Pardon My Take - NFL Reporter Dianna Russini, Russ Wilson Cut, Jason Kelce Retires And Listener Submitted Takes

Episode Date: March 6, 2024

Russell Wilson has been cut and we ask if we should feel bad for him at all (00:00:00-00:20:26). Jason Kelce retires and other NFL news plus Hank’s number 10 Patriots of all time (00:20:26-00:33:02).... Hot Seat/Cool Throne including Arch Manning refusing to be in the new College Football video game, Anthony Edwards missing tipoff and more (00:33:02-00:49:56). We then welcome on The Athletics Lead NFL Reporter Dianna Russini to talk about her reporting on Max’s flight, Combine, upcoming NFL free agency, managing being a mom and being a very accomplished reporter and tons more (00:49:56-02:02:13). We finish with pardon your take (02:02:13-02:14:22).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, pardon my take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, we have an awesome, awesome interview with NFL reporter Diana Rossini, friend of the show, also has done some incredible airplane reporting that we will talk about with her. We talked to her on Wednesday last week at the combine in person. She brought two sodas for Max.
Starting point is 00:00:30 I thought that was very nice. Yeah, she brought two sodas. Great interview. We're going to talk some NFL transactions that have happened. We have a hot seat, cool throne, Hanks number 10 on his top 10 Patriots list, which actually this is where it gets fun because you're going to leave someone out. And then we have pardon your take a great Wednesday episode for everyone. It's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Get in on the action with DraftKings Sportsbook and official sports betting partner, the NBA,
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Starting point is 00:02:23 of initial losing bet and expires 168 hours after issuance. See DKNG.com slash promos for deposit, wagering and eligibility restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. Okay, let's go! Now in the street there is violence and then a lot of work to be done. No place to hang a low washing and then again they all on the sun. Oh no, we're gonna rock down down to electric, I brand new. And then we're taking higher. Oh, we're gonna rock it down to electric.
Starting point is 00:03:12 It's part of my take. There's enough of our studio sports. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings Sportsbook. Go download it right now. You can get a no sweat bet with the code take up to a thousand dollars back in a bonus bet draft king sports book today is Wednesday March 6th and I have a very important question for you PFT have a very important answer okay should we feel bad for a man who's getting paid $39 million to not work. No, are you talking about Hank?
Starting point is 00:03:45 I'm talking about Hank. No, I don't feel bad for Hank. I'm talking about Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson has been cut by the Denver Broncos. We all expected it. That's the dream. Anytime a coach gets bought out, anytime a quarterback gets cut
Starting point is 00:03:58 and they've got this big dead cap hit, yeah, I would love to get paid millions of dollars to not work anymore. That is truly, schools should teach classes. If you want to prepare young children for how to succeed in America teach them the best ways To get paid a fuckload of money and to not have to work at their job But with all that comes the territory of being maybe the worst NFL trade of all time Herschel Walker has always been the the gold standard or sorry NFL trade of all time the Herschel Walker has always been the the gold standard or sorry
Starting point is 00:04:30 Yeah, no Herschel Walker, right? Herschel Walker the Cowboys dynasty was started with that trade But Russell Wilson's trade when looking back on it The Broncos gave up Two first-round picks. I think they gave up what a second round pick two second round picks a fifth round pick Drew lock Shelby Harris, Noah Phant, and they got back Russell Wilson in a fourth round pick and then they signed Russell Wilson to a $242 million contract and he played for the Broncos for two terrible years. And yeah, I think it might be one of the worst trades in sports history. I think there was a
Starting point is 00:05:01 fleecing. It was Seahawks won this trade. We can officially declare that now. We were still It was still up in the air. Yeah. But now we can say, yeah, the Seahawks, you dominated the Broncos. Congratulations. It's another win on your schedule. For Russ Wilson, I think you asked me at the end of the season, over under, Russ Wilson starts 17 and a half more games. Yeah. I still take the over on it. I think that there's going to be a team out there that's going to sign him to be a starting quarterback next season. It might be a team, probably a team that's not very good.
Starting point is 00:05:30 But I do think that he's gonna start next season and he's gonna start. Well he's cheap now. Yeah, can they sign him for nothing? Yeah, they can sign him for pretty much nothing. So like you could sign Kurt Cousins or you could sign Russell Wilson for like 5% of what you're gonna pay Kurt Cousins.
Starting point is 00:05:43 I still would probably want Kurt Cousins. You think 5% of what you're gonna pay Kirk Cousins. I still would probably want Kirk Cousins. You think 5% of Russell Wilson, or 5% of Kirk Cousins is better than 100% of Russell Wilson? Yes, I don't think Russell Wilson's good anymore. I think he's like an average quarterback. I think in the right system he could thrive. I think he's, yeah, the number one defense. He's a weird guy, that's the thing.
Starting point is 00:06:03 It's like, you can overlook signing a weird guy. That's the thing. It's like you can you can overlook signing a weird guy if he's going to be good, but Russell's goodness, his talent is no longer to the point where it outweighs just what a bizarre human being he is. I just don't know where where that team's going to be to sign him as a starter when you look at like who's got openings and Raiders. Yeah, but are they going to draft someone? Are they going to like they're obviously whatever three, four, five of the openings will be filled by someone who's drafted coming up in a month. Yep. And then Kirk Cousins, Justin Fields where he goes. I just don't know where Russell Wilson fits in in these musical chairs. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just think I think
Starting point is 00:06:43 a team will sign him, no doubt. I don't know if they'll be like your guaranteed starter. Yeah, what about like a team that's probably gonna draft a quarterback and could use some veteran leadership? Do you want that type of leadership though? Weird leadership? Leadership to where?
Starting point is 00:06:58 Yeah, it's weird leadership. I mean, he's a Super Bowl winning QB. That's a fact. True. Yeah, I just, I don't know where he fits in. Maybe I'm wrong. I think there'll be a team that takes a chance on him. Like if you were to tell me that the stealer signed him,
Starting point is 00:07:11 I would not be surprised by that. But he wouldn't be guaranteed starter. He wouldn't be guaranteed starter, probably not. No, he'd be a QB competition. He might win the job. If he signed with the Raiders, I think he'd probably be guaranteed starter. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:23 If I could see... What about like the Dolphins? As a backup? Yeah. I don't think, if you're Russ Wilson, would you want to be a backup? For the Dolphins? I don't think you get to decide.
Starting point is 00:07:33 I don't think you get to decide if you're Russ Wilson right now. But he might, but Russ might be at the point where if he's not guaranteed a starting job, he might just retire. Like Russell Wilson and Mike McDaniel, you know, obviously he'd be a backup but Fireworks
Starting point is 00:07:47 Moon maybe the Giants did you see the report Rich Eisen said that the Giants are done with Daniel Daniel Jones He said the two words that are being used for Daniel Jones's buyers remorse yikes At the time I think when we I think Leroy his ghost might have actually broken the news of his contract I might be his final scoop, but when Daniel Jones signed with the Giants, I think all of our reaction was the same, which is like, you should actually, this is a case where you should pay your running back. Yeah. And you should franchise tag your quarterback.
Starting point is 00:08:14 Yeah, because you had a history of a guy who had a very good year when they went to the playoffs, what it was two years ago. And you essentially said, this is who he is now, not the other four years. Let's bank on him being the same guy and have this not be an anomaly. Yeah, yeah, he had a great year and he stayed healthy that year, which he normally doesn't do. And then you paid him like he was a healthy, good quarterback,
Starting point is 00:08:36 which I guess he was in the most recent season that you saw him. But then do you sit back and be like, well, the other seasons weren't so good, so we're not gonna pay you. And they just didn't want him to hit the free market. So it's like in retrospect, maybe maybe drafting a quarterback in the top 10, because he reminds you physically of your previous quarterback.
Starting point is 00:08:53 Yeah, was not the best idea for your general manager. Yeah. But I think actually, Seyquan, Seyquan is an interesting dude that's going to be a free agent because I actually I would I would pay him if I was a GM I wouldn't treat him like the other running backs that are gonna be out there I'd be like sake one deserves a big contract. I think like I we have some running backs in DC I wouldn't mind sake one Barclay in DC. I think Jerry Jones would probably want sake one Barclay in Dallas Yeah, I think that'd probably be a pretty good fit So one last question about Russell Wilson before we talk about some other stuff
Starting point is 00:09:23 probably be a pretty good fit. So one last question about Russell Wilson before we talk about some other stuff. Do you, I do have a small part of me that feels bad for him. And I know that's crazy. He's made millions and millions of dollars. He's getting paid $39 million to do nothing this year. If he chooses to do nothing, he'll obviously be on the team. But at what cost? You've basically become a joke to the NFL. And everything that happened at the beginning of your career, which was phenomenal, is somewhat tarnished by what happened in Denver, because it was just an abject failure.
Starting point is 00:09:54 And then on top of all of that, you have being part of one of the worst trades in NFL history, there's a small part of me that feels bad because I bet you if you hit Russell Wilson with some true serum He'd be like, yeah, the money is awesome, but I really wish that I wasn't a joke Yeah, maybe but also at the end of the day Awesome. Also Malcolm Butler at the end of the day you're you're married to Sierra
Starting point is 00:10:18 You've got more bathrooms than number of times. You've probably had to piss in the last year. Yeah, true So things are pretty good if you're Russ. Yeah, they're good, but at the end, it's one of those deep down, your head hits the pillow late at night, you're like, man, I wish that didn't all happen the way it did. Yeah, like things were pretty good in Seattle for me.
Starting point is 00:10:37 Yeah. I had a fan base that loved me no matter what I did. That would have let you age poorly and still stuck by you. Giving you a heroes retirement ceremony. Yeah. Yeah. It would have been good. It would have been good for us to stay in Seattle. But I do think that there's going to be a couple of GMs out there that want Russell Wilson that are like, I can, I can bring back Russ. I can fix it. I'm going to let Russ cook. But then I think the first, what do you think if we're doing Domino's,
Starting point is 00:11:02 if we're talking about quarterback Domino's, Yeah, because there's like three big domino pieces What is the first domino her cousins her cousin who reportedly is thinking about moving to Atlanta? Yeah, per Mike Florio a pro football talk not fan fiction. Mike Florio had some words for you Hank Is a fan fact he was not happy last night I'm gonna pull up the tweet Mike Florio was not happy and the first person I thought of was you Henry Lockwood because you've been giving him a hell of a time online. Hell of a time.
Starting point is 00:11:29 Read it. I mean there's like many shows do interviews. I don't know that that's proof of anything. Okay. So he had. There was the weirdest flex I've ever seen. He had two flexes. Two flexes. Okay. Hold on. So I actually thought that his Caleb Williams flex is pretty good the other day on Friday.
Starting point is 00:11:44 Oh, he's been texting me being like, I'm so mad the are gonna be good. I'm like I feel like you're tricking me Yeah, I'm gonna pull up the the Caleb Williams. He said this one He said last night to the folks who try to dismiss our reports by saying we have no sources or whatever You realize we had like 50 guests on our show last week from Indy, right? You realize pretty much everyone in the league reads PFT, right? You realize I've been doing this for 23 years, right? I didn't realize most of that. Yeah, you exactly because you're a Mike Florio hater But the everyone reads PFT that's subjective. Well, here's everyone in the league does having 50 guests Okay, here's where we're on a row. You can just pull you probably pulled like the vendors off the street
Starting point is 00:12:24 We're like, hey, how's where we're on a row. You can just pull you probably pulled like the vendors off the street We're like hey, how's the popcorn selling? I'm gonna I'm gonna back our guy Florio for a second because he's in that weird gray area where you have the Chefties in the Ian rapboards who will just trade news they have news. They'll give you the news There's not opinion Florio adds his opinion So people then take it as well. He's making things up and it's fan fiction. Floreo is still doing reporting like Shefti and Rapport. He just has a little more personality behind what he's writing and saying like this may happen, this isn't happening, like here's a fun hypothesis.
Starting point is 00:12:59 Floreo is great for what we do because he throws out ideas and things that could potentially happen that get everyone's brain churning, not just this guy got traded or this guy signed or this guy got cut. I think where people get confused though is because with Rappaport and Schefter and Diana, they report facts. So when they're reporting something, you just assume it's a fact because they're tweeting it. Florio does that, but then also speculates.
Starting point is 00:13:26 Yeah, yes. So sometimes people are confused where they're like, is this a fact? Well, you gotta know your source. It's Florio sometimes, especially in the dog days of the NFL calendar year, where there's not a lot happening. That's when Florio, his mind starts to wander a little bit and he starts connecting the dots
Starting point is 00:13:41 and doing the tea leaves and all that stuff. And that's fun, but when it comes time to analyze players players contracts and salaries and predict what's going to happen, he's a lawyer. So he like he is able to decipher some of the bullshit that's put out there. I think a lot better than a Schefter would. And I like Florida. I always say this.
Starting point is 00:13:58 He is more like Barstool than he thinks, like where again, Schefter and Rapport are just driven by scoops driven by getting reports. Mm-hmm. Florio's driven by page views so he knows... Hmm you're saying he's doing clickbait. I disagree. To an extent like he knows dog days of summer let me just write some crazy shit and people are gonna click. But I don't think... Factor fiction. Fiction. That's fanfiction. You're doing fanfiction on him. This is Hank Florio. We've all seen the picture. You're But I don't back their fiction fiction that's fanfare that you're doing fan fiction your part on him fan fiction And this is this is Hank Florio. We've all seen the picture This is you're at it again Hank and what Florio does. I don't think he does it for clicks
Starting point is 00:14:32 No, I actually think that the clicks come on. No, no shut the fuck up for a second Hank I think that the clicks happen to be a nice byproduct of what he does or I just think that Florio Gets crazy sometimes and he puts these dots together that sometimes don't end up happening, but he does it to entertain himself and because he believes that he might be right. He also form speculation. I don't think Florio ever writes something just being like this. There's no truth behind this. Let me just throw this out there. He actually
Starting point is 00:15:00 does have kernels of truth that end up being popcorn. We ate his hypotheses. Yeah, either way. I like Florio. I'm not. Your entire life is a Hypothesis. I know that's what my old point is like he's we're more like sometimes I just think he likes to get mad and be like how can people not
Starting point is 00:15:16 you know take me seriously. Yeah. So he thinks Kirk Cousins. He's the best in the biz. He thinks Kirk Cousins is making some sort of family plan to move his family and his team down to Atlanta Yeah, I don't know what that could possibly be like is he trading in all of his sweaters at Coles? Yeah, he's getting t-shirts now. Yeah, he's getting just warmer clothes
Starting point is 00:15:34 I don't know how that my my first thought was this is like a kid kids enrolling in schools thing Yeah, it seems like it's looking house hunting and house hunting. House hunting. Zillow. His wife is down there. Someone's friend, someone's friend's cousin is a real estate agent in Buckhead. Yeah. And she's actually taking a meeting. Kirk was-
Starting point is 00:15:55 Kirk's wife. Kirk was spotted in Magic City last weekend behind the curtain. Yeah. Sampling the wings. I mean, the Falcons would be real, like if they signed Kirk Cousins, I would maybe pick them
Starting point is 00:16:06 to I would definitely pick them win the NFC South. What are the odds right now? What are the odds on the Falcons winning the NFC? Can we look ahead at that? I don't know. Jake can you look that up? Either way Kirk Cousins Domino one. Domino one.
Starting point is 00:16:19 I think Justin Fields Domino two. I agree. I think Jimmy Gromlo. Remember him. Remember me. Remember Jimmy. No, then I think all the other dominoes are draft picks. And then Russell Wilson. He'll probably, it probably will go sequentially. He'll probably get signed before the draft picks.
Starting point is 00:16:37 But I wouldn't be shocked if a team signs Russell Wilson then still drafts a quarterback. They do the old Andy Dalton. Right. Rust is our quarterback. Also, Mike Glennon had that happened to him with Mitch. Yeah, also here's Jaden Daniels Yeah, Mike Mike Glennon throughout the first pitch and everyone was like Mike Glennon time like whoop. It's Mitch What you got Jake plus 1400 doing the NFC Atlanta. I I still don't like it right in the middle of the pack Yeah, I kind of like it with Kirk just. Just based on the speculation of Kirk. The Vikings are plus 2000.
Starting point is 00:17:07 So another Floreo tweet, we just spent 10 minutes with Caleb Williams condolences to the Vikings, Lions and Packers. This guy is the real deal. And the Bears will have their first franchise quarterback since Sid Luckman. Yeah, I know he's
Starting point is 00:17:18 jinxing. That felt mean. That felt mean. Doing a jing. You can't get into specifics for now. Oh wait, I got a very credible indications that Cousins is seriously considering movies family to Atlanta.
Starting point is 00:17:28 Yeah. You know what the original magic said he was. We can't get into specifics for now. I could say that about anything. I'd be like, well, can't get into specifics. It was Bethlehem. Well, he can't get into specifics. I believe him on this one.
Starting point is 00:17:38 Okay. But I can see why some people would be like, how can we take this seriously? By the way, we screwed up on Sunday, we should have mentioned. I forgot, well I guess I would say that and then I'd be like, wait, he had 50 interviews, Super Bowl week, so. Well it's got to be a check.
Starting point is 00:17:53 Combine week, actually. Combine week, yeah. Chris Mortensen passing away was sad. Mort was the original, he was the original news breaker. He was the guy who created basically the idea of like NFL news. I don't think that there was ever like a sports, like an NFL reporter that was on television
Starting point is 00:18:11 before Chris Morton. Yeah. Like as a feature of a show. And he seemed like a great guy. I never got the chance to meet him. I don't know if you ever weren't, but he seemed from what everybody else has said, he seemed like a really, like an outstanding human being.
Starting point is 00:18:23 Yeah. And you could tell just by the outpouring of, you know, people saying their stories about him and everything, he was just beloved by everyone. Makes me think sometimes, how many, how much hate do you think we'll get when we die versus love? Cause you know, definitely we'll still be some hate.
Starting point is 00:18:40 I don't like to joke about death on the show, Big Cat. Yeah, that's true. John Cena. John Cena. John Cena. Yeah What'll be love but they'll be there. Oh When big cat dies somebody's gonna post the Taylor Swift video. Yeah, like this fucking asshole. He'll be burns in hell We'll just be like thank God. There's one less man on the planet. Yeah, this would be unhealthy does I knew this was happening? Yeah, yeah, like all
Starting point is 00:19:03 All those donuts we should have known. Also, there'll be some of that. Shout out to Mort because I think the diagnosis of his throat cancer, which is a super aggressive type of cancer, was that like 2015? It was a long time ago. 2016. Yeah. And so he lived for what, nine years, eight years after that. So he, I don't know, it's a very sad day and it was sad seeing like the tributes because people that you watch on TV all the time that are always having a good time, joking around, laughing, they were like on the verge
Starting point is 00:19:32 of tears talking about this guy. So I wish I got the chance to meet him and he seemed like just a cool dude. Would you guys, isn't it weird to think though, like, and it's morbid, but will eulogize each other? Like if one of us dies first, like, and it's morbid, but we'll eulogize each other. Like, if one of us dies first, like Hank, if you died, PFT and I would have to do, we would be part of the eulogies, right? I do, who gets to decide that?
Starting point is 00:19:55 Dibs. No, I think it's like the family decides, but I think they'd be like, yeah, PFT and Pig Cat, you guys should say something. Like, there's multiple eulogies. Yeah, of course. Like, if I died, PFT would definitely eulogize me. He would Like there's multiple eulogies. Yeah, of course. Like if I died, PFT would definitely eulogize me. He would be part of the eulogies. I would speak. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:10 I don't know if you, you would probably procrastinate until the last second. You should get an idea. I'd be like, this is worse than doing the standup comedy. I think that if Hank dies, you should have died. Memes should eulogize him. Oh man, memes. Well, man, if Hank dies, we need to remake this.
Starting point is 00:20:26 Should have the stand-up comedy was good. We need to remake the picture of like, showing up to my haters funeral and just have Max in the picture. That'd be great. That would be memes. It would be memes. It would be memes and Max.
Starting point is 00:20:38 If Dave eulogized you, he would just talk about how you were a ticket taker. Be like, Hank would still be taking tickets right now. I think I would have to give a eulogy for Dave, right? Yeah. Like one of them. Oh no, Miss Peach is what you do. Thankfully he's dead.
Starting point is 00:20:52 He can't complain about his shoulder anymore. That would rock. Miss Peach is his bite marks on his throat. Oh no. Miss Peach is. Miss Peach is rocks. She's very cute and the fact that she looks like a peach. Yeah. Kind of takes it to the next level. It's the best life hack ever.
Starting point is 00:21:08 If you're naming a dog, if you name your dog after a noun, it's awesome if you name your dog after a noun and put Mr. or Miss in front of it as the noun. It becomes cuter. It's perfect, like Mr. Biscuits. Yeah. Okay, Jason Kelsey retired. Max thought we were gonna lead the show with that. I should have let the show
Starting point is 00:21:26 Yeah, I should have let the show well I think you know shout out to the Kelsey brothers there He's becoming a full-time podcaster right now, which I think he's gonna find out is a lot harder than playing football max But they've they've done a very good job of Playing the game and they they do a good job on the podcast It's very funny show and a good show But they also know how to play the game. When you got Travis Dayton,
Starting point is 00:21:47 the most famous person in the world, it tends to help with ratings. When you got the other guy being a shirtless on TV, chugging beers all the time, winning football games, it helps with the ratings. So we need Hank, what do we say? Hank was gonna date Beyonce? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:01 Hank will date Beyonce. And then I think that Max, you should just, you give your thoughts on Jason Kelsey as Jason Kelsey. You can just be Jason Kelsey for a minute. Yeah. Yeah, no, I will do anything to emulate Jason Kelsey and his life for the rest of time.
Starting point is 00:22:17 He was an all time dude in terms of like NFL lore, like six round pick, incredible mainstay of the Eagles this this past whatever decade plus where they've gone to a Super Bowl one a Super Bowl gone to a bunch of big games like he's the guy. We said did you tear up a little it also his speech was great. Do you actually let me ask you this first. Some haters out there. I have I know where you're going with this and it is disgusting. I agree with you
Starting point is 00:22:48 but some haters I'm not one of one. One hater. One hater out there was commenting on the fact that he didn't put on sleeves. It's his own thing. Yeah. I agree. He could choose whatever the fuck he wants. I agree. If he was going to Travis's retirement day and everyone else was dressed as nice and he wore no sleeves, then yes I could see I would be disrespectful. It's your thing, you choose the rules. I agree. He's a painter, he sounds like a real loser. Yeah, he was. It was an all-time ratio. Yeah, who was it? It was Rico. Oh, no, really?
Starting point is 00:23:17 Yeah. He was like, can't put on sleeves. I honestly didn't know that. It maxed his ratio the fuck out of him. Racialed him to hell. But yeah, it was a great speech. It was a great speech. He hit everything. He talked about Nick Foles' dick. What did you think? What was your takeaway?
Starting point is 00:23:32 It was great. It had everything. It was emotional. It was funny. It was a great walk. That was my dynasty documentary. Just him going through each year by year of his career and the highs and the lows I cried
Starting point is 00:23:47 It was a lot. It was like very very emotional I was not expecting it to get that emotional like right off the rip before even gets a word out it takes like a Good two minutes of him just like balling he balling in his eyes and it It was tough like He was Philadelphia. Like he is the most Philadelphia athlete. I think that there's ever been like the fact that an offensive lineman was the face of Philly for so long. It was so big for the city.
Starting point is 00:24:15 And I think that like him being gone is a real problem for the locker room. Yeah, he was the leader for so long. And he was also just an unbelievable football player going out last year. First team all pro deserved first team all pro changed could have changed almost changed the game of football with the tush push. He's the best best personality of all time is Super Bowl speech will always be one of the best speeches of all time. He's the best. I'm going to miss him so much. Yeah. You bring up a good point though. What happens with the tush push next year? Are they gonna run it?
Starting point is 00:24:46 Yeah, they're still gonna run it. I don't think it'll be as successful as it was. Did you see the Wisconsin center actually finally someone broke the three cone, I think it was three cone drill that Jason Kelsey had the record for centers for like whatever it was the last 13 years. So maybe you draft him.
Starting point is 00:25:02 Good, that's fine. Pass the baton. He definitely gave like a blueprint for other Philadelphia athletes. Yeah. I feel like Bryce Harper at he wants so very badly to be what Jason Kelsey is. Nick Sirianni looks in the mirror and he sees Jason Kelsey. Yeah. Yeah. It's good to have a blueprint though. It's like you have somebody that everyone wants to emulate and if everybody could be Jason Kelsey then you'd be very, very happy as a Philadelphia sports fan. Yeah, Mount Rushmore of six round picks, he's on it.
Starting point is 00:25:29 He's the Mount Rushmore of Eagles athletes. Yeah, Mount Rushmore of six round picks. It's Tom Brady, Antonio Brown, Terrell Davis, and then Jason Kelsey. That's a good round. That's a great round. There's some great picks right there. Yeah, also first team, all American beer drinker. Yeah. That dude good round. That's a great great great picks right there. Yeah, also first team all-american beer drinker
Starting point is 00:25:47 Yeah, that dude loves beer. I love how much he loves. Yeah, he's the best Pod he's we hung out with him once. Yeah, when? 20 probably 17 2017 it was it was a Christmas apartment. It was Bo Allen's apartment. Oh, yeah, and it was Chris Long Bo Allen and Jason Kelsey and we just like hung out and sell it to yeah, and Brent Selick And we just hung out for I don't know three four hours. It was awesome drink dude. Yeah, you didn't know that no This is the first I'm hearing of this. Have you ever hung out with him? No. Oh, no, I You know what? I really I'm actually surprised you didn't mention us in his speech. I hate that was a great night
Starting point is 00:26:25 It's a great hang. I I hope so much that he hates Max. Yeah, that'd be so good one it come on Don't say that that would that would you're appropriating this culture. Yeah, that's true Yeah, his his culture is not you just told me that I have to appropriate you look like a guy that gets right You look like a guy who's currently in costume on Halloween dressed up as slutty Jason Kelsey. Like he grew out his hair whenever his hair was growing out. That's when I started to grow out my hair. And then I just never looked back. Like he is my inspiration.
Starting point is 00:26:55 You're very unsettling in a hat. I just want to look like him. I want to be him. Great hats. They're gonna be out on Thursday. The Just Cover hats. We got all new gambling merch from March Madness. I don't look good in the hat,
Starting point is 00:27:06 but you will look better than me in this hat. I told Max before we started that he looks like if when Forest Gump went on his cross country run, he just somehow got fatter. Yeah. Well, we workshopped that. I said I looked like Forest Gump. You said you looked like if Forest Gump got fatter.
Starting point is 00:27:18 True, it was a workshop. It was a workshop. Yeah, credit to Max actually. Yeah, credit to me. It was a workshop. But the fatter part was funny. Okay, what else do we. Yeah, credit to me. It was a workshop. The fatter part was funny. Okay, what else do we have before we get to Hank's number 10 Patriots? I saw a pretty hilarious fan last night at the Clippers Box game.
Starting point is 00:27:33 Okay. Did you see the guy from Taiwan? No. There was a guy that flew in from Taiwan and he held up a poster that said, like, I flew 15 hours or whatever from Taiwan to see my favorite player, Russell Westbrook. Oh. Didn't play. Didn't play. Oh no. Russell Westbrook. Oh. Didn't play. Didn't play.
Starting point is 00:27:47 Brought all his jerseys. The man was wearing 15 Russell Westbrook jerseys. Oh my god. All on top of each other. And he started to take them all off, showing the different layers of Russell Westbrook. But at least, at least he got to see Yanis. Yeah, at least he got to see Yanis, which is nice.
Starting point is 00:28:02 That would have been, I thought you were going to say Yanis. Because he got ruled out like an hour before. But he was definitely like on a plane overseas and the news broke that like Russell Westbrook hand issue. That's brutal. That's a tough flight. That's a tough flight. You can't, and all your your bag is just filled with nothing but Russell Westbrook. Yeah, I think we're at the point though with the NBA that you can't make a long flight to try to see your favorite player with any type of confidence anymore. No. It's on you. You have to actually be in touch with the player before and let them know like, hey, I'm considering spending $5,000 on this flight from Taiwan, which you just promised me that you're going to play that
Starting point is 00:28:37 game. Yeah, you need to you need to find like a week where they're at home for a straight week and be like, I'm just going to take the whole week because then I might have a good chance of seeing my favorite player play. Yeah, but I think, I ain't no disrespect. I know that I did crown the Celtics Eastern Conference champions, I think NBA champions on Monday's show. I think I'm gonna ride on the box. Pat Bav. I think I gotta go with Pat Bav.
Starting point is 00:29:00 Bell to ass. Bell to ass. Bell to ass. They're just six and oh. Last six. They're fucking people up. Ever since they got Galanari. Bell to ass. They're just, they're just. Six and no, last six. They're fucking people up. Ever since they got Galanari. Bell to ass. They haven't lost the game since they got Galanari. Is he playing?
Starting point is 00:29:10 I don't know. I think so. Celtic's a legend. Yeah, I think he's playing. Also, some other people would. Also, some other people would. The greatest rehab working out videos. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:22 Just like skipping. Yeah, he played last night. He played 17 minutes, four points. Some people would just point to the fact that the all-star break did happen and they've just been good since the all-star break. But still. They're still gallin' off. They have been good. And yeah, I mean, it was actually, no one cares about our bets, but I saw that Giannis is out and I was like, I'm just gonna bet Dame to score over 40 at plus like 400 and then he did because he just it was Dame time. Yeah. Like he I kind of like that
Starting point is 00:29:50 the Bucks have that situation. A lot of teams Celtics have it where like their best player goes out and it's like well the other guy's just gonna is really fucking good and he's just gonna score all the points and we'll be fine. Okay Hank do you want to do your number 10 Patriot? Yep. This is big. Yeah, before you announce number 10, I want to give you just a little bit of background here. Well, it doesn't matter because the bliss has already been locked in. So, yeah, I know, but we already went from what, 6 to number 1?
Starting point is 00:30:18 Is that what we did, the top 6 or top 7? Yes. So, give us the 6 through 1 and then we'll go back to ten. Dante Hightower, six, Ty Law, five, Julian Edelman, four, Teddy Brusky, three, Rob Grinkowski, two, Tom Brady, one. Okay, so when we left the combine on Thursday, I was hanging out with a couple coaches and a couple of GM's not to brag, but I got a big slap on my back. And before I turned around, I said to myself, that's a coach who's too big and intimidating to coach at the NFL anymore.
Starting point is 00:30:52 I turned around and it was Mike Vareble right there. And he was like, what's up bitch? Which is the perfect Mike Vareble way to say hello to you. And the first thing that I talked to him about was the fact that you're doing your top 10 Patriots of all-time list and You haven't announced numbers ten through seven yet And he said tell Hank if I'm not on that list. I'm going to beat his ass
Starting point is 00:31:13 Hmm, so just no pressure. Well, it doesn't matter because the list is locked in. That's that was my point Like I can't right you can't change retroactive. I know but just so you know no pressure I hope you put variable on there because he's gonna beat your ass. I would love to watch that. Dude, he would kick your ass. You would fuck you up so bad. You'd be crying, you'd be bloody. So would you.
Starting point is 00:31:36 Yeah. Yeah, but I'd put him on my top 10 list. Yeah. He doesn't wanna beat my ass. Who said I didn't? Okay, so who's number 10? With that being said, number 10, Randy Moss. Oh, we'll see who's number 10. With that being said, number 10, Randy Moss. Randy Moss. Yeah, only, only player on this list to not win a Super Bowl, but
Starting point is 00:31:54 he was, he was that good, that exciting record breaker. Best receiver all time. Best receiver of all time. When he came to the Patriots, they got him for nothing. You know, people didn't have high expectations. And then, you know, game one, it was apparent like he was going to dominate. And that was, you know, the most, the most fun season until it wasn't. But his years in the Patriots were so fun to watch. Him and Gronk are probably the most obviously Brady, but receiver wise. They were just unstoppable. Unicorns. How many Super Bowls?
Starting point is 00:32:23 Two Unicorns. How many Super Bowls do you think Tom Brady would trade to get 19-0? Two probably. I think he said that. I could be wrong, but I think he said he would trade like one or two just to have that one. I had memory hold that one play at the very end of the first Giants Patriots Super Bowl where Brady just chucks it down field. He told Randy to reverse fields when he points at him
Starting point is 00:32:43 and the ball hit off Randy Moss's hands and they would have been in field goal range. I'd completely forgotten about that play. The thing with the time was though, there was only like 14, 12 seconds left. They were all the way on the other side of the field, they had no time out so people post out a lot being like what if he caught this?
Starting point is 00:33:01 I don't know if they would have gotten down the field and spiked it but yeah. It would have been electric though. Tom Brady would have run the fastest 40 of his life. Yeah. I don't even know if Al then he did when he was 22. I saw that. Yeah, he beat himself. I don't even know if they mentioned the record-breaking season in the documentary. I don't think they did. Insane. Who's your honorable mention? My honorable mention, Ronnie Harrison.
Starting point is 00:33:23 Oh, okay. Rodney Harrison. Great guy. Great player. Didn't make the top 10. Yeah, he got no play in the dynasty documentary. I think he talked about the helmet catch. They mentioned that.
Starting point is 00:33:38 Yeah, they mentioned that. Yeah, they talked about the helmet catch and then we'll just do one quick clip of you winning a Super Bowl. My favorite thing about Rodney Harrison is when he gets on TV on Sunday nights and he just talks about like how dirty some of these players are and how much they should be suspended for their hits. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:52 And it's like this is Rodney Harrison telling you this. Rodney Harrison. Okay, good job Hank. Should we do Hot Sea Cool Throne? Sure. Let's do Hot Sea Cool Throne. It's brought to you by our friends at Proper 12 with a huge fight night this weekend in St. Patty just around the corner. Time to grab a bottle or two of Proper number 12 Irish Whiskey. Proper number 12 is a delicious blend of golden grain and single malt aged four years in bourbon barrels for rich and smooth taste. As Proper 12 founder Conor McGregor would say, anything else just wouldn't be proper. Try the original rich and smooth proper 12 Irish whiskey or new crisp and fresh Irish apple smooth to the core perfect for St. Patrick's Day a proper fight night starts
Starting point is 00:34:34 with the proper Irish whiskey the fight night pour the roar with proper number 12 pour the roar order your bottle of proper number 12 Irish whiskey with drizly today. It is delicious. Drink it all college football season when we're on set and proper number 12 is the best whiskey. So, go get it right now. Stock up for St. Patrick's Day. Stop. Stock up for the big fight night on Saturday. Proper number 12. Pour the roar and order your bottle of proper number 12 Irish whiskey with Drizly. Okay, Hank, hot seat, cool throne.
Starting point is 00:35:05 I have two hot seats. I'll elect to use one, because I'm assuming one of you guys will have the other one. That's very nice of you. Thank you. So my hot seat is spring break. Why? Miami is opting out of spring break.
Starting point is 00:35:18 Yeah. I don't know how that's gonna work. I saw the video. But they made a video to Santas was like, we're not, you know, they made a video that was like, it's not you. It's me Breaking up like kind of a parody video of of Miami residents breaking up with spring break and to Santa said they Have a bunch of security measures to you know stop it
Starting point is 00:35:36 Yeah, they did this with PCB the other a few years ago Where they stopped letting people drink on the beach and then it just kind of ended there. Yeah There the war against spring break is raging. I was never a big spring break guy because I was too fat. Um, just having to take off your shirt for a whole week. Uh-huh. You know, right after March Madness was always daunting. Uh, but for those who celebrate, I'm sorry for your loss.
Starting point is 00:36:00 I never got to go on one. Max, were you agreeing with me there? Yeah, I played baseball, so we had. Yeah. It was always like get in shape or just I could just stay in Madison and just like drink and hang out And I would do the the ladder I did Panama City Beach one year and Panama City Beach might be it might be the worst city in America It's just you leave the actual beach and then you've got guys wearing jinkos, riding a bicycle named Travis. Beating up future quarterbacks.
Starting point is 00:36:27 Beating up future quarterbacks and trying to sell you Salvia on the street. And then there's an occasional preacher that pulls you signs like, I'll give you free pancakes if you listen to me preach to you. I did that deal. Yeah, I did. I actually did take that deal.
Starting point is 00:36:39 Worth it. I saw Woody Harrelson in a waffle house in Panama City Beach one time. During spring break? During spring break. He was there eating by himself and then as he was on his way out, this kid stopped him. He was probably like a nine-year-old kid. It was like, hi, Mr. Harrelson.
Starting point is 00:36:53 And then Woody asked his dad if they could go out to the parking lot so his son could ride on Woody Harrelson's bike. And then Woody Harrelson just drove around the parking lot with this nine-year-old kid on Harley Davidson, took a bunch of pictures, dropped him off and rode away. That's bad. Pretty legendary celebrity, yeah. Yes, yes. Okay, so spring break out.
Starting point is 00:37:10 Hot seat. Hot seat. Feel bad for the kids. Although Miami spring break, I feel like it's not a college kid destination. I would agree with that. You gotta go to Mexico. Yeah, or you go to.
Starting point is 00:37:21 That's more cheap. And then you gotta come back with all the bracelets, all the places you went to. Yeah, yeah. I cheap. I think you got to come back with all the all the bracelets, all the places you went to. Yeah. Yeah. I went into senior frogs. I think there's one in Cabo and we went in for one drink in the middle of the day and it smelled like puke and like spaghetti. And I'm like, yeah, do not miss this.
Starting point is 00:37:37 Yeah. The good news is there's like 400 other beaches in Florida. You can go to. Yeah. My cool throne is having nothing to hide. Oh, the commercial. I think we talked about it a few to. Yeah. My cool throne is having nothing to hide. Oh, the commercial. I think we talked about it a few weeks. Yeah, we really should have given people a warning about that commercial because it hit on a Monday morning and everyone was like, what is this? Whoops. We did a commercial where we're, you know, basically naked. You guys came out great. That one side angle of just like, it's just an upshot of my side boob. Not great. I haven't
Starting point is 00:38:03 seen the, I think you, I think I came out the worst. I look like two dimensional. I don't know. You look, Big Cat looks jacked. Can somebody send? They're all chested. Yeah, I'll send the video because I haven't watched it.
Starting point is 00:38:14 I just walked by Max when he was editing something. And just our nude bodies were on his computer screen. Yeah, apologies to everyone for not giving you a heads up because you've probably seen it, especially if you're watching the podcast. Um are bad. We should have we should have been like, hey, there's this new commercial. It's a great commercial. We love body armor. Also shout out our billboard.
Starting point is 00:38:34 Shout out billboard on Randolph Street. Hank's just fishing with dynamite now. Across from JP Graziano's good night, John Boy. It's great. Yeah. You were at a bar on Friday night with the billboard out the window. It's interesting that we put it were at a bar on Friday night with the billboard out the window It's interesting. We put it outside your favorite bar. Do you even say anything to girls or you just know I didn't mention it at all. I didn't I didn't just kind of keep like nodding towards the towards the window check it out Just yeah, yawning like oh, whoa, that's a cool billboard. You're so lucky Yeah, I'm sorry about this video. I just watched it. That's tough. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:05 Well, it was just the fact that it was a Monday morning and we didn't give anyone a prep. It's a great ad. Gets people watching. Body armor. We love body armor. But we should have been like, hey, there's an ad coming out.
Starting point is 00:39:18 You get to see. And we all saw each other's cocks because they gave us the thinnest see-through flesh-colored boxers. And I think that I think did we talk about this on the show, but Hanks got a big cock. PFT's got big balls. I got nothing. Well, yeah, I think we did because we showed up. We were so it was a late Sunday night still football season and then we showed up 8am. They're like, here's your costume. And it's just a two inch like see-through I don't even know span next boxers yeah it looked like we had we were
Starting point is 00:39:50 all like hiding different sizes of birds in their shorts mine was like a small sparrow at one point they were saying that was going to be the billboard and yeah I pretty much say yes to everything that's ever been asked of me in my career I think that was the one time where I was like, uh, and I think you guys played it correctly because you're like Let's let big cat decide this because he's the one who's gonna look the worst. No, no I said I need to be in a body suit. No, what happened was somebody asked me Here's the idea for the billboard you guys are all gonna be nude and you and big cat are going to be holding footballs in front of your crotches and then Hank is going to be holding a golf ball in front of him. Oh man. Blurring it out. And so I said I'm down with that but you might want to double check with Hank that it's okay because Hank's the one
Starting point is 00:40:38 that's gonna have to live with that visual. Yeah. And I said if I'll make a compromise put me in the jacked body suit and I'll do it. And they're like, no. No. It's like, all right. No matter who was going to have the tiny ball in front of our penis was going to end up being like, no, I don't want to do the spillboard.
Starting point is 00:40:54 I actually think I'm less like, if my penis was out there, I wouldn't really care. It's everything else that sucks. I mean, the penis sucks too, but at least I'd be like, I've told everyone like it sucks. Bad penis. Yeah, right. I mean, we're pod sucks too, but at least I've told everyone like it sucks. Bad penis. Yeah, right. I mean, we're podcasters, what do you expect?
Starting point is 00:41:08 Yeah. Okay, good hot seat, cool throne. Thank you. PFT. My hot seat is Arch Manning. Yes, I had that as well. Because that's the one you had, Hank? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:18 Oh, good job, Hank. Well, actually, my hot seat was NCAA football 2024. Okay, well, I'll just put Arch on the hot seat because he's not going to be, he's opted out of being in the new college football game. And I don't really care, but it is very funny seeing people, because if you just zoom out and look at what you're actually upset about,
Starting point is 00:41:38 a lot of people are upset that like a 20 year old isn't gonna be in their favorite video game. Right, and I, so initially I was like, the story and I don't know if it's fact, it was like I just want to focus on football. And I kind of have Arch Manning's back in that respect because if you're in a football game, a video game, you're going to just play the video game as yourself all the time. And then someone pointed out that Arch Manning would be in it and his rating would be like 65 and he'd be a backup.
Starting point is 00:42:03 And also the manning name is worth a lot of money. Yeah. Maybe that's why he did it. And then that that to me is kind of lame. So he should just stick with I would he should just do a press conference and be like, listen, if you put me in the game, all I'm gonna do is play the game. And I don't want to do that. I want to focus on football because I actually buy that. I if I were in a video game that you I wouldn't be podcasting. I'd be playing myself in the video. Let's let's reach a compromise college in EA sports NCAA college football. Archmaning is not going to be in the game.
Starting point is 00:42:31 However, don't put any filters or blocks on the game that prevent you from making archmage, right? Creating your own archmage. I don't want like the last name thing coming up. You like sorry, this last name cannot be used. Right. You should be able to that's if it's just one player, then everybody should be able to make that's, if it's just one player, then everybody should be able to make that one player and see you can make the best arch manning.
Starting point is 00:42:48 Yes, agreed, agreed. I have another hot seat, just real quick. Charlotte the Stingray still hasn't given birth. Uh-oh. It's fucked up. I don't think that she's actually pregnant. I still think it was a lie. I've been on Stingray watch for the last like three weeks.
Starting point is 00:43:02 That bitch ain't pregnant. My cool throne is, I'm gonna put Chris Clemmer on the cool throne, because I've been watching a solitary confinement stream for the last couple of days, and he is, I think he was built for this. He seems to be having no problem whatsoever living in solitary confinement.
Starting point is 00:43:18 It's insanely entertaining somehow. So shout out to Chris, he's a very strange human being. Oh, the strangest. He chose to do this. We had to do the 24 hour punishment and I was thinking about it last night. We had, you know, games. We had each other. We had guests popping in. It was still one of the most miserable experiences of my life. I've been in jail with the Brady 4, maybe nine hours where we were locked in a life. I've been in jail with the Brady 4, maybe nine hours where we were locked in a cell. Absolutely miserable. Oh, jail sucks. Put it on a code card. He just chose to do a hundred hours. He's
Starting point is 00:43:54 like, oh, you know, be funny if I did a hundred hours of solitary confinement. I completely respected. Oh yeah. Insane. He's down for anything. Clemmer's down for anything. Like he's, if you build more people like Clemmer at Barso would be great because he is, he'll do anything. Clemmer's down for anything. If you build more people like Clemmer at Bar so it would be great because he'll do anything. But I agree with you, Hank, when people are like, this is punishment, you got to stop this. It's like he decided. Yeah, it's his story. I think he's fine. Yeah, like P.F.T. said he's fine. He's just living his life.
Starting point is 00:44:17 He's actually, so when I started watching it, all the comments were, it was right off the bat, like the first four hours, they were saying, Clemmer's going to go insane by the end of this week. No, he's going to make everybody that's watching the stream go insane because he's doing fine with it. And the way his brain works is just so strange that you can't help but watch. Like I tuned in the other day, he was putting himself into a suitcase. Yeah. He was just folding his body up. I did that multiple times. Yeah, it's really, really bizarre stuff. But yeah, I can't stop watching Climber. Yeah. All right. My hot seat is Anthony Edwards. You guys see last night Anthony Edwards lost track of time and he missed the tip off of the Timberwolves game. I didn't see that. No. So yeah, he didn't, he
Starting point is 00:44:56 didn't start. First time he hasn't started since he was a rookie. He was at the arena. He was warming up in the tunnel, he just lost track of time, and so they subbed him in like 25 seconds into the game, but he did not start the game. This is the kind of thing that you point to, and it's like, yeah, the Timberwolves are good, but. Your star player lost track of time. Just forgot when the game started.
Starting point is 00:45:17 Just completely forgot. We should do reasons why teams can't win the NBA Finals. Yeah. And it would be just Anthony Edwards forgetting, and it would just be like Chet Holmgren's shoulders. Yeah. It was, there was a, oh man, I can't remember his name. Chris Paul, just a picture of Chris Paul for the Warriors.
Starting point is 00:45:34 It was, there was a player, fuck, what was his, he was a pitcher. Edwin Jackson, Edwin Jackson forgot he put in the wrong Google Maps to a Cubs Spring training game like 10 years ago. And he's like, yeah, whoops, I just drove to the wrong place. I love that. I would do something like that.
Starting point is 00:45:52 Yeah. Okay, my cool drone is Dak Prescott. He got a new haircut. Oh yeah. Yeah. So what kind of haircut is it? He also, I think had a kid, but he, it was just regular haircut.
Starting point is 00:46:03 Just a close haircut. Yeah, really, I couldn't really see any difference But that is where we're at in the news cycle Is that like I fell is that like when when moms have another kid and they cut their hair because they don't have time to Take care of it. Yeah, I press got just cut like half an inch off his hair. Yeah, and all the way went from beard to go T yeah, and all that was what it was so the aggregators were like The ML football the dove climb and we're like Dak Prescott got a new haircut thoughts Okay, yeah my thought yep. Yeah, that's a haircut and he got a goatee. I actually like to go to you kind of looks good
Starting point is 00:46:37 He's got a good job. Well Dan Quinn a little bit. Yeah, yeah Besides the fact is made out of glass. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Jake, you're hot seat cool throne. Jake is back. Congrats, Jake. You did a great job with the tournament this weekend. Thank you guys. It was a lot of fun. Yes. Great job. We had Monday morning golf. So an extra time to get reps in. Who won? His name was Austin Ekrot. First ever PJ win.
Starting point is 00:47:00 Nice. You were working the Bear Trap this weekend. Yes. Post up in the Bear Trap. Great name for holds on the golf course. The Bear Trap. Nice. You were working the Bear Trap this weekend. Yeah. This is a great name. Post up in the Bear Trap. Great name for holds on the golf course, the Bear Trap. Yes. Brought to you by Jack and Klaus. Yes. Which I wanted to say really badly, but wouldn't have made sense. So with the PGA Tour this year, everyone that's won is the biggest underdog ever. Yeah. So there's been eight or nine events and there's already been three rookies who have won. Last year in in 54 events three rookies won
Starting point is 00:47:30 Yeah, if you look at my odds, they're all between like 60 and and 500 to one odds that have won Yeah, the co-leader after 54 holes David skins was a thousand to one Maybe has something to do with the fact that like 50 really good players are on the live. I don't know what that means No, we don't include them in our world golf right? We have the Arnold Palmer and then the players next week so it's some good There's two big boy events if they don't get a big name and neither one Yeah, we need some big boys. We need some big boys. Okay. That was fun My hot seat is teams who need a water see-ver. Oh
Starting point is 00:47:56 Because Mike Evans is staying with the box. Yes one Jersey guy a lot of people were saying if you have free agency Maybe the Jets maybe the chiefs, but he's not going anywhere and he had a great year. Yeah. He kind of in a way hit free agency. He was just like, I'm going to hit free agency. And then the Bucks were like, here's some more money. He's like, okay, thank you. I'll stay.
Starting point is 00:48:14 Jason Light's first draft pick as a GM, Mike Evans. He's been there a long time. Mike Evans, I mean, we talked about it this fall. He is, if he plays another three, four, five years, he will be in the conversation for Mount Rushmore of wide receivers in terms of like his total numbers and the dominance he's had every single season he's been in the NFL. He's had a thousand yards. Yep. Also, Jason light, very cool guy. Very cool. I like Jason light a lot, but I still have that red flag in the back of my head with Jason light that he likes Steven Che.
Starting point is 00:48:43 And also he might be James the one of one. Yes, that too. Yeah. My cool throne is friend of the program, Dan Hurley. After winning the big East title, regular season, he went out to the bar and celebrated with fans and students. First time they won it in since 1999. Yeah. So love him.
Starting point is 00:49:00 Was he drinking piss? Probably. Literally all Dan Hurley has done since Max joined this podcast is when yeah it's crazy and they you guys tell me if I'm wrong this is the best chance for repeats since the 06 07 Gators yeah probably yeah yeah I mean it's usually a team loses some key pieces they did but they're gonna be one seed they have a chance to do it yeah they absolutely do okay good boys. Let's get to our interview. We have Diana Rossini. Great interview with Diana. It's been a long overdue to have her on the podcast before we do that, PFT. Yeah, before we get to Diana Rossini, she's brought
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Starting point is 00:49:59 I had some 3G last weekend, went out to a nice dinner on Saturday. One of my favorite things to do in the entire world is to have a little bit of 3G before, went out to a nice dinner on Saturday. One of my favorite things to do in the entire world is to have a little bit 3-C before you go to a very fancy dinner, and it makes a dining experience that much more engaging. I was so high actually during my dinner.
Starting point is 00:50:13 They served an appetizer, that was one of the best things I've ever eaten, and I said out loud, "'Oh my God, this is so good. "'Could you imagine how great this would taste "'if you were high?' And then I stopped and I was like, "'Wait a second, I am high and I'm right.
Starting point is 00:50:26 It tastes fantastic. So credit to me for being correct about that. But 3G is awesome. It's one of my favorite things in the entire world. I think you'll love it too. Check it out right now. If you're ready to experience the next generation of cannabis, go over to 3G.com, find the exact experience that you're looking for with two strains, go to 3chee.com. That's 3chee.com, 3chii.com and find your true strain today. Now here's Diana Rossini.
Starting point is 00:50:53 Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. She is a friend of ours, hasn't been on the show yet. It is her, pardon my take debut, been way too long. Probably long overdue, that's our fault. It is Diana Rossini from the Athletic Lead NFL Reporter. Can I say that? Yeah? Senior Insider. Senior Insider from the Athletic. We were gonna talk some combine.
Starting point is 00:51:18 We're gonna talk some football. You brought two sodas though. Are those for us? No. Okay. Who are they for? Someone really special on this show. So you broke maybe the story of the year Super Bowl week
Starting point is 00:51:35 when our producer Max Thalente decided to rip farts on a plane with two sodas and a burrito. And burrito was the big mistake. Should we do this part now, Max? Do you want to? Okay, it's my show. Okay, so why don't you come down and sit down here, Max? Let's just get this out of the way.
Starting point is 00:51:54 This is what the people want to hear. And then we'll talk some NFL. My first question is, Diana, you do have a thing for Philly guys, you're married to a Philly guy. Is there a part of this entire? Like escapade where maybe you have a little crush on max. So I've always liked max on the show anyways I just never know what max looked like because I just listen to you guys. Yeah so the entire time he was sitting next to me I had no idea that was max and
Starting point is 00:52:21 You know the biggest issue I had with this thing was the fact that I'm texting a friend of mine, that being PFT, about just my irritation in the moment and to then reveal the source on it all. You had to have known that was going to happen. We have a really good, honest friendship. I never thought he would do that today. No, because you usually feed me bullshit stories 100% thought he would do that because that's I mean you knew I think I think Diana knew what she was doing But she does send me a lot of bullshit. So you was the one you sent me yesterday just to scare me Commanders trading outside signing Baker. Yeah, that's what I
Starting point is 00:53:03 It felt it was very funny and it was great reporting, the level of detail that he presented. So detailed, it was so detailed. Here's the problem, Max was sitting next to me and usually you make some sort of eye contact with the people next to you. Not long, right? Cause it's awkward, it's weird, it's tight.
Starting point is 00:53:21 He never even slightly looked to his right. He just looked straightforward, almost as if, I got to get through this flight and not vomit. And he just stunk of hangover. Just, you know that, it's like a mix of, it's like a little bit of, It's a little bit of Beow. It's a little bit of beer. It was, yeah, no, I put on clothes.
Starting point is 00:53:42 I got right on the airport. It was panic time. I thought I was missing that flight for sure. Yeah, you made it, you were fine. Once you sat, yeah, no, I put on clothes, I got right on the airport. It was panic time. I thought I was missing that flight for sure. Yeah, you made it, you were fine. Once you sat, but I could, the sweat was, it was obvious, you were sweating. I also had like 20 minutes, like once I got to the airport to get through security, get on the plane.
Starting point is 00:53:58 And, GIF. Yeah, so we've all been there, right? We've all been late. But I don't know about you guys, but I just grab, you know, a bag of chips, something quick. That was probably, that was the smart play. You get the dry shitty turkey sandwich that everybody hates. The big hot saucy meaty beefy... Yeah, no, I regret it. The two sodas. The two sodas.
Starting point is 00:54:20 The two sodas I will fight tooth and nail. I obviously am well aware what I'm in for when I see the man next to me eating the burrito. Like I knew I was in for it. I was like. You knew it was bad, but then the two sodas you're like, whoa, this is very bad. It was two, it was actually three.
Starting point is 00:54:35 We've been misreporting. No, because it was. This is wrong. No, no, no, no. It was the two Pepsi's and then the Mexican orange thing. That is just all sugar. This is wrong. This is wrong. I it was I went to the burrito place, got the Mexican orange soda and water.
Starting point is 00:54:53 That's never never water. Never say that is a fact. That is a fact. And then they came through and I was asleep during the probably when I was farting. Correct. During the during the, probably when I was farting, during the, during the soda call. And then they came back to me and said, Oh, you were asleep for the beverage. Do you want soda? Call soda call. And that's what I got the diet code. And you chugged that thing. You threw it back.
Starting point is 00:55:17 I was thirsty. You know, I missed the, the I, I was dehydrated. I usually listen to podcasts on a plane, but I was trying to catch up on work stuff. So I was in like text mode and taking notes based off my text of stories I was trying to chase at the Super Bowl. So because of that, I didn't have AirPods and so I could hear everything,
Starting point is 00:55:36 which is why it was so clear how often you were farting. And so clear why the music was so loud. Like what's your message here? That's the music was so loud. The music was- That's the part that concerns you. Who was hungover and listened to techno? Well, it was just, I- It was one of the-
Starting point is 00:55:53 It was so loud. I played something and then it went into like a mix of like this song that you played and I was- Spot on where you go. I was in a bad spot. I didn't want to like pull out my shit to like change anything. I was like, all right, I'm in this zone.
Starting point is 00:56:09 Let me just stay here. I'll listen to this. Well, I also didn't know. I didn't know I was farting like I, we had two sodas dude. Well, the soda, the far the farts were before the sodas. Well, no, they're probably after two. Do you remember when I got up to use the restroom?
Starting point is 00:56:24 Yeah. yeah. OK, so I was wearing like a like a sweatsuit and it was like a little bit of a crop top. And I remember thinking, I don't want to face this guy with half my skin out, you know, and straddle him. But I also don't want to put my butt on him. Like I had to make a quick decision. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:39 And so on the way there, I went back and the way back I went front. I try to make eye contact with you. You both do. Yeah, I try to give them like the, just occur to see like, hey dude, sorry I'm giving you a lap or like, while we're going to the bed.
Starting point is 00:56:50 And you just, you could, I could have been naked. You weren't even gonna look at me. You're just like. You're just like, yeah. You're obviously very happy, man. But you weren't gonna see anything. You didn't want to see anything. You just didn't want to obviously continue. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:05 So Diana, afterwards, did it dawn on you like you're on the plane? You're working on all these stories for Super Bowl Week. Did you realize you have a moment where like, and the biggest story of Super Bowl Week was sitting right next to me? I did not realize that until I got to Las Vegas and you guys did the show and people were stopping me all week long. I would, I, three times as a different party, said people were sending me over soda. I was like, that's, that's cool.
Starting point is 00:57:31 But no, this is life now. So, but I obviously felt terrible about six soda. I apologize that you're so stated. You're so stated with all these drinks and, and obviously the farting thing, which everyone is guilty of doing on airplanes. But I'm sorry that that he aired that all out. I our friendship has changed completely. I'm not sorry. Yeah, I'm not sorry either.
Starting point is 00:57:54 I don't I don't retract my report. Great. You can retract yours. What you just what you did, that's the best thing that's ever happened to the two of us. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And you had to know, I don't think that you're innocent in this because content is what drives this whole thing. The second you sent that text, it was being said on air. But the thing is, I was in a bit of an irritable mood, right?
Starting point is 00:58:15 I didn't sleep much. You sat next to a farting guy. No, no. And even the guy next to me was hung over and eating. So I was stuck between these two guys. And Hank made the best point. Why was I sitting middle seat? You know, and you know,
Starting point is 00:58:26 I'm doing so well. No, no, no, no, I actually, I actually gave my first class seat up to someone in the service. Yeah, yeah, thank you. But then, you know, of course, that is not the truth. I really just wanted to be part of all the action in economy. Yeah, yeah. You know, Donnie knows all of that. Yeah, you, we know Donnie knows all of that. That's where the fun times are in in economy. So here's the thing, I've flown now twice since then and both experiences, I think I miss yellow.
Starting point is 00:58:53 By the way, after I found out after all this, we have tons of connections in Philadelphia. I got that too. There's like weddings that I guess we've been at together or our friends have been or something It's Philly right everybody everybody's just one family. So you've probably been around max farting before correct So I am now just used to the scent so it's it's good to be back with you Max natural natural scent at this moment when it was it was like right as she was texting me these updates as they were coming in We're sitting in the hotel room in Vegas And we're getting ready to record the pod and you looked over me and you had the sheepish look on your face and you were like,
Starting point is 00:59:28 was your friend Diana on a plane today? And you knew even before I brought it up. So it was like, in the back, I think you might have recognized her, but you were like, I really hope that wasn't her. Yeah, that is correct. But I also didn't know of the farting I knew about the burrito though So I remember I those are one in the same you put a burrito in that body It's gonna produce like it's a fun if I'm awake. I'm clenching. I'm like making sure that you're like an easy bake oven for farts
Starting point is 01:00:00 You just like put the food in and boom. Yeah, correct But the thing is it's like I if I knew I was farting it would have been a different Yeah situation is there any possibility. I'm not questioning your reporting Diana. Obviously. This is a wonderful piece of journalism Is there any possibility that I want you to ask that? No. No, you do The other guy that was sitting next to you that was also hung was there a second farter So I'm really glad you brought him up. Because he also chose to eat a sandwich. He didn't go burrito style. And he was one of those type A types like I could tell like he would take a bite wipe his face he was just he was the
Starting point is 01:00:33 complete opposite of the man to the left of me. But he I could tell he was struggling to a bit. So it I mean what that flight from Newark to Vegas was about five, five and a half hours. So, yeah, that was up there as one of the worst flight experiences I've ever had. And I've thrown up on flights. So, but that probably topped it. Sean McDermott will use that as a lesson before training camp. I also ate the burrito extremely fast. I remember thinking that I'm like, this guy is a freaking animal.
Starting point is 01:01:03 I also, I got about like 75% of the way and I was like I don't want this anymore But then if you think about it, what do you do with a quarter of a breed like? You got it up like I So I like I was like I need to finish this yeah before we start moving you need to make more fararts. Because if you have an open burrito, as a foot, it's not like a sandwich that you can put back in. You're unwrapping it as you're going. So I remember thinking, I was like, I hope nobody sees this, but I need to finish this immediately.
Starting point is 01:01:39 Obviously, right? I'm sitting right next to you. And get to part making. And then they too. They get to sleep, was really. But I guess those were one of the same And I just needed a vent to someone and you just happened to be the victim of it Well, no what happened was I I tweeted out a picture of Miley Cyrus on TV because the Grammys night and Max was standing in front of the TV And you saw that and you were like is that guy you just the TV and you saw that and you were like is that guy you just tweeted? No, this is when we landed.
Starting point is 01:02:05 I saw I was like, wait, that looks like burrito boy. And that's when I texted you. I said, Hey, is that a producer of yours that you just took? No, I said, who's that man in the picture? That's what I said. And then you're like, that's Max. I'm like, Oh, I love Max. Oh my God, that was the guy next to me though.
Starting point is 01:02:21 Yeah. So Max, are we cool? Is everything cool between you two? Yeah. Our you said that she was your mortal enemy to me though. Yeah. So Max, are we cool? Is everything cool between you two? Yeah. You said that she was your mortal enemy. In the moment, you were. And I still kind of think that.
Starting point is 01:02:32 OK, so no, that's good. Keep the grudge alive. Maybe you have to give him some type of insider information about the Eagles at some point to make it right. Yeah. Yeah, that's Max. Come on, I'll negotiate for you. Yeah, no, this would be good.
Starting point is 01:02:45 This would be good. Yes. All right, well, we'll text. Just don't do what he does and read him out loud. That's not fair because I told you they were going on the show. Yeah. And also, the minute you said it again. Yeah, you knew.
Starting point is 01:02:57 You knew. I think you knew what you were doing. All right, Diana. We're at the combine. Now we can talk some football. Uh, first of all, what, what does combine week look like for you? Are you just walking around, just getting talking to everyone, getting all this like news?
Starting point is 01:03:13 I mean, is it just nonstop? So I went to dinner yesterday at four o'clock and I call it dinner. It's not really dinner, right? Because it's four. It's like a late lunch, I guess. And I sat there and I had six back to backs meetings with different people. And the bartender, like four dudes in,
Starting point is 01:03:30 he's like, are you all like in a dating service here? I said, first of all, why would you ever call me out? But I said, no, I'm just taking meetings because I just stayed in the same spot. And I just kept eating and drinking. That's a funny visual. Yeah. Just a revolving door of-
Starting point is 01:03:44 Just a bunch of door of NFL dudes. Just a bunch of coaches. You're just all different people. Agents, coaches, GMs, one owner, just having conversations catching up, just kind of talking about things that are coming up. And most of the conversations I'm having now are really just how you doing.
Starting point is 01:03:58 You know, no one really wants to get into the football stuff just yet, but I'm not traveling as much anymore because I changed jobs, as you guys know. So, for me, it's really just getting back in front of people's faces and being like, hey, I'm here. Yeah, so you left ESPN, you're now my coworker at The Athletic. I write the Premium Plus newsletter. Oh my gosh, I know.
Starting point is 01:04:16 You report. What was the thought process like when you switched over? Are you like any regrets about leaving ESPN? Because I know a lot of people, they're scared to leave ESPN because of the magnifying glass that you're under, like the microscope, the megaphone, whatever you want to call it. Like there's a spotlight that people think about with ESPN and then to go out on your own is like, okay, a little bit different change of pace here. Yeah, I was scared out of my mind. It was one of those situations
Starting point is 01:04:40 where you know you got to move, you know you have to change it, but comfort's awesome. Like, I like to be comfort. I got two kids. The athletic gave me just a pretty incredible opportunity to get better, actually. And I think it's been a really good few months. But that first week when I took the job, I was a disaster. Just trying to understand, like, did I just jump off ship of the best place to work for what I do for a living? You know, it's ESPN. There's still a gigantic, you know, media outlet. But I figured
Starting point is 01:05:11 after about two weeks, and I started to actually write and do things with the athletic, I was like, oh, it doesn't matter. As long as you have information, that's all you need. Yeah. And the athletic is great. Like, I read it all the time, there's always great, like, plugged in people and you fit in seamlessly there I have one question about your job. That's a little weird is two part question So one of the hardest things I think you probably have to do and you could tell me I'm way wrong After a game when you're trying to talk to a player coming off a field How do you approach that because I see that you know, I'll see on TV
Starting point is 01:05:41 It's like oh, there's Diana talking to Travis Kelsey, walking out the field. How do you, because it's gotta be like a touch and go situation, I'd assume. Well, if it's a good situation, it's easy as heck. It's, hey Travis, how are you? You just lit it up. Oh, how's Teller?
Starting point is 01:05:56 That's easy. That day was bad. There was a, you probably saw it on Instagram. I was walking off with Travis after they lost the Jets. And I mean mean if you have relationships with these guys they know what you're doing they know who you are and they're just talking knowing that whatever they're gonna say probably is gonna get hit the print and be on television but I wouldn't I don't think
Starting point is 01:06:16 talking to players after games is really that difficult but if you have a good relationship that that's usually where it can come handy and And think about most of the times after a game, you're talking to the happy people. You're very rarely going up to Brock Purdy, one-on-one on the field being like, so this, this thing's. Yeah, you lost Super Bowl. So all right, so the second part of the question is you,
Starting point is 01:06:36 I would assume it's happened many years in a row, but I know this year you were in the locker room after the Super Bowl. Do you go to the losing locker room at all? I do, I always swing in there first just to see if anyone's acting up or crying or if anyone just wants to talk about situations because that's usually when they're in their most raw state
Starting point is 01:06:55 of right after they lost. So I did, I circled and I always just kind of try to follow my instincts on things and I'm like, I think I should probably go see what they're doing in there, especially the type of season the Chiefs had this year, knowing it wasn't as easy as it had been in the past. I bet you they're going crazy. And oh my God, I have never seen a locker room like that after Super Bowl
Starting point is 01:07:17 win. And I was actually talking to my homes about it. And he's like, it's the year we had. It just felt that much better, even though he's been there before he knows it, it feels like, and obviously because they've lost a Super Bowl before, for them, just the idea of going back to back and being able to kind of prove to everyone this year that, yeah, maybe we didn't have
Starting point is 01:07:35 some top dog receivers, but look at us, man, we figured it out and we won the whole thing. That's awesome. That has to be kind of a pinch me moment, being in the Super Bowl winning locker room. Cause like that's, that's it. That's where it is. Sometimes one of the hardest things in my job is you have
Starting point is 01:07:51 all these conversations and you're running around. And sometimes you don't even know what to do. Cause you're, there's so many people you need to talk to in storylines that you want to jump on. And there's great storylines. I want to go talk to Chris Jones. I want to ask him what he thinks about his future now. You know, how badly do you want to stay in Kansas City? I want to go up to Travis, talk about what
Starting point is 01:08:06 this feels like. You know, so you have to kind of quickly, because you're only allowed in there for a few minutes, figure out fast who you have to go to and what you want to get. And sometimes I'm in these conversations and there's news there and I don't even realize it until about an hour later. I'm like, oh my God, like I went up to Travis and I was like, man, this is awesome, huh? You feel good? He's like, didn't we just do this conversation? I said, yeah, last year he's like,
Starting point is 01:08:31 well, let's do it again next year. Let's go for three. So he said it to me right after the game. And I was like, do, do, do, do, do, running around talking to whoever next and then in the back, then later I was like, oh crap. He basically just called it out. We're gonna go for three.
Starting point is 01:08:44 And he's not retiring. Because there were there was definitely some rumors. So sometimes you have to sort of take a breath in the moment and be like, Okay, this, this is something. Uh, but that, that locker room was really cool. That's a really fun group. Anyways, whether they win or lose, even when they lose, I've been around them before they're all pros.
Starting point is 01:08:58 They're good. Yeah. I think one of the best things that the athletic does is the, uh, the post mortems, whether it's like a coach that got fired and they'd go back, they, they review all the shit that happened there or a season that didn't go the right way. The athletic does a very good job of covering the dysfunction. There was one report that you had earlier this year regarding the Jets dysfunction. Memes, our producer called you a liar. I think he was very upset. I think a lot of people were upset about the Jets report, but I thought it was pretty well done
Starting point is 01:09:25 Do you want to address allegations for memes that you're a liar? Well, which one of the 30 sources? Did you think lied? Yeah, there are 30 30 sources 30 sources memes. Yeah Which one was one 30 people just said you know what I'm gonna tell you stories then they're all fabricated memes memes memes Who are the 30? I'm going to tell you stories, then they're all fabricated. Memes. Memes. Memes. Who are the 30? Also, wait, wait, wait, wait. He wants all the sources.
Starting point is 01:09:51 Wait, wait. That's way too many sources. So 30 is ridiculous. So at the athletic, because the standards are outrageously high, we're owned by the New York Times, you have to supply the editors with your list of the people that you're speaking to and We had a list together after putting together the piece and writing it and it was actually 30 plus Oh more so and then I'll attach the name that we send to our editor is the information that person gave us the quotes the details
Starting point is 01:10:23 So huh? They had so let me ask you a question memes just hypothetical is the information that person gave us, the quotes, the details. So, they had... Memes, so let me ask you a question, Memes, just hypothetical. What if Diana was, what if her name was Dan Racini and she was a man, would you have believed the sources more? No. Huh.
Starting point is 01:10:36 I don't know. Okay, interesting. Seems like being a little misogynistic here. No, whoever wrote it would be alive. Okay, Harry. I actually believe him on that, because he just... Which part of the story, No, whoever wrote it would be a liar. Okay, Harry. I actually believe him on that, because he just, Which part of the story,
Starting point is 01:10:48 because you obviously wrote it, which part of the story bothered you the most? Which detail do you go, she's a liar, she stinks at her job, I hate her? The headline. So wait, so Diana though, like a big picture,
Starting point is 01:11:02 like do you have to deal with this all the time where fans, no matter what, because we're crazy, we're stupid. And remember I live in Jetsland. Right, so Diana though, like a big picture, like do you have to deal with this all the time where fans, no matter what, because we're crazy, we're stupid. And remember I live in Jetsland. Right, so like, has there ever been a specific story that you reported and released that got like way more backlash than you expected? You're like, what the fuck?
Starting point is 01:11:19 Like, I'm reporting, I'm doing my job. About seven years ago, six years ago maybe now, I fired Doug Moran and he didn't get fired. So that was what I was wrong. You always have to have one really bad one. That was my one bad one. I will say this Jets piece was tough. This one, I think Jets fans are in denial.
Starting point is 01:11:36 That would be memes. Right, they just don't want, they want to call people liars because they don't want to believe that it's actually that bad, that the culture is that awful. So don't blame the team, blame the reporter that uncovered all of this, blame the, whichever, however they sleep at night with it.
Starting point is 01:11:54 So because I live in an area where there's Jets fans, I have people coming up to me and like even just went to the eye doctor and the guy that was helping me was like, come on. Like, what do you mean? I'm a reporter. My job is to give you facts. the guy that was helping me was like come on like What do you mean come I'm a reporter my job is to give you facts don't be mad at me You know people want me to say alright. We dramatized it. It's not really that bad Aaron's great He's kumbaya with everybody when the reality is it's it's it's a it's a mess in New York It's really bad and per 30. It's true though
Starting point is 01:12:21 You're you're you're you're you absolutely right. The Jets fans for some reason, they're like, this isn't the truth. We're like, if you wrote that story about the Bears, they'd be like, she probably missed some things. Correct. It's probably way worse than that. A lot of people have been asking me how I've been managing the Jets since then, right?
Starting point is 01:12:36 Because you would think they would hate me, right? They're great. I love the Jets. I talk to all of them still because they know I know. And they know it's accurate, right? It's when you're wrong, that's where the tension comes with teams or if you don't inform a team that a piece is coming out
Starting point is 01:12:54 and that's something that we do at the athletic. If we're gonna put out something with that much intel and information that's gonna make the owner, the coach, the GM, the core, everybody, the OC look bad, you have to call them and say, here's what we're doing. So New York was well aware of everything that was coming out. Yeah, it's kind of feel kind of awesome though,
Starting point is 01:13:13 when you're, because you're really good at your job and when you do it well, and you know there's gonna be people like memes, they're gonna be like, you're a liar, and it's like, I'm doing my job and I crushed it. Like I know the truth. I found the truth. Yes, but I would prefer to tell memes that things are so good.
Starting point is 01:13:29 Yeah. But no one wants to read that. True. But I am working on a bunch of pieces coming up where it's just like how teams have survived issues that the Jets didn't figure out like the Cleveland Browns, how they were able to have success after. Joe Flacco.
Starting point is 01:13:43 DeSean Watson goes down like, right? Maybe the Jets are going to do Joe Flacco. down. Maybe the Jets again, Joe Flacker. So sometimes taking the bad stories and focusing on the dysfunction, you can then go highlight some of the teams that are doing it right. But again, most people like the dysfunction, like I did a whole story on the Panthers as well,
Starting point is 01:13:58 where it was like hunger games in that place, behind the scenes of everyone killing the other to just stay alive and not get fired by Tepper. And it was a mess. It seems to be better from what I understand now but if you remember when we did that story it was like early November. There's still so much season left. You need to forward that story to Peter Schrager. I think he missed it because he tried to tell us that David Tepper is not crazy. Good guy. Did you know that he bought his old boss's house and then bulldozed it to the ground?
Starting point is 01:14:26 Yes, normal stuff. Normal stuff. It's a great move. I actually like it in the evil cartoon billionaire mindset. Like he is actually what I think about when I think of the power hungry owner that doesn't know how to work with people. Also, if you're that rich,
Starting point is 01:14:41 I would never live in another man's house. Owners in general are very, they are unique. I try not to think about how much money they have when I'm talking to them because I probably would run away like a little girl because they could destroy my life. They could just buy my family, right? Or just buy, tell someone to kill us. Not your dad though, your dad could beat up anybody.
Starting point is 01:15:01 Yeah, it's from the Bronx. You went to high school with Doug Brogson. It's from the Bronx. You remember that? That was a regret. That might have from the Bronx. You went to high school with Doug Morone. It's from the Bronx. Don't mess with that. You remember that? That was a regret. That might have been my favorite. You guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys,
Starting point is 01:15:08 you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys,
Starting point is 01:15:15 you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys,
Starting point is 01:15:22 you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys he went to high school where my dad went to high school. My dad's strong. He's from the Bronx. And I said something like Doug Morone's from the Bronx and you know, you don't mess with people like that. And then of course, all the award-winning listeners flood my Twitter for years, by the way. And we'll just be like, every time the Bronx is mentioned, be like, oh, can you beat him up? Like just whatever it is. So annoying.
Starting point is 01:15:43 It's this like mom mentality. You cannot, and they don't forget. Like your guys don't forget. They were not reminding him right now. Please, forget something. Let me go. My second favorite Diana Racini moment of all time was I think it was at Foxborough.
Starting point is 01:15:57 I think it was 2017. You were working for ESPN. You're doing the pregame report there on the sidelines. It was cold. It was giant thermometer season. And you had a glass of water because we're going to show a science experiment of how cold it was. You filled the water up to the top and then you said, I filled this water up 10 minutes ago.
Starting point is 01:16:15 Now watch how cold it is. And then you turned the cup upside down and you just poured out a cup of water. Did you think that that was going to fly into the radar for a little bit or were you immediately like, fuck this is good? No, in the moment, I just, or were you immediately like, fuck this is gonna. No, in the moment I just, my head was just like, just keep going. So I was like, and you see, there's the water. So it's cold out here, but obviously not that cold.
Starting point is 01:16:33 But that's all right, back to you. I just kept going, hoping no one would notice that the point of the project was, I was freezing the water. But I did get some redemption. Last year they sent me to Buffalo, it was like negative 9,000. And I did it again and it worked.
Starting point is 01:16:46 It worked. It worked. I do miss, people ask me that you miss ESPN. I miss it all the time. I miss the people I work with. Obviously, Adam's a friend of the show here and he was one of my good friends when I worked there. We're not friends anymore, but.
Starting point is 01:16:58 Yeah, you're off the text thread. Yeah, they kicked me off their group text. But doing stuff like that was always so stupid and fun, but just being out with the fans, I used to love that. Yeah, has there been a player or coach who's gotten mad at you for a specific story where they're like, you burn me or something like that? Like that you're like, fuck, that sucks.
Starting point is 01:17:18 Yeah, Mike Rabel. He called me the day after an aggregator took something I said that basically said Mike Vrables too fat to work Oh, yeah, that was a good story. So that was that was say too fat. You said he's a large person He is this what I shared on on the football podcast on the athletic was that I had dinner with a GM at the senior bowl and we had conversations about how bizarre this last coaching cycle was and how crazy it was that Belichick and Varebal didn't have gigs. And I said, why do you, you know, what do you think that, that Mike didn't get a job? He said, I think
Starting point is 01:17:53 they needed to change there in Tennessee, but in terms of the next opportunity, I think there's a lot of people who are very intimidated by him. He walks into a room and, and he, he's confident and he's confident and he's physically a big human being. And it's a little startling at first. Very normal, right? When I say this to you, right? These are all facts, by the way,
Starting point is 01:18:14 and we love Coach Frabble and he is, I mean, that's what I'd want out of my football coach. Correct, his hands are the size of your head, right? He hit me on the back at the combine a few years ago and I almost coughed up a lot. So when the aggregators took that and changed all this, you know, the way I said it, so that that wasn't great to hear from a not too happy head coach to begin with former head coach. Now, he didn't call me after the piece we did on why he got
Starting point is 01:18:40 fired, but the piece on him calling him a little fat, he wasn't too, he wasn't too happy. Yeah. I mean, I think it was the body shaming because he only sold the aggregator. Yeah. got fired, but the piece on him calling him a little fat, he wasn't too, he wasn't too happy. But I think it was the body shaming because he only sold the aggregator. He didn't see my actual. The way it was framed was like Mike Vrabel's fat and GM's don't want a fat guy. Too fat to coach. Too fat to coach. And I was like, wait, I like fat coaches.
Starting point is 01:18:58 That's messed up. But you guys know his personality. He's not very flowery, right? So I'm like, I see him call. I'm like, I'm like, hey coach, what's going on here? And he's like, not very flowery right so I'm like I see him call. I'm like I'm like hey coach. What's going on here? And he's like, what are you doing? I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, why are you talking about my body? The aggregators really do that sometimes though. They're the ones that fans should get mad at. Yeah aggregators. Yeah, not the reporters I believe me they they're good in some spaces
Starting point is 01:19:21 Yeah, not the reporters. I believe me. They're good in some spaces, especially someone like me who's at a place not as big as ESPN, whereas I used to go on ESPN if you say it goes everywhere. So sometimes it's great to have it aggregated and then it's pushed out and then it probably catches your attention if you don't go to the athletic that day. But most of the time, it's completely misrepresented. And then all these storylines are floating around the NFL. It's like, what?
Starting point is 01:19:45 I have a really hard time right now deciphering. Is this a real report? Yeah, no, there's a lot of clickbait. There's a lot of people reporting stuff. And it's just like, where did this come from? Like deleted tweets is weird. Yeah. And then people just grabbing like Justin
Starting point is 01:19:59 Fields celebrating in his kitchen. I saw there was all of my timeline today and someone's like, that was from six years ago. Yeah, someone said Falcon's the background. They're like, oh, he's going. Yeah. He's like, okay. Don't get me wrong. I saw it right away and I was like, I gotta make calls. I had to. I was like, oh, shit. He's traded. Yeah. That's crazy.
Starting point is 01:20:15 So what's going to happen this week? Are there going to be any trades made? Anything big? Yeah. I think Chicago's going to get moving on this for sure. With fields. Yeah. I've been stalking their people all week. You asked me what I've been doing. So there's some people you can set meetings up with and meet and there's some people who just aren't gonna deal with you, right?
Starting point is 01:20:32 So then you have to figure out where they're gonna be. This sounds so creepy, by the way. But you can figure out just from talking to people around the league, who's at what forum or who's gonna sit down with CAA or whatever at this time and kind of you just go flow in there and hope that you can catch them. So I've been chasing bears for a few days. I can help you, we can track them down. Oh, you know them?
Starting point is 01:20:53 Yeah, I know Ryan. So we'll set a trap for him. What's Ryan saying to you? He told me that I'm actually not allowed to say. Oh, wow. It's hard to be a reporter, right? I think I told you. Wait, tell me.
Starting point is 01:21:06 Exploring all options? Yeah, there was another part of it, I'm not allowed to say. Also, I sent him my tape from the combine and he said, we'll take a look at it. I don't think he took a look at it. We did a combine last week. I did, I sent him my four yard dash. Yeah, I gotta see how that is.
Starting point is 01:21:23 But yeah, I'm expecting definitely some action there. I just hope the next few days are actually a little quiet because it's just been crazy. And I mean, you guys are on your phones all the time. You know, you just, if it's your job to be on your phone, it completely messes up your life. Yeah, I mean, we should just clarify. Like you're on your phone like working on stories,
Starting point is 01:21:44 we're like scrolling Instagram and Being idiots College basketball that Simulator That has been the hardest transition for me from going from ESPN to the athletic is the responsibility I do have now in getting information so that requires me to be on my phone at all times and you can't determine when news is going to break, right? So we all have wild stories of when stuff breaks and you're not in a great spot, you know, whether you're driving or you're on vacation, you're skiing.
Starting point is 01:22:16 I had one actually and Max, I'll tell you one day what the actual scoop was, but I had someone from Philly call me. It was when everything was starting to fall apart. And I have a two year old and a one year old and it was bath time. And I put the two little boys, so I put them in the bath together. And there are some people who call you, there are some sources you draw. You don't care about the safety of your children. You, you answer the call.
Starting point is 01:22:41 So they're in the water and I'm thinking, this is not safe, but I have to take this call. So my thought was, all right, I'll pull the drain, I'll turn the water off and they'll just, they'll sit there. They'll be okay. Well, I didn't consider a couple of things. So I take the call, I run and get like a notebook. So I left them real quick because I have to write down the stuff that this person's sharing with me. And I'm so locked in on the information, I kind of have half my eye on the boys. And then my two-year-old jumps out, and Joey, my one-year-old, is just sitting in there,
Starting point is 01:23:16 and I look, and the two-year-old runs out, and he goes, pooh, pooh, and my one-year-old poofed in the tub. So I let the two year old just run away because he just obviously didn't like it. And then I just hear him go, bleh, bleh. So then he throws up, and by the way, I'm still on the phone. And I'm horrified that this person can hear it too.
Starting point is 01:23:36 And thank God my husband walked in like a minute later and he just, you have to kind of decide in those moments when nothing's working, am I gonna cry or just laugh at this shit, right? So I just laughed and he laughed too of just like, what are we gonna do? I'm supposed to be the senior insider getting this great story on the Eagles that's good,
Starting point is 01:23:56 and by the way, he was very invested because it was the Eagles, right? Cause I showed him who it was and he's like, oh, I understood why you took that, you know? You know, but what are you gonna do? Pooping the bathtub is the worst. What is that? Why do they do that?
Starting point is 01:24:08 I don't know. I've had it a few times, myself personally, I've pooped in a bathtub. And then a couple of times with my kids as well, and it's just like, you just panic and you're just like, well, what the fuck, what do we do now? So that was my thought too, and when it was happening, I'm like, where do I go first?
Starting point is 01:24:21 To the two-year-olds just running around the house? Or the one-year-old sitting in there? You gotta got to get him you got to get him out of the poop. You got to get out of the poop and then you got to figure out what to do with that. Apparently I'm around a lot of discussing this. You're not disgusted by the poop in the tub but sitting next to Max. That's pretty stupid. No, but I'll actually have Diana's back here. There's something it's like kind of like having a dog where it's like if you see another dog's poop you're like, ah, but it's your own dog, like your own kids.
Starting point is 01:24:46 I am so desensitized to everything that it's just like, whatever, I've actually gotten really good at timing my son's puke and I'm like three for three on the last three, getting them like to the sink or the toilet, I'm like, I'm pretty proud of myself. Watching Tyler's puke is- Well, they don't bend over. They don't do anything.
Starting point is 01:25:03 They just stand there. Yeah, exactly. Just like in the middle of the fucking floor. It's like exorcism, it's like an't bend over. They don't do it. They just stand there. Yeah. Exactly. Just like in the middle of fucking four. It's like an exorcism. They don't say anything. They just start puking wherever they are at that moment. Yeah. So I actually had a question about this, like, because you, your mom of two, you work all the time.
Starting point is 01:25:17 You're incredible at your job. Like, how do you do it? Like that's, I, I don't know how you do it. Like this, I guess it may be a compliment, but like it is insanely impressive. Yeah, I I lose my mind a lot You know I try to you have to obviously I have like a good partnership and somebody that gets it and I married The biggest football head in America who's never played football in his life But he's just a big nerd so it helps because I needed somebody I married someone that understood it right um That's not I mean I wasn't looking for that
Starting point is 01:25:45 when I met him, but it just worked out that he happens to be oddly obsessed with the NFL. So I don't ever have to explain why I had to take calls, why I had to do certain things. In fact, 90% of the time he's the one getting on me to be like, you should get ahead of that, or you know, you should be calling right at, which is also very annoying,
Starting point is 01:26:01 but it's helpful in trying to balance it all. But I- I like that he understands the importance and the significance of the work that you're doing. It's like some people marry somebody that's creating a vaccine for smallpox or something like, honey, your work is super important. He's like, you're working on figuring out
Starting point is 01:26:17 if Jason Kelce is coming back next year. That takes priority over our entire night. And he doesn't really get mad when I have to get up from the table. Or as long as I share it with him because he loves to like know about it. Like I've answered phone calls in the car on speakerphone. Yeah. And he loves, I actually have some sources that I'm tight enough now with they, I'll be like, hey, I'm in the car or cab and he'll like ask a question and I'll look at him like, shut the hell up. You are not allowed to talk just because we invite you because
Starting point is 01:26:42 I made the person aware. Anyway. Anyway, wait, wait. All right, so I have one question about your husband that's a very important question. I listened to you when you were on with our friend Ryan Rassillo, who I think he's still our friend. He has a weird rivalry with me, which I didn't know about that he revealed
Starting point is 01:26:57 on his life advice. But when you went on Rassillo's podcast, you told the story that your husband was like prepping you and being like, this is a big day because he's a big Rosillo fan. Big one. Did he do the same thing for this or no? He doesn't care about us.
Starting point is 01:27:13 That hurts. That's tough. Well, can I tell you, damn it. He messaged me right before I got in. All he said was be nice to Max. Okay. That's all right. That's all right.
Starting point is 01:27:24 Because that's for people stick in again. What else is new? All right, all right. I was nervous that you were gonna be like, no he doesn't listen to this stupid show. No, he still listens to you guys all the time. In fact, you know what he does, he does sometimes,
Starting point is 01:27:34 cause I don't have the time to always listen. You know, I love you guys, but he commutes a lot, which that's a whole other man. God bless people who have to commute. Especially an hour like he does. So he'll listen to you guys and he'll just like shoot me a text if you guys had something good just to let me know.
Starting point is 01:27:48 So that's cool. All right, good. That's cool. I have an embarrassing story about him. It's also tied into a silo. So I remember when you went on your first date with him, you called me and you were like, hey, I went on a date with this guy and we were talking about sports and I asked him, who's one like sports media member
Starting point is 01:28:06 That you think that you relate the most to and his answer was Ryan Rocillo. Yeah, I said I said who and not at all but I said who just from like a like a Personality standpoint who do you connect to the most like who do and he's like Rocillo? He just loves it. So at the time I was thinking, you thinking, cause first date you're putting on your best, right? You're charming and he was funny. And he picked a hermit. And he was in a good mood. My husband, he's the most miserable dude ever.
Starting point is 01:28:34 So he's Ryan. That's why I also love Ryan. I'm obviously drawn to like grumpy ass people. And I think about it all the time. Like, he told me what he was, right? It was I chose it. He never lied to me. He was like, I'm basically a leaner. Now, Ryan, I'll back up Ryan here. Wait, this is Mike Vryvan is strong.
Starting point is 01:28:57 You're going strong. I didn't have this body shamer. I'm going max fat. Ryan's body is banging. No, Ryan is. Ryan's always been just great looking in terms of his physique and all that. And so my husband is as well, just he's not as yoked. He doesn't have time, right? With his jobs and all that stuff. So, but yeah, he's a very grumpy human being.
Starting point is 01:29:24 And I'd like to try to be the joiner. That's great. That's very Philly of him. You've been around him. You know what he's like. I know. He's a good dude. He's okay, but he's a guy's guy. Yeah, he's okay. Sure. Like you've been around my family, right? Yes. My family is psychotic.
Starting point is 01:29:38 They're high energy. They want to have a good time. And it Kev does too, but Kev rather be alone and just watch a game. Like he just wants to watch the Philly's. Do you know that you're to have a good time and it kept us too But Kevin rather be alone and just watch a game like he just wants to watch the Phillies Do you know that you know though that you're the craziest one in your family? Like you think that your family is crazy, but I don't think you're aware of the fact works You're the most insane person your family. You're your sister is the most normal person in the world. Your parents are lovely
Starting point is 01:29:58 They're a little bit crazy. You are the crazy one in your family. So I remember Pft was gonna come down to to my beach house and I felt like I had to warn my parents of like what was coming to the house because- That's nice. He's a little unique. Yeah. So I said, hey, I just want to give you guys a heads up, you know, my friend's going to come down and hang out with us for the weekend.
Starting point is 01:30:21 He's got a lot of hair. He wears sunglasses all the time. You know, and they just weren't really listening. And when he walked in, they were like, what the fuck? Like, who is this? Who is this person, right? So we wound up hanging out in like the backyard, we're drinking beers and my neighbors start like freaking
Starting point is 01:30:41 out that he's there. And you know, my parents are still like, why do people care? What does he do? I said, oh, he's there. And my parents are still like, why do people care? What does he do? I said, oh, he's just on the radio because they don't understand podcasts. Like I have a podcast starting soon. My dad thinks I'm gonna be on the fan.
Starting point is 01:30:54 Like he can't separate it. So now your competition. Oh. Well, I thought we were on the same team we were at the athletic. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Which by the way, like some of the stuff that you put out, the fact that you put it with the athletic now,
Starting point is 01:31:07 it's just, it's so funny to me because sometimes it's believable. I'm like, this is kind of good reporting that we do with the athletic. Go ahead, apples. No, the, no, I was the Mark Davis fired Josh McCain was using a fortune cookie. Yeah. From P.F. Changs.
Starting point is 01:31:21 From P.F. Changs. Yeah. It's very believable. Did they get pissed off about that? I don't think they would. I don't think they love it because it puts our name with false information when we work so hard to be accurate.
Starting point is 01:31:31 Yeah. Wow. Except for the jets. Except for the jets. Yeah. All the whole point to me. I'll be putting out my jets for traction. Can I ask you a commander specific question?
Starting point is 01:31:39 Sure. So Justin Fields is going to be traded. We can say like probably right. I think it's almost done. Yeah. I think at this point? I think it's almost definitely. I think at this point right now it's going to happen. So the commander is probably taking Drake or Jen Daniels with the second overall pick. Is there any chance that that's not what the plan is and we're doing something else?
Starting point is 01:32:00 Just based on talking to them this week, they're doing the typical, you know, we're going to do our homework on all of it I don't think they have a clear cut answer to what they want to do because they're still free agent veterans there too that could come into Washington and Washington could obviously trade out if they want depending on if they're looking to build and get some more picks Now Chris Kirk cousins is really the story of all of this right now in terms of who's gonna land him because he's the story of Domino for all of this.
Starting point is 01:32:31 I mean, Kirk going back to Washington, I mean, that would be, I actually think that would be a really good move. That's just my opinion, just because when you look at Dan Quinn, you have a first year head coach, first year GM. Owner. Owner, right?
Starting point is 01:32:44 You bring in a guy who A knows the city, but B understands a winning culture, understands what needs to be done. I think that would be a good first step for this group, but they may wanna take a swing and see if they can get a rookie quarterback to step in there. But here's the problem, you don't know, right? You have CJ Stroud, oh my gosh, that's amazing.
Starting point is 01:33:03 Of course, everyone knows that that's the that's the dream But on the other side of it you have Bryce Young and it's nothing against Bryce. It's just he's gonna need some time He might need more than time. I'm interested to see how aggressive Washington will be in the free veteran market Because that'll kind of tell you where where they sit on all this. Yeah, I'm For the record, I like Kirk Cousins. I think I've, I've like done a 180 on him. You'd want Kirk Cousins back in Washington? I don't know. Cause I, I feel like if you have this opportunity to take a great quarterback at the
Starting point is 01:33:32 top of the draft, get him on a rookie deal and then build around that, that it seems like that's the right move for a franchise that's trying to move on and, and turn like a complete page. You were there during the worst times of the Washington Redskins. Like it's been very dark for us. And so having this opportunity to just move forward and start completely new, I feel like that's a good opportunity that would be hard to pass up. Now, if it's Kirk Cousins, to me, that feels like they're trying to win nine
Starting point is 01:33:57 games. It's like, let's win nine to 10 games and not try to build a Super Bowl contender in the future. I mean, if that's how you want to look at it, but I see why not try to build like a Super Bowl contender in the future. I mean, if that's how you want to look at it, but I see why not continue to stockpile these picks and keep getting better and better in all the different positions. No matter what happens, I'll spin myself into it. I'll be like, that was a great idea.
Starting point is 01:34:14 That's how we do it. You're gonna be into it. Which by the way, I don't know Jason Wright. Do you want to meet him? I just have never met him. So today, I see him pulling in or getting out of a noober. And I went right out to him. I said, hi, I said, Diane, we're seeing.
Starting point is 01:34:31 I apologize. It's taken this long for me to say hello to you. And he said, hello, I'm Shane. And then took a bag out of a car and kept walking. I was like, oh my god, that was not Jason Wright. I feel like the biggest idiot. Can I give you a lifeline here? Sure. It was like, oh my God, that was not Jason Wright. I feel like the biggest idiot. Can I give you a lifeline here? Oh.
Starting point is 01:34:48 It was white guy, right? It was. Yeah, that's tough. I know, you just had a mistaken identity classic. It happens all the time. Damn. Oh my gosh, I'm queen of it. I do that all the time.
Starting point is 01:34:59 The other day, we had our athletic summit, right? So here in Indy, everyone just comes together. And no one really knows each other because we all work remotely. We know each other a little bit, but not really. So I was like, you know, I'm just going to bite the bullet here. I'm just going to go up to people and say, Hey, I'm Diana. How are you? What's your name? Which team do you cover?
Starting point is 01:35:13 You know, plus I'm the new girl. So first person I decided I want to go up to is standing right by where like the fruit and the coffee is. And I said, I said, Hi, I'm Diana. Oh, who are you? And he said, I'm Sam. I said, Oh, great. I said, hi, I'm Diana, who are you? And he said, I'm Sam. I said, oh, great.
Starting point is 01:35:27 I said, what do you do with the athletic? He said, I work at the Hyatt. Oh, no! Oh, are you okay? Yeah. What's wrong with me? I'm like, I can't pick out the right people. Maybe I'm blind, maybe my eye doctor gave me
Starting point is 01:35:38 the wrong prescription. Do people at the athletic or maybe even at ESPN, are they ever like, we report report we study the game we watch film why the fuck do people listen to these two idiots yes I say to myself sometimes because I say to myself all the time I'm really stressful days like it's free agency days draft days even playoffs I put you guys on because the rest of it's so stressful to me that I'm like, I just want to like slowly start my day. Feel smarter. No idea what they're talking about. Exactly. Figure out how dumb these guys are and go the other
Starting point is 01:36:13 way. Yeah. Figure out how to go. Get information so I can have the accurate opinion on it all. Right. Based on all the the gibberish that they say on this stupid show. It's a good palette cleanser for sure. Like if you're getting too much, like if you get too down into the weeds and get too smart about football, I actually do think that it's important to like remind yourself sometimes that the vast majority of people that watch the sport and pay attention to the coverage just like fucking football. Yeah, and they're us. Yeah, we are idiots.
Starting point is 01:36:41 Yeah, I'm starting this podcast. I'm not gonna try to compete with you guys. I'll just be a friend of the show. We'd squash you. Happens, we, well aware, well aware, but I'm gonna try. So we have a podcast coming up and that's essentially kind of like the tone I want. I want it to be informative, good football, using the stuff that I know,
Starting point is 01:37:02 but also kind of just talking regular stuff as well. Well, I can give you a tip. I would love some. Here's a tip. If you want to keep it more casual, do what PFT and I do where we'll only read the headline of a story because we don't have like a subscription to a certain site. Yeah. And then we just kind of guess what happens after.
Starting point is 01:37:19 Are you subscribers to the athletic? I am. I am a subscriber. Yes, I am. But there's some times where there'll be like a story and it's just like, well, I'll just read the first two sentences and then we'll just go from there. It's a good topic. Yeah, it's actually not a bad idea because you see what the story is about and then you kind of choose your own adventure as what you think it was written and then you react to what you
Starting point is 01:37:38 think was written and you create a much more entertaining show that way out of pure fiction. Yeah, no, there's a thing that has really helped me over the last few years. It's credibility. So I think that's probably some of the non memes. Why didn't Bill Belichick get a job? Why didn't he? Yeah, it was too too big. I don't think Bill's that big. I think it was just his big attitude. You know, just wanting things to be his way. I also think in Atlanta attitude, you know, just wanting things to be his way. I also think in Atlanta, that situation, ownership wanted him there and the other people on the other, on the other side of the football operation did not.
Starting point is 01:38:12 Which is weird. Why wouldn't that's kind of what Schafter would, yeah, but yeah, I get they lose their job, but I don't know. That's just, I, yeah, that's a bad way to run an organization is really what I'm saying. If they wanted to hire me to be on a podcast, which would mean that your podcast would get canceled, are you gonna support my hiring?
Starting point is 01:38:31 No. No, we'd squash you like a bug. Exactly. No, but I guess more, I understand the people who are selfishly acting for themselves and being like, we don't want Bill Belchak. As someone who roots for a dysfunctional organization, hopefully it's going in the right direction,
Starting point is 01:38:47 it always feels like a common trend when it comes to bad organizations. It's a bunch of people trying to save their own job instead of thinking about the future of the team and how can we get better and playing the blame game and being like, well, I didn't draft that guy. You drafted that guy and missed that and the other. That's just a bad way to run organization.
Starting point is 01:39:06 It is, but here's, it is so hard to get one of these jobs. Right. You know, you, you look at the guys that don't have them now and there's a lot of guys on the street outside Belichick and Vable who are really smart and should be back in football, but can't get back in. Yeah. So when you're in the spot, you're doing everything to, to take care of that. So you, so you last, but does doing everything to take care of that so you last.
Starting point is 01:39:26 But does that make sense for an entire organization? No, it's dumb. Every owner should hate that. They should hate hearing that anyone would be in self-preservation mode. But unfortunately, a lot of these guys have incredible salesmanship to them and they can get an owner to believe in them
Starting point is 01:39:42 when that person is really just believing in what they wanna do and it's good for them It's in it's very ironic because the reason why Bell are part of the reason why Bellichick had so much success is that he was never Thinking about keeping his job. He was thinking about what's good for his football team And it's like if you see that why wouldn't you want that? Yeah, and New England's so interesting now too because it seems that they are really pumping up this new way. This new post Bill Bellachic. Kind of gentler. Well, I think they finally realized that the Patriot way is just having
Starting point is 01:40:11 Tom Brady on your team. That's a big part of the. I don't I don't necessarily agree with all of that. I think Bill Bellachic had a gigantic part. Of course. He did. No, I'm not saying Bellachic didn't have a big part in it. I'm just saying the Patriot way when you like, well, this is the way they do it.
Starting point is 01:40:27 They're kind of minimizing the fact that Tom Brady's the best quarterback of all time. And that's a lot of the, like you could do anyway, but if you have Tom Brady, you're going to be successful. It was like, is there a chief's way? No, they have Patrick Holmes. Well, it's just to say, Andy Reed said, yes, you're someone said, you know, you know, what's the secret to having success? He's like, get a quarterback. Yeah, right. Well, thank you. Bill O'Chick's the best coach of all time. success? He's like, get a quarterback. Yeah, right. Well, thank you. It's not, you know, the Belichick's young and best coach of all time.
Starting point is 01:40:46 I'm just saying like, But there is a culture. Yeah, there's a culture, but it's also Tom Brady being the best and he sets the culture. So I think when people say, Patriot Way outside of just the superficialness of the Super Bowl wins and Tom Brady,
Starting point is 01:40:59 there is a language that those guys speak, players and coaches, and this is just from being around it so much over the years. I know within two seconds of talking to someone if they're New England. And it's not, that doesn't mean because they're cold or they're mean, they're just a little bit more suspect at first. They don't overshare, they're very detail-oriented. They're usually really smart, actually. I really like the New England way, but I prefer it, actually, because I prefer it actually,
Starting point is 01:41:25 because I see so many other sides and other guys trying to do it a different way. And outside of the cheese, I haven't really, and even maybe like the McVeigh tree will call it, who does it a little different, but almost similarly. It works. Yeah, but my counterpoint to that would be if the Patriots decided to answer all the questions
Starting point is 01:41:41 and be like gregarious with the media, it wouldn't matter because they still have Tom Brady. Possibly. Possibly. But I think it's interesting that their attack on this is to talk about how they're going to be different. Yeah, that part is interesting. They probably need to just go do it, right?
Starting point is 01:41:55 Yeah, right. Just go be the team that has eased up a bit and people want to be there to get free agents to come. Right, yeah. That's smart. Yeah, no, you're right. You're right on that right now. So with the Patriotot way who would be your number eight ranked Patriot of all time the show's coming out what Wednesday right Wednesday the 8th ranked Patriot two is
Starting point is 01:42:13 Friday one is no 10 ten who's your 10th ranking Patriot Hank is Hank's got a list going to release one in episode he's doing number 10 when the show comes out so who's your number eight I'd say Teddy Bursky. Oh, interesting. He actually hangs number three. He's higher. Teddy would be mad that I put him so low as well. Yeah. Yeah. But throw Hank a little red meat here. What are the Patriots going to do? I think the Patriots are obviously exploring the quarterback market, both free agents and draft. I know that there's some free agents that they're interested in right now, that they're having some conversations with their agents. So I still think they're doing the same thing with the Washington's doing, kind of looking at the whole landscape to figure it out. But
Starting point is 01:42:52 quarterback is very much what their home did on. And they're also in for a stud receiver. I can do that. Oh, stud receiver. So that could mean through the draft and bring on a veteran. That could mean two free agents. I feel like you're so happy with this news. Do you have any questions, Hank? It's good news. He's had a rough... We feel so bad for Hank.
Starting point is 01:43:15 He has a Super Bowl in what, like four years, three years. Hank, literally, Diana, he's had it so great, he didn't know how the draft worked. He thought that if he treated the third pick for the first pick the Patriots would keep the third pick yeah he was like we'll take kale Williams and Marvin Harrison I was like no if you trade the third if you trade up to the first pick you have to give up your pick not theoretically okay well the chances they trade down? I don't think very high. Good. Good.
Starting point is 01:43:50 They're trying to turn this thing around now. That's just the reports are coming out, but I feel like that's just smoke and news. You know, you listened to Elliott Wolfe yesterday talking about the things that... Hey, do you know Elliott Wolfe? Yeah, I listened to him. The things that... So yesterday he was talking about the type of quarterback he's looking for. And I actually happened to, I didn't see it live. I was sitting at a restaurant looking up and I was reading the captions on Sports Center.
Starting point is 01:44:16 And so I see what he's saying. He's like, we don't want a type of, you know, we're going to look at a quarterback's body language. And someone was being very funny at ESPN. They just used the B-roll of Mac, just like worst body language ever. So he was like a little editorializing, but essentially was yeah, we don't want that. Like that's not the ideal quarterback that we're that we're looking to build around.
Starting point is 01:44:37 Yeah. Okay, well, that's good news for you. Good news for you. What's the other big store like, you can't tell us what story your big story you're working on. What's the other big store, like you can't tell us what store you're, big store you're working on, but like any big league things that you see coming that are gonna be a story? I think the whole, the fact that the cap went up, it was like very buzzy when I landed here
Starting point is 01:44:54 because that does change how a lot of teams are gonna operate. I don't think significantly though, like immediately when I thought, oh 30 million each team, wow we're gonna see more teams go, you know, swinging in free agency. But I think if there's any position
Starting point is 01:45:07 that will probably see better business, it'd be backup quarterbacks, especially after last year, we saw so many teams struggle. Good point. By not investing in it. That was the story of the year, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:45:18 Invest in the backup quarterback. Sorry, that was to memes. You know, make that effort and in memes as well, where that they that they're telling Zach Wilson that he can go seek a trade, you know, so that the time is over there, which we knew. So with the backup quarterbacks, the Cleveland Browns, what are they gonna do?
Starting point is 01:45:37 Cause they, I think right now we can say, unless something crazy happens and DeShawn goes off for the next couple of seasons, maybe the worst contract in the history of professional sports, maybe up there for one of them. What are the, do they have any options? Are they just going to have to roll with Deshaun? They still believe in Deshaun. That's, they're in on that. That's ownership. They're not going to, even if Stefansky didn't want anything to do with anymore, which is not true. He wants to work with him. They're tied to this and they're going to try to make this work.
Starting point is 01:46:06 So look, I think there was moments last year where we're like, wait, should the Browns sign Joe Flacco on a long-term deal? Should he be the guy? But I don't see that happening. Although I will say, I talked to people close to Flacco and apparently he just like loved his time there. Like was blown away by Cleveland, wants to stay there. So I don't see a world where he winds up there again,
Starting point is 01:46:29 but you know, I think he's gonna- Is he gonna look for a starting job? Is Flacco now like, I wanna be the guy? Yeah, in Washington. Oh shut up. No, no, I don't. I think he knows where he's at. He knows his role.
Starting point is 01:46:41 He may wind up pulling off the same thing he did last year. Why jump back in and do training camp? If he can just hang out, wait for a team starting quarterback to go down and then he can get the call and step in. So I'd say that, obviously the salary cap thing is boring as hell, but I'm interested in what the sealers are gonna do at the quarterback position.
Starting point is 01:46:58 Are they interested in going with like her cousins, bringing him and Justin Fields? There's a lot of chatter about that. I don't see that happening. I'm not saying it won't, I don't see it. It doesn't feel Steelers, right? Does that feel- Yeah, he did say something like Heinz Field
Starting point is 01:47:14 was his favorite place to play, which is weird. I don't know if anyone has it as their favorite place. He did play that during that game. Mark Mahomes, because of the catch up probably. Yeah, that's true. It's about it. But yeah, I agree with you. That feels, that doesn't- It just doesn up probably. Yeah, that's true. It's about it. But yeah, that I agree with you. That feels that doesn't just doesn't seem.
Starting point is 01:47:27 Yeah, it also feels like the Steelers were kind of be doing the same thing where it's like now we have three quarterbacks again. Like what are we doing? Yeah, three quarterbacks that we don't really know. Right. So I do think obviously it's all bears right now. It's it's unbelievable how much attention. In fact, I talked to some people with the bears this morning right before I came here.
Starting point is 01:47:48 And I was asking about how they're handling just all the pressure it feels, all the attention. I mean, there's reporters everywhere chasing them. And they seem pretty calm, I will say. My sense was just like, they're optimistic. And if you think about it, they're in control. Things are up. Things are up for Chicago. Yeah, traffic goes through us. Yeah, things are things are up. They're up for Chicago. Through us. Yeah, we have the ninth pick too. It's going to be so boring next year for the Bears when they don't have the number one overall pick probably. Well, if we they're spinning all combined, we're like, fuck,
Starting point is 01:48:14 this kind of sucks. I trade the ninth talk to me. We trade the ninth pick and then we get another number one pick and root against another team. You get you get all the number one picks. I would just I love having the number one pick. All right. I have one last question. Then we're gonna have Steven Chey ask some questions.
Starting point is 01:48:28 This might be a dumb question, but since you've gone from ESPN to the athletic, ESPN you were obviously on air, at games. I assume you're not at games every single week. So what does Sunday look like now? It's amazing. I do what you guys do. I just sit on my couch.
Starting point is 01:48:43 I doubt that. Do you have seven TVs? And watching. I don't, but I do have a good setup now because I want so when I was at ESPN I was at one game right my job was to be on Sunday countdown cover whatever the biggest usually was like an AFC whatever the biggest AFC game of the weekend was but now I get to watch everything it's unbelievable it's so fun like I say I feel like you guys I can hear myself can hear myself, this is what people are talking about. It's been almost 10 years since I was not doing football.
Starting point is 01:49:10 So to be able to just sit there and consume it, I love it. Are your kids in the house when you were watching on something? That is hard. Yeah, that is something we're trying to figure out. You can come watch in Chicago. I leave at like 11 a.m. and my kids are like, are you going to watch TV?
Starting point is 01:49:25 And I'm like, yep. That's amazing that you've been able to work that out. So we have a little bit of a deal in our house where Kev will watch the boys for all the games where the Eagles aren't playing that time slot. So I love when the Eagles have a night game because then I get the day. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:49:42 And then Philly can do their thing. Okay, that's a good deal. So it's worked out that the boys were the little jersey and they run, they think it, they think every football item is Eagles. So they'll just, you know, they point to Eagles, Eagles. Yeah, no, that's just Eagles. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, football is just Eagles.
Starting point is 01:49:56 Kids are dumb like that. My son thinks that every team in Chicago is the Bears. Yeah. It's like we go by Wrigley and he's like the Bears. I went back and forth with how I wanted I think about it a lot actually how I want to raise them because they don't have a choice They're gonna have to be Eagles fans my my in-laws are seasoned ticket holders. They sit in the last row at the link like Closer to the Eagles in the sky. Yeah, yeah So I have no choice. I married into this
Starting point is 01:50:21 But I don't I would really like Mikey and Joey to not be weird about it. Like, because Philly people are very... Oh, that's not gonna happen. Yeah, what do you mean? Uncle Max will make sure they're weird. I just don't know how they... They're gonna be painting their chest next year. I want them to just, I want them to love the sport in a way that's healthy.
Starting point is 01:50:35 Not... Ah, that's a no. I'm gonna stand up for Kevin here. That's a no. It's because it's a good sports town. And also, what's healthy is to be unhealthy about football. That's what's healthy for guys. The tone of my household when the Eagles win versus when they don't. Yeah. It's incredible. Yeah. Kev's 37 years old. He's a grown man. Yeah. No.
Starting point is 01:50:56 There's no reason you should be giving me attitude on a Tuesday. Listen. Because the Eagles lost to Washington on Sunday. No. He's probably been through this a million times. It's with every sport, like the Wisconsin loss last night to Indiana and it ruined my night. Like it ruined, I was like, I was like grumpy, just like frowning. And like, why, why can't I just not, it's just what we are. Well, if you lose, if you're an Eagles fan, you lose on Sunday, then you spend the next like three to four days dodging articles. You just tried not to read all the bad shit that's coming out.
Starting point is 01:51:29 It's like, oh, here's a new article. You have to pretend like you never saw it. You look away. You're on high alert to like, don't, I don't want to consume any content regarding the game that happened on Sunday. Exactly what he does. He will not look at his phone. He doesn't want to, if I talk about, if I even say like, hey, I heard that, I don't want
Starting point is 01:51:44 to know. I don't want to know. He's like, whatever, who cares? It's just a stupid game. No, he is a well adjusted male. I'll say that right now. But again, like that's fine. But I'm past. I'm not, I'm never changing him, right? Right. But I have this opportunity with these boys. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no Joey Joey and Michael the Mikey the eagle nice guys finish last they're no they're gonna be they're gonna be some real shitheads on Sunday so it's gonna be a real creative on the names max max finish is to show Max baby yeah so you can do the roll back question RHOBACK.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q's this, polo's hoodies, joggers, shorts.
Starting point is 01:52:28 Rowback, go right now, rowback.com. PFT, you have a rowback question? It wasn't a rowback question, it was just a question, but it will be the rowback question today. Power rank, your favorite Jersey Shore bars. Oh, I'd go Parker House, Bar A, The Osprey, and Leggets. No DJs. I don't, I can't do DJsprey, and Leggots. No DJs. No DJs.
Starting point is 01:52:46 I don't, I can't do DJs. Max is upset. I can't do DJs. Why can't you do DJs? Sounds, well, Philly, yeah. So I'm new to that. So if you're from North Jersey, you stop at a certain area. And if you're from Philly, you go to the South Jersey side.
Starting point is 01:53:01 So I'm still pretty new to it. It's all the same disaster, right? Except the only difference is you see Jason Kelsie out. Right. And he's, he's everywhere. Right. Um, but Max, is there a bar that you, that you would say I have to go? See if I have it.
Starting point is 01:53:16 What's the bar you got kissed in? By your, by your dude. Wipe Briar is amazing. Okay. That's, that's fair. Wipe Briar is what he's saying. He's not. So no shower, happy hour. You, this is what they do saying. He's not in my mind. So no shower, happy hour.
Starting point is 01:53:26 This is what they do. You just go right from the beach, you start drinking. It's a good time. Yeah, this is stuff you did 10, like I did 10 years ago, not now, I can't do it. Although I did do it last summer. My sister's laws and I, we just said we were gonna go to the bathroom to the guys
Starting point is 01:53:41 and we went to happy hour and just didn't come back for two hours. That rocks. It was actually the best thing we did. It was a good hour and just didn't come back for two hours. That rocks. That's cool. That rocks. It was actually the best thing we did. It was a good move. Yeah. They didn't care. All right. So, uh, I don't know if you ever met our junior, uh, draft analyst, Stephen
Starting point is 01:53:54 Chey, he was at one point a senior draft analyst, but he's a junior draft analyst, so he's been demoted. Stephen is a football nut. All he thinks about is the NFL. Stephen, what are your questions? Well, I think we covered a lot of the NFL stuff. I do have some like, I think NFL insiders are very interesting, fascinating people.
Starting point is 01:54:15 Like I'm a huge, I'm a shifter stan. I saw that picture. Does that make you sad to say that out loud? Wow, dude, shetcher's great. Is it admiration or is it inspiration? Adoration, what is it about Adam that, because I don't think a lot of people would be like, man, Adam's amazing.
Starting point is 01:54:32 He's good at his job, but no one wants to. No, he looks up to him as a human being. As a human being. Yep, yeah. Do you think he's funny? Yeah, I do. Yeah. Do you think Adam Shepter's funny?
Starting point is 01:54:41 Yeah. Well, he's not like selling out like Man of Square Garden for like comedy, but I think he's funny. Yeah. Well, he's not like selling out like Madison Square Garden for like comedy, but I think How much you love a night with Adam at MSG how much how much would you be willing to pay? And this is like the full garden one man show the full Madison Square Garden One night you have floor seats. Yeah, I mean, oh floor seats. Yeah a couple hundred bucks That's I mean what's it seats, you had a couple hundred bucks.
Starting point is 01:55:08 That's, I mean, what's the going rate for that? I'm probably in the twos, high twos. High two figures? No, high two digits for like main standing or like not standing. I don't know, this concert will never happen. So yeah. Okay, so what's your question? Sure.
Starting point is 01:55:21 So we actually talked at the Jets facility right after you got the the athletic gig and something that I remember about that time and I'm sure is a struggle for people that leave the mothership is what do you do with your Twitter handle because it was a Racini ESPN. It was Diana ESPN Diana ESPN and now it's DM Racini. Yes. So what was the process like to be like okay I, I got to drop the ESPN, what do I go with? So it's funny you bring this up. This is the big question. I feel like you might have changed this once.
Starting point is 01:55:50 It's funny you bring this up because players have asked me this. Derek Henry came up to me at camp, I hadn't seen him like six months. He said, hey, I talked to you about something. I said, what's that? He said, your handle, you got to change it. You don't work at ESPN anymore.
Starting point is 01:56:02 I said, it's been like three weeks. Like chill. So I came up with DM, but I realized that after I Agreed to it that I was it's very inviting DM. Yeah, right I didn't think this out Yeah Just like come get me and I'm asking for it. Just like, come get me and send me NASA stuff, which man, some of my DMs are wild. But yeah, I mean, it was easy to change, but it was definitely a little bit of a sad moment
Starting point is 01:56:31 because I'd been dying as Panthers along. So, but DM now. Good question. Good question. It was really important. I noticed that. So I think that's, do you want to know more about Adam? I can tell you everything.
Starting point is 01:56:43 Yes, I do But actually that is kind of my next question is like because you're the senior insider at the athletic you are the person there there are natural rivalries between Newsbreakers and insiders like we have woj and shams obviously Schefter and rap sheet have Kind of a built-in rivalry. I don't know that they personally dislike each other, but like they're at competing networks. What is your relationship like with other insiders? And if somebody beats you to a scoop,
Starting point is 01:57:16 are you just like, fuck Jay Glazer? Like I hate that guy. Or are you internally like, you know, kicking and screaming? Or are you like, all right, great job. Oh no, I'm other fuck everybody. I'm competitive. So it's not personal. It's just, damn, they thought to call that person first, or man, they were working that
Starting point is 01:57:33 story harder than me. I usually put it back on me of like, what did I do that I didn't get it? So living in that world is dangerous too, because then you just get down about it. And it's so stupid. That's another thing where, like, I'm so lucky I have a family that has nothing to do with football. Like my dad's a plumber and my brother's a plumber. They don't give a shit about any of this.
Starting point is 01:57:51 And they'll see me like bummed out about something like, who cares? Like, but in my world, it is everything. Um, but my, our relations, like all the insiders are actually pretty cool. Like everyone gets along. I wouldn't say we're like, we're best friends. Like I don't want to go hang out with Ian Rapport. I have no desire, but I see Ian. I'm like, what's up?. Like I don't want to go hang out with Ian Raport. I have no desire. But I see Ian, I'm like, what's up?
Starting point is 01:58:06 And I think he's awesome. He's great at his job. And Adam's obviously the best at what he does. Adam's the king. There's no qualms about that. Like there's no one better than him. But I'm the only woman out here doing it. That's where it's been a little different for me.
Starting point is 01:58:22 Because I- Off queen. No, it's crazy. I give you like, like the question about like parenting and stuff like you what you do is it's insane to me. Like you deserve all the credit in the world. I don't know. I mean, I'm still trying to get better to edit right because I wasn't doing it a full time job at ESPN. This is full time now. So the athletics been really good about there. They're just so psyched that we're doing these kind of stories now.
Starting point is 01:58:46 And I actually had a conversation with an insider recently and he was like, are you nuts for writing these dysfunction pieces? No one's gonna talk to you anymore. And I actually found the opposite. I think more people are talking now because there's a little bit of fear in, wow, this person is diggy and they know.
Starting point is 01:59:03 And I don't wanna get on their bad side. And I don't to be that I don't want to be like a doom and gloom reporter but I love this new role of being able to just uncover stuff that that fans whether in memes wants to hear it or max wants to hear about the Eagles and their dysfunction at times it's it's there and it's why they're not winning. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead. I just want to follow up on that because you were saying that now you're writing. You were reporting basically on Twitter, on TV before, now you're adding in the writing
Starting point is 01:59:31 thing. I think it's a Mitch Hedberg joke. It's like going to a chef and being like, oh, you're a great chef. Can you also farm? Two things that are tangentially related. But becoming a writer at this point in your career, that seemed like a big ask. That was the hardest part about it. When they were like, okay, so we-
Starting point is 01:59:49 Writing sucks. They're like, we want you to write. I'm like, what? Yeah. The last time I wrote anything was just like my email password. Yeah. You know, I don't want to have to do that. Writing and reading sucks.
Starting point is 01:59:58 You gotta go face scan. You should be able to face scan the essay. Correct. Yeah. And just like anything else in life is like, the thing that you're most fearful of is always the most rewarding when you're able to accomplish it. So now I'm doing it all the time and I dread it. It's like a report that we all did in school. It's just like you dread it. But there is nothing better than turning that in, right?
Starting point is 02:00:17 When I press send to my editor, I'm like, I love it. And then especially when I see it published and the New York Times or on the athletic, it's worth it. So it's definitely been hard though. Sorry, last question. You obviously go and visit with a lot of teams and stuff like that. Today, the grades came out from, I think it was the NFLPA with grading the different franchises in order of several different factors. I don't want you to bash anyone, but who are your favorite teams to visit
Starting point is 02:00:46 and are the most accommodating, have the nicest facilities, et cetera? I think asking a media person is difficult because we're gonna base it on access, right? Like the PR staffs and the team. Not the buffet? Raw sugar. Well, the food thing does annoy me.
Starting point is 02:01:01 Like when they're, like the Super Bowl's food, terrible. Really? Terrible. Yeah, I'd base it on food. It annoy me. Like when they're like, the Super Bowls food, terrible. Really? That would be, yeah, I'd base it on food. It made me so sad. I was like, come on. The Super Bowl in Tampa, the COVID year, amazing. Oh, so good. Steve is a box fan.
Starting point is 02:01:14 So I would say the stadium outside of Dallas, so Dallas, Jerry obviously does a top notch. Outside Dallas, the team that does it the best in terms of the kind of food I like is New England. Cause they do pasta, they do lobster roll, they lean into who they are, right? There's some Italian, some seafood, and they take care of their media
Starting point is 02:01:33 cause they probably knew that they were gonna have, the media's gonna have to deal with grumpiness. So they're like, let's feed these guys. That's smart. But in terms of just dealing with different organizations, it's all over the spectrum. You deal with some teams and they just make your job so hard. And then you deal with people like the chiefs who have every reason in the world to be arrogant
Starting point is 02:01:51 and they're not. They're great. Like Patrick Mahomes is really open to doing stuff, so that's helpful. But then you'll go to some teams that are not good at all and it's such a pain to deal with. But in terms of facilities, the jets actually have a beautiful facility. I like going there and they feed you. That's another thing too, they feed you at lunch.
Starting point is 02:02:13 I think I'm a little bit more like you than I thought. If you feed me, I'm happy. If you put out a good spread, like nothing else really matters. Yeah. All right, good question, Steven. Diana, thank you. Like I said, it was long overdue and now that you're a current guest, we'll definitely have you
Starting point is 02:02:29 back on in the football season. Good luck with the podcast. What's the name of it? Scoop City. Scoop City. Oh, like Scoop City. Uh-oh. Is that? Are you scared? No. Scoop City, is that? I'm just trying to- Jack Mack? I actually was hoping. Oh no. We got a guy who is actually a very good reporter and he says Scoop City, so. Well, I wanted to reveal on the show my first guess. I thought it'd be like a really good video. Is it Jack Mack? No, it's Max.
Starting point is 02:02:56 Oh, it's Max? Yeah, Max. I said it's Max. It's a huge book. All the listeners at the Atlantic like, what, who is this guy? Yeah, it's just Max. We're just gonna put the microphone next to his butt
Starting point is 02:03:06 and just fart the whole time. Yeah. I'll be number one before you know it. He did finish the two cylinders, we gave him $600. Proud of you, Max. Good job, Max. Ooh.
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Starting point is 02:03:49 part of my cheesesteak. I get it all the time. It's delicious. No better couch meal in the world than part of my cheesesteak. No better lunch than part of my cheesesteak and now you can get two sodas buy one get one on sodas. Thanks to part of my cheesesteak order now on Uber Eats or part in my cheesesteak.com also, I don't know if you guys saw this, FedEx is taking their naming rights away from the commanders.
Starting point is 02:04:11 The fact of immediately, what do you guys think about Pardon My Cheesesteak Stadium? I like it a lot. Should we submit a bid? I love that. We're gonna submit a bid. Yeah, let's get that bid submitted. And then when it doesn't get approved,
Starting point is 02:04:24 we'll just be like, we're banned from the NFL. Yeah, the bad boy cheese steak. Yeah By the way speaking of steaks breaking moose Moose The one baseball player who's to who keeps us all connected. Who is that? player who's who who keeps us all connected. Who is that? Shwarbo. Shwarbo. They the MLB did one of those TikTok videos and they asked every single player or on the video obviously was like probably 35 players how they like their steak cooked. Kyle Schwabber, Mediumware Plus. Okay. That's love it.
Starting point is 02:05:01 And we love Kyle Schwabber. We do love Kyle Schwabber. We love Kyle Schwabber. We should do that. We it. You're a swarber and we love Kyle's swarber. We do love Kyle's swarber. We love Kyle's swarber. We should do that. We should do that as a special. Yeah, medium rare plus. What, what's special? Like a part of my cheese steak special. So, the cheese steak would be medium rare plus.
Starting point is 02:05:15 We did order steaks in Indianapolis. The medium rare was the exact same as medium rare plus. Yes it was. Yes it was. No, it wasn't. That's not true. Hank, pardon your take Yes, it was. No, it wasn't. That's not true. Hank, pardon your take. Pardon your take.
Starting point is 02:05:30 Uh-oh, a lot of reading. I think Boston is going to become the new tortured city. Oh! The Pats are gonna be weighed down by their terrible owner. The Celtics have had recent success in the regular season, but always will get face fucked by the heat. The Bruins are aging fast and don't really have a strong chance of winning the cup.
Starting point is 02:05:51 What are your thoughts on that one? That one's valid. Although they're really good this season, so maybe not. Yeah. I just, the Bruins that I know aren't on the team anymore. Yeah. I'm again, I get familiar with- Aging fast.
Starting point is 02:06:03 Pasta. Julia. The Red Sox owners should pay their fans and are much more interested in selling the Fenway Park experience and playing good baseball. That's a fact. Red Sox owners suck. This totally could come back to bite me in the ass. But I think the whole city is about to become the new Dallas Cowboys. Wow. The whole city will be come to Cowboys. I mean, you can't torture a city like I've won, I think 10 plus championships since I was nine years old like you can't torture That's not torture if we don't win the championship for a few years the Celtics are
Starting point is 02:06:32 The favorites to win the championship this year the Bruins are in the top five. I believe in the standings in their division Patriots new coach They're gonna be really good top three draft pick really I don't that doesn't sound tortured you think it's gonna be really good it will happen at some point yeah championship the next four years where everything goes down is there a chance it's going down right now no okay the the Celtics are like the most Celtics part doesn't that I've watched since you know the big three yeah I love watching the Celtics are fun to watch it's gonna be an exciting postseason Bruins I hop on once we get into the playoffs fun to watch, it's gonna be an exciting postseason.
Starting point is 02:07:05 Bruins, I hop on once we get into the playoffs. Max has a, he's got a crinkle in his face. Do you ever, Hank, do you ever feel like the best years of your sports life are behind you though? I think that is a fact, there's no way that it's not. That's a fact that I'm okay with that. Like the best sports years of my life were when I was like 16 to 25
Starting point is 02:07:22 and they were the most fun years of my life. I'm never gonna, I can't replicate that. that even if even I would rather have had the best years of my life be at the age That they were then when I'm 30 in Chicago, you know, no, you're right that right I got I had the prime the prime years were My prime years as well and if the Celtics win a chip this year then that like extends that window another yeah Three to five years. You're like, oh, we just recently won another one. Yeah Well, you're gonna say max you you say that they can't be tortured Would you say the current Cowboys fans are a tortured fan base? Yes. The answer is yes. Yes, but that's no There's enough time. That's a long time right enough time
Starting point is 02:07:58 Yes, but that's what this person is saying that it's true that it could trend You will be 40 years old will be tortured. Yeah, next thing you know, your quarterback's gonna be- You're 30! Your quarterback's gonna be shaving his head like he's pretty scared. Right, but the Cowboys are tortured because they won, when was the last time they won? 95? 96? Yeah.
Starting point is 02:08:13 So- But you would have said 40, like you're like when I'm 80 years old and dying, I'm a tortured fan. If you don't win another championship in the next 20 years, you would be tortured. Yeah, but I don't like, I'll be old by then. Okay. Yeah, you will be.. Yeah, but I'll be old by then. Okay, yeah, you will be. Being a tortured fantasy is,
Starting point is 02:08:30 people get mad at that. It's a young man's game, but like. I don't know, there's probably some old build fans. Well, yeah, but that's gonna be like this sucks, dude. They've never won. It's funny because Hank has experienced being a fan in the same years as like his potential athletic prime. So now he's like looking at, he's like, yeah, I got to retire.
Starting point is 02:08:49 I got to retire. I had a great run. Now I get to watch the other teams do it. Yeah. All right. Next one. Wait, also, why can't you be a fan when you're older? No, I'm saying that's right.
Starting point is 02:09:00 But that's not looking at it that way. Hanks like I'm retiring from being a sports fan. I actually think that's what it seems like. Hank's like, I'm retiring from being a sports fan. I actually think, I'm gonna do a press conference. I'd like to thank the city of Boston. I also think that there's like, when you're older, it might mean just like, it gets, you know, if you have kids and you're, you know, 30s and 40s, you got other shit,
Starting point is 02:09:16 your career going, like maybe not paying as much attention, but like, when you're 50, 60 and you got nothing going on, your teams probably mean a lot. That's what like my dad looks forward to tonight It's like going home and watching the Villanova game right the Phillies game. That's tough if I have kids I mean, that's tough. You just described his tough what seeing two national championships. No, but this year. I'm talking about this year Well, I mean, we're playing good ball right? Okay. Yeah, and the future on them Phillies have a really upgrade but it's fine Okay, if I have kids and and and then the teams go through hardships, maybe by that point, yeah, it will be torture.
Starting point is 02:09:50 But yeah, but this is kind of like the last dance for you, Hank. It's not. You can't. One final chance at a chip. Jason Tate was 26. He's 18. Okay. It's 19, but He's 18. Okay. It's 19, but Sub King cat PF tits golf boy Mr. Positions and double soda Don was PF tits mean I don't know They in Hurley drinking what looks like piss before every game had me thinking Would you guys drink your own piss before every game of the season if it met your team would go 17 and oh and win Yes, yes, without a doubt. Are you kidding me? It's the easiest question ever. Definitely
Starting point is 02:10:22 17 and oh and win. Yes. Yes. Without a doubt. Are you kidding me? It's the easiest question ever. Definitely. Jake you would drink piss. You would not. That's a lie. Oh no. If I was the coach of that team. Oh no. We're talking about his fans. Fans. Yeah. Actually the question might have been like if you were a coach but we'll just say. Yeah no it's fans I would do it. Easy. I would do I would drink piss every fucking Sunday just to have the Bears be in the playoffs. Don't even guarantee me anything but yeah like you guaranteed the playoffs that would be
Starting point is 02:10:48 pissed every Sunday no matter what wake up mouthwash piss I agree I would do it actually every day yeah not even every Sunday you just do it next year you know yeah maybe we will maybe we will tell me I won't max yeah I think you guys are all talk I don't think I, I think you guys are all talk Next year. Yeah, maybe we will I drink max's piss for a Super Bowl That's too far. No, his toilet can't even do that. Yeah, I eat so much asparagus. Oh, all right Hey fellas, I'd like to draw your attention to one of the biggest conspiracies in modern college athletics Did you know that the one and twoed in WCC tournament automatically start in the semifinal and get three buys? Yeah. This means that basically
Starting point is 02:11:29 every year all Gonzaga has to do to guarantee a tournament birth is win two games. Well, no, that's not all they have to do. Even with this ridiculous format Gonzaga has still failed to ever make a single final four. It's truly shocking. Love the show. But they would have to get that buy. Yeah, right. Saying like, Oh, well, the Gonzaga only has to win two games. They have to get that by yeah, right the saying like oh well the Gonzaga Gonzaga only has to win two games They have to win all the games in the regular season to get the one in the two-seat max pulled up the visual It's a great-looking grass. Yeah, no it is. It's a greater I like how they do it. It makes the regular season mean a lot more. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's not a conspiracy It is kind of crazy, but it's not a conspiracy looking at the bracket makes me think it's more of a conspiracy because that is a shocking bracket
Starting point is 02:12:06 Well, it's just you got to play well in the regular season. Yeah And they only have nine teams Okay, next our last one. I'm so fucking sick of Sean Payton getting away with being a bad head coach Oh, name another coach that's over throwing his team under the bus Wasting the rust seasons and being so bad that nobody wanted to buy his contract so he had to go on TV for a few seasons. He gets away was too much for winning only one Super Bowl with Breeze at his quarterback. Bill Belichick gets crushed for being a far superior coach, but Sean is the same guy with much worse accolades.
Starting point is 02:12:38 What does Sean Payton know? This is written by Roger Gidell, I think. I actually kind of agree with this take. I kind of agree with this take. I kind of agree with this take. I'll say this about Champagne. He's too miserable all the time compared to what he's done. Like you have to earn the right to be that ornery all the time and that pissed off at your own players.
Starting point is 02:12:55 Yeah. I don't like the way that he treated Russell last year, who by the way, was not very good. I'm not like gonna stand on the table for Russell Wilson, but like everything was Wilson's problem last year Right, even when it wasn't like that game against the Lions on Thanksgiving When he was like, yeah, it's your fault that this happened and turned out that it wasn't at all Yeah, he needs to he needs to tone down the the pissed-offness like a couple notches until he gets the playoffs again
Starting point is 02:13:19 It's also a great lesson that if you can win a Super Bowl with a franchise that everyone assumed was never going to win a Super Bowl, you do get way more grace than if you win a Super Bowl with the Cowboys or the Steelers or the Packers. That's a fact. Yeah, but also- Mike McCarthy and Mike Tomlin have a Super Bowl and they're talked about completely different than Sean Payton because Sean Payton won it with the Saints. I think Sean Payton could have been that pissed off and like thrown his team out of the bus if he'd stayed in New Orleans.
Starting point is 02:13:47 Yeah. But now they's in Denver. I think, yeah, now it might turn on him. Yeah. If he doesn't get it right, it will turn on him. Yeah, also Hank, I just remembered, you said that the Red Sox ownership doesn't care about the fans at all. Are you excited at all about Theo?
Starting point is 02:14:01 Theo's back. Did you know that Theo was back? No. Yeah. Theo's back. Yes. I mean Theo was back? No. Yeah. Theo's back. Yes. I mean they haven't signed anyone. They don't do anything. Well he's not back.
Starting point is 02:14:10 He's like with the ownership group. So he's not like the Red Sox GM. The ownership group does not care about the Red Sox. But he will, I think. They care about golf. They care about soccer. They care about. NASCAR.
Starting point is 02:14:21 NASCAR. They care about everything but the Red Sox. Yeah. I think Theo will probably change that. It's the Fenway group. They started with the Red Sox and now they're on to bigger and better things and they know that the they'll sell out. They'll still get a lot of money, you know, from people coming to games, even though they suck.
Starting point is 02:14:34 So why bother? Yeah. It's a shame. It's tough. Okay. Good show, boys. Great interview coming on Friday with Pat Bev. Awesome, awesome interview in
Starting point is 02:14:46 person numbers 40 8 20 18 oh shit did I beat you to that 77 3 wait wait what are you looking up Jason Kelsey's number no no you already said your number. I know. Pug 99. 99, Pug. Okay, here we go. And Shane's got 21. He's got a doctor appointment, but he sent me that. Beautiful. What is it?
Starting point is 02:15:17 I wouldn't be shocked if Pug actually goes to a vet. Just sitting next to like a doodle in the waiting room. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah I'm talking away, but I don't know what to say, I'm saying anyway Today is all my day to find you, shine and awake I'm coming for your love, I'm coming for your love, I'm coming for your love of grace Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I said you need less to say So I put my hands up and you stomp a little way So I learned that my heart is okay Say it out for me I said you better to be safe this time
Starting point is 02:16:57 Say it out for me I said you better to be safe this time You say it's a good start, but you're not Come on, baby Take on me Take on me Take on me I'll be your Good to you Good to you Good to you
Starting point is 02:17:18 Good to you I'll be your Good to you Good to you Good to you I'll be your hero Things that you say and reason why Just blame it for me You're all things I've come to remember Shine away
Starting point is 02:17:41 I'll come and see you in the daylight Shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me, shine on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Change of me Oh, me Change of me Me Oh, change of me
Starting point is 02:18:31 Oh, me

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