Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon music. Hockey is on. And no matter the city, no matter the team, no matter the game, whether it's face off or penalty shots, regular season or playoffs, win or lose, no matter. No matter what happens, no matter where it happens, new Amsterdam vodka is there. Hey, what's going on there, pal? We saw you at the hockey game on. Do I know you guys?

I'm Ryan Whitney.

I got a drink named after me. Not a big deal. Pink whitney.

That's what I thought.

See you, fellas.

I invented the thing you pigeon. Pink Whitney for legendary moments on today's part. In my take, we have two for two interviews for the people. We have our good friend Peter Schrager recapping hard knocks, episode two. So we're not going to start the show with it. We're going to talk about it with Peter Schrager, who does the Hard Knocks podcast. He has an insight into the bears and how they film it. Also, the Giants. We're going to also just talk training camp with Peter Schrager. Get us ready for some football. We also have a interesting different interview with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and Wright Thompson, the incredible author. They have a new documentary out on ESPN today called Rhythm Masters, which was very cool, very unique, something a little different for the people. And we're going to do Mount Rushmore of soft things. We have hot seat, cool throne. We have faqs. We're going to maybe figure out who's ranked too high on the top 25 college football ap rankings.

I think they're all too high.

Maybe Brandon Iook getting traded and I don't know. Memes is very upset as a Jets fan. So we got a great show for you. It's brought to you by our friends at draftkings. Throw another shrimp on the Barbie. Get in on UFC 305 action live from the land down under at DraftKings sportsbook, the official sports betting partner. UFC, the middleweights. Title on the line for the main event. But the card is stacked full of rip snorter blokes and sheilas.

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Okay, let's go.

Now.

In the street there is violence and.

Not a lot of soft work to.

Be done.

No place to hang out.

Or washing and then I can't blame.

All on the south oh, no we.

Gonna rock down to Electric Avenue and.

Then we'll take it higher oh, we gonna wrap down part of my take.

Presented by Barstool Sports.

Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now. Use code take. That's code take for new customers. Get 150 in bonus bets when you bet just $5. UFC 305 is coming up only on draftkings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, August 14, and the jets have a problem.

Is it a problem?

It could be a problem.

It's a problem. Is it a problem when you trade for a guy and then he just never shows up?

Well, so Hassan Reddick, who was traded for by the jets, is at an impasse with the jets because according to Hassan Reddick, they agreed to a new deal. The jets are saying if they will only do a neil a new deal once Reddick shows up to camp. And Redick is saying he won't show up to camp until there's a new deal.

So they're at an impasse.

They got a jersey turnpike.

This is why you. You hold in, you don't hold out.

I actually was.

That's what they did with Darrell Reavis.

Yeah.

When hard knocks was going with the Jets a long time ago, he was holding out. They met at, like, a diner.

Well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, they should do. The jets should just run a training camp practice from Hassan Reddick's backyard.

Yeah.

And see if he should bring it to his house.

Well, the problem is I think he might be in Tokyo today.

Oh.

Or at least he posted something on instagram that made it look like he was in Tokyo.

Either way, it is high time for the florios of the world out there. The resinis. Our guy memes, die hard jets fan, is very upset, and I don't think he has a gripe other than it feels like the jets are not handling this correctly.

When memes doesn't like the news, he blames the reporter. It's like if your house gets hit by a tornado, you blame the weatherman.

The phrase don't shoot the messenger, shoot the message just never has come into memes brain.

I'm kind of with memes on that one. Oh, of course, because you don't have. You can't shoot a message.

Yeah, someone gives you bad news, you.

Hate that person, shoot that person.

Right?

That's what we do. I looked it up, and it looks like Hassan Reddick. He's scheduled to make 14.25 million in base pay. He's missed 15 days of training camp, which means he's accumulated $850,000 in mandatory fines.

Oh, no.

And 300,000 in discretionary fines. Now, for every week that he misses, he's going to miss that week's game check as well.

Oh, no.

Which is one 17th of the 14.25 million. So he owes. He owes the jets over a million dollars right now for skipping work. Can you imagine if we find people for missing podcasts? Can you imagine how much money we would make, big cat?

We'd make a lot of money.

Something to think about. But this dude hates work so much that he's. He's willing to pay a million dollars.

Like they should trade him to the bears. Memes, your thoughts?

So, yesterday, I was pretty fired up.

Yesterday, this morning, today, all of today.

That was calm. That was calm.

Oh, those calm fires. Fuck off.

Anything in the past was yesterday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

This morning, you're like my three year old memes. Where? Where? She's like, yeah, I fell yesterday, and she's talking about a month ago.

Yeah, I've calmed down since this morning.

Okay.

Not really. And no, it is the jets fault.

That's.

That was my first conclusion.

Oh, but also Florian Rossini's, because they told you.

Yeah, she's.

She's full blown, Florio dear. Wait, did you say she's full of balloon?

No, she's full blown.

Full of blown.

She's full blown, but also full blown.

She's a system, Florio.

Oh, that's the mean thing you can say.

Okay, so, l'oreal, what are you gonna do? Can you give him to the bears? No.

So I don't think he's going anywhere.

Trade him back to the Eagles flip him. Distressed asset.

Memes was getting to the point today where he was just yelling other players names and being like, take him.

No, you should. You should take that other player.

Yeah, Hank. What? Do you have any players that are in contract disputes?

Matthew Jung.

Oh, you do know. Okay. All right. And how is that going?

They're working it out.

Okay.

Him and Mayo are on the sidelines having a nice conversation. Seem friendly and good.

Yeah, friendly and good.

I think I'll be on the Patriots.

Okay.

I think they're friendly. I don't think they're good from the end.

Good.

He'll be. This is offseason. This is how it goes in the preseason. You know, you gotta. You gotta negotiate it. It sometimes, you know, takes a little while. But the Patriots, unlike the jets, are a, you know, classy organization. They're gonna figure it out. I can't really say the same for the jets.

Yeah, the jets. Some won't get it.

Something seems weird where they traded for the guy, and usually when that happens, you negotiate at least the outline of what the terms of the new contract are gonna be once you get there.

The whole point of trading for him is, you know, he's gonna sign the new contract.

It's like when. When Chicago got Montez sweat from the football team. They had a deal in place, and then they executed it. It's not just like a one year rental for the Jets. I feel like. I don't know if it's on the jets, if it's on his agent or both. Maybe both.

Maybe both. Or Flora and Rossini.

I'm going to call Rossini real quick.

Okay.

Needs to respond to allegations that she's a system, Florio.

That is. That are some heavy allegations. Hank. I'm really proud of you for knowing Matthew Giudon's contract issues.

Thank you.

We had a debate whether you would know. Fucked. What do you mean?

I'm locked in.

Yay. That's why they call you Lockwood.

I watched more preseason football last week than my entire life before this.

Really?

One game, like three quarters.

Yeah.

Memes might be right.

Yeah.

She's probably on the phone with none of her sources.

She's busy talking to no one.

I brought. I said this to memes yesterday. I was like, oh, yeah, we'll take a son Reddick back for a 6th round pick. And he was like, no, that his value would be way higher now than what we traded him for.

No.

Legitimately thought he's gone up.

Yes. Like, he was like, we would get more back than what we gave you.

Yeah, I don't think that's how it works, memes.

It might go down.

You should teach a finance course.

It might. It might. Okay, so, memes, you got to get that figured out, because I don't want. I don't want you to be grumpy, memes. And this feels like we need to just get him on the field, right? Supposed to be positive. Just pay him.

The salary cap is not real.

That's a fact. Neuro insane taught us that many, many times.

Just give them the money. You have, like, one, maybe two years of Aaron Rodgers. Just give them money. Let's have a good season.

Just make another vaccine.

The fuck does that mean?

Johnson and Johnson.

He's right.

We're about to get another pandemic.

I heard another pandemic. All the pass rushers you want.

Bird flu's happened recently. That's what Hassan Reddick has when he doesn't play after leaving the Eagles.

Oh, I love. I forget how much Hank can just exist and get in under memes skin when it comes to the jets. Yeah.

Listen.

Or anything.

Or anything we hate on Hank, a lot. A lot of it is deserved, but you have to appreciate the fact that when Hank is going up against somebody else, it's awesome.

Yeah, we did the. We were. We were doing stuff today, and we did the. We had a little downtime, and we did the Mount Rushmore of reasons why Hank can't exist. And what were some of the things we came up with? It was speaking or not speaking and yawning. You've gotten in trouble for both being.

Hungry, being hungry, golfing, having any hobbies, any. Anything that. Outside of work that I. Any. Any activity.

Well, if your hobby was work, then I wouldn't.

No one's hobby is work.

Now, sometimes you get mad at him for doing work as well.

Yes. Really?

When I ask you. When I ask you work questions, you get mad at us.

Well, you also trapped me in a conference call this morning.

That's the only way to do it.

To me, this, like, hey, I'm gonna. I'm gonna ride with you. And I get in the car, and he just goes, oh, by the way, we have a conference call that I added you to. Starts in two minutes.

And then he know I couldn't go anywhere liking music.

Liking music, like. Yeah, yeah.

You've been on his ass for liking Billy strings.

Well, no, it's just funny. It's the only musician I've ever heard Hank name. I think he only knows one musician name another musician. Gucci.

Mane.

Oh, nice.

Okay, fair.

What else?

There's dressing. Nice.

Yeah.

Yeah. Or, well, just dressing. No matter how you.

Yes, dressing.

We said being hungry.

Yeah.

Or just thinking about. Thinking about anyone else. Like, thinking like, you always think about other. Being heartfelt towards you guys. You guys get mad at me for that?

Yeah. It's always. It's never ulterior motives. Not sure that you're always thinking about other people.

That's point proven.

Right?

Waking up early to work out or sleeping in too late to not work.

You can't exist. Yes. Sleeping or waking, you're not allowed to do.

Now you guys are seeing.

Yeah, no, it's tough. It's tough being you. I apologize for. For getting on your k sec.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're great.

I'm sorry? Yeah.

The expression vacations.

Yeah. If you think you're Jesus, that's okay.

Not taking vacations. Yeah.

Wanting to get, you know, wanting to relax.

Right.

Illegal.

Yeah, illegal.

And then not relaxing. Illegal.

And then when I'm. Yeah. When you guys.

Right.

Taking your medicine. Not taking your medicine.

Right.

Either way.

Suck. Yes.

People. I hope people are understanding, like, this is what.

Truly.

What I have to deal with.

Truly. Right. But also, it kind of works against you because we just described every part of your being is annoying in your mind, but, yeah.

No, then you're like, I want you around more, which is my entire. I love how it's like, what is it?

Love having you around.

I think both sides.

I love having.

I think that Hank is right when he says that he can't exist. And then we're right when we say that you're just annoying.

Right. And also, at the same time, really annoying.

You would think you just cut me out.

No, I love having you around just to see how you can't exist. I want to watch you exist to be like, no, stop doing that. Existing.

Hank's great when it's directed at somebody else, when you focus all your energy on being somebody else's problem. I like that.

Yeah. I love you, Hank.

I love you guys too.

Oh, thank you. You finally set it back. You didn't say it back the other day in the car when we're fighting about. On the way to. What were you on the way to? Whole hard knocks. Yeah, we were on the way to hard knocks, and you're stalling me. All right, so we are going to talk about hard knocks. Peter Schrager, the other news. JJ McCarthy has an injury. Injury.

Yeah.

Terrible lot.

So I think we should go to our senior meniscus correspondent Max, who has dealt with one or two of these in last years, Max. What can we expect? How soon can we expect him back on the court also?

On the court?

Yeah, on the court also. Is he going to learn how to fall onto his neck as opposed to landing on his feet?

He doesn't. He doesn't try to fall onto his neck. He should. He should probably fall to brace impact. If you were, like, coming down from a dunk.

Mm hmm.

But he's not dunking. He's playing football.

But I'm. I'm telling you what I know, okay. You asked me for my expertise. This is my expertise. He could be back. I'll probably back in, like, two months, and then it'll linger for a little bit longer, and then I'll have, like, a couple good games, and then if he has one bad game, you can just blame it on the meniscus.

Yep.

That's probably really the number one thing.

Or he's just tired.

Or he's just tired.

Is he going to get fat?

No, he's not fat. He'll be, like, really strong, really athletic. Probably the best at his position.

Is he going to play like he's fat?

No. No. Other people would maybe say that he plays like he's fat, but he's not actually fat. He's actually really athletic. And. And if he didn't have his meniscus, he would be in more shape. Better shape, conditionally. So conditioning wise. No, not fat, but just not as good shape as he would have been.

Okay.

If he didn't tear his meniscus, and it'll come back, like, within the next couple years, like, they'll always be the worry of, you know, the meniscus tour. It could tear again. It probably will tear again. And it's always going to be in the back of your head, and you always be like, I want. You know what? If he didn't tear, the menace could have been.

Yeah, right.

Shout out JJ McCarthy for being a tough motherfucker, because he didn't. He tore his meniscus and then didn't report it until the next day.

Yeah.

And he was like, hey, should we check this out? It sucks. Like, it just sucks.

You did look really good in the preseason, week one.

Yeah, they have Sam Donald, but that's a denial injury. That's like, I'm gonna sleep. I'm gonna sleep this off, and I'll be.

Which everyone does when you. When the minute you get injured, especially if you're drunk and get injured, and you're like, I'm fine. And then you wake up the next day, like, I can't walk.

That's what happened with my foot. Yeah. I just walked it off. Walked home that night, and then I woke up in the morning, nano bubbles didn't do shit.

But it really does suck for Vikings fans because you're excited about your. Your new quarterback, and then he should be fine long term, but it still is. Like, if he misses two months of his rookie season, that's big.

Yeah. So I know that there are two different types of surgeries you can have on the meniscus. One is when you, like, cut it out, and the other is when you repair it. Right. You sew it back together.

Yeah.

And so if you cut it out, you can play on that after a couple weeks. If you sew it back together, it takes longer to heal, but then you're better off in the long term.

Right. You don't get bone on bone like D Wade had. Yeah.

Bone on bone could be an issue. So, Max, which one did who? I forget, which player do you root for that had meniscus surgery?

I don't know what you're talking about.

Oh, was it embiid? What kind?

Did he have meniscus?

I don't know, but did they. Was it the long one or was it to cut it out? And he's gonna come right back.

I think he. I think. I think he said both, honestly.

Yeah. I hope he's okay. He looked great.

Yeah. I feel bad for Vikings.

It's a shitty thing. Like, you've been through it before with Teddy Bridgewater. I hope nobody threw up this time, but, yeah. Hope he's okay.

Was. Was it the Derek Carr seven year bump that we talked about? Cause Sam Donald is in his 7th year, which is crazy.

Yep.

That he's been in the NFL for seven years, but Sam Donald is now going to be the starter. Also, just a reminder that doing a fantasy draft before the end of preseason is insane.

You got to do it Labor Day weekend.

It's insane because Jameer Gibbs got hurt, too.

Yeah, I think it was a hamstring.

Is he okay, Hughie?

He's going to be all right.

Okay.

He's going to be great.

Because I saw there was, like, some people who are concerned about that, but there's no. There's no worse feeling than being in preseason and getting that alert from shefter and being like, wait, that's one of my guys.

Especially if you have a rookie quarterback that you're excited about. Yeah, it sucks.

Yeah. So sorry for Vikings fans. Okay, before we do our Mount Rushmore. Should we, should we take a quick look at the top 25? And we also have some breaking news. Breaking Henry Lockwood. Now, this is not this person's name. This has nothing to do with him existing. Not existing, whatever. Henry Lockwood, after doing an extensive search where he just got drunk at bars and called it work last year, he has found his big ten team, which.

Is the Washington husky.

Oh, wow. So you went to a Washington bar last year?

No.

Oh, I didn't.

I didn't declare that my big ten team, for the record, but I am high on them.

So why are they your big ten team?

Because Belichick is a defensive coordinator. Bill Belichick. Steve Belichick. I knew that. Yeah.

Wait, did you actually think that Bill Belichick was going to be the defensive coordinator?

No, but you, you said that earlier and you didn't like. You're like, Belichick's the defense corner is like, you have to say, Steve. Obviously, it's.

Obviously Bill Belichick's not the defense.

I understand, but you do have to say the first name in that.

Okay. Steve Belichick. Sorry, I didn't. I didn't think that. I thought that was a given. Bill Belichick was on MACV show yesterday or Tuesday, Monday, whatever, and he was talking about how he's just been, you know, hanging out around the team, and as has Pete Carroll. So the Washington Huskies have maybe the greatest coaching staff that's got, or an official coaching staff, but is a coaching staff. All kinds of staff.

Yeah.

Old dogs came back together. Now, it does make sense for Hank to be a Huskies fan because they combine two of your great loves before games. They've got drinking, and then you got to go sail gating at some point.

So how do you love to. How do you like your huskies in the big ten west?

Well, that's what I asked big cat before. I was like, are they in the cupcake division or the hard division? And I was found out that it's one division.

Yeah, it's one. It's all one division.

That sucks for you guys.

Oh, yeah. I. Oh, yeah. But it's expanded play.

My big ten knowledge was just like, it's Ohio State, Michigan, and then Wisconsin comes out of the cupcake.

Yeah.

The legends and leaders conferences.

So it's like the big 20.

Yeah. They haven't changed the numbers. 1818. Yeah.

One. One conference.

Yeah.

How do they decide who gets to the Big Ten championship?

Top two.

That's it.

Yeah. Could be Michigan, Ohio State playing back to back weekends.

That's cool.

Yeah. Well, I don't know if that's cool. That that's the.

Well, you're just was. I mean, what's the year?

No, no.

Screwed.

Well, no, because it's expanded playoffs, so they'll be. You don't have to bake to the Big Ten championship to be in the playoff.

Got it.

The.

The, like, a Washington schedule situation of.

Ohio State and Michigan playing each other in back to back weekends would probably suck because both teams would then be in the playoff, most likely, and then you'd have a Big Ten championship game. That would mean. Yes. Home field advantage, but also it would kind of take a little away from the rivalry.

Wait, would there be a possibility that they played three weeks in a row?

I don't think they can play three weeks in a row because I don't think that's how. I don't think they would ever bracket them that way.

It would, but the possibility exists.

I'm not. I don't think so because I think it's automatic. I think automatic qualifiers would get a buy.

Always get a buy.

Yeah.

So I don't think it would. It can exist.

But we could get three matchups between them in the same year.

Yes.

That's on the table.

Yes.

It's tough to beat a team three times.

Yeah.

This is a.

Could happen in the. Could happen in the SEC as well.

Yeah.

Now, years that Georgia and Alabama play each other, they could play again. They could play again.

Looking at the top 25, the thing that jumps out to me is things that did happen.

Wait, no, that. Didn't that happen. The Georgia Alabama play each other three times when they played in the national title? I don't think so. I think that was just the second time.

Which year?

Because they did put the two year. That means because they could. In the SEC championship. Yeah.

Yeah.

They lost in the SEC championship and then one in.

Yeah.

Does the Bryce Young year.

That's right.

That's right.

But the thing that jumped out to me was things being just as they should be, which is Iowa at number 25.

Yeah.

I would just stay at 20 and.

NC State at number 24.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those two teams, they fit their Iowa. Doesn't matter what they do. They should just always be number 25.

Georgia one. Ohio State two. Oregon three. Texas four. Alabama five. This is the year that if Ryan day. This is. This is. He's got the squad. His defense is going to be nasty. If Ryan Day doesn't do it, then the born on third stuff.

Yeah.

Gonna start to really come true.

Big matchup. October 12. Penn State, Ohio State.

Whoa.

Get ready for that.

And lose that by ten or no.

Is that. Or that might be Oregon. Ohio State. I think that's the matchup on October 12.

Yeah.

I mean, there's Washington, Iowa, and wash. Oh, yeah, Hank.

Sorry, we forgot Hank was in the room.

Yeah, Hank, are there a lot of. A lot of you dub bars in Chicago?

I don't know, but I've got to be to start one.

Hank, why don't you give us a quick win loss for the Washington Huskies?

All right, so they. I just looked at their schedule. They have. They have a big pac twelve schedule is what I'm calling it.

Okay.

Michigan's nine, but aren't they gonna stink this year? No, they'll still be good, but they'll be, though. They will not be. I will tell you this thing. They will not be in the top ten by October 5. Okay, mark my wall.

Your shot.

Oh.

Card. So that'll be a win.

You just skip to the fifth week.

Well, yeah, I mean, Rutgers obviously, obviously win. Washington state rivalry game, maybe not.

Wait, where's Northwestern?

Washington.

Yeah, you would have to go to that if it was here.

I would love to go to that. Also on a lake, right?

Yeah.

Yes. Literally this year, because they're playing on the practice facility.

They're stadiums. That's.

I mean, I probably. I probably will try and go to one of those games.

It's gonna be a sick end zone, Cam.

I'm a sucker for. For water. Iowa, win Indiana, win USC, could be tough. Penn State, win UCLA, win Oregon, could be tough.

So undefeated in two could be toughs at Penn State.

Does that doesn't matter?

The whiteout?

I think. I think it is.

Wow.

For Washington, that's.

How can rival. I'm just thinking about your own Penn.

State fan, and you're like Minnesota last year. Yeah, I guess.

Hey, if I were you, I would say that's. That's just a true mark of how respected Washington is. Where Penn State's using their whiteout.

It is the whiteout.

Good point.

Washington is the whiteout.

All right, maybe we'll go.

I would love to. This is great. We should do this. Content.

Yeah, content. All right, so what's that? Ten and two? Eight and two?

I was. It was undefeated with two. Could be tough.

1234.

We are going to do a full college football preview in the coming weeks. This is not it. So just don't. This is just our Washington Huskies previews.

Looking at a list of teams. Hank talking about love.

Hank's, Hanks. Washington Huskies. That he. That were Hanks. Washington Huskies as of an hour ago.

Yeah.

I'm a loyal guy.

He's. He spent. It's gonna wear off. Hank.

What?

Your love of the Huskies.

What happens?

Not my love of the Belichicks.

What happens when they play a late.

Night or go away.

And, and Hank, he's got some drinky.

I'll just have to have some more drinking.

930.

I'm not a Saturday drinking big after. Not during the football season.

Oh, that's not true.

We did a bar crawl last year. Your big tent.

Yeah, you little stay drinking.

And that was work. That was also work, Max.

I was work sponsored shot. Of course. Light. I had to do that. I had no choice.

All right, well, I'm excited to watch Hank. I'll tell you what. The Huskies have great colors and great gear. They do not.

That could look for cool fans to.

Yeah. Coach Spencer Hawese.

Great stadium.

Yeah.

You're buying this? You're doing what? Every econ. Because you taught us this with your econ class. Buy high, sell low.

Yep.

Because they just went to the national.

They've never been as good as they are. Yeah, he's noticing the trend in the market. Hanks going to the moon. That's your problem because you're so. We're on the moon.

You couldn't be.

Their mascot is awesome.

Dubs just miss an insane season.

Hank, get to know dubs, the mascot. He rocks. Yeah, he's a good boy.

Also, the camera angle at the Husky stadiums. Very high. Weirdly high.

Wash up.

We should make Penn State Washington a rivalry.

Yeah, make a trophy, Hank.

Yep, that should be.

You gotta make a trophy.

I'm down.

Okay, we'll make a trophy.

I like that. To wash up.

Wash up. Do we have anything else? Before we do, let's. We're gonna do our Mount Rushmore, then we're gonna do hot sea cool Toronto and get to our interviews. We have anything else before we get to our mount rushmore? I think we're. I think we'll cover it in hot seat. Cool to roam. Let's do our Mount rushmore. It is brought to you by our friends at Morgan and Morgan. You got to check out Morgan and Morgan if you've been injured, we all know that 2024 has been wild so far, so let's talk about something important. If you get injured by a person, place, or thing, you deserve to get paid. Life can be crazy sometime, and one person's negligence can result in another settlement. If you're in an accident, not calling a lawyer means you could be leaving money on the table. When you're seriously hurt, your injury could be worth millions. If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. They have over 100 offices nationwide and more than 1000 lawyers with over $20 billion recovered for over 500,000 clients. Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation.

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I love it.

Shout out. I think I screenshotted it. Oh, no, I bookmarked it. You guys use bookmarks?

I do sometimes, yeah.

Yeah, bookmarks are good.

We've done this. We've had this country.

What do you mean?

Cindy Sweeney.

Oh, yeah, we don't. But then I did after that, I forgot. I did some insult ones towards Pft.

Oh, yeah.

Hank and I had a bookmark off Matt.

Aw. All Matt, thank you very much for submitting this one. He submitted some good ones, open ended ones. So the scores as of right now, after Hank didn't cheat, he went back to losing. Isn't that interesting? Mm hmm.

Very interesting.

Max has 57 points. I have 47. Hank has 38. Pft has 38.

We got a tie.

Also, Max is talking about possibly clinching. What's your magic number, Max?

I don't know.

You're talking about.

You said before that you need me to win this because I would. You would clinch.

I didn't say that.

You said that verbatim. So what is your magic number? What are you looking at, Hank.

Hank and I had a bookmark off.

It's like that. It's a quote tweet. It says, show the greatest I'm about to die moment in cinema. All start. I. And I bookmarked a movie reply. I've never seen this movie. So that was accidental.

Hank. Hank tweeted, ha ha ha. When they announced that Dan Quinn was going to be the coach of the commanders. Oh, I bookmarked it. And then Hank bookmarked my bookmark and said, your bookmark has now been bookmarked. And I bookmarked that. And then Hank said, triple bookmark, no bookmark backs.

Oh, and then I bookmarked one of yours, big cat somewhere.

You bookmark.

Wait, what did you say? PFD.

I was going to say somebody did an AI thicc Miley cycle.

Oh, I know which one you put marked because you retweeted it on draft night.

No, this is 1224. It says if the Bears don't at least get to the NFC championship game next season, you do apologize to Hank. And you said, no, I will apologize. They missed the playoffs without any major injuries. Bookmark it.

So I. You have to apologize to me.

No, you have to apologize to me if they missed the playoffs without any major injuries.

Major injuries. But then you should have to apologize to me if they make the playoffs.

Okay, I'm the Bear. I'm Bears. Over in a wins.

Okay. All right, so Mount Rushmore of soft things. Who goes first? This is a big one for the boys in the bottom. We have eight left.

Yeah, Hank and irony, right?

Now, who goes first?

Plenty of time.

Who's up? You're pointing. You're pointing. I think you're pointing in between me and PF.

I think it's empty.

I go last. I know that.

Okay, so I go first. Big cat, hac second, then Max. Okay, Mount Rushmore, soft things. One. One I don't think is a surprise. I'm going boobs.

Correct.

Correct one is the correct one. One pick.

Yes. Yes.

Boobs are back. Now. Sidney Sweeney brought boobs back for a while. Boobs were out. Now boobs are officially back. Back. And I'm glad that they are. Yes, very soft.

Good one.

And supple.

One one.

Max hates boobs, by the way.

Boobs. Good pick. All right, now I gotta think. Now I gotta think. That was. I mean, that was a lucky first.

I'm very thankful. I got to go first.

Yeah, he's got his headphones off. Okay, I'll go. My one one. Well, my one one was boobs. A dog's only one one one. A dog's ears.

Dog's ears.

Super soft.

Okay.

Yeah, get a dog's ears. Super, super soft.

Like, velvety. Yeah, yeah, they're nice.

Love petting a dog's ear.

Love a good dog's ear.

I mean, this really doesn't even matter because there's no way pft loses its draft getting boobs. One one.

No, there's a way. I'm not very good at Mount Rushmores.

Um, ice cream.

Okay, you were asking is a question.

Is there any particular type of ice cream.

Up for the. For the graphics? It's this ice cream.

Okay. Okay. Was that a question?

No, I'm just, I'm just. That's my answer.

Ice cream's not that soft. Okay. It's your answer.

Soft serve.

That's what the correct answer should have been.

Soft servers.

What?

You know, but he said, sure, ice cream. I want ice cream.

One soft serve on the grass.

It doesn't matter.

What do you mean it doesn't matter.

If, like, I'm going up against PF.

What just happened? Where you.

There's also. I don't understand why what you. You say? He wins. He wins with boobs. He wins with butt cheeks is still on. That was still on the board.

Yeah. Butt cheeks.

Butt cheeks is my.

Yeah, but hard. But, like, a firm.

But, like, my butt cheeks not on. Soften.

No, I'm.

Grab my butt cheeks. You'll get some bone.

Okay, well, I'm taking butt cheeks.

Not all buts are soft. Yeah.

Well, nice. I mean, not all boobs. Fake boobs. Fake boobs aren't soft.

I didn't say fake boobs.

I know.

I said boobs.

Correct.

Boo. Yeah. Fake boobs are not.

Not soft.

Yeah.

I'm maybe the world's worst person at identifying fake boobs, too.

I'm worse.

I think every boob is real.

Yeah.

And then my next pick is going to be lineman with long sleeves.

Hmm. Okay, pick.

Good pick.

Good pick.

Is me.

Yeah.

Sorry, I always get so confused with this draft order.

Who's that?

That's me. That's. That's me being confused.

Your voice.

Ah.

Wait, was that you doing an impression of yourself?

I will go with cotton candy.

Nice.

Literally. Air.

Yeah.

Yeah, soft. It's. Air.

Is air. Soft.

All right, who's next?

Okay, my next pick. I'm gonna go with going to sleep early on a bachelor party.

Yeah.

Big time. Soft move.

Yeah, I had a.

When everyone's there together whooping soft.

It's tough things, though. That's the Mount Rushmore.

Soft things.

Soft thing I had. Taking a night off.

Yes. Soft things. It's soft thing. It's a soft thing to do.

God.

Not a soft thing to do.

Yep, it is. It is.

It's a saw. If you went to sleep at 09:00 on the first night of a bachelor party, I'd be like, that's a soft thing to do, bro.

Yeah, that's a good pick.

Okay.

All right, I'm gonna go. I get two, right?

Yeah.

Sorry, we got lost in draft. Sometimes I forget where's me doing impressive. Hank doing impression of Hank.

Pressure. Big cat.

Okay. My. Yeah. What's impression of you?

Me.

Hank was doing an impression of you earlier, and then.

Oh.

Was being sarcastic when he said he was doing an impression of himself.

Got it.

Yeah.

What was the impression of me?

Is it my. Take my turn.

Okay. Got it.

All right, I'm gonna go with.

Sorry. Sorry. I get lost.

I know, me too.

No, I can't exist.

We have an impression off.

I can't even exist.

It's pretty good.

Sorry, listeners, for that one.

That was Hank. He just yawned.

I'm gonna go with calling fouls and pickup. Mm hmm.

Well, okay. I mean, there's some times when you.

Have to call foul occasionally, but you know the type of fell I'm talking about.

Yeah.

And then toilet paper.

Mmm.

Soft.

All right, I'll go with running out the clock. In a video game, when you're playing head to head with someone.

Mm hmm.

Like kneeling, running out the clock. That is a soft move. You play to win the game. Play to have fun.

Yep.

Like, just three minutes left, and you just start running the ball. And kneeling sucks. Soft. What was the fuck?

Hank's just realizing.

I had punting, and Madden was my only, like, non.

But wait, Hank, I thought you said that it was supposed to be soft things.

I'm gonna go with puppies.

Okay.

Okay. I I had puppies. I did too, but I.

It's a great pick.

I took puppies off because he said dogs ears.

Yeah, but it's way different way.

It's a good pick.

Way different.

Good job.

I'm gonna go with Ben Simmons.

Good pick.

Now, this next one, I'll go. I'll go soft pretzel.

Oh, okay. Good one. But is it soft?

It's got literally salt on there. It's got a little crust on it. I do love a good salt, soft.

Pretzel, but I wouldn't say that.

Always the move.

I want you to. Can you. Can you name what I just said?

Mm hmm.

Soft pretzel.

And literally in the name that means.

That it's softer than a normal pretzel.

Kind of like yellow cheddar cheese.

I'll wait for after.

What? Is there not yellow cheddar cheese? Yeah, there is. What? Say it.

I don't want to give. I don't want to. I'm done. I don't want to give anyone up.

Say it, pussy.

Soft cheese is a thing I was going to say. I was going between breeze or soft cheese. I was just going to say soft cheese.

Okay, Hank.

You got to speak over here.

Henry, he's just thinking. He's. I don't know what he's doing. I have a pick you wouldn't thought of. You haven't thought of and I don't. I'm still debating whether I think it will look bad on a graphic. But it's also the softest thing in the world.

Wearing.

He doesn't know where the sentence going.

Matching outfits with your significant other.

Oh, nice.

You think that's soft?

Yeah.

I kind of like it when, when they do that in airports, though. It's like we're a team.

No. Okay. I have a pick. I think it's. I think it's gonna ruin my draft.

But it's also like to a family party.

I think it's gonna ruin my. I think it's yours.

Very personal.

I think it's.

Creative.

That was just like you. You were just coming up on the fly.

It was free ball. Yeah.

All right. My last pick, I. It is the softest thing in the entire world. But I'm afraid that I'm gonna get criticized by the awls. But that's fine. I'm gonna do it because I have to stay true to myself. No. Pander picks like Max, surprise you and do meatball. A newborn skin is literally the softest thing in the world.

How's that gonna look on the graphic?

Probably not good. But I don't care cuz I have to stay true to myself.

Yeah.

If you've ever touched a newborn skin, it's fucking insane. It's like.

Did you want to say baby's bottom? But, but that.

No, no, because a newborn skin like their hands, their everything, their head, everything is like the softest thing you've ever felt.

I had baby hair on my list. Baby hairs. Very.

Isn't that a saying?

Baby smooth, smooth, smooth.

Okay.

You do have that. You have asses.

Yep. I every nothing.

Yeah. Baby ass myself there.

Butt cheeks, parentheses, not baby ass.

Yeah, butt cheeks above the age of 18.

Yeah, I probably fucked myself there. But if the. If the parent listeners of this show come through for me, because that it is a fact. It's the softest thing in the world.

I mean, you're good. It doesn't matter why. It's. It's a. It's a two horse race. Well, no, with one one, there's nothing you can do.

You just took wearing matching outfits with your significant other to a family function.

So that's soft.

You don't think you have any, any part in this at all.

I still can't believe you didn't say soft serve. It was right there.

I put it on.

I put it on a. On a cone for you, Hank. I said, yeah. Is there any particular type?

Whatever.

I'm ready to plan subway.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we don't know if it's a hell.

It's true.

Yeah. All right. Pft, your last pick.

Okay. My last pick. I'm gonna take. I'm gonna run the football. I'm gonna say pillows. No, we took pillows.

I had it on there.

Pillows is, like, the softest thing in the world.

I like a hard pillow. Like, one hard pillow. One soft pillow.

Same.

Okay. What got left off, Billy?

Football's hands.

Yes. Yeah.

Soft hands.

That's a good pick. Inside of a sweatshirt. Marshmallow sweatshirt.

Marshmallows is good.

Smashed potato. I'm upset.

I didn't say velour jumpsuit.

I had velour.

Yeah, your dick after you've been drinking jellyfish butter.

I almost went, Ben Simmons car.

No butter. There's nothing worse. Like, I feel like probably over half.

The time I haven't thought about.

In a restaurant, they give you.

Wait, what did he say?

Rolls with hard butter.

Me?

Yeah. What did you say?

I almost went, Ben Simmons.

Carson went back to back butter. Yeah. No, I agree. The hard butter is the worst I had. Going home before midnight in college.

Yeah.

Playing beer pong with water and a side beer.

Yep.

I think that happened after, when I was in college, but I've seen people do that, and that's the softest fucking thing I've ever seen.

Throwing flags on. Taunting.

Yeah.

NFL taunting rules.

Block. Blocking people on Twitter during an argument. Understand? People block people on Twitter, but, like, when someone will get in an argument and then just block the person when, like, they're about to reply. That's the softest thing.

Blocking people on Twitter. Probably should have been taken. That would have. That would have looked really good on the thing.

Yeah.

Apologizing.

Yep.

Kind of soft.

Never.

I never apologize when they have to make a tackle.

Yeah. Neil, kneeling in the first house half with timeouts in your pocket. I think that's soft.

McKay.

45 seconds left.

McVeigh.

Fucking run a play.

McVeigh.

Hitting a guy after you gave up a home run to him.

But home run.

It's soft, though.

Unwritten rules.

Don't strike him out. Expect the rules strike him out. Not betting on the Super bowl soft.

Yeah.

Like, not having an opinion on the Super bowl soft.

Telling on someone.

Yeah.

Getting mad about hard knocks yeah, I.

Said getting mad about not talking on the podcast after you lose a game, even though your teams have won more championships than everyone else.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

When you get one little loss talking.

On the podcast and you just shut up.

You literally only talk when your team wins, which they do a lot. Yeah, you still can't. Not filling out a march madness bracket.

That is soft.

Emailing your professor after they. After emailing a random person's professor after they make fun of you online.

Yeah, and asking them if they'll kick you out of class because you made a joke about branding.

Actually, though, Revelle also has, like, the hardest move. When he put JFK's headshot and fucking eight k at eight in the morning.

Yeah.

Hank, do you have any honorable mentions, by the way?

Yeah, he tapped out on his.

Are you talking about.

What do you got?

I gave them all marshmallows, jello potatoes, velour, jellyfish. Jelly fucking.

Listen, huey, do you have the best of the rest?

Cake.

Oh, yeah. That was the only thing I was Max off. Surf cake or ice cream?

Max took asses already.

Any cake? Okay, soft cake.

Do you have any honorable mentions, Max?

Oh, bunny rabbit.

I rabbit them.

Shit.

Oh, sorry.

Bunny rabbit is pretty.

I said soft cheese. I said kickers, when kickers, when they have to make a tackle. You would have loved that pick.

Jake.

Do you have any honorable mentions? Big cat?

Yeah, I do.

How about you?

I already gave him.

Getting mad at your co hosts because you're so annoying and they're just so annoyed with you existing.

Hank.

Miss.

That could have been a good pick.

Yeah. Missing breakfast and then making everybody's life.

Complaining about every season, every mount Rushmore season, and then cheating on the rules that I. You gave out someone.

Someone tweeted me. I don't know if it's true or not. They said that you have been on record saying your wife helped you with pics before.

Which one was it? Which was one?

So that's also.

That's also in the pigs. Yeah, I've gotten in trouble for pics also. That's in the family that you can't. You can't put us in jail, right?

I don't know.

You went outside the family.

I don't know how that works.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can't pro. You can't, can you? Not if you're. If your significant other has to take the stand against you. Isn't there the privilege?

Yeah.

So thrown out.

Well, wait, Adriana went through that when she tried to go to that lawyer.

Married.

They weren't married yet. She was thinking about getting married so she won't have to testify. But if it's.

And then Silvio killed her.

But if you're. Yeah, no, that drove her out to that exit, and she didn't know what's gonna happen.

The example that I said when I said I did talk to people about sex was I was getting chirped by someone on Saturday for my sandwich draft. And I was like, shut up, dude.

Wait, in real life? Yes.

And I was like.

Like, at a party? Yes. It was someone I know.

Some.

It was someone I know. But.

Oh, your fucking sandwich draft, dude, sucked.

And I was like, all right, then. Fucking genius. Like, let's hear some steroid user. And they go, Barry Bonds, Lance. They gave me nothing, man, in the arena. And I came in dead last man in there. And that's what I said.

Yeah, that's fair. But you also. The difference is she's maybe helped me with a pick or two. You said that Liam gave you all your picks for the pizza draft.

Well, that was also in a different. That was a tainted era when you guys were.

No, no, no. It was pretty before. That was our point for this whole discussion on Monday, your big claim about Mount Rushmore.

See?

All right, spoiler. I suck at Mount Rushmore. I just complained to try and mask it.

I've also proven the tape wrong.

This.

That was a hard move by you admitting that.

Yeah, I.

Apologize.

No, he just admitted that. Everything he copped.

I try and muddy the water.

I actually always respect that in a tv show or a movie where the guy that's on the stand gets so pissed off at the. At the, like, prosecutor that they just admit to massive crime that happened in the young.

The young thug trial.

Yeah.

I said, he's like, yeah, we went up and did that shit, like, talking about a shooting, and then. And then was like, well, you told me nothing I could say. Okay. Would get used against me at court.

Right? No, that was big of Hank. He literally just admitted to it all.

Yeah, it's hard.

He just said he sent it all.

Out hard, Hank, that was a hard move by you. I just got a call back from Rossini. Let's see what she has to say to memes. Is this Diana Rossini?

Yes, this is Diana Rossini. Who am I speaking with?

Hey, Diana. This is part of my take. Earlier today, memes said that you were. You're on the air. You're live to tape. Earlier today, memes said that you were a system Florio at this point for your reporting on Hasan Reddick. Do you have any comments? Him?

I think that means needs to understand that. Mike Florio, Diana Rossini, Tom Pelissero, Adam Schefter, Ian rabbit. Do not make the decisions for the New York Jets.

New York jets.

Make the decisions for the New York jets. So while he does not like the messenger of the news, it's not our fault. So I would say sorry, but I'm not really sorry.

Okay, I think that's fair. Memes, do you have any retort?

Nope.

All right. He does have retort.

Yeah. Body bag.

Good job, Diana.

All right, maybe he should follow me on Twitter and I can give him more.

You don't even follow her on Twitter and you're complaining about her tweets? Huh?

That's all?

That's off.

Wow. That is soft. That's real soft.

Oh, yeah. About the italian angler. I think he's got some self loathing.

Yes.

Something's wrong.

It's basically, if your name ends in a vowel, memes doesn't like you, so I'm never going to forget this.

That's true. Okay, well, thank you, Dinah.

Okay. Hi, Max.

Bye bye.

That was. That was soft by memes, right? Very soft. Insanely soft memes. All right, let's do hot seat. Cool. Turn those great Mount Rushmore guys more open ended ones. If anyone wants to treat them at us. Those are the fun ones.

Yep.

Because Hank just always goes with the most literal definition of it.

Well, no, he gets mad at us for exploring the other options. Yeah, when he also has those other options.

He could.

I told you, I'm bad. A lot of my anger is just directed at myself through you guys.

Hey, do you want me to help you with Mount Rushmore?

I mean, again, like, the sanctity of this whole contest has been.

We're tied in last place, Hank.

Not anymore, you're not.

Great.

Pretty nice.

Okay, convenient.

Yeah, very convenient. Although I'm the one who came up with it, so knock on.

But you knew the order.

No idea.

You're also doesn't.

You're. I also don't know the order.

Any time in the clear.

I don't know the order.

You just made fun of big cat for never knowing.

Yeah, you said, I don't know the order.

Muddy in the water.

You don't know how the order of. Like, who's picking when. Oh, got it.

All right, so how would I rig it if I don't know the order day today?

You're playing a long game, Kaiser.

So, say, of the order. They never caught on for me to finish second place.

Hate just lives. Life.

As devil's advocate, that is unfortunate.

I've got, like, this mastermind, and I'm somehow. My mastermind has me. Eleven points down for Max.

It doesn't, but it does. Can't come in last, which I could.

Still no. Okay, let's do my win.

Hank, sometimes you. You think that you're gonna lose and you end up winning.

You can't beat boobs.

It's true. Boobs are a great cardinal.

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Throw my hot seat is probably messes pronunciation out. Hapo Tel Aviv basketball team.

Okay.

Our co worker, they just signed Pat Bev. Big contract signing offseason for them. He was on his own podcast. Pat Pav show Marshall sports with Roan. With Roan. Apologies. And he said, if a bomb goes off, I'm gone. When talking, playing in Tel Aviv. So, like, they gotta check the forecast. They got a. They got to worry about their whole countries bullshit. If they want to keep that Bev.

I feel like he makes peace happen.

I feel like that's not an unreasonable position to take, though.

No, it's not. And maybe Israel's like, well, we want this team to do well.

You also said most of our Euro cup games are in Bulgaria, so.

Oh, yeah. They should sign Zion. Wait, I'd be a good fit.

Is he in? Where? The regular season games?

I don't know.

Okay.

If a bomb goes on off, I'm gone.

What?

He could say that about any team, though. Like, if the. If a bomb went off at a Bucks game, he's probably gone, too, right?

Like in dead.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, like, he's out.

Yeah. I might stay.

You might stay?

Yeah.

He's got that dog.

Okay. Come on.

See my cool throws. Tom Brady.

Know why?

I just. He's joining YouTube.

He's joining YouTube.

He's right.

He made a YouTube channel. He's gonna start posting vlogs. He take over.

He's joining.

Okay. Thought he was like, unlike the board of directors.

I mean, he probably will be soon enough.

True.

Mm hmm.

Rate raider Tom Brady.

Raider owner Tom Brady.

Yeah.

Speaking of videos, disk golf video with Jimmy Tatro. Now.

Yes.

I may have taken mushrooms before.

Mean, if Tom Brady starts making disco videos where we're trouble, we're screwed.

It's gonna do the. The Bryson thing.

Just golf.

Content creator, breaking 50 but years old, playing in the NFL. Oh, for the Raiders.

Big, great series.

Yeah. All right. Pft, your hot seat. Cool trump.

My hot seat is the big justice family. So I just found out who this family was yesterday.

Costco guys.

Costco guys.

Right?

Yeah.

So I've seen them. I've seen them, but I've opted out of them. And I'm sure that you guys have been through that over years.

Yeah.

You see something that pops up online, a trend, and you're like, I'm gonna opt out of it. I learned about them.

You don't.

I don't want to be a hater.

You fucked up. Well, you can hate them, but the Rizzlers electric.

Yeah.

Which one's the Rizzler?

The little guy.

Okay, so apparently they're on the hot seat because hearing that the dad had this arranged, he's been trying to go viral for years and years and years.

Yeah.

Height. Is that it might getting it right.

Pretty much every person who ends up going viral probably, like, was trying.

Is that the. Is that the only problem that people have?

There's rumors that maybe there's something else. I hope not. I just saw someone being like, we're gonna cancel big justice. Please don't leave big justice alone.

So they do the Costco guys. They do the boomer doom scale, right?

Yeah. No, I mean, it's terrible Internet, but I like it.

What's. What have they done? Doom. Do they ever do doom? Or is it all boom?

Yeah, their cousin made a pizza with, like, a bunch of, like, gross shit on it, and they doomed it.

They doomed that one. Yeah, I need to. Well, I just found out who they are, so I'm, like, experiencing them for the first time.

Just start.

Just go.

Just go to the wristler.

Fascinating.

The wrestlers electric.

How many booms with the scale?

I just. A boom boom. And then they can sometimes double boom.

And I thought it was more. I thought it could be, like, 3456 booms.

Sometimes they do the. Like, they'll add a bunch of buzz before.

Yeah, because it sounds like the ball scale boom.

No, it's. It's really just boomer doom.

Okay, just one boom or what?

It's binary.

Hank doesn't like them.

No, he's very upset. Sometimes can't exist.

Sometimes they'll go to a place and they'll, like, pick between two items.

Yeah.

And there's. They're supposed to boom or doom one of the items, but then they both kind of end up. They kind of end up booming. Both of them.

And they'll sometimes have the Sam clubs guys on who are the indian father and son. Yeah, that's kind of cool. See, Hank, it's like this.

I'm starts getting together.

I'm starting to think that Hank has a little anti italian discrimination with him.

No, I mean, listen, anyone can do their thing. I'm happy that they're. They're popular. I usually don't share my. My hater opinions.

Would you like it more if they were on a golf course doing golf videos?

I. It's not really my issues, not with them. I do think it's like an Internet hive mind personality. People like, oh, these girls are electric. They're so funny. Like, they're nothing well, it's like people see other people saying they like them.

And then they.

Brain wrought. Like, oh, can I says the flavor of the month. We love these.

Throw something out there.

No, you don't.

So there's this thing called irony.

I don't. But, no, I think. I think that there's, like, there's that section of the world where people understand irony, and there's just like, the sheep that are like, oh, yeah. Like, we fucking love big justice.

I think it's, like, a lot of things on the Internet where it might be fun to watch, but then when you find yourself explaining what it is you like.

Actually, you guys actually made me want to.

You start to like it less when you explain what it is, but.

Yeah, no, I know.

Yeah.

Dude, don't do that to the Rizzler.

I like the wrestler. I guess.

The Rizzler did nothing wrong.

No, he didn't need 400 foot boys. The Rizzler is funny. And. And what's little justice? I have no issue with little justice.

The Rizzler does sick bike tricks.

Yeah, he does the bike in the bike trail. No, the.

I want the boom guy.

He'd said he did a video where he said he was gonna do five bike tricks, and then he came back, he did one, and he was like, I kind of ran out of time.

No, the other ones were which we. I mean, practicing.

Yeah.

Showing safety is good on the Internet.

Yeah, it is. That's a good point. Yes.

Yeah.

I appreciate that. I didn't know that this was gonna have such a spirited conversation around it.

Well, hanks a hater. Yeah.

It's okay.

Yeah.

Not publicly. Except for this.

I'm the Colts kid.

Yeah. I was just about to say, you hate.

You ain't. That's what.

Yeah, that was a raw reaction.

It was. I didn't realize that the course that are. It's the same as our God is an awesome guy.

Yeah. I love Seth was flow.

He stole that from church.

And Seth and flow saw it, and everyone commented. He was like, thanks. Pardon my take for shouting me out. And all the comments were like, hank, such a hater. We'll get him.

Yeah. I don't want to be a hater. This is just my, like, I know.

Shit.

I don't like it.

I'm gonna give you.

What do you want me to say?

I'm gonna give your attitude today a doom.

Yeah, that's fine. Double doom.

I'll try. I'll try and watch them come around. I like, see, they did the los polos.

The problem is that your only idea is mini golf?

No, there's, there's. That's stolen joke.

Ah, yeah, well, it's a good joke because it's true.

Yeah, it was good joke. You didn't make it this low. Spoilers him and his dad. His dad like said the same thing is, who the fuck are these? Like another italian kid. He's like, who the fuck are these guys? Started talking shit and then everyone was like, the Rizzlers gonna get you. The river is gonna get you. Then they all did a stream together. That was funny. That was. That was funny.

Again, I think the more you explain what. Yes, I like.

Yes.

Yeah.

I just want to watch the videos and smile.

Yeah, it's.

Yeah, it's.

That's fun.

It's the Internet. It's like supposed to be.

Do you ever.

Do you.

Yeah, I'm not. I'm not like. I'm not saying. Cuz I think one way you should, but.

Yes. He's been trying to go viral for a very long time. He was a. He was a former in independent wrestler.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah. So he's. He's got this in him.

He's about that content.

Yeah, like the people who found his early videos, like, don't realize he was also a wrestler. To going on the independent circuit. Yeah, you tell me. An independent circuit wrestler wants to go. Wants to make money going viral online. No, duh.

Yeah, I mean, sometimes when you're an inventor, it takes you a few dud corrections until you get something awesome.

People laughed at the Steve jobs. Jobs fired him from Apple.

Got fired. Then he took a loan, and then he came back and crushed him.

Yeah.

Hank would have been such a Steve Jobs hater.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

Biggest cuz he doesn't golf. That's the problem. Hank's only YouTube videos are golf. If I wouldn't went to your algorithm right now.

There's one other thing.

Boobs. What? Who?

Billy strings.

Oh, yeah. Hit the line. Billy Stringshouse. Imagine if Billy Strings did a golf video. Good, good.

Yeah, Billy strings, come on the show. Do a video with us.

Okay. Your cool throne.

My cool throne is chess controversies. Have you guys heard the chess controversy?

Another butt plug?

No, this is. It's different. It's much more sinister than the butt plug. There's a russian grandmaster, I think she is. She was competing in a tournament against her opponent, who's from Dagestan. And before the tournament, they caught her on camera. She snuck into the room, went up to the board that they were about to play and smeared something on her opponent's pieces and on her side of the board. And then her opponent got deathly sick.

Oh.

Almost died.

Ooh.

So they went back, they reviewed the footage. It turns out that she sprayed Mercury onto her side of the chessboard and almost killed her opponent. Oh, there's no butt plug stuff in chest now.

Hardcore.

They're actually trying to kill each other. Yeah, it's almost like Belichick stuff.

That's right. Very hardcore.

Bill, a checkmate.

Okay, my hot seat. This happened late Sunday after we recorded. But Matt Kucher. What a dish. Dickhead. What a douchebag. The worst.

What do you do?

The w. Oh, Hanks gonna defend him. Nice. Okay. I like spicy. The Wyndham championship, there were. So they had bad weather Thursday and Friday. They had to fit in a bunch of rounds on Saturday and Sunday. The course, the grounds crew did an incredible job. They got the whole thing in. Matt Kutcher was in 12th place. Didn't mean anything for the FedEx cup. Didn't mean anything for pretty much anything. Hits into the group and ahead of him on 18, and then just picks up his ball and leaves and says, it's too dark, and came back on Monday to finish half a hole while everyone else had finished, so didn't. Made people come back and sit there. Was actually very funny, watching everyone clap. Douchebag move.

Did he make his putt?

I think he got the exact score.

He was gonna get a par.

He stayed in at twelve, so he too putted. So, Hank. No, he was like, halfway up the fairway when he came back. Okay, Hank, you're.

I'm not defending him, because Matt Coocher is a documented scumbag. He won a tournament. He had, like, a fill in Caddy. He won, like, I think, a million and a half or. Yeah, or something. Paid his caddy, like five grandd.

Yep.

And there's been some other examples of him being a scumbag. So I think in this case, it probably is just him being a scumbag. But I did see a golf journalist who had a thread breaking down why he might have been doing it, basically saying that he was in the last group, and the person he was playing with was. Had a four shot lead. He had to play in the dark. He kind of blew his lead. And the group in front of them was playing super, super slow all day. There's, like, a couple long videos of the guy who won, I think. Think Rye, the two glove guy, taking like four minutes on putts, like, taking forever. And that Kucher was basically standing up for the guy who lost the lead, but he didn't say it, like, which is obviously not.

And also, did that guy finish?

He chose to finish, but he. Kusher was saying, like, he was just, you know, he was going through the motions. He didn't say this, but this is what the guy was saying, that maybe he was just trying to set a example of, like, the guy should have been playing faster in front of them. You got to take a stand.

But that's not it. How is that taking? I don't know how that takes a stand for the guy he's playing with. If the guy he's playing with was like, oh, good call, Matt Kutcher. I'll come back Monday, too. I understand.

At that point, he was already out of the league. He already had lost, like, sounds like.

Taking him being a jerk and twisting it into, here's why I'm actually a hero.

Did Matt Kucher write this article that you read, Hank?

No. And he.

His.

The other point said. The other point said. The other point that he said was that, but if Matt Kucher had just come out and said all this instead of doing the little koi shit, people probably would have had his back. But he didn't.

That's true. If he had been, like, public about why he was doing that ahead of time. I'm looking back now at the Caddy controversy, where he paid his caddie five grand. And then later on, Kutcher said that McElroy cost him $300,000 due to the two point advantage in their season long FedEx cup race. And then Rory said, and we all know what that money means to him.

Mmm.

So, apparently, he's cheap.

Ooh, super cheap. And, like, a documented kind of scumbag, maybe.

So how about this? Flights. They're cheaper on Mondays.

True. But he had to stay an extra day.

Way cheaper.

He had to stay an extra day.

PJ tore a funny tweet because they do, like, the, you know, every shot from, like, Brooks kept winning the US Open or whatever, and they show a million shots. They did every shot from Matt Couture's finish Monday morning, and it was just three shots.

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

Again.

I said to Vladimir Putin, I say, don't do it. You can't do it, Vladimir. You do it, it's going to be a bad day. You cannot do it. And I told him things that what I do. And he said, no way. And I said, way.

That's it.

I mean, that's fucking funny.

That's what all negotiations are, by the way.

No way.

That's the. That's the subtext to every negotiation ever. Way. Just say way and walk away.

Yeah. It's a five year old response he got him with. Yeah.

Way deep down inside, we are all five year old.

Yes. Yes. No way. Way. Okay.

Huey, my hot seat. The WNBA.

Oh, okay.

I got.

I got a. I got a real story here. This one is legit. So there's a woman by the name of De Erica Hambyde. She was on our three by three women's basketball team.

Okay.

She is in a little dispute right now with the league of the WNBA and the Las Vegas Aces.

Oh.

So I'll give you the rundown before I give you the headline.

Okay. That's how it usually goes.

Yep.

When you read an article. Yeah.

In June 2022, she signed a contract extension. In July 2022, she got pregnant.

Okay.

And then what comes out afterwards?

A baby?

Well, she. She alleges that in the following months that the Las Vegas Aces were, quote unquote, unhappy with her, and she. She's alleging that they were.

They.

So, essentially, in the contract she had, she was supposed to have team provided housing, and she was supposed to have tuition. School tuition, for. Her daughter's. A private elementary school.

Okay.

An older kid.

Older daughter. Yeah.

Yeah.

And she is alleging that the Vegas Aces did not give her that, on top of the fact that they essentially wanted to trade her and wanted to push her out because she signed a big enough contract that they said was enough for two to three players. You know, the contract was a big enough contract. She. She's averaging 20 points, ten rebounds right now. She's doing very well. But the contract essentially. They essentially wanted a. Wanted a few different players for her contract, is what their Las Vegas is saying.

Wait, so.

Wait. Get. Read us the headline.

Wait, so the Las Vegas Aces, they're owned by who, again? What football player has an ownership stake in them? Big cat.

Tom Brady. Yeah.

That's interesting, because this doesn't sound like something Tom Brady would do to a pregnant woman. Kick her out mmm.

Read us the headline.

So, the official headline is she is essentially that.

Oh, I got it right here. Sparks. Dear Hamby sues WNBA aces, alleging discrimination. I think you should have read the headline first.

I don't know this kind of unorthodox.

Well, hear me out.

So.

So this is the second time they're going into the investigation. First time the Las Vegas Aces lost their 2025 1st round pick.

For a pregnant lady.

For a pregnant woman.

Whoa.

So, essentially. And she's saying that the WNBA did not do a good enough job. So, essentially, they're going back. She.

And.

Yeah. So. And go through all that and also have to pay for her. Her money. The money she lost, her lawyer fees, all that extra stuff.

Yeah. Which they should do.

Which stuff? That. Also, this is a list would never happen in the w. In the NBA.

Oh, yeah.

Because can you imagine if, like, football player. If male football players could get pregnant and you're psyched about the upcoming season.

Yeah.

And then you find out Jalen Hurts is gonna have a kid, so he's gonna be out all season.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The discourse that would. That would surround the league.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's essentially. That's why I. The ace is a in her. Her words are saying why. That she was. They weren't happy with her.

Yeah.

Because they signed this big contract and she got pregnant. She gets pregnant a month later.

Well, that's not. I mean, her fault. Yeah. You should be able to get pregnant. I agree.

You should get pregnant when you want to get ready, and sometimes you don't plan it.

Yeah.

And it was literally a month after I got.

Yeah.

Started having sex with her. Once you got a big paycheck.

Yeah. That's true. To celebrate.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Paycheck. Yeah. Paycheck. Sex.

Guys love money.

Yeah.

We love chicks with money.

All right. And your cool throne.

Oh, my cool throne. The Dallas Cowboys.

Oh.

They are the first leak franchise in, I think, us sports to pass surpass the $10 billion evaluations.

Good.

No more.

No one's got more money than JJ.

Yeah. And I love these lists. They're kind of like the. The us news and world top ranking of colleges.

Yeah.

Where it's like, none of this. It's all made up.

Every school has been at least rumored to be one of the top ten party schools in the.

Yes. And every school is also, like. They're the. The small iV's, the public iV's.

Yeah.

But it's. The price is what it sells for.

Yeah.

Price is the price. Yeah.

I don't know. They say that he could sell the team for $10 billion.

But again, it doesn't matter if no one wants to buy it for 10 billion.

I think Jerry Jones would buy the team right now for $10 billion from himself.

Yeah.

How come they can't pay Dak and CD then?

It's a good point. It's a good point. Should be able to be able to take a look at some of it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Take a second mortgage out. Okay, let's get to our interviews. We got Peter Schrager. We're going to talk a little hard knocks, and then we have Mickey Hart and Wright Thompson. Pft. You got a couple words before that?

Yes. Before we get to our interviews with Peter Strager, want to talk to you about my favorite people in the entire world, my favorite sunglasses for sure. And that would be? Shady rays. Shady rays. They're the best sunglasses. It's sunglasses season. I hope you've got your shady rays, but it's not too late to get them right now. They've got the best warranty in the business. If you don't love them, send them right back. They're going to get you a new one. They've got these brand new rival collections and they are aggressive. They're awesome sunglasses. Big single lens. They've got the premium stool and stars barstool lens etch on them. They're barstool blue. You can check them out. I was driving the El Camino wearing my rivals the other day. Felt badass. It's just a good look. It's a good look for the summer. If you're looking for something more casual, the classics are also getting the barstool treatment. Both of these styles are perfect for all day everyday comfort and performance. They've got hundreds of options to choose from. You're bound to find the perfect pair for your style. If you don't love your shades, exchange them for a new pair or you can return them worry free within 30 days.

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Okay, we now welcome on our good, good friend two times in a week because he did join us on the grit week van for the Mount Rushmore. You got a insight into the madness that is part of my take. It is Peter Schrager. He has the Hard Knocks podcast. He has good morning football. He's a reporter on Fox. He does everything.

Does anyone ever call you the Schragermeister?

No. I like that. I like that.

Nice cold glass of Schragermeister.

Can I show you what else? I am possession of this book.

Is that me?

This is the Aaron Rogers unauthorized biography. I got a copy. I'm flipping through it on about 100 pages. Pages in. Let's go.

Okay.

There's probably a lot of slanderized biography. Yeah. On the bears. All right, so before we start, we should just address this was a win tonight for the three old guys sitting right here. We're not going to rub it in because it is live now on Max. But there was a delay getting the hard knocks episode up. And I know that PFT and I have been belittled, ridiculed, mocked for years now because we refused to cut the cord. Tonight was our Super bowl because we got to watch hard knocks live and everyone else was mad about a nap. So credit to us guys for never giving up.

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

I pay 200 plus dollars a month to a cable provider every single month. I barely even turn on the tv. But it's all in preparation for this moment. I think it's akin to, you see that Michael Rubin fanatics white party and like, those who are in the know are there and they're all partying and we're all on the outside looking in, watching all of these bears media members be like, does anyone have HBO action? And like, just us, like taking photos of it and like doing selfies. Like, I felt like we were at the party and they were all on the outside looking in. It felt pretty good.

I've said it before, but I have a dear friend who cut the cord. It was probably like eight years ago and maybe it was like six years ago and I was over his house for the USC Ohio State, whatever bowl game they were playing in. And his stream kept on buffering. And I had a lot of money on the game. And it was at that moment that I was like, I always have to have a backup plan. I know this is going to cost me too much money, but I don't care. I have to be able to watch my sports live. And tonight we won. So, Schrager, it was actually a great episode. It felt like they got back to football and they spread the ball around. First episode was a lot of eberfluss. Tonight was like, you know, Keenan Allen, Roma Dunze. We have DJ Moore moment, Jonathan Owens. So you, you watched these before, right? Do you get these before us?

I get them like a few hours before they go live so I can do them. And then I get interview a guest each week. So the first week I interviewed Erlacher, who was amazing. And then this week, I just got off the phone with Ryan Poles, who has also seen the episode, and the GM and I were talking back and forth about it a little bit. And to your point, the first week was a lot of setting up characters. Here's Eber Fluss's glow up. We're going to talk about his Ryan Reynolds hair this week. We get Jalen Johnson and we get Keenan Allen going at it one on one at practice. Actual football and great access that we don't typically get to see when we just have the shaky cam footage from training camp where someone's watching from, like, the crowd. Yeah, it was awesome. And then it sounds like Keenan Allen was conceding that, you know. Yeah, this, this guy's been beating me all proud. Like, this guy had the best of me. So Bears offense gets a lot of press, but, like, this was the episode for the Bears defense, and I was.

I know it was. And so I have to ask, everyone should go listen to your hard Knocks podcast, but can you tell us what maybe a quick summary of what Ryan polls is feeling? I mean, I love him, but where's he at mentally with this team?

Yeah, there was a quick little moment in the beginning of the episode where he's talking to Ian Cunningham, who is kind of his number two in Chicago, and he's like, have you noticed that Caleb's getting a little better on film? Like, he's picking it up a little bit, the rhythm, and he's like, uh huh. So he was talking about it every single day. Like, Caleb's picking up things that he didn't have the day before. He's picking up coverages that he didn't see week one now and week two, but I thought was great. I was like, I kind of liked Caleb in episode one because for that rookie show, you can go up there and you can be like, here's my college fight song. Or, like, here's my favorite, like, new hip hop song. Instead, Caleb comes out. He's horrible singing John Legends, ordinary people, and, like, they're throwing shit at him, and he just gets the piss taken out of him. And he's smiling and he's laughing and he's an equal with Tyson Bagen to Austin Reid and Brett Rippin. And you're like, I like this guy. So I'm like, you have to like that.

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

Yeah, yeah.

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

I did get this booked on Sunday night, so that does. That does make sense. The game was Saturday. One last thing on polls. I thought it was interesting because a lot of these guys clam up when it's not like football. I was like, you were in Kansas City when they drafted mahomes, but you were also in Kansas City when they drafted Kelsey. Like, would you have ever thought he's like, what? He's like, no, I would have never thought, like, at that time that Kelsey would get through his rookie year. He was crazy. He's like, that's why we love Travis, because, you know, Andy Reid found a way to make it work. And, like, he said that he and Kelsey saw each other before a game last year, and the two of them did, like, the Paul Rudd Sean Evans meme of like, look at us. And he's like, I'm a GM, and he's like, and I'm dating the number one pop star in the world. And it's like the team had a huge embrace, and I'm like, all right, so poles has a personality. He was pretty cool.

Yeah, he is. Other quick hitters. Cause we have some questions, Schrager, about the rest of the NFL, and we don't want to do all bears, but these are just notes I took down. Pft. So you can add in anywhere. I love that they're scouting the refs. That was pretty cool.

Craig Rolstrad. I believe that gentleman's name is Harry Freed. I go deep. The kid who is talking to Caleb, and it's like, look, he's an athletic director in Seattle, and this is what he does. You're going to see him once a week. That's how deep this is. I've never seen that before. That was cool.

Yeah, that was very cool.

Private investigators for the refs. It's smart.

Yeah. Yeah. I loved seeing the scene at the Museum of Ice Cream, just because I've been to the Museum of Ice cream three times, both in New York City. I didn't know.

Is that like a chain? Because big cat is. I took my kid in New York.

He's a history buff.

Well, listen, you go to the one in New York City. Is the one in Chicago the same? Oh, you gotta go to the one in Chicago again.

So it's kind of like a hillstone. Like, if there's a hillstone in any city, I'm trying that french dip there. I have to.

I have no problem saying I've been to the Museum of vice cream three times. That's. I'm not. I'm not worried about. And then the. The other one. And this one was like a very dad moment. DJ Moore before the game in Buffalo, his daughter being like, what's the Bumblebees name?

And if.

And like, that's. If you have kids, that's the most kids thing ever. We're like, the world could be on fire. And your kid is just like that one song. Yeah, play that one song we listened to three weeks ago that has the cat in it. And I'm like, I don't fucking know what song this is.

And how. And how up to date. Like, if came out, like, in June. So I'm like, wow. That's not saying frozen. That's not beauty and the beast.

That's not Aladdin.

Like, give me the if character. I'm like, if I don't even. Where'd you find if? Okay, again, cable guy here. I don't even know where to find if. That's incredible.

Okay. I stupidly didn't plug my mic in after I spent the first ten minutes being like, oh, I'm a genius for not cutting cords. And look at me. That was the most karma thing ever. So you could hear me through my headphone. My, my. I actually have, you know, wired headphones. You hear me through that mic. Now I'm plugged into my actual mic. Holy shit. That was a perfect way to start the show for me to be like, victory lap. And then, hey, you are the old fuck. Pft. Any other thoughts about hard knocks before we talk about trigger? About other camp stuff?

Yeah, I just made a quick list of three things that big cats going to get mad about during car.

Didn't get mad at all.

Well, well, let me get to him. Let's see if you got mad because last week you got mad about a few things. How they portrayed our dear, sweet Caleb Williams. The first thing is, I just predicted that big cat would yell at Max for not pressing the button. Did not. So maybe this is growth. Maybe this is progress. Number two, you remember last week when you got upset when they showed Caleb Williams on screen when somebody used the word grinder?

I was joke.

But, yeah, I was wondering if this week you got upset when Caleb was having trouble putting his shoulder pads.

No doubt. I know.

And then Rome was like. He was like, hey, Rome, can you get my strap on?

Sounds like you're thinking about me while you're watching hard knocks. Just keep going.

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

Can, can I shout out Austin Reid's parents? We have correct production team. I'm like, give me these parents names. These people are great. Jen and Tom Reed. And they went to every one of his games from southern Illinois to west Florida to western Kentucky. And now he's been to Canton and Buffalo.

I'm off.

I'm for those guys. Those are my favorite people.

I also had on my list that you would get upset at HBO, Max, because you thought that maybe they, they were intentionally not letting people see the good Caleb Williams plays this week.

No. Again, I was watching on cable, so I was not mad. Listen, my, my complaints about the first week, I admitted that I was maybe a little triggered, but there also were some real complaints in there. They showed football this week. I wanted to see football and that's what they did. They showed a lot of football. And they sp, and again, they spread the ball around like, I want to see everyone on the team. And it felt like that this week where they were giving a bunch of guys some love. They were, you know, like at the end when they were giving Austin Booker some love. Like, it was just, I loved it. Like you're learning about running back out of Howard.

He got a lot of love.

Yeah. Right, right. Villas Jones fumbled the ball. I've seen that before, many times. Then he had some nice runs. But, yeah, I, I have no complaints about this week's episode. I thought they did a great job.

Also, I don't think that Simone Biles is human. When they showed her climbing up that rope, crazy. That's just crazy. As a guy that used to, like, jump up and then quickly put one arm above the other and then just fall, the fact that she can climb a rope to the ceiling in like 3 seconds is insane.

Did you guys have that? The presidential, like, fitness? The national fitness presidential. At least national. I couldn't do like the, the flex arm hang long enough.

Yeah.

Oh, you did the flex arm hang?

Yeah, pull ups.

Not easy.

Yeah, I had, I always had trouble with the mile run. I was always like 30 seconds too slow to get presidential on that.

Yeah. Yeah. All right, Schrager, give us three big stories that are going around in training camp right now and what's happening and maybe just some details because you're plugged in everywhere.

Yeah, I've been to a few of them and I'll say, like, one of the cool things at jets camp when I was there was that the Hasan Reddick story is like almost like a non factor. That, and I'm not minimizing it. It's a crazy situation that you have a star pass rush or demand. Not demand, but request a trade, get traded. And they somehow didn't sign him to a long term deal before they brought him in the building and he did the press conference and now he's not there and wants to be traded again. Like, it's, I live in New York City. I'm amongst all these jet fans. It's like last year they were burned so badly and they're like, so scarred that they're not letting themselves get excited. Of all the practice I've been to, the crispest practice I was was that was at this jets one. And it's like, they're really good on paper. They were really good on paper last year, but they added three really good offensive linemen to protect Rogers. They added players on defense. Like, I'm trying not to get too excited because, you know, I've been down this road with the jets, but I'd say the jets are running a very crisp, nicely, somewhat under the radar training camp.

And in a year where looks like the Patriots, the Dolphins, and even the Bills might be taking a step back from where they were last year like this, I don't know. I don't want jets fans to get too excited because I get it. But, like, that was one of the Christmas practices I've been to all summer, maybe in the last couple summers.

Ooh, interesting.

I like that.

What about Brandon Ayuk? Is he going to get traded or are we just going to play the will? Brandon Iuke, you get traded game all year?

You know, I do this daily morning show and it's like, we have 32 teams and we have so many stars and, like multiple days we've started talking about Brandon Ayuk and it's just like, now, here's the wild thing with that situation. It was, they thought they had a deal, then both sides went dark, and then it was like, all right, well, there's the Patriots, but then Brandon, I'm not going to the Patriots. So it's really down to one team, the Steelers, right now. And apparently there's a framework in place, but you need Ayuk and the Niners to agree upon it. Like, the Steelers aren't like, here's the crazy thing. His agents, a guy named Ryan Williams, who's a big agent in the league, whatever, they have a bunch of guys. Ryan Williams and John lynch are like lifelong buddies. Like, best buddies. Like, Ryan Williams invited John lynch to his wedding. Like, they are that tight. So there's personal, personal connections in this thing where, to me that tells me, all right, at the end of the day, if those are the two people who are running the business operation in this situation, like, they'll find a way to get IU dressed with the Niners and playing with this team, and there'll be a contract that both sides are happy with and the Niners can go to bed at night, but, like, for them to go and, like, dig their heels in on this one and then for, for, Iuke's people to be like, well, he just, he cannot.

He cannot take up, take step on the field until he gets more money. Like, I just have to think they both, they're in the. It's a beneficial place for both of them. Like, let's just get it done and find a way to make it happen.

Wait, you said that he invited John lynch to his wedding. Did John lynch go to his wedding? Did he attend the wedding?

John lynch was at the wedding. Like lifelong friends? Yes.

Okay. Well, yeah. Like, good morning football. Would you rather lead off for the next two weeks with talking about the Dallas Cowboys every day?

No.

Or talking about Brandon Ayuk?

You know, it's funny because our show is on so early. So, like, I always make this argument and you guys can appreciate this. I'm like, there are not that many Niners fans up right now. Like, I don't know if we need to start the first hour of the show talking about a second wide receiver on the 49 ersitive, but I think it's a universal theme when you get the player that's like, I'm not coming to camp, but I am at camp, but I'm not taking part in practice. So, yeah, I don't know cowboys, that might sell better, but the IU thing is more timely, so.

And then the last one that I had a question about is, what are the Vikings going to do with JJ McCarthy?

Yeah, look, that was, that, that's. That's crappy news that we just got it today, obviously, that his knees messed up and hopefully he'll be back, but that wasn't necessarily the plan week one. Anyway, the way I saw it or the way that I've been hearing it, is that like. And I know you could roll your eyes because we've seen Donald, the Jets, with the. With the Panthers, with the Niners. We've seen Sam Darnold.

Right.

We get what we're getting. Still in his twenties and like, everything I've heard is that, like, as great as JJ McCarthy's been, like, Donald's been even better in camp. They sign him to a $10 million deal. They feel confident that Donald was going to start anyway out of the game. So this gives time for McCarthy, but that's a really good situation for Sam because it's Kevin O'Connell, who's a former quarterback in the NFL. It's Josh McCown, who's like 18 year veteran in the NFL. He's the quarterback's coach out there. And then you've got Addison Jefferson, Aaron Jones and of course, that great offensive line. So, like, if Darnold was ever going to have a chance to get out and have a good start, it's with this team and what they have, the McCarthy thing. It's unfortunate because I think everyone was excited, but again, 21 year old kid, like super young, I don't think they're rolling him out, out of the gates the first month of the season anyway.

Yeah. So it sounds like they'll probably take the more cautious approach. It does suck. It sucks beyond beliefs to have your rookie quarterback have that. But you also have to think long term. It's not just this season. They're not in win now mode.

Yeah. You know, pft, I'll tell you this, you know, I talk to Cliff all the time, the offensive coordinator in Washington. Like, everyone's happy and polls is thrilled with Caleb. And I talked to Sean Payton and he's thrilled with Bo Nicks. Like, you have no idea how good this kid is. Like, great what they're getting out there in Washington. I'm not trying to get you to gassed up here, but holy shit, bro, they're talking. This guy is the real deal in Washington. And Jaden Daniels has been everything they were hoping for and more in training camp as far as leadership, as far as on the field. And we saw him attempt three passes. But how calm did he look in that preseason game against the jets? Just moving the ball right up the field?

Yeah, I mean, Dan Quinn called him top gun, which is an awesome nickname. He just buzzed the tower. He didn't get permission, but that the first pass that he threw, Dan Quinn needs to teach him. We're too close for missiles. Let's switch to guns because the first one that he threw on that little screen pass went like 6ft over his head. I'm going to chalk that one up to adrenaline.

Building.

It was a noon start. He was ready to go, man.

Yeah. I like how you said, I'm not going to gas you up too hard, and then you're like, holy shit, bro. Like, I'm gas. I can't get any more gassy than I am right now. I haven't felt this way in a long time. Maybe I'm. Maybe I'm just desperate to have any, like, shred of positivity or hope. But yeah, I'm getting drunk on all the Jaden Daniels Kool Aid. So I'm happy that you told me that. You said earlier that the jets looked like they were having a pretty good camp. Things look crisp. I know you don't want to. You don't want to trash any teams, but can we put it this way? Like, which teams so far in camp have had the most questions?

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

It's. It's not.

It's a new era. I'll just say that.

Counterpoint Joe Milton. Maybe he saw Joe Milton play, and he's like, maybe.

Fans of Michigan, fans of Tennessee, fans of college football have been hearing about Joe Milton for years. I think he's got a great rocket arm, and we had him on good morning football last year. He's a really good kid. But, you know, you go in the 6th round, and accuracy has always been an issue. So I wouldn't put Milton ahead of May just yet.

It's phase one. We're in phase one of the Joe Milton experience, and anyone that's paid attention to him in the past, you know what's coming. But just enjoy the ride.

Enjoy it. Enjoy. And they used to do this with. I want to say it's either like Michael Bishop or Rohan Davey. Like, they would. They would take out Brady at the end of a half, and they would throw in one of these just like rocket armed guys just to throw the Hail Marys at the end. Like Belichick used to do that.

I got.

I think it's Michael Bishop from Kansas State. I would not be shocked if we saw Joe Milton just throw a couple bombs during this season and they put him in there just to let him get one of those deep throws before the end of the half.

All right, I got.

I have something for you guys.

Yeah.

Okay. I am so jealous of that Rob Deirdrek ridiculousness, you know, studio you guys have in Chicago where I'm at all hours watching just fun games happening. Big cat. I live in Brooklyn, obviously used to live here, and I don't know since you left, but there is a craze in Brooklyn, and it's in Dumbo, and it's the sport called Padella.

Yeah.

Aware of what Padell is?

No.

Played it. I've played it. Okay. Yeah. The sworn enemy of pickleball.

Yes, it's pickleball.

Evil twin. So it's. It's two on two. It's like pickleball, but you can go in the kitchen and all this thing. It's more tennis than pickleball, but there's glass walls, and you bang it off the walls. And I've been playing it all summer. They have it at in dumbo. And I am telling you guys, if you built a Padell court in that Chicago gymnasium of yours, I will fly out once a week, and I will play with you. I am so addicted to this sport. It's not just me. I'm at the court. Andrew Schultz, the comedian, walks in, he plays name drop, doesn't say hello to me, doesn't know who the fuck I am. But still, he's there. There are other people that are like, it's gaining steam, and I feel like you guys would love it. And big cat is so up your alley, where it's like, no, it's not tennis.

That's what they're trying to do. They just. They're trying to basically figure out different ways to play tennis, which is a boring sport to play. Let's make it small. Let's stay off the walls. Like, hey, can you just admit tennis is boring?

No.

How dare you? Pft. Did you love it when you played?

Okay, so I played one time, and I got my ass kicked by a 65 year old.

Okay? All these boomers are creating games that they just don't even have to move.

They're so. They're so good at it, and they know all the angles, and they know how to, like, hit it off the wall and wait for it off the wall and hit it at just the right angle.

And it was always humiliating. But, like, I remember when you were doing those. Those basketball workouts, and I was so jealous of you. I'm like, yes, that looks fun. Like, you're getting a sweat in. This is what? This is like, it.

No, no, no. Because it's. It's. The boomers have created games where they basically, like, shrunk tennis so they can stand in one place and be like, I worked out. That's what they're doing.

I tell you, you'll sweat your ass off in this one.

I think the Boomers created these sports just so they can stick it to millennials. Yeah, they can just kick the shit out of us at a sport and be like, see, I told you guys.

They never sell their houses, so no one our age can own a house. They never leave their jobs, so they never want to leave the presidency. They just. They just now they ruin all of our sports and recreation.

I'm with you.

Forget it.

And what's the theme about all these sports? They just take a sport that already exists and just make it significantly smaller so they can cover all the ground. It's ridiculous. I will not stand for paddle. All right, I have one. I have one last question. Schrager, it's a row back question. Take 20% off your first purchase. Cusps, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Who is going to be the week one starter in Pittsburgh?

I think Russell Wilson.

Yeah.

I don't know the status of his calf. I just know that when they brought him in, it was like they put tunnel vision on. They're like, russ is our guy. Like, we're good. Like, just feel and fields would. It's ironic because I remember covering. This is going to date me. I remember covering the Seahawks in, like, 2012 when your guy Russell Wilson showed up there and it was the late Tavares Jackson and it was Matt Flynn, and everyone was like, it's an open competition. And Russell was a third round pick and won the job outright. That's what they're saying in Pittsburgh. And I think, like, the irony is, like, it would have to take Justin Fields to have a lights out, undeniable preseason, and it would have to maybe take a not 100% Russell Wilson with that calf for fields to start week one. But I think. I think the plan is Russell Wilson week one.

I think so, too. Yeah. What about your guy canales? What about the. Do we have any Canalis?

I feel like the Canalis. Did you see the Canalis video that came out where they were doing the rookie show and he said, fuck it, I'm jumping in and he's saying, bob Marley, every little thing is going to be all right to the team. And he's saying it perfectly. So all is good in Carolina, guys.

Okay. That's good that. I'm glad that he's a good singer. That's important to have as a football.

Coach, NFL head coach.

Has there been any, any reason for optimism down there? I do feel for Panthers fans. You had a rough season, one with Bryce Young and the fact that CJ stroud was so good last year and he went second overall. It's tough. It's tough to make it through a season like that. Is there any, is there room for hope? Do we have hope in Carolina?

Sure. And look, this offseason, they, like, really spent a lot of money on, like, guards. Like, they spent. They spent a lot of money on, like, Robert Hunter from the, from the Dolphins, who's not a household name, but, like, they broke the bank on them. They just want to build up this, like, brick wall in front of Bryce Young, and, yes, he can see above it. And then in the draft, they got Leggette at wide receiver. They got Brooks at running back. So, like, they got the big guys up front in free agency, and they got some weapons on the outside. Last year, had never had a shot. It was dead on arrival as far as no weapons, no protection, no chance. And now you have an offensive head coach, and you brought a bunch of different skill position players in, and now you have an offensive line. So the hope this team is a little bit better, but they're not like a playoff team in my eyes.

Yeah, you. I mean, you're a David tepper apologist.

I am. I love, I loved his, I loved his maniacal ways on Wall Street. I told you that last time I spoke with you.

Yes.

No, I haven't spoken to, I haven't spoken to Tepper. I assume he's on a yacht somewhere.

Nice.

Yeah. All right. Well, shrags, thank you so much. We'll see again during the football season. Everyone listening to Hard Knocks podcast, especially now Ryan polls is on this week's episode. Episode. And good one for us tonight for having team cable.

Remember Tom Cable. We're Tom Cable.

Guys.

Let's go.

Yeah.

I love it.

Great week.

Was our night.

Tonight was our night. Appreciate you guys. Hard Knocks podcast. Find it.

Peter Schrager was brought to you by our good friends over at Verizon. I'm excited for the best time of year football season. Verizon can help you win Sunday and be fully prepared for football watching with NFL Sunday ticket, meaning that you can get your favorite teams out of market games every Sunday afternoon after the move to Chicago. I've used Sunday ticket to watch every Sunday commander's game on my own terms. I can keep up with my team from afar. If you're a new city, you want to keep track of your home team, you got to have a Sunday ticket. I can watch commanders games right at home or on the go with my phone. I don't need to go out to bars to catch the. And it relies on NFL St to get the commanders games I want and the ones that I can't live without. And you can get NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube tv to keep up with all of your favorite teams and out of market games on Sunday afternoon, too. It's the best. You need to have Sunday ticket. You got to keep up with your team. Got to watch your team.

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It's real, healthy food. It's not just fresh, high quality food. They also send the food pre portioned specifically for your dog based on their unique needs. In the morning, I get up, I go to the fridge. I got a packet of food for Blake. Cut it open. He's waiting right there for it. Because he loves his farmer's dog. Serve it to him. Dinner, same thing. Take one out of the freezer, put it in the fridge, let it defrost overnight. Boom. He's got breakfast and dinner for the next day. It's super easy. Stella's been on the farmer's dog for years. Before they were a sponsor, Blake has only known the farmer's dog as his food. He's had a great, full, healthy life so far. Dogs at a healthy weight can live up to 2.5 years longer than overweight dogs. That's a fact. Keep your dog in shape with the farmer's dog and we've got a deal for you. You can get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food@thefarmersdog.com. pMT plus you get free shipping. Just go to the farmersdog.com PMT to get 50% off. That's the farmer's dog. And now here, Wright Thompson and Mickey Hart.

And now for something completely different.

Okay. We now welcome on two very, very, very special guests. It is Mickey Hart, the legend himself from the Grateful Dead, and Wright Thompson, award winning author. We don't read a lot of books, but we know Wright Thompson is a very good authorization. They have collabed for a new documentary that's coming out on ESPN that's going to be out today as we're airing this. It's called rhythm masters and Mickey heart experience. I was lucky enough to watch it, and it's unbelievable. I want to say that from this, from the jump, what you guys produced was incredible. Mickey, I guess my first question is, what made you want to do this project? And kind of like, what was the. What was the fire that lit you off? Like, hey, I want to combine my world of drumming and sports in such a beautiful way.

Oh, thank you very much. I guess you might call the genesis of it all was with Bill Walton. Of course, Bill and I were good friends, and he once mentioned to me that he thought basketball was very much like a band, you know, a basketball team. And putting a ball through a hoop into a net was like string music. And I thought that was very interesting, you know, that he thought that he saw the musicality in basketball. And I, you know, and that started me thinking that, well, everything in this universe is full of rhythm. You know, vibration is the basis of all life, and it just extends on and on and on over. Rhythm of life, the rhythm of anything and the rhythm of the game. Sports, for instance, was always intriguing to me since I, when I grew up, when I was a little guy, I used to watch Bob Cousy, the great basketball player who kind of almost invented modernization basketball. And I used to watch him and was actually in black and white and back in the day, and he was my first sports hero. And I thought, well, this guy is.

He's a great artist. I even knew that when I was a kid. And so there is the art of sports and basketball, for instance, and all those things kind of keyed me, and writing about rhythm in different walks of life and so forth, and was, it was another extension of the philosophy that rhythm is everywhere and you just have to find it.

Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating. And Bill shows up a number of times throughout the movie. Right off the very start, I think he's the first voice that you hear in the picture. I'm curious to know how he introduced himself to you for the first time. What was your first experience like? Like meeting Bill Walton, you know, him being a massive, grateful fan.

Well, it was back in when he won the championship in Oregon, and he came to one of our concerts, and I looked out into the audience. It was a small place. It wasn't much. It was a theater, kind of a larger theater. And I thought everybody was sitting down, and there was just one guy, you know, and I thought, wow, why is the audience sitting down? There's one guy standing up, and my equipment man, remrod, he said, no, no, that's Bill Walton, the basketball player. And I go, oh, really? I loved to watch him at UCLA. I saw a lot of the games, and I was a huge Bill Walton fan, and I knew he was a deadhead. And I just said, bring him back. Bring him backstage. And that's how I met Bill Walton. It was at a concert, and Bill and I started a relationship, I don't know how many years ago, 45, whatever that 40, you know, and became best friends over the years.

Yeah. I mean, we were lucky enough to interview him probably like six or seven years ago, and it was just. It was incredible. He was one of those guys that if you spent an hour with him, you felt like he was your best friend, and it was. It was a blessing. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

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

Well, I would say this, you know, it's very cool, obviously, because you're like, you know, when you're 15 years old, these guys don't seem real. And then, you know, so you meet them. But I'll tell you, for me, less than a deadhead, it was like, as a person who tries to have a creative life, to see Mickey's work ethic. Mickey, close your ears. I hate giving you compliments in front of you, but, like. But I mean, his work ethic, that's exactly right. His work ethic and his relentless drive to be creative, to push himself, to stretch, to find the boundaries and move through them, it just was a real. Making this movie with him came for me at the exact right time in my own life, just as a reminder of how you approach a creative life and how you dump. And so, like, I don't know, you hear about these guys and you always wonder if the emperor has any clothes, you know, like, what are these guys going to be like up close? And it didn't take long for us to understand that we were dealing with a mind at work with, with an incredibly smart, educated person who also had an intuitive sense of his.

One of the things he said that really stuck with me is as you get older, you grow into your instrument, not out of it.

Yeah.

And that really struck me as a. We are on a journey that lasts a lifetime, all of us. And it was just a good reminder for me of how to be. I mean, I couldn't be more grateful for the experience. And, like, making the movie is the tax we all have to pay to have the journey.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And just hearing your voice, right, it just took me into. I just thought it was a Saturday morning and I'm ready for college football right now.

Yeah, I can start talking about SEC football.

Yeah, I know you can. So did you have to kick him out of the recording booth? And do you want to do some voiceovers for this movie? Mickey.

He'S been right a lot of times, helping to produce and write some of this. Chatteregh. It was a pleasure working with him and Tory champagne and ESPN in general, such nice folks there, receptive to ideas and very loose and allowed me to have creative freedom with this. And, you know, that's really what it's all about when you're an artist. You have to have that kind of freedom to create something like rhythm masters, which I'm very proud of, actually. It's a. Yeah, it's quite a good story. It takes rhythm into a whole other land and exposes the idea that rhythm is essential in life, just in sports. And then, of course, in drumming. That's the basis of drumming, is rhythm. But just in general, it gives you pause and which makes you think about while doing something right is in rhythm or wrong, is out of rhythm or hate or it is out pieces in all that kind of, you know, the good rhythm and bad rhythm. Health is good rhythm disease, bad rhythm. You know, winning is good rhythm, bad rhythm is losing. All of that kind of stuff was told in this movie. So it's more than just a movie, just about sports.

It really tells a lot about it talks about life in general as well. And it's very important especially to keep your equilibrium and your balance when you're. When you're famous, you know, as sports figures would be and how they deal with it off the court, especially. You know, all of these athletes that I interviewed had such a spirit take on it. And very much like myself, it was very. It wasn't very different than how I think about rhythm and music and being in the now. And these things bring you into the moment, and that's very powerful emotional payload, if you will, dealing, you know, at sports at this level, the rhythm master level. And, and, you know, it also informed me as well about Mario Andretti and Marshawn Lynch, Babkuzzi, Phil Jackson, all of these great players and influences, influencers like Phil Jackson, who's not only a great basketball player, but a great human being and brilliant, you know, the Zen master, you know, really. And it was great to reconnect with Phil after a few years of not seeing him. So, yeah, it was really very nourishing for me to talk with all of these great players.

Some of them are, you know, heroes to me.

Yeah, Phil Jackson talking about how he thinks about basketball in four, four time and the two beats for anything to happen was, was really interesting. There was one thing that you said that, that struck me, and that was that you can go fast while you're not moving. So what does that mean?

Well, it's about the power of concentration in the mind and focused. And when you focus on something, you can go fast. You can go slow. When I'm up there and I'm playing like mad and I'm just is going crazy, but inside I'm very calm and balanced and happy and so forth. So that allows you to be able to run a marathon or a sprint or just stand still. Sometimes I'm very still inside and outside. It's just. It looks like would look like frenzy in a way, but that's not really what's going on inside. You have to really be collected and focused in order to go fast. And in the same way, to go really slow, you need to be able to have that balance, to be able to encompass all speeds. So, yeah, the mind is very powerful, but the brain says the body does. So this really, basketball, football, mostly is about neurologic function, is about how the brain operates and what signals it sends. And the brain is all about rhythm. You got a trillion neurons firing every second in your brain, and that's pure rhythm. So the ability to be able to coordinate your brain and your body movement, the idea of body mind connection is everything in sports and in life and certainly in drumming.

So you can go fast, you can go slow, you can stand still if you have the right head space for it, because sports and music create a virtual headspace where you go, which is not like everyday life, like you're walking down the street or doing anything else, it's very different. And that's the high of it all.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you said you were. I feel like you're about to say something, and I do want to just hear you talk.

Well, I was going to say, like, when you talk about Mickey's, like, relentless curiosity. I mean, the thing that drove it home for me was. I don't know if you remember last year's tour were. I mean, the biggest two tours in the world were Taylor Swift eras tour and then dead and company's summer tour. And so we were out in San Francisco for that last couple of shows, and after the last night, we went immediately back to Mickey's dressing room. I mean, the crowd is still sort of singing that fade away. The drones are still up in the air. And he comes in and locks eyes, and the very first thing thing he says is, am I going to have my sports highlights tomorrow? I mean, you know, my ears are. To quote Bob Seger, I mean, my ears are still ringing from the echoes of the amplifiers, and he's already moved on. And I just, like, you know, yeah.

It'S crazy that I actually had that question, Mickey, because it's, as a fan watching from afar, the Grateful Dead or counterculture and their. And, you know, the hardest touring band in history. And, like, some people from afar might say, oh, well, they, you know, they're just playing jam band music, like, whatever, but the toes to hear and read the stories about your guys work ethic and the days and years that you guys built even before you became, you know, this incredible, you know, touring band? You guys were playing day and night, and it feels like that. That work ethic and those hours put into it, it kind of get glossed over by maybe regular culture people and thinking like, oh, yeah, they're just out there playing the bit you guys put in all these hours. So what was it like when you were getting to that point where you can all speak the same language on stage in an improvisational way that is so hard to reach that point? And I think people don't give enough credit to. To how difficult, how many hours get into that.

Yeah, you bet. We practiced every day, all day. You know, there was, you know, we weren't. Weren't sitting around smoking dope or anything. Right. You know, even if we were, we were playing, you know, constantly, so. And also, you know, it happened right from the beginning. You know, Grateful Dead music was magic right from the first, you know, drop of it. So it was just a matter of collectively getting it all together and presenting it to people because the music was something we were discovering we were falling on. Every day. We learned something every day. The more you played, the more you learned. And we didn't care, really, about. We weren't into the money or into the fame, and we didn't have hit records. We didn't do videos. So I don't know about counterculture, but we certainly were totally part of the music industry. We were maybe in parallel with it, but we certainly weren't part of it. We were in the car own Grateful Dead world, spawning our Grateful Dead mythology on our own with great songs and loving people all around. And we. We just had a great time in the early days, and then it just kind of blossomed over the years, very slowly, very.

So like a turtle, as opposed to the hare and with a turtle. But we finished the race, and that's the important part. All those. All those rock stars with their jewelry and, you know, the fancy hairs and all that, whatever, they. They fell by the wayside because it wasn't built on. Wasn't built on the right foundations. We were built to last. And now you. I knew that right from the beginning. I thought it would. You know, we were thinking about doing this for the rest of our lives. Even when we were kids, we said, do you want to do this the rest of your life? Yeah. Yeah, of course you do. But it's hard to, you know, to actually manifest that.

Yeah.

You know, you could talk about it, but to actually do it, there was a lot of ups and downs and, like, rhythms, good rhythms, bad rhythms, fights, all kinds of things that we work through to be able to come out on top, as it were. Like Wright said, it was a great tour. The sphere was great. It was really an honor to be able to play there. And it was, yet again, a new experience for us. And that nourished us. And so all this nourishment over the years, if you play, you get nourished. If you really play hard, you play like you really mean it. And we meant it. You were not kidding around. It was none of that. You know, it was. It was the music first.

Yeah.

Everybody else followed, but the music was first always, and still is.

Yeah. The sphere was incredible. I was lucky enough to go. I basically spent the month after telling everyone how incredible it was and how my life will never be the same after going to the sphere one. I mean, the. The drums in space, the visuals and what you put together there were just out of this world good. I know you can't say, but I'm hoping that the sphere is not done for dead and company. And maybe there's a future dates coming up, because I was lucky enough on. On the second night I went, I was lucky enough to sit with John Mayer in his green room, and he. I just spent 30 minutes profusely thanking him for keeping the music alive. And I want to thank you as well, but tell me there's going to be some more spheres, dates, or at least give me a wink.

Yeah, there's no reason why there wouldn't be.

Okay. I love that answer. I love that answer.

Let's put it. Let's leave it at that.

Yes. Yes. Because it's all I've been thinking about is getting back to this. I got to get back to the sphere, so. Right, Ed, I'm not joking. PFD can attest to it. I'm telling everyone, like, the people that.

Leave Avatar, they won't talk about. They won't shut up about how great Pandora the planet looks and how they wish that they lived on Pandora. That's big cat with the sphere.

Yeah. Like, I got to get back there. Nothing is that. Nothing is the sphere. My life is not the same without being in the sphere. So it's the next.

It's the next step. But the. You know, we played stadiums which are made for baseball and football. You know, we play places that are not meant for music, really, or lights, you know, just pretty lame, you know, light show behind you, one screen. And once you see the sphere, then you understand what the future is. Yeah. Of music and visuals.

Yeah.

And when they come together, it's very powerful. It was. It was a real challenge playing in the sphere for a lot of reasons. Firstly, we. It's an. It's a new sonic environment that we had to get used to because we've never played. I mean, I thought it was suicide to play in the sphere, actually. I mean, sonically, it's just not done. But with all of the artificial intelligence and the 1600 speakers and the high def visuals, we made it come alive. We put a lot of time into making it feel like the grateful, you know, just like us, and so. And also to be able to stay focused for 30 shows in the same place, we never did that. Maybe we played 13 or twelve days at Madison Square Garden in a row, but we never played 30 dates any place.

Yeah.

So to be able to stay focused was also a big deal. You know, only playing three nights, normally, our paces two nights on went off two nights on. And once in a while, we'll play three because of the vocals, you know, it's hard for them to. To do four in a row. That's. It's very, very hard. So, yeah, I think that discipline was part of it, you know? And as you get older, you have more discipline. Younger, you know, you just. You're just. You know, the fuel is just youth.

Yeah.

But as you get older, then you got to conjure another kind of power. And that everybody really is drama free. It's really a great band now.

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

Yeah. It gave me pause when they said, oh, they're lying on the floor doing it. I go, what? You gotta be kidding. That never happened. People normally don't do that. You know, in the sphere, you can feel the vibrations, especially in the seats. This is haptic seats. There's vibratory. There's speakers in the seats. And you can feel the vibrations when I go downtown, when I go low. And so. But the visuals. Looking up at the visuals and how it kind of goes with the percussion, with the drums. The drum sound, for some reason, sound really good in the sphere better than any place else. Nobody can really quite describe the impact that the drums deliver in the sphere. For me. And that was just a lucky. There was the luck of the jaw. But it just so happens that drums sound amazing in that place.

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

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

So.

So you hear 500,000 people going higher, higher. And you know, I never heard anything like. No one has ever heard anything like that before. And I was good friends with the drummer, Gregorico. Masterful drummer, amazing drummer. And he was nailing it, and it was total rapture, really. I mean, it was awesome. I mean, in the idea of awe, that's an awesome. You know, it really. You just had to sit back. Wow. The power that we had. We weren't alone. Here was 500,000 of us. No one's ever been able to assemble that in those days anyway, you know, 500 of thousand of anything. People being friendly, loving. And here the music is taking you to a place that you've never been before. Now, that's power. And you talk about rhythm mastery. Well, that moment, that night, they had it. And also Michael Shreev, master drummer, master with Santana. Michael was a student of mine years and years ago, before the Grateful Dead, I. He was one of my students, and there he was on the stage playing just out of his mind. Just incredible. So I was really proud of him that. That night, you know, when he played, when he performed.

So Woodstock was really. It was very interesting and life affirming, actually, for me.

Yeah, it's very cool. And I'm sure you've gotten this question before, but I have to imagine that being in a band like the Grateful Dead, I. It feels like it was something that was always meant to happen. You guys fit in so well together. It's been such an amazing journey. People's lives have been changed. You've made so many friends. Was there a moment when you guys started to play? I'm sure you've played in other bands before, but as you're starting to either rehearse or play your first shows with the Grateful Dead, where you knew that something was different and something was special about this band.

Well, absolutely. When I first heard. Well, they were already. Just changed their names to the Grateful Dead. They were war warlocks. The band was called Warlocks back then, and they just changed it to Grateful Dead. And when. And I was invited to their concerts, and when I first heard the band, I couldn't believe it. I mean, it was so loud, and it was so out there, you know, the music was just blossoming. It was a blues band back then. They were playing the blues like I had never heard the blues before. Then I sat in, and that was it. You know, we just came together and said, wow, this is the grateful dad, you know? And so, you know, jerry said, man, we could take this around the world, you know, and we did.

Yeah. Yeah.

Actually, you know, and so, yeah, I knew it right from the very first moment that Grateful Dead music was special. Really special. And over the years, we nurtured that, you know, and, you know, and created what you now know as Grateful Dead music. It's a genre of music, really, you know, and with this. And we were improvisationalists.

Yeah.

And that was different back then. You only. You only improvised in jazzenhe. The grateful guy was like a big, loud jazz band, you know, in a way, with a big backbeat.

Yeah.

You could dance to this jazz, and, you know, everybody was listening to Coltrane and, you know, all the great jazz guys, and I was listening to indian classical music. So very complicated rhythmically, and that's one of the things I brought to the. The brew, was that rhythmic complexity.

Yeah, yeah.

And then we just shot from there, you know, that we took off.

Yeah.

I love the idea of a music executive somewhere listening to the Grateful Dead in the 19, I don't know, maybe the 1970s and figuring, like, we got to figure out a way to recreate this and try to make it, like, commercial and try to come up with a formula for it. While everything that you guys have done has been organic and just something that's naturally happened between you and your fan base throughout the years was there. Were there other bands that tried to. Tried to copy what you guys were doing as it went along? And you're like, you don't have it, man. It's not.

It's not beginning.

Nobody in the beginning can. Nobody can copy it because we were. It was so new. They didn't know how to do it. You know, they mean, when you invent something that's, you know, then that's different. The people couldn't have. And at first, they couldn't understand it because it was so different than any other kind of music and so intense back then, remember, we were just kids playing hard, really fast, hard music and very complicated, actually. And then it got simpler and we started to learn how to, you know, work at these. These incredible tempos and being able to go three, four, five, even more hours every night. Back then, there was no unions and there was. So we could play. You know, we could play till we drop.

Right?

We would. At the Fillmore east, we would start at about 830 and wound up about 07:00 the next morning. So, you know, there was nobody to tell us to stop, and we didn't. Now you have to, you know, now we limit it to three, three and a half hours, which is reasonable now.

Yeah. Yeah, right. I had a question for you. So you are. Your life has been sports and covering sports. You wrote a great book called the cost of these Dreams, sports stories and other serious business, which everyone, I should say everyone, go buy it on Amazon. It's a great, great book. But you've covered sports your whole life. Sports are your life. Was there something that you uncovered in making this and being around Mickey that you're like, wow, I never thought of sports this way?

You know, that's a great question. I never thought about that exactly like that before. Yes. And it came through in several ways. One was, Mickey was asking these athletes questions that it seemed to me that they had never been asked before and had been dying to be asked. And so I think that, you know, athletes are physical geniuses who move through a grid with other people. And I think that sometimes they have trouble articulating. They'll say the game seemed to slow down. And it sounds like a cliche, but really it's just a physical genius who can't find the vocabulary to say exactly the complex things that are going on in their heads. And Mickey was asking, I mean, I need to just send you the full, unedited Marshawn lynch conversation because we'd love to. We use 90 seconds of it, and I'm telling you, that's the best sports interview I've ever heard. Yeah, and we should just run it because, like, Mickey got Marshawn and Marshawn got Mickey. They immediately understood each other as sort of fellow travelers along the same path. And, you know, that that happened with Jack Nicklaus. I mean, Jack Nicklaus is famously prickly.

And I didn't tell Mickey that beforehand. I thought it'd just be a fun social experiment to see what happened. And. But. So Jack started off prickly, but by the end, he was. He was putty in Mickey's hands. And so. And so I think it's that these guys spend a lot, these guys and gals, men and women, spend a lot of time thinking about their interior life, their mental health. And I don't mean, like, reacting to stress. I mean, literally, how do you process information? How do you deal with failure and success and egos and all of this? And so it feels like they were getting asked questions that they'd never been asked before and have always wanted to be asked. There are three or four questions that became stock questions for Mickey that I'm definitely stealing.

Yeah.

Like.

Yeah, I'll ask everybody going forward three or four of these questions.

And you're right, because watching it, like, I. The one of it was phenomenal. Everyone should watch it. It's so unique and so different than. Than what, you know, you think, like ESPN documentary, it's so different and out of the box from that. But the Joe Montana part, where he's describing a five step drop and a three step drop and the rhythm of it, and it's like I almost got lost in it. I was like, oh, my God. Like, I never. You. You just think, like, a quarterback drops back. That's something you see. It's a small part of the game. And just having him dissect it to such a minute level, it was. It was incredible. You're right. Like, I didn't even realize it until you just said that point of having the guys talk about it in a way that they had never spoken about it.

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

It.

It was interesting because Mickey said to me in our first conversation, we went up to his house somewhere in northern California, and he. That's right. And he was like, I can get them there. And I sort of clocked that, and I made a little note, and it was like, Mickey says he can get them there. But I was like, all right, tough guy. Let's see. All right, big rock and roll star. Let's see how well you interview somebody. And just after Joe Montana, I knew this is gonna be really special.

Yeah.

Because Joe has been interviewed over and over and over and over. And this was new shit. And I saw it. From that point on, I just. I couldn't schedule enough interviews.

Yeah, I did. By the way, I read the Joe Montana piece. You did? That was phenomenal. Again, go buy Wright's book. I can't recommend it enough.

Read everything he's ever written.

Yeah, right. Like that.

You.

I even forgot that I had written or read your Joe Montana piece. That was. I remember reading it being like, wow, I'd never even. Like. I feel like I actually know Joe Montana now. So, Mickey, was there one specific interview, so kind of like the same question to write where you asked someone something or athlete revealed something that you had never thought of sports that way?

Well, of course, the Marshawn lynch, like right said was extraordinary because he talked about the spiritual side immediately. I walk on the field, I look at the nearest goalposts. I circle the field to the right, I circle the field to the left. I think about the people I'm going to hit and, you know, and pray that they, you know, they won't get hurt. And, you know, he was very. He just. All kinds of wonderful things. Then there's the Phil Jackson interview where he really lays it out. You know, two beats, one beat. Two beats. More than two beats, you're out of time. So he really. He broke it down. You know, he put that quadrant. He goes here and here and here. And if you don't do this in two beats. And he talks about it in beats, which is. Which relates to drumming, you know, you can say, well, beat is. Everybody knows what a beat is. And so, so Phil was, of course, very articulate. Very articulate. And everybody. Bob Cousy, you know, he just talks about the art of the game, and it has an art form. And Mario and Tretti says the engine is vibrating.

It's like a song. He says. When he said that, I go, oh, yeah, Mario, it is a song.

It was really good.

Yeah.

So the game is a song.

Yeah.

A lot of athletes, they don't. They see it as musical.

Yeah.

And that really just, you know, I. You know, I heard what. How Bill did, you know, spoke of it, but, you know, he was a dead end. And he was talking about, well, I tell you, one time we were backstage with his son, Luke. Luke was the coach of the, what do you call the warriors. And he's back there and he's saying to Luke, he said, luke, it's half time. He said, okay, you got to come out the first with, like, with Bertha, you know, and then you.

Bring it.

Back to playing band kind of a thing.

And then you.

I said, bill, give the kid a break, man. You know, he's the coach, you know, spectators here, and. But he saw it in musical terms, and a lot of. And that's one of the most interesting parts of it besides the spiritual nature, which I knew athletes had to have it in order to access the flow state where everything moves and you're not even thinking about it and you're in the moment and all of these things which rhythm masters have to know. If you don't know that, you're not a rhythm master in anything, whether you're painting the fence or you're a great carpenter or you drive a great semi. These are all rhythm masters because they were able to get into that flow state and to be, you know, in the now. So it doesn't have to be drums or drumming or doesn't have to be sports. You can be a rhythm master in anything.

Yeah.

If you know how to get into these states, these flow states, which is about consciousness.

Yeah.

Be aware of who you are and what you're doing and where you're going, and then also to be able to let it go.

Yeah.

And then just be in the moment. You can think it a over and over and over again, but you have to let thinking go and just be. And that's not easy when you're in the middle of, you know, when you're in the middle of that, you know, that cathartic moment. So that's. That's what I brought back from this. I had a great time interviewing all of these athletes. And like Wright says, you know, some of them were a little. They didn't know how to approach the interview. You know, they thought this was going to be a straight interview about how great they were. But that really wasn't really on my mind at all because they were all great. That's why I talked to them.

Yeah, yeah.

Getting down to the human level, that was the real outstanding part for me.

Yeah.

You had these moments where you look it up and Mike Piazza is talking about Tigers and Ozzy Smith is talking about newtonian physics.

Yeah.

And you're just like, like, what?

Where am I? Yeah.

What? Yeah, I just was like, okay. I mean, one of the things you learn. One of the things you learn if you're riding shotgun with Mickey is just. Hang on.

Yeah.

Like, you know, the circus is in town. And so, you know, my five year old thought Mickey was like some sort of magic creature. You know, she didn't know he was. Yeah, but she didn't know that. She just ran right up to him and gave him this huge hug out of nowhere. And then I later found out that Mickey had given her cookies, so that was. But, no, it just. Then the experience of watching him do this work, as someone who was a fan of the music, you know, they say, don't meet your heroes. And, I mean, we're very lucky to report that. You know, he's got. He's an incredibly, incredibly talented musician, thinker and writer, but just also a good guy. Like, we had fun. This was a fun project. There was very little drama, as he said. It was, you know, Tory champagne, who Mickey and I both call the adult in the room, did a lot of work and really brought the thing home, and I just had a great time doing it. And, I mean, that's what I'm grateful for.

Yeah.

I mean, being able to tap into something that an athlete at the peak of their game has always thought in their own. Either they thought it consciously or they've known it their entire lives, and it's how they go about their business. They think about approaching something as simple as a three step drop in this very personal way that you can tap into and immediately have them speak in your same language that you understand. It ties back into, like, just the universal nature of rhythm, which I think is, it's a really interesting thing to dive into. And then you talked about getting in that flow state, being still but going fast at the same time. I think you discovered the zone. I think that's what being in the zone is. When an athlete says, like, everything slows down, I think now we can do more work to quantify what the zone is and try to figure out how to get there. It's fascinating stuff to dive into. I'm curious to know, as a drummer, to me, there might be a difference between sports at their highest level and playing music at the highest level. But maybe I'm wrong about this, and that's the.

The inherent nature of competition that you have in sports and in music. I feel like it's not as much of a competition against somebody else beating somebody else as it is doing, you know, maximizing your own ability or playing to the highest of your capability. But maybe. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there is a competitive drive in, and a lot of musicians.

Yeah, maybe there are, you know, but that's second fiddle, actually. The most important thing is, you know, when I go on stage, I try to empty my mind and try to be very relaxed, and I try to make everybody on the stage play good. You know, I'm for them. You know, I'm trying to lay down a real good groove. So, you know, Bob or whoever can, you know, just ride on it, you know, and have a great time. And then I get down to business, you know, and. But the most important thing is to make everybody feel like they're part of a team, and there's no competition on the stage. Absolutely none. And if you might be competing, in your mind, with some other drummers, some far away, you know, thoughts and stuff, but really, it's. It comes down to, you know, I think the empathy in music and the empathy in sports are really important. People don't realize how much people care for their, their teammates. That's a love you attach to them in some way. You don't have to go home with them, you know, and hang out all the time. But when you're together, you feel this connection, and that's part of getting into the zone.

Now, when you talk about the flow state, it really came together with me when I started writing my first book, drumming at the Edge of Magic, in 1990, I think it was, and I started investigating these trance religions. Santeria, condom Blay, and most of the cultures out there in the world have to do with trance else. Indian music and even american music had that. Even the early rock and roll, there was these trance states that we would get into that we couldn't define. And then all of a sudden, we realized that it was just focus and concentration and moving into these other mindsets and allowing the body to flow. And now we can articulate it. And that's what's been happening in the last 30, 40 years, is that we know a lot more about how to get into these trance states, which basically, that's what all of these things are. Trans is not a bad word, or it's a strange word. When you go down the highway and you miss an exit and you're daydreaming, you're in a puppy trance. Not harmful or anything. These things aren't harmful. Yeah, but they're. Once you know how to go in and out of them and how to stay there, then that's the key to be able to win.

And all of these rhythm masters that I interviewed are winners. They know how to go there, they stay there, and they know how to win.

Yeah.

And sports is just, you know, just a miniature of life, is what we do with rhythm only in sports, it's all about rhythm. Without rhythm, there could be no sports.

Yeah.

You know, just be running into each other and, you know, and not having no teams.

Yeah.

There was no teamwork or any of that stuff. So the basis of it all is rhythm, whether they realize it or nothing. Now, it's going to be an educational moment. This film could be looked at in those terms for a lot of people and allowing their minds to be able to understand what they're doing or what they did or other people looking at sports in a different way. You know, it's. These are very complicated. These are states of minds. These are not. Unless you know what you're doing and how to get there and how to stay there, you can't win.

Yeah.

Because you just swim it upstream so that it tells a lot of stories. This. This. This where the masters work.

Yeah. So this has been phenomenal. We appreciate both of your times. I have one last question. It's Roback question rho back.com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. Cusips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. So everyone please do watch rhythm masters out, debuting tonight on ESPN. As you're listening to this, Mickey, I. This is a dumb question. I'm sure you've gotten a million times, but when someone asks me, you know, what is your. Explain your love for the Grateful Dead? I basically say, listen, the beauty of is it is that I don't even know what my favorite, like, song or show is because it changes every day. And I'll find a show that I'd never heard, and that will be my favorite show or a song that something unlocks in my brain. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm listening to this song, and I never listened to it this way, but is there a specific time and place that you look back to? And you're like, everyone has their own favorites, but your own personal, like, that's. That's where it was. That was what I look back at and I daydream about maybe that year or that little era or whatever it may be, that you just.

Something that unlocks in your brain when you find yourself, you know, kind of drifting off.

Well, one show was really in Cornell in 77. That 77 show in Cornell, there was a few songs that night that was superb, just beyond, you know, anything we've ever played before. But, you know, there are nights just sprinkled all through the 60 years of playing. When you play good, that's. You know, that's it. You can. If it's one. Even one song, sometimes it happens, and then the rest of the songs, you can't quite get it, but whenever the magic happens, then. Then it. Then that's everything, you know, that's your whole life, remember? I've been playing most of my. My life in my whole life, actually, pretty much. I've been playing for 70, some 75 years. So, you know, it's everything. You know, you put everything you have into it, and it gives it back to you. You know, in a lot of ways, it makes you happy, and it. It does things to you physical, physiologically, whereas you're. It reduces your stress. It makes. It makes you a better life. It makes you learn how to love, because that's what music does and that's what sports does.

Yeah.

You know, you can't play great sports and not love it. And so you learn about love, you learn about empathy, and you learn about the good.

Yeah.

And so it's much deeper than just playing a sport. The benefits you get from it are extraordinary. The more you put in, the more you get back, the long you can stay there, the better it is. And never quit, never stop unless you have to. And that's, of course, a lot of times it's ripped away with injuries and so forth. Same thing happens in my work, injuries all the time. You know, you have to. You have to overcome them and you have to heal yourself and come back again. So it's just not like getting up there and playing the drums. You have to train. Every tour I train for months to get up there and be able to relax and just, you know, not hurt myself.

Yeah.

And the same way in sports, you know? So you have to understand that these players are really. They put in so much time. All of us, any professional that's at this level, you know, has to give their heart to it, and. And there are benefits to that. When you give yourself up and your heart to something, it's. It is really hard to describe, but. But what you take away from it and what you take from that power into your regular life is really what's important. What do you. I hope that the people don't leave the music wherever at the. At the hall, you know, at the venue, that they take that feeling home and do good with it. Yes. And that's really the payoff for me. If I. If I know that's happening, then I've done a good job and I feel great about it.

Yeah.

It was not just about the concert. It's about what you do with that feeling.

Yeah. Well, Mickey, thank you so much. And. Right. Thank you so much, everyone. Go watch it. It was an incredible movie. And Mickey, I'm holding you to it. You did say that you guys were going to do some more sphere dates. That's me. You might not have exactly said that, but that's what I took from it. Exactly what you said. But that's exactly what I heard and that's all. Yeah, it's all up to interpretation.

Yeah, but. Yeah, but that's what he meant.

Yeah, that's where you bet. So thank you so much. This was a thrill and we really appreciate it. Everyone go see rhythm masters. And thanks so much. Guys.

Guys, thanks for asking. Thanks for asking. Good questions, guys, thank you.

Thank you. It was a pleasure.

Appreciate it.

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Okay, let's finish up. We got a couple faqs. It's been a long show.

Long show.

Long show. Way too much talk. Way too much talking for myself.

Listen, football back soon. This was fun. I had fun today.

You don't worry about Hank. Once football is back in, the Patriots are in gear. I'm sure you're not gonna be talking at all.

Yeah, too much Hank and too much hating from Hank, and that's all right. But I will say this. Memes, he sent me some hater questions. I was like, send them. And then he just instead send me questions that are gonna make it look like I asked these, and they're set up questions, so.

Oh, no.

Rude. Long time awl.

You can't exist.

I've noticed that it seems like every single guy in the crew now loves the web. Colorado grit week. Arizona Super bowl chill week. Have you ever thought again, I did not.

This is.

I did not pick these questions. Have you ever thought about a winter trip out west?

Well, winter trip out west, I don't really do winter trips.

Think you guys would love an apprez ski trip after the Super bowl? Maybe at the slopes, check out some nailed sports scenes, and it's a vibe. I pres ski much love.

Yeah.

Was it a prey?

I pray. I pray after ski, we. We don't usually travel that much in the wintertime because we've got a. Got football on tv, and then we've got the Super Bowl. I guess we did go out west last year for the Super bowl to Vegas.

Yeah.

But, yeah, we don't really travel that much in the wintertime. I love it. Out west.

Yeah. I had great time. We're going to go to Tahoe every year. Grit week will not be out west next year. We did.

I think we've actually talked about San Diego week.

We've kind of done a good. If you look at the grit week year after year, the last time we went out west was five years ago. So this was the first time in five years that we did. It just happened that we did Tahoe. Yeah. Tahoe will be every year.

Yeah. I mean, the west coast is a hidden gym. It is losing.

Talk about it.

Los Angeles is great.

California.

California. Malibu. Hidden gem.

They should write some songs about California.

I don't think that would play the boo.

Where is the furthest place you would travel if it meant you got to interview one of your white whales?

White whale. Like Katie Belichick. Molly. Who else?

Yao Ming.

Brady.

Brady. Yao ming. White whale, key West. I would go. I'll go to Brazil.

They would eventually be back.

Brady probably wouldn't be in Brazil.

I don't know why I. Colombia.

It wouldn't make sense in my head. I bet. Aren't you coming back?

Hank, would you go to Hawaii to interview Tom Brady?

Yep.

I mean, that's far.

As far.

Go to Europe. Hank, would you go to speaker three?

Would you go to the.

But I would just simply say, aren't they coming back?

What if the answer was no?

Katie's never coming back.

He might not. He was having fun on that water slide.

Dude. I love that water slide pick. He is the most relatable. Put your arms up like a little kid.

Our last one. Hey, guys, just curious how close of friends you are outside the show. Do you consider each other more of co workers or friends?

Family, I think.

Yeah, it's closer than friends, actually.

Mickey Hart kind of got on it where it was like he had a line there in the interview where he was like, you know, maybe you're not spending every second outside of it, but when you're. When you're in it together, there's no bond like it.

Yeah.

And that's kind of how it is. I mean, I spend outside of my immediately family. I spend the majority of my time with everyone in this room.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, we're not going out on Friday night because we're spending 70 hours together.

Yeah. And also, like, if you got three kids, it's probably not. Yeah, you can. Probably can't be like, hey, I'm gonna hit happy hour.

I would say. I would say it's close. It's. It's as close to family as you can get.

Like, I consider you guys my family.

Yeah, I do, too. That's what I'm saying. Like, it is. It's family.

I was thinking about that the other day. Like, the fact that we've been working together for eight years. Eight years. Nine years.

Eight years.

Eight years. Is it eight full years now?

A full year?

Half.

Eight and a half for me and big cat.

Yeah, eight and a half years. And like most shows, if you work with anybody for eight and a half years, there will be little petty conflicts that end up driving the show up.

Not us.

Not us.

No pedicle.

And the fact that we've avoided going at each other's throats at all. It's actually great. It's very helpful for me and big cat to have Hank in this.

Oh, yeah. He absolutely is a. He's. He's nuclear deterrent.

Yeah, he.

It is crazy, though. Listen, like, I mean, even what recently was Desus marrow, you know, the whole documentary about Francesa and Mad dog just not speaking off air.

Yeah.

Like, we are very blessed. What?

No, it's. We. I mean, I think that you guys have joined in hating me, and that has helped you guys.

That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Useful position.

I was thinking the other day, I don't know if I said this on the show, but I feel like the first ten years, your life, you don't really remember or like you're not really in control of. It's basically your parents. You know, they set up your play dates, they set up what you're doing that, set up your hobbies, whatever. And then ten to 20, you're kind of in more control. You know what you're doing, you know what you like, but. So it's basically ten to 2020 to 30 for me. And it's like half my life has been with.

Yeah, you guys. Yeah, the. I texted you guys when you guys were out.

Right. I get what you're saying. Yeah, yeah.

The last week of August when I was here and you guys were out, I texted you, like, what? Day two. And I was like, I miss you guys. Cuz it was like, obviously there's a lot of people that I work with here and I love all of them, but it was Brandon. It was very weird not having you guys here. I was just like. I kept on, like, kind of wandering around being like, oh, I wonder what Max is up to. I wonder what Pft's up to. Oh, shit, they're not here.

Yeah.

So don't ever leave again. Again.

Okay, Hank.

No.

What do you mean, no?

I will leave again.

Vacations.

I feel like coming to work is a vacation.

No, it's about to be. Edit that. That is true.

Well, you don't think that.

I do. I just, like. Again, we've been doing for so long. I've said it's a million times. We work a lot. I like to. I like to recharge and refresh, play a lot.

And by recharge and refresh, come back violently hung.

Super.

Water show.

That's true.

On Sunday was Sunday.

Just for the record, I wanted to say that, Hank. I. For a moment, I felt bad for saying that you were hungover on Sunday's show, but it was. I like that. To me, there's hangovers. Irregular hangovers. Like, don't mention it. You. Your. Your body, like, couldn't. You. Your whole aura was zapped out of you.

Yeah, I was like. I was fully depressed.

I had, like, a. It was. It was shocking to see you even try to come up with words.

Yeah, that's fair.

Yeah.

I wanted to let everyone in a full, full state of depression on.

But it was worth it.

Elevated.

Yeah, it was worth it. All right, good show. Let's do numbers.

2017.

856.

Three.

Shane. I got away from Pug.

I was going for Pug, but 21. Pugs gonna take 90.

Pug is 99. Here he is.

Here he is.

Say hug.

99.

Poke.

By the way, pugs dream is to have somebody recognize him at some point when we're out. So please, next time you see Pug, just go up to be like, pug. I dig your vibe.

61.

Love you guys.

I'm coming for your love of day. Shiny.

Look at us now.

So in love with the way we are.

I'm coming for your love of Jesus.

To be safe. For sorry. Say after me. Say for sorry.

Don't think only.