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This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz Podcast. 20 years into this show, and I'm not exactly sure what kind of energy this show gives off, Hawk. Probably a manic energy. But one energy I'm pretty sure it doesn't give off is white girls love to tell me I'm awesome. Hey, come on. I finally started paying attention. You specifically, or like... No, no, no, no, because like the show opened, which that song's a banger. And I really hope I'm not blowing up a spot. I don't feel like...
We talk about how much of a banger the opening song is. Every time I do the show, and this is no exaggeration, it's the first thought that comes into my head as soon as it plays. That it's way too cool for us. Way too cool for us. If you guys have never thought that,
If you have never thought, man, this opening song is a banger, then yes, it is too cool. Do we know who this is? So I'm assuming it's a royalty free track, which is why it's playing, which I'm sorry, kid. Gotta get a better agent. Like that song is so good. I mean, he's carrying. I would see that dude on tour. I would see that dude on tour. Let's go.
can we make this a thing let's find out who it is there's nothing he can do because legally if it's royalty free this is this is the path you chose my son but i would love to do something for the guy man i want to hear his other music there's a couple royalty-free bangers out there that live you will sneak up on them yeah like the hardy boys entrance royalty-free old school lex luger theme royalty-free yeah there's a couple really good ones do you think he has any idea that it's the show up in here
I really would love to. He probably recorded this like five years ago, and he has no idea that a show that's hosted by two 50-over-plus dudes is just banging its way into its sports talk show with white girls who love to tell me I'm awesome. Oh, man.
It's special. I want to see it pop up in like a Taco Bell commercial, you know, because that's what we had some imaging once that we use for some segment. All of a sudden, it's like, is that in that Subway commercial? No, it was my Tony's Top 5 theme. It was like a Dallas Cowboys like Ameren Bank commercial. I was like, wait a second. I was like, Leo, what the hell?
Wait, that's my, hey, we paid $4.99 for that. That's my song. What are we doing here? Royalty-free music occasionally has some bangers up its sleeve, and the NBA playoffs has certainly had more than a few bangers up its sleeve. Last night, kind of nondescript night in the association. We know with Steph being out,
That was probably the result that we were headed for. The one thing that I was interested in watching last night, you're always going to be interested in whatever Draymond and Rudy Gobert have going on. So I just have that on the TV on mute just to see if there's going to be a fight breaking out. But also, does playoff Jimmy have one more last job in him? Does he have one last heist in him? And I think going up 2-0 on the road is probably a little bit of a bridge too far there. But tonight we're back.
Tonight in the association, we got high stakes. We got Cleveland fighting for its life over there. Ernie Johnson fighting to be like the most right ever about a playoff series. And we got the best player on the planet going up against OKC. Haven't done what they needed to do on the road. Split one. Now they have home court over in Denver. I'm really curious to see how this goes out. But a pretty chill night in the association. If you missed out on it, you don't miss too much. And over the weekend, we have OKC.
Of course, New York Knicks all day. There was a bit of a scare when he got his ankle stepped on. We were like, oh no, are we about to lose yet another star for the NBA playoffs on the Western Conference side? Obviously, Steph got hurt with the hamstring injury. And then all of a sudden, he needs help to get hobbled back into the tunnel, back into the locker room. And it comes out like if nothing happened and looked incredible. Well, on that note, Paul Pierce...
famously went out on a wheelchair and nothing actually happened. Well, something happened. He shit his pants. It happens. So the key storyline in last night's NBA for me was Paul Pierce walking to work.
Because Boston went down 2-0 against the New York Knicks, and he said that he would make an eight-hour walk to the Fox studios. In a robe. In a robe. Wearing slides? He said barefoot. He said barefoot. In the tweet that I saw. So all I saw was the last video, and I was immediately skeptical of a dude whose nickname is The Truth. Okay.
So let's play some video here of Paul Pierce. We report, you decide kind of deal because I didn't think he actually made this entire walk. But Hawk, you told me that he was kind of live streaming this. I thought that maybe they had good propaganda because I didn't go deep into the story. But from what I saw, the articles, the headlines made it seem as if
He was giving frequent updates that people weren't questioning whether or not it was legit. This video we're going to play is alive. So he was live. I just don't think we know whether there were some gaps there where it's like, oh, he just jumped six miles in an hour. Okay. I'm skeptical because he doesn't look. Let's roll it here. Let's roll it here and we can have it low. But I'm skeptical of how sweaty he looks at the end. Oh, damn.
It's nice and right outside. All right. So this is him leaving his house. Not barefoot. Yeah. All right. Now let's cut now to a later version of it, the one where he's like celebrating. Let's see what we got here. Damn, dog. I made it, y'all. We made it, y'all. We made it. Doesn't look too sweaty. Oh, my gosh. They got a wheelchair for you. Oh, my gosh. That's a good joke. That's good comedy right there.
Sit down right here, y'all. I made it, y'all. I made it. I made it, y'all. Look at this. This is crazy. Look at that, bro. I can't believe it. I'm never doing this again, y'all. I ain't never put no bet like this ever again. I don't know. Now, with that hairline and that sun, you're going to be a little... You're not going to be shinier than that? All right, so when he left the house, it was clearly...
I would say, give or take, around 5 or 7 a.m. I have no idea, but looking at the sunlight, and it was kind of gleek. In L.A. It was 70 degrees yesterday. That's a nice day. Where, in L.A.? Yeah. And that was the high. Yeah. So at 5 a.m. in L.A., it's going to be like 58. You know, it's not like Florida where it's 97 degrees 24 hours a day. So...
If he's leaving that early, I can see where it's a little chilly. You know, he's closing the road when he's walking out of the house. So it's probably cold. Our video team is showing here just some like footage of like his day. It's not all Instagram live. There are clearly you guys put up what you have here now. Clearly, Instagram stories are involved here. It's not 100 percent live. So my radar is up.
It's up. Fight through. Good job, Chris. Do that time scrape that you guys were doing in the preview screen where we kind of go over the stretch of time. My skepticism is not that he was committed to the bit, but...
I kind of feel like maybe there was a car on standby. You know that Fox sent out security. Right. That he wasn't doing this by himself. So there was absolutely a vehicle around him while he did this. There's no way Paul Pierce is just walking eight miles in L.A., committed to a bit for content for Fox, and people know about this. He even put out the map.
in the route that he was gonna take. So I imagine there's a crew following him, making sure that he's okay. So the skeptical part of me is, and I'll bring in skeptical Billy here is, did he go from certain points in this car, freshen up a little bit,
I don't care if it's 70 degrees. You're going to be shinier than that. That's where I'm skeptical. I mean, the low was 59 when he started. I think he did it. I live in L.A., man. I'm pretty spot on there. I like it. I like him.
I never realized how much I say I like him until you cut that clip. And then everybody says it back to me now. It was the pitch, though. I go to that pitch. It was high off the glass. I don't know why I do it. I have no idea. I like him. There's so many things about this show that have really turned the mirror around. There's so many things that I'm confused about as well. I don't know why people in the street keep calling me Walter. Oh, that's right. That happens. And I haven't been here for weeks.
And I laugh it off as if I know what the hell they're talking about, but it has been happening pretty frequently. Can I ask you a question? Yes. If you ran into Greg Cody in public, would you recognize him? Oh, for sure. He apparently wouldn't recognize you. Now, I wasn't aware of this. You guys have never met. Like, you guys have never been scheduled against one another? I think we've been in the same room. He seems to think that you guys have never met. Yeah. He might not be wrong. Yeah. I've also played football, so my memory's not...
You know? Well, he's also approaching that age where his memory is gone. My brain, his brain are like really neck and neck there. Plus, it was at the height of us talking about White Lotus and like Hawkins and Goggins. So like there was some people saying that my dad heard Hawkins, thought Goggins, so that's where he got the Walter. But his name is Walton. But I'm just saying, I'm just trying to, my dad can just kind of word vomit. You're an apologist for your father. So he thought my name was Walter? Or he like misspoke? I have a clip of someone mention you and this is him being like, I have
I don't know Walter... That's basically... Someone said Hawkins, and he's like, I don't know Walter... Okay. Well, I also don't know Walter Hawkins. All right. I mean...
So that's why people are calling me Walter. That makes sense. Some people have asked me to change my Twitter name to Walter. I'm talking about at least 20 times. It is kind of odd that you guys have never been staffed on the same show or had interactions. I mean, it's a show that has like a shared universe. And you've been in this building for a couple of years now. I've been here. Yeah, no. It's just really odd that you guys have never... I thought he retired from the show.
My dad is very regularly dismissive of other co-hosts. He has this thing where he likes to be. He's the GOAT. He's an OG. I do feel like, though, I've been on the show even prior than the last two years.
And he may have been on the show while I was like a call-in guest. I'd have to go back in the archives and check. I think we can have someone on that assignment. Yeah, there was probably a day that you were taping with Joe Thomas in the studio doing a call-in. Yeah, although that would mean three seats are occupied in this studio. So I'm not exactly sure even if the studio layout would lend itself to that. Yeah, maybe not. But I don't feel like it was this studio. I feel like it was...
OG studio. I'm talking like 2018. Wow, Cleveland? Yeah, I think this might have been a Clevelander sitch. Alright, well, we gotta track down that video. So, I'm just kind of ticking down the moments to Nick Celtics and I really wasn't
aware that I could be this big of a Knicks fan. Like, I am... I worked out in Tim's the other day. Like, I am so pumped for this. And it kind of dawned on me because I hated New York and the New York Knicks and that heat rivalry when I was growing up meant everything in the world to me. But then...
The Heat have had such more of an intense rivalry with the Boston Celtics over the course of their franchise history. Now, it never came to blows, but in terms of stakes, in terms of you had multiple blueprint games. You had Paul Pierce's stupid ass in the middle of it. You had so many things going. I hate Paul Pierce. Clearly.
By the way, Jason Tatum, since the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, you include the Olympics, and now he's shooting about 27% from three in these high-stakes games. He played in the Olympics? Well, Steve Kerr's decision-making when it comes to Jason Tatum is kind of validated, no? Kind of validated, no? And I know he won a championship in the middle of that, but Jalen Brown carried his ass. So Jason Tatum...
We're looking at you. You got to rise to the occasion. You idolize Kobe? Okay. I think I saw Nick Wright call him. He is Kobe Bryant of Paul George's, which is a bar and a stinging indictment. That is a – how long did – I'm going to text him. How long did it take you to come up with he is a Kobe Bryant of Paul George's? He'd tell you like three seconds. That is a crazy good line. They need to win both games at Madison Square Garden. They need to win both.
I know that they need to win four to win the series. Thank you for holding up the four. They need to win four. I know. But they ain't winning four if they don't come away with both these games. I'm telling you right now. You give the Garden one dub, and they're just one win away from potentially a clash with Halliburton. And then all the videos from that Friday Night Smackdown that they did are going to pop up. I mean...
Halliburton literally picked up brass knuckles and Jalen Brown hopped over the barrier there to stop him from doing that. They had a face-off in the middle of the ring. People didn't know that this happened between Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Halliburton. I had no idea. Yeah, they went into a WWE ring, had a face-off. Halliburton was wearing a Tyrese 316 t-shirt and jorts. He had brass knucks in his hand. This is something that happened. They had a
face off. Halliburton had his own entrance. This was something that happened. When was this? I'm telling you, it was like last summer. We need the clips. Get the stills. The stills are incredible. You'd think it's AI. No, this is something that actually happened. But we don't have Knicks-Celtics today. So what we have today is a blueprint game potentially for the Florida Panthers. Now the Florida Panthers, they've been down two games during this run.
They've been down two games in a series before Roy. They were down 3-1 to Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins when they were in eighth seed. They came back in that series at the depth, tie that game in game seven, and then swaggy calls game.
So, like, the Florida Panthers have been here before. Now, I understand, down 0-2. We're just saying how the Celtics are borderline screwed because they dropped the first two games. A lot of people are holding up. Well, why don't you talk about the Panthers? It's a different situation. They dropped the first two games in Canada. Now they come back home.
They come back home, and I've got to tell you, I'm not nervous yet. Where I'll be nervous is if Toronto scores the first goal. Then I'll be doing all the tricks when it comes to all the skepticism that I have about Brad Marchand and that acquisition. Roy, I know he's been the best player so far for Florida this series. That line has been our best line.
That line has always been our best line. That line has always been a good third line. Reinhardt, Barkov, and that second line, it's been a good third line. I'm with you. It's been an elite third line for years, but it's rarely our best line. Not rarely. No, that has always been the playoff energy line. That has always been the line. You want to get a winger going, you put them with E2 and you put them with Lundell. And the fact that Brad Marchand is rising to the occasion, I think...
Good for him, but I think it's a testament to how good that line is. It jumpstarts a bunch of different people. I think if I'm saying, if I'm looking at the first two games, who needs to play better, I'm looking at Kachuk and Bob.
I think people are being a little too hard on Bob. I think Bob has had some good saves. You want to say that he's let in some soft ones? That could be fine. Oh, he has let in some soft ones. You've got to make those saves. The last goal was bad. The last goal was a bit of a snipe. Nise is in front of the net screening him, and that goes up for 90. And that's Mitch Marner. I understand what you're saying. His positioning needs to be a little bit better. What I'd like to see from Florida is they've let Toronto screen Bob at
at their free will, and we gotta get some bodies pushing bodies over there. You mentioned who needs to be better, and you lump Bob in there, and I would put Bob like 12th on this list. To me, it's the first two lines. Outside of the Barkov power play goal, the first two lines have been empty. Your top six have been bad, and they
They just haven't. It's not like score goals, guys. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just saying, like, handle the puck. Be where you're supposed to be. Be awake and aware. When Barkov is sending a centering pass in front of the net, Swaggy's not expecting it. I don't know if every pass to Carter Verhege has been bad, but it seems as though that's either been the case or he's just completely out of position. Verhege had it in front of the net with like five minutes left in that game. He needed to put that one home. Carter Verhege, number one.
on the team needs to do better. Yeah. He needs to do better for the past few months. He hasn't done well at all. All season long. And I watch these games and I'm not necessarily sure it's something that Toronto is doing.
The Panthers' best players just need to wake up. Reinhardt, Barkov, Kachuk. Kachuk had a nightmare of a game. He almost looks like he's still battling with something. We always do this. I know. But he looked good against Tampa. He's just got to wake up. Swaggy, maybe that ship has sailed. I was worried about that contract. I'm pretty sure Carter Verhage's best hockey is behind him.
Now, I was believing in Sam Reinhardt, but from midseason on, now I'm a little curious as to what I saw over the last year and a half. Which is the real Sam Reinhardt? Please stand up. I'm not super, super concerned yet. Like I said, this is a champion. This is a team that has had its back against the wall. And most importantly of all, folks,
That's the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh, yeah. They got something in them. In their back pocket. They're going to blow it somehow. That's the Toronto Maple Leafs. They look good to start against Ottawa. And then the weight of that Maple Leaf on the front of their jersey started weighing them down. And Ottawa almost came back in that series and tied it up 3-3 after being down 3-0. Well, here's the major thing that the Panthers are going to have to show up because they're allowing the players to get behind them. Their transition defense hasn't been very good. And the rush against a team whose top 10 and goals...
on the rush. Like, you can't have that happen. A lot of stress passes have gotten past the defensemen leading the breakaway. So they're going to have to show up to transition defense. Hawk, what do you think? Must win tonight? Yeah, I mean, if they tighten their neutral zone gaps and get Kachuk the puck below the...
The dots, the blue line. I mean, game three. He's right about the neutrals. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The neutrals. Well, that's where the stretch passes come in. And Toronto's very good at stretch passes and all season long. Actually, over the last two and a half seasons, Florida's been bad at defending against stretch passes. I think the upset in this series so far is Toronto hasn't exactly cashed those in. That's coming. Florida's defensemen have been terrible.
All of them have been bad. And I'm right there with you. We need to get Kachuk in that happy place behind the net, quarterbacking that power play. You need to draw some penalties, and you've got to avoid the dumb ones the way that Kulikov has. I know Kulikov is going to play, but he's been a disaster so far in these first two games.
Are you asking ChatGPT? I mean, Fortchek was disruptive as ever, but there's lapses in defensive coverages off the rush that hurt him. You know, expect Maurice to adjust at home to get Barkov out against Nylander's line. I think Game 3 will tell a completely different story. Nylander's been the— Well, Nylander, Nylander, I grew up with them. That's what makes me scared. If there's anything that's scary in this series is that he's hot.
Yeah, he's a really good player. Physically and literally and figuratively. And he's one of the few players on Toronto that you know is a gamer. I know he had that weird thing where was he concussed last year? Where is William Nylander? Matthews hasn't really gotten going yet. He's still silent right now. Yeah, he's still silent. Marner's one of those players that tends to disappear and you know that you're going to lose a game if Marner's going to have a snipe like that. I don't think that that goal was so bad. And like I said, Bob had some really big saves. So like...
He stopped some that should have went in, and he let in some that he probably should have stopped. This is about Florida's best players scoring some goals and just playing some good hockey. Stop being so sloppy with the puck and taking some bad penalties, Hawk. Yeah. That's what Chad JVT came back with. It's floating. It's a little slower than usual.
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You know, when you celebrate 50 years of Miller Lite, I had to bring in a Miller Lite aficionado, Greg Cody. I mean, no one says Miller Lite like Greg Cody. When I think of me and you, I think of us on a golf course. Where else are we at? I mean, on a cruise ship, in my backyard. At the beach. At the beach is a good one. And what do we always do? We hear that tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk.
Oh, yeah, yeah. And then what do we do? We toast. We clink. Nice little clink. The clink, whether it's the can or the bottle, there's something about the clink of the Miller Lite. Yeah, and it's not just how much we love it. It's the whole ritual of it. You know, the popping the top, the sound of that. Tick, tick, tick.
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Putting up a billboard in Edmonton? Stugatz! I care more about Matthew Kachuk than I do my daughter. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugatz! ♪
The real question I have going into this game three at home in our barn, had to say barn, was working in a barn no matter what. Who's drumming tonight? The first series was not happy. It was like the seventh guy for Inter-Miami and then Jonu Smith. All right, we need to do better. Jonu did a good job. I'm not saying, no, no, this is not my, I'm not judging their, I'm just saying name, like, get me excited. Kramowski should have never been drumming that drum. Right.
Never. It's just so, I don't know who they got today. Roy, I don't know. A little inside source here. What are we looking at here? What are we thinking? No word yet. Maybe like a Heat, like it's not going to be like a Heat player or something. It's not going to be Adonis Haslam because he's going to be at the Battlecore Championship. That's true. Keep an eye on Jack Nicklaus. Yeah. They busted him out. That was last season. That was the Stanley Cup. I don't think he's coming out for round two. You don't think he's coming back? That was a very controversial one. But did they win? If you're Jack Nicklaus and you do a Stanley Cup final game, you can't.
then do a round two game. You can't go back in round two. You should never be invited back when you drum the team loses. That's true. It's all about positive juju here. But Florida is down 0-2, and the Toronto Maple Leafs in their playoff history are 11-0 when they go up in a series 2-0. Now,
Most teams are. When you go up 2-0. Except for the Kings. Yeah, that's very true. Which leads me to my next point, and we'll close with hockey on this. The Edmonton Oilers are going to win the Stanley Cup. So scary. They're going to win the Stanley Cup. And L.A. had them dead to rights. I was watching that game in the RV at Talladega, and we had them. We had the oil done and dusted. They had that miraculous goal there. And then the dumbest challenge in the history of sports is,
and it just ends the series right then and there. You're watching it, and you realize L.A.'s coach just ended this series. Edmonton and Pete Blackburn had a great tweet about watching the Edmonton Oilers because when that team goes down, it is horrifying. Keep in mind, this is the biggest Golden Knights, a team with championship pedigree.
And they look completely helpless when Edmonton truly has it going. No lead is safe. Pete Blackburn tweeted out last night, every Oilers game is like watching someone start a bar fight by immediately giving the other person a gun and then kicking their ass in self-defense.
And that couldn't be truer. There is just so much talent. Dreisaitl, once again, a finalist for the heart. McDavid hasn't even truly gotten going yet. They have so much speed, so much talent. And on top of all of that, they've done the suffering. They're pissed off. And they know that they can microwave a comeback at any point. This team is so dangerous. They got that look. I'd be terrified to play them. I think the one opportunity to kill them was wasted by L.A. Edmonton has it down.
They're going to be Stanley Cup champs. Switching goaltenders from Stuart Skinner to Calvin Pickard actually helped them out too. He's undefeated right now. And if you look at Pickard's numbers, it's not crazy impressive, but if you watch the games, contextually, he's made some very timely saves, some big-time saves that has kept some deficits from getting out of hand. I was so happy to see Stuart Skinner between those pipes.
Pickard is a bit of a different situation. He might be good enough. Now, I don't know if he's at the level to win a Stanley Cup. They're going to get tested, and this clip will no doubt be rehashed when they're inevitably down 2-0 in a series, and then they do that thing again. But Edmonton looks frightening right now, and I think that they've done the right amount of suffering, and it's just finally their time. He's the best player on the planet, and he's going to win. Thank God we got them when we did. I don't want to play this game, but if you're Stuart Skittles,
Put yourself in his mind. Is he rooting? Does he want to play or does he just want to win in the playoffs? They're up 2-0. Is he hoping that they lose game three badly so that he can get in? I don't think he's coming back. Hot hand. I don't think you could be able to pick it up. You think they would give him even a loss? If Pickard had a bad game, they'd stick with him for one more game? I think they'd give him one bad game. I just always wonder. It's like the Stugatz question of happiest guy on a losing team. Is this guy rooting for him?
for his goalie because they'd still be in it if they lose it. I don't know. It's just like an interesting dynamic. Toronto's going to go Wall, right? Yes. Yeah. They're just going to – I mean, Wall played well, and you have the easy thing in your back pocket saying Stoli's just not right yet. He's still concussed, so you keep riding the hot hand. He didn't make the trip, Stoli. All right. So it's going to be Wall for the next two games at least. I know that they have that young prospect goalie that they were really excited about that didn't necessarily run with the opportunity.
But this is your opportunity, Florida, to get back in this series. I have... I don't know why, but I'm pretty certain this is going back to Toronto 2-2. I certainly hope so. Florida's screwed if it doesn't. But this is where the champions prove that they're the Stanley Cup champions and they defend their home ice. Now, they haven't been so good...
this postseason in home ice, especially not on the power play. What are they, 0-4 at home on the power play? 50% on the road and 0-4 at home. That's going to have to turn around. That's going to have to turn around. Yeah, and the Maple Leafs are due 11-0. There was one story in the NHL that didn't have to do with any of the playoff teams, and Joel Quenville is back in the NHL. That's unbelievable.
I mean, it's not, though. No, it's not because Dan Bowman has a job right now. He's in the front office for Edmonton. But that's just not a good look. And I think, look, if in a vacuum, Anaheim made a good hire. Yes. Anaheim is one of those teams, and I know Billy was hot on the ducks. They're right there.
They got some good young talent. They need to be a little bit more disciplined. Now, I know that they kind of had a disciplinarian at Coach, but Coach Q is kind of overboard on that. He's a guy that's been there. It is the right hire for them in a vacuum. But also, he was at the helm in Chicago overlooking all sorts of sexual assaults, power dynamics that were totally abused.
And that's really, really bad. When it happened, it felt like, given where Coach Q was in his career, that that was it. He was never coming back to the sport. And things have changed. And he's back. And Anaheim picked the perfect day and the perfect time to announce it as a new pope is being announced. You could not have gotten... Do you think that they were just watching the conclave coverage, waiting to... All right, we got white smoke. We're announcing Coach Q right now. Smart. Genius. Genius level. It is.
It is. And you would think that the eyes of the world would be tuned into the Anaheim Ducks coaching search. But when it comes to, you know, people in power that have overlooked sexual assault and
the eyes of the world are going to be on the Catholic Church. It's just like, by comparison, you're talking about thousands of cases and cover-ups. So we're naturally going to be fixated on that. But Anaheim Ducks, in terms of a news dump, it's hard to get much better than that in terms of your timing because this is going to get totally swept. I feel like in terms of hires they could have made that made news, Gordon Bombay would have been the only one bigger, right? If the Ducks hired Gordon Bombay. Yeah, hiring a fictional character, yeah, that would have made a lot of news. Because the Ducks fly together if you guys don't...
remember. What's your dilemma for tonight's game? I have an interesting dilemma. I bought my wife for Christmas Teddy Swim's tickets on GameTime, by the way. I used GameTime for the best tickets, and it's tonight. And I told her at the beginning of the playoffs that, you know, we hope that we get lucky with this Teddy Swim. You love doing this, by the way. You love having tickets on nights that there's huge games happening. Because it happened the other day, didn't it? How can I project this? What's Teddy Swim's? He's a singer that my wife likes. Big time act.
Yeah, he's a rising star, I'd say. He's a swimmer. And I bought my wife tickets. I had planned on going, and my wife's not happy. Oh, that's Jelly Roll. He's a lot like Jelly Roll in that he's a white guy with tattoos that...
That people like it and it's the voice of an angel. So my wife, we're in an argument right now. And she wants me to go. I told her to invite her sister, invite a friend. And so it's tonight. And I still don't know yet how this is going to be resolved. Did you buy these tickets before the schedule was released? I bought these tickets for Christmas. Well, she should have been angry. Thank you, Roy. You got to know it's May, though. Oh, no. Trust me. Oh, trust me. In these arguments, no more gifts in May and June. Yeah. No more gifts. No more concerts. Yeah.
And if I'm being honest, it was one of those last minute, couple days before Christmas, I think I need one more thing kind of gift. You know, we've all been there. I need one more thing to really feel like I've done enough here. So I just pulled Teddy Swims out of my front.
And it's just like now it's screwing me. I regret doing it. A terrible choice by me. And I need Melanie to go to this concert. So if we can all just push energy towards my wife's friend Melanie, please go to this concert. Spare me some pain. Well, another scenario here is Game 4 is on Mother's Day. That one I've already gotten approval.
Wait, what? No, no, no. How about this? Because we have Saturday plans for Monday. If they lose this game, you're not going to game four. Right. You're not going that. You're selling that to a Maple Leafs fan. My wife tried to paint it as game three. You have game four. So game three is not important. I'm like, I'm telling you, game, this is the most important. There is no tomorrow. There is no tomorrow. If they drop this game, you are not going to game four. The barn needs me. It does. The barn needs him. You're pushing it, dude. If I put my tickets up, you know who's going to buy it?
Toronto fans. Yeah, Maple Leaf fans. But you already got approval to skip Mother's Day to go to a Panthers game. Now you're skipping a Christmas present also. Two times in three days? You're really pushing it. My wife is playing this gymnastics because we have Saturday Mother's Day plans this year. So she just is like, oh, we're doing something Saturday so it works out. You can go on Sunday. That's a losing game for you, friends. Just so you know, when Mother's Day comes, Saturday wasn't going to have been Mother's Day. It was, though. Before the hockey schedule came out, we had Saturday Mother's Day plans. Mm-hmm.
It's a tough one, and I've put my foot down. We're arguing right now. We are in a fight because my wife has kind of just been like, oh, she's guilt tripping me of like, oh, what's more important? She's making this about her versus the Panthers. It's Mother's Day and her Christmas present. No, no, this is about Teddy Swims versus the Panthers. Teddy Swims is a great name, by the way. I don't know much about him. It can't be his real name. I'm all for verbs as last names. I think that's a good thing. His name's not even Teddy.
It's not? No, it's Jaden Collin Dimmesdale. That sounds like a serial killer. 100%. That's a good one. Also, if you murder people and you sign Teddy Swims, that's a sick serial killer sign. Or like Britney Spears. Yeah, we know that now, but if we didn't know who she was and she signed Britney Spears, it's like, that's scary. You know what I've always thought, Hawk, is when...
When I... I have two daughters, right? And when my daughters were born, I felt like...
immediate relief and I was like okay thank God like no matter how badly I screw this up there are very few women serial killers so like no matter what I do probably won't be serial killers yeah just statistically and by the way I would like to say like I fully like on record I fully believe in women's ability to be serial killers should they choose to be like and I would support the decision and if my daughters decide to be serial killers I would support that right like yeah I would still love that white
You wouldn't be any more supportive of your daughter's serial killers than you would your son's serial killers. Yeah, I don't have one, but I would believe in my daughter's equal ability to be serial killers as my son if I had one. You've made humanity better. Yeah, possibly better. I don't think there's ever been a Cuban serial killer that's a woman. Well...
You know what? Cross your fingers. Maybe we break the mold. I feel pretty confident in that. I feel like there's serial killers every shape, form, size. I bet you we can find one relatively quickly. I mean, the best serial killers, you don't know who they are. They never get found. That's the Hall of Fame. We're not talking about Hall of Famers, bro. Well, I mean, my daughters, I feel it could be Hall of Fame serial killers. You think so? Well, that'd be good because then you would never know. Yeah.
I think to be Hall of Fame, number one rule is nobody knows it's the game. It's kind of like being a good guard in the NFL. Yeah. It's like when you're the best version, we don't know your name. We don't know your name. As simple as that. Yeah. I've caught myself looking off in the distance lovingly at chat GPT hockey expert Andrew Hawkins. If he wants to poke his head back in here, I ain't mad. You're okay with it? There was one story in the NFL that we actually didn't really get all that into in the day that it broke. And it was kind of weird how it broke because Adam Schefter was like, trade is coming.
And then people had all sorts of questions about the compensation. And that was a George Pickens acquisition. I kind of thought...
the compensation was kind of on the money, given how crazy George Pickens is. Yeah. I mean, I don't know him personally, but on the field, as an athlete, his persona on the field is crazy. Yeah, he's one of the crazy... It's okay to say that. In terms of watching a player. Yeah. The fun. The fun of it. Yeah, in terms of spazzing out on the field, this guy is capable of anything. He's like Draymond in that way. Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. And he's...
It's kind of crazy to say this in terms of unpredictability and crazy style on the field. To ever wear that uniform, he might be gold medalist. In a short amount of time.
without a Hall of Fame quarterback. He's up there for sure. What did they trade him for? Was it a third rounder? Is that what the competition was? Which is kind of, you know, this is a guy that is still new in his career. This guy that people don't deny his talents. Had some of the craziest in-game catches that you'll ever see. Unbelievable talent, but also a psychopath on the field and someone that could actually hurt your team chemistry in the locker room. Someone that can give you a big time penalty. Some guy who's, who's,
inconsistency and unpredictability on the field almost seems like a perfect fit for Dallas and what Jerry Jones is always trying to accomplish which is just like he's just a mad scientist over there putting all these different variables together the good news is that they already have a number one over in Dallas and it's CeeDee Lamb me and Hawk were talking before the show and it's like was George Pickens the number one he's like no he's a really good number two because you can't have your number one be that unpredictable like your number one's got to be like all right I know my job I do my job and that's what it is you got
Like the number one is the guy you rely on in all situations. I always say when, and I don't know, do you guys want an analyst Hawk? Cause I, yes, I got a tweet or I got a message from me hockey analyst Hawk, but yes, you can do this. Yeah. I mean, that's powered by chat GPT. You can do your day job, but I posted something where I was talking about Mike McDaniel on rich Eisen and then a mean commented that,
This is the analysis that they get and we get fun CTE. And for me, fun CTE Hawk is the better version of Hawk. I agree. But I never know how in-depth you want me to go. Let's go. We need like 45 seconds to a minute every appearance of actual real analysis. I'll give it to you. All right. So George Pickens, just like you talked about, he is very unpredictable. When I look at a number one receiver, I want you to be able to do two things at a high percentage.
catch and run a slant when we need it and also be able to execute go balls right now george pickens loves going deep or deep routes uh contested catches he can do that but on a third down in five one-on-one we know you're getting the ball we know they're trying to stop you they're shading a safety your way or shading a linebacker can you still get free and make the catch i'm
I don't think George Pickens has developed his game enough to do those kind of things consistently, like to be in a spot always for the quarterback, to make sure he's doing all the little things away from the ball. Yes, we know you want the ball. Every receiver wants the ball. And we know you're great at making a play on the ball, but you got to know how what you do when you're not being the target affects the entirety of the offense and also affects your ability to have a higher percentage of getting open. And that's what I've always questioned about George Pickens.
Does he have an ability for a number one receiver? Has the talent? Yes. Is he that level for skill? And does he execute his game at the position to be a number one? I would say no. So third rounder makes sense for the Cowboys. And he is the number two to CeeDee Lamb, who will be the unequivocal number one. I want to stay here for a little bit and pick on that brain a little bit more because George Pickens is,
assumed that he was the number one in Pittsburgh. And talent-wise, yeah. Production-wise, a little hit or miss.
I guess I'm asking you to get inside George Pickens' head, which is a crazy place to be. But it's pretty well established where CeeDee Lamb is in this league. And for George Pickens to go into Dallas, how do you think he approaches that? Do you still think he thinks he's alpha? Oh, yeah. He has that personality for sure. And I don't mind that. I like it. I like him. Come on. Oh, come on, man. I thought we were faster than that, Chris. All right. But, yeah, I like that mentality and mindset. I still need you to...
Essentially do your job. Everybody, when you're coaching a team or building a roster, there are people with a high upside, high ceiling. Maybe if this situation happens, we get the most out of them. But then also, if the floor is bottomless...
That's hard to build around, especially when he is your best receiver. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, it's like, man, we're going to come into this game and we don't know what he's going to do on any given play. That's hard for you to build a game plan around. That's hard to see what your holes and needs are as an offense. So you go get DK Metcalf and you can argue,
Okay, who would you rather have over the next four years? But no matter what, you can say, I know what DK Metcalf is going to do within the confines of the whistle. He still has a little wow child to him as well, but at least as a player, he's a lot more consistent than what you see from George Pickens. So what you're saying is you don't want a number one who on a run-blocking play is people elbowing somebody. Yes, that's essentially it. Okay, gotcha. Just write that down. Right, yeah. I'm kicking real game here.
Don't people's elbow a dog paw. You're not going to get that analysis anywhere else. But he was on a franchise that had Mike Tomlin, who's navigated crazy receivers before. Yeah. And there were people there to kind of check him. It wasn't the veteran teams of Pittsburgh past, but...
He goes to Dallas, and Dallas is the kind of place where they've made these moves and they expect guys to not be crazy, and then they're so crazy because it's a bit of a rudderless ship. It starts at the top because Jerry's kind of a wild man. Yeah, Jerry's nuts, man. Bring on the nuts. That's a crowd. That's a crowd. That's going to the club pretty quickly. Yeah.
So who's going to hold this dude in check? In that wide receiver room, I don't really know if that's Seedy's style and he's not there in his career where he's like veteran guy, right? Yeah. I mean, it would likely have to be Dak Prescott. I mean, this is a new toy for Dak Prescott to use because it's hard to even – we talked about Seedy Lamb when there's no other threats. Like, hey, you are making my job –
10 times harder by not giving me the balance of making sure we have somebody that you have to give attention to. So I do think it's going to be, it can get pretty balanced pretty quickly because George Pickens seeing one-on-one and C. Lamb seeing one-on-one, you got to pick your poison. Is George Pickens the kind of guy that you look at and it's like, that's untapped potential. Like he can be a consistent number one in the league or is George Pickens what he is? Like this guy's going to be
kind of a helter-skelter experience and always kind of someone that you can't fully depend on because I'm not saying he's a finished product, but I don't necessarily think that it's going to just all of a sudden. I think he'll do better.
in Dallas than he did in Pittsburgh, like statistically. And I know that was a big topic. Well, because of the quarterback situation. Because of the quarterback situation. Schefter put out a tweet about receivers who left and didn't do better. And he also had Mike Wallace on there. I would argue Mike Wallace doesn't belong on that list. But then Emmanuel Sanders did well. Plaxico Burris did well as well. And the fact that
Pickens is early in his career and he's going to a better quarterback with a need for what he does, I think will be it. But to your question, yes, it will always be all over the place. Antonio Brown, who obviously people think of every time they talk about Steelers receivers and what Tomlin had to deal with, what Antonio Brown did was,
better than anybody is be obsessed with football. I mean, this is a guy that I remember after my first year in the league, we were both had an appearance with the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. And he's like, yo, come, you know, I'll come to your room at some point, blah, blah, blah. So this is like a week after the season. My body still hurts from the last game. His season is over. This is before he's taken office, Antonio Brown. And I like, you know, knock on the door. He, he drenched in sweat with a ladder in the, in the hotel room, uh,
got done with an hour and a half of just ladder drills. And I'm talking about drenched, in the room, brought his own ladder, and this is what he is always. And when you put that kind of work in, it's going to show up on the field. I don't know if that is George Pickens. But that is the only way you can say, okay, George Pickens is
I'm confident he'll develop into a consistent player at a high level. I mean, it's definitely a sad story what happened to AAB because you look back at interviews from that time. He was just a different cat. The eyes weren't as glassy. I mean, we all know that there's a lot going on there with AAB. I mean, it certainly played out in the public before, but people forget.
Where he came from, what he had to do to work. He's a dog. Absolute dog. Even with the hard knock stuff and his feet all torn up, that guy would work super hard. And then lost the plot. Everything got away from him. And what was going on between the ears played a factor there. But I don't know if George Pickens has ever shown the commitment to the game that A.B. had.
No, no. And maybe because he didn't have to get it the same way A.B. had to get it out the mud. You know what I mean? A.B. comes from a horrible neighborhood in South Florida. Family situation not great. No, he had to fight for his life. Literally fight for his life. Was on his own as a young teenager.
you know, packs his bag up literally one bag and goes to walk on at central Michigan. He's a six rounder. He leaves it like literally he had to earn every piece of it. So I think just that mentality of him, uh,
not knowing what was next is what fueled the way that he worked. I don't know if that's George Pickens' reality. Well, the Dallas Cowboys, when they typically take these swings, I don't know what the record is. It kind of feels like the Dolphins do when they go after big-time talent. It doesn't always work out. It's worked out in some cases. You can argue Brandon Marshall worked out. Certainly with Ricky Williams it worked out.
But their history is littered with guys that they took big swings on, David Boston types, where it just didn't end up working out. And Dallas, it starts at the top and it kind of always feels like they take these swings and it doesn't necessarily go their way. Usually you can lump in the Cleveland Browns. And I want to have a discussion with you, a Cleveland Browns luminary, about what the F they did a couple of weeks ago.