five to ten years. And then also maybe sometimes against better competition in the Big Ten, Melvin Gordon, Monty Ball. Again, I don't know who they play for. So...

Yeah, I mean, this is a no-brainer. If I had a Heisman vote, I think I'd go Travis Hunter. We did a bad job this year. We didn't really talk about the Heisman much, so I'm happy that we're kind of at the end of the regular season when, again, you should send in your vote early, often, right away. I don't count conference championship weekend. No, don't wait. Don't wait to see what happens. Anything can happen. So send in your vote early, and it sounds like it's kind of

It's Travis Hunter. If I had to vote right now, I think I'd vote Travis Hunter unbiased. Whose line is it anyway? You guys said you haven't been locked in, but whose line is it anyway, would you say, for the Heisman Trophy right now? I mean, it should be like Travis Hunter minus like 5,000 if everything what PFT said is correct.

Right now it's Travis Hunter minus 800. Ashton Ginty is plus 600. Well, that's kind of crazy because it doesn't seem like, again, it's something we've never seen before. Minus 800 is basically a sure thing. No, I wouldn't say it's a sure thing at all. This fucking guy. This fucking guy. Tell the truth. Tell the truth. This fucking guy. Look at me right now. Hold on. Tell the truth, Hank.

Did you bet on Ashton Gentry to win the Heisman? No. No, I did not. And if you follow me on the DraftKings Sportsbook Barstool betting group, you would know that. At that point, I would almost respect it if you bet on Travis Gentry. That would be crazy. I bet on Travis Hunter. Unbiased Heisman trophy conversation is over. I put my sweatshirt back on. What the fuck are you doing? What the fuck?

are you doing? I'm just talking. You piece of shit. I thought you were doing a thing. I thought I was trying to speak from the hate. Okay, my bad. No, you just said it was a sure thing. What are you doing? That's not what I said. Travis Hunter has nine receiving touchdowns, 74 receptions, 911 receiving yards. He's got two carries and a rushing touchdown. That's a pretty high percentage, isn't it? Back to unbiased. Is Ashton Jinty's carry to touchdown ratio, is it better than...

Two carries with a rushing touchdown? Probably not. Does he score touchdowns 50% of the time he touches the ball? No, definitely not. Does he play defense? He does not play defense. Okay, so Travis Hunter. He also plays in the Mountain West, which I like the Mountain West, great Mountain West. Travis Hunter, 23 tackles, eight PBUs, three picks, and oh yeah, he has a forced fumble at the goal line that won his team a game. Wow. Wow. That's crazy. That is crazy. Hank, I don't like you, Hank. Lock it up.

Come on, Hank. I love you. Fucking clean it up. I love you too. All right. Unbiased Heisman talk is over. That was our college football talk. I'm happy for the listeners that we were able to finally talk about the Heisman Trophy, which we haven't done all year. You think any voters out there just hate Deion so much that they'll take a vote out against him? Well, those people should hand in their vote.

And don't vote if you are that biased. Because we're unbiased. Be a big J. Be a big J and admit your biases. And be like, you know what? I am going to recuse myself from voting because there's a conflict of interest. Yeah. Because Dion wouldn't answer my question at a press conference. Yeah. And vote early, vote often. We can't say it enough. Make sure you get that in. Conference championship games don't really matter. Okay. Let's do our...

Thanksgiving preview, and then we'll do hot seat cool thrown and get to Fred Smoot. It is brought to you by our friends at Amazon. Black Friday football is on. It's only on Prime Video. This Friday, the Las Vegas Raiders take on the Kansas City Chiefs. It's an old school rivalry for a new game day. Join Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreet, and Kaylee Hartung for this exciting matchup. Coverage begins at 1.30 p.m. Eastern.

With kickoff at 3 p.m. Not a Prime member, not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30-day free trial, and you can cancel at any time. It's Black Friday football, the Raiders and the Chiefs at 1.30 p.m. Eastern. It's on Prime Video. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. By the way, we did that whole thing, and I don't know why. So Pug, Max is in Philly. Pug is, I don't know what we have on the TV right now. We have like a...

They're like a English like artifact finders. Why are we watching this? Puck, what did you put on the TV? I don't, I have Macs up right now. No, you do not. We are watching two British women look at like an old scroll. This is a good furnishing example because it said pounds. Yeah. They just look British. Yeah, yeah. It was the teeth. Yeah. What a beautiful pair of earrings that we have here. Oh.

Oh, look at this. This is when we colonized every single country. My mom actually gave them to me as a wedding present, but they actually came from my mom. Through her granny. So my great granny. Oh, how wonderful. They are absolutely stunning. When is this? This is from when we colonized every country in the world. Our Prince Harry has left for the United States, but now he's in a professional separation from his girlfriend. Yeah. Let's not talk about Andrew being a... Misery gave up the kingdom for a girl. A pedophile. Max, you're back.

I don't know why we had that on. Are you in a bathroom? Max, can you hear us? No, I'm in the basement and my mic just got fucked up again. Oh no. Are you pooping? You look like you're in a bathroom. We should do an episode where we're all pooping. Oh, that would be good. Pardon my poop. Max, real quick, before we talk about the Thanksgiving games and the Black Friday game, were you able to hear our unbiased Heisman conversation?

Yeah, Hank's a fucking asshole. He always is. What was that? What? What do you mean, what? Basically, PNTI were playing a perfect pick-and-roll offense. So was I. And then Hank just showed up and just tripped us both. No, you weren't. I said basically. Whatever. You said basically, Matt. You just tried to jinx it. No. You've done that a million times.

I was talking from an unbiased... He doesn't. It's his life. He doesn't know how to get out of it. This is the Brooks. Sometimes when I troll... I did love Barstool Paul being like, all he does is try to make the podcast better and all you guys hate on him. I mean, Hank did a phenomenal job on Monday's episode. I will say that. Phenomenal.

podcasting by Henry. Yeah. Instead of calling timeout to hate like Mr. Craft would like him to do, he literally calls timeout to hate. So he has more time to hate. I have Travis Hunter. Like, I have Travis Hunter. I actually think it'd be very funny if you had secretly had Junji this entire time. But like, that's where it's like, you guys are coming down my throat. I'm in the same exact. What are we doing? We're coming down your throat. I know.

I don't think you did that on purpose, but I think your brain just automatically goes to show up. No, if I said it was a lock, then it would be different. I said, so basically, that's opening up the idea to whatever. I was trying to play into their bit. How was that playing along? I'm just curious. It wasn't a bit, by the way. Because I was doing the, like, you guys, I was basically giving the sides of people who were against Travis Hunter, and I was giving you guys the opportunity to refute it by being like, oh, it's a popularity contest. No, like, oh, it must be a shorter thing then. Like, no, no.

There's a great reason for why it's not a sure thing and you should vote early. Hank, there's a great quote by Kurt Vonnegut. I think he says, we are what we pretend to be. So we must be very careful about what we pretend to be.

And I feel like you have pretended to be a troll so much that it is actually running through your blood right now. I think it's opposite. I think he does. Your entire career is based off being a troll. This whole T word gets thrown around. How do you think I know that negative thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Let's talk Thursday and Friday games.

We're going to do one pick each for Thursday and Friday, and then we'll do two picks on Sunday. What is the updated standings? Do we have that? I believe Max had two wins last weekend, so Max is now a half game back of me. So he's still in last. And I'm one game back of you, Big Cat. I think you might be one game back of me. We're a human centipede of losing picks. Yeah, nobody is about 500.

Me and Hank, 12-12. Big Cat, 11-13. PFT, 10-14. Max, 9-14-1. Okay, so let's talk the games. First up, Bears at Lions. Lions minus 10 over under 48.5.

I am on high alert of a very embarrassing Thanksgiving. Yeah, it's bad timing to be playing against the Lions right now as the early game on Thanksgiving because that's going to set the tone for your entire day. It feels, yeah, I know the Lions lost last year to the Packers. I don't feel good about the Bears' chances in this game. Did you guys see Matt Eberfuss, who, by the way,

They should fire him after we get embarrassed by the Lions because at this point, I know the Bears have never fired a coach in 100 years history in midseason.

At this point, you should honestly tell Caleb, like, hey, we fucked up with Shane Waldron and Matt Eberflus. Our bad. We're firing him right now. It's your franchise. You're going to have a very big part of who we hire next because it's your franchise. So you're saying fire Eberflus after Thanksgiving? Right after Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving. Leave him in Detroit. Leave him in Detroit.

He was asked about the challenge that he had of Jordan Addison where, you know, he might have gone out of bounds and they challenged the play. He says it was...

Always warrants a challenge when you have that big of a game, even if we don't have the best look at what we would have. Yeah, it's not good. Admitting that essentially if there's an explosive play, even if you think that it everything was fine, just challenge it because you just want to challenge. Yeah. Rage challenge. Yeah. Yeah. It happens all the time. Coaches challenge a play because they don't like what happened. But they don't admit that they don't. They want to admit it, but he admits it. Yeah.

Which is pretty crazy. There should be somebody on that staff that is in charge of watching the plays and telling them when to challenge. That's bad. It's a bad thing to think. It's a bad thing to do. And it's a pretty, pretty terrible thing to admit publicly. Yes. It's almost like he wants to be fired. Do you think is David Montgomery going to play?

I don't know. It doesn't matter. The Lions are going to do whatever they want on offense because that's the biggest thing is the Bears defense is falling off a cliff. Injury update with a line play on Thanksgiving. This is Pug on the computer. He sits out walkthrough practice. Yeah, the Lions are going to win this game. I don't know what to say. I just hope that Caleb plays well. The Lions are going to win this game. It's crazy that we are in a world where for the longest time the Thanksgiving early game was the Lions winning

like in the midst of a terrible season and you have the sad pilgrim guy taking a nap halfway through the game lines, the best team in football and they get their, their center stage on Thanksgiving. I wish it wasn't at my expense, but it is. And I understand the deal here.

I'm always curious about the pattern of Lions fans on Thanksgiving because you've had this game for a very long time. It was only years, and I think Jerry Jones was like, I want to get in on some of that turkey action. Yeah, give me that. The Cowboys should have one too, but it's been the Lions tradition. What is the pattern? What do you go through? What does your day look like as a Lions fan?

Do you have family over and you all go to the game together? Do you have a lot of stuff pre-made before you go to the game? Then you go home, you pop it in the oven. Do you get a nap on Thanksgiving if you're a Lions fan? I think if you go to this game... Are you saying, guys, people who go to the game? People that go to the game, yeah. I think if you're going to the game, the perfect way to do it is you go, you tailgate, and you have everything ready for after the game and you do Thanksgiving dinner at...

The tailgate. In the parking lot after the game. That'd be fun. Which has to hit so much harder if you have a good team. Yeah, or you could actually do it before. I mean, it's 1230 local time. You could do a Thanksgiving, you know, do Thanksgiving dinner at like 1130 and then left. I mean, that's I think that's too early for regular people. But if you're going to a game Thanksgiving dinner at 1130, then leftovers when you get out of the game. Yeah, you might be able to depending how cold it is. It might keep pretty well in the parking lot afterwards. Yeah.

But yeah, it's got to be a whole different animal for Lions fans having a good team to watch, a fun team to watch on Thanksgiving. Hopefully you have a good one afterwards because eating a sad, somber Thanksgiving every single year, I bet people from Detroit have a completely different vibe of what Thanksgiving is like from the rest of the country because they had to deal with such shitty teams for so long that they'd be forced to watch in the morning. And then Thanksgiving is probably pretty low down on their list of –

national holidays compared to the rest of the country. But now it's a celebration. Now it's the best, yeah. Now it's a celebration. By the way, this is just a fun stat I came across. Since playing the Buccaneers, the Eagles and Lions are combined 16-0. So the Bucs are the third best team in the NFC. This is all I got from that stat. Yeah. So 16-0. The last loss for the Eagles and the Lions is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That's pretty crazy. The Lions are – it's crazy. I think they're the best at everything.

Yeah, I really do. I think that I think that they're they have maybe the best running attack in the NFC. I think they've got the best. Yeah, Max, this is Max. He said the best at everything. Everything. I mean, that's incorrect, but that's fine. Well, they can't be the best at the best at having Saquon Barkley, but they're also not the best at running quarterbacks.

That's true. Lamar and Josh Allen would be – I would take them over Jared Goff in terms of running. But I'm saying like as a team. Yeah. They might be the best at everything. This is also, by the way, the biggest favorite the Lions have been since 1968. That's pretty crazy. So 1968 was the last time they were this big of a favorite on Thanksgiving. So, yeah, they usually – it's usually a bad scene. Max, do you want to dispute that? What are the Eagles better at? I mean, they're –

They're comparable at every single position. Their defense and the defense is better. The Eagles' defense is unequivocally better. Okay. They are better at yards allowed per game. Which is a pretty important thing for a defense. And they are better at running the football. Which is a pretty important thing for an offense. That's also true. But yeah, no, the Lions are better at everything. I'd like to walk back that take gracefully. The Lions are better than the Eagles at almost everything.

No, this is perfect, though, because I love that everybody who doesn't – everybody across the NFL has just anointed the Lions the winners of the NFs. They've anointed the Lions as the winners of the Super Bowl. I agree with you, Max. Even though when you just look at the stats, the Eagles are right there. Yeah. They're a different team than the first four games. Since – I mean –

since Baldiani has come out, they're the best team in football. Yeah. Yeah, I think the Eagles are right there. I know Lions fans have also gotten to the point where they've –

They haven't embraced the fact that they're just like the favorites to win the Super Bowl. And like, they'll be mad if you pick against the Lions. It's like, if you pick against the team, doesn't mean you think the team stinks. It's called a spread. Right. I'm one in one picking against the Lions in the last three weeks when I had the Texans. And then last week I obviously had the Colts. Uh,

Here's another stat that's going to suck for the Bears. Favorites of over 10 points are 9-0 against the spread on Thanksgiving since 2005 and 11-0 against the spread in the wild card era. So big favorites Thanksgiving. They just crush. Yeah. All right. Next game. Gross. Jerry World. Giants and Cowboys. Cowboys minus four over under 37.5.

I don't know. It's just going to suck. Is this Drew Locke or are we getting more Tommy? I think it might still be Tommy. This is a perfect nap game. Yeah. Yeah, good timing. Perfect nap game. Good timing for the nap. I would like to see Drew Locke start in this game.

I don't know if we're going to get him, but Jerry Jones came out this week. He did his hit on 105.3, and he said, I don't see why we wouldn't be thinking about keeping Mike McCarthy around, giving him an extension. So they are thinking about it. I also think there's a chance Jerry just might be fucking with Mike McCarthy. Yeah. Just like he knows he's going to fire him, but he's trying to be nice guy Jerry in public.

Listen, he... Wait, what is that QB... What is that... Stop typing. Giants QB Drew Locke revealed final request he made to Daniel Jones. What was that? Hold my hair? Can I have your locker? Yeah. They're going to shoot me? Drew Locke jokes he wouldn't let Daniel Jones out of the building after hearing of his release until the... Oh. He said he was going to kidnap him? This game's going to stink.

One last thing he would do before the team. This is so sad. The facility. If he leaves without doing a jersey swap, we're going to have a problem because I really want a Daniel Jones jersey. Wow. I mean, you could go to probably Dick's and get one for $20. I have a theory. I think Drew Locke, as you know, he's played backup quarterback a few times. I think

He wants to have the jerseys of all the guys whose jobs he took even momentarily. Yeah, yeah, which I guess he technically hasn't. So he needs to get time. Yeah, no, he hasn't taken his job yet. Has he been playing scout team safety? He might have. He might have, yeah. He might have taken his job there. I don't really know this game. I'm probably going to end up betting the Cowboys, and something weird is going to happen because it's the NFL. Does this not feel like a great time to take the Giants?

Yeah. Well, it's just the Cowboys won. The Giants got embarrassed. Yeah. Flip it. Yeah. Also, I recall Tommy DeVito's season last year starting pretty poorly, right? Well, he. And then he had a couple games where he looked good. He came in. When he came in, yeah, he had, I think there was that Raiders game that wasn't very good. And then he had the Monday night game against the Packers. Which is great. That was big. Yeah. So Tommy is capable of pulling it together.

Do Italians do the seven fishes on Thanksgiving? Yeah, I don't know if Tommy's capable. I think he is what he is. We'll see. I would like to have an Italian renaissance with Tommy. That would be nice. That would be a lot of fun. How many crowd shots are we going to get of Sean Stilato?

Ooh, I don't know if he'll be there. You don't think so on Thanksgiving with all the cameras on him? He's got to do the seven fishes, though. You think Sean Salato is more of a low-key guy? No, he's got to do the seven fishes. I think that's only Christmas, though. Oh, yeah, that is Christmas. Max, what do Italians eat on Thanksgiving? I was chomping at the bit to correct you on that. There's no seven fishes during Thanksgiving. Lasagna? It's Christmas Eve. Lasagna? You guys eat lasagna? Lasagna is an Italian Thanksgiving thing for sure. Yeah. What do you eat for Thanksgiving? Everything? I go traditional. Oh.

Okay, next game. Next game. Packers, Dolphins at Packers. The line right now on DraftKings is Packers minus three and a half over-unders 47. Tua in weather under 40 degrees, which I think is going to be like 20 degrees on Thursday night in Lambeau. He is 0-4 straight up, 1-3 against the spread. Yeah.

It doesn't. I'm very nervous about the Dolphins' chances in a cold weather game. I'm kind of in on Tua, though, being a destroyer of narratives. Well, here's the thing. The Dolphins are in a weird spot because they are 5-6. They have the chance to make a run here down the stretch. They have been a good team when Tua has been playing, and they've been an obviously terrible team when he's been out.

why not have this be the game that you destroy the cold weather narrative? I would like to see, cause we're taping this early. Uh,

My big thing is like, is Mike McDaniel making too much of the cold? Because remember when he did the t-shirts before the Buffalo game. And it's kind of one of those things where if you talk about it so much, that's all you're going to think about. He's probably watching. Let it be cold. He's probably watching film on the weather. Yeah. He's probably got the boys in the meeting room tuned to weather.com and showing stuff on the, on the big screen about it. Uh,

I don't know. This makes no sense to me. It makes no sense why I would right now start to believe that the Dolphins can win a cold weather game. But for whatever reason, the fact that Tua talked about it, I think I'm in. I think I'm in on the Dolphins winning a game. How cold? It's going to be like 20 degrees in Green Bay on Thursday night. I want to see what kind of haircut Tua comes out with. If he has a fresh haircut, he's not winning that game. He's got the frosted tips right now. That's perfect for the cold.

Yeah. But if he has like, if he hasn't worried about summer cut though, if he hasn't worried about getting a shape up, if he's got, you know, stray hairs looking kind of shaggy, that's a, that's a quarterback that can win in the cold weather. I'm not a hater, but if I were going to be a hater and I was trying to get some copium going and be desperate to try to tell myself the Packers are not that good, I would maybe point out the fact that,

that the Packers, I believe, have only beaten one team over .500. Okay. So I think it's just the Houston Texans would be the only team. Are the Cardinals exactly .500 right now? I think the Cardinals are exactly .500. Are you saying that the Packers are fraudulent? I'm just saying if I wanted to say, you know, hey, look at this, this is interesting, the Houston Texans are the only team they've beaten that are over .500. They've beaten the Colts, the Titans—

The Rams without Cooper Cup and Puka Nakua. The Cardinals, the Texans, the Jaguars, the Bears, and the Niners without Brock Purdy. Interesting. Oh, I guess the Cardinals. So Cardinals and Texans. Cardinals are 6-5. So Cardinals and Texans, two teams. If I had to just say that. So the Dolphins' record on Thanksgiving was what? 7-6?

One, two, three, five and two. Five and two. Okay. That's something. I don't even remember the Dolphins playing on Thanksgiving. That doesn't even. 2011 was the last time. Yeah. Yeah. So that doesn't even feel like a real thing. And I think all these games were indoors. This is the first time the Dolphins have played outdoors on Thanksgiving. Huge. Huge storyline. Destroyer of narratives, man. Destroyer of narratives. He's like Khaleesi. Okay. Last game.

Friday, Black Friday, works pump for this game, right, Hank? Pumped. Pumped. Chiefs Raiders, Chiefs minus 12.5 over under 42.5. Aiden O'Connell? I think we're going back to AOC. Aiden O'Connell. We're just skipping over Desmond Ritter. Yeah. The only take I really have on this game is I think –

This is, I know the Chiefs big spreads have been, you know, they don't cover big spreads very often, especially on the road. So they're home here. And they also have struggled a little against the Raiders. I think this is a get right game for the Chiefs defense because they gave up 30 points to the Bills. They gave up 27 points to the Panthers. They've hit a little bit of a low. I think this is Spaggs being like, hey guys, this is Aiden O'Connell. If I don't get

three turnovers this game and, you know, and like five sacks, we got problems. So let's, let's really do, let's do what we should do and what we're, we're built to do and just smother them as a defense. Do you think Antonio Pierce pays attention to the spread?

No. You don't think so? No, because remember, he kicks field goals in weird times. Yeah, but some of those weird times where he kicks field goals are very convenient for the spread. I think he doesn't care about the spread. He just is addicted to kicking field goals, and sometimes that helps the spread. Sometimes it accidentally helps out. Yeah, because he is addicted to kicking field goals. Yes. Yeah. That feels like the...

Because why? Because they covered last time? No, they lost by 10. What was the spread of that game with the Broncos? Oh, no, they did not cover that. They did not cover that one. Yeah, the Broncos were minus six. But did they try to do something at the end of that game? No, I'm thinking of the Chiefs game they played earlier this season. They were kicking a bunch of field goals. And I think it was the Rams, too.

The Rams earlier this season, I want to say they were down maybe nine points late and kicked a field goal to get within six. Yeah, he might. He might pay attention to the spread. Either way, this game— I'm paying attention to whether or not Antonio Pierce is paying attention to the spread. I got my eyes on this game because this is what—this is my personal— the Chiefs better just smush the Raiders. Otherwise, I'm not going to just go off their record. I'm going to go off how they're playing. Yeah. Does that make sense? Like, they have to—

The conversation about the Chiefs being 10-1, I think there's 64 teams that have started 10-1 in the NFL in the Super Bowl era. There's 63 out of 64 point margin. Okay. So I'm going to start really – if they win this game by six or three, I'm going to start leaning into that and being like, I don't believe this 11-1. If they win this game by two scores or more –

That's exactly what they should do. Smash the bad teams. Yeah, I could also see this being the Max Crosby game. Max likes to show up in very important games every now and again just to remind people that Max Crosby is a great defensive player even though he's stuck on a shit team. Yeah, I believe it was the Chiefs game that they kicked a field goal to cover the spread. Yeah, eight and a half. Yeah, earlier this year.

What were you going to say? I was looking at the – yeah, so the Rams won as well. Yeah. Yeah, Rams was a big one. So it was a seven-point spread. I believe they were down nine. Yeah. And they kicked a very sad field goal at the end to get it within six. Yeah, yeah. What were you going to say, the other thing? Oh, I forget. I was just talking about Max Crosby. Like we have forgotten a little bit about – he's gotten lost in the sauce this year. Yeah. Because there's been really nothing to pay attention to. Especially – their defense as a whole has been bad. Yeah.

and I feel like he shows up occasionally on these standalone games where everyone's like, oh, yeah, remember the Condor? Yeah. Absolute monster. This game, man, I'm excited for it. That's all I really have. Right, Hank? I have a question for Hank. Yeah. Hank, does the NFL make sense? Yeah, this is a big question. No. It doesn't. Okay. No. It would make absolutely no sense if the Raiders beat the Chiefs on Black Friday, right?

No, but an interdivision game. Yeah. I think this might be my the NFL doesn't make sense game. Because Pug just pulled up the remember the first time they played this was the Mahomes Kermit the Frog. He said that it will be handled when it's handled. Then they didn't. Well, they beat him, but he didn't cover. Yeah, no, you're right. You don't get handle. You don't get to Kermit the Frog games. But he also said it will be handled when it's handled. Maybe he meant when they come to Kansas City.

He didn't actually say when it would be handled. He just said it will be handled when it's handled. You think they delayed the handling of it? Well, it's very genius of him because he can just wait until they beat the Raiders by like 30 points and be like, all right, you see that? That's exactly when it was going to get handled. Handled. Told you it was going to get handled. I mean, last weekend playing down to their opponent, Panthers looked good. Panthers offense looked good. Yeah, but that you're doing last weekend, this weekend. Like Panthers was the NFL doesn't make any sense.

So would you rather have... So you're chasing the NFL doesn't make any sense high. Who do you trust more, Bryce Young or AOC? Bryce Young. Okay. The NFL doesn't make any sense. But Bryce Young. But the NFL doesn't make sense. But they were 11 point and the Panthers were in that game. I feel like that was the game. The NFL doesn't make any sense.

I've talked myself into the Raiders. You can hear me getting stupider and making worse and worse decisions. Are you saying Moneyline? Because that's all that matters. But the NFL doesn't make sense because if the Chiefs win by 10, it's not like... Raiders-Moneyline. Okay.

Wow. This also will be our definitive. Is Shador Sanders tweeting after Raiders loss or is he tweeting after going to church? Because this game's on a Friday, so we'll find out. Well, he preemptively did it last week. Yeah, so we'll find out. All right, let's do our picks. Then we'll do hot seat, cool throne and get to Fred Smoot. Who's up first? This shouldn't count. It's no sneak. But this actually counts more because there's less to choose from. I guess.

You want it to not count? Who's up first? It would be PFT. So I'm fine with it not counting. What do you want to do? We count it every year, don't we? No, no, no. He's saying you should get to go first this time and? No, I guess you're right. You're right. PFT should just go first. I mean, there's only four games, so it is a benefit to go first here. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to take the Lions.

Okay. Until further notice. How do you not take the Raiders after that whole speech? Because I'm taking the money line. That's crazy. Lines minus 10. No, but just take the Raiders plus 13 if you're going to.

You're taking the money line, but you don't want to free 13 points? I'm diversifying my portfolio. This is illegal. You have to take the Raiders. You just gave us the speech. How can I not diversify my portfolio? I'm going to bet the Raiders money line on my own. Hank, we're a national football podcast. National sports podcast. National podcast. I would feel irresponsible giving out a pick like that to the listeners that tail us every weekend and live and die with our bets.

And if you do that, you're an idiot, by the way, because we're awful at gambling. But it's 13 points. Wait, what do you mean you'd feel terrible? I don't want to endorse that publicly and tell people like, hey. You just did. Yeah, you did. I'm taking the lines until further notice. But you're betting the money line, but you don't feel confident giving them 13 points? Correct. But you feel confident in them winning? I don't feel confident in them winning. I am going to do it because I want the rush of being right about something. Okay. But that doesn't...

You're playing both sides. Yes. You want the rush of being right about something, but you're not making your official pick. Correct. So then if the Chiefs kill him, you can be like, oh, I never said that. No. Yeah. Okay. I don't want there to be any consequences to being wrong. Okay. How is that a new phenomenon on this podcast? So you're doing a free bet. I'm doing a free bet. Free roll on the Raiders. You're doing a free bet.

Audio free bet. But I'm taking the Lions until further notice. Yeah, all right. I'll take the over in Bears-Lions, over 48 and a half. I will take the under in Dolphins-Packers, under 47. Good pick, Hank. Thank you. I'm taking the over in Giants-Cowboys, 37 and a half. Oof.

Although I did that last week and I was like, Tommy DeVito can't score. And the Bucks almost did it on their own. Yeah. But, but it didn't hit. Cooper rush. Yeah. Tommy DeVito can't score. Yeah. So you're right. Max. But it was more of a, it was more of a sweat that I was expecting. Max. Uh, I disagree with PFT. I will be taking the chiefs minus 12 and a half. Ooh. Okay. I was actually going to take the chiefs if it came back. Uh, okay. Uh,

Let's do Hot Seat Cool Throne brought to you by our friends at Chevy. There's a reason we've never done a Mount Rushmore pickup trucks, and that's because for part of my take, there's only one pickup truck, the Chevy Silverado. Why is that? Silverado is a partner, a partner you can depend on. We've all spent time driving and using the Silverado for all kinds of part of my take jobs.

adventures, and other shenanigans. Silverado has been our ride for a cross-country trip to the Super Bowl. Silverado helped us dig the biggest hole ever in the state of Ohio last year, Grit Week. Silverado helped us give fullbacks the recognition they deserve with the Low Man Award. And this year, Silverado was out west with us for our latest Grit Week.

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Just unfortunate timing. Celtics are in town for the NBA Cup game against the Chicago Bulls, and it's this Friday. Only weeks we're out of town. Damn. So you're going to miss Coach? Going to miss Coach. You're not going to be with Coach? Not going to see Coach. He will be back in December. Do you expect a text from Coach just to let you know, hey, I'm in town? No, no. He's probably busy. He's probably game planning. I don't think he's – he doesn't need recommendations. I'm sure he's just kind of like a hotel prep coach.

Maybe go do some jujitsu. You're going to leave something for them at the hotel? Maybe, yeah. I've got to find out where they're staying. But, yeah, NBA Cup, it means more. Sad I don't get to see the court in person. Just unfortunate scheduling. I would like to talk to the schedule makers next year. Yeah, make sure they get that.

How are we doing with our bets on the NBA Cup? Good question. I think you and I are both 5-1. Oh, wow. So we'll put out our, if you're listening to this, reminder, every Tuesday we put out all of our bets on all of our socials. PFT and I think are 5-1. We're playing for a free bet, $10,000 free bet, I think. Pretty cool. So NBA Cup. I love the NBA Cup, and I am actually a believer in the NBA.

I like them. I do too. Have you seen the red ones? Yeah, I know. Makes you feel different. You can't really see. I just like something different because otherwise the NBA Cup was stupid in my mind. I'm totally a sucker. Admitted sucker. They're doing color rush. Yeah. I just like to be able to see the basketball. Nah, that's overrated. Yeah. Okay. Cool Throne. My Cool Throne is Biz Nasty. Oh, yeah. He was my Cool Throne as well. Paul Bizonette. Animal. Choose or lose PFT. Yeah.

Or you went first? Yeah, you should have tried to go first. A report came out that he got in a fight in a restaurant, and then when the details of the report came out, he's just like two men in one. He's so much more manly than anyone I can even... All of us combined aren't equivalent to the man that Biz is. Basically, he was at a restaurant that he goes to a lot, sitting by himself,

a bunch of like group of eight drunk golfers gone out of their mind trying to order a drink and the bartender told him no like you can't drink in this area they were getting mouthy and he just stepped in to try and defuse the situation and they just started fighting him eight on one and he they were getting physical with the with the manager yeah the guy was assaulting the manager and and Paul is like a fucking superhero

Yeah. He got up. He's like, I saw that they were unequipped to kind of handle themselves. They were smaller guys, so nobody's sticking up for these guys. So I said, you know what? I'm going to tell these guys where to stick it. And then he got up in the dude's face. It was like, stop assaulting the waitstaff or we're going to go outside. And then one of the dudes punched him from the side. He got booted a couple times. He got boot fucked outside the CBS. He got booted, got back up.

I'm sure he fucked these guys up a little bit. Yeah. Seven guys. He said that he dropped one of the guys when he got bum-rushed outside. I can't wait to see the CCTV. And he wants the guys' names. He wants to take... I think the way he put it was like, I want all their names. I want to take them all out behind the barn one-on-one. Yeah.

Which is awesome. And he dropped all the charges if he could just take these guys one-on-one. Yeah, rough and rowdy. He looks great, too. I mean, obviously, they really, really fucked his nose up pretty badly. Yeah, he's going to probably need a surgery. But besides that, not a scratch on his face. Did he say, can you play the start of the video real quick? Biz is the best. We love Biz. And he's just, I mean, he is just so manly. The fact that seven guys...

I would just get, I just get knocked. I'd probably die. He's like, he, there was a strategy to, he's like, you know, you can't stay still. You got to keep moving backwards. Cause you know, if they get you on the ground, then you get fucking, what was he calling it? Fucked. I got boot fucked in the CVS parking lot. Boot fucked. What do you, what do you say? Start it again. Start the video. What's up gang? I just wanted to pop by cause the news is out there and I'm getting a lot of texts and calls. Um,

Love you guys. Thank you guys all for reaching out and checking in. Took a few, gave a bunch. I just want to kind of address what happened last night. I think it's took some, gave more. Actually, you hear it from my mouth. I don't know what's kind of, I know there's a few articles that came out and news is floating around, but long of the gist of it, and I address the whole thing and talk way more in detail on tomorrow's podcast. It just so happens this happened last night. Today was a recording day and

To be quite frank, it was kind of nice to hop on with the boys and just have some laughs and kind of forget about it for four hours. So I go to dinner at this place called Houston's. I go there like three, four times a week. The staff's incredible. The food's incredible. Just like good people. And I love going there. Oh, I thought he said it was a family joint or something. No, he kept saying family restaurant. Oh, yeah. I mean, it is a chain. Family.

Family restaurant. It was a family restaurant. I actually listened to Spitting Chicklets this morning to hear the full story from Biz. And yeah, he's like, it's a great restaurant. Very militaristic. He's the best. I fucking love him so much. He's an A1 guy. He was like, it's an awesome restaurant. It's like a military. It's like going to eat at the military, pretty much. What does that mean? So he wants the guy's names. I want the guy's names. I'm tracking down their names right now. I'm trying to get the names to Biz.

And I can't wait to see what he does. Yeah. Because, I mean, Biz is, this is the ultimate good guy move that he pulled. And it's dangerous what he ended up going through. Like, if you fight seven guys at once and you get knocked on the ground and they start kicking your head, like, that's some dangerous shit. He's a badass. Imagine blacking out in Scottsdale with your boys. I mean, I guess we would never be in a situation where you just fucking fight a random guy, but... No! No!

These guys got in a fight, blackout drunk, woke up in jail, and then it was like, yeah, the guy you got in a fight with is biz. He's asking for your names and to go one-on-one with you. He has a national podcast. Yeah. Global podcast because he's Canadian. So he's a worldwide podcast, international podcast. Mm-hmm.

And he's coming for your neck Like this is just the beginning He is just the one guy Like if you're like Hey someone at Barstool got jumped And he was fine And now wants to fight him off Yeah Biz Yeah And also somehow like Just the way he explains things I mean I It's why they're Spitting chicklets is so Popular Like Wit and Biz Just the way they talk I could just listen to forever Yeah Just him Yeah explaining the whole thing What was the Mellow What did he say the Restaurant was It's a very militaristic restaurant Militaristic

organization yeah great organization his great guy all-time dude I can't wait to see what he does once he finds out who this is the start of his John Wick story yeah like you kill John Wick's dog imagine Ruffin Rowdy just a tournament one right after the other one right after the other they should have to do it on the ice yeah it knocks him out yeah you want one

Rough and rowdy on skates. So one thing that Hank conveniently omitted from his story, these are a bunch of golfers. Yeah. A bunch of golfers. No, he did say it. Okay, all right. This is crazy. I'm going to say right now, your alert on Hank is a little too high. A little too high. Crazy. Just turn it down a little bit. Going through everything Hank says with a fine-toothed comb. A little bit. But not actually. Nitpicking a little too much. You're just choosing narratives and then just spitting them out there. All right, your hot seat cool throne. That was your cool throne. So what was your hot seat?

My hot seat is Drake. Oh, yeah explain this to me. So Drake's on the hot seat. I'm probably gonna screw this up Drake Yeah, I had this on my hot seat. I didn't want to I don't know too complicated out on I read a few headlines and then I just saw people talking about it online So this is what I believe happened

Drake is suing his own record label. Yep. UMG. Because he's claiming that they artificially inflated the stats on Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us diss track, which was, it's the track that ended the battle this summer. Just absolutely destroyed him. The one certified pedophile. Yeah. That one.

So Drake is suing his own record label because he's claiming that there were like bot views that gave him like millions of views and downloads and listens on his song.

And he's saying that ended up being bad for his career because now everyone's talking about how great this song was. He's not familiar with the Streisand effect where now, first of all, if you call the cops and get like the courts involved because you lost a rap battle, that might be the worst look of all time. Agreed. And then you're only driving more attention to Kendrick Lamar. Agreed. The only person that had a worse beef with Kendrick than Drake would be Father John Misty.

Did you see that story? No. I'm not up to date on any of these stories. All right, so I think it's like the last six times Father John Misty has put an album out. Okay. Kendrick Lamar has put an album out that same day. Oh, shit. And Kendrick like sneak dropped on- Who the fuck is Father John? You don't know Father John Misty? He's very popular. He's a singer-songwriter. Okay. But- Is he religious? No.

Yeah, why is his name Father John Misty? That's just kind of his name. Okay. But no, he's very popular. So for the last, I think, six albums that he put out, Kendrick put out an album on the same day, just completely stealing all the shine. And then last Friday, Father John Misty had an album coming out, and then Kendrick very sneakily dropped one that nobody saw coming, like a couple hours after Father John Misty had a little bit of time to be like, finally, I got away from Kendrick. And he's just on his ass. Kendrick is going to put it out again. But yeah, I think...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is a bad strategic move on Drake's part. Yeah, I'd agree. I don't know. I think that's where I get... I was trying to get in the weeds, and then I was like, this is... But the more I looked into it, the more I think Drake might... He's not going after Kendrick. He's going after the label. The UMG tried to say, you're not mad at us. You should be suing Kendrick Lamar. And he's like, no, I'm coming at you. It's just the headline, though. And it's like, there are skeletons in the closet that they're not trying to... The headline of Drake suing based on...

But I think Drake knows that and he's like, I'm going to, I'm going to, people are going to, you know, say I'm being a pussy and like I'm, I'm a sore loser, but this is for the greater good. And I'm coming at the label. You're right. But I'm, I'm stupid. I don't understand any of this. All I saw was Drake suing in relation to beef with Kendrick Lamar. And I ended my judgment of the whole thing right there. Yeah. He's calling like, damn, he called, he called the cops on Kendrick. He called the cops because he got beat in a rap battle too bad. Yeah. Yeah.

That's what I'm explaining. All right. My hot seat is anyone who's trying to go after John Fanta on Twitter spaces. I don't know if you guys saw this last night, but Fanta, I think it was a Cincinnati fan, was mad at Fanta for his bias for Xavier over Cincinnati. Well, if you look over the course of the last several seasons, John Fanta has been saying that Xavier is a better basketball program than Cincinnati. But it happened on the court.

Yeah, all right, play it real quick. This is Fanta in all his glory. Adam, go. Hey, John, thanks. Just following up on the cross-down shootout, how bad did it hurt to finally rank Cincinnati ahead of your buddy Sean Miller this week? Oh, this guy sucks. Didn't hurt me one bit, Adam. I do my job. Cincinnati's better than Xavier right now. You've had Xavier ranked ahead of him all season until this week. I figured it had to hurt. I know your buddy's with Sean. I mean, just, you know. I got a job to do, Adam.

So, Adam, you call me up. This is when it's over. And you want to tell me it must hurt me to rank somebody over somebody else? I've seen the media bias in Xavier's favor for the last several years. Yeah, they've been a better program. They've kicked Cincinnati's butt. They've been a better program by a wide margin. Frankly, Cincinnati, we've been waiting for this version of Cincinnati. Cincinnati's been their butt to be kicked. You're using the past couple of years.

No, no, no, no. You're using the past couple years. That's your argument? Xavier's been better than Cincinnati in every facet. There's a media bias. I go off score. The scores of the game were Xavier over Cincinnati. You want to tell me about how I feel about stuff? I don't lose sleep over where I rank a team.

I lose sleep over whether I took the trash out on time, whether I picked up the right groceries for my wife if I'm taking care of her right now, and the Cleveland Browns. I didn't lose any sleep over them, Adam, but I might lose sleep because of you. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, Johnny. Go Browns.

No, you don't get to salvage the call. That's my favorite. I want to make that shirt. You don't get to salvage the call. So Fanta is, he's giving off strong, strong lawyer vibes. If I ever get arrested for anything, I want John Fanta representing me in court. Bring that same passion. He sounds like Matlock. He's the best. He's just the best. He just brings it to the people. He's ready to get in the mix with the people. You don't get to salvage the call.

John Fanta. And then my cool throne is our Black Friday Cyber Monday sale. So we have new people asking. The new partner might take hats. You can see if you're watching us on video.

We have new Stell Blue merch. We also have new Stell Blue coffee coming on Thursday night, Friday. It is a single blend, 100% Colombian. Very, very, I just had a cup of it. Very, very good. So we have hats. We have PMT shirts. We have everything. So go support us, store.barstoolsports.com. We appreciate everyone who buys everything. These hats are awesome. They are awesome. I'm going to give the camera to the Riz face real quick. This hat is my favorite.

This one is the best. It's just a football. And by the way, this is just showing how long we've been doing this. I think we're officially at the point where an established is cool.

So the hat says established 2016. You can't like sell blues established 2022. We probably need a couple more years. Established 2016 is like, that's a while. That's cool. Because you know you can't do that on a hat like after a year. Yeah. Like if you're an OGA WL, it's like cool to wear. Like I was 2016. Yeah. I've been listening since 2016. Yes. A long ass time. Although I do. I like the 2022, but I still need we still need a few more years. Yeah. So blue.

Black Friday games are great. All right, let's get to our interview. We got Fred Smoot in studio, and then we will do our weekend preview, and then we'll do Kirk Cousins. Before we get to Fred Smoot, it's brought to you by Campbell's. It is soup season. Perfect weather for soup. Soup will warm you up from the inside out. Soup fills in the cracks after a nice dinner as well. Today's episode of Part of My Take is brought to you by Campbell's Chunky Soup, the soup that eats like a meal.

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They'll be giving away a free gift every order. Check it out now. Go to Muggsy.com. Check them out. And now here's Fred Smoot. Okay, we now welcome on recurring guest, one of the greatest talkers we've ever been around, in studio,

It is the man, the myth, the legend, Fred Smoot. Fred? Yeah. Welcome into the studio. Welcome into the office. Thank y'all for having me, fellas. It's good to be around a whole building of talkers. Yeah. So now you don't feel like an outsider. Like, you want to talk about inclusion? This is inclusion at its finest. Yeah, and no one can talk like you, so let's talk some ball. All right.

I mean, are you watching every game? Are you still tuned into every game? Are you still like, man, why haven't you coached, by the way? No, I ain't going to do it. Why? I was blessed with the gift of gab. Yeah. And guess what? I do go help. I help my sons. I help his friends. I train them sometimes. Coaching is a lot of damn time. Like, you got to realize, Coach Gibbs, I remember when he asked, a lot of people don't understand this.

I actually kind of springboard Coach Giff to coming back to football. Okay. I was actually driving home after the season after Coach Spurrier quit on us. When Coach Spurrier quit, the people at ESPN said, hey, come do an interview right quick. And I'm just talking outside of my head.

And the last question they asked me was, who going to be your coach? And I was like, the only person who can save us is Coach Gibbs. He happened to be watching ESPN at that time with his wife. The only thing Coach said he didn't want to do was ask his wife, can he go coach again because there's so much time. And she looked him in the face and said, you do want to go coach again. He was like, yeah, I do. Two days later, he was our head coach. Thank you. That's how that happened. So I could watch Coach Gibbs come in there on a Monday.

He don't actually get to see Mitch Gibbs to a Thursday night off Friday. He spends the night there. And all the coaches out watching, my friends that are doing coaching now, I was like, man, can I give football that much more of my life? No, I'd rather talk it. I enjoy talking it because I can get in and out of it. I can do my studying beforehand, and I can spew it out, and I can get going back to my life. That's smart. Yeah, you are very good at it. Could anybody talk shit with you? Like was there a receiver that you'd be matched up with that would give it back? My classmates.

if you look at my class, the 2001 class, I want y'all to go back through this class. Draft pick for draft pick. We might have the most dense class in each position. Quarterbacks, Michael Vick, Drew Brees. Running backs, LaDainian Thompson. I can just go on with the running back. We have tons of running backs. Wide receiver, one of the best talkers of all time, Chad Johnson. Steve Smith. That ain't even getting into the Santana Mosses, the Rezzy Waynes. Getting into all them guys. Then we got the Richard Seymours. We

We got guys at every position you can think of. It ain't a position we didn't have in that 2001 draft. That 2001 draft, when it's all said and done, we might have 10 yellow jackets in that draft. Wow. So I'm looking at the list pretty good. But was there – like Chad was the guy that on the field he could give it back to you? Me, Chad, and Steve Schmidt was all in junior college at the same time with Dion Branch, Javon Walker, all of us in junior college at the same time.

So we yapping at each other before we even on, on Saturdays. Once we get into the Saturday part up, we yapping, then the league comes and all this kind of transforming to who we are. So the junior college thing, I feel like I've never really dove into it, but what was the decision to go to junior college? Was it like you, you didn't have any offers and then how, how does it work where you're in junior college and are there guys that are like, Hey, these guys are going somewhere else. And then you're playing with guys who are like, Hey, this is the limit. Yeah. How does that all work? Well,

To me, I had the academics. I had everything. But I was about 165 pounds. I was skinny. And I did not. All my college, they recruit me. Of course, they smart. They want me to red shirt. They want me to put on some pounds. They want to protect me. And I'm like, no, I want to play football. Like Fred Smoot just sitting on somebody's campus being a regular student ain't going to work for me.

I need to play football. So, luckily, I had one of the best junior colleges in America down the street from me, Heinz Junior College. By the time I make it there, Grady Jackson, Michael Myers, all these guys leaving. They on a two-peat. I come there, we three-peat national champions. We whooping everybody around the nation. So...

I was like, yeah, I'm going to go here, win me a couple of championships. Then I'm going to Division I because I do not want to stop playing football. I want to get better game in and game out. And a lot of my draft class, we was all in junior college together. So that's what the big thing about junior college. It gives you a chance to do what the other guys can't do. Because Ole Miss wanted me to come. They were like, come on. We want you to come on campus. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no.

Now, like they say, an item of mine is the devil's workshop. I'm like, no, Fred Smoot needs reps. I need to rep. And I need to rep against the best. That's one thing about junior college. Ain't no age restriction. You can play against some grown men. So it's a whole different, the belly of the beast. So I enjoy junior college because it taught me lessons, man. So you were there for two years? Well, a year and a half, two years. A year and a half. But-

But when you're playing junior college, you're obviously always thinking like, hey, the next step is I want to go to Division I. And so after you're due a year and a half in division college, were the offers flooding in? Oh, yeah, they were flooding in. They were flooding in when I was coming out of school. Right. They just all wanted the same thing for me. Right. And that's not to play football. Right. And I wasn't willing to do that. So now when my second chance to get recruited, now I'm getting recruited. I'm the number one defensive back in junior college. Right. So now I'm getting recruited.

by everybody like I was when I came out, but now they want me to play. That's awesome. And luckily, my coach, Jackie Sherrill, one of the greatest college coaches of all time, baby, he recruited like seven of us from junior college. We were the top of our positions. We came to Mississippi State and for the next two years we had the number one defense in college football, giving up

I think nine points a game. Right. So he understood, I need to go get players that's ready to play now because the worst thing that can happen to you at junior college is sitting because we play on Fridays. I'm watching football all Saturday. All I do is watch SEC. So I'm watching Champ Bailey. I'm watching everybody. And I'm like, I can play with these guys. Yeah. So you itching to get to play with these guys. And you know you don't have the time that they got. So once you get there as a junior –

Like, ain't no sitting no bench. You got to be ready to play now. Right away, yeah. Did you think about leaving the state or was it always you're going to stay in Mississippi? Oh, no, I was thinking about leaving the state. I almost went to Indiana with Randall L. Randall L and his brother was at Indiana with Coach Cam, and he was going to let me play both ways while I was receiving cornerback. I almost went to West Virginia. They literally had seven pros on their team, so I was taking trips everywhere.

At first, I was only taking SEC trips because, you know, it's SEC against the world where I'm from. But then after I say I get recruited again, I say I'm going to do what I didn't do the first time, and I'm going to give other divisions a chance to recruit me. And that's what I did. I got to go see some great schools. And by the way, I really love Bloomington, Indiana. The times that I can remember because it was a blur.

for the whole weekend. It was great in Bloomfield. Wait, so you, at what point did you decide you're not going to play both ways? Because we've talked about it obviously all this year, Travis Hunter playing both ways. It's insane. I don't think people understand how hard it is to never come off the field. It's hard, especially at the rate he's doing it. Usually, I was going to do it similar to Champ. I got to play offense at Mississippi State. But it's,

It's trick plays. It's a package. It's a package. It's not you are a wide receiver and you are a full-time corner because it's just usually, it's just X-ing too much. Not too much when it comes to being in shape, but too much mentally. Like imagine, this guy has to, he has to take that whole defensive playbook, then come around and remember the whole offensive playbook. That's a lot. Luckily, he's been a part of Coach Prime's team since he was a freshman. It makes his crossover to that very easy. But I think,

What it takes on the body, the toe, what it takes on you mentally, most guys can't do it. And I think when he gets drafted, Trav, they would draft him as a corner. Yeah. And they would spot play him as a wide receiver because if he gets on a pro team, he can legitimately be your best corner. But he's probably going to be your third best receiver. Yeah. Yeah, so it's going to be different. Similar thing, like where they have different package.

Yeah, they'd have a package for you or two. I could see that happening. But also, I could see a team saying no because he's skinny like me. Pro and college, two different things. I don't know if he could take that 17-game pro, happen to check receivers that's 6'5", 230 pounds, and then turn around and catch on DBs like Jalen Ramsey. I don't know if you can do that. You also don't want him going across the middle.

Well. Like taking big hits. Well, the thing about it is I can't put you in and don't do stuff. Like if I put you at wide receiver, you can't have limitations. We're going to play. Because if not, us at the cornerback position, we're going to know he ain't going across the middle. I'm just going to play him outside. I'm going to pick the ball off. It's simple, man. It's got to be nice for a cornerback to play wide receiver every now and again because then you get those flags occasionally. Right? Like every time you touch a wide receiver. I feel like cornerback is the hardest position to play in sports. It gives you permission to be a diva.

You get to play a little wide receiver. You can do a little crying. You can go over there and say it ain't fair what you're doing right there. And the one thing about receiver, it's turned into that it position.

Like every kid on the playground now wants to be a receiver. Back when I was coming up, Deion was so hot. All us ex-receivers, we wanted to be a cornerback. The cornerback was the glamour position. But because of college and the NIL and Jamar Chase and all these type of players –

It's back to the wide receiver position. It's the position that everybody wants to play. Is it true that a cornerback is a wide receiver that can't catch, and that's why you got moved? Hey, listen, man. Like they always say, man, a grasshopper tell a lie to a horse if you let him. They always say that. They do. They do in Mississippi. Yeah, yeah. Receive. I mean, DBs can catch. Think about it. What's harder to catch, a ball that's meant for you or a ball that's not meant for you?

So for me to go steal this ball, I got to anticipate, jump in front, catch a ball that don't belong to me, steal this ball. That's the one thing about a cornerback. A cornerback is somebody that you don't take to church with you. We're taught to lie.

lie this is how we lie to ourselves you can beat me for 80 yards i still turn around and tell you oh i'm the shit yeah yeah so i'm lying to myself i have to lie to myself we talk to cheap i gotta stop you by any means necessary sometimes i hold you sometimes i won't hold you sometimes i do this i do that and we paid to steal yeah the more we steal

the more rich I am. So everything that you do as a cornerback, it's kind of got this bad boy connotation to it. So you have to mentally be strong to play that position. Did you ever do the trick where you'd find out what color jersey your opponent was going to wear and then you'd wear those gloves? And I'm going to wear the same club gloves. Yeah. So if they wear a white jersey, I'm going to wear white gloves. They wear a black jersey, I'm going to wear a black glove. Yeah, so when I'm holding them, you'll never know it.

See, that's them OG tricks. You be in the league five, six years before you start to do stuff like that. Luckily, when I came into my meeting room, imagine walking into this meeting room. As a rookie, I get drafted. Martin Schottenheimer drafted me to the Commanders. Washington, it was Redskins at the time. I walk into the meeting room. Deion Sanders sitting in there. Dale Green sitting in there. Champ Bailey sitting in there. Mark Carrier sitting in there. Sam Shade sitting in there. I walk right out like, why did you draft?

You're like, boy, go on back in there and learn from them dudes. I had so much. Like when I say I had just a brain trust. Yeah, that's probably the best defensive back room of all time. Of all time. Of all time. Nobody could compare to that defense. Come on, I just named three yellow jackets. Yeah. I just named three yellow jackets and three.

People would argue over these who the best. It's crazy what I walked into. Now, you are such a good talker. Fast talker as well. Did you ever have a moment where you were talking shit on the field and you were talking too fast and the guy was like, I don't even understand what you're saying, Fred. Oh, lots of times. I think it's the

The fast talking plus the southern. Yeah. The southern talk. So sometimes it can come off as Charlie Brown-ish to a guy, especially if I'm like really emotional about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I had Reggie Wayne just look at me and say, what? He was like, I hope that wasn't supposed to get to me because I haven't understood nothing you said the last six plays. And I'd be like, all right, I'll tell you when you get back out here. See, I was one of those talkers. I wouldn't just talk when the play was going on. I mean, one going on.

They're like the snap of the ball, jam the guy. Now I'm running up the sideline. I'm talking to him as we run. Like that's my whole thing. Yeah. And I'm really just trying to get you to focus on me. Right. That's how I done won so many battles. It wasn't because I was the better player. It's because mentally I had you thinking about me instead of doing your damn

job. So that's where I win these mental battles at. And don't let you mess up one time. Now it's been an avalanche. Because you are who I thought you were. I told you to wear pants out here with pockets in them so you can put your hands in them. You need that to make it with me today. So I would just drill it on. And if I start before the game, during the game, and after the game, we ain't lose a drop.

Yeah. Now they think you're crazy. Yeah. Like, yeah, now they like, man, I'm not dealing with you. Were there any wide receivers that were great shit talkers back that like, oh, shit, game on? Me and Chad. Me and Plex. Me and Steve Smith. Yeah. Me and Plexico didn't have some –

I don't think people understand how big Plex is. Plex is basically a power forward in basketball, in the league. He's huge. All right, so battles with him. And a lot of people don't – Joey Galloway was a beast, especially when he was at the Cowboys. Terry Glenn, those guys. So I had, ooh, fast Freddie Mitchell who came out with me. And Freddie Mitchell is an idiot. Fred X, yeah, he is.

Freddie Mitchell. Let me tell you something. Class wasn't another one of my classmates. Freddie would go four quarters. We was rarely up on them because them and the Donovan McNabb years with Andy Reid. So they was in their bag. They was winning.

We'll be down like 15. It'll be like two minutes left in the game. Freddie would come across the middle, catch like a nine yard ball. And this is only catch of the game. And he would just get up and just, Fred, it is style. Like, just be quiet, dude. What are you doing? Like,

Like, the game is over with. You're not part of the offense. What are you? Every chance I get, Fred, they going to feel me. Yeah. And that's every pro athlete. Yeah. Like, that's why y'all see a five-yard catch and a wide receiver get up and give you the first, like.

It's hard to get those things to happen, so I understand why people celebrate. Who's one guy in the league right now that you'd like to match up against? You look like you could still play, by the way. The one thing, listen, this old Chuck right here got a good paint job and a bad motor. All right? That happens.

I would love to play against a lot of these dudes. I love to play against CeeDee Lamb. I love to play against the ones that come off as arrogant. Them the ones I won't. The quiet ones, you won't see me come at them at all. Like a Devontae Smith that barely says something just goes out there and burn you and go home and watch TV.

I'm not going to really say nothing to him but A.J. Brown. Yeah. Let's see, A.J. Brown is from Starkville. That's where Mississippi State at. That's why him and Forbes got this thing going on because he went to Ole Miss. I played against D.K. Metcalf, daddy. Terrence Metcalf, he came out of my class with me. Yeah. Me, him, Deuce McAllister. Our all-star team in Mississippi, we play the all-star team from Alabama, high schoolers.

We had 11 pros on our team. For me, Deuce McAllister, Ken Lucas, Metcalf. They had one pro on their team, Jamie Winborn, and they beat us. Damn. By seven points. What happened? Our quarterback, Romero Miller, threw an interception. Larry Cash ran it back. They beat us 7-0. Oh.

So you did your job on defense. Oh, we did our job on defense. Shut them out. But at the end of the day, they just showed you football. It doesn't matter sometimes. The best coach team will win most of the time. Yeah, I would put, I mean, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, those three states right there in particular, what is it about those three states that produce so many high-level football players? We're running from some.

We're running. We know we can get out of whatever situation we is by that ball. That ball can show you the world. I remember one of my young coaches, I mean, youth coaches telling me this. You want to see the world? This ball will show you the world. You do right by this ball, it'll show you the world. Then you built in a different way. Like when we start playing football, we start playing at four or five years old. Like, and we trying to get out there with the older guy. They ain't going to quite let you unless you like oddly built or something like that. DK probably. Yeah.

DK was out there. He was probably out there. He was three years old, probably out there. You know what I'm saying? He's huge. His daddy was huge. But, you know, once you earn your stripes there in Mississippi, I think you think you can play anywhere because you're just not, you're not storing as a ninth grader in Mississippi. Like, it's unheard of for a guy to even have that chance to do that. Just too many greats. I think about it. This,

This is the home of Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Brett Favre. I want to go Yellow Jacket for Yellow Jacket. Mississippi is up there, baby. We got Hall of Famers from Jackie Slater, Walter Payton. I can keep going now. Like, we're there when it comes to football. And I know Texas, Florida, California get out of love. But California, you a whole coastline. Texas, you can be your own country. Florida, come on. Like, y'all huge compared to us. But if you put Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi together –

We got just as many as they do. If that was one state. Alabama, Mississippi, Alabama. Yeah. That would be a great. Like we would have, when it comes to sports, we would be right up there with everybody. Yeah. Louisabama. Yeah. That'd be a hell of a state. But you got to have some Orleans in there too. Yeah. You got to have some Louisiana.

Louisiana in there. Yeah, some Cajun, yeah. So last time we had you on was like five or six years ago. Twitter got bought by Elon Musk for $44 billion. Yes. You invented Twitter. I did. Nobody believes it, but I did. SmoothSmack.com was the invention of Twitter where people could just go online and talk shit to each other. Yeah. When you saw $44 billion, you're like, fuck.

You know what? That would have been nice. Why am I chasing this brown football when I should have been chasing my intellect? That's why they say never want to be on the team. Want to be the team owner. It's a difference. But when you grow up, want to be... I say this.

We did it. And it was me and a couple of my classmates. And I was like, man, I just need an avenue to get at these guys because they usually like try to talk trash to me after the game. That ain't good enough. I need to talk trash before the game. You were just basically searching for more trash talk. Yeah. So we went to the Internet. We started to build it. We built it out. And I was shocked because they were starting to respond to me.

Like, I knew I was going to lash it out. But when they started to respond to me, that's when I think it caught on. Yeah. And once it caught on, it was good. And then when I left to go to the league, you know when you leave college behind, you leave everything behind. And I left it behind. And I should have kept it. I should have nurtured that baby. I should have grew that baby. Instead of Elon Musk's app, it would have been Fred Smoot's app. It would have been different. And I would have came here and be like, oh, I like Barstool. Let me buy everything.

Yeah, you would have $44 billion. What would you do with $44 billion? First purchase. Man, you know what? The thing we do, we get to see billionaire habits because every team is owned by a billionaire. And you get to see a couple of billionaires. And most billionaires, they usually go be villains and be in their yacht in the south of France. Ain't that where villains go to just live and enjoy themselves? I think as a millionaire...

Now you can have what you want, but a billionaire, you can create what you want. It's a different thing. A millionaire can go visit an island. A billionaire can buy the island. So it's a different dynamic to the airness of them both. I feel like you'd be a man of the people as a billionaire. No, I'm still going to be who I am. I'm never going to change that. That's why I love the Harris Group and the owners we got now, the Commanders, Magic Johnson,

we have the most approachable, Mitchell Rails, the most approachable billionaires in the game right now. You wouldn't even know they're billionaires. They don't even act like billionaires. And I had to ask these guys, how did all y'all become billionaires? Because all of them from the same little spot in Maryland. Like you would think these billionaires would be spread out, but even with Dan, Dan was from Maryland. I was like, what's going on in Maryland? What are they teaching in elementary that they're not teaching in Mississippi? Yeah.

That you too can be a billionaire. Yeah. Yeah. So staying on the Commanders, we talked real quick before we sat down and started taping. You didn't want to waste anything off the air. So you were telling me why I should not be worried about the Commanders and should not be worried about Cliff Kingsbury later on in the season. You shouldn't. We just, we have to infancy.

We're at the start of something great. Nobody would have thought we'd be 7-4 right now. We got rookies that hadn't had a break since last year before their college year. For some reason, some idiots put out –

Our bye weekend, week what, 14? Yeah, December bye. That's ridiculous. These guys just got their first break on a short week on a Thursday night game. You talking about ailing bodies? You talking about hurting? You talking about testing your depth? You talking about texting your coaches, your players, everybody physically, mentally, emotionally?

That's what's going on right now. That's why you see us get to the fourth quarter and then just die. Just ain't got that energy. Think about this. They ready to crown Pittsburgh Steelers the best team on earth. They just got out of Northwest Stadium. They just got out of Northwest Stadium. We're one inch away from Zach Ertz leaning in different ways. How about, this is what I want to say too.

I'm tired of the old referees. I want youth. I want youth. I want my referees to be able to see for 100 yards and run 800 yards. I'm tired of the old dirty old men. I'm tired of them. Get them out. Get them out. We got to get these plays right. But Philly got out of there.

by the Harold and they chinny chin chin. The whole state of Pennsylvania just got out of sped up by the Harold and they chinny chin chin. We're right there. If you're going to tell me that Philadelphia in a Super Bowl wonder right now, Pittsburgh in a Super Bowl wonder, we're right there and we ain't supposed to be there. So relax. Juice me up. I like it. I'm excited. I'm back in now. I was never out, but you start to think about it. Things have looked different for the last couple weeks. That just tell me you got spoiled. You

got spoiled when we had them numbers that you knew was going to go down. You knew he wasn't going to be able to keep that up at third down. He was 80% on third. These numbers wasn't did by Tom Brady. You knew they had to come back down at one point. Come on now, we have to be realistic here.

All right. Like I told him that you can lie to a lot of people in this world, but lying to yourself, that make you ignorant. The grasshopper horse thing. I've heard that people say all the time. Grasshopper tell a lot to horse if you could. Yeah. He also Fred had had a great line because I was guaranteeing something. And he said the only guarantees is your past baby and a future ghost.

Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's it. Now, in between, that's up to you. Yeah. What you do. But we know for a fact we don't remember stuff from being no baby. Yeah. We just know we used to be one. Yeah. And we ain't going to remember much about being a ghost. We just know we don't be one. Good matter. A difficult question, but I have to ask. Please. The love boat, I know we talked about it six years ago, but I saw you did a quote where you're like, I wish people would stop bringing it up because it wasn't even that cool.

There's no way that it wasn't that cool. First of all, let me ask you something. You had a double-sided dildo. And let me ask you something. Have you been to a bachelor party before? Yeah. You've been to a bachelor party before. Was it the end all be all? No, but there was fun times. It was fun times. And guess what? We had the same ingredients y'all had at y'all bachelor party. Okay. The only way my bachelor party, it could have been better than y'all's if an alien would have flew down and came down, a female alien. I didn't have no female aliens.

female alienate, man. Like, it was, like, people try to glow it up, I think, because it was just a lot of millionaires doing this. Yeah. It was also funny. Yeah. I mean, a love boat. Yeah. That's funny. But guess what? The Vikings been doing this since the early 1700s. That's true. They've been going to villages doing this for a long time. We just got into character too much. Yeah, that's right. And it wasn't nothing but a, you know, every team has its rookie party. All right?

And that's basically how they haze us as rookies. Like mine, I had to take my guys to Capitol to grill the whole defense. They ran the tab up for $20,000. It hurt me. With this one, they took up money. We threw a party. That was it. It only got blew up because we got caught. Yeah, because someone pissed, right? Someone pissed in the lawn. In somebody's lawn. Yeah. And that's it. And I like, because no rules were broken. It was a legit thing.

Bachelor party. What do you mean by rules? What do you mean by no rules were broken? Well, you know. I think a couple rules were like. No, no. They tried to say some rules were broken. But at the end of that, we all just, we got charged with disturbing the peace. We paid a $50 fine when it was over with each. And I'll tell you what. Getting charged with disturbing the peace, that's a pretty badass charge. Yeah. I would love to get charged with it. Well, well, well. Disturbing the peace on the lake. Yeah. The lake of Minnetonka. Yeah, yeah. Ain't but two people been washed in them waters. That's me and Prince. Yeah.

We the only two right there been washed in the water. But I always said it was overhyped because guys like to come, they say, oh yeah, they'll come nudge you. How was that party? And I'd be like, what you doing, old dirty old man? What you trying to do? But everybody thinks it was the, I've been to better parties. I'm sorry. Not

I've been to better parties, and I'm sure y'all have too. It was just, it was rookies, money getting pushed to the limit. They going to enjoy themselves. The veterans ain't really...

They chilling. Because they saw when they were rookies. Yeah, but they more secretive anyway. They ain't doing nothing. But the rookies, they are out of control. They don't care. If I had to give you this money, I'm about to enjoy myself. Yeah, right. If somebody gave me millions of dollars when I turned 20 years old, I would have done some stupider shit than that. That's what I always like to ask people. Let me take you there, P. Yeah.

25. Yeah. I'll give you 10 million. In jail. Prison. What do you think the one thing that's going to kind of lead you...

That's great. Is it going to be your friends? Yeah. Is it going to be you trying to do too much for others, go too much, be in the streets too much? What do you think would have been that one vice that had been like? I think I would have found new vices. Oh, that's what it is. I think you can be $10 million when I'm 25 and I'm like, I will try anything. Yeah. Well, why do people look at athletes and be like,

That's a damn shame I went to D at that. Yeah, no, it's stupid. When they're 40 years old. I think it's a weird thing where you see a pro athlete 23 years old and in your head you're like, that guy's older than me. You know what I mean? Because he's mature to you. They're mature and they have the money that you can only dream of. So you put, PFT's right, like 23-year-old me, you gave me $10 million?

I'd be dead. Mm-hmm. Dead or lucky. No, that's most people. Dead or lucky. Yeah. No, that's most people because now it ain't, like, imagine this. I always tell people this. Imagine waking up on just a Saturday.

And you can go anywhere in the world you want to in your 20s. That means if I can make it up in my head, I can go there. I can wake up like, I'm going to Alaska. I'm going to see y'all. I'm out. Like, nothing's stopping you but you. So whatever you can dream of, you can do it. So imagine just having one simple thing, having a girlfriend that just like to be spoiled.

She can get up in the morning, I want to go to Paris. All right, let's go to Paris. But now you're in Paris for four days. You didn't plan to be there. Now I'm in Monaco for five days. I didn't plan to do this. It just happens. I also think it's like when you grow up, that's when you learn to love sports. That's when you watch a lot of sports on TV. You got your favorite team. You watch these guys.

And you're so ingrained with the idea of watching that when you were a kid. That's how you learn to love the sport. That even after you age out of that and age past the playing years, you still have that somewhere deep inside where you think,

Professional athletes, grown men even compared to me. So when I watch Seinfeld now, right? I'm older than the guys on Seinfeld, which fucks up my brain. Because I grew up being like George Costanza's. He's like a middle-aged man. He's 15 years old. Now I'm like six years older than George Costanza was during Seinfeld, but I still think of them as being adults. Same thing with professional athletes, I think, sometimes.

Also, I think some people like to just complain about people that make more money than them. So they'll see an athlete and be like, look at these entitled, spoiled brats. Like we didn't work for that our whole life. And like it wasn't that big old if over there. Because we all want big if from not making it to the league. If we didn't hurt our knee. If we didn't ball out that game. If I didn't choose this school. I could have did something else.

Something just easy is just choosing the wrong school, and I don't make it to the league. Coach don't play me. Coach don't like me. Ooh, just that one simple thing. But for some reason, when athletes get to the league, people think we run the damn lottery. You know, it takes no energy to win the lottery. Right. But I've been putting – I've been lifting, running my whole life, knowing it wasn't guaranteed that I was going to make it to the league. Right. Yeah. Well, maybe not lifting. No.

You right about that. Yeah. What happened with the one bench press of the combine? Listen, I told them this. Look, you see how long my arms are? Yeah, there you go. Do you see it? I have the reach of somebody 6'4". Yeah.

If you want me to bench press, it's going to be harder for me to do it. So I said, you know what? I'm going to do what the guys don't do. Because most corners and receivers do not do the bench press. They don't even get on there. I said, I'm going to give them what they want. But I'm going to only do it one time. Like, I got on that deity one time. I racked it. I said, you ain't come for no bodybuilders. Y'all came for an athlete. Come on, watch me run. So we went outside. And all the scouts watched me run and do my drills. So you could have done more. Maybe one more.

One more. One more. That's a good way to spin it, though, to be like, I'm only going to do one. But that's it. I'm not going to tell you that all I can do is two, but I'm only going to do one. And guess what? One of these scouts and one of the coaches, DB coaches, walked up to me and tapped me on the shoulder after a while. He said, what?

you know what i'm shocked you even got under there dbs don't even get under there why i see you don't get under there they tell me a lot they tell me you don't care about humility that just ain't a part of who you are like i don't care nothing about that yeah like it is what it is they can't beat me playing football right i don't care about them out benching me y'all don't say he benched 500 pounds after i get a pick yeah y'all just say he out here playing football he good at it yeah i feel like that doesn't translate at all especially the cornerback i mean you want to know that somebody's strong right you know you want to know that somebody's

willing to tackle. But I don't want you to be so strong that you stiff. Yeah. Like when you see athletes or guys walking around Gold's Gym and they walk around there like this, they can't play sports. They're not flexible enough. They are one big muscle rat. And we even say it when the guys walk in and we draft a guy and I'd be like, oh, he too muscular. Like he ain't going to be, his flexibility won't allow him to have longevity in football. He going to tear muscles every year. Not me. I could be at the bottom of a pile

looking like Gumby, just rubbery. And I'm going to jump right back up.

back up. Everybody talk all that about how much I bitch. How many games did I miss? Yeah, not a lot. No, thank you. You were a tough motherfucker. Because either you got it or you don't. Waste won't save you. When you ended up retiring, how... Because you seem like a guy who loved being in the locker room. Locker room was my thing. Yeah, right. So how long did it take you to mentally get out of there? Yeah, you retire. I know it's a struggle for some guys. It hurt. It hurt you mentally because...

Now you feel like you by yourself for the first time because them 52 other brothers from 52 other mothers, they ain't rich you every day. And think about it. When you sit in a locker room, all 53 of us got the same problems. Whatever those problems may be, family, not really loving on you no more, just want you for money. Could be we, hey, did all us choose the wrong?

You know? Like, so we got these same problems that now we're just talking to each other, leaning on each other about. And now that's gone. And it ain't really gone because you can still call your brother up.

It's just that it don't come full serve to you on the platter no more. It's not there every day. Every day. Now you got to reach out for it. Right. Now you got to reach out to your man. How you doing? How you doing, brother? I'm doing good. So I think it's more the mental separation. Think about this. Being in love with something or somebody for 30 plus years.

And she just divorces you cold. That's what football does. It just quits you. You quit it. It don't matter. It's being quit. Right. And I don't think it's everybody love money. Don't get that. But it's some stuff football can give you that money can't buy you. Yeah. That crowd walking out there, 100,000 people. Imagine this. Imagine how...

Mentally stimulating it is to have 100,000 people saying your name simultaneously at one time. And the ground just started shaking.

You can't buy that with money. All right? The energy just coming through your body, that becomes addictive. I want it over. I want y'all to say it over and over and over again. You can't get that competition of one-upping another man. Did everybody say this is the greatest athlete in the world? I just one-upped him, so no, he not. He ain't the biggest gladiator. I am. That's why I say the only thing that could literally beat football is

is that gladiator sport to me is boxing because

Ain't nothing badass like walking around saying, I'm the heavyweight champion of the world. That's true. I could kick everybody's ass. Baddest man on the planet. On the planet. That's the only job I think that could one-up the quarterback position in football. Everybody calling you champ all the time. That has to be awesome. Not just champ. Imagine how your girl feel when she walk in and be like, my husband could kick all of you turds. Like, not all of you. Yeah. All eight.

million of you yeah my husband can beat all eight billion of you if it's somebody not from mars my husband to beat you yeah that's badass that's true uh one of my favorite quotes of all time was i think did you say two-thirds of the water is covered or two-thirds of the earth is covered by water and i cover the rest i said that in college yeah yeah was that true uh most definitely i felt that way is there a guy that that you couldn't guard

It is no guy that I couldn't guard. It's some guys that give you more problems. I would 10 because we had got into the tall corners when I started to come out. Well, for a tall corner, your kryptonite going to be a short receiver. So if you're checking a guy like Santana Moss –

he going to give you hell. You see it now with the big cornerbacks when they go against the smaller receiver, but put them against Calvin Johnson. He has no problem with Calvin Johnson. It's the guy that he can lose sight of. So when I said this, I was just feeling myself in my bag. You know, you're in school. You got all this useless knowledge in you. Let me mix this with a little football and run with it. You know what I'm saying? But,

I wouldn't say there was no guy. I say Tyrone Calico, when I was in college, probably gave me the most problems in college. He ended up being a hell of a player, kind of cut short by injuries in Tennessee.

But he was a hell of a player. So I played against some guys. But if I get to play against you more than once, I can solve the problem. Did you guard Calvin Johnson one-on-one? Yes, I did. What was that like? He's the biggest human being I've ever seen in my life. But I have no problem with tall guys because I'm not going to lose sight of you. You can look. I have no problem with T.O.,

No problem with Randy. You ain't going to see me on their highlight because they ain't burning me. T.O. was so good. There was one thing about him, though, whenever he would play against you guys. Yeah. He was afraid of Sean Taylor. No. You damn right he was. Like, come on, because one. Hey, Beast, let me introduce you to another beast. Because the one thing about Sean is.

He's their size, but he's faster than them. And that's the craziest thing about it. I remember one day we was sitting in the back of the huddle and LeVar Arrington and Sean were talking in the huddle. And I was like, is it me or are they the same damn size? Yeah. Like, when we got him as a rookie, he was 240, 245. Sometime played at 250. And he's still the fastest man on the damn field. That's unbelievable. Like...

It's something when the 1%, the top 1%, because once you're in the league, you're part of that top 1%, but then it's the 1% of the 1%. Sean was the 1% of the 1%, meaning he's sticking out amongst the 1%. You can still be like, mm, he different. Me and Coach Gil were talking about it. Mm, he different, Coach. Coach was like, yeah, because we can't control him. When I say can't control him,

He had one speed. We'll be doing walkthroughs. You know walkthroughs, touching people. We're not shunned. Come right down here. And we're doing ones against ones. Clint Porter's get the ball, come right down here, shun, mow him down. Coach be like, come on now. Half speed, no tackling. Yeah. Hype, mow him down. Right?

And he'll be like, coach, if they put the ball in their hands, I'm going to mow them down. He dead serious. When he comes to practice, he clicks in. I remember one day, I don't know if he was a little late or what, this dude comes out there with blue jeans under his football pants.

I said, something happened today. I said, it ain't right. And he just started mowing through people. I'm like, dude, Greg Williams, you know Greg Williams loves this type stuff. Like, so even though Coach Gibbs telling him, lay off, Greg just got this grin on his face, like, let him lose. And that's what tight play was. Your teammates is not safe. We was on defense together playing against Dallas. We beat Dallas. But I got a Jones,

on the running back Jones. I got him. I'm holding him. And Sean just come knock the whole powder down. He hurts me. He hurts Jones. I have to go to the hospital because he lacerated my kidney. Oh, my God. Jones got a concussion. And this is just the people that was in the pile. Yeah. Like, so there's friendly fire. There's all of above. Like, I'm laying in the hospital. Can't fly back with the team because he lacerated my kidney. So that's what type player like.

The one thing that I just always wish I could have seen him play out the career. Because that last year, we were heading to Green Bay. This dude leading the league in interceptions. Got like 6-7 at this time. He headed for 14 picks this year at the rate he's going. Then he had slimmed up. He had slimmed up. He was like 220 pounds. So he ain't faster right now. I was like, man, because me, every –

All of us talking about it, I was like, dude, this dude keep going the way he going, he gonna be the best safety ever play the game. And Ed was like, yeah, man, like he is. So when you got a guy like Ed Reed agreeing with you on a situation like that, that tells you the depth of this player. Because he had Ed Reed's ball skills.

That's Zach to the T. But he hit like running a lot. That's the perfect safety. If God's building a safety, his name is Sean Taylor. All right, well, Fred, this has been awesome. You are the best.

We've got to have you back on again, not wait six years the next time. I got one last question, Roback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase, Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, Roback.com, promo code TAKE. This isn't even a question. It's just that you did a Reddit AMA a few years ago, and someone asked, what should I eat when I get home? And you said, pussy, if possible, my friend, low in calories. That was just funny. I just wanted to say it. No, I did not say that. Yeah, you did. No, I'm going to tell you who said it then.

I had a guy that used to do my PR and I let him run my red. Your PR guy said pussy? He has the foulest smile of all. Because I did reddit like once or twice, but I did all mine visually. I got on there and did it. And I just let him do it.

And he did that. You got to realize my mouth is filthy, but my mouth filthy in person. Yeah. You will never see me like, look at my Twitter. You see anything rolling down? That's crazy. Like I don't write things down. That's crazy. Yeah. That was all him. And I let him have that one. Okay. So you, instead of saying eating pussy, you would have said running through the okra patch, right? Thank you. Yeah. You know, I say mine with a little bit more.

mystery to it. Now people have to come and ask me what's running through the okra patch. It is what it sounds like. But other than that, I'm more clean, pure, because I done did the top of the line medias, so I know how to say what I need to say and how I need to say it. Grasshopper and a horse. What is that again? What the hell is that again? No, it was a grasshopper tell the truth to a horse. Okay. You let him, yeah.

Oh, man. Well, Fred, thank you so much, man. We really appreciate it. Anytime, man. Thank you all for having me. Fred Smoot was brought to you by 3Chi. You know we only bring you the best, and 3Chi is exactly that.

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CHI.com. All right, let's do our weekend preview. Talking some games. We'll rip through a few of these because we're obviously taping on Tuesday, so there hasn't been a ton of new news. But I wanted to start with the Seahawks at the Jets. Jets plus two and a half over under 41 and a half on DraftKings Sportsbook. Memes.

What most recent news have we heard about the Jets this past week? We have hired an outside company to find our GM. What outside company is that? That'd be the 33rd team. Okay. What do they do? They are consultants to the owner to find a proper GM to lead your team. Are they a media company?

Kind of. So like hiring Barstool Sports? Pretty much. But the commanders also just did that. Well, they had an extensive search and they hired one of the executives from the Golden State Warriors. It was led by these guys. Wait, Mike Tannenbaum, is that the guy who said that you should trade Miles Garrett to the Lions and the Lions should give up three first round picks and Jameer Gibbs? Yes.

He was doing media. Is that the same Mike Dambom that hates Josh Allen and said he would never have drafted him? Same guy who has a winning record as a GM as the Jets, with the Jets. Memes, how old are you again? 29. People keep making fun of me for that. Why? I don't know. Why do they make fun of you for being 29? I don't know. I don't know. That makes no sense. It's mean. Memes doesn't like when people think that he's...

It's a compliment. They're like, how is he that old? I thought he was 22, which pisses me off because I get the opposite. Yeah, well, that's weight-related, Max, just so you know, because I get the opposite. You think? Yeah, people are like, oh, you're 50. So, Memes, you're 29. So how old were you in 2008-ish? 2008. Let's do some math.

13. Okay. All right. So my question is, so there was a report that came out that Aaron Rodgers is so injured that he doesn't want to do a scan on his injuries because he doesn't want to be taken off the field. This report coming from most likely Aaron Rodgers when the shit goes down and he's like, oh, yeah, actually, you guys don't even understand how injured I am. Memes, has this ever happened to the Jets before? If a player...

Played their injury? Yeah, that actually kind of hurt the team. Not that I can remember. Okay, so you're too young because it has happened before, and it was a former Packers quarterback named Brett Favre who tore his bicep and decided to keep playing through the injury and basically was so bad at the end of his Jets run that he should have taken himself out, but he didn't.

It's insane. They started 8-3 that year too, right? Yes, and then he tore his bicep and he basically was like, I'm going to play through it because I'm Brett Favre, similar to Aaron Rodgers, who obviously they didn't start 8-3, but is playing through an injury. They are just living the same life. Wait, do you think that...

You think Aaron Rodgers leaked this news? Probably. Even though the same news was leaked when Brett Favre was the quarterback? What do you mean? Yeah. That might be coming from Woody Johnson. Yeah, true, true. He's the one common denominator in all this. I think it would benefit Woody to get the story out there that Aaron Rodgers is being an insubordinate dick.

and he's injured and he's costing our team games. I think it helps Aaron Rodgers, though, a lot, too, to be like, he's such a warrior, he wants to stay in this game. That is true. Yeah, you guys don't even understand what he's dealing with. Yeah, so he refuses to get scans. It's Brett Favre. Brett Favre did that in 2008. He basically, after the season, had to get surgery on his torn right bicep, and he's like, yeah, it kind of affected me. Yeah. My torn right bicep. Mims, where are you seeing that the Commanders hired the 33rd team?

Spielman, the other guy that's not Tannenbaum, was part of the search for Adam Peters. Right. I agree with that. I just don't think that they hired the 33rd team. What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean? I mean that I don't think that they hired the 33rd team to try to find. They might have had Spielman. They might have had the guy from Golden State Warriors and some other guys. I just never heard of that, so I was wondering. What's going on here? This is a blog on the 33rd team.

I'm confused on who the 33rd team is. I know who the 33rd team is, but I don't really know...

The Jets hired the 33rd team, did they not? Correct, yes. They hired the organization. Now, I will say that being a coaching and executive search firm is the best job in the world. It is the best. In fact, the 33rd team had a blog up, I think like two weeks ago, saying here's who they should look at hiring if they do fire Joe Douglas. So they had blogged it, so they've got their own list that's ready to go that they had also helpfully shared with the rest of the league.

Yeah. No, it's – I mean, it's Ernie Acorsi, it's Bill Pullian, all these guys who are basically – they just – they get a million dollars to be like, hey, here's the person you should hire. Yeah. A friend. You should hire Ben Johnson to be the coach. Yeah. I think the Seahawks are – their defense is really good. And this is – this is basically Geno – just Geno, stop throwing picks in the end zone. Geno, you guys can be good. You guys can go to the playoffs. Just –

Be good, Geno. Geno revenge game. Yeah, Geno revenge game. That's huge. The Seahawks are the team that is just impossible to figure out. Yeah. Every time you think they're good, they're bad. Every time you think they're bad, they're good. It's the entire NFC West. One of those teams is going to go to the playoffs. You know that the Jets are bad. Yeah. But the Seahawks. But Aaron Rodgers is hurt. Aaron Rodgers is hurt. But they had a bye. We don't know how hurt. They had a bye. He might have gotten healthy. Yeah.

We might have gotten healthy. I don't hate the Jets. I don't hate the Jets this weekend. At least they're not favored anymore. That was a weird stretch where they were always favored. Very weird. Mames, do you think that the Jets have a chance? I think they might. Nope. Okay. I think Kenneth Walker is going to have a day. Yeah, probably. Probably. And a lot of guys are going to quit, and then some guys will be fine for a job for next year, but the season is over. Yeah. Oh, wow. I think that was the first time he said that. Over. Over. Over.

Fully over. All right. Steelers at Bengals. Bengals minus three over under 47. I like the Bengals here because the Zach Robinson put Zach Taylor. Zach Taylor. Sorry. Zach Taylor put ping pong tables back in the Bengals locker room. Yep. Being a head coach is a never ending cycle of taking the ping pong table out and putting the ping pong table back in.

I saw an interesting quote about that, and it came from their kicker, Evan McPherson. Hasn't had a great season. Nope. He said he felt the Bengals teams over the past three years have been really close, that ping pong has played a role in that because players spend time with the teammates they might not otherwise. Yeah. It sounds like Evan McPherson, as a kicker, is like –

It's the only way that people hang out with me is if we're playing ping pong. Yeah. Can we just get like the punters and the kickers to feel like they're part of the football team? Yeah. He might not be wrong. Yeah. No, he's not wrong. And he's Zach Taylor on the ping pong tables returning to the locker room creates a little energy, gets guys to interact, creates competitiveness. Competitiveness all the time. You compete from the time you step foot inside those doors. By the way, President Pug is doing a great job on the computer.

He's just pulling shit up for us. Something that Max would never do. You're crushing it. Max is too busy with his ADD just like throwing a football to himself. Pug, excuse me. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Government name. What are you doing? Pug has nice, delicate little skinny fingers that are able to type much faster. Yeah, he's doing Pug. Max, Pug's putting you to shame right now.

I mean, sorry, I got fat fingers. Yeah. We might have to have Pug sitting in here. Max on the couch. He does the computer. Max on the couch. Yep. That would be nice. Also, Jermaine Pratt guaranteed a win.

I don't really know if you can be a Bengals defensive player and guarantee a win. No, you probably shouldn't do that. The Steelers didn't look awesome against the Browns, but I'm going to chalk all this up to just AFC North games. Or you could do... Well, this is an AFC North game, so... Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. You could do George Pickens. It was a snow. It was a snow. Pickens got in a fight after the game with a defensive back. At first, I thought he was fighting a fan. Yeah. Turns out it was a DB. The Bengals being favorites...

Does that make sense? Yeah. I think the Steelers are on fraud watch for me. Okay. Yeah, I do. I mean, their defense is very, very good. I think they're on fraud watch. Tomlin as an underdog, though, we always say it. Oh, for sure. The Steelers absolutely could win this game. But this is a game that if the Bengals get life back in this, I'm putting the Steelers on fraud watch, especially with who the Steelers have the rest of their way.

The ping pong table. They got to play the Ravens again. I think they play the Chiefs. I think they got to play the Bengals again. Steelers have a very tough schedule down the stretch, and I don't know, like, who... The Steelers have beaten a lot of bad teams in the Ravens, who they always beat. They also lost to the Cowboys. You know what I mean? Like, I just think if you look at the Steelers...

I'm not saying they're frauds. I'm just saying fraud watch. Did they beat the Chargers? They beat the Chargers when Justin Herbert couldn't walk. Yeah. Um...

He literally had a severely sprained ankle, and I remember watching that game. He couldn't move at all. He couldn't do play action. Beat the Broncos, I think. They did beat the Broncos. That was Bo Nix's second start in the NFL. Beat the Commanders when the Commanders were looking decent. Yeah, but, I mean, Raiders, Giants, Jets, loss to the Cowboys. Who could lose to the Cowboys? No one. Well, they had Dak, too. Yeah, they did have Dak. I just...

Again, I'm not putting the Steelers under frauds. This is their fraud watch game because the rest of their season is Bengals, Browns again, then they have to play the Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs, Bengals. That's really tough. If they let the Bengals back in here, because I think the Bengals have a little bit of easier schedules, if they let the Bengals back in this thing, the Bengals will most likely be playing for something in Week 18, so it's like a double whammy against them.

They're hurting themselves twice. They got to win this game. And then I'm not... And then they're off the fraud watch. Okay. Next game, Cardinals and Vikings. Vikings minus three and a half, over under 45 and a half. I think the Vikings are going to win this game. Okay. Hank's taking notes. I am...

Again, the Cardinals kind of fall into the same line as the Seahawks with me, which is I'm not really sure how to peg them at all. Yeah. I can't peg the Cardinals. I do think that the Vikings are a legitimately good football team. Yes, I do too. I think I have a read on the Cardinals-ish, and it's if you can run the ball, their offense looks explosive when they get it.

When they can't, it looks broken. I think I said this two months ago. Vikings can stop the run. So that's why I like the Vikings. Vikings can really stop the run. Right. And the Vikings is the first time they've been home in three weeks, four weeks. I think they played three straight. No, they played two straight. Three straight road games. And they've been playing tough games. I think it's going to – I just like the Vikings in this game. I will say, though, that if the Cardinals win this game, I will believe fully in the Cardinals. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, this is like Kyler would be locked in if he if they somehow win this game on the road. That would be a huge win for them. Yeah. But until they do, I just think that the Vikings are I believe in Sam Donald still think he's having a great season. He's had a couple of missteps, but like I'd still think that what we see now is Sam Donald. That's who Sam Donald is now.

Agreed. I don't think that he's going to suck down the stretch or turn into a different player. I think he's legitimately a good quarterback right now. If the Cardinals can go in and win this game, then I will be like, yeah, Cardinals should win their division. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Next game, the

Tennessee Titans at the Washington Commanders. Commanders minus 5.5, over under 45.5. You have to win this game, PFT. We said it last week. Must win. But you have to win this game. Must win and can't lose at the same time. You have to win this game. It's a double must. How are you and Hank, by the way? I noticed you guys didn't sleep in the same house the last two nights. No, we haven't been speaking. Yeah. Memes is legitimately...

Memes is the child that if mom and dad disagree over they're getting a little spat because they're driving somewhere and they get lost. Memes is like, oh my God, they're getting divorced. Yeah, no, we're fighting over the radio. I want Kendrick on. Hank is a huge Drake fanboy. So we're having those arguments in front of memes. And yeah, it's kind of awkward. Memes does think that everyone's breaking up all the time, though. PFT was in the gambling cave yesterday going to every single person saying, did you see Hank?

The clips of Hank. Well, so what's interesting is they came to me yesterday. Who's they? Little update. People in the gambling cave that happened to be around at the time, they came to me because they listened to Monday's part of my take, and they came up to me and they said, Hank is so full of shit. Who? They're not on trial here. I have sources. The Walls.

Alright, I guess we'll do an unnamed source off. Okay, so the Walls came up to me and they said... Because I heard what Meme said. What? That you were just walking up trying to find people to... No, that's not the case. Oh, interesting. They came to me and they said, Hank is so full of shit, I listened to Monday's part of my take, and you were absolutely picking up on Hank trying to secretly root against you during that game.

And then they said, we can actually find the clips. And so Hank was showing people his future bet on the Commanders, not making the playoffs and laughing. Whenever the Commanders would do something bad, the Cowboys would do something good. You were showing it around, and you were laughing, and they sent me the clips. Is this true? Yeah. Before you watch the video, Hank, is this true? I showed someone the bet slip, I think, that someone also –

Might have went to JMU, which is an interesting piece of evidence. The jury member that we're talking about here. But I wasn't laughing. I was not laughing when the commanders did something bad. I laughed when they missed the extra point the same way I laughed when the Bears... That's just like a trauma laugh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trauma laugh. Now...

But, like, showing someone a bet slip. Because, again, I also showed them the Commanders to win the Super Bowl bet slip. So it's like, I have the Commanders to win the Super Bowl. If the Commanders make the playoffs, I will be commied the fuck out. All right, so do we have the video here? The videos? Pug?

Oh, too loud, too loud, too loud, too loud, too loud. Okay, that's the missed extra point. There's Hank laughing and smiling. Where's the laugh? Where's the laugh? Where's the laugh? Where's the laugh? All right, start over. Start over. Where is the laugh? Can you zoom in? Can you make it bigger? I have my hand for the podcast listeners. I have my hand over my mouth, and I was going, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God. We should start at the first one because I think the –

First one is the one. I jinxed Pug doing a great job. He's all over the place now. I think it might be the other one, Pug, because that's the one where he's showing the bat slip. Yeah, the one that's first. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so here's Hank looking at his phone. And this is after the spin move touchdown. Showing Ebo. Commanders missed the playoff. Smiling. It wasn't a laugh. He's just showing. Showing the bat slip and smiling. Okay, that's... I mean, that's not guilty of anything crazy. Yeah.

That's the clip? Yeah, there's more. I thought the clip would be more damning. There's more. Like if he had like pointed to you and then throat slashed. Okay. This is the second clip? Mm-hmm. Now, keep in mind. Hank running and laughing. This is, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Pause it. Pause the pug. Pause the pug.

The laugh there was because before that clip, that was when you turned around and told me to suck your dick and fuck you. So after that, after you said that, I was actively rooting against the Commanders. I was happy they lost after that. Everything before that was nothing. So that smile that I had after they missed the extra point was literally after you turned around to me, DX sucked in my face and said, fuck you, Hank, suck my dick. I didn't DX. There was no DXing. Okay. Um...

The entire reason that people... Let's play the third clip because I'm curious where the smiles and laughs are. If you're going to pull this evidence, let's show it. Let's show the evidence. After listening to Monday's show and told me this was because they're... Listen, I...

Hank can bet however he wants. I think it's a funny troll bet. But then Hank trying to convince me that he was not rooting against the Commanders. Where is the evidence of me rooting against the Commanders? You just showed evidence that proved nothing that you just said. Showing the bet slip and then laughing. Wait, can we show that again? Because I don't think that was laughing. I don't see a laugh. Clip one, Pug. Please show me the laugh here. Because Ebo laughs.

Patriots scored a touchdown 1-2 and got it Need the late card There's some smirking going on So we've downgraded from laughing to smirking Can I say something real quick? Sidebar with you PFT Okay I've watched these clips Listen Hank's a piece of shit He's a troll He's a piece of shit He's a bad guy Correct

I think he might be too much in your head right now. It's a possibility. I think you're overthinking Hank's existence a little. Memes is nodding right now. Well, the thing – Memes, you don't get to do that. I think he might be winning because you spent 48 hours collecting that. No, here's where I'll disagree with you. I have not done any collection. These are people that are out there in the company that agree with me that think that Hank –

And again, where did this person go to school? Well, it's multiple people, actually, Hank. Who else? There were three people yesterday that were telling me about this. It's just convenient you won't name their names. You're right. Why are you protecting their identity? I'm going to send clips to you. Because I've had like 100 people come up to me and say that I'm in your head and I'm destroying you. I've done zero sourcing. These are all people that have come to me and said, Hank's a piece of shit. He was rooting against you all game.

Hank can root however he wants. My whole thing is I accurately picked up on Hank. We have a whole stream. And now Hank is saying that I did not accurately pick up on that. That's my whole thing. And if me caring about that is Hank being too far in my head, then guilty as charged. I am 100% guilty of Hank being in my head. Again, I really don't care. I know I'm in your head. I know this is a dub for me.

You went on this whole soliloquy on Sunday about how you picked up on these things and you have evidence that was on stream. The evidence that you just presented proves nothing of what you just said. Well, I didn't have people go back through the entire stream and pull things out. They just sent. What? No, I didn't. They just sent these clips to me. I didn't ask them to go through the entire stream. Did you ask them to send you the clips? When they said we can find the clips, I said, yes, send them to me. Max, do you have anything to say?

Max is in his bathroom taking a shit. He's frozen. Can't see anything. Just good Wi-Fi there, Max. Yeah. Oh, here he is. Oh, Max. No, he sucks. You suck, Max. He's got nothing. I think, yeah, I mean, again, I have your back in the fact that Hank does root against us and he is a troll and these are all facts, but he's going to kill you by you, like he's,

You're all consumed by Hank. I'm consumed by Hank a little bit. Right. But I needed somebody. It's not healthy. I needed somebody to take the sting off losing to the Cowboys. And Hank is a great scapegoat to have around. But I'm just saying facts are facts. Hank was rooting against the Commanders, was pretending that he wasn't.

The facts that you're the evidence that you're using to prove those facts is just proves nothing. Like, that's where it's like I would actually this is a court of law. Like, I'd be even more innocent than I was on Sunday. I probably I probably should have done innocent was that evidence was horrible. OK, well, the evidence was shown to me. The evidence showed something, but not really the full like he wasn't like laughing. He just showed a bet.

Because the game was going a certain way. I have circumstantial evidence. I did not go back through the footage myself. I think you're going to have to. No, then Hank's in my head. I think I will concede the point to Hank that the evidence is not as compelling as I was told it would be. And we can move on from there. We're still not going to talk. Yeah, don't talk. Great. Max, you're back. I'm back. I'm back. Okay. Thoughts? I think...

I've been in PFT scenario. Right. I have too. And there's something about Hank that when you're going through it and you know that he's happy, that it makes you angry. Hank does a good job of it. It's good for the show. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm...

I'm not completely faulting PFT because I've told Hank to suck my dick many a time. Yeah. For really no reason. Yeah. Yeah, no, what you're saying I agree with because I've been in PFT's shoes many, many times as well. That's why as an outsider in this spot, it's like –

There's nothing you can do. You got to just give it up because he's going to drive you nuts. He's driving me nuts. Another good way to show you're losing, Max, PFT, is that Big Cat and Max both would love to have evidence that goes against me and call me a piece of shit and say you're right. The fact that they can't and they're tiptoeing around being like, yeah, but...

Just means like They know I'm 100% right They just really Don't want to admit it I mean I've been Yeah I've been in your shoes Many many times I mean The Wisconsin JMU game When he showed up In all purple He was like I just wore purple today That was our See I've been there That was for work And I wish I That was literally This is the point At some point I wish I You didn't speak to me That night either I wish I had a point Where someone had been like Hey just give it up Because he's He's going to Destroy you mentally That was bracket busters Because of his existence I

So, yeah. A little peek behind the curtain here. I'm not actually mad at Hank at all for any of this. Yeah. But he is driving me insane. Correct. The fact that he won't admit. Correct. That he was doing something that he was. That's all I wanted as well. That's all it boils down to. It's like, Hank.

He's really good. Hank is very good at his job. He's a very good troll. He's doing a great job stirring things up. And even though his bet, his bets go against me. Guess what? That's betting. You're going to bet against your friends at some point. Call me his future. You're allowed to do that. But then when it gets down to him denying something that is true, then I start to be like, I,

I'm going insane. Yeah. Hank is driving me. I need this Thanksgiving break to get away from Hank. Yeah, no, he has a very good ability to just make you insane. Yeah. And he's done it to all of us. You're doing a great job, Hank. Memes. You've had it too, where Hank's made you go insane. Again, this is where the existence things comes in. It's like the Patriots playing the Jets means. Yeah, no, no, I don't know. No, I don't think so.

Listen, I'm sorry, guys. I really am. I mean, when Hank just literally says, we're thinking about hiring someone to help with your load, you're like, I want to kill you, Hank. You're trying to fire me. Yeah, well, that's just life-related.

When Hank's doing his job as a good boss. Hank's name and name's his phone was Henemy for years. I didn't know that. That's insane. That's good to know. That's good shit. It's Hen-rolled now. All right, so as it pertains to this game, I'm just going to take Washington.

We have to win this game, and we've got to win it decisively. Again, I'm officially concerned about the offense right now. Here's a thought experiment for Cliff Kingsbury. Close your eyes and imagine Terry McLaurin lining up on the other side of the football occasionally because he only has him line up on one side. Like 97% of the time, he's never in motion. He's an awesome player. Let Terry move around a little bit.

The Titans do scare me. Every team scares me now. Yeah. Right now, if you were to look at the commanders and say, are they a good football team? I think the answer is no. I don't think that they are at all. So, I mean, we still control our own destiny if we can just manage to beat teams like the Titans and the Saints and the Falcons. You just got to win this. And the Cowboys. All right, let's do rapid fire a couple of these games that are kind of gross. Okay.

Colts at Patriots. Patriots plus three over under 42 and a half. Anything, Hank? I think the Colts, this is a game where Anthony Richardson is bad against complex defenses. The Patriots defense is bad. I think this is where he'll have four touchdowns. Yeah, I kind of agree. What are your thoughts on Gerard Mayo basically simming football games? Where he's like, I can't do anything once they're out there on the field.

Yeah, that's bad coaching. He's bad with the media. Yeah, we talked about that on Monday where it's just like, don't say that. Yeah. Don't, don't, that quote makes no sense. What was the game? Was it, it's not Madden, was it football, like football coach, head football coach? Yeah, something like that. Where you just like do everything.

Except actually playing the game. Yeah, football manager is the one where you do the transactions, get your team prepared during practice, and then the game happens and you just hit sim and you don't get to control anything. That's what Gerard Mayo has been doing. Yeah, he needs that bad. Yeah, this game, I don't know. It's gross. It's a gross game. I think it's a cult play. I think Anthony Richardson...

All right. Goes off. A couple other rapid fire because these are not the best. Bucks at Panthers. I mean, the Panthers have been playing a lot better. Maybe they keep this one tight, too. Panthers are plus six overrunners, 46 and a half. Yeah, so Bryce Young has looked good. Yep. I saw people doing cut-ups of the all 22 of Bryce Young throws for good reasons, which I've never seen before. They looked like he was actually slinging the ball. Like, he was dropping them in some tight windows. He was decisive with his throws. Yep.

I just like the Bucs too much. Yeah. I feel like that was a very... They say that there's no moral victories in the NFL. The Panthers had a big-time moral victory last week. Yes. That was huge. They blew the Chiefs out morally. Yes. But, yeah, Baker's on a mission right now. Baker. I like the Bucs. Baker. Baker, Baker, Baker. Houston to Jacksonville. Jacksonville minus five. Overrunner's 43 and a half. I just had Urban Meyer didn't know who Mike Vrabel was. That was a crazy story from the Manning cast.

Was that a joke that he always says? I don't know if it was a joke, but I believe it, too. If it's a joke, I'm going to start using that line. Yeah. Just to, like, people I know very well. Yeah. So who are you? Who are you on the couch? Yeah. But this is a... If Houston wants to get right going through the December stretch and make a push...

This is the game they have to do it. Yeah. Cause I can't believe Doug Peterson. How, how, how has he not been fired? Did he wake up every morning during the bi-week being like, okay, today's the day. Yeah. In a way I actually was thinking this is, this is worse than being fired for Doug Peterson. Yeah. This is a way to get back at him where you have to, you go into the work, you go into your office every morning and to work, you tap your key card and you think to yourself, this is a day where my key card doesn't work anymore. Yeah.

And it works. And you're like, what the fuck? And you have to do that over and over and over again. At some point, having it not work has got to be so relieving to you because you've been thinking about getting fired for the last probably seven, eight weeks. He's just been flinching all week. He's been flinching. He's been flinching at the door. And he's like, somehow this is still going on. I would really like to just play golf. Yeah. Maybe. I mean, with Trevor Lawrence back, maybe the Jaguars do something.

Maybe. They could. I mean, I don't really believe in the Texans that much either. I don't know. Yeah, no, I don't either. This is a gross game. The Texans need to win this game. This is a prove-it game for the Texans. Take care of business. Chargers at Falcons actually is a pretty good game. Chargers off a loss. Falcons off a bye where I forgot the Falcons existed. We did do a great interview with Kirk Cousins coming up. But that is, they were one of those. Jaguars and Falcons kind of both. I just kind of forgot about their existence for a week. Loser leaves town?

Loser leaves town. If the Falcons lose, they can still make it happen. And same with the Chargers. Yeah.

Yeah, no, this is not. Loser is slightly more for real. Loser got to the town limits and then turned around and went back. Loser called a realtor? Yeah. Loser looked around in another town. Yeah. They're going to stay put. Loser checked on insurance rates in a new city. I do think the Chargers offensive line against a weak Falcons pass rush is a mismatch in this game. It feels like. Mm-hmm.

And then Rams-Saints was another one that I had listed that's like, this, I mean, the Saints have already left town, but Rams, you have to win this game if you're the Rams. There's a lot of back-against-the-wall games this week. The Saints left town, but then they came back. Yeah. They're like a cat. You hated this cat. It's shit in the house all the time. You drove it outside town limits, left it, opened up the door to its crate, put it out in the forest, and then the cat came back. The cat showed up, and the Saints, they've looked like a different football team.

Since the Rizzler has taken over. Yeah, the Rizzy God. He's doing the thing. But yeah, don't you feel like this is the last stand for the Rams? Yes. You have to win this game. Yes. Go win this game. If the Rams don't win this game, then I think your pinky's 100% safe. Yes. I would say it's already safe. That's why I made it my pinky team. All right. A couple games that are good games. The last two.

Eagles at Ravens. Ravens minus three over under 51. I'm going to say right now, this is my, if the Eagles win this game, they're for real game. Max? So what does that mean if they lose? They're not for real. You mean not for real. Can you hear me? Yeah, yeah, we can hear you. They're not for real. They have to win this game to be for real. So losing...

on the road at Baltimore like they just have to win every single game to be for real yeah that's why I did that because I've done that a couple weeks and you're like what the fuck why is every single week they have to be to win this game to be for real I was trolling you man nope nope nope that's me being dumb that's me being dumb it's okay that's okay I'll do you think you're gonna win this game the Ravens do stop the run very well are you worried Jalen Hurts maybe has to win this game oh yeah this is a tough game yeah

This is obviously a tough game. I'm not going to overreact one way or the other. Actually, no, I will so overreact if they win this game. If they win this game, they're favorites to win the Super Bowl. But I'm telling myself I will not overreact if they lose this game. It's going to be a close one. Sirianni hasn't coached too well with decision-making in close games. I do think Sirianni is coaching very well right now. I'm worried about a close game.

I think this game might come down to the kickers. There's two kickers that haven't been great this year that are historically good. I think the kickers are going to be a factor in this game. That's my take. Okay. I would say the winner of this game, I would put them firmly as the second most likely team to win the Super Bowl in each conference. Yes. Yes. No, the Eagles win this game. I don't know why they wouldn't be just as likely as the Lions. The Lions are better at everything. They're that way right now. But...

Wait a minute. You said if the Eagles win this game, they're second most likely? Yeah, they already are. But yeah, I'm with you, Max, in the fact that I know the Lions have been killing teams and I know the Lions look really good. But I think the Eagles, if those two teams play...

It will matter a lot where they play because if the Eagles can somehow get the one seed, I think that changes the entire dynamic of the NFC playoffs. But I think that's as evenly matched a game as you can get.

Yeah, I agree. Okay. We're all on the same page. Except PFT. He's not on the same page. This will be a fun game to see where everyone's at. See where the Ravens are at. See where the Eagles are at. PFT's not on the same page with you in terms of where the Lions are versus the Eagles. He thinks the Lions are way, way, way, way, way better. I just think they're the best team in the NFL. Well, yeah, and then you just said that they were better at every facet, and then we looked at the stats, and you were just wrong. I was wrong about that. That's correct. Damn.

More wrong evidence. So your opinion might not matter. I think my opinion matters. I think that you're being a little disrespectful of the city of Detroit and everything that the Lions have accomplished this season. They're a historically good football team right now. It's a great story. I'm rooting for my underdogs up in Detroit, and I'm still showing respect to the Eagles. No, it's not. I don't think you are. And I'm not saying that the...

I'm not saying that the Eagles are better than the Lions. I'm just saying that the Eagles and the Lions need to be in the same conversation. They are. I think the Lions are better than the Eagles. We're literally having that conversation right now. I think the Lions are better than the Eagles. But I'm forcing that conversation. Yeah, I think the Lions are better than the Eagles right now. I think the difference between the two teams is razor thin.

I'm fine with that. Yeah, I'm fine with that. But the other national podcasts around the world are not saying that they're saying it's the Lions and then everybody else. Yeah. And I just wanted to say that I don't think that's the case. Yeah, no, I think that. Well, you got to win this game to prove it. Listen, especially if the Eagles get the one seed and Detroit has to go in the cold to Philadelphia.

I would say that that's about as close to a toss-up game as you can get. Yeah. Is that good enough for you? Yeah, that's fine. I'll accept that. Okay. All right. Hank, you've got to shut the fuck up. You're going to drive me crazy. You're going to drive me absolutely insane. Can you imagine looking across the Thanksgiving table at Hank? No. Knowing he's betting against all your Thanksgiving games. Yeah, just smirking. All right, last game, and then we'll do our picks, and we'll get to Kirk Cousins. Niners at Bills. Bills minus 6.5 over under 6. Over under, sorry, 46.

I don't really – we're taping this on Tuesday. This game you can't handicap or talk about if you don't know if Brock Purdy's playing or not. Yeah, we don't know what's going to happen. It's a Bills route if he's not playing. If it's Brandon Allen again, yeah, take the Bills for everything. If it's Brock Purdy, probably still also take the Bills. Yeah. Because I think the 49ers are broken. Here's a stat that I read but I didn't fact check, so if it's wrong, whatever. I don't care. Yeah.

Sean McDermott and Josh Allen are 19-2 in the regular season in December and January regular season games. So they finished the season very strong. Also might not be true. Wait, are you pulling up something about Daniel Jones right now? Just trying to see if there's a chance he goes to the Niners. Yeah, because I was going to say that seems like

It seems like a fit for him, right? It seems like Kyle Shanahan would like a quarterback as a backup like that. It's certainly a lot better than, than brand now, but he wants to play for a contender. I don't know if you can call the 49ers a contender right now. Like even with Brock Purdy, would you say that the 49ers? No, I've, I've been on the 49ers are broken for a month now. Um,

And, yeah, I don't – I haven't seen – like, even in their wins, they've played with their food in some of their wins. They're just – yeah, I don't think they're – I think they're broken. I think they're just having a really bad season from hell where everything's gone wrong, and it's – I don't expect them to flip the switch. Was that just – that was – Pug is like 0 for 4 since I complimented him. It went to his head. Just playing random noise while we're talking. All right, should we do our picks? Yes.

Let's do our TD parlay first, brought to you by DraftKings. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER, 800-327-5050, or visit GamblingHelplineMA.org in Massachusetts. In New York, call 877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY 467-369. Please gamble responsibly. In Connecticut, call 888-789-7777.

Who's picking?

We all sucked last week. Did we all miss? I think we all missed. So then we should stick with the three that won. Stick with the three that won. Every day is game day at DraftKings Sportsbook. Now through the end of the year, it's extra special. All customers will get a special daily promo every single day from Profit Boost, Odd Boost, No Sweat Bets, and more. There's something for everyone. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. Use advantage of the special daily promotions only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Okay, conviction. T. Higgins. Jonathan Taylor.

I had a conviction one, but Big Cat made me feel less convicted about it. Oh, no. Because I was going to say Jamar Chase. I will audible. No, no. I'll audible. No, I'll audible. No, no. Jamar Chase is more likely. You had the conviction. You had the conviction. But Jamar Chase is more likely to score. Yeah. Conviction. Drake London. That's good conviction. Okay. That's going to be some good odds. Let's win this one. Let's win this one. All right. Our picks. Our picks. So we obviously just did our one pick for...

So we don't know what the records are as we're taping this one. But so I go first. Am I going first? Mm-hmm. I will take first up. Give me the Seahawks minus two and a half. Okay. I will take the Steelers Bengals under 47. Ravens Eagles over 51. Max. I will take the Seahawks.

Rams minus three. Wait, who? Oh, PFT gets two. I'm going to take the Saints plus three. And then I'm going to take the Seahawks Jets over. Has that been taken? No, I don't think so. Seahawks Jets over 41 and a half. Okay, Max. I am going to take the... Wait, did you take Seahawks Jets over? Yeah, I did. Or under?

Over. Which one? Over. I will take that under. Okay, so Max and I are going head-to-head on two picks. Love that. Love that. Wait, what's your... Oh, that's big. I mean, this is everything. This might be the weekend that costs one of us the bachelor party. Or, given the way we've all picked, you guys will go one-on-one. Yeah, possibility. Yeah.

I mean, we're really bad. We go 500 or worse. Okay. Memes. I'm going primetime Jameis plus five and a half. Love it. I'm going to go Will Levis and the Titans plus five and a half. Okay. Has anyone taken the Patriots Colts over 42 and a half? No, but I like it. Yeah.

Okay, let's just play over games. Okay, should we finish up with Fantasy Fuckboys before we get to Kirk Cousins? Brought to you by Body Armor. This segment is brought to you by Body Armor. Real hydration, real ingredients, packed with electrolytes, vitamins, and nothing artificial. Body Armor sports drinks has great tasting flavors like strawberry banana and blue raspberry. Not only do we hydrate with Body Armor, but some of the best athletes in the world do as well, like Christian McCaffrey, Joe Burrow, and Sabrina Ionescu.

So go get your body armor today at your Walmart or local grocery store near you. Okay. Oi, oi, oi. Oi. Hey. It's Johnny Salami. Didn't even know we were doing this week, my stoddum. Leftovers. Leftovers. Good stoddum. Good stoddum. You've probably paused the podcast. You're listening to this on Friday. You got the leftovers in the fridge. Get up. Go put some in the microwave. Get yourself a nice meal. Love it. Good for the whole weekend.

My sit-em is Drake. Drake. I don't know what the fuck this guy's doing. It's a rap battle and he's going to fucking court, getting lawyers involved. What a fucking loser. I remember back in my days, people ended up dead over rap battles, not in court. Yeah. Or locked in Diddy's basement. Yeah. What are your thoughts on Diddy? Bad guy. Okay. Killed Biggie. Bad guy. Killed Biggie. Killed a lot of people. My sleeper...

It's Jonathan Taylor. Yeah, there you go. Okay, good sleeper. He hasn't scored in two weeks. Nice. He hasn't scored in two weeks. He's due. PMT, Pauley pick. Nice. Jonathan Taylor. Nice. That's a great pick. That's a great pick. I love it. Hey, what's up, fuckheads? This is Sean Stilato. Nice. What's up, Sean?

I definitely knew that we were doing fantasy fuck tours this week. Yep, same with me. And I'm not stalling before I get to my first one. I'm just saying for the record, some of us come prepared to this podcast. Yep. Like me. Facts. Sean Stilato. I'm starting deep frying your turkey. Yeah. Deep fry that bitch. It's Friday. Toss that bitch in the oil. Make sure. Hey, safety first.

Yeah. Make sure you fry it indoors. Make sure you don't defrost the turkey at all. And make sure you drop it in all at once. Yeah. That's the key to having a real great, safe, delicious, juicy, deep-fried turkey. Yeah. My sit-em this week is going to be Drake because Drake's a bitch. Oh!

Oh, yeah. And Drake doesn't know what he's doing. And guess what? Now he just made a very, very powerful, powerful enemy out of most of the listening public. And we're going to find out about this Kendrick Lamar song and listen to it even more. Yeah. What is it? The Braids? And he's going to be going on. Kendrick's going to be at the Super Bowl in Lil Wayne's house trashing everybody. Big year for Kendrick Lamar. Yeah. Love that guy. And then my sleeper this week is going to be Drake London. Mm-hmm.

That guy's going to catch multiple touchdowns, possibly, from Kirk Cousins. Good Italian guy, Kirk. And he's going to be throwing to Drake in the end zone. I'm sleeping Drake, and I'm sitting Drake. Okay, so what's up, guys? It's Anthony Lasagna.

I knew we were doing this, too. I just thought we were doing it, but I didn't prepare anything either. Well, no, I did prepare something. Oh, what did you prepare? My stardom is rivalry week. Yeah. Yeah, these two teams don't like each other. They're going to play in rivalries all weekend. It's going to be sick. Throw out the record book when Texas and Texas A&M get together. Yeah, my sit-em is going to be shorts.

Why? It's Thanksgiving's official start of no shorts. Oh, really? It's cold outside. Summer's over. Keep your beers outside. Yeah, and my sleeper is Drake Bulldogs, the college basketball team. They're 6-0. Love that. They won the Charleston tournament. The good, the bad, the ugly for Drake's this week. Yeah, that's it. That's all of them. Very cool. That was Fantasy Fuckboys. Before we get to Kirk Cousin, I have breaking news. Did you listen?

Breaking news. Breaking news. I just got a text message from Big Dom. Oh. Yeah. Are you listening, Max? Big Dom texted me. It was just a picture of the Rizzler. And he said, how are you, bro? Tell Max I have some Eagles gear for him. Love this kid. He could be my son. Oh. That's awesome. Let's go. Love this kid. He could be my son. Just so you know, it's about the Rizzler, Max.

Oh, sorry about that. No, that's about the Rizzler, but he has Eagles gear for you. That was the picture of the Rizzler, and then he said, I love this kid, he could be my son. Yeah, but he's got Eagles gear for you.

Yeah. Big Dom's the best. I'll always take the Eagles gear. I get great compliments on all the Eagles gear that he sends me. He is the best. He is the best. Okay, let's do our interview with Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins is brought to you by Aura Frames. Let's be honest, what most people really want for the holidays is to see their favorite people more often. That's why this year the best gift you can give besides plane tickets is an Aura digital picture frame.

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It'll be with them all year long. A-U-R-A-Frames.com, promo code PMT. And now here's Kirk Cousins. And now for something completely different. How about this backdrop I got? It's sick. It is nice, yeah. I like it. I thought this was fake. I thought it was a green screen, but that's a literal backdrop. That's real? That's real. Holy shit. Is it a real wall? Like, this is like a... You're in the future. ...touch.

We should just start the interview right now. Is that it? It's Kirk Cousins, a recurring guest, friend of the program. Is that L.E.D.? Kirk Cousins. Or is that textured? Can you touch that? Because I want to know the way. Like, I can go back here. Yeah. That's sick. Like, my hand can go behind the falcon. Okay. All right. So this is the first question. This is actually perfect. First question going from, oh, clap.

Can we run everything? All right, so we'll just jump right in. Kirk Cousins with us, recurring guest. How was the switch from purple to black? Because, I mean, like, you had to get a whole new wardrobe, right? Oh, my goodness. It was a big switch. The wardrobe...

you know, I'd love to tell you that was the biggest challenge. Uh, but there were a lot of other challenges with switching teams, but yes, certainly the wardrobe. I heard a lot of high school friends who said, man, Kirk, I, I bought the Michigan state stuff. Then I bought the Washington stuff and I bought the Minnesota stuff. Now I got to buy Falcon stuff. So, um, I think I've cost my, uh, family and family friends a lot of money over the years switching teams. But, uh,

Yeah, the wardrobe changed. We kind of took a lot of our purple and gold stuff and had to drop it off at my neighbor's house in Minnesota and say, hey, you guys can go through this because we'll keep a few things as mementos, but the rest we don't really have a use for anymore. Yeah. How did you feel the first time you put on the all black? Like I always think of the Mike Vick era all black Falcons uniform.

I like the swagger the Falcons have always had. I mean, you mentioned Mike Vick, you mentioned Deion Sanders is another one that comes to mind. I love our throwbacks you wear with the red helmets. Um, I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. Barrington is where I would have gone to high school before I moved to Michigan and we were red and black. And so I kind of, it kind of takes me back to my childhood growing up in Barrington, uh, outside Chicago. So I love it. And, uh,

You always look a little better when you're winning and playing well, so that's usually what you got to do. Yeah, and you're a Blackhawks fan, so you can just cross over like that. It's perfect. So wait, I want to go back to something because you said you would say that the switch in colors is the hardest part about joining a new team, but it wasn't. What is the hardest part about joining a new team? Because I don't think that's ever kind of crossed my mind before.

especially someone who's been in the league for as long as you've been in the league and had a success to be like, all right, now I got to kind of not start over, but kind of start over. Right. Yeah. So I used to joke with my wife when I was in Minnesota, I would say, I don't know if I'm putting pressure on myself to play well because I want to play well, or if it's because I never want to move again. Right. Yeah. Right. Because moving, moving from Washington to Minnesota, uh,

It was really difficult to start over. You know, nice to meet you. I'm Kirk. You know, tell me how to call the plays. Tell me, you know, who my teammates are. What do they do? Well, you just you start over from scratch and you're in. I was in year seven, but I felt like a rookie and it felt like it took a whole season to get to a place where you go, OK, I really didn't.

have been here. I'm established. I'm one of the guys that took time, but now I'm here. And, um, and I knew when you change teams, you have to take that on. So it wasn't a surprise, but, um, but it's, it, there's no easy way to do it. You can't just snap your fingers and make up for, you know, the last, you know, several years of not being there. So, um, I worked as hard as I could this off season to create that. I thought we did a good job. Um, and

Uh, but that's just a big challenge is, and then you have all the off the field stuff of finding a house and move in and live it out of boxes for a while. But yeah,

It's amazing because you see on the ticker like, you know, like NBA or Major League Baseball, so-and-so, you know, is traded or so-and-so switches teams. It's just kind of like a simple thing. And the next night you see him in a different jersey. But we all kind of forget all that goes with that. Yeah. In baseball season, I always wonder how long it takes them to figure out the new individualized personal handshakes that you have with everybody on the team. That would be tough. And you strike me as a guy that would want to say hi to everybody at the facility. Like every employee, try to learn their names. Yeah.

How do you learn names? Do you have a trick? I wish I had a trick like Michael Scott in the office, but pretty much just try to memorize. And when I got here, I asked for like basically like a yearbook printout of different staff so I could start to try to learn names. But even that, like the NFL staff from when I was in Washington to now, it feels like they've doubled in size. And so every staff, the strength staff, the training room, the PR team, it's just so many more people.

And that's a good thing, but it's also a lot more people to get to know. Yeah. How, how is the, uh, the Achilles feeling and do you have any words of wisdom for your Sunday night football, uh, broadcasting partner, Mike Tirico? Yeah. And fellow Michigander, um, just learned, just learned that he tore his Achilles crazy, but, uh,

Yeah, maybe the Achilles were torn at the same rate 20 years ago, but it feels like something you hear a lot more about now than we did when I was growing up. But it's coming along. It's been great. You know, I'm really grateful that I've been able to play this whole season and was able to go through all the training camp and really much of OTAs. And so, yeah.

you know, the injury was a setback. It was a lot of unknowns, but now looking back, I'm grateful that, you know, it was really more of a bump in the road than a true detour in, uh, in this football journey. Yeah. I mean, it's also, I mean, you tore your Achilles on a NFL football field. I feel like, uh, most guys are age. We tear our Achilles doing like the dumbest things possible. I'm very nervous that it's like, we play pickup hoops every Friday here. I'm time bomb. I'm just waiting for it to happen. And just, yeah, that's not a good feeling. I, well,

when I'm retired, I'm going to play pickup basketball and a lot of tennis. And I kind of worry about my other one. I don't worry as much about my surgically repaired one because it's pretty locked down. But the other one I wonder about. So, uh,

We'll see. But honestly, I love sports so much and I love playing. It's worth the risk. Yeah. As you guys know. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. So grade this take for us because you're having a great season. The Falcons are at the top of the NFC South right now. Go back, though, to week one. We thought, okay, Kirk coming back from an Achilles injury, then having to face T.J. Watt.

was probably not the funnest game possible. And that, like, I think we said the Monday show that we did, we're like, look, it looked like it was maybe a little too fast just to start, but he'll be fine. And you could see that as the weeks went on. It's like you got your feet back to you. You got your mind back to you. Is that fair to say that it was like, holy shit, being out and having a new Achilles that I have to trust in the pocket against TJ Watt is not exactly how I wanted to start the season?

I think you were spot on, but probably less so about the Achilles and more just period. Just being out since the previous year, week eight. Yeah. It did feel like, all right, I got to get some rust off. If I had a fully healthy Achilles that never tore and I had been out since week eight the year before, it would have been a lot better.

there was still an element of, or that was the element was I gotta, you know, this gotta get familiar again, wearing a red Jersey in practice, not playing in a preseason game. Um, it was a big jump to the real deal. And then we played it, like you said, a really good defense that has kind of proven all year to be one of the better in the league. So that's,

That was something that I was like, okay, this needs to get back here quickly. And even in Philly the next week, another good defense. Yeah. You know, we did okay. We moved the football, but it was really the last drive of the game in the two minutes that started to feel like, okay, we're starting to – I'm starting to get more comfortable. Yeah.

And the NFL season is so much of a roller coaster. You have weeks where you think you figured it out, and then you have a week that sets you back, and you wonder if you can even gain a yard. And so it kind of goes the whole gamut. But I certainly do feel like I've worked my way back now, and that's a good feeling to know that after all we went through last year, tearing it and rehabbing it, and feel like, okay, I'm back now. That's encouraging and what you always wanted. Yeah, so talking about the roller coaster, how do you stay even keel during a NFL season? Because...

from where we sit, if like the Bears lose a game or pretty much any game I watch, I'm like, oh, that team stinks forever. And then I just write them off or like a team wins. You're like, that's the best team I've ever seen in my life. We don't really emotionally stay even keel. So how the hell are you able to do it week in and week out? I wish I could tell you I do it well. I know what I need to do. Now, whether or not I do it is a different story.

It's hard not to ride the roller coaster. It's hard. You know, I internalize the losses and you take them hard. And sometimes, you know, like Bill Walsh, I heard he used to take the losses really, really hard.

but he did not celebrate the wins in the other direction. It was sort of like a win got you back to zero. And then a loss was like negative 10. And you only kind of live in the negatives are at zero. And I can relate to that. Like the wind never really takes you to plus 10. You just always feel like, okay, we got the next game and we got to get the next one. And

but the loss is hurt. And so it does beat you up. It is a roller coaster, but you, you do try to just, okay, one game at a time, stay the course. Each game counts as its own entity. You kind of tell yourself the same messaging. And my,

Mike Shanahan told me my, my rookie year, I think it was Kyle Shanahan used the phrase a lot too. He would say tough times don't last tough people do. And so I would just always say that to myself, you just got to get back up, get on the horse one more time, choose to be a tough person and believe that if you do that, you'll last and that the tough time will pass. And, uh,

That's always kind of helped me through the tough losses. Yeah, Michael Silver was on our show a few weeks ago, and he shared a pretty interesting story about your time in D.C. He said that after you got in and you started playing pretty well as a backup for RG3, but when he would be hurt, you'd fill in, you'd do a great job, that in his exit interview, Mike Shanahan went to Dan Snyder and said...

You should make Kirk the starting quarterback of the team and you should trade Robert because you're never going to get as high a price for Robert. And Kirk's actually the guy that you want to build around moving forward. Did you get that sense at the time that that he was like all in on you?

Yeah. I don't know the details of those conversations. I, I know when I was drafted, their message was, we really believe in you. That's why we kind of picked you in an unconventional manner, but our plan would be to trade you in a few years that you, if you can play well in preseason games, you would really help us. Cause then you can become an asset and we can trade you for a draft pick that we can get or whatever. So, uh, but then as, as we went, they always were very affirming, encouraging, believed in me. Um,

um and that's really continued you know even uh long after they left Washington I've always kind of viewed coach Mike Shanahan as a mentor and I'll always reach out to him you know to get his input on things but uh yeah someday we'll have to all go back and kind of rehash those those years in Washington but um um it helps to always have people in your corner and I do think that that Mike and

and Kyle and Matt LaFleur and Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, you know, even Raheem Morris, you know, he was, he was there too. Like they were all in my corner and that, that really helped me believe in myself. Cause at the time I think you even wonder like, am I good enough to play in this league? And when you have them telling you, you are, it really helps. Yeah. That's crazy that you got drafted and they're like, Hey, you're an asset and we're not going to play you. And then obviously you end up playing, but that's gotta be a weird feeling. Cause you, you want to play football. I think it's pro football. I think that's the way it is. I mean, I remember, I,

Going to Michigan State and and signing your scholarship and feeling like, OK, I'm the quarterback in this recruiting class. I'm going to be the guy to kind of lead this group of freshmen coming in next year. And two weeks later, Coach D'Antonio calls me and says, hey, change of plans. We're going to take a second quarterback. His name's Nick Foles. He's going to sign here this weekend. And you're like.

Oh, okay. So you realize pretty quickly, like we're all just assets and people are going to do what they need to do to kind of build up their team. And it may, it may not be in your best interest, but you've got to always just compete and do the best you can. And, uh,

In that case, it worked out for me and Nick both. But it was kind of from day one of college football. Like, okay, it's a competition and you got to earn your spot every day. And it's kind of been that way now for, I guess, 18 years now. It gave you those anger issues at Michigan State where you had to go and beat up the entire hockey team. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. People don't know these backstories like you do. So you may have to go into detail later. But yeah, I...

I wake up one morning. We played Ohio State the night before. I wake up the next day. I stay with my family in a hotel near campus because they stayed in town after the game.

And I come to find out that it's being reported that I led a fight on campus at the local hockey house. And to this day, I have no idea why my name got brought up as the ringleader, but all my teammates thought it was hilarious because they actually know me. Yeah. And they were going to sell t-shirts that said, I party with Kirk cousins on the back. It would say late nights and hockey fights. But, uh,

Yeah, and so they reported on the news and everything, but there was nothing to it, and so it died. But yeah, that's pretty good that you would even know that. That was like 20 years ago. The bad boy reputation of Kirk Cousins. Don't fuck with Kirk Cousins. Wait, so going back to going to Michigan State and then Nick Foles,

If you were in today's college football and that happened, would you have transferred? Because I do think that there's a weird... Yeah, what a great question. Yeah, because it's a weird thing that happens now where I think guys might give up a little too quickly and look for somewhere they can start right away and they don't realize that staying with a program and seeing it out is very beneficial in a lot of ways. So the what-ifs I've asked myself are would I have transferred right away, potentially, missed out on a lot,

what if I had had the chance to transfer after my first year starting or my second year starting and just said, you know, Hey, I'm going to go to the best opportunity. It may be Michigan state. It may not like, I don't know. I think, I think you kind of would have missed out on, on, um, what it means to be a Michigan state Spartan and to, and to kind of have that as your program, the rest of your life. Um, you know, it may have been more lucrative to switch teams, but, um,

It's just a totally different world. It's one I didn't live in, and so it's hard for me to put myself there. And asking yourself those questions makes you realize how different college football is now. I know. It's crazy. I mean, there's a chance that you go somewhere else, and it's the perfect situation for you, and that's all well and good. But there's also the aspect of if you stay at a program for a while, you get that whole network of people that you have to be in touch with.

for the rest of your life and a place to go. Well, we started this interview talking about how much I don't like to move. Yeah, true. Maybe I wouldn't have wanted to leave. But no, I remember thinking, okay, once I sign my scholarship at that time, if I transfer, I have to sit out a year. Right. And who knows in a year what could happen. So I remember feeling like pretty stuck. Like, okay, I've got to make this work or plan on sitting out a year. And what ended up happening was Nick just, it really wasn't that...

I had beat him out. The competition really hadn't even gotten started yet, but he transferred to Arizona and that's what he had to do. He had to sit out a year and he was patient and then ended up playing there and ended up getting drafted ahead of me. So, you know, it all worked out for everybody, but yeah, you're just, it was a long, long journey. Yeah. What kind of car are you driving now, Kirk? I remember you used to have that sick ass minivan. It was nice. It was a good minivan. So I still have that conversion van, not that, sorry, not that conversion van. That conversion van is totaled.

But I had to double down and I went to the like conversion van, Explorer vans in Northwest Indiana. I went to their like factory and I like went through and I picked out all the specs I want. So I've got like the full like moonroof. Oh, hell yeah. Like the bucket seats that can swivel like perfect for like road tripping with your family to Big Ten college football games. So I still have that style.

style of conversion van, but it's not my daily driver. Like it used to be when I was in DC. So, uh, the daily drivers, Mercedes Benz, I got a great partnership here with them in Atlanta, which is a sweet deal. When you, when you move here and you realize that playing quarterback for the Falcons, you get to drive a Mercedes. That was, that was awesome. Yeah. They got the sprinters. If you ever are looking to seriously upgrade, get one of those sprinters with like the four rows in it, trick that

thing out. I feel like that's almost like above my brand. Like I'm more of a true conversion van guy. I mean, you go to like Sprinter van style. That's like another altitude. Yeah. I mean, you're driving around a Sprinter van. You're just expecting like a drunk bachelor party to try to get in at any point. Like if you stop too long at a red light. I want a conversion van so bad. I'm jealous. I know. I want it so bad.

I tell my wife that. I'm like, we're going to get a conversion van or an RV later on in life and just drive around America. And she's like, well, not with me. So I think that'll be the end of our marriage. My wife did not like the concept. And she's usually right about everything. But on this one, she'll admit. She's like, you know what? This conversion van is pretty sweet. You sit high. It's comfortable. The boys always have entertainment. There's plenty of room. We can pack a lot.

we drove it when I, when I signed with the Falcons, like the day I was, it was out that I was going to sign with Atlanta. We were in the van and road tripping to Atlanta for Michigan. So like we even did the conversion van road trip to, to come be a Falcon. That's awesome. I love that. I love that. So, uh, the, we haven't talked to you since you were on quarterback on Netflix. What is, is it changed at all? I mean, I, I think we, we all watched it and we're like, Kirk Cousins, just like a really awesome dude. Like,

Like that was kind of our takeaway. Like there, you know, it, whatever you think about him and we were watching him, it's like, yeah, he's, you know, he's getting his sweat sweaters from, you know, Kohl's or target. And like, he's just an awesome dude. So has anything changed that like your, the perception that you feel or even your wife getting recognized? Like, has anything changed from that?

Yeah, you said it. My wife was kind of the star of the show besides Patrick Mahomes. And she definitely gets recognized a lot more, which is fun. And I think people getting to know me is what's really fun about it.

because you don't get a chance for your fans to get to know you just playing for the team. They know you as a football player, but they don't know you as a person. And I felt like that show, in one way or another, just kind of helped people who have followed me or followed the teams I've played on to get to know me a little better, which was a huge win. And then also, just for posterity's sake, my boys are pretty young. So in 10 years, to be able to pull up that show and say, hey, boys, you want to kind of go down memory lane and kind of see –

Some of what dad did in the 2022 football season. I think that'll be valuable content to have. So that's kind of fun too. And a win coming out of it. Yeah. Your whole movies are on Netflix. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Well said. Really. It's in the cloud. I like that. I read that you're a big musical guy and have you had a chance to see Wicked yet?

So you are on it. And I just appreciate the research you've done because you're hitting all the main points. Saw Wicked last Thursday. We were on our bye week, got to go, brought the boys. I

I had a hard time because I was singing along to all the songs in the movie theater. I don't think the people around me like that, but I was waiting for my wife to like nudge me and she never really did. So I just kept singing. But I was in like a high school swing choir at my high school and

We sang the Wicked song. So like I learned them without having seen the musical. Then I saw the musical in college. And so when the movie came out, I had to go. Yeah, it's awesome. But it's just part one. I didn't know that. I thought it was the whole story, but it's just part one. And then the conclusion comes out next year at this time. So a big musical guy. My mom put us in musicals growing up. We went to a bunch of musicals growing up.

Just love it. You should be in the second one. Yeah. Like as an extra. A cameo. So I was trying to get in Happy Gilmore 2, but they were taping in New Jersey during the season, so I couldn't get there. So...

It's not a bad idea to try to get in a musical. But my dream is, or not my dream, but like a retirement goal is to be like a background person in like a local musical in my hometown. And have like, you know, the people come to the show and be like, is that Cousins in the back there doing a box set? I'm like, yeah, that's me. So on my many list of things to do in retirement, it'll be have a small role in a local musical. I love that. Yeah, that's great. You should get one in Wicked too, though.

I feel like there's somebody out there that's listening. I feel like your guys' platform is a great springboard to make this happen. Yeah, we can get this done. You want to get the average dude football fan to go see Wicked 2, put Kirk Cousins in the back of it. Yeah, we all show up. Yeah, so how are you liking Atlanta? Things been going pretty good. What's the one thing that's different about the offense that you're running right now that was the hardest to adjust to compared to Minnesota?

That's a good question. I think Zach Robinson is our play caller. You know, it's just a different person. I've had nine play callers in 13 years. And and so that change has always been difficult. But what I've been fortunate to have is nine good play callers. So aside from the change.

I've kind of always been around a guy who knows what he's talking about, knows what he's doing. It's just more about us kind of getting on the same page and meshing our backgrounds. And so that's partly what's happened with me and Zach is just kind of meshing our backgrounds. And that happens a little bit with the whole team, you know, like saying to Drake London and Darnell Mooney, Hey, here's what I've done in the past. What have you guys done in the past? What are your favorite routes? Here's my favorite routes. Here's what I did with Justin Jefferson. Do you think you can, you know, get comfortable doing that? Yeah.

And just trying to get on the same page there. And even with the old line coach, you know, Hey, do you like this run? Do you like that run? If I get this blitz on this run, do you want me to check to a different runner? Do you want me to leave it on? Like,

And sometimes you like the old line coach in Minnesota would say, Hey, check that run, go to a different one. I then got here in OTAs. I started to check the run and the old line coach is saying, why are you checking it? I like to run this run into that look. So you realize there's different philosophies and you've kind of got to rewire your brain to learn what these coaches want to do. But it all works, you know, as long as everybody's on the same page and we know what they want, it, there's no one way to do it. Yeah. Should we talk about walking your trap, take over your trap?

Absolutely we should. How do you think that's going right now? Because it was very funny at the press conference. I don't know if everyone was into it in the tunnel, but maybe I read it wrong. No, no, you actually are very perceptive. So I made the mistake. I did not – I didn't prep anybody. Yeah. So I just sprung it on them. So like the front row, like I'll never forget, Zach Harrison, one of our D linemen, was like,

all about it. Look him in the eye. Totally like my hype man. And then I realized like the guy, like five rows back, can't even hear what I'm saying. So there was buy-in, but like, there wasn't good communication on my part to get the whole team on board. Yeah. But like the three guys that could hear me, we really had it going, you know? So, uh,

No, it's got, I remember when I was playing for the Vikings, we always used to bring this boom box out in the tunnel. I think a lot of teams do that, but they would play that, that rap sometimes walk in your trap, take over your trap. If we went to an away game. And so at a press conference, they asked me about the importance of winning on the road. And that just came to mind. Like,

Yeah, I mean, you're supposed to walk into someone's trap and take over. And one thing led to the next. Now, we've actually lost our last two away games. So we've got some work to do on that front. But it's still a rallying cry. I mean, it doesn't change win or lose. It's still something you've got to do in this league. Yeah, you've just got to let everyone know that that's what you're going to be doing in the tunnel. I've got to breathe them beforehand instead of bringing it out of them. Yeah, but you can also use that for home games like they're trying to walk into our trap.

Yeah, we can't let him. This is my trap. Defend our trap. You're exactly right. And yeah, as a guy with a musical background, I probably just assumed everybody's just going to jump into my chant and buy right in. But some guys didn't grow up doing musicals. Work to be done. Yeah. How awesome is it to just hand the ball to B. John Robinson? Oh, I was going to ask that question. And just watch what he does. The mark of a great running back, among other traits, is can they make the first guy miss?

And as I had a high school friend comment recently, they said, he makes the first guy miss every time. So it's, it's fun. I mean, and the thing is, I don't care if it's a pitch, if it's a handoff, if it's a pass, like let's just get the ball in his hands. I used to say this about Dalvin cook. Let's just get the ball in his hands and good things happen, especially when you get the ball in space. So he's having a great year playing at a really high level. Yeah.

And it's just more about as defenses are keying on him, how can we be creative and how can we get the ball in his hand in space so he can go do his thing? Yeah. Yeah, he's so much fun to watch. So fun. People get mad at me because like every –

Monday when we do the recap, like I'd say three minutes of the Falcons recap is just like, I love watching B. John, like everything he does. It just creates some of the moves. He's got great hands. He could legitimately play wide receiver here in the NFL because he can run routes. He has late hands. He tracks the ball well.

but we found the best way to use him, I think is similar to how the saints have used Camaro, which is he's going to show up in the past game, but we don't need to make him a wide receiver. He's going to have receiving production just as a running back. And, and so, you know, I just think he's a big asset and,

And I kind of wonder what his ceiling is, if we can continue to get him more and more productive to where he can really do some special things. He's got that great dead leg where he puts the leg in the ground and then takes it away and the guy just sprints past me. How did that even happen? It does not compute. Oh, you got another question? I was just going to say, it's Kirk Cousins' revenge season coming up right now. You've got two revenge games. I think both away games, right? Yeah.

So you're going at Minnesota, you're going at Washington, which is the biggest revenge game for you? Well, I would say that while I'd love to win them, you know, and I said this when I went to Washington in 22, like,

There's just so much gratitude for what they did for me. Like, first of all, they drafted me Washington. Second of all, they franchise tagged me twice. Like they, they changed my whole life. And then Minnesota, you know, much the same way, even more so the way they brought me in for agency, um, you know, gave me a great contract, gave me great opportunity, gave me great coaches, great players around me for six years. Um, and,

And even on when I left, like the way that Kweisi handled it, Kevin handled it, ownership, Rob Brzezinski, like they just handled it so well. My agent would get off every call with them and just say, Kirk, the Vikings are just handling it really well. They're being honest. They're being candid. They're being open. Like, it's just been a great process. And so, you know, it's it.

yes i want to win but there's just so many people in that building that i care about and so revenge probably wouldn't be the word as much as just like you know wanting to go walk in their trap i guess and play well and do your thing but but uh but man i it's hard for me not to root for everybody there too you know yeah i mean that's the perfect kirk cousins answer it's like it's it's not it's not a revenge game you're too nice of a guy you're like when like

somebody sees like a dog that they haven't seen in years and the dog like freaks out and is super happy to see him. That's not revenge. That's like you just being Kirk Cousins. But if you had revenge and like hate in your heart for those games, I would actually bet against you because I'd be like, that's not – I want Kirk to be Kirk, not to like have this giant chip on his shoulder on a fuck everybody tour. Yeah. That would be concerning to me. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes that Kirk still exists. Though Adam Thielen used to say like,

You know, we need that dark Kirk, you would say. Like, we need that Kirk who's like, you know, you like that Kirk. So, that guy's still in there. I don't think you play as long as I've played unless that guy, you know, gets out every now and then and has some walking around money. Yeah. When was the last time dark Kirk came out? I think, it's a great question. It's happened this year. It's happened multiple times this year. Boxing?

Bucs game? I feel like that was – Yeah, you probably have to ask my teammates a little bit. I've kind of gotten fiery in the locker room pregame a little bit. So he's shown up, and usually people respond well to it, you know? But you can't force it. You've got to let it happen. How can we tell as viewers at home when we might be witnessing Dark Kirk?

If you see me, if you see the veins in the neck, if you see me pointing my finger. Yeah. If you see me pointing my finger in someone's chest. Oh. If you see, you know, the scowl, if you see me pacing, Dark Kirk is starting to rise to the surface. I love it.

I love it. I'm going to keep an eye out. Yeah. Sometimes the referee gets it. A lot of times the referee's the target. So that's another thing to look for. All right. So Kirk, this has been so much fun. We love having you on. I have one last question. It's a rowback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rowback.com promo code TAKE. I want to go back to one thing you said. Playing...

when you retire. So we have a full gym in our office in Chicago. Yeah, yeah. So open invite when you do retire. What should we expect from your game if you come in? And I would assume you just probably dominate us. I'm the high school version of Sean Livingston. Okay, okay. So I am a tall guy.

a high school point guard who's not overly twitchy. Usually the high school point guard is the quickest guy in the court. I'm way taller than the guy I'm guarding, but I have a great, great floor vision. Like my ability to pass. I see it. I say I'm pass ahead. And then, uh, I'm great with the one handed pass. I'm great. Like inbounds plays. I'm the guy passing it from the sideline or from the baseline. And if I'm on the far baseline, go deep and I'm launching it all the way down the court. Um,

I don't really look for my own shot, but I'll probably give you six points a game. And I'm going to communicate well on defense. You sound like a dream. Yeah, dream to play on pickup hoops. This is like if you had to say the perfect teammate on pickup hoops. It's like a guy who passes well and calls out the picks. Coach, coach, this is the conversation every day in the weight room. Oh, who was our starting five on the Falcons? Who's our starting five on the Vikings? For years you hear this, and I'm like, guys,

Not everybody can go drop 30 points. So you want me on your starting five because I'm going to distribute. I'm going to bring the ball up the floor. I'm going to communicate on D. I'm going to be your backside help. You need that guy. So I kind of am like the Draymond for the Warriors. I don't have to get all the accolades. I'll just fill in where I can and still be pretty productive. But I said that to Drake London, who's a great basketball player. I said, what's my NBA comp? And I kind of told him,

you know, my game and he goes, Sean Livingston. So I'm rolling with that. And then before I sign off guys, I'm a big John Gruden guy. I go see him every year in Tampa. We watch tape together. He kind of challenges me, gasses me up, tells me what I'm doing well, tells me what I'm not doing well, all the stuff he's done.

talking ball with you guys lately. I've just lived that for years with him. It's so good. So I just think it's awesome that he's on board with you guys, and I think he'll provide great content. He's the best. He's the absolute best. I don't know if you heard the story, but we watched the Eagles-Commanders game with him live stream. So we watched the whole game, and then he gets on the plane the next day with Dave to go back to Florida, and he was like, how did this end up on the internet?

And Dave was like, what do you mean? And he's like, how'd this end up on the internet? He didn't realize that we were live streaming the entire game. And he's so authentic, like nothing, like he was just him on the live stream. He just had no idea the cameras were on the entire time.

He's so good. It's a perfect fit. He's going to provide great content. I learn so much from him all the time. And there's really no off switch. He is one of one. When I was a rookie, I didn't really know him at all, except for doing the Gruden QB camp coming out. And Kyle Shanahan was his quality control guy, you know, way back in the day. And Kyle said,

It's like watching a movie. There's no off. But he's not acting like there is no off switch. And it's amazing. So I always go down there at every offseason because I just feel like, man, two days with him. I'm going to come back excited about football, excited to put in the work, excited to lead. Challenge is how I got to get better, but also, you know, pumped up. And if he if he does that at all.

half of what he's done for me, for the Barstool staff, he's going to be a huge asset. He's been awesome. He's the best. When you get like a tunnel screen called for you to throw during a game, are you like, man, Coach Gruden would hate this? He hates them. He hates screens. Oh, there's all kinds of times where I'm like,

Like little things that I know I have to do at a high, high level because Coach Gruden's watching. And if I don't do it right, he's going to pull up this tape in March and show me. One year, I led the league in completion percentage. I think it was like 69.7%, let's say.

And the first thing we do, I sit down with him in Tampa after the season. It might have been my first year starting. And he opens up like a black screen PowerPoint with white numbers. And it just says 30.2%.

He goes, you know what that is? And I said, no, what is that? He said, that's the, that's the percentage of incompletions you had. He goes, Kirk, he goes, there's like, he says something like there's never been a 75% completion percentage guy in the NFL. He goes, you're the guy to do it. Like, I'm going to show you all this, all the silly incompletions you had that you have no excuse for that you could have completed 80% of your passes. If you had just completed these easy ones. And we go through this whole clip just to make me feel bad of all the passes I missed to Jordan Reed and to, uh, Pierre Garcon and to Sean Jackson. And so, uh,

It was stuff like that where you're like, heck yeah, I'm going to go back and try to complete 80% of my passes. I've got to be better. There's no excuse for missing an open guy. He just challenged you, and he's a coach at heart. I just love seeing him get back in it and have an impact. Yeah, he's the best. He's the best. Well, thank you so much, Kirk. This has been awesome, man. We love having you on. If you're ever in town, I don't know if you're allowed to play pickup hoops while you're still playing the NFL, but maybe you could come and coach us.

That would work. I would love it. Someday, Sean Livingston, the high school version of Sean Livingston coming to a town near you. All right. Such a perfect comp. I love it. Thanks, Kirk. Okay, boys. Good long show for the people at home Thanksgiving week. Let's send it off with some numbers. Maybe we'll get it this time. Memes. 17. 3. I'm trying to help you, memes. I'm going to go 92. I'll give you 99. Oh. Go 94. Max. 11.

11. 27. Oh, I thought that was the number. 27. I knew it wasn't, but I thought it was. Love you guys. Sponsored by Novo Nordisk.

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