Bussin' With The Boys - Stephen A Smith On Competing With Pat McAfee + Staying On Top At ESPN

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

Recorded: February 9th 2024 | In this weeks episode, we got both Will and Taylor back for the intro. They start off recapping some of this past weeks latest news including Dana White walking off the Howie Mandel podcast and The Rock being all the way back in the WWE. Taylor's addiction ended up landing us a new sponsorship and we hit everyone's favorite segment, shout out no free shoutout. Following the intro, the boys were able to sit down with leader at ESPN, the one that put the entire network on his back, Stephen A Smith. Stephen chops it up with the boys and gets into his start of broadcasting as well as how he feels comfortable critiquing professional players. He also gets into some of the relationships he has with athletes and some difficulties that has brought up in the past. Finally Stephen A gets into how he knows he will remain number one even with ESPn bringing The Pat McAfee show. There is some really good conversation and insight into what the life of Stephen A Smith looks like, enjoy fellas, TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 4:00 Dana white walking off 7:06 the rock is back 13:52 grocery store 16:26 Taylor’s addiction got us a sponsorship 24:12 shoutout no free shoutout 38:22 Taylor had another shot with MGK 47:39 the dynasty has been released 56:12 pseudo tier talk 1:04:55 diving into new shows 1:08:44 twisted question and the boys get deep 1:17:35 Stephen a preview 1:29:39 STEPHEN A INTERVIEW STARTS 1:22:00 how does he keep the same energy with everything 1:23:30 how does he feel about judging people even though he hasn’t played professionally 1:26:01 getting the close relationships with athletes and having to critique 1:30:13 He will call guys if he is going to say something about them 1:31:32 his relationship with Allen Iverson 1:36:44 Balancing relationships with players while remaining unbiased 1:38:26 As a beat writer, you know everything about everyone 1:42:50 learning the “code” as a beat writer and what lines not cross 1:48:55 his first big break 1:53:35 what is the North Star for him 1:57:55 his thoughts on Pat McAfee Theme Song: Some Of Adams Blues by Quaker City Night HawksFor more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to another episode of Bus with the Boys. I am your host, Willie C. to my left, Taylor-Lawain, the Boys. If you are here for the Stephen A interview, fast forward probably what, an hour 15, Mitch? The chapters are right there. If you're watching on YouTube or Rumble, the chapters will be right there for you. You can even check the description

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It helps us out tremendously. Taylor, what do we have on the docket for these lovely people? Well, obviously a lot of people here for Stephen A. Smith, it's going to be an amazing time. And I hope you enjoy it. But what I hope you do is you don't jump up an hour and 10 minutes. I hope you get to stick around and see what the boys do. And that's the chemistry. That's the vibe.

That's all the good times. We talk about, we have a little shoutout, no free shout out. We have a pseudo-tier talk from a fan question that came up. I talk about my experience with Machine Gun Kelly, is brought back in a complete genre of music in Las Vegas, Nevada. One good, one not so good. Overall, we'll give it a 4.5. And finally, dude, Will brings up a new documentary series called Dynasty

that really sells me on the idea of. And it fires me up beyond belief. So we'll get into that in those first hour of ten. I hope you guys will check that out before you jump over to Stephen A. Smith. But we'll go ahead and read us this little Chevy boy right here. This episode is brought to you by the one, the only, the Chevy Silverado, the longtime partner of the show with commanding an unstoppable grit, legendary capability, and dependability as well. We've all spent time, seat time, as they like to call

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and it'll help you drive home safely. Go to Chevy.com where you can check out Silverado, build your own Silverado online, and learn important details about the Super Cruise. Without further ado, let's kick it off to Stephen A. Smith. Or kick it off to our intro in Stephen A. Smith. We love you, big hugs, tiny kisses. McAfee or no McAfee, get up or no get up.

It don't matter who it is. FS1, Comcast, whatever. You come for me, I'm coming for you. But we know who number one in linear television is. I saw a clip. Rusty. Just Rusty. I saw a clip on

Who's the guy That's always An American Idol bald dude Who has He's a germophobe Oh Howie Mandel

I saw the clip of Dana Walking off the set Do you see that clip? Yeah Did you ask Dana about it? No I didn't I'm not I'm not

I'm gonna stay out of Why not? I don't know Because it seemed It seems so odd I was like One of those Hey I hope my boys

All right And kind of just move on Internally with my own head Because Oh you hope Dana I'm hoping Howie Mandel's all right I mean

Something Something must have happened Before like The show started something because he goes yeah that's why you have that's why it'd be you should help your boy and let him because if you take it at face value kind of a dick move by dana it's just like i'm done with podcasts like yeah i'm under the i'm under the assumption that something had to have happened but if you just take that at face value and don't read into it at all don't read into it at

all and how he does the intro like yeah because he you know he hyped him up and everything else and then dana's just like i'm sick of doing podcasts gets up and walks off like that's that's that's crazy right who was the guy saying next to him too like this like redneck cat like uh he had like a ginger big muscular dude ginger he does like these tic-tok dances where he's like twerking in jean uh jean shorts and his voice is kind of like mine like you look at him and you're like oh that's not going to come out of his mouth and then obviously like okay all right so they but they did a great job pivoting i watched that but the reason why i brought it up was you putting on the headphones is uh who's that fighter

well-spoken cat white dude uh talked about him and john jones both be on steroids back in the day Oh, you know what I'm talking about Talks a lot of shit It's who Talks a lot of shit He's really well-spoken Michael Bisbing Michael Bisbing lost him

Because we did We said out with Bisby I forget his name as well Maybe we can look at it as I'm going Chale Chale? Chale Sonan Sonan

So I watched like a recap video Of him essentially Breaking down the whole thing And he was talking about How shitty the studio is And he was basically going At Mendel pretty hard And then

But he brought up the fact Like he's you put headphones on He's like Why the fuck in this day and age Would you put headphones on during a podcast. Right. Especially if you're in person.

Yeah, if you're in person. That's the only, literally the only reason the first two minutes of this episode, I thought to myself, I should bring up that story because you were going to put those on. I was like, oh. Yo, uh, Chale, he's, he's funny, dude. I enjoy listening to him because he's a good shit talker. He's a good storyteller.

He's a great storyteller. A great storyteller. He does, uh, you know, the, so the press conferences where you see like guys like, guys walk up and McGregor and they talk like, oh, McGregor, the one of one, this, that and the other, like, he had a guy that do that for him. And it was very much Rick Flair. exciting WWE style. Yeah.

That's the kind of shit that gets me fired up. Because he wanted, and I believe this is what he's talked about. Like he wanted to like bring that into, like that style into the UFC. Like it doesn't happen. But yeah, like take inspiration probably from like a Rick Flair

and all these guys who work the mic and everything else. Yeah, if you think about it, UFC is really just like a real WWE. Yeah. Like it's legit fighting. But like the storylines is what we buy into. The Poirier, the McGregers. Now we're saying Chandler.

and McGregor and all these different guys, like finding they hate each other, they don't know why you hate each other, but then you look behind the curtain and all of a sudden, it's like, oh, I can see why that dude hates him. Maybe I'm moving for this guy now. Yeah.

It's a whole different game. And speaking of The Rock, have you been seen his, have you been seen his mic work out there? Yeah, yeah, he's been killing it. He's back in the WWE. He's came back into the WWE. I wonder why.

He basically cucked, from my understanding is he cucked Cody Rhodes. I think it's Cody Rhodes, right? I saw the rock coming in. He came in, Roman rains. There's a big thing going on. And he basically just jumped to the front of the line, something about the Royal Rumble,

and then WrestleMania. And I apologize, I saw the WWE fans out there that are correcting you right now. But as a cat who was in the generation of the Rock, Stone Cold and all of them, and I haven't been, I haven't kept up at all with the new age generation of the WWE. But seeing the rock come back into the fold,

it's like, oh, shit, I might want to start getting back in the storyline because he comes out there. he basically like jumps ahead and skips a line. That's why he's gone heel. Like rock is in full. He's reminding people why he's the rock. Yeah.

Like he's back on day one type shit. Like outside of the political realm, the good vibes realm, the motivation realm, everything else. Like he's back being a heel talking shit in the ring. Like the shit that you fell in love with the rock in the first place for. And there was a point in time where he was like, I don't know how I don't want to go by the rock. I'm Dwayne Johnson now. Wasn't there like a probably? I feel like the early tens is when he was kind of getting away from that

and kind of stepping away from the WWE redefining himself, doing the tooth fairy. Right, right, where he wanted to kind of star. Yep. And now he's full circle getting it back. Yeah, bro. And I'm pretty sure he's in the, in WrestleMania. Like, it's going down.

And he's been in the ring. I feel like each week just talking shit. And it just juices me up that he's back in the ring. How does this fucking guy find the time? I don't know. It's insane. I don't know. He must have a lot of shit.

Like, you know. the rock feels like a big brain thinker. The minute he came back into the WWE, and by the way, we talk about the ratio world, the troll world and everything else. The WWE, as far as on social,

hated the fact that the rock came in and jumped ahead of like Cody Rhodes, I believe. Ultimately, everything that would get posted, somebody would be like, you know, ratio Cody Rhodes or something like that, and it would like outdo it. Like people wanted Cody Rose

is like it's bullshit that the rock just gets to come in. And then within days of the rock entering back into the ring you see on his Instagram he's got another line dropping with under armor so there's a lot of calculated there's a lot of calculated moves from the boy which again seeing him back in the ring and doing the wrestling stuff and talk about oh hey shut up that so i'll slap the herpes out of your mouth like that's the rock and if that's the rock that's the rock that's what you want yes dude this uh this cody guy i don't want to put you on blast because i know you haven't followed it so much. But is he this guy like one of the good guys? He's one of the bad guys.

He's obviously a fan favorite. Yeah, I believe he's just like a big fan favorite. Like from what again, like me just seeing it on the surface level and be like, oh shit, the rocks back and you get like goosebumps and shit like, oh damn. And then you see the wrestling world actually hates it. But then it's also such a good thing because that's when you get to be a heel. That's when you get to be the villain and lean into it and piss everybody off. And I just feel like it's bringing in all the older generations back into the fold to kind of see what's, kind of see what's happening. but it seemed like Cody Rhodes has been such a fan favorite, a guy that's, you know,

I don't want to talk out of term, but it seems like loyal to the soil with the brand of W.E. Put in a shitload of work and put in his time to get kind of the moment he was going to have at either Royal Rumble or WrestleMania, and then the Rock comes in and just slaps the taste out of his mouth. Ends up cucking him, like you said. Ends up cucking him. God damn.

But again, it's awesome. It is cool as you get older and you don't just like follow, because a lot of us just follow the storyline of what we want to see. Like we want to watch WD. If you're a WDVE fan, you're watching that storyline. And you, us, we've zoomed out, kind of rubbed elbows with certain individuals that are of high power that have a lot of money that kind of from a business standpoint handle themselves. And for you to go and notice the Rock is now and there. Now he's dropping a line and what's going to happen here?

And it's an interesting thing because Rock talking about slapping the herpes out of people's mouth. Like becoming the bad guy, the heel, as you say, is such a cool parallel to his like moving. start him because he's never really the villain in his movies, in his roles. He's always like the superhero. On Instagram. Yeah. Great guy. The mana's always super high.

And now he gets to go in and truly play a character. Which is what he grew up in that business doing in the first place. His whole family was in the business. Yeah. Rocky Maya Via. That was his dad. That was his old man. You're getting to that generation.

Like you need to be 10 years older right now because I feel like you need to be the dude that followed for a long time. I'm like, these fucking, these guys aren't as tough as they used to be. They're a bunch of posies. and the rock comes back and like bringing you back into the fold big time. I can see Bill getting a text room you being like, hey, the rock's on Royal Rumble right now. And he's like, look at like, I can't find his remote. You know, he's fucking looking for it.

And he's like starts bipping it over there. Yeah. That's the kind of shit I love. Yeah, it's, it's magical, dude. And his style too, he's got that. I don't know what the hell it is. But he's got on the diamond necklaces. Like, it's just.

Hell yeah. It's the rock being the rock. I know. And he'll go back tomorrow, 12 a.m. Workout. What are we doing? I'm up before everybody. I've worked out twice before everybody else has woke up

And it's like, okay, dude And all of a sudden he's having a fuck it day He's got like 30 pancakes You're eating all them damn pancakes No way, there ain't no way And those cookies look fire every single time Yeah There was one he had dude

It was like a sushi platter And he showed that as one of his fucket days And it looked I would have fucked up all that sushi It was really like It really looked like that He's got some like French toast too He calls it like the rock toast

And they're like this thick Dude They're like this thick I wonder You're trying to get, for the carb king over here, Mitch, dude, we literally go to breakfast at the Red Rock. I don't know. You guys have probably broke down a whole bunch of what happened in the last nine, ten days or whatever. But breakfast, man, the first day you got there on Wednesday, my boy had waffles.

It looked like he had pancakes as well. I know there was biscuits and gravy just hanging out by you. He's got a mouth full going, like he was trying to feed me. He doesn't eat when he's at home. He's like he like skips eating. He gets too lazy to go to the pantry, go to the fridge, like make himself dinner. Go to the store like I do? He just doesn't.

Yeah. He just doesn't eat. He eats, what is it? Ritz crackers with peanut butter and jelly. Yeah, there's been multiple occasions. Probably at least once a week or once every other week I'll have. For dinner, it'll just be Ritz crackers. And I'll put little peanut butter, little jelly, make little peanut butter jelly sandwiches on him.

Hey, that is some like elementary school. Both my parents are at work shit. I actually learned it from my dad. College vibes right there. Raw noodles. I learned it from my dad. And he's the one that put me on to it. And it's very, very good.

Shout out of your dad. dude. Shout out Dan. Shout out Dan. Didn't teach you how to look up questions, but you thought you cracker, peanut butter and jellies. Oh. Hey, you're the grocery shopping. I texted Jack solo and I said, I'm not, I'm not going to lie. I don't know what's real and what's

a bit because every time you post something, he makes it seem like it's truly something you sniped on the internet. I know. Hopefully, this is a reference being thrown up on the YouTube if you're watching right now. Every time I post about going to the grocery store, which every time you've seen me post with the grocery store or the times I'm at the grocery store. So three times,

the last two and a half months or whatever. Two and a half years, yeah. Whatever. And, dude, every time, I knew it literally, Jack, this is my thought process

walking and I was like, okay, pictures, he always gets me with the Google. This time I make a video now he can't do nothing about it. And he threw the TikTok up with the screen recording,

everything. That's just the first search. You got to go deeper if you're going to use this grocery store video. Don't do that, bro. I get it. You're trying to connect with your audience,

a bunch of blue collar guys. We are a bunch of blue collar guys. How much blue-colored guys that do Lucy? That's what we do because we fight. I listen, man. Yeah, I don't go to the grocery store a whole lot. But Talon, ever since her grandmother passed away in October, every Sunday, she does meatballs, pasta.

She makes me a nice little steak. We have a good little time. And last night we had to cruise over there, the Whole Foods, dude. You had a... I saw the, what is it, what was it, mozzarella or Parmesan in there, and then some seasoning, some of the plants, maybe some basil. Oh, Taylorin, probably posted it? No, I was trying to make...

I was trying to make out what was in the video. Yeah, I think it was just... just cheese and burps. Because J.B. tried getting you and he was kind of wrong. He just said, like, oh, the vet move. He said, vet move, you would have got a cart instead of a full-size grocery cart, which that is not.

That's a little half-size. That's a little boy. That's the, I still want to push. I don't want to hold something in my hand the whole time. That's exactly what that is. Like we got some arugula, tomatoes, mozzarella, sco. A bunch of rich people's shit, really. That's not kombucha.

That's not kombucha. That's something else. Jack's so mad. He has to shop at Kroger. Fuck. Like bottles of water. It's like, look at this. Rich people's shit.

The thing, dude, the thing that the grocery store pisses me off is when you walk into the whole foods and that Green Hills is there's always so many bouquets of flowers. And I can't stand because every time I walk in there, my kids want some. Palin want some. And then I'm walking away with six, six bouquets of flowers. It's such a waste of money. Such a waste of money. And I can't say no. Yeah, but for the moment, the smile.

Fuck the smile. I don't want that, dude. I don't want it one bit. This is worth $50 a day. No, no, they're not, dude. Hopefully I can get them to laugh once for five. Should we, you brought it up, blue collar guys, Lucy.

Should we talk about Lucy? Like, we've hit a nice little, nice little partnership of Lucy. Yeah, I think it's big news. And shout out to you for your nicotine habit. Yeah, shout to addictions. Yeah, shout out to your nicotine addiction. Dude, it has landed as a partnership with Lucy.

Yeah, and everybody knows what I used to put up my upper lip. And I truly loved that brand. I was about it. I think the flavor was fantastic. I love the pouch, everything like that. And so I do have to give it flowers. I'm not going to say its name because I'm being respectful to my new girl now. But it was a great relationship.

And once I'm starting to find out that the nicotines, you know, they own like 80% of the sales of all nicotine brands. It's starting not to sit well with me being on a bus, being a blue collar cat, a grinder, sitting with that being like, why would I want to be with the top dog when I can go find something just as good that maybe people don't know about so much? American made. American, I don't think they're in Sweden as well. But Sweden made, dude, where probably your offshore bank account is. So there's something there. There's something aligning you there.

And yeah, dude, I just, I went down to hunt. I tried on. I tried rogue. I tried a whole bunch of different ones. And the thing that set me off of Lucy was the pouch is bigger than my last girl. And at first I didn't know how I feel about that. But you put it in there and you feel like a real man with like a dip. Like you have a real dip.

You put it in the lower lip. It feels real good. So for me, it was like, okay, I can, I'll co-sign on that. It's different, but I'm a little scary because it's different, but I'm going to keep moving with it. The next thing was like the pouch. Like how dense, how, like how rough and tumble can I be on this pouch? Can I move it around my lip and not have it burst

and then have like little flakes of nicotine just flying around? Good in the moment. If you can handle it, hell of a buzz if you can handle it. But not what you want on a day-to-day basis if you're getting your lip raw on a nicotine pouch. So as I started working through these things, man, I found Lucy and I've really enjoyed the breakers. I've really enjoyed how you could take one, you crack one,

and it's just a flood of flavor. Because for me, a guy like me who has nicotine in his mouth, unless he's sleeping or eating, it's literally in there. I like to have, I hate that five, ten minutes where you put one in and it's like, yeah, come on, flavor, let's go. What are we doing here? What are we doing? Come on.

Get back to me. And with the breakers, it's like being right there. Maybe we should just have one right now. You want one? Brother. Oh, he's on it. My dreams are fucking coming true. The espresso.

So, no, I'm with you. Like, I started doing it when we were on the road. It was always like, hey, travel. Like, if it was Thursdays in Chicago or whenever we do a fall tour, like throw the, we won't say the names. We won't say the name. There's no free shoutouts. But moving into Lucy's and then hearing about the breakers,

like I thought the breakers thing was like just like a hard candy or something like that. I didn't know it was like inside of a pouch. So they shipped us a bunch of. and I see espresso. And your boy, you know I love lattes. You know I love coffee. You know I'm addicted to caffeine. I was telling Mitch about it last week.

Like, bro, these espresso pouches, these are the four milligram, because they got a lot of different levels of milligrams. They go, FEON, even numbers, 24, six, eight, 10, 12. They all are the 12th. That's for the men. That's for the men.

That's not for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The fours are a perfect number. And you were getting, you were getting me on them, and then that viral clip of Huberman was going around on, on the benefits of nicotine. Yep. And I basically do anything that Huberman says.

Follow blindly. It's the only way to live. Yeah. Yeah. Like, oh, who put you on that? Huberman. Like, look, I grew up in the Huberman world. Like, I will just listen to him, whatever he says.

I'm taking it as face back. Right. And it's great, too, when you're trying to give people information. And they're like, what did you get that? And then you say Huberman, they just go, okay. Yeah. Right. Absolutely.

Right. Right. Automatically agree with you. There's no argument to be had. Yeah. There is a culture with Huberman right now. Yeah. But I wrote down the benefits of nicotine coming from Huberbens' mouth that got me more and more on top of this stuff.

Neuroprotecting suppresses appetite. Don't need it. Increases metabolism. Let's go. Improves focus, attention, and mood. It relaxes your skeletal muscle, which, again, go listen to Huberman. I won't go too much farther beyond that. I just jotted that note down that it relaxes your skeletal muscle.

And then it increases motivation and decreases negative emotions. So is this the answer for depression? not for us to say. Probably not. There are studies of like an anti, of using it as like an antidepressant, but yeah, listen to this podcast, we are brain dead people on this podcast.

We are not smart. Yeah, we are not smart. Go listen to the Uber Man podcast. Yeah, go listen to the Huberman podcast. But these are sprestrial ones, and I shit you not. Here it is. You can see the little breaker inside.

You can zoom in on that, Mitch. There's a little breaker inside. And truly, it is like putting, it is like putting a latte in your mouth, like a little victory latte in your mouth. So waking up this morning and coming over to do the intro, I'm so excited to go to my spot. Eighth and roast,

get me an almond milk ice latte, splash vanilla to pair it with the espresso pouch. And bro, my mouth's watering talking about. Yeah, you're salivating. Yeah. Cheers. Yeah, cheers. So I'm going to, I'll bite down on this breaker so you can hear it.

You just use the little fangs of your teeth. And it's just like a, it's an orgasm in your mouth. Think of a gusher, but with more juice. And this espresso mixed with an iced latte? See, I'm a tropical cat, dude. I like my fruits. Which I was into, you had me into the fruit loop tasting one again.

Won't say any names. I love that one, but it's right here. Yeah. It is one of the baby. This is the baby. Literally, when I was talking to whoever, after we decided we're going to go, Lucy, and Lucy came to us after and said,

hey, it was a great choice. We'd love to sponsor you. They said, hey, what kind of flavors do you want? I had them with. They have apple berry or apple frost. They got... Apple ice.

Would you just put in? Would you just put in, Jack? Oh, Lucy. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see the can. We'll throw you off the boss. Let me see the can, Jack.

We'll get you replaced. What's these flavors? Mango, mango's really tasty. Mango's the one that I have in my lip right now. Because I enjoyed the citrus flavor of the other ones, but the breakers, they come in all of them. They ask me, what flavors do you want? I said, four minutes.

milligrams don't send us eight don't send us 10 it's too much of they're like hey they're coming they're coming i'm not safe feeling at least for me a lot of people they go hard yeah i like you love yeah you love like talking to god yeah i want the roller coaster like i want to feel so i want to be shaking a little bit and be like right you say something to me and i'm kind of like don't know what's going on will compton although you've already heard is a big caffeine guy one cold brew coffee and pits shaky jittery and he it's not like he learns his lesson ever he just keeps coming back for more and more. So we got the fours.

We're big four guys. I'm a mango guy. I do love the espresso. I do love the espresso. Issue for me, though, with the espresso is mentally, I think to myself, coffee. Coffee stains your teeth. If I just have an espresso-flavored thing in here,

I might have stained my teeth the whole time. That's my one little. That's a real good thought. You know what I heard that? Huberman. No. I didn't hear that. Just start fucking puking and shit.

So yeah, yeah, yeah. Might as well just go ahead and throw up. Do we have a Lucy ad read? We don't have Lucy ad read. That's fucking crazy. Go check out the boys, Lucy. Yeah, go check them out. We'll give them a free shout out.

And online. Everything's going online now. Like, you really can't find them in stores, I don't think. I go to a gas station. They got all the other brands we won't talk about. But Lucy, let them online. Get them in bulk. Yeah.

It's fantastic, dude. Should we, obviously the football season's over. And we had a great time. I know you guys talked about a little bit probably. That's done. The good, the bad, the ugly. those fun segments. We'll probably put those on the shelf for just a minute. Let's bring back a shout out, no free shout out.

Even though we've done it, even though we haven't given it the officialist back. Yeah, you're right. We need it. It needs to officially have its moment back in our hearts. We just gave a really good shoutout, no free shout out. Even though we don't have an ad, Ruby, Lucy. But yeah, I would love to bring the shoutout, no free shout out back. Mitch, go ahead.

Go ahead, Mitch. Take notes of what? He's producing the fuck out of it. Yeah, that's a good idea. He should do that. In his bag. My, uh, my shadow, no free shout out goes, uh, this week I had one of my buddies from, from home coming to town. And like when you first see, like, one of your boys that you haven't seen in a long time,

and you just dapp them up and you just give them a good, just a good old hug. That my shadow, no free shout out goes to giving your boys hugs. There's something about like, yeah, you can dab them up. You can just like, like, little handshake, whatever. But like, when you, when you lock it in for a hug and just like, it's real quick, like, Rather it's the longer one, shorter one, just give your boys some more hugs because it sometimes you just need it. Maybe that other person will need it as well. But it just a little feel good moment with you and your boy.

So shout out hugs. That's wholesome. Yeah, I saw something too, like I'm sure you get it as well. Like my algorithm has a lot of these, you know, gooey stuff, things now that pop up in front of my face. And one was about hugs, like big hug guy. 12 hugs a day leads to growth. eight hugs is what you need for maintenance and if you have anything less like you're deterring yourself from happiness but 12 is the number and also not only that but your technique you want to go left arm up

right arm below what the hell is that yeah left arm up right on below because your heart to heart with the person you're hugging wow that huberman that's not huberman that's just the instagram algorithm algorithm oh yeah and also another one i saw if you're hold a hug for eight seconds, that's where you release, like, the dopamine, the good hormones, the good things going on where you get the most out of the hug. So hug, hug often, hug hard, hug long. It sounds like we're getting ourselves an anti-depression protocol going on here with the Lucy and the hugs. Yeah. Can't wait to see what else happens on the show. Jackie, what do you have, baby? I don't know if this is going to translate for you all. I hope it does, but I was just in Tahoe this

past weekend of snowboarding. We went there. The weather's supposed to be completely clear. all week. So that kind of like bums you out when you go on a ski trip. You're like you want to get like a good snow. And then the day we get there, all of a sudden we get a weather alert advisory and there was a winter storm that just out of nowhere popped up first day. And so the first day we get there. We don't ski. We get settled in. Wake up the next morning and there was like 14 inches of fresh snow on the top of the mountain. So my shadow goes to, I guess, mother nature and providing beautiful snow. But getting snow on that first day of ski trip is something special. It provides a little bit more of a cushion. You can kind of go a little bit harder out there. It does make it more

like taxing on your legs because you're having so much more resistance, but you're able to go a little bit further. You're able to send that jump a little bit harder. So shout out to fresh snow on the beginning of a snow trip or ski trip. Yeah. Shout up mother nature. You jump. Yeah. You go hard like to go hard. You know, like I said, when when there's fresh snow, you have a little bit more in your bag. You're a little bit less worried about breaking something or tearing something because you're just falling in powder. So, yeah, we like to get out there, have a good time. You have a couple beers and you're like, all right, I'm going to, I'll hit that trick then now. I had a buddy in high school.

His name was Zach Bauer. Shout out Zach Bauer. I saw him this weekend in Arizona. He would always go to like Big Bear or Durango or Flagstaff and go skiing every winter. And every time he came back, he would have a separated shoulder, broken red. He literally guy had paper bones. He's a surgeon now. All his injuries, like, got him into the idea of becoming a surgeon.

When I saw you skiing, that's what I tried. I was like, oh, people go skiing, they're going to get hurt. You're just pain to get hurt. And I'm happy to see you back here on your two feet. Yeah, we were talking about it yesterday coming back. We were just like, no injuries. That's just the biggest win. Because when I'm 29, it's like, if you separate your shoulder or, like, hurt your knee,

it's like, at what cost? Like, just to, like, you know, impress one of your friends. on like a ski slope that no one ever saw. Black diamond. Yeah, exactly. But it's always fun. And with those flagstaff places, they don't typically get like a lot of snow. So it's usually like groomers, which means just like really packed down hard snow.

So it's a lot easier to get hurt. So when you do get those like 12 to 15 inches of fresh snow, it really prevents any kind of like hard sustaining injury. Like you can still get hurt obviously anytime. But it definitely helps out the cause of feeling a little bit more confident out there. definitely shout out Mother Nature. I didn't even know you can get 12 to 15 inches. Yeah, 33 inches in one night in Colorado. You never got just 12 inches when you're in Michigan?

I don't think so. I think the only place that ever think that would happen is Buffalo, New York. Because every year in December, the bills have like a hell of a deal going on. But I literally think of myself like a whole foot of snow, a foot plus. Crazy. Sounds horrible to me.

It's awesome. You know me in snow, brother. Don't get along. Vans do not. not through well in snow i'll tell you that what you got well for your shout over i'm so pissed off because i forgot mine okay i'll go i had one over the weekend i was like i need to write this down you write this down that's always the thing i was like this one's so solid that i will not forget and here i am 48 hours later um that's tough i'll try i try to think that's tough you need to be prepared

for the show that we have every week um but i'll i'll go and this i've said this one before but i happened to me this weekend and uh i just want to bring it back up again So this weekend I had to go to Arizona. One of my buddies, his father passed away. Very suddenly we had to go to a funeral. It was very, it was weird. It was a weird weekend. It was a weird weekend.

But positive on the weekend. Let's talk about positives here. We're keeping the vibes high. Talon puts on a song for me that immediately hits the cerebellum and I go, oh, fuck yes. I'm going to run this song into the dirt and I'm going to know every single lyric in a week's time. Not a week yet, but we know about half of them now. That song,

is by Benson Boone and the song is called Beautiful Things. Have you heard it? Yeah, please stay. Dude, that shit came on and I'm thinking in my head because we actually had this conversation when we were doing a drop-off

right before Super Bowl about like when you listen to a song you listen to beats, a beat or a lyric first and I'm always listening to the lyrics first. The guy talking about how his life was tough, then his life is good, and now all he's worried about is when the good things are going to end.

you can feel the anxiety in the song as it leads to this beautiful like scream, not screaming, but like a yelling singing type of like passion that gets you to go, oh, I got goosebumps for now. Let me roll these windows down and get these goosebumps off my body,

like that type of feeling. Yeah. So my shout, no free shout, it's gonna go to finding a new song. And I've done it. That's probably the third time I've done that in the show,

but it was necessary. We've been around for some time. We're gonna repeat. I'm pretty sure bro, bro hugs has been in there. Also never gets old. It doesn't get old. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, just like your shopping cart troll. It literally never gets old to me. I laugh every time. I honestly tweet it to get that now. That's the only response I ever want. I remembered. Let's go. I remembered.

And people, those are you that think about, oh, Will's got CTs, a big dumb idiot. Boom. Perfect example right now. In your fucking face, boys. He's loose. Eat shit. It's the Lucy's. Yeah, the memory.

So my shout-on, no-free shout-out goes to the air tag. I've started to use them and I needed it over the weekend. I couldn't find my keys. I didn't realize where I placed them and I throw up to find my app and have the keys. And then it plays a little sound for you to find it. And shout out the air tag because we need it. We need it. I'm pretty sure it's like this is like a universal like maybe not in universal.

I'm not shitting on all the men out there. But it seems like a very male thing to do where you just, we forget the dumbest shit. And our other tells us like, hey, here's a little, here's a little like, what am I trying to say? Here's a little reminder. I don't know. No, no, not reminder. Here's a device that helps you remember.

Yeah, like a little plate. Here's a plate. Yeah, yeah. Put it in your plate. Like, if you just, if you just, if you just, you got them again. Yeah, yeah. If you just walk in the house and put your money clip, your keys and everything in this plate, in the mudroom, right when you walk in, you'll know it's there every time. Yeah.

Fortunately, your boy's been very solid at doing that. For whatever reason, I had misplaced my keys, didn't, or didn't, didn't, know where they were and I thought to myself, I'm so fired up that I have an air tag on this thing now because I almost never put it on. I like several of them sitting there from Christmas and just, again, lazy. Don't get around and doing it. Fortunately, they were on my keys. I knew where to find them. Shout out the air tag. That is something I still need to do. Luckily, my significant other loses her phone 15 times a day to the point where I'm the one going, honey. Come on. Like, you've got to be better. You've got to figure it out. They see it as a badge of honor losing their phone. Like, oh, I'm not on

my phone a whole lot. I've been on it for so long. I guess I just missed it down. The uh, that's a big one. I love my daughter too. I was up and down the damn stairs yesterday trying to find my phone. I went upstairs upstairs. We have like a little attic playroom set up with like a little jungle gym. We have like a rock climbing thing for the kid. They love it. Do it a big swing in there. And they're ripping and I get in there's this big love sack. You've been in there. Lay down. I'm on my phone. I'm surfing the bird and I go downstairs. I have to grab something. I think it's a water. I go downstairs come back up. Can't find my phone. I'm like that. I bring it downstairs. me. I hunt for 15 to 20 minutes.

Probably 10, but you get what I'm saying. Finally, I go upstairs and I'm like, hey, when? Do you grab my phone? And this shit-eating grin covers her face. No? I was like, where is it, dude? Where is it? I had to fight her. I had to fight her. You hit her? No, I pushed her hard. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Order the beanbag. Yes. But anyway, she ended up giving up the phone, dude. But I thought to myself in that 10 minutes span of trying to find my phone.

Like, I should just put those damn air tags. They're literally sitting in the man cave right now. I know exactly where they are. I know exactly where they are. The Garmin now. The Garmin hooks you up. Well, I'll lose my, you know, I'll misplace my phone every now and then. I think, hang on, dude.

No, no, it does. I just, I think I turn my Bluetooth off for a minute. Yeah, you were getting some weird jingles in there. You had a weird vibrate on your phone. We'll come back, dude. I just got to, I got to hit the reconnect. Yeah, and also Garman's not a sponsor of the show, so. Yeah.

No free shout out. No free shout out. No free shout out to Garmin. I do love it though. Indeed. It helps me out. Will and I, we work out the same gym and literally I'll peek over at the boy, make sure he's staying on top of his stuff, you know, kind of bill a buddy shit.

And he'll look over, he'll just be popping some buttons looking and do go do his thing. Immediately gets out with a set. I was hitting it again. Like, no. You're not even doing anything. You got to hit the sets over, hit the stop. Now my rest is counting. You're not doing nothing.

Don't rest anything. Don't they? It's probably off right now. We sit there and talk and the minute you walk away. I look. I'm like, fuck, I've been resting way too long. Because I haven't seen you in a while. Yeah.

So I wanted to talk with at the same time. I got to get in and get out. Yeah. Get in, get it and get off. Yeah. That whole thing. One thing you can get in, get on, get off of is anytime you're watching a sporting event, dude. Anytime you watch a sporting event, you think, how do I make this a little bit more

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Also, did you guys see the bet I put in this week? UFC against Volkanowski. People were saying specifically, I saw him say fade. He's a big dumb idiot because I made myself $1,050. Who beat Volk? I forget his name. Tulipa, Tulipia.

I probably shouldn't know that. What's, uh, what made you pick him over Volk, over the American-made Volk? He's not American-made. He's, everything's American-made. If I'm rocking with it. You want to know the truth? You want me to make something up. Well, we, from your guy Vinnie.

Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Because I saw that, I saw that bet. I'm just thinking, that's crazy. He's going against bulk like that. I know.

And I literally, he like said, hey, put this bed in. It's a big bet. And so I literally went to my draft king sports app, hashtag DK partner. And I put that thing in there.

Money line, the whole thing. A thousand bucks on it right there. Did you watch? I fell asleep. So you got to wake up. I woke up with the present. Woke up with the present.

It's tough, man, being out in the East Coast with the UFC. It's not done to like 11 o'clock. The West because of the, It was nice. Nice. Like seven. Beautiful.

It was like 945. It's the best, man. It is the best. Speaking of West Coast, speaking of Vegas, I know you guys have talked about it, but when you guys left, your boy had another opportunity with MGK. And it went very well. Really? It went very well.

Yeah. Talk about that because you had mentioned it. It kind of been passing because there was game and jelly roll, right? Right, right. So the first night was at Power Slap, which by the way, Jack, I know we've been to every single Power Slap. How epic was this last power stop of Durango? It felt different.

Felt different. A lot of energy, a lot of big people there. It was fun. It was a cool, yeah, yeah. You know how Jack talks, though. It's like, that is enthusiasm for him. So, yeah, we go to that. And then obviously, this guy named Stephen, I believe his name is he's,

MGK's manager. Also, he's partners with Rob Mojee for those of you who are wondering in the same agency. He's like, MGK is going to be hearing a little bit as a, hey man, I love MGK. I love his music. I think he brought back a whole entire genre, blah, blah, blah, blah. give him my little elevator pitch and why I'm a fan of MGK.

He comes up to me as I'm actually getting we're getting the other boys in, you guys in and he's walking up. Obviously, I see him. Obviously, you and I are talking. And I think... He was loaded talking about gambling. He's like, I got this $1,000 trip right here. I'm just saying, like, yo. Hey, we're doing it. Yeah, we're doing

it. I'm okay. I was just meeting MGK. But I met MGK, and I met... People call him Kels. I'll call him Kels for right now. He, like, threw his shoulder. He, like, he like, dab me up and, like, threw his shoulder into me. And then when we were talking, He's kind of looking me up and down. I don't know if you noticed that.

He was kind of like looking at me, sizing me up a little bit. I'm thinking, come on, man. Like, we don't want to do this. We're trying to be boys right now. And it was very quick, very much. It was easy enough for me to be like, I didn't like that experience. It wasn't a great experience for me. Very much.

Your heroes. Yeah, yeah. It was kind of like one of those. That's one of your guys. It also, to me, was like, great in one way because tormented artist. That's what he comes off to be. And to see him like that.

I was like, good. Like, his art is going to be so beautiful this next album. obviously I hope he gets help, I'll figure it all out. So the next day I'm at UFC after a Saturday with Jelly and it was great because it was like not a whole lot of people there

was at the apex. It was just me and Jelly was catching up hanging out for a couple hours. And I let him know the same story I just told you guys like, like,

Jelly and Kelts are like boys. And so he's like telling me he was probably just wearing something. I know the Sean Strickland video came out about Sean Strickland calling him a freak and all that. I'm pretty sure that happened. Not on the Bird app.

Yeah, on the bird app. I'm pretty sure. sure that happened after it's not a big deal but i told him i was like yeah man it was kind of a a disappointing first impression it just seemed like the dude was wearing a whole lot and it was it was it was just a tough come by and so that night i'm at red rocks dana hits me up and he's like hey what are you doing blah blah blah i was like oh i'm here you goes come to caesar's i believe it is come to ceasers to this place called pinky ring your night's gonna change i'm thinking sick

because we know caesar is what he he bets there is 75 000 a hand i'm thinking away game the new stresses are there. I'm in a car. I'm driving over. I'm very nervous. I get a text from this lady named Evelyn, who is going to bring me into the Pinky Ring. Turns out, Pinky Ring is this very, it's right in the middle of the casino of Caesars or Bellagio. They both look very similar. It's like this little arena type of looking thing, but it's just like a bar, like a speakeasy kind of bar, and I walk in there and I see, hear this fucking golden voice. It's like literally piercing my ears and I'm like, oh my God, whoever's singing right now is incredible. Turns out that individual is Bruno Mars.

Hit her right hand. Start walking. I see Dana, his boy skips there. Hunter's there. Hunter now. That boy moved them hips. He got the...

Oh yeah, he was out there dancing. My God, with Bruno Mars. He was moving those hips like crazy. So we sit there, we're hanging out. We catch a grenade for you. And he's like,

I know we got somebody in the audience tonight. I think it was like baby something. Baby face or baby something. I don't know. No. Baby came? I don't know.

I think that's BB King you're thinking of BB King but yeah he he's like I got somebody in the audience blah blah and then Hunter and Dana are getting hyped up I don't know who this guy is he starts singing hands the mic to buddy and the buddy starts going fucking off

and I'm like oh my and you guys know I'm not a big concert guy but for me I'm like enjoying be fuck out of this moment and he's seeing some lady comes up she starts ripping there like he says he turns the place to do a strip club all of a sudden he's playing crazy music and he's like doing his thing

It was an unbelievable experience. I say that all just to flex on how cool my night was. I was ready for MGK to kind of come in the picture somewhere. He's coming later, I promise. But I just wanted to paint her in my face. I'm fucking, hey, hey, yeah. My life's awesome. Also, Danny gets on the phone while we're there, and he's like, okay, cool.

And he hangs on the phone. He goes, hey, Jay-Z and Beyonce are going to come. They're going to sit at our table with us. I was like, oh, for real? He's like, yeah, yeah. So, you know, he's like, they'll be here in about five minutes. They didn't come. But I wanted to tell you guys that because I wanted you feel that piece of excitement I just felt, right?

You guys get that? That was nice. Hold that in tight because we're going to go to Seasers now. We finished the concert. We end up ripping over, getting in the car, going over like a two-lane road over to Sears. We pop in there. We go to Sears into the high roller room. They got a similar situation to Red Rock with how there's a room behind the room.

But this room like double doors open up. Security sitting there with their earpieces on like, you know, you're the president or something. opens door, walks down this long hallway with a bathroom and an emergency exit, and then it opens up into a room where it's like Baccarat, craps, roulette, and one blackjack table. And there's just like five people just sitting in there, like ready to deal you with whatever game you want. And it's like, no one is allowed in there. We get in with Dana, Dana and it's up playing.

Bing, bang, boom, three hands, three dubs. $200,000 for him. Did you enter the small chaos? I did not enter the 75. They asked, the guy, his boy, Nick, was like, are you playing? And Dana, like a father, goes, he's not going to play here. He's good right now. And I'm like, thank you.

Because I would have, but I was, that's terrifying, right? Like the implications are so much more. So then Jelly's coming. So we wait for an hour or so. Jelly ends up coming. He's playing. Then Jelly's like, Kelsey's going to come. So now I'm thinking, redemption.

Go in the bathroom, take a piss. We're waiting for like 30, 40 minutes. Now he comes. He's gambling with everybody. Now we have a big crowd about 15 people. And just to be clear. Kelsey's MGK. Kels is MGK.

Okay, okay. So Bunny, his Jelly Roll's wife, she's over there with a group of girls. And I go over, hey guys, nice to meet you, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. And I see Bunny give her a big hug. And then I cruise back over the table. Well, one girl looks very familiar, looked unique and beautiful. And it was Megan Fox. His wife, obviously, that was there too.

But I couldn't recognize her at all because it's like, I think of Megan Fox. I'm thinking Transformers right next to the hood up. Yeah, hood up. Yeah. The whole thing, the hood up. Everybody knows. Everybody knows. You know exactly what I'm talking about. She looked completely different.

Still look fantastic. Anyway, Megan Fox was there. But I saw Kelse. He's like, hey, do good to see you again. Daps me up like we've been boys for a minute. He starts talking to me. He's like, ball, ball. And I give him the whole, hey, man,

tickets to my downfall. Best album in the last 20 years since Blinklin A2's self-titled album. And we start talking about Blinklin A2 and he's loving it. But he's so, I'm 95% sure. Jellyroll hit Kels up and was like, my boy Taylor. The first impression was, great just know he's going to be there tonight. And literally felt like that.

And to that, I say, thank you, Jollyroll. Because it was, even if it was fake, I still think of MJK as the fucking man now. So that was a very cool experience. They ended up winning a bunch of money. It was a killer time. We're leaving and we're still talking about music. He's like, hey, if you got any, like, advice or you want to go over songs or something like that, like, let me know.

What? I'm thinking, I look at him, I go, bro, I'm not, I'm not creative enough to do that. Like, I appreciate you. That's what it really hit me like, okay, yeah, yeah, Jelly definitely said something. But I was like, I appreciate it, but, you know, your boy's never written a song in his life. And he's like, oh, it's all good.

You know, maybe we can get something going. You could have said like, but you know, you ever want to throw something my way and you want me my feedback? Let me have your number. Yeah. Give it to me right now. Slide in there with some digits.

Yeah, yeah. So anyway, that was a very cool experience. Next day headed home, exhausted. Tired boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But overall, an incredible trip. So much fun. Yeah, we, the boys did very well with the Super Bowl week.

It was everything we'd hoped it would be. Maybe more. Yeah. It was awesome. A movie, someone would say. I hate that you said that, but it's true. It's so true. And Big Cat, I was whispering them after we all gambled together for those you haven't seen

the Tunnel of Chaos vlog. Great blog, by the way. Go check out the Tunnel of Chaos vlog. We were sitting there after, I go, it's a movie. And he goes, that's kind of a movie. I was like, yes, I fucking told you, dude. It's kind of a movie. You know what else is kind of a movie?

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Shop over 2 million cars for 2 million possibilities. Find your next possibility on cars.com. Where to next? Only you know. Have a docu-series just dropped. The Dynasty, New England Patriots. Really? Get on that.

On what? Apple Plus. Oh, I'll be on that tonight. Yeah, Apple Plus. The first two episodes of release, I think they're going to release one episode a week. There's going to be 10 in the season. It's awesome.

That fires. The first episode talks about basically it's called the backup plan. So is Tom getting drafted six round? He was like fourth on the depth chart with four quarterbacks there. What's really cool about it is his buddy and I hate that I'm fucking butcher.

I hate that I can't remember his name. But a teammate of his on the Patriots that he played at Purdue, Tom played at Michigan, and there were boys and roommates. He's got his, he's got a recorder out a lot because they lived together.

They were roommates. So there's a lot of like old footage of Tom like of the boys, like back in the, their rookie year and everything else, which is super fucking cool. And I didn't realize, I didn't realize, because this was back in, what, 2001? 2001. Yeah.

But I didn't realize the tension and the politics and the moment that was going on when Drew Bledso had gotten hurt. Like, I knew he got hurt and Tom came in. It's like the rest is history, right? I didn't know Drew Bledso was like $100 million. He just got paid as $100 million quarterback. year right yeah his injury was so bad that the uh the doc was like if you don't have the uh you know the response by the team in the NFL and everything like that like if he doesn't get to the doctor

and say he lays there for an extended period of time like he dies because he was basically bleeding out internally what was his injury he just got fucked up hey have you guys watch he yet his oldest time he was off he was taking off on a scramble and got lit the fuck up and literally play that clip just laid there bro And they talk about how he was ultimately, he could have died had he just laid there for an extended period of time, but like lacerated some artery, like a lot of different shit.

Yeah. Yeah. But he's thinking like he's the golden boy of New England. Like everybody's type of $100 million like he's good in the community. He's all the things you want as a quarterback. Everybody loved him. And Tom has one game where they win. Then the second

game like they lose and it's just all the drama that circulates around Bill Belichick saying, no, we're going to stick with Tom and Robert Kraft, he didn't like it, he thought Bledso was treated unfairly. Bletso's losing his career to, or losing his job to an injury like that.

When he's a $100 million quarterback that trust me in real time or they made it seem like he got fucking killed because it was like, he doesn't look that bad, but he lacerated his spleen got all messed up. They set up the boy Bledsoe too because he's like, you know, I feel like in chaos is where I start to thrive and they show this plate

right after he says it. And just gets fucked up and like you know, Drew Bletzso, again, being very intertwined with the New England Patriots organization. Like, mind you, $100 million quarterback. Right, right. He was the golden boy in the NFL. He was sitting. Who do you want to draft?

He was a backyard football. He was in all the different stuff, like probably weedies. Yeah, all those things. And he's just like, you know, he's thinking and saying, like, their lockers are next to each other. And you can tell he's holding back on saying, like, this should be my job when I come back. Or I'm thinking this is going to be my job when I come back. And I call Bill and my, hey, I just got cleared medically. Bill kind of does the bill thing, like didn't seem too excited.

Like I thought he'd be a little more enthused that I was coming back. And they stuck with Tom Brady, bro. And they go back into when Bill was the head coach of the Browns back in 94. And I think his name was like Bernie Kosar, Bernie Kozar, how he was doing well. And then there was a downfall with the Browns to where they're showing him hanging Bill Belichick and the owner, art, or whoever it is, and how it was such a bad breakup with the Browns because he stuck with some quarterback. And, you know, him and the VP of player scouting and everything else that's internally going on with Bill around Bill, they're saying like, hey, if we don't get this right, we have all this PTSD from what happened with the Browns. We're choosing to go Brady, who's a six-round pick who doesn't have the pedigree, instead of the $100 million, like, we could easily just go back to this.

Right. And they choose not to do it. It's an incredible, it's going to be an incredible docu-series. How long is the, of the episodes? Probably like 40 minutes. Oh, I love that. Yeah, not almost not like 50. seven, 60 minutes.

We're talking a good digestible. Like, you're in it, a good 40 minutes. And how they basically bring back and build this dynasty. But it gets into like the nitty gritty. God damn. That fires me up. And just how competitive time was. It's cool, bro.

It's really fucking cool. Is it shot similarly to the last dance? Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I think it'll be better than the last dance. I think it'll be better. Tom Brady talking about it.

Yeah. That fires me up. Coach us this down. You get to see an old kid. cameo of raves where he's like, shut the fuck up, Tom and like spikes the ball. Because McGinnis, like, they talked about how it was like their team. It wasn't Tom's. It wasn't Bill Belichick seemed like it felt like a collective. We need to do the right things, run the football, play good defense, all that other stuff. And they would talk like how the defense would

just talk so much shit to Tom and the offense when they fuck up. And Willie McGinnis, like, he's a shit talker. He's like a badass cat. And he's like, you know, I'm Braves. Like he's one of those guys who has zero line and it just shows his club of vrabbe be like shut the fuck up tom just out of nowhere and then he's like hey rabe's like you know you might need to relax he's like oh tom's gonna be fine then you see vrabes sit down and brave has a little cameo like no shit all these old heads coming and sitting down and like pouring into the to the dynasty that was built in new england it is fucking cool bro it fires me out there's got especially when you know somebody that's in it right you feel that yeah you see brave being a young thunder cat i know tom brady was

a power slap on Friday yeah at this at the uh Super Bowl week and he just had a glow about him just saw now he was over there sit with dan and he was kind of up and at him immediately saw pat wouldn't sat down after that yeah yeah yeah yeah saw pat and the whole crew that's right yeah yeah as you're as you're walking out or walking in but yeah that's cool i gotta check that out dude i really want to because that everything you just said the way you just painted it for me fires me up yeah it's one of those things like you pour into being a fan of that moment in time and like appreciating it all. And then I'm sitting there thinking like this story for on Tom Brady,

like being the goat, like being somebody who was like just at the bottom, politically, not politically, but has to awkwardly, like when the day does come and we have them on bustling with the boys, but talking through that awkward stage of cameras being there, people just, you know, they're showing all the old clips of like, a part of the interruption, all the talking shows, Collinsworth, you got Scott Van Pelt. He's a young Scott Van Pelt with hair.

and they're all talking like this is such a dumb decision like you got to go this is definitely blenzo's job when he comes back everybody's talking like no there's no tom brady like he's just there until bletzo comes back and then tom gets the nod and they're all like trying to crucify bill what's going to happen tom's first game when they're both on the sideline tom's throwing two picks a young london fletcher backer greatest show on turf boom picks them off they lose that game they're questioning him even more it's like you're in it like i want to you just want to pick tom's brain of like awkwardly being in those moments, knowing that Bletzo staying there, not hoping for your downfall, but hoping that it gets shoved up his ass because Kraft is talking to Bletzo like, hey, you know,

maybe Tom doesn't play well. And then I can easily, he said, I could go in and tell Bill. I don't want to tell you everything. I'm telling everyone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was mesmerized. I'm glad you stopped. I'm blowing it all. But it's cool, man. I love your passion behind. I'm going to put that on tonight. And if I don't, I'm a bad person. I need to go watch that show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do. You have to watch it. So that way, I think every week we have to watch it. So that way we have something to talk about.

Because we will talk about the show. Everybody's saying, spoilers, everything else. Listen, this is the dynasty. You can go back if you're a Patriots fan. You already knew this shit. You already knew. Yeah. But it's cool, man.

Yeah. Did you imagine being a fan since, like, you know, Brady's first year of the Patriots? And I know. Or being a fan that decade before. Like, and you just hadn't, you know, their second playoff game ever. I don't think they ever hosted a playoff game.

And so they won the division, the very last. game in the in the stadium before jillette uh was hosting a playoff game so like bringing that to the city robert craft was a long time patriot fan he they go through him buying the it's really cool damn what you say jack uh well i got a fan question it was good since all season you know things are getting a little slower but as of today monday it's 190 days until football starts again we have a fan question from under idao underscore rambler top three sons Sunday activities between now and kickoff.

So for this off season, what's your top three Sunday activities? Between now and kickoff? Yeah, during the off season, it doesn't have to be like as players, just like as fans, like when there's nothing to do on Sundays anymore when you just watching football for eight hours a day. Could be a tear talk. Yeah, that's where the. Okay. So if you want to take some time to do that and think about it, you can.

I like this one off the cuff. You just want to create one together or you want to create one by ourselves? Well, I think if we just talk about them out loud, we'll kind of come up with our list. All right. First one that comes to my head is a nice barbecue with the boys. Like when the summertime hits, summertime hit tank tops on, somebody's out there growing, somebody who you know, hey, well, you've got to have Will Compton's ribs.

You've got to have this guy so-and-so. Oh, this dude, the mac and cheese he makes. Unreal. You kind of create like a potluck bean. Simple, to the point. Sun's out, Sunday afternoon. Pool's right there. Everyone's catching a tan.

You're doing the 10 minutes before you put the sunscreen on because you want to get a nice starter pack going, that is, I feel like a God tier and a tier one to me. Yeah. Barbecue tier one. Ultimate tier one. Another one that popped in my head. And I don't know if it's a Sunday, but it is an activity that happens mostly in the off season, only in the off season. And that is, it's specific to you and me and it's risk. And having a late night that bleeds into Sunday having a risk night. Didn't like that one as much. That's okay. No, no, no, I like it. I just feel like there's a lot of options.

I know. I was just, but I'm brainstorm. We're brainstorming right now. I think you sit there and it's 2.30 in the morning and you're still contemplating the boys. Do we play one more? That's a moment. Yeah, yeah. It's a time. So we can change it. Let's switch it up to weekend activities. Thanks, Iowa. Iowa Rambler. Yeah. I like that. I would like to throw in farmers market. I do like that. Going to the local farmer's market with the fam in the morning on a Saturday.

Maybe it's a Sunday. But the farmer's market vibes when the sun is at its highest, it's tough to beat. I know. Even the complaints like, it's hot out here today. Yeah. Get them a water. Yeah. July it might be tough.

July it might be tough. Yeah. Get them an assayee bowl. Head over to California. Get the breakfast burritos, no tortilla. Throw that thing in a bowl for me and make them two. Put them on there. My God, you're living the dream.

Yeah. I do like the video game or video game. with the boys. Yeah. What else? You guys got? What's going through your guys' head? This is probably a very niche one,

and it's not for everybody, but now the football's over, NASCAR is back, and there's just something about, on a Sunday throwing on the cup race, you're going to take a nap during it. You're going to wake up with 50 laps left, and that's all you need to watch.

You watch the last 50 laps. Last 50 laps. you've seen the whole race. So just NASCAR being back and being able to watch that and really like dial in on one of your boys just out there trying to win.

Hell yeah. Yeah, man. All right. Okay, dude, I'm with that. That was a very niche. It is. There's gonna be some guys that are fired up about that, man. Fired up.

I'll say one. By the way, naps. Nap. Incredible activity. That midday nap between the hours of one and three on the love sack. Sweet I'm going upstairs.

You're going to take a nap? You already know. You already know. Love sack. One that a lot of people will be like, yes, I will say no to this, but I'll say it as a vessel. Golfing with the boys. I'm sure a Sunday activity in the springtime when the weather's finally broke. Oh, yeah, golf for sure.

There's got to be for a lot of people very nice. Bike rides too. I like the hop on the old cycler. Just get out there. Just take it all in. some deep breathing out there maybe ground yourself out in the park that whim-hoff going yeah fires

sitting out by a fire with the boys lighting some stogies the crackle the stars yeah that's a nice time also coming up soon the March madness we're nearing it I know we're not the biggest basketball pod but I do think we dive into some brackets this year get a little competition going

I'm done with that and when there's no football you turn to the next best thing and for me That's basketball and March Madness is one of the greatest times ever in sports. So I'm excited for that here in the next month. I want to chase that because everybody talks about jumping on old draft kings and just immersing yourself in the in the sports. Stach, D.K. partner. Emerscing yourself in the March Madness because they say that's like the best betting time of the year. I do want to get involved with that.

Mark Titus, shout out the Mark Titus show. He said he did a podcast to catch everybody up. If you're somebody who hasn't been in it, you want to kind of dip your toe into it. Basically one that I'm going to digest and listen to is on the Mark Titus show. The boy, Mark, he did a podcast for everybody who's not necessarily a fan of college basketball. You have to send me a link for that because I don't know a whole lot. I know that Michigan's bad. Nebraska's got a shot.

I know that. Nebraska's got a shot, dude. Need to win at all? Once you get into the dance, you never know. Anybody's game. You get into the tournament? It's anybody's game. Anybody's fucking.

That's what I need to hear from you just now. We might not have to hit a, I know a bunch of people with bars will do it, but might not. out to do a live stream on the first round of 64. I think there's talks of the boys going up. Yeah, going out to Chicago. Getting in the mix. Getting in the mix. I don't know if that's announced yet.

They might have something as well at Barstall, Nashville, at the bar. That's one of the best gambling days of the whole year. Yeah, might have to just get a vibe going. hashtag D.K. partner. I got another one. I got one. Binge watching a show.

Something you put off in the football season and you're like, I got to. everybody's talking about everybody's talking about like i gotta make sure and watch that once the season ends and once the season ends it's like on the top of your list like putting in hey it's three seasons already you're just not being put on for whatever reason you watch literally 12 hours yeah i think i'll be dipping my tone of that with the show rome i saw yeah yeah i don't know what happened i started thinking about the roman empire again and i was like i wonder if there are any other shows out there because i want some more game of thrones last kingdom and back in my life you seen um last kingdom yeah sorry

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Last Kingdom was fire. So good. I want to get into Vikings. I've heard that's a really good one.

But when I searched the web out there, I saw that there was a show called Rome from 2005 to 2007. Two seasons, 10 episodes in each season. And it's rated very well on IMDB. I'm a thorough. Yeah. I am a big believer in IMDB. Yeah. If a TV show is 8.7, especially back in the mid-2000s, and then people were responding to that saying,

like, oh, I'm so jealous of you. I envy you get to watch that. You get to enjoy it for the first time. I'm excited to dive in the Rome. You need to watch Entourage. You know what? It also pairs great with binge watching the TV show on a Sunday. Getting things delivered to you by Shipped.

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Enjoy a 14-day free trial with unlimited deliveries at ship.com. 14 days for free. Some guy out there running your errands, 14 days, running in the dirt. That is as good of a deal as you're going to ever. get boys and girls. Will really needs to watch Entourage. He needs to watch that show. It's so incredible. And when he says he's jumping on

Rome or Roman or whatever, that fires me up for him because I know it's going to be a fun journey for him. I love the way he dives into shows. But Entourage is a show that he needs to see. It's got that cult following that he's going to love, especially when we have Mr. Jerry Ferrar on here eventually. Turtle. We have him on this show. That is

going to be awesome. There was something else I was going to say. Have you seen the new Napoleon movie? Yeah, you need to get Apple TV and get rid of cable. Like, that stuff is, that stuff's for the birds. It's my first year doing it. Oh, I was just looking for my phone. Hey, that scared the shit out of me. That is it a alarm?

That was a fire alarm. There was a child missing three blocks away. That was crazy. We were just... That's Garmin. You think Garmin's going to come around? Oh, I have no clue. They need to.

That'd be sick. We'd been chasing a few of them. We were talking about... Greens. You diving into shows and how it's special when you do. Anytime you dive into a show, special for anybody, but Entourage, you need to get on that. I know.

Everybody, everybody says that. Yeah, and you've drawn a line in the sand with Rome. I get it. You need to watch that first. I hope you enjoy. I hope you have a good time. But the next one, let me bookmark that for you. Entourage will be your next show.

All right. I just, dude, I just, I love, like, war type shows. No question. No question. There's a couple more, I think, on Apple. The politics behind the scenes that bring it all together. I love it. The strategy behind it all.

Just, yeah, all the politicking that happens, the storylines. Hell yeah, dude. No, I saw that one that I want to put on there. Banda Brothers is one of the top shows of all time. You haven't seen Banda Brothers? No, and then there's another one called like that Banda Brothers, the creator of that one, is doing one that's out on Apple Plus now. Masters of the Air.

Yeah. That's another one I want to check out. I don't know about that one. I need to watch that one. That one's new on Apple Plus. Movie, Napoleon. Have you seen it? I haven't.

Because it's like, what, two and a half hours? Two and a half, three hours, something like that. I had it on for about 30 minutes. I ended up going to bed because I was too tired. But it was really jump aroundy. Like he gets married, boom, he's getting cheated on. And you're like, whoa, there's no development of the marriage for me to see how much that's going to affect him. So there was a lot of jump around stuff for me that I was like, I don't know.

I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I need to give it a full watch. I need to give it a fair watch. Yeah. That's what you got to do with your show. That one's rated in the six is on IMDB. Is it? Yeah. You know, Walking Phoenix.

I hated that. Is that why? No, Walking Phoenix is He's the guy. Which is sad to see because he's such a great actor. Right.

So I would have thought that'd be like something in the eights, maybe seven, nine. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know,

I don't know the ratings like you do, but. Yeah, I am immersed. You are about that. I'm usually like, okay,

I'll watch that. What rattles me is how much you think about the Roman Empire. I can't. I get it. It's beautiful. How often do you think about it?

I mean, oh, five times a year? how often you think about it jack all the time dude this is a this is a whole trend that went on a few months i know i know but yeah i mean a few months ago it was august we're in californ i mean roads literal roads all like it's the it's the roman empire look i don't want to bore everybody i don't want to bore everybody i went to rome last year it really immersed myself in the culture so i think about it quite a bit

and chat gpt is great for all that history shit dude yeah i i utilize chat gpd tea all of the time. And it's mostly for my kids when we're going to bed. Like, hey, you can ask the robot one question. And it's always, how long do foxes live? How long do bears live? How long? You know, it's always like, how long do these animals live? I love that. I'll learn a few things. Should we do our hypothetical question that usually is presented by Twisted Tea? Let's do one. Yeah. Would you rather go to jail for one one year straight? Shout out Twitter for this one. Yeah, I need to actually. It needs to be five years or six, at least to equate to the amount of time in that one year. I saw that one.

Yeah, so do you know what I'll do that one? For a year every day or prison for the next three years, but only on weekends. But if you just do the next three years. There's 52 weekends in a year. That's 150 days. Right. So you need to do like four or five years. And you have to go on the weekends.

Like there's no any weekend plan anywhere. I probably just do the year. I think so too. Yeah. Immerse yourself in the culture, see what crew you're going to end up rolling with. Become boys. Try not to get stabbed.

Figure out the total pull of, you know, who's in charge, who's not. Do you want to overthrow him? Do you not want to overthrow him? What do you want to go? Yeah.

Have that talk. If I go every weekend, they're going to get jealous. Like it's Sunday, oh, you know, Taylor's leaving. Eventually,

I'm to come back one Friday, they're like, you're not leaving anymore. And they're going to stab my ass. Or I think you, like, if you have to do it for, say, yeah, three years, like, and you have to stay this one of that?

Like, it's just going to sell all your weekends are in prison. Yeah. You could be, it's, yeah. It would be that. This is, JP brought up this point. Like, you could be that dude that comes on the weekends. Like, just bring some stuff for the boys. Like, you just kind of, you're like the plug for the weekend.

That's a fun idea when it starts. Hey, I brought some uncrustables for the boys, pack of marbles, cigarettes. Everyone's having a good time. Now all of a sudden, you're a meal shoving heroin up your ass trying to get to the boys. You're getting a whole lot more trouble. Now it's no longer. weekends or hey did you take care of that guy i told you to take care of him right if you don't do

this you're you're out of the the brotherhood yeah i got 30 pairs of eyes on your family right now right what are you going to do yeah if i'm just in prison for a year hey what'd you do murder double homicide oh really don't fuck with that guy yeah now i'm walking out yeah but i'm getting out any year yeah lawyer he's really no you don't say that you just kind of let it ride yeah but i want i want that to know it's some bargaining power for whatever crew's trying to rate me like hey what do you need me to do once I get out of the rape I forgot about the rape yeah yeah yeah that's a smart thing yeah what do you want me to do whenever I get out of you're like I get it I get to leave

it's bullshit I think so too but what I can do for you on the outside I'll make sure to get done that's a slippery slope slippery slope yeah just gotta do one bad thing when you get out you guys get one that's it yeah yeah and you promise a couple others never never fulfill it you know how it works who uh who's sending in that question a little shout out come on Mitch you're just going to ask a question but not give them take all the credit

how much he wanted to you did we would have never heard about that you literally the one hour the one year you knew the question

immediately yeah the where I saw it was on Instagram is from Jacob Lawrence shout of Jacob Lawrence I'll be low 50 appreciate you

is there anything else we're missing boys anything else we need there's a good question last week that we were passed around the shop Jack, would this be good because you weren't a part of it? What are you most afraid to pass down to your children?

Well, I have to get. Yeah, something about that. You got to take a minute. What was yours? Mine was, it was like, yeah, it's like being afraid to pass down the expectation that they have to, like, earn my love. Like, earn my, me being proud of them. because there's a lot of times growing up and I know my old man he watches he watches all of her

he's a tier one I love my dad but he was obviously hard on us and he was always somebody I felt like in sports I would have to perform or do well to have something to kind of like you know talk about or him be proud of or like had that kind of awesome pat on the back he was always great at doing that

but I just always felt I felt like that as like a young athlete like with my own man yeah and so like with Rue or any of my kids I would probably be afraid of like doing that. We share that same childhood of being like the sports with a thing like make or break the week, make break the month.

Yeah. For the dinner table. Yeah. Yeah. My dad, my dad love me a lot. Probably a lot more. Yeah.

I got to think about that. That's a good one. I don't, I don't have that fear. Having two girls, I have a boy, I could see that fear coming. But with my girls,

like, Wynn played soccer. And I was like kind of just wanted. her to try. All I cared about was like, hey, listen, I don't care if you're good. I just wanted you to try hard. That's all that matters to me. And she wasn't very good. No disrespect when. When you get older and you look at the archives, maybe that's gone now. Yeah, or maybe she's great. Maybe she's great now. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. But to me, I wasn't like disappointed. I don't, I don't think they'll ever feel that, which is, which is nice. Genetically, I'd just say like my horniness. That's what I was telling me was. You are horny. But it's good to be that horny.

I think. Yeah, it means it's a motivator. Yeah, it's a motivator. Being horny is like, as primitive as it can possibly be. Like you just,

hunter, gatherer, like, if I get this mammoth, I'm gonna get laid. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

Because Mitch had one too. He's like, it was a hypothetical and one side of it was like, you get, you get a stiffy every time you see an attractive woman or,

yeah, or you come a memory. every hour of every day, which is insane. And I was like, bro, I mean, how many boners do we get a day? Like, it's, like, scientific that we get, like, double-digit boners throughout the course of 24 hours. Yeah. So it's like, that already happens.

I don't know if that's true. You should look at your tea then. You should probably check out your testosterone. No, I'm saying it. Obviously, you wake up with morning wood, yes. But when else are you getting hard at work? I am right now. Why, I think this bottle's right here from my pants.

The average, man. we go thank you jack the average man has 11 erections a day as well as many more when they are asleep on average a healthy man has three to five erections during a full night's sleep sick i like i don't know i don't am i wrong am i by myself on this one we yeah yeah yeah you are i mean do you probably look into your tea um no see i think the hornyness you You don't want the horniness. Yeah, what's a gene? What's a gene you would hate to pass down to your daughters?

I don't know what gene. Because is the want for your father's approval a gene thing? No, no, I'm saying I basically just change it too. Like for me, hereditary. I feel bad for my kids that they had like how flat my feet are. Yeah, like hereditary or. I'm diabetic. I would hate if my kids also are diabetic.

It's a low-hating fruit, good one. But, you know, statistically, if I have four kids, one of them is probably going to have it, which will suck. But that is, that's what I thought of immediately. I would say, it's so hard.

Because there's like one in my head that I'm like trying to piece together. But it's like, if I say it incorrectly, it'll come off like too deep. And that's not necessarily my thought. Yeah. I'll say it incorrectly.

The, I would, I would not want for my kids to have a constant like earning to fill fulfillment through like success like having success in certain areas like I'd want them to be

fine fulfillment I feel like easier feel like they're enough feel like they're enough just being them and being the best person they can be as opposed to oh I got to do all these things and I want to be the best at this and all like constantly trying to be the best at whatever category

everyone's the subject they're talking about it like not allowing the external world to dictate if they're up or down yeah that that would probably be mine because that happens a lot with me not as much as you used to but still happens quite frequently but especially with football it was always like if i'm not the absolute best i'm a complete failure i could be second best and i'd be like i'm the worst right in the fear of like projecting that down yeah yeah to me to me for my kids it's all about just like if you're going to do something

do it the best like to the best you do as hard as you can like the best you possibly can outcome is not what you what you care about success is the journey not the destination that's right Should we talk about Stephen A? Yeah. This is an electric podcast. This was all time. It is. And there was things in this podcast that Stephen A started talking about that he knows that other people didn't know, but that's how he got into the world of like, he talks about being a beat writer and getting into it with Alan Iverson and how like he dodged him for like three days because of whatever thing.

He ends up showing up to a club and just a great storyteller, a passionate man. Now there is a clip that should be in here, Mitch, that is black. black and white with the music over it, that whole type of thing. That's about him being number one. Yeah, it can be in the episode. I want to clip. I want a clip for Motivority. Yes, exactly.

The YouTube channel Motivority. This dude, the way he operates, we ask him about like, you know, you see his competitive nature. We talk to him about McAfee and a guy like him, young gun who's just his numbers are going crazy. How does that make you feel from like a teammate standpoint and then also a competitive standpoint? He gets into all that gets into how, you know, where he came from, how he came from it, his process, his drive for success, his new podcast that he has, truly a great, a great interview.

Yeah, you can tell he's very calculated. Like he talks about, you're learning to trying to always be 10 steps ahead. I feel like there's something to that where he has his own platform with the Stephen A show. I mean, he's obviously on TV. He's been on TV every day for how long did he say 20, 30 years? Yeah, something like that, which is insane. And he knows his workload is nuts. But you can tell he's a very ambitious.

individual and there's like a lot of good stuff that you'll be able to to listen to it like take from and sacrifice he kind of puts into it all in thinking ahead of like you know in my opinion it's like he did now with his new show and doing all the things outside of ESPN he wants to be able to establish like hey ESPN like I want you but I don't need you right and he knew exactly to the day how many how long is those contracts up which is pretty fantastic Yeah. It was great. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Literally these last three episodes since Ed McCaffrey, we obviously dropped the ball with Big Cat, and we'll get another shot at that, hopefully. God, that sucks. I know. That audio pissed me off. It's just so brutal, dude. It really is.

But the last few, we love how well received it's been. We love how you guys always give comments, suggestions, everything. Here's a suggestion for you, dude. I know football season's over. And you think, Are you dark?

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Grab yourself a refreshing twisted tea today. Let's get into this episode with Stephen A, big hugs and tiniest of kisses. Tell you, you want to kick it off? Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Boston with the Boys. Very special guest today, The Legend, if you've been to turn on ESPN, probably in your entire life, you've seen this man sitting in front of you, giving takes, going at people, having absolute receipts for everything, Mr. Stephen A. Smith. What's going on, fellas? How are y'all doing? How are y'all doing, man? Good to be here.

Yeah, living the dream, man. We're happy you came on. We actually just saw you an hour ago. Right. doing a little hit on ESPN. I will tell you this. It is a very unique thing doing real TV because it's so fast-paced.

It is. It's fast-paced and in our case is live. So you mess up, you mess up. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it ain't like somebody's going to say, we don't even have a seven-second delay. So, you know, any kind of hiccup that takes place,

you could say the wrong word, the wrong thing or whatever, and you can find yourself in trouble. So that's the pressure that comes along with doing live television, but I like it. So it is what it is. How do you, manage to keep your level of enthusiasm, work ethic with everything you're doing.

You're also now in the podcast space, which is a massive one, by the way. And shout out your boy Bailey who's here. I've followed him a while, and I know he kind of does a lot of your stuff. But how do you manage all of that stuff? Well, you got to do what you love. That's number one. I don't have a job. I have a career.

I've often said when I give speeches and lectures, I say a job is doing what you have to do to sustain or elevate your quality of life. A career is doing what you want to do, and it just so happens. to do those things. But I also think the pressure of covering sports contributes to that kind of mentality. You know, you guys played in the NFL. You've got guys I'm covering the play to the NBA, Major League Baseball, Professional Boxes, UFC fighters, et cetera, et cetera. These are the best in the world. And when you consider the fact that you not only didn't do what they did on that level, but it was because you couldn't. Yet you get to sit in judgment of how they performed, how

receptive folks should be to how they perform, how receptive people should be to your commentary about it, then you owe it to everybody to make sure that you put forth a full-fledged effort with passion and enthusiasm to let everybody know. Not only are you not playing around, but you care that much. And so that's the very least that you can do. And that's what I try to bring to the table. When you're fighting through that process of knowing that these guys are playing at the highest level, doing their thing at the highest level, and you are sitting there in judgment, how was the process for you as far as like, feeling comfortable with putting out of judgment knowing you essentially haven't done what they did.

You know, it was easy for me in this regard. I remember when I started out in the business and I had a clerical position at the Winston-Salem Journal newspaper in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, because I went to Winston-Salem State University, which is an historically black college and university. And I went there and the sports editor, my first week on a job, sent me to Wake Forest University, right down the road. Wake Forest was the number three ranked team in the nation in soccer. The only soccer match I had ever watched was Pele in the 1980 Olympics for the, you know, a little guess, right? And so what happened is that I knew nothing about soccer and I went to the coach who's now deceased, God rest of his soul. His name was Walt Chisiewicz. And I walked up to him and I

say, I know absolutely nothing about soccer. I've never covered it on anything. but the boss sent me over here to do a feature on you guys and I don't know what I'm doing and but I really want to be a sports writer could you help me and he summoned the entire team over and he said for the next three days because my piece was doing a week

he said for the next three days you guys are to give complete unadulterated access to Stephen to Stephen any question he asked you answer and he said you Stephen meanwhile every single practice of every day this week, you will be standing right next to me. And he taught me the game of soccer.

And then when I finished the piece, which ultimately had the sports editor call me into his office the next day and say, congratulations, you're the new beat writer for Wake Forest Soccer. When I went to the coach after that and let him know, he said to me, what do you think you've learned? What do you think you should have learned? I said, listen and learn. he said you didn't play soccer but you learn from those who do

and as long as you do that then you're in a position to critique any of us because the knowledge that you're getting is not of your own it's one that was provided to you and as long as you make sure you articulate that

you will be respected because they know the lens that you're looking through is not that of your own it's of ours and I carry that with me for the rest of my career. How was it when you started to get those close personal relationships with athletes? Like you're obviously covering and now you are, I mean, you're obviously a superstar now and everybody knows you. But as you're growing and then getting those closer

relationships with guys and then having to go on TV and talk about, you know, stuff that as an athlete you know is like personal to you. How did you start to balance that as you're getting those friendships? The parts about your performance never fazed me because you perform in a public platform. So the games themselves speak for themselves. You shoot two for 20. It's on you. You throw three interceptions. That's on you. You fumble three times or whatever. You get burned and you're a cornerback and somebody catches to over 200

yards on you. Okay. It's on you. I mean, there's nothing I can do for you. And that is what it is. And I don't give a damn about how you feel because that was in a public setting and you put yourself on Front Street and that's what you have to deal with. It's the behind the scene stuff subject to interpretation and perspective or the

personal stuff that I'm very, very guarded about. Because what happens is that if I have a relationship with you, the assumption is that there's a trust. How do you become friends with people? Do you become friends with people you have no trust for? You don't believe in at all? You think every word out of their mouth is a damn lie? No, that's not what you do. Usually you cultivate these relationships and there's an affinity for one another and a level of trust that's built. So when somebody comes with a different perspective than the person you have a relationship with and it's in opposition to what they're saying to you, it can get tricky.

And at that particular moment in time, you have to remind that friend, that person who's become a friend that you've cultivated a close relationship with, look, I've got an obligation to be fair. Even if I know or I believe you and I think they may not be telling the truth, they're saying this for the record. Now, off the record, I ain't going to do that to you. But if they say to you on the record, you know what, he ain't shit. He's a liar. This is what he did and blah, blah, blah. It's not like I can make up a quote. I got to quote him.

That's what he said. I got to give it to them, okay? And give you an opportunity to respond. So it can get challenging in that regard, but that really calls for you to remind somebody of your professionalism, your ethics, the responsibility that comes along with the job title that you have. And it also serves as a reminder to that person that trust you. Why did you trust me to begin with?

Because I exercised those same principles and cultivating the relationship I did with you. I can't go against it just because you're my man. I can't do that. And I've had those situations in my career before confronted by those kind of things, whether it be Alan Ivesant, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neill, Michael Jordan, himself. The list goes on and on. You certainly have had those things where people have given their different perspectives aside that would be different from something that they said to me or whatever.

And that's the challenge that you have to deal with. But when you're known as being straight up and up and up, what you learn to find from professional athletes that they appreciate most is not being blindsided. They see you coming. You know, they ain't open the paper or turn on the TV the next day and are utterly shocked by what you're doing. And I think the greatest example of that was Isaiah Thomas when he was the head coach of the New York Knicks. They looked horrible. And there was a game in which they lost by 45 to Boston in Boston.

And it was the most emotional that I had ever been in my career because I actually called him up and I almost started crying because he's the person that granted me my first ever interview. as a reporter. And I had to call him to let him know tomorrow I'm calling for you to be fired. Oh, damn. Because it was that bad. It was that bad. And I knew that he had a lot going on on a personal level. His mom was dying.

And, you know, he wasn't all there with the New York Knicks at that particular. There's so much stuff that was going on in his personal life that he had to deal with that it really didn't give the ideal example of what he was capable of doing as a coach. but the situation had regressed to such a point. Nobody worth their salt could support him staying on board. And I had to call him to let him know, this is what I'm doing tomorrow. And he said to me, do what you got to do, bro.

I understand. Is that a common thing for you when you have a relationship with somebody and it goes downhill in a certain way where you give them a call and you let them know this is how I'm about to go about business? I'm the kind of person even if I don't have a relationship with you. If I know you and I know I can get in touch, if I know you well enough that I can get in touch with you, and I have something to say about you, I'm going to call you.

I'm that guy. I'm not that guy that's on TV, but never in line. When you don't see me in the locker room and stuff anymore, blame me SPA. You got me doing every damn show. So, you know what I'm saying? I'm on the air for hours, you know, I got to travel to this city, that city.

I can only do but so much. But everybody that knows me knows, I've always had that reputation. I will show up to the games. I will show up to the locker rooms. There are times when people, People would see me lurking on a basketball court and they'd be like, who does he think he is? Like he's walking around the court before the games when guys on the layup line.

They didn't realize the reason I did that is because I knew I had a national television platform. And I knew that I didn't have to be that beat writer with a bunch of reporters surrounding your locker after a game or something like that. But you might want to holl at me. So I wanted to be in their vicinity. So if they wanted to speak to me, they can even come over and speak to me or come over and say, look, call me later or plan on meeting me at this spot later or whatever. so we can talk. It was my way of giving them that kind of access to me

in case they wanted to reach me. In those like, in those situations, like when you're closer with guys, has there been a relationship of yours that has been burned because of? Alan Havison and I didn't talk for eight months. And this is when I was the beat writer. Like, for those that don't understand,

when you're the beat writer, wherever the team goes, you go. Every single day, every single practice, you got to cover the team. I was covering the Philadelphia 76ers. And Alan Iverson and I went eight months without talking. And the only time we talked with a couple of times where he was like, fuck you.

And I was like, fuck you too. Like literally it was like that. You said it back to him? Yeah, right. Yeah, right. I did. You know, because that's how I felt at the time because I felt he was wrong. You know, but ultimately a friend of his that ultimately was killed years later,

believe it or not, literally got us together. And how do we get together? He had me meet him at the club at 2 o'clock in the morning. morning and I met him at the nightclub and outlining's looking at me like I was crazy because I showed up by myself. I said, I'm here. I said, I'm here by myself. I said, because I can be, but more importantly, I'm right. I did not do anything wrong. You did. And we had a discussion and we were fine. What was he claiming that you did wrong? Well, we was writing some article, some article that I had written. He felt that I should not have written it because I didn't have all

of facts and I didn't get his side. And I was like, you mean after trying to reach you for three days? You mean after trying to talk to you? You mean coming to Fridays, coming to the club, you know, hollering at your friends and all. And I'm like, you knew I was looking for you. I said your inaccessibility doesn't get to determine my productivity. I'm going to do my job. I reached out. I tried to find you. You weren't available. If you were available, I would have told you everything. you would have given me your perspective and it might have altered my content. You weren't available and you thought

being inaccessible was going to prevent me from doing my job. Well, it did it. Lesson learned. Make sure when I'm trying to reach you, I reach you because I'm not, how can I put this? Fellas, I mean, I got a good life now, you know, you make a little paper and, you know,

life is cool, you know. It's, it's I, you know. but I was never one of those nerdish dudes that needed my career to have a life. I always had a life. Excuse my language. I always have shit to do. Okay? For my own individual pleasures.

Okay? Yeah. And I got better things to do with my time to chase your ass around for a story. So if I'm looking for you and I'm looking for you and I'm looking for you, at some point in time, you better hope I'll find you if you want to have some influence over the kind of things that I'm going to say. And if you avoid me for too long, that's at your own peril. Now, it's changed now because now I'm on national television. And so, and we live in the age of streaming in the digital stratosphere. So, you know, if you're in the morning and you're getting

250, 300,000 viewers, that's considered good. Well, I'm doubling up on that. We've been number one for 12 years. We're the flagship show for the network, the worldwide leader. We're number one every day. And so I don't have to worry about people watching us now. And then on top of it all in the digital stratosphere, me, myself and I by myself generate over two billion views annually. You're going to see me. You're going to hear me. Do you want to have some influence over what I say or not? If you talk to me, I have no problem. I have an obligation ethically to listen to what you have to see and to make sure, even if I disagree with you, that the context

that you are providing is accurately displayed. If you don't talk to me, that's your damn problem. I owe you nothing. I owe you absolutely, positively, nothing. All I have to say is whatever I want to say, I tried to reach him for comment. He was unavailable. Simple.

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ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Back to the episode. When you're established yourself doing all this, how did you, establish relationships with these athletes and also stay as unbiased as possible and become a straight shooter, when did you start to realize, okay, I'm finally getting the reputation of who I actually am? And I feel I can be more free to be myself. Well, from day one, I always let them know,

don't look for any pity from me when it comes to your game. Because everyone's watching. If I'm sitting in, I'm talking to y'all right now, and we're having a private conversation. That's between us. And I can interpret it and we can discuss it and I can shut up about it going on my merry way. And it's between us. But with these cameras rolling in with the world watch and I can't help you.

What you say is what you say. What you own is what you own. And it's the same principle when you're watching these guys perform. And so the first order of business is for me to let them know that I'm going to be incredibly objective in calling out what I see on the basketball court. But there are other things that I do, and this is where the relationship really elevated. I'm from the streets of New York City. No, I didn't smoke weed, but I know about getting high because I was surrounded by it all my life. I was surrounded by drugs all my life.

I was surrounded by violence all my life. I was surrounded by folks partying all my life, all of this other stuff. So all of the things, the vices, the temptations and everything like that, I'm a streetwise brother. I kind of know. So if you show up to a game, I don't need. a test to know if you hide. I'm looking right at you. I know if you hide.

I know if you drunk. And then when you dig the way that I dig, because remember, I'm a beat right at the time. So you get to know everybody. And this is what people don't realize about people that are beat right as with a beat writer's nature. You don't only just know the athletes, the coaches, the player personnel directors, the scouts, the values. You know their families. You know their friends.

You know their hangarons. You know their associates. You know all of that stuff. So just imagine that you're covering sports and you're dealing with 20-year-olds and late 20s and early 30s. And imagine the stuff that you're making all of this money and the stuff that you might find yourself getting into

because, you know, you live in a life that most people don't get to live. Think about the trouble that brings. You think I didn't know? You think I didn't know that you got traded because you were fucking the same girl as the coach and the coach wanted you gone? You think I don't know that the coach couldn't stand?

you because you tried to come on to his wife and his wife was interested. Do you think that I don't know that you really, really can't stand this dude? Because guess what? You wouldn't trade with this team because that former executive used to screw around with your wife and you didn't want anybody to know. That's why when you remember, if you recall when we were doing the whole Boston Celtics thing, where E.M. Udoka got pushed out because of a consensual relationship with somebody. You saw me going ballistic because I was like, oh, that's the first time that happened. I've been in this business for 30 years. They ain't a year that went by that I don't know about people screwing around in the office. It's always happening. Like, always. But this

guy is the one y'all going bust. Now, that pissed me off. Because I'm like, there's a code. And what I didn't want to say, but I will say any damn way, because I'm still getting pissed off about of just thinking about it. It was almost like, it's like, wait a minute here. You know, did I bring up the black element? Sure, because there's a whole bunch of white dudes the last time I checked y'all like sex too. You understand what I'm saying?

Nobody was telling you on y'all. Love it. We love it. Ain't nothing wrong with it. So the point is, so the point is, I mean, I get it, I get it. But what really ticked me off as well is that there's certain codes. Like, if you, without getting into details, because I don't want to get sued,

you kind of know that the person that he was with had connections to somebody else within the organization. Can I say that? You can say that. So I'm going like this. Now, is that not the epitome of weakness as men? Your woman is messing around with somebody, allegedly, right? And you victimizing him.

Well, he wasn't in a relationship with you? She was. but he victimized. But, but, but you still probably with that person. Really? Now, I'm saying that as men, we would call a dude out for that. We'd be like, yo, that's pretty damn weak. I mean, if you couldn't handle your business, you couldn't handle your business.

But as wrong as he might have been, unless he was your friend or brother, whatever, he ain't owe it to you. You understand what I'm saying? She did. Mm-hmm. But they called him out. and I didn't want to go nuclear at that moment and say that. But that's what I was thinking like, you know, you got to be pretty damn weak to be instigating this kind of shrapnel against that guy because you didn't handle your business.

You know, I'm not fault. I'm not saying she wasn't wrong and he wasn't wrong or whatever. But there was another element to it that came with it that you saw there was a level of victim of vindictiveness and hostility aimed solely at him. him who was not married. And he wasn't involved with you. So why is he the one suffering more than anybody else? That's where I was coming from. And those

kind of perspectives you get from seeing a lot and being around a lot and covering sports and seeing a whole bunch of things that go on. That was the stuff that that noise away at me because I look for consistency. I want fairness. It doesn't matter.

Whether it's right, wrong, whatever. I understand. debate it or whatever, but consistency needs to be the order of the day when we're doing this. And that's what I try to bring. When you talk about, you brought the code. It obviously, it's easy sitting as Stephen A. Smith right now, the goat. But when you're a beat writer, just trying to scratch and claw for that interview and you know things are going on. And it would be very easy for you to get way more clicks or way more whatever by saying, hey, so-and-so was cheating with so-and-so or whatever. Philandering is going on in this facility.

How did you figure out the code? like how quickly do you learn that this code exists? Well, for me, it's a personal decision. My personal morals and ethics are different than other people. Fellas, there's certain lines I'm just not crossing. I don't know y'all from a can of pain. I'm just meeting y'all happy to get to know y'all. Here, I've the show all the time.

I've watched a couple times y'all do a great job. Man, I can see you doing something that I might deem to be unethical as it pertains to your personal relationship with somebody. and ain't none of my damn business. I may not like it. I might hold it in, but I'm not diming you out. I'm just not doing it. It's none of my business.

Now, you're on a football field and you play like garbage. That's different. You know what I'm going to say that. And by the way, and by the way, and by the way, and by the way, if you do that because we've seen people, I've seen people show up the games and you look sluggish.

The audience didn't know you were screwing somebody two hours ago, but I did because I knew her. See what I'm saying? So I'm not going to tell on you, but I'm going to go like this. I don't know what was wrong with him. He seemed a bit slow. You know, the legs didn't seem to be there. You know, my way of letting him know.

Man, I know what you did. What's the matter with you? You couldn't wait until after the game. You know, that's how now I've done. or a guy that you know what you're on the sauce a little bit you're drinking a little bit too much alcohol you know you know you ain't supposed to be doing that supposed to do that the night before not an hour not the hour before the game you know and I'm like I'm looking at you like you know you didn't seem like yourself you seemed a little bit off kilter and you know they raised the eyebrow because they know what I'm alluding to but the audience does it you see what I'm saying yeah but I'll do stuff just to let them know yeah I could but I'm not but don't think I don't know come on man do your job Do your job. And then afterward, live your life. And so, you know, I've been doing stuff like that, you know, throughout my career.

The difference between me now and then you got some of these athletes can't stand my ass, hate my ass, whatever case would be because they see me on TV. They don't have a relationship with me. But the reason why is because I'm stuck in studio and I can't get to the games the way that I used to as many games. I used to go to like 200, like 120, 125 games a year. Now I have to cut that in half because of my schedule. But the reason why they could feel that way now compared to where they were. before is because before this was me, I'd roll right up into the locker room.

You seem like you got a problem. What's up? You can't possibly have a problem. How could you possibly have a problem? You know what the hell you did? You know, and I would roll up on them like that. I remember years ago, mad love and respect for John Wall. But John Wall, I was doing first take.

John Raw, Wall walked up and he was like, you know, I just wish cats like, you know, Stephen Ney, you know, you know, say something on TV, be man enough to, you know, come to the locker room. Knowing good and damn well. I couldn't get to Washington that day. Man, brother said that stuff, man. I took off my microphone going to commercial break.

I flew to D.C. I was in front of his locker that night. Like, what? Like, I'm scared to do my job. It's not talking about no fighting or anything. You're acting like I'm scared to do my job. This is my job. I am not scared to do my job.

Ever. Ever. This is my job. personal stuff is beyond the scope of the job. That's wrong. You know, somebody disrespecting your family member, your girls, no, no, you want to bust ass. Can't have that because you violate in codes.

But me just doing my job, if you can't play, you can't play. You play like garbage. You play like garbage. You're messing up, you're messing up. Me scared to do that, anybody that implies that, they're going to see me in front of that locker room. They're going to see me in front of that. I'd walk in the middle of the Dallas Cowboy locker room.

after a game if they said something like that about me. You got to be crazy because that's the job. And I'm never going to be scared to do my job. We interrupt this episode to bring you Good Chop. Everyone wants to start their year off on the right foot. And for me, that means making sure I'm eating well and have enough energy to do everything that I want to do. But I'm not going to run to the butcher every day

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Goodchop.com slash buss and 20. I apologize. Slash busting 120. Good job. It's the good stuff. Back to the episode. Your first big break getting into national television. Can you talk about that?

And then also seeing it transcended to what it's become. And obviously the, the, the, the spotlight of Stephen A. Smith. But when was your first big break on when you do hit that national television scene? I think when people would say when it was CNN-S-I, which was a big deal, because I was on the NBA show on Sunday mornings,

but I would say the real big break was when I went to Fox Sports Television because it was before the formation of the best damn sports show, period. And I was on their national sports. They had their national sports desk, Kevin Frazier, who's now at entertainment tonight, was one of the hosts along with various others. He's a dear friend of mine.

And I went there, Jim Rome had, the last word, I believe, was the name of the show. When he came to ESPN, it was Rome is burning, which is always a great name. I always loved that name. But I was there, and Jim Rome would bring me into his office after shows and talk to me and give me guidance, you know, about some of the minefields to maneuver through and what kind of things to watch out for, which I was always greatly appreciative for. And so I would call that my first big break because being in television and making that kind of noise when ESPN was so prolific, that was one thing. But then the creation of the best damn sports show period, they offered me the job full time. I turned it down, which is how John Sally got offered the job. The reason I turned it down is because I knew that my aspirations would end up at ESPN one day.

And I knew in order to achieve that I had to be taken seriously. and I would never be able to be taken seriously if I was sitting next to a comedian that was Tom Arnold every day. I'm not talking about him specifically. I'm talking about any comedian. It was a comedic show, or at least they aspired for it to be that way.

And for me to go there and sit next to him every day, I knew aesthetically, optics-wise, that would not be a good look if I wanted to be taken seriously. So I declined to play that role on that show and instead elected simply to be an NBA insider for that network. And lo and behold, a year later, ESPN came calling. And in 2003, I landed at ESPN, and everything has taken off since then.

How do you get to that conclusion with Best Damn Sports Show period, where they're offering you a job, they're offering you probably more money than you've been making before, and to have the wherewithal to sit there and be like tactically, strategically, in this video game of life I'm playing, this is not the move. to make although it's better right now that it is. Same thing you're doing now. You're playing a long game. You know, clicks would be nice. Views per episode would be nice. A subscriber base that builds is something that you want.

We all know what the business entails. But if you want to do something and just be a one-off, that's entirely different than building a career that's sustainable. And for me, I always played the long game. I still do. I think ahead. you know, somebody asked me the other day, they said, yeah, man, what did you do when you got your contract in 2018? I said, I went home. I was a little sad for a little while because I lost my mom a year earlier, got rest of the soul after a long battle with cancer. And I said,

so I licked my wounds there because I was sad because I knew the kind of money that I was earning what I was going to be able to do for her if she had been alive. And I had never had a chance to do that, you know, for what I would have been able to do for after I signed that contract. But then ultimately, I spent some time with my sisters and, you know, and my family, my daughters and everything like that for the weekend. That Monday morning, I woke up and they said, what were you thinking about? I said, my next contract.

And I wasn't playing. I knew that I had five and a half years to go. And I was thinking about five and a half years down the road. What am I going to do and where am I going to be in five and a half years? And that is my mentality always to try to maintain three, five, ten steps ahead to see the forest from the trees to anticipate the kind of things that are going to happen. So I'm not lost in the shuffle and we're not rewinding the clock back to 2009. When I'm asked out, unemployed, wondering what my prospects are, wondering whether or not I have any living off my savings and knowing that I had about six. eight months to survive on that. My goal is to never be in that position again. And so I think like that.

What is your vision? What are you envision for yourself down the road? Like, you know, obviously you signed a massive deal with ESPN. You're Stephen A. Smith. You've come out with the podcast. Everybody knows this media landscape on the leveraging and building your own platform. Okay, I'm on this massive network. You might think you're building me up. Let me go show you how I can do it on my own as well. What is the North Star look like for you five, ten years down the road? Well, the North Star for me is to have that level of independence to establish it in such a way where I'm there because I want to be there, not because I need to be there. I love working for Disney and ESPN. I love being associated with the world of sports.

I think that's one of the five pillars in this nation that you want to attach yourself to if you can pull it off. And I'm certainly not interested in giving that up. But I'm neither going to lie nor be apologetic about what I want for myself. I've done a lot at ESPN. my contract's up in 17 months. I'm interested in staying if I have the opportunity to do an abundance of other things that I want to do. If that opportunity doesn't present itself, then I'll have decisions to make. And so will they.

I own my own production company. I'm producing a docu-series. Actually, it comes out later this month as a three-part series on the history of sports commentators. I've got another series that has been greenlit, a drama series that I've created that I'm not at liberty to talk about but it has nothing to do with Disney or ESPN. I've created a drama series.

That's coming out. I've got my podcast, which is not really a podcast. It's a show. Why? Because I spent my own money and seven figures to build my own television studio.

I want people to look at it and think hybrid. It's not linear. It's not digital. It could be both. You want a linear sports show? Got you. You want a sports digital?

show got you you want a podcast got you you want a late night show done you want an afternoon talk show fine you want me to be another version of pt i or something like that good you want another creation of first take fine you want me to create a weekly format show that would rival real time with bill ma or the john oliver show or the daily show fine whatever it is i can do it because i've shown i can do it and so that's where my mentality is having the doors open, the opportunities available to me, and being in the position to explore things that I may have never imagined because I never knew it was available to me

because all anybody thought about when they saw me was sports. Now they don't think like that anymore. They see my range. So who's to say whether it's me or somebody else that wants to work with me comes forth with a level of creativity and ingenuity necessary to say, Stephen A, this is what we think we could do. with you and for you.

This is the kind of money that you can make because the one thing I will never apologize for, I am about my money. I want to get paid. I ain't apologizing for that shit to anybody. I'm not talking about Disney. I'm not talking about ESPN. I'm talking about colleagues, contemporaries, people who have been in this business, who knows what it takes to succeed.

Look at my resume. Look at what I've accomplished. make no mistake. I intend to get paid. I can tell you, I'm telling you right now on this, on YouTube when we post this, black and white,

music behind it, subtitles the whole thing. That thing is going to go. What I'm going to take a break from this episode to bring you, Ashley, dude. Ashley has great quality stuff, on trend,

comfortable and affordable, perfect seating to watch the game or gaming with your friends. Our episode today is with Stephen A. Smith. You see those cushy seats. You see what we're sitting in. That is Ashley. We were spending,

I don't know, what, 15-hour days, ripping around. Pods after pods after pods, after pods, trying to give you people what you love most, which is interviews with amazing guests, and Ashley Furniture made our touches feel like it was in a safe, safe hands, dude. Do you as your favorite. Use code bar stool to save online at ashley.com.

The fun part about that call to action is that you don't know how much you're saving, but if you use the code barstool, you're going to find out. Ashley.com. Let's get back to this episode. I know you. Motivacy. I know you got to leave, but obviously the competitive drive, the Y. You have literally everything. And in sports, when you're on a team, your goal is to win

the Super Bowl or the NBA championship, all these different things. You're competing against other teams. But also internally on the team you're at, you're competing with the guys around you. And so ESPN comes in. You talked about two billion views. You talked about being the man, number one for 12 years. And you see ESPN making a pivot to McAfee. Obviously great for the network. How do you, in your mindset view a guy like McAfee, who is? Who is? And you, extremely good at his job in a lot of ways is changing the course of mainstream media and all those things from a competitive standpoint

and also as a partner. I am an aberration in this regard. I love Pat McAfee. He's a man. Love him to death. Love to death. I love his swag. I love the fact that he's an honest brother.

He don't give shit. I'm going to let you know exactly where he's standing. That's my kind of dude. That works for me. Now, as he has polished politically as me, nope. because he has no desire to be, number one. And number two, if we're being honest, he's white and I'm black. He didn't have to be. I had to be.

So I get all of that. And I'm not knocking him for it. I get it. Pat McAfee is a sensational talent. And it would be stupid for me not to root for him. Because he's one of the pioneers in this business, just like Bill Simmons is, just like Joe Rogan is, in others. What they have done for themselves in the digital stratosphere,

speaks for itself. I'm new to this. I'm a baby. I got, I'm approaching 550,000 subscribers in 10, 10 and a half months. People see me, oh my God, you're averaging over 2,000 subscribers a day and look at the views per episode. It's just climbing and climbing and look at the consistency to growth, especially my guy Bailey, the social media guru. I mean, he's trying to, he's painting this beautiful picture every day. I'm looking at the fact that my numbers pale in comparison to those folks who have been near and have like a four, five, seven, an eight-year head start on me. Why? Because I'm looking at who's number one and why.

Okay? But in the same breath, don't get it twisted. I love Pat. Pat knows that. I'm rooting for him. I help him anyway. I can't help him. But we know who number one in Linear Television is. You know, well, backseat. You've been number one for 12 years. People come, people go. People come.

People stay. But there's a top perch. Now, you could take it away, knock on wood. It could be next year. It could be next week. It could be two years, five years from now, whatever. But since 2012, it's been me with Skip Payless, with Adam, with Max Kellerman, with Adam, with a potpourri of contributors. It don't matter.

I come to win. And when it come to linear television, that's exactly what the fuck I have done. And so my attitude is, as long as I'm doing it, I'm going to continue to win. Maccalfee or no McAfee. get up or no get up. It don't matter who it is. FS1, Comcast, whatever. You come for me.

I'm coming for you. I'm here to win. Digital is different because I'm a baby. I'm crawling. I'm an infant. You understand what I'm saying? I ain't even learning out of walk yet. You understand what I'm saying?

Let alone run and sprint. But once I get to that point, I'm going to come for folks then too. But in the process of doing so, it will never be to root for them to fail. And that's why I'm very guarded when people sit up and they tried to, I remember Dan Levitore said one time, you know, he wants to ruin Skip's career and he had to retract that statement because that's totally false.

I never want Skip to fail. I just don't want him to be number one over me. Same thing with Kishan, Michael Irvin, Richard Sherman. These are my boys. I don't want them to fail. But they know who's trying to be number one. And look, these are Hall of Famers. These are Super Bowl champions.

When they roll up over there, you know, man. We know you. I say, you know I'm coming for you, right? you know you don't expect to beat me. You know, now, of course, one day somebody can. Hell, it could be them or somebody else. But all in fun, I'm letting them know I don't ever root against you. I don't ever want you to fail.

But in the same breath, it is perfectly within my right to want to be number one. And I want to be that guy that's at the top of the perch that reaches back, white and black, finding young talent, folks on a come up, inspiring, and motivating and assisting others in being their best selves. But do I want you to be better than me? No. No. And I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure you're not better than me.

I've done it in linear television. I'm going to continue to do it in linear television, at least as long as I have a contract to do so. And hopefully I'll be able to do it in the digital stratosphere as well. And then after that? It's kind of production we're doing around here. It's okay. We're trying to throw you off.

Not seven figures in this one. Talking about being the one. Steve, A, this has been an honor, man. Thank you so much. I wish we had a longer time. I don't know if you saw on the internet, All Black versus All White Team. Okay.

I did not see that. You didn't see that. It should have been something you'd be covering. Yeah, that seemed like you're not to know that one. And if you look at the All-White team, except for that backing on defense. Okay. Not a bad squad. I'll check it out.

Yeah. I'll check it out. I think the Black Squad's minus 24 and a half when we go, we're over it. But it'll be all right. Okay. Yeah. We'll get you all time. Appreciate you all time.

Appreciate y'all, man. All the best of both of y'all, man. Keep doing the great work you. We'll be seeing you soon. All right, sir. Take care. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers.

I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen.

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