Pardon My Take - Raiders HC Antonio Pierce, The Jaguars Kid Who Got His Head Stuck In A Statue, Hard Knocks, Mt Rushmore of Tough Thing + Grit Questions With USC HC Eric Musselman

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Grit Week marches on and we’re all over the place on the bus (00:00:00-00:09:26). Hard Knocks episode 1 debuted and Big Cat has his guard up on Bears slander (00:09:26-00:27:18). We had an earthquake during the show. Olympics (00:27:18-00:33:08). Hot Seat/Cool Throne including White Sox winning a game and Brandon Aiyuk maybe getting traded (00:33:08-00:53:21). Mt Rushmore of tough things (00:53:21-01:17:04). Raiders Head Coach Antonio Pierce joins the show to talk about grit, getting the Head job, the 2007 Giants, what being born a Raider means and tons more (01:17:04-01:45:29). The kid who got his head stuck in the Jaguars statue in 1997 came to our meet and greet and we interviewed him to get the full story behind the iconic picture (01:45:29-01:59:25). We finish with Grit Questions with USC Head Coach Eric Musselman (01:59:25-02:17:03).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

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 a packed show for the AWL's. It is Grit Week Day three, and we have Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce, one of the grittiest guys out there. Great interview with him. We went to USC today to run a basketball practice with head coach Eric Musselman, recurring guest, great guy. He is going to be on the pod

at the end of the show to answer listener submitted grit questions. We also have a very special interview. Probably the only podcast that would do this interview, we ran into at the meet and greet, the kid, or he's not a kid anymore, the adult who has a kid got his head stuck in the Jacksonville Jaguars statue. So we did an exclusive with him, which was great.

We have the Mount Rushmore of Tough Things. We're gonna talk hard knocks. It was a very good Mount Rushmore, by the way. Great Mount Rushmore. Great Mount Rushmore. We have Hot Seat Cool Throne. It is jam packed show, and it's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Know the beautiful thing about being a sports fan?

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You got a good young quarterback. I like and a tight end Jason Kelsey's brother plays tight end and he's pretty good Okay, I had the Saints over seven and a half. I think they're not as bad as people think they are. Hank, what was yours? The Bears. Oh, okay, yeah, you did that as a troll. If you're new to DraftKings, you gotta check this out. New customers bet $5, get 150 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportswear app now.

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And then we'll take it higher We're gonna rock on to electric power next to it And rock on to take it higher It's Part of My Take presented by Barstool Sports. Welcome to Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. For new customers, get $150 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just $5.

Only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, August 7th and football is back. Memes, are you okay? I'm good. He's crying. He's so happy that football is back. Listen, we're going to talk about hard knocks in a second. I just want to set the stage. We are on day three of grit week. week as grit week goes along the days get longer

I feel like today was a thousand years Thursday today's Thursday. We are all kind of running on fumes slash Like weird fights, but fun fights all I don't even know what Hank was Hank wasn't being that fun when he was being a bitch earlier That's a real hippity-dippity Right you we found out also we found out that Huey says hippity-dippity It doesn't Memes thinks that oh he says it memes thinks that oh he says it he thinks that that should be his catch oh okay can that be your catchphrase? Hippity-dippity. Hippity-dippity. Alright there it is.

He said it. He said the words. Yeah. He did the tweet the smockin tweet hippity-dippity. Say it one more time. Hippity-dippity. Hibbidi divi. Say it one more time. Hibbidi dividi. How do you spell that? I don't know. That's, that's, that's, I think it's spelled. Yeah. And that's above our pay grade. Uh, but football's back. We are in grit week and we're losing our minds, but in a good way. Yeah. And we did the, we did the close thing yesterday. Uh, we had Huey and pug, right? Pug went with you. So we're wearing our new clothes. Yeah. I got an outcast shirt. I'm getting a lot of street cred. Big Cat shirt is just awesome.

Yeah. But you are wearing, like, horizontal conduct... Horizontal seersucker shorts, which I've never seen before. It's kind of hypnotizing. I didn't even realize till now one leg is horizontal, one leg is vertical. That's your... Yeah, your shorts are hypnotizing. What the fuck?

Kind of cool. I've been wearing these shorts all day. It's like a Magic Eye thing for your crotch. What the hell? Hank is rocking a Daytona shirt. I would just wear this outfit. Yeah, Hank looks good. Max is wearing something.

Yeah. I look good. Yeah. What's wrong with my fit? Why are you wearing a tank top? Yeah, well. Wearing Cali, bro. Wearing Cali.

You look like the owner of the shittiest bar in Mexico. I Think the boys look great. I think the boys look pretty good this today. But yeah, we're weak. We're We're doing the damn thing. So we went we watched hard knocks shout out Corby and Susanna great AWLs They opened up their home to us. They made Buffalo wings and Rosie Rosie I wanted to be the one to shout out Rose No, the dog actually did growl at one person and one person only, Max. Didn't growl. Did not growl. It was a growl. Not even a slight growl.

It was a growl. It was a little... I saw it. I was standing right there. It was a little hesitant. There was no growl. It was a little... Not hesitant towards any of us. She wasn't hesitant to me. She was hesitant. You guys suck. No, she rubbed up against my leg. I have dog hairs on my leg. But we did it all. We had a great meet and greet in Long Beach. Tons of AWLs came out. We met the kid whose head got stuck in the Jaguar statue, which we have him on the show later on. Shout out to the guy that just brought me a football.

He just came up to me and he goes, APFT, I brought you a football and handed it to me. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever given. This is the nicest present of all time. Yeah. Because then you got to just have a football and toss around. Hank called the AWL soft as fuck because they didn't give him any drugs. I didn't say soft. I didn't say soft. That's not what I said. I was just, the last three or four meet and greets we've walked away with like a lot of weed. Silk road. The entire Silk Road. I was surprised that in California of all places that it didn't happen, but I don't I wouldn't have taken it anyway You don't like them. That's fine. I love them. They were awesome. Everybody's super cool today

Yeah, so we had a great day and we finished it with hard knocks at Corby and Susanna's house What are you saying? I'll say yeah, I'm you probably will before the interview but quickly since I'm sure there's many many people who will not understand the Jaguars hit because even our own producers were like, I don't even know what the fuck he's talking about. That's fair. That's fair. There's a famous picture of from 1997.

Famous to you. No, this was the NFL world, the NFL world, 1997. I knew it. I knew it. There's a famous picture of a nine year old who put his head inside the Jacksonville Jaguar outside the Jaguar stadium. He put his head in the statues, the Jaguars mouth, and he got his head stuck in the Jaguar. And there's a picture of this little kid with his head stuck in the Jaguar. And it's like the fire department had to come. He's going to tell the whole story. I get to the bar today. This kid, this guy comes up to me. He's like, Hey, you've talked about me a lot, but you don't know who I am. And I was like, all right, this is weird. I'm skeptical. And he's like, I'm the guy kid who got his head stuck in the Jaguar. And I was like, shut the fuck up. And he showed me his ID. I then looked at all the articles

about it, matched up, age matched up, everything. I used to post a picture every time the Jaguars lost in my blogs. And listen, if Hank hates this interview, PFT, I thought it was fun. I thought it was a fun wrinkle. I don't think that Hank appreciates the lore behind Jaguars, Ken. No, you hate the interview. It's fine. It's a 10 minute interview. It's a funny story. Jaguars KV. The guy even said to us said Listen the interview said ESPN in meeting and greeting while you guys were he said the ESPN and the Jaguars have reached out to him To try to get him to do an interview and he's like I saved it for PMT. I love that Big cat I was standing next to him as we start, you know doing pictures and every maybe first or second or third picture He's like I can't believe he's here

Couldn't well Jack Jaguar skates a big't. Well, Jaguar's Kid is a big deal, Hank. This kid is synonymous with Jaguar. I would say that the first things that come to mind with Jaguars is Blake Bortles, and then probably Blake Bortles again, and then Distant Third Jaguar's Kid. Yeah. Also Urban Meyer.

Yeah. All right, so we got a shitload for everyone, but we should talk hard knocks Which is great. I loved our it was a good good first episode. I don't think that you did like it I thought you know like no no no no I got one through some emotional swings during the episode I understand the storytelling HBO has to do I thought they were pretty heavy on the bad Caleb Williams highlights to start But then they turned around and I will say right now just watching it. I mean Caleb Williams highlights to start, but then they turned around, and I will say right now,

just watching it, I mean, Caleb Williams has aura. He's also got a fucking fat ass, which is good, because that's the power to drive the football down the field. I made a couple notes during it, just right off the top, because Big Cat did get upset with how they showed his bad. The first 10 minutes were just... His bad passes.

Were just bad passes. I was like, where is this going? No, no, no, no, no. In the first five minutes, they did a montage of some silky, silky spirals. Some great passes. It was a lot of bad passes. First pass was great. Yeah, and then it was bad passes. Then they showed some good ones.

I understand they're doing storytelling. I just, you know, and they also did the whole pun, like, oh, everyone can take the L, but they want Ws. Uh-huh. So, I made a couple notes here, just of Big Cat's initial thoughts behind it. First thing Big Cat said. Wait, whoa.

You were recording me when we were just watching? I made two notes, two things that you said. You can tell me if they're false. OK, I mean, they're probably true. All right, first, Big Cat thought that they were calling Caleb Williams gay when Ibraflu said the word grinder. And it cut to Caleb Williams. It was a suspect cut. I'm just got, listen, everyone shits on the bears. Everyone outside

of Chicago is saying the kill was going to be a monumental bust. I have my defenses up. I don't think that's true. Okay. A lot of people. All right. Sorry. I saw we never speak in hyperboles here. A lot of people are hoping's like... All right, sorry I... Oh, we never speak in hyperboles here. A lot of people are hoping for Caleb Williams to be a bust and wishing for Caleb Williams to be a bust, including Hank. I have my... Hank's gonna bet on him. I have my guard up.

You guys do the same thing with your team. All right, all right. You do the same thing with your team. That was the first one, so after the gay thing... I think that's a totally normal thing to have my guard up. I'm trying to defend my guy. Okay, I'm watching out for negative things After you you think you went to jail for Tom Brady. Yeah, I know you had your guard up Yeah, right

Okay, so I got my guard up after the gay thing next thing was he was stretching and a big cat says Caleb Williams has a nice ass. He does Yeah, he's got a fat ass. He does. Yeah. He's got a fat ass. You've never made a sexual comment? No, I'm just saying, you said he had a nice ass. He does, he's got a powerful ass. I want my quarterback to have a big ass.

Drives the ball. He's got a good ass, but I think as it went on, correct me if I'm wrong, I might be psychoanalyzing you a little bit. Yeah, this sounds like you're watching me more than Hard Knocks. 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, 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 Parsons project and but then Nick Saban said the one thing that gets quarterbacks is expectations, correct Is that why you were feeling touchy because you feel like you've given him big expectations? No, I'm gonna I'm gonna say wild shit. Okay time. Okay, you just like Hank. Yeah, we all say wild shit I get what now you know me well that do you want to talk about your gaff? Yeah, PFT is gonna argue on my behalf on that one. Okay

Wait, have I just been deputized as his lawyer? I don't know I didn't know I feel like I was in a safe space in Corby and Susanna's house I didn't know I was being watched as close as I was being watched. Well, we talked about things on the show that Personally that weren't personal. I get it. I know that because I have my guard up. Right. I'm agreeing with you that I'm psychoanalyzing every moment. But it's because I've been battered to a point where it's like, you know, like when you drop your keys and your dog flinches?

That's what I do. When there's any negative thing, I flinch. I think you might feel the pressure of giving expectations to Caleb. No, I don't feel the pressure at all. I'm going to give expectations to everybody. I did the same the pressure at all. I'm gonna give expectations to everyone. I did the same thing with Justin Fields, I did the same thing with Mr. Biskie,

I did the same thing, like, go on down the line. I'm gonna do the same thing for the rest of my life. If Caleb Williams doesn't turn out, the next guy, I'm gonna do the same thing. The next guy, I'm gonna do the same thing. And round and round and round we go, and then when someone drops the keys or someone closes the door really loud,

I'm gonna flinch. Okay, so Nick Saban... Sucks at karaoke, by the way. That was... I agree. I said that. If you want to criticize Cale Williams about anything, he can't sing. Which is fine. Or read. What?

He, like, couldn't... he couldn't even... he wasn't even trying to sing. This is why I have my defense up. This guy is going... see? Everybody in the national media... I'm being... I'm proven correct. Everyone thinks he can't read. Can't read a defense or a karaoke machine. And I rest my case. No... I'm being proven correct. Everyone thinks he can't read... Can't read a defense or a karaoke machine. And I rest my case. This was the guy who just two seconds ago said he was an ally.

I am, I am, I am. This is why I have my guard up. Drake, may you think he's good at karaoke? Definitely. I would rather my quarterbacks stink at karaoke. To each their own. Okay, what else about Hard Knocks? Okay, Nick Saban. Yeah. He brought

Nick apparently Matt Eberfluss. He has a coach. Yes. Because Nick Saban is now coaching Matt Eberfluss. I didn't understand maybe this was just for cameras and it is a show and that's what you know, the Caleb Williams, the the bad highlights that I

was like, come on, show something good. I understand they're telling a story. Did Nick Saban and Matt Iberfluss never have that conversation before? That made no sense. I was wondering that if you're Matt Iberfluss, it actually, it's good that they're having this now when they have Caleb, but I feel like they would have had that conversation when he got the job. They 100% have had that conversation. They won, they won, right?

He's probably had that conversation, like he probably talks to Nick Saban every year. It's kind of like the clip at the end with Jonathan Owens clearly watching a tape recorded Simone Piles being like, yeah, go. It's like, no, she's going for a gold and you're half clapping. We know this isn't live. Yeah, so Saban gets in. He talks about what can kill a quarterback.

He's giving him advice. And then during that conversation, Max chimes in. Max says, Nick Saban, not a great track record when developing quarterbacks. He's not a QB whisperer. Yeah. That's what, they were just like showing Nick Saban as like this wise, like tell all coach, which he is. But if you were to say one thing about Nick Saban, it's that he's not like a quarterback whisperer. Right. And then, then we started trying to think about quarterbacks that he's had.

No, but you took that as like a defense against the Bears for some reason. No. And then Big Cat said, Oh, yeah, it was. Yeah. My guard is up. I'm saying like, yeah, because you're like, why is this guy telling him about the quarterbacks? And Big Cat said, I'm going to have my guard up. What about Jalen Hurts? And then? I'm not going to apologize for having my guard up. I want that very clear. OK. No. Memes can, memes back me up. I want that very clear. Okay. Memes can, memes back me up.

You have your guard, this is why you've had a Floreo over the year. You gotta always have your guard up. Yeah, always have your guard up. There's haters like Floreo, Hank, and Max. When you're a battered franchise, you gotta be looking around every corner being like there's a shooter.

What? Max, Max is best. He said the Jets are gonna win Super Bowl, so I love Max. He just kept saying that. I was like, after he told us to do a long shot pick and I said Jets. Yeah, but he's got his guard up, so he's like, you're trolling. Yeah, guard up, guard up. Max Cool. Anti-flurry of the year. No, it's natural to have your guard up, but I said during, when we were watching it,

that this was like Big Cat's version of The Dynasty, the Patriots documentary, where Hank got his guard up about the Patriots, and you're like, give me more football porn. I came around after they started showing Caleb's good stuff, I understand, they gotta tell a story, they're like, oh, he's a rookie, he sucks, I just, I wanna see him throw touchdowns, that's all.

Yeah, so. It's not too much to ask for. So Max, the Jalen Hurts comment, when you said Saban, not really quarterback whisperer, and they brought up Hurts. I got flustered, like I normally do. Actually, Corbyn brought up Hurts. He was like a fifth member of PMT.

Yep, that was a good job by him. He was just like, what about Hurts, Max? I got flustered, came up with a bad answer, and then PFT was like, all you have to do is say that he got better when he went to Oklahoma. Yeah, he did. When he left. That's true, yeah. He did. He did. Yeah, I... Listen, Max, I agree that Nick Saban...

I think that was just all like, they're like, we want Nick Saban in this, and we're going to have him do a conversation with the Iberfluz, a conversation they probably had a million times, the main story of this Hard Knocks is gonna be Caleb Williams, so he's gonna talk about Caleb Williams. That's it, like there was no, that whole conversation was like basically for show, in my mind.

Because again, you could never tell me that Nick Saban and Matt Ibra Fluss have not talked about football every single year. Agreed. It wasn't the first time they were doing it. And he was like taking fake notes. They had a very long montage of Matt Eberfluss getting hot. Yeah. Well, funk, our guy funk. He got funked up. Yeah. I don't know how I still feel about that. I would feel, I would feel better about it. He looks better because in some of the clips

that they showed from- Feel good, feel good, feel good, play good. that they showed from the last couple seasons when he was bald faced and he was like making these goofy, goofy facial gestures or facial expressions, it made me like rappel in my chair a little bit. And then they showed him now and it's like, that guy's hot. Oh, I forgot. Nick Saban, the one funny part about Nick Saban was it's like the best college coach of all time, this football genius, and he also uses the dumbest argument in all of sports, Peyton Manning threw a ton of interceptions as rookie year. Which is like, there was only

one guy who did that. Who threw as many interceptions as Peyton Manning and then went on to be Peyton Manning. The more interceptions you throw as rookies Statistically the better you all it's every single person has been using that since Peyton Manning being like if your rookie sucks You're like well Peyton Manning sucked and to see Nick Saban use that same dumb logic Yeah, it was awesome. The star of the show was the Canadian offensive lineman that that sang karaoke Yes, I think he might actually be deaf. But it wasn't about the singing. It was about the speedo.

Rocking an American flag speedo. And his buddy in the background playing the cymbals. And that was awesome. But it was like doing a speed run of hard knocks, where usually you get the very sympathetic, the guy that you root for right off the bat, episode one, you follow him, you root for him, you root for him, then he gets cut in like the last episode. This time it was like, okay, I'm rooting for this guy because he's fucking

hilarious and had the most hilarious Canadian accent. And then later on in the episode, he got hurt and he's going to get cut. Yeah, for sure. Gonna get cut. But that guy rocks. Yeah. He was awesome. He's the most American guy that I've ever met. Yeah, he was cool. But he's Canadian. It was cool when Cale Williams said his signing bonus just because everyone was like, oh, fuck. And he was pointing at Ryan Pohl's.

The DJ Moore thing was cool. He's an awesome guy getting all that money. It was also funny watching Kevin Warren sit there and like read over the numbers at the end. I've been like, yeah, good deal. Okay, thanks. It's fair on all sides. good deal. Mm-hmm. Okay, thanks. It's fair on all sides.

Appreciate that. I liked it. I liked it. I just want to see, Cale Williams should probably throw more touchdowns and I'll see more touchdowns. Yeah. I understand that part of it.

They did show a lot of his sick throws very early on. Yeah. When they had the spirals, he had a very fuckable spiral. But yeah, there was the, okay, he's struggling a little bit. Do you think he has aura? I do. I don't think that you can argue otherwise. Yeah, I don't think that's even a question. Yeah. The slip and slide was cool.

Also, Tyson Bajan is very funny. Yeah. Bajan's hilarious. The slip and slide thing was funny because that's there are two things that a coaching staff can do to train their quarterbacks how to slide. And every team does one of these two things one is a slip and slide yep the other is call up the professional baseball team in your city and ask them yes do you have any pointers on how to slide yes but football coach you should be able to teach a guy how to slide without consulting a professional about it

Oh we feel it we just had an earthquake. Did we feel it? We just had an earthquake. I've always wanted to feel an earthquake. Five points. Oh, is that what the breaking news was? Five point six? How do we not feel it? Is that the big one? Pug texted our group chat and was like, the whole hotel was shaking. The RV didn't move. This thing is a fucking tank. Did it? You felt it? I thought it was just like someone shifting in the bus. Oh. That's a fat joke. Me, Huey, and Max just locking eyes being like, OK.

Is it still going? No. No. We survived our earthquake. There could be a afterquake. It also might have been me yelling about the bears. Caused a little fluster. First earthquake on the park.

Yeah, so we've done a tornado. We've done earthquake. We've done, we've survived. I'm kind of pissed that I didn't feel it. Yeah, me too. What else have we survived? Are we tougher than earthquakes? That we just didn't even feel it?

Either that, or we have really bad balance naturally, and so we just didn't feel being shitted around. Bad awareness? Yeah, bad awareness. I was probably focused on how I fucked up the Jalen Hurts thing. Yeah. Also, Max did say that he was hoping that, uh, Cale Williams got hurt on the slip and slide. That's not true. That was Hank that said that. Oh, did Hank say

that? If he got hurt on the slip and slide. You're not, hey, listen, just a little tip for everyone out there. You're not paranoid if everyone's out to get you. Okay. I agreed though. I agree that it would have been fun It's a fact have you guys and address What is that? What are you guys talking about? saying address you and memes starts with an earthquake then a tidal wave then just Or wait hit by tidal wave. Do you think the earth knows it's great week? I think it would probably need more than five point six, but yeah, maybe you think there's a tsunami should we go catch a wave? We did surface up go sir

Yeah, we do comes out Thursday. I'm bummed that I feel that earthquake same I know like I if I didn't feel it and we were just hanging out then we could at least lie about it But the fact that we were recording We didn't talk about it. So everyone knows you didn't feel you think the cameras shook That'd be cool earthquake him shake one of those cameras real quick. Oh yeah, there's the earthquake. Oh my God. Oh shit. What an earthquake. That feels like I'm going to say a 5.6. Whoa. All right. Last thoughts about Hard Knocks. I wish the Bears weren't on Hard Knocks. That's what I'll say. It's too early for me to get my blood pressure this high.

I don't like that. I don't like having, I think I even said during the episode, I was like, how many episodes of this are there? Because I don't... Oh yeah. I'm done watching this show. I'm going to have to just... But I'm just, I'm like, usually August is when I like reserve my energy getting ready for the battles I'm going to go into. and now I feel like I have to fight the battles

Early, and it just I don't know Buddha Ben just tweeted whoa big earthquake hashtag Los Angeles Wow what are you gonna say Max? I I would be so excited if my team was on hard not one something, but it's like you You've won something more football. Yeah, I understand your team Max it's like you got to it's your team. I heard Max. It's like you got to be... Your team's not a joke. No, if the commanders were on...

But your team is so excited right now. If they are a joke, I would absolutely love that. I understand. I'm excited. But you think that it's not. Like, you think that everyone's out to get you when... Because they are. I don't think they are.

Yeah. You guys were wishing Caleb Williams got hurt on the slip-in slide. Someone brought it up. Like, they were getting off of that slip and slide with like no footing at the end of that. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I agree that they were very... it made me nervous. If it was another team... But when you vocalized it, I was like, he's out to get it.

Okay, so, so, so if this, if this was like The Steelers, and we were watching The Steelers hard knocks, and Russell Wilson was on a slip and slide because he couldn't slide anymore... So if this was like the Steelers and we're watching the Steelers Hard Knocks and Russell Wilson was on a slip and slide because he couldn't slide anymore. I wouldn't give a fuck! And you said like... I wouldn't give a fuck! And someone said it'd be very funny, like just hilarious though. Not like wishing bad will, but objectively speaking it would be funny if he got hurt on the slip and slide they brought in. No shit! That went... wait, yeah, they wouldn't... No shit, PFT! If it was the commanders on the Hard Knocks and someone said. No shit! That went, that went, wait, yeah, they wouldn't, they did that there out to get the steelers. No shit, PFT, if it was the commanders on Hard Knocks

and someone said that, you would have the same reaction. You'd be like, shut up. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, if somebody said that, you would agree. Yes, objectively, it would be funny. No shit. Yeah. Right.

If it happened in, I agree. I don't know if it happened to Jayden if I'd be this upset. Yes, you would. Okay. You'd react the same way. That's why I, I, I, I'd Jayden if I'd be this upset. Yes you would. Okay. You'd react the same way. That's why I... I'd be upset. I'd be upset.

Yes, Max would be upset. Max would be upset. We all react the same way. It's just that this is why I don't, I wish I wasn't on Hard Knocks. You can't, Pft, don't pretend that you wouldn't be upset if it was Jayden Daniels and he like comes up a little gimpy or something and you're like, oh, it would be a shit. You'd be like, shut up. Don't say that.

I would say shut up. Don't say that if he got up gimpy. Yeah. It would be the same thing. And if it was a team that wasn't my team, I would have no problem. That's how all of us react. Guards up.

But that's how everyone reacts to fandom. Yeah, but their team, they defend. I would love. Everything else is funny. That's how fans work. I would love to see just... I'm with Max where it's like if we get five weeks of extra commanders content, I would be... But again, I'm not in the trenches.

No, yeah, you're not a man in the arena. You're not right there right now. It's... I'm going to watch every second. I just... I wish I didn't have to have my guard up this early. That's all. And we're a joke. I don't want to be a joke anymore

Huey you understand you just stopped being a joke. Yeah, I mean the Lions literally just stopped being a joke But to that point it was two seasons after hard knocks true the best season ever true So I have to wait another year. Yeah, okay next year over the year, okay? What are you doing Hank? Hubbity-hubity, hubbity. No. So close. So close. All right. What else? Well, you say basketball wins.

Yeah, LeBron had quite the moment. Did you guys see that? The yeah. Yeah, that was funny. The French. the French swimmer came into the arena and the arena went crazy and LeBron thought everyone was cheering for him. He even put on the crown. It's very funny seeing a guy who's been like main character his entire life, not be main character, still thinks that he's main character. Right. Right. Hank, did Tatum play? Yep. How did Tatum do like compared to Joel Embede, because that's been the big back and forth.

I thought you were better. No, I mean, it's a team game. USA won, and Bede played well. Tatum played well. And Bede had a monster game. Monster game. Only played half. Why?

Because they were up so big. He's tired. We killed them. The rest of the starters. We now need to win every game by 30. Yeah, I mean, today was domination. And who will we play next? We play Jokic, Serbia.

Oh, so isn't B gonna go home for that game? No, he's gonna fucking dominate. It's not in altitude. Okay, good. Wait, how high up is France? I don't know, bro. I don't know why. Max's guard's up. Yes, this is... I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the

gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the

gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to. 100%. I'm shocked, PFT, you like, you would have the same reaction. He just had his guards up because we flipped it on him and then when it flips to you. Don't compare me. But you would have the same reaction, PFT. To which thing? Guards being up if your team was under the microscope. Can I just feel an earthquake? Now I'm feeling the phantom quakes Because I want to feel them There you go, man

Shake it my guard would probably be a little bit up. Yeah, but I would also be I don't have our guards up when our teams under the microscope. I'm excited. I'd be excited about having the team I am excited but guards up always gotta get your guards up. Thanks guys guards up anytime we bring up Tatum Guards up always gotta get your guards up. Hey Scott is guards up anytime. We bring up Tatum He's ready to go. No when you wanna win a championship. It's like who cares that hurts He's right right now. He's right about that. You're actually absolutely right. You're absolutely right about that Okay, what anything else in the Olympics happen? Stooped dogs getting paid half a million dollars just to hang out and that's pretty sweet. Yeah a day Like ten million dollars crazy crazy

It's money Mondo Diplantis Pull vaulting record that was a big story. We met him in LSU Six years ago. We met that guy. Yeah, I met him at a tailgate. We were at a tailgate together. I Was like separate I met him hung out with him like we went to a different tailgate I was in for a few hours just and I said I was a normal student like we just had a good time He was a normal student Had a good time was with his friends And then he followed me on Instagram after I remembered his name I clicked his name and he had like a hundred thousand followers like I'll track and field star

Yeah, and then he went on to break the world record and then this he won the gold medal in Tokyo Then he broke his own world record and won the gold medal Yesterday and like the celebration with his girlfriend went viral. He was like the the talk of the Olympics yesterday, which is very cool Does that mean he's got a small dick though? It might that's fine gold medalist world record model girlfriend Who cares? Yeah, no one cares. That's fine. Gold medalist, world record. Model girlfriend. Who cares? Yeah. No one cares. He's fine. So Hank, after you, was it after you met him that we did the Mount Rushmore of Olympic sports that you think you could dominate at? If you trained that was and Hank selected pole vaulting. Was he bigger than you? He's. Oh, you think you take him in a fight? No, I mean, he's an athletic freak, but he's I don't know he might be like five ten or six one Well, you can't be dapping athletic freak. He needs a pole Maybe it'll run fast as fuck. Did you respond to you when when you selected pole vault?

Yeah, you're the dumbest person all time. I almost filmed the video with him the timing didn't work out But but he would if he didn't Had all time if it if I had been able to execute my vision it was Athletic Creek, wouldn't he just win the high jump? I had it all time. If I had been able to execute my vision, it was going to be me doing the running and then cutting to him in the same outfit so it looked like it was me. Okay, that's good vision. It would have been great. Yeah.

But yeah, shout out to Mando. Oh, we buried the lead at the start of the show. Congratulations to the Chicago White Sox. Oh yeah, they won. They won a game. They beat the Oakland Athletics today. So 21 games in a row, snapped. Yeah.

Also, did you guys see today that Scheffler was doing a weird thing? He was, it was very smart of him. He was just tweeting out depth charts for the first pre-season game, just to get, like, the interactions were crazy, because it was like, J.J. McCarthy's the second quarterback. Yeah. Bo Nix I think was the third quarterback. I see you Shefty that that plays. Although I think Russell Wilson was QB one. Oh. So does that mean he's

actually QB two? I think so. Are we? They said field was starting. We're doing Terrence Howard math right now. I don't know. But it was... Was that not a story? I saw he had a flurry of them, and I was like, because I have alerts on for Shefty, and each one that came in, I was like, these are going to do numbers, because it's basically like this first round pick is the second quarter, which doesn't mean anything.

But it just gives fodder for everyone. Yeah, listen, we all, we need content this time of year. Correct. We need stuff to argue about. Correct. Just give us a list. People say that all guys need to do is sit around naming names, and that's fine. We do that sometimes.

But if you give us those random names in any sort of an order, that's when our blood really gets up. Yes. That's when we have fun. That's a fact. All right. Anything else before we do Hot Seat Cool Throne and then get to the rest of the show?

It's been a great day. Yeah. I can't believe we played basketball this morning. Again. Everything. Hot Seat Cool Throne, brought to you by our friends at Coors Light. College football is never short on intrigue,

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football rivalries you're watching heat up, choose chill with Coors Light and DraftKings. Get Coors Light delivered straight to your door with Instacart going to coreslight.com slash take. Celebrate responsibly Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado. Hank, hot seat, cool turn. My hot seat, unfortunately, guards up the Patriots. Oh, I had them too on my hot seat, unfortunately, guards up the Patriots. Oh, I had them too on my hot seat. Brandon, Iuk, rumors were hustling and bustling. It seemed like we were going to pick up a stud wide receiver, number one wide receiver, for our new quarterback.

And then the report came out on Monday. That said it was basically two deals were in place, one with the Browns, one with the Patriots. And it was just going to be up to the 49ers Or I guess I you could decide this whole thing makes no sense and then a report came out today, which is an official that It's gonna happen with the Steelers McCaffrey Christian McCaffrey was an interview called I you kiss former teammate right basically means everyone everyone knows he's gone I just don't know where he's going

But apparently it's not the Patriots and Kyle Shanahan said something along the lines of it's hard to get better as a team when you Lose a great player right so I don't know how the details aren't confirmed or out, but I Was hoping it's gonna be the Patriots. That's not Yeah, so I think it means he doesn't want to come here. That's what it means so so that's what happened What happened was the Patriots when the word got out there that things fell apart They issued a statement being like we're full steam ahead and we love the guys we have so we're no longer gonna pursue Pursue that then word came out that Brandon I you did not want to go to the Patriots. So it sucks for you Hank I'm sorry. I don't understand how fired we quit Brandon

Are you is even doing the whole training camp even though he's like, I don't want to be here and I want to be traded but also I haven't agreed to a trade but you guys have agreed to a trade? I don't think he's done that. It's like very similar to what Deebo did a couple years ago. Yeah. But then Deebo got the deal done. So you probably thought maybe this is gonna happen. Get the deal done, yeah. Yeah. So now he's either gonna be a stealer or a brown? Huh. A stealer would rock.

It'd be very unstealer-like, wouldn't it? Yes. Like, make a deal like this in the middle of a training camp for a wide receiver? Yeah, I mean, they also, yeah, they just draft great wide receivers. Yeah. They never need a trade for them. Okay, good hot seat. My cool throw in it is the market.

We're good. False alarm the other day. Oh. No worries. You told us the world was ending. Well Did you oh you said World War three? He said no you said World War three I said black Monday, but it was it was more of like a light gray It was it was chill. Well what happened what happened was Hank as an economist yourself, I have no idea how you didn't pick up on this It was bad on Monday, but then black Monday ended and now it's fine because it's no longer black Monday Yeah, I gotta I gotta do some more research into Japan

But I think it like it's all Japan's got a plays a big plays a big role they fucked this up I think but now they're like, you know, I don't know. I don't I don't know what to print more money No, I think that's the issue I think what not if you print more money No, that's bad no, but if you okay, so if you're out what happened to right, but just keep printing money What hat who had a threat on the country about this the other day? No, which country was it either Chile or Argentina? They just kept on printing money. Yeah, they're but then they were a booming economy in the 30s, but that's the problem I think it was Argentina. I Think you're probably thinking of Germany, but anyway. Oh.

In Germany, they had to carry cash around in wheelbarrows. But see, my theory is that they just didn't, they stopped. You got to go through the wall. So like when you're like, oh, we printed so much money that it doesn't, like it's not worth anything. That's when you print even more money. Right. You can't quit printing money., that's when you print even more money. Right.

You can't quit printing money. You gotta be committed to printing the money. And then when people are like, you've printed too much money, then you have to print more money than you originally print. Correct. You like, if you print twice as much money as you did the time before, then you're good. Right. You just have to be committed. It's almost like you're just not committed all the way to the process. The process is printing money, and the minute you stop printing the money, it ends. Right? Yeah. Listen, any of our econ takes that are incorrect, blame

Hank Lockwood because he hasn't taught us anything. It's true. Yeah. We need that lesson. Also, Ruffin' Rowdy. Yeah, that was my cool turn. Okay, nevermind. I'll talk about Ruffin' Rowdy, cool turn. All right, PFT, your hot seat. Hank stole my hot seat with the New England Patriots, but that's fine, so I'll just think of something else that I... Oh, hot seat, Arizona Cardinals. No, hot seat is people in Arizona's teeth because the Cardinals just released a new dessert that they're selling at the stadium, which I'm convinced that teams do this just to get impressions on social media.

I don't think that many people actually order them, but they're looking for the next like epic meal that is sold at a stadium. And so they released a candy, was it cotton candy stuffed burrito where it was like just filling, it was filled with all these different sugary cereals and Nobody's actually gonna eat that right? No one's gonna order it. It's just something that you want to order take a pic actually That's a good idea for a restaurant boys. We had we should do a like very the most Instagrammable food, but it's disgusting, but it looks awesome. People come in and they buy it, take a picture of it, and then throw it away. Yeah. Or give it back to us. They rent the food to take

the picture, give it back to us. Then we sell, we rent it to the next person. Remember early part of my take, we had the idea we were going to create a fake team and then create fake menus to then try to dupe Darren Revelle. And it was going to be like a shit in a Frito. Yeah. And then I created the account and we said it was gonna be like the Montana Black Bears or something.

Yeah. But I did Montana's state code is MN. MT. And you did MN from Minnesota. No, I did MO. From Missouri? From Missouri and then I just quit. That was a good idea.

Yeah, that was the whole story. Huey, maybe that's something for you. You ever shit in a Frito? No. No, I haven't. No, I haven't. Would you? Dorito?

No. Have you shit in any type of chip? Not to my knowledge. OK. What's the weirdest place you pooped? I got nothing to do with that. That would have been awesome if you just dropped, like, my ex-girlfriend's face.

Or if it was, like, a bag of candy. Never chip. Yeah. Hit my hand. Okay, your cool throne? My cool throne is internet debates. Because there was a take, I think Draymond Green put this out there. He said that the 1992 dream team, the original dream team, he said that it would spank the current one. Oh, I don't know. I didn't see this. Yeah.

I think he said that. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, how can you say that if you're a current NBA player? Well, he's a throwback. Yeah. Cause he sees himself as being like Dennis Robin. Right. He's a jump shot guy. But I think that, uh, I think it's true. I think that the original dream, you don't think so, Hank? No modern game, more shooting. Like if it was, if you literally just took them in a time machine and dropped them in 2024, the 2020 14 would smoke them. I don't know smoke I disagree about smoke smoke is not smoke is not the same players and folks not the right type of style They went on a folks not the right word They went on a 46 to one run at once smokes not the right word the other countries like didn't start playing basketball Until after that of also I beat a sub bonus. Also, I fucked it up. He said quite frankly

I'm taking the 2024 dream team. Oh, okay. Seven days a week. That's what I'm saying. You can't be a current NBA player and say that fucking 1992. I got a better dumb internet to be for you. Ready for this? Maggie Gray, who hosts a show with our friend McLove and Prolof. This is valid. She had the take, can you really brag about being the fastest person on earth if you win a race by 0.005 seconds? So when you win a race by 0.005 seconds, does that

mean that the person that you beat by 0.005 seconds is slower than you? Yes. Okay, then no, she's wrong. It's crazy. I don't understand the argument. Yes, you can brag. You won the Olympic gold for fastest person. But how much? But but you won. How did you know much? But you won. It doesn't matter how much. I think a better debate off that would be can you really brag about being the fastest man alive if you win the 100 meter dash? Because who decided that was the fastest man alive? Yeah, true. Why not 40 meter dash? because who decided that was the fastest man alive? Yeah, true.

Why not 40 meter dash? Why not 40, why not the combine? Why not five meter dash? Yeah. Get off. But yeah, I think Noah Lyles can, if you win the gold medal, you're- Yes, you won the gold medal.

And breaks the big- Did he set a world record too? No. No, no, that's Usain Bolt. Oh, that's right. He can brag about being the fastest person to ever live, which is pretty cool. All right, my hot seat is Kyle Kuzma.

I follow this account called NBA Alerts, which is very funny. There was some doozies. The Celtics are, are. Uh-oh. So this was Kyle Kuzma this morning. 5 14 AM Pacific time. NBA Alerts tweeted, Kyle Kuzma is now following Ms. Thick overload.

Oh, and then 7 22 AM Kyle Kuzma is no longer following Ms. Thick overload. How long was that? It was about two hours. He lasted pretty long. I that it's I clicked on Ms Thick Overload. She has, it's just straight porn. Just straight up porn. Yep, there it is. Alright, first tweet, my pussy said hi. Yeah. Yeah, it did. Hi, back. That's a brutal one though, to have that. And that's also way too early in the morning to be that horny.

We're on the West Coast. But even still, if it's 8, yeah, you're right. I mean, that's 8 a.m. to be called Falling Mystic Overload. I might give her toss or follow here. Yeah. I'll tweet, PFT commenters now following Mystic Overload. I'm following her just so that I know what my favorite players are doing in their free time. Yes. And then my cool throne is Ruffin' Rowdy. This Friday, Rough and Rowdy, we're going to Wheeling, West Virginia. We have a retirement match between our guy Mikey Betts

and the Able Brothers. He's fighting on behalf of Frank the Tank. It's going to be awesome. I'll be there. I think Nick Tarantino is going to be filling in for Caleb. He's from Wheeling. Roan, Dave, Robbie, Large, all the crew. So get excited. We're going to be filling in for Caleb. He's from Wheeling. Roan, Dave, Robbie, Large, all the crew. So get excited. We're going to be doing Rough and Routy Friday night. It's an awesome card. Doing the anthem. BuyRNR.com. Go buyRNR.com right now. Huey. My hot seat is the Utah Jazz. They just gave Lori Markkinen a five- plus million dollar contract, but the kicker,

he can only be traded on the exact trade deadline date. What? So he can't be traded for six months. Oh, that's part of the, yeah, that's the, I wasn't specific to his, no, yeah. But the only day he can be traded is on the trade deadline. It just happens to fall on that day. So if they don't trade him then then they're they're potluck committed to him for a whole other year and for at least until another season. So a calendar year, Lori marketing is going to be a you know, a near $50 million guy for the Utah Jazz. He's a very good player. He's a very good shout out Lori. Not worth that much

money. How much would you pay him? I'd pay him $35. OK. So you think Danny Ange? Doing too much. OK. But I. Yeah. He's already.

You overpaid him by $20 million. He's not on your team anymore. Huey Analytics. I mean, that's just too recurrent a guess. Yeah, Laurie was on the show. He's a rich man who's gonna be an all-mba player one day yeah it's a why would you pay him all right I shouldn't have said all of that but also it'll be a back-to-back all-star again I feel good about that I think it'll be I

think it'll be fine teams wanted to trade for him now they can't so that kind of closes there the Utah Jazz a little bit. The traded line thing is interesting, that's kind of a weird... It was just only one day, yeah. But if you're the Utah Jazz, you think like, this year you might be like, man if we had those extra 15 million dollars we could win a championship. No, but what you're gonna now do is have to... you're essentially saying that this is... We want to trade him, but we also can only trade him for one day in the next 365 Yeah, so if we don't trade him today or that one day then he's ours

But we are paying him in a way to where we could trade him this that would kind of rock exciting day for everyone Yeah, that would kind of rock if if it was like that with every player 24 hours yeah, and then you can't do shit. You just have to live. It's all consequences of your own actions You have to live with them. Yeah, well, and it could be god forbid some tampering a few days before I don't think that would I the NBA is not known for that so I wouldn't think that okay my cool throne pitbull Yeah, big news here Dali buying the FIU stadium for 1.2 million a year Wow or to put his name on it So it's the Pit Bull Stadium. You guys are so distracting. Hank and Memes. Sorry. What are you guys doing? I'm trying

to podcast your voice. Memes is distracting. What are you guys doing? He's looking up, I don't know. You have to share with the class. Talking about school lunches. What is going on? Memes is, I don't know. He was talking about Pit Bull. What's going on, Memes? Hank almost just pressed retweet from the part of my take account that said sorry But I will never understand people being against free meals for kids in school I do not give a shit at families who can't afford lunch get free lunch feed the fucking kids What's his name Tim what's his name Tim walls him walls tweet on something. Now is the tweet. Got it. Now, we should have mentioned that. What's his name? Tim.

What's his name? Tim Walls. Tim Walls, football guy, football guy, ran a nonpolitical football guy, ran a four for defense. I don't know if that if that plays at all levels, but it played Minnesota. I took them from like an 0 and 17 to three state titles. We stayed at least one. I don't know how many one. We haven't had a football coach, or like a football guy.

Who would be the last one? Gerald Ford? Gerald Ford would be the last one, yeah. Is he the only president that was never elected? That's a good question. I don't know. I think he was. Washington? Was George? I think he won the first election.

Oh, God. Yeah. That's what democracy was built on. Lyndon, no, Andrew Johnson. Oh, yeah Yeah, democracy was built on linen. No way Andrew Johnson is the one right cuz he got and he took over for Lincoln Might have killed Lincoln and then he got impeached and then I think he said fuck you guys. I'm out Gerald Ford did not get elected. Yeah. Yeah, he took over for Richard Nixon and that was it. Yeah, but Joe Joe Ford all time what's going on over here Hank is on his demon time. He's just like What's going on? I know I just I got a D. I'm on me. What did you say?

Iguodala. Oh wait, wait, so wait what what Iguodala? I don't president You're just saying Iguodala President players Association. Oh, no. Andrew Johnson did not? I don't think so. He was... Oh, yeah, no, Andrew Johnson didn't as well, because he took over for... Wait.

Oh, no, Andrew Johnson... When was the election? He was president for four years. Oh, so little history. So he might have been elected that he might have been elected. Sounds like he was presidency. Lincoln and Johnson. Okay. No, he might not have been. You might be right. So Gerald Ford and how do we get here? Oh, Gerald Ford's last football guy. Yeah. A. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah the by and not a president. Yes. Yeah Acting executive director apologies. All right Pitbull acting executive executive director would be a good name for John Wilkes-Booth to pit bulls got a stadium Yeah, people put his name on a stadium in Florida. So it's called the pit bulls stadium. Yeah. Yeah It's gonna be a dolly dome Mike Vicks gonna go there all the time with that name. So, I think this opens up the door now. I think it's opens up the door. I hate you so much, Hank.

You're just, you're, you're, your brain is gone right now. That'd be a great name. Oh. It's not a dome. Okay. But yeah, I think this opens up the world for celebrities now to start saying, you know, what school can we get our name on? What stadium is 1.2 per years? Not nothing, but it is FIU. We almost said Mercedes-Benz Yeah, parcel sports. We also did almost a Buffalo. Yeah

Yeah, that would rock if just celebrities did it and they just named it after themselves for a year Yeah, I got when that was going on. I was in big into naming rights I wanted to do like naming naming rights for people's man cave, which would be sick. If you show me a sick man cave and I just pay you $1,000 to make it my man cave, would be cool, right? But you're right. $1.2 million for a mid-level school

is not a bad deal at all. And it's one year, but still, yeah. Yeah, but you get one year of having your name on the side of a giant stadium. Yeah. That'd be cool. Really a good deal. Yeah, I mean, compared to... What about the Mystic Overload Dome?

Mmm, followed by PFT. You're followed by PFT? How much would that cost? What's the good, like... 2.4. 2.4? Price goes up when it's x-rayed? You just got to map down. We all need to...

You gotta... It's gonna be a little inappropriate. Why didn't we tell you the school? Oh, uh... School? I mean, yeah. All right, yeah. Uh... BYU. BYU. Hahaha.

Three. Three, okay. Done. Done, yeah. Miz Thick Overload Stadium. No, Dome. It's gotta be... Dome. It's gotta be the Dome. It's gotta be the Dome, yeah.

Also on Twitter, she is thick overload ENT Is she that your nose is she a doctor entertainment? Oh, okay? Around the porn game You are a porn guy. You don't knock it tell you try wait We're just no I didn't you've been in poor. I was just meant Sex no sex problem no no not at all We're gonna... No, I didn't know. You've been in porn? No, I was just watching. You love porn. Okay. You love porn. No, no, no, no.

You addicted to sex? No. You have a sex problem? No. No. Not at all. Not one problem. Hank, any last words before we get to our Mount Rush war?

You biddy-do-biddy. All right. Our Mount Rush war is brought to you by Paramount Plus. Paramount Plus is once again your home to stream the NFL on CBS all season long. Follow all the exciting on-field action and stream your live local NFL on CBS games every Sunday all the way through the AFC Championship. You can watch from your smart TV, tablet, phone, or any device and all you need is Paramount Plus account. Sign up and sign into Param Paramount Plus today and get ready for another thrilling season of the NFL on CBS. Streaming live on Paramount Plus. Go right now. You need Paramount Plus for your

football guy. Paramount Plus is a must. So go right now, Paramount Plus. All right. Let's kick it to ourselves. Mount Rushmore of Tough Things. Okay, Mount Rushmore time. We are sitting in the USC locker room. We're going to have Mus on at the end of the show for some FAQs about grit, which was great. Just did a workout. Max looks like he threw up on himself. That's called sweat. Looks like a sweat. Max looks like a samurai. You guys were able to shower

I was setting up for the pod so that that that could be a tough thing if yeah if you were to ask Yeah, it is a tough thing. So we're gonna do the Mount Rushmore of tough things Which feels very open-ended this is one of those ones. I really wish I wasn't going first, but I am going first Yeah, and we have updated standings. Who won the last one? Hank? Hank did. Hank's fully back right now. Hank, so yeah, it's 47. It's over after this one.

47, Max. One for me. 40 me. Oh, Max already won. Hank's 32, and PFT's got 31. So we got a new loser right now. Yeah, it's OK. It's a long season.

It's a long season. Mount Rushmore of tough things. Anything we want to say before? I'm woefully unprepared. I am as well. I think I'm prepared. I think I'm prepared. OK.

I would also like to say when we talked about it, when we talked about things you thought you were going to do when you were younger and going pro in basketball, I always thought I was going to play basketball at USC and then go pro. Oh, that was your goal? So this is a dream day.

This is a dream come true. That's awesome. Holy shit. Well, you were right. You played basketball at USC. Yeah, that dream day dream dream come true. That's all shit. Well, you were right You played basketball USC Yeah, that's now I gotta go pro today. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I don't think that uh Must is gonna give a scholarship. I don't think we were very good. No hustle though. Yeah. Yeah tried a lot of hustle Okay, Mount Rushmore of tough things. I have the first pick. Yep So it's Big Cat, Hank, Max, me, then back.

Yes. All right, I'll go one-one. I'm gonna go a safe one because I don't know where this draft is gonna go. Tough things, Navy Seals. That was my one-one. Good pick. Was it?

Well, troops. I had troops, yeah. Navy Seals, toughest of the tough. That has to be like the, yeah. Tip of the spear. Tip of the, the spear? Spear. Yeah, tip of the spear the toughest of the tough. That has to be like the tip of the spear. Tip of the spear? Yeah, tip of the spear. Tip of the sphere. Tip of the sphere. Yeah, I actually don't think...

That's what you eat so many mushrooms at the sphere that you get. I don't think that spheres have tips. They're tipless. They have heads. They actually kind of look like the little big tit. The tit of the sphere. The tit of the sphere. Yeah, that's the same. They put a nipple on the top.

James Dolan, that Crete. OK, my one-one, Navy Seals. What do you think, Hank? I think it's a good pick. Oh, OK. I think it makes me question my own pick. Like I said, I'm not prepared. I'm going to go childbirth.

No, wait. It's not your pick. Yeah, it is. Oh, it is? Yeah, childbirth. Oh, OK. Interesting. I thought it was after me. That's good. That's a your pick. Yeah, it is. Oh it is. Yeah One of the hardest things anyone could ever do it's good answer

Yeah, also being like having a big shit if you give birth and it's a c-section then you're not you're not pushing anything Yeah, they do a lot of there's a lot of drugs involved taking the easy way out. I respect all There's a lot of drugs involved taking the easy way out I respect all Being pregnant is also just like the whole process mm-hmm I had pregnant women, but I feel like that's yeah They're tough tough. Yeah, they are tough. They have the strength. They can they could pick up a car I Think while they're giving birth mother yeah, yeah same same thing yeah I think that's a mother. Yeah, same thing. Yeah, women can just pick up cars. Everyone knows that. That's good.

Yeah, that's one of those TikToks that went viral. Guy tries to pick up a car, Kate, women, yes. OK. OK, I'm going to go first responders. OK. Tough? Tough. Yeah, very tough.

Running towards danger? Which ones are the toughest? Yeah. I love them all. Which one did you have to pick? If you had to pick if you had Marlins Man, if you made a call which which which responder would you hope showed up first? I I Hope I love all responders. I don't want to I don't have a way all responders matter you call I am the first responders and Marlins man shows up. Are you like no? No, no first responder ever every first responder

minus Marlon Marlins man are you are you including a reply guys because reply guys yeah like they're literally comments no first responders first responders the guy who the guy at 3 a.m. who says way to push the button max is he count no I'll go fireman. I got a buddy. Shout out Molly FDNY cops only have max only fans models that have notifications set on for Adam Schefter. Mm-hmm Then they reply immediately. I'm done with I'm done. I'm done with the reply guy. I'm not answering anymore Questions on reply guys first responders. Okay correct PFT.

I can't believe this fell to me. Hockey players. Mmm. Hockey players. Tough. Hockey tough. Yeah. Anyone complain? That's a good question. Good answer.

That's a very good answer. That's a very good answer. Okay. The troops was a good one. I had the troops. The troops was my one-one, yeah. Yeah. So for my second one, I'm going to say...

Passing a kidney stone. Now not to belittle Hank's point about childbirth, but when I passed my kidney stone, I was in the hospital and the nurse told me, she said, I've given birth to three kids, passing a kidney stone is the worst pain I've ever felt in my entire life. Wow. She said that. Wow. Pretty good.

But shout out women. Shout out women. Shout out women. We love women. Yep. They got kidney stones too. Yeah. Yeah. I love women. Really? Look at that chick. Look at that chick. Okay. So my turn. Yeah, I don't know what Hank's doing right now. He's trying to. He's trying to think. I'm going to go with strength coaches. Oh, okay. Good one. It's good. Okay. uh, strength coaches. Ooh, good one. It's good. Okay. That's a good pick. Yeah. And Herbert was tough. Yeah. Very tough. Hank? Oh, I'll stick with the one I other one and I had in my notepad. Uh, I give anything to see Hank's notepad. It doesn't really fall, fall this theme that we're going with here. So it might hurt, but, uh Holding in puke in an uber or in a bar. Mm-hmm. I like that. Yeah. No actually max you don't like doing that. I've seen

Like I actually did it yesterday you guys don't even know I puked yesterday. Oh, yeah. Yeah from what? We weren't we weren't in an uber so you could be like I'm gonna puke and just open the window But if you're in a car or like you're in an uber with people and you have to puke But you can't just do it like yeah, we went through an ad. There's nothing tougher. Yeah. And the ad I chugged water as fast as I could. And you know, when you chug water and it goes down the wrong side and it just like sits in your chest. So it was just like a quick, I got to get this out of my like chest water puke. Yeah, pretty much.

But I would have my head out the window. You're like, Hey, we've got to pull over real quick And I laughed he's like no, I'm serious Are you gonna get that like $250 uber charge? No, we're in our car. Okay. Yeah, but I timed it Well, I was just like I was sitting there like I think I can handle this and then I was like, nope I'm I just gotta get it out of my system. So yeah, that is that is tough Okay I got two picks.

I will go City of Pittsburgh. City of Pittsburgh. Tough. Built on steel. Just that whole city is just tough. That's a steel city. Fries on the sandwiches.

Yeah. Yinzers, they're just tough. And then I'll go with one that's a little, kind of like Hank, that's a little off the board for my notepad Dealing with Hank when he wakes up in the morning, that's very tough Yeah, probably tougher than child. Yeah, if you actually have to do it like Childbirth verse like if you're like, hey every day you have to just wake up Hank

I'd take childbirth shout out to my mom and my sister cuz growing office toughest women ever Yeah Just you the first hour of the day It's it's the toughest it tests our friendship every time so when we're on the road together, especially It's just like I think eggs getting better in better in the morning. I've had two great breakfasts with Hank. Well, that's because he's on his time. Yeah, yeah. That's on his time. I've woken Hank up probably like a dozen times in my life, and I'm convinced that the

first 15 minutes of Hank's life when he wakes up, he's just blacked out. He's just still asleep. Thursday morning is going to be great. He tried to punch us. Hank, do you have like through a punch? I want to punch one of us. Thursday morning is gonna be great. He tried to punch us Hey, do you have like a punch? Yeah, I killed one of my friends. Yeah Yeah, do you have morning amnesia? Do you not remember the first 30 minutes of your day? It's not amnesia, but it's like It's bad. It's like it's like dr. Jekyll mr. Hyde. We're like I'll say and do things And I'm like, oh my god, like that was that was insane. Like I was so mad fired up It's just like I've had girlfriends and stuff too where it's like I just you you say stuff You would never say otherwise, and then you're like why would I?

Like I don't know what happened to me there. I just it was the first 30 minutes shouldn't count. Yeah. Yeah, okay You're picking I will go bomb disposal engineer Yeah, nice nice we are you good are they tough though because if you're if you have a bad day as a bomb disposal engineer you're just dead yeah also what is there wouldn't the tougher guy be the suicide bomber? No, that's coward. Why they're literally blowing themselves up

That's tough. Yeah. Yeah, but they're not they're not sticking around. Okay, okay They don't have to deal with their shit. Yeah, that's true. Okay bomb disposal. Wait, is that a first responder? No Fighters like hey, I think we got a bomb. Yeah, they call Marlins man. Then he's actually tougher Yeah, yeah, you can say that tougher than first responders. Yeah first responders are too scared to respond to that So you hate first responders no, you don't respect what you mean cops. Yeah, that's not true. The cops are in my Fighters I have a friend Are in the cops are in my in firefighters. I have a friend shoutout Molly What about what about a tow truck driver if a tow truck driver gets there before the cops do is he a first responder?

What stop asking me what the first responders okay? Well we have to dive into these questions all right nurses or cops I love all I love all first responders that shot work in He was the assisted suicide doctor, oh he was killing people okay You're just you're just saying random people being like that's a first responder Like pug pugs a first responder love pug pugs a first responder. I don't know you're saying random people I'm calling the first responders. No, that's a doctor. It's it's in line with what you were saying He's a he's a video podcast guy correct

First he's the first one there click post on the YouTube and the rumble. That's not a responder though. That you click the button. I click the podcast button. That's that's that's one thing that people also they got to start saying good, good push on punk. Correct. Damn. Every, every year. So you're stolen. I'm the one who just brought it up. Wait, but what happens though? So you're also putting if it's late They're gonna say bad job pug. Yeah About that. I don't I don't want our dear pug. Yeah, the late can be me early can be pub. Okay I like that. What about what about corrupt cops? Can we stop with this? Can I make one of those firefighters that are actually also arsonists?

Are you gotta be one of them. Rico Bosco? Next pick? Yeah. Can't believe this lasted full backs. Good pick. Good pick. I thought full backs was gonna be in the first in the first round. Alright. I mean offensive linemen have to play a lot more. Yeah they have block a lot more. All right, then situational Yeah, I mean I'm like more. Yeah, I won't actually won't get into my own strategy. Okay, okay Good pick max were you gonna pick that? Yes Shit Okay, I'm gonna go with Ronnie lot. Mm-hmm

Ronnie lot good one cut off his finger Instead of having it repaired so that he could play football He was like it just be easier if you cut it off. I don't need my pinky put me back in. Yep that's good pick and Then my last one is going to be Going vegan and not telling anybody about it. Mmm, that's good. I'm going to go coal miners. Mmm. I can't wait to see that. I'm going to go coal miners. I'm going to go coal miners.

I'm going to go coal miners. I'm going to go coal miners. I'm going to go coal miners. I'm going to go coal miners. I'm going to go coal miners. I'm going to go coal miners. I'm going to go coal miners. I'm going to go coal people. I'm going to go

coal miners. I kind of got that with the city of Pittsburgh too. And I got all the calls being mined these days. There's less, which makes it even tougher. So you're pro fracking people. I don't I see. I don't really know what fracking is. I personally don't know. I know it's bad. I don't know if I'm pro or anti-fracking. I have no idea.

I think I'm anti. What do you think about the environment though? I hope, I want it to be good. Okay. What about different types of, is it just coal? Or believe in global warming? Yes, I think global warming is happening. All right liberty your nominee 24 that's on me

My pick yeah, just like in the movies the coal miners look so tough I don't know how this fell the fourth round max loves miners put that on a card Toughest people in the world? Cancer patients. Mmm. Oh. Yep. Wow. You son of a bitch.

You asshole. You fucking asshole. What's tougher than cancer? No, you're- That's- No, cancer patients. No, I'm saying like- Are you pro cancer?

No, I'm saying cancer is the toughest thing you can have to deal with, so cancer patients are the toughest people in the world, because- Okay. All right. Including people who get like a mole removed? If it. What about what about an ingrown toenail? That's pretty tough not that I'm more stolen valor. It's pretty tough. I'm just saying wait wait Does Hank would you say that we're the toughest people in the world because we have to deal with you and your cancer? Mm-hmm. No, I'm not I'm fake cancer. Oh, you're benign. Okay. You are calling me. You think I am a cancer. I do not have cancer. Right. You're the black plague. I think you're

a good guy. Okay. My last pick. I got last pick. I'm going to go because this probably will not help me because we don't have a ton of wrestling fans, but I'm going to go with Mankind Mick Foley. Toughest dude ever. Fucking going, when he got slammed on a bed of tacks from Undertaker from the top of the hell in the cell, he is literally the toughest. Some of his early days where he was just like wrestling with barbed wire and shit, that might have hurt me, but.

People have told me I looked like this man before, but I don't know who he is. You don't know who Mankind is? He's the most niche Pick of all time. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not a niche pick because people hear your attitude on this show. No, they don't. They know.

Everyone listening right now knows that dealing with Hank is tough. It's you guys, some of my friends, my mom, my sister. Everyone are the true heroes of that answer. Max, you don't know who mankind is? I don't really know wrestling but people tell me I know the name I was gonna go stone-cold but like my heart in my heart. I know man kind of tougher man What about I what I had to do? How was a Vaughn's son not tougher? What Vince or what not Vince Vaughn? What's his name Vince McMahon Steve? What's?

Shane make a make a Photoshop of Vince Vaughn you know Matt took insane like bumps and stuff but like mankind would do it every single week off the top of a cell he would do dude so I'll show you a highlights like when he was wrestling like in the independent circuit or what was it ECW yeah ECW like he would get Shane Vaughn. He'd literally get thrown into barbed wire and shit Yeah, he's broken over his back was all cut up all the so fuck Max does look a little bit like him Yeah, he does. That would be a great. How we know that's it for you Mick people say you look like Mick Foley all the time and I don't know I'm always we gotta watch We gotta watch the highlights. I'll just send you the clip

He undertaker literally threw him off the top of the compliment to be said that I look like him. Yeah into a bed of tacks Yeah, so much tail. All right other picks. I had a Honey badger Ruda just texted me who's sitting in the room mankind lost an ear in Japan Okay Japan. That's fucking tough shit. That rocks. Okay. Who'd you have? All right. Camels, honey badgers. Camels. Camels, they go like three months without drinking water. Yeah, but they can smoke cigarettes. They can. I guess that makes them tough. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Smoking cigarettes would be a good pick. Yeah calculus. Yeah real tough. I I had that pitbulls pitbulls tough

Getting an ingrown toenail removed and then playing 30 minute basketball practice immediately after it's pretty tough. That is tough I I was gonna pick this guy but big cat took all of Pittsburgh. I've been Rothlisberger. Yeah, he's tough every inch I thought about I thought about just I actually got Ben Herbert before you took strength training because he's from Pittsburgh And I got all the cops and I think that first before you Accepting that you're going bald. Oh, yeah, that's a good one Watching Cody Parky hit kick field goals. Yep. That's very tough. Playoffs. Substitute teachers I had on my list. Oh, that just must be the worst job of all time.

Yeah. Yeah. It is tough. When I took hockey players, I got the FDNY and the NYPD hockey players, right? Well, I still get that first. So no, you guys have both said things that you that were just wrong. Standing up at a bar for a long time. Very tough. You just don't get a seat at a crowded bar it's one of the toughest things a person could do just waking up is tough yeah

Hank what waking up and realizing your phone wasn't charging overnight yeah chasing a charge you have to go to Canobie Lake Park with your other producer. What? That's Coleman. Oh. Canobie Lake Park. That's where they went I think. That place. Invading Russia in the winter time.

Yeah. Tough. Also dumb. Dumb, tough. Man tough. If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough. That's true, that's true. Johnny Cash. Yeah.

Him in general, tough guy. Teddy Roosevelt. Tough. Oh, that's a miss. Damn. That was a miss. Teddy Roosevelt. Shot through his hand. Yeah. That's a big one. No, he got shot in his chest. Oh, that was his chest? He got shot in his chest and then he stood there and said, bring the guy up to me. Damn. It takes more than that to stop a bull moose. Damn. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Stephen Seagal. Deer. Deer. Deer. Oh, the meat of deer.

Oh, venison? It's tough. I guess. Human flesh? That's tough. Living with your conscience knowing that you hit a bear cub 10 years ago and someone's going to find out eventually? Yeah, tough.

That is tough. Really tough. Sneaky. Oh, Bernie Madoff. Yeah, tough. That is tough. Really tough. Sneaky. Oh Bernie Madoff weirdly tough having to live with just the fact that you're a complete fraud and it's gonna be found out one day Mentally, it's got to be tough. It wasn't a pick-max. So we're doing we're just spitballing. Yeah You're Bernie Madoff? Yeah, you're an apologist. That sounds like what you're doing. No, Hank. You definitely, Hank You fucking shouted out suicide bombers. Yeah. No, I didn't. You're saying it's tough suicide bombers. Yeah, I know I'd be Jeffrey Epstein next I

almost said Theo Epstein I Do that often honestly, no because he had no You just switch them sometimes I say like if I'm talking about Theo Epstein, I'll say Jeffrey Epstein I mean, they're both known for evaluating young talent That's a big mistake max alright anything else Huey do we miss anything draft a lot of high schoolers I didn't think of anything too crazy. Maybe a test maybe just a bit Any test of any kind tough that is tough Huey Huey didn't go to college. He tried it once. Yeah. Dan Campbell. Tough. Tough. Detroit Detroit. Yep. Nails. Nails.

Tough as nails. That's a miss. Diamonds are the hardest thing. I thought about saying that I was thinking stealer iron. Yeah. Yes to oh spider silk Isn't that tough? Oh, yeah, like if you made spider silk as big as a steel bar Yeah, twice as strong Kevlar kevlar tough And it's tough. Yeah, it was 10 for sure 100 times their weight or something Marv all was was just saying that right bees bees Bees guy not coming too fast. That's very tough. Actually that I, I think that doesn't count because that's not tough.

That's impossible. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Big difference. Oh, it's like, it's not tough because it's not possible. Yeah. Uh, super. What were you saying you saying I was like that's almost as tough as making a woman come. I was like that's also impossible. Women don't come. Next great week make a woman come challenge. That kid's superhuman the guy that does the backyard wrestling oh yeah that guy rocks I love that dude he'll just set up like a piece of plywood and then wrap it in barbed wire and be like hey I'm superhuman shout out to all the jugalos and the jugalettes out there I'm gonna jump into this barbed wire and he does it every day Yeah, and does he say something else like this this fucking sucks or something like well He just he just screams in pain like every time he it's not like he doesn't feel the pain

He feels the pain and then he gets back up and every day he does it again Yeah, shoe nice shoe nice. Shoe nice. He ate like like 100 tampons once live on the stream. Pretty tough. And glue. Yeah. He drank glue. He ate a beer bottle. That's tough as fuck. All right. That was a good Mount Rush one. Great Mount Rush. Yeah. All right, boys. Good job. Before we get to Antonio Pierce, he's brought to you by Chevy. It's presented by our great friends over at Chevy. There's a reason why we've never done a Mount Rushmore pickup trucks.

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And now, here's Antonio Pierce. Oh! Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. It is our GRIT Week interviews brought to you by Coors Light. It is head coach, the Las Vegas Raiders, Antonio Pierce. Coach, first of all, thank you for spending any time with us, we appreciate it. We're big fans.

We start every grit week, interview the same though. How do you define grit? For me, toughness. Guys that don't blink, look the barrel down the eye, that's still the eye focus. And more importantly, man, they got some shit to them. Yeah, yes. They're gonna have the ish to them, man.

They got that, man. We'll go hand in hand. That's good to me. Yeah. Playing Raiders football. That sounds like Raider football. Yeah. You said that you were born a Raider.

And I don't know what that means because I was not born a Raider. Or can you change? No, no, no, no. It's genetic. You have it in you. It's either you got it or you don't. There that means, because I was not born a Raider. Or can you change? No, no, no, no. It's genetic. You have it in you. It's either you got it or you don't. There's no Raiders conversion.

Is there a DNA test that you can do? Well, no, it's kind of attitude. Okay. You can look and you can feel it. You can feel a Raider. Somebody could present as a Raider, but you know deep down inside, they're not actually Raiders.

Yeah, I mean, sometimes, I know we're in California right now, so you can go to Hollywood around. Yeah. Can you look into someone's eye and know if they're a Raider? Without a question. Looking into our eyes.

No. No. Oh, shit. He had you. Damn it. I was like, I might be a Raider. Holy shit. I saw a little twitching in the eyebrow.

It's kind of doing a like, hey, I'm going to go at you. But the Bears had to be off. Raider, Raider family, everywhere, any other team. So's kind of doing a like, hey, I'm gonna go at you, but. But the Bears had kind of the opposite. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Raiders were everywhere. The Raider family everywhere, any other team. So what does that mean to be born a Raider? Man, like for me, to be honest, like growing up in inner city Los Angeles, it was going back to where we talked about, it was grit.

It was toughness, it was attitude, it was swag. It was when you wore those colors and you saw silver and black walking down the street or somebody in all black, you knew they meant business. It wasn't about no BS, right? It was straight standing on business. And that's what it kind of started with me, growing in inner city and seeing that and seeing obviously the entertainment and that culture with hip hop moving on, but then WA and those gentlemen. And then just watching Bo Jackson, Marcus Allen, Howie Lowe, man. Yeah. Tech Bobo. Yeah. That really did- but then WA and those gentlemen. And then just watching Bo Jackson, Marcus Allen, Howie Lohm, man.

Tecmo Bo. Yeah. That was, that really did. That actually is not gritty though, to play with Bo and Tecmo Bo. That was a cheat. Yeah, right. That was a cheat.

Easy way out. Yeah, that was an easy way out. It was fun though. So, I mean, you do have grit. We saw it last year when you took over the team. We've seen it your whole career. I wanna go back though, because you played Arizona, you don't get drafted.

I've read some stuff that you were shocked you weren't drafted. Do you think your career goes different if you get drafted? Or was that like, was that the motivation you needed to then have an incredible NFL career as a player? I may definitely added more fuel to the fire. Yeah.

You see 30 guys go in front of you like, God damn, 30? I get 10, 15? But 30, you know when you start seeing those guys at the end of that sixth and seventh round, man it was like, what'd I do wrong? You know, you make a career, you was productive, played some good players, good defense.

Okay, measureables back then, everybody was six four, six three, six four, two 50. Okay, I get it, you know, six one, two 30. Right, all right, cool. But it definitely added fuel to the fire. I would've loved to be drafted because it's just kind of a badge. But at the end of the day, man,

it's kind of like my whole life. It's not where you start and where you grew up and all that. It's how you come on top of all that stuff. And that kind of just really put that fire and desire of my eye to try to be great. I think it's actually a cooler badge now. Like to be like, I was not drafted.

Right. And I had a career. But when you say that, when people say that about me, they're shocked because you look at the end result. Yeah, right. So you're like, oh man, no, it shouldn't have been the second, third round. I don't know, it might not have been the first.

But you know, you're like, I had to get drafted. Right. You realize, no. Oh wow. It wasn't good enough in 2001, right? Yeah. And then you look at my career, I'm gonna brag a little bit.

All those guys that got drafted before me didn't hit any of the stats as individual or as a team Player that I did right with the Redskins at the time in a giant So I really pride myself on a man and that obviously that fueled me as I got into playing especially in New York Yeah, I mean look at us three undrafted guys Every day I wake up and it fueled me. If I had a jersey, I'd wear 32.

Every team passed on me. So I was born, I don't think I can say I was born a Redskin. I was born a Redskin fan because I'm from the DC area. So I always appreciated you on that team. You were the heart and soul of that defense that last year that you had. We had some ballers on that team. I know.

But that last year, you were a great player for users on that team. I know, but that last year, you were like, you were a great player for us. And then we had Clint Portis on the show, like, six months ago. And I was talking about you, and he said that the Skids were trying to lowball you at the time. And then you obviously had to take the money and go to New York, where you ended up flourishing. But we missed you in DC after that.

Like, we wanted you back. I'm sorry that the ownership didn't feel the same way but you made the right decision you go to New York you went to Super Bowl there and Going into that game Everybody else in America again doubted you they thought okay. Let's just anoint the New England Patriots go into that game though your mindset Did you feel like an underdog going in that game or did you feel like you're gonna win felt? Disrespected and really went back to week 17. All right, like the media was asking us like why you got into playoffs We beat the bills week prior

patrons coming into our place to to kind of you know finish that undefeated season the regular season and I remember me they're asking like are you guys will play the game? Like what are you playing for? Me myself straight and a couple others was like, what the hell are you talking about? Why wouldn't we play? We can pay for 16 games. And these dudes are coming into our house. Nor did we not really like the Patriots at all anyway.

So we obviously had a team meeting with Coach Coughlin and it wasn't even, we didn't hesitate. We're like, no, we're doing it. And then if you guys remember in that game, we were up 12 points late third quarter, but listen, Randy Moss is special and Tom had a great year that year and they popped that game, we were up 12 points late third quarter, but you know, listen, Randy Moss is special and Tom had a great year that year and they popped some plays, we lost by three.

But that gave us kind of like that, man, listen, we just went total total, probably the best team of all time. And I still think probably the best team of all time regardless that they didn't win the Super Bowl. So when we got to the week of the Super Bowl, it goes back to, you know, the question born the Raider, man, you know, we got off that plane where?

All black. It was deaf to the Patriots, it was deaf to the dynasty. Like, we're going to a funeral. That was a mindset, that's what I told the team. Only guy they wanted to do was Eli, everybody else, we're all black. But that was kind of our mindset, yeah. So we had a big underdog and then,

you know, there was comments made out the week, we were gonna lose by double digits. You know, Tom Brady was laughing about the points spread that Plax and Bird, or the points that Plax said we're gonna hold them to. And man, I ain't gonna lie, if you'd have just watched us practice on defense, you would've knew, it's not gonna be close.

We was gonna get after those guys. Because it was crazy, because Tom Brady, his entire career, he didn't give Bolton board material, but that one time, it feels like he slipped up. No, they're confident. Yeah, but that one time it feels like he slipped up. And is that- Yeah, but is that like, cause I never know, we're just fans, but like that type of stuff,

we say, oh yeah, Bolton board material. Does that matter a lot in the locker room? No, it did. It, like I said, it even goes back to, like I said, back to right after season, how the Patriots were being treated, right? That was Spygate year two as well. Remember that, right?

So there was a lot of things going on and they just, you felt a sense of entitlement, you know what I mean, with that team overall. And then like you said, the comments came in, I get it, like, you know, competitors, you know, they're averaging almost goddamn 37 points per game. And we said, sit there and say, we're going to hold them to 17 points. And he spotted them through, it was 14 actually. Yeah. Yeah. Were you worried at all during that run, the Tom Coughlin's's face was gonna fall off that Green Bay game? Yeah, yeah, I've never seen a face like that. No, I was concerned for But he's a tough dude, I talked about great and that's a great

Yeah, but like all of our faces done so like really go each other like this is not gonna end The coolest part about that game man, like regardless of the weather, the adversity going back and forth, overtime, Brett Farr last game was a packer, which it ended up to be. Like we were just so determined to make it happen. Because we had played the two teams, Dallas, really the last three teams we placed, right?

Dallas, Green Bay, and New England, we all faced it in the regular season. The first two games of the season, we gave 80 points at Thousand Yards to Dallas and Green Bay to start the season. Then the last game we lost to was the Patriots. So, man, there was a lot of bulletin board material, things that we could really go back and look at

and really study. And that really propelled us and helped us in those playoff games. Yeah, Tom Coughlin, ultimate football guy, ultimate grit guy. We've heard a few stories about Tom as a head coach. That he doesn't give bathroom breaks. They have to be, that's true?

Could you like raise your hand and be like, no, that's an emergency please? Yeah, we had time before. Are you still on cough on time? We try to get, I do start my meetings early. Okay. I think our team realized that like. Cause you kind of came two minutes late to this.

Yeah, well I couldn't find you guys. Okay, all right, all right. I mean, we're gonna find you. Do you still call it Coughlin? I'm trying to find a head coach right now. I can rescind that. Do you still call it Coughlin time or do you call it Antonio O'Clock?

No, I call it Coughlin time. He was here the other day. He was here last week for a week with the team and we started his meeting five minutes early. Love it. Yeah, for him. Yeah, does it get confusing with like daylight savings when you change the clocks?

It does, especially back then because iPhones wasn't even out. Does it get confusing with like daylight savings when you change the clocks? It does. Especially back then, because iPhones wasn't even out. So he's trying to like have us do things with our phones that we couldn't do. And we had to go by the clock inside a building, the stadium, but if you're not inside a building, the stadium, then how do you know what time it is? Yeah, I just realized that.

That might've been, that day probably sucks for anyone on Coughlin time. It was very confusing. And it was very costly. Yeah, you got to set your clock back an hour and 15 minutes Oh, he's just you set it back an hour, but you also also the 15 minutes. Yeah, right. No five. It's only five Oh, it's fine. Okay, so this is five minutes early. We'd always heard 15 He's an ultimate football guy and

Listen, it's it's great that you're the coach of the Raiders. We were rooting for you last year We wanted you to get this gig and when you took over the team It seems like they got a nice little boost. The players believed in you more than anything. They played hard. They played really hard for you. And, uh, that game against the chargers on Thursday night, at that point, I knew I was like, they, they have to do this.

They have to hire them as the full-time head coach because going out there on that field, after about one second of game, it looked like the Chargers didn't want to be out there Did you know in the first half of that game like I think I'm gonna be the head coach of the Raiders next year Not really not that game that felt good because the week prior we scored zero I was gonna say that was the worst football game I've ever watched That's where it's game. I had to be part of yeah, I mean that was the three doesn't Just like I can't get close to field goal range. We can't even attempt to field goal.

It was incredible. I mean, it was just one of those games. And really, as bad as I know we love scoring, it was really two good defenses playing well. Obviously, quarterback play and offensive play on both sides wasn't good enough because, hell, they didn't score until almost three or four minutes left in the game.

But that was tough. So then you got a short week. So we got walkthroughs. We only got two practices, right? And then you're about to play the Chargers at home. But we did see something on film. We're like, if we can jump out and we can impose our will early and come out with the energy and the tempo

and play with the style play we wanted to play and attack certain players, we can get after them. And then right away, the first two plays in the run game, we got after them and we knew it then. Once our offense started rolling in the defense, was Mac started flying and turned the corner. Malcolm Coons had some big plays and obviously Jack Jones did his little one hand deal there.

That was awesome, yeah, that was cool. So the game that I would assume you were like, I might get this job was that Chiefs game. Cause that was another one where it was like, there's, it's something beautiful with football where if you play that game 100 times, the Chiefs probably win more than half. And, but it was, you guys just had a perfect game plan.

You just frustrated the hell out of them. Was that the moment where you're like, okay, this, I think I might be able to do this? Well, that's what, for me, it was like, wow. You know, I went up against, let's go back. I went up against Andy Reid 25 times in my career as a player. Yeah.

All right, or 23, excuse me. And so I'm used to that battle, but it was always different. It was a player versus coach. Now it's coach versus coach. So ultimate respect for what he's done in his career, both in Philly and Kansas City, but it was like, man, it was tough.

That was the hardest thing we've done. Yeah. Yeah, that we did that week. I thought the coaches, the buy-in, the players, just the mentality that we talked about all Yeah. Yeah, that we did that week. I thought the coaches, the buy-in, the players, just the mentality that we talked about all week and the way and the style of play we wanted to play with and what we wanted to do to 15 and 87 was critical.

And we wanted to make it ugly. We wanted to make it gritty. Yeah. I keep using the word because that's a good word for what we're talking about today. All that stuff came to fruition. And more importantly, man, the guys, they played with a purpose.

Like we didn't want to be, they were not going to be denied that day. Yeah. Right. And it was good to feel it after the game we were in the locker room celebrating, but did you, did I feel like that was a moment? No, I just felt like, okay, I belong in the National Football League as a head coach.

Yeah. I thought that myself. Did I belong to be the head coach or deserve to be the head coach of the Raiders? Still had some games to go. We was hoping to get into playoffs at the time. I had two games left and playing the Colts the next week. You know, and see how the chips fall at that point.

Yeah, and I do, I love the way that you attack football in an old school way, like talking about Patrick Holmes, like we're gonna go after him. Because we have a theory that with the way that the quarterback position gets refereed now, there's a lot of times where Patrick Holmes gets, and it's a credit to him, gets like that extra five yards because guys will like come up short and stuff like that.

So are you like, is that something you guys preach every day where it's like, hey, we have to hit the quarterback. Like we know the rules are different, but we can't just play this style that like lets him do whatever he wants. Yeah, I think our identity on defense is to make you uncomfortable.

Yeah. We want you to step, we want to step on your toes. We want to be in your face. You know what I mean? We want to make you thinking about us, why you're on the sideline, why you're preparing this for us during the week. What do these guys want to do today?

Yeah. Like, well, what they got up their sleeve now? And if we can win that mental edge, then obviously we got to go to the execute with X and O's, and our players got to play at a high level. But you know, the game is different the way it's officiated when I play, right? So yeah, you got that old school mentality,

but then also you gotta be smart and play within the rules. Yeah, yeah. Definitely. I love it. I love, there's just something about old school football and just not saying it. Especially late in the year though, right? Like late in the year, it was cold,

everybody got their hoodie on, the beanies, like goddamn stuff's coming out your mouth. That's what football's supposed to be. It's not supposed to be high scoring and pretty and guys signing around. No, it's supposed to get like hitting your mouth. Let's get out of here with football's supposed to be. It's not supposed to be high scoring and pretty and guys sliding around. No, it's supposed to get like hitting your mouth. And that's why you tune in because you tune in and everyone's like, I mean, the Chiefs were like

10 point favorites, like, oh, they'll win easily. It's like, no, the Raiders are gonna just muck this up and make it a fight in the trenches. I love it. We did. You got some good coaches with you now too. I read, I don't know how true this is. I forget, it was one of your players

that I think talked about it, but you have some of your coaches doing conditioning drills. Somebody said that Rob Ryan was on a treadmill the other day. Not some, all of them. So we got 29 coaches. Big group.

Yeah. So an off season, and really it was just even when I was a position coach prior, you know, you watch coaches, both on defense, office, especially in like, we're always yelling at players to run from drill to drill. But then you got that coach and he's like 10 yards behind you.

The players are there at the drill with the coaches behind, so we're still late, right? So, cool, that's one thing. Then I start thinking about like, man, what can I do to show the players also that like, man, whatever we tell you to do, we can do as well. Regardless if you played or not. And I said, look, one thing we can all do is, we can do as well regardless if you played or not and I

Said like one thing we can all do is we can get in shape. We can lose a couple pounds, right? So yeah, man, so I told the coaches that in February. I said listen April what week before the players come in We're gonna do the condition test. So we ran 2040s Rob Ryan did okay. Hold on Anybody over 60 got on a bike, okay, okay Anybody over 60 got on a bike. Okay, okay. So they were on a bike. No, that was good.

We had an age limit. We don't want to kill any coaches. We had to take care of our senior coaches. We had a few of them. But the trainers had an equipment, our training staff had a good idea of what to do and we ran them. And we got some former players on our staff. And there was a couple guys showing out and then we got to, it was funny, we got to the

last five, right? So we did 15, we're doing the last five. So now guys are trying to show off like, I'm good. And we had about two coaches come up lane. Right? So we, come on man, you got to finish. You know, kind of like the players, you know, patting on the butt like, let's go, let's go.

And then I give them credit, man, the last two reps, they fought through it, kind of made the time, but at the end of the day, they finished it. Yeah. The whole thing is about finishing. So what we did, boom, players come back, back offseason program starts and I said listen, man I appreciate everybody being here, but let me show you what how dedicated these coaches you got this year Look what we did not put it on it. You know, of course Rob Ryan has a shirt off and he's doing stretching It's not pretty at all. But you know Rob

Yeah, yeah He's laughing he's karaoke and knee's not going up at all. It's just, it was good for our team and our coaches to do it, but obviously it's even better for their health, man, importantly, you know what I mean? Yeah, so who's the fastest coach? It's you. It's you. I'm gonna put myself in top three.

We got Ricky Manon. Played corner lead for several years. He's up there. Andre Carter's still in tremendous shape. So I would put us through here. Would you say, are you addicted to making other men run? Because that story that I also heard of you in high school when you were coaching high school,

and your team was up 63-9 at half, and you didn't like how they looked, so you made them run during halftime, and then you actually took a penalty at halftime because you got back like not in time because they were still running gassers. Ran back to opening off in the second half. And then you won 99-9.

So would you say maybe you're addicted to making other guys run? Well, I know, you know. What was the thought process? I mean, that's a crazy story. What's crazy is when I played, I could run for days. I was always in shape. Like, you know, you're a high school athlete,

college athlete, wanna be a pro athlete. You can never be out of shape, right? you know, you're a high school athlete, college athlete, want to be a pro athlete, you can never be out of shape, right? So, coached at Long Beach Poly, and we're getting after the team pretty good, but we're just being sloppy, you know, guys with, you know, got some pill knees and stuff like that. So what I did- 63 to nine is the score.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The team was like 0 and 6, 0 and 7. I was mad they didn't even score, like, what we doing? So I told my, I told the other team, hey listen, y'all can have our locker room, go drink our water, you get all our snacks. We're going on the side field in the dark. And we ran literally for, I think it was,

I think it was 20 minute halftime. And then the referees were blowing a whistle. We didn't go out there and they threw the flag and they kicked the ball off. And we ran it back and we were up 70 to nine. And we just kept running until the score hit 99. And we could have kept running, you know what I mean? But like, man, like to me that's,

like it's like with our team, we talk about effort. Cause at this level, when you get to professional football, everybody's good, right? You're playing with the one percent of the one percent. What separates you? And like, you look at a Max Crosby, what separates Max Crosby from the rest of the defensive end and defensive players in the football league?

His effort. Yeah. So if I can get our guys in shape, in condition, in football shape to just constantly run and give that effort, man, like we can roll with the best of them because now you got 61 minutes to deal with us. Yeah. I said 61 because we're going to play each second longer than you. Yeah. It's probably nice having a defensive player like Max too as a leader of the team and he's out there on road trips and he's like importing his meal prep that he brings

in and makes at home. If he's spending all that time taking care of himself, then yeah, you don't wanna be a fat ass behind him, right? Listen, the first day I ever walked in this building back in 2022, the first person I met was Max at 6 a.m. in the morning. When I wake up every day, the first person I see in the building

and downstairs is Max Crosby. It's amazing. It's 365, 24-7. I've never seen nothing like it. Like we got walkthroughs and it's not a walkthrough for him. I mean, you just kind of understand that. Like there's walkthrough and then there's max, right? But when you have your best player playing at that level,

what's happening now with the rest of our team? Then I had a Christian Wilkins. Now I got two of them and I got a guy inside and outside because he does the same exact thing. So now that just breeds this man, this energy and this synergy into our building, into our defense that, you know, these guys, they just want to run, man. They want to run and hit.

They love playing ball, you know, it's fun to watch. It's really fun to watch. Do you have to change anything about your personality as a defensive guy that's, you know, you've hated quarterbacks for a long time and now you're the head coach and you're like, shit, I have to coach a quarterback now? Like I have to love this guy?

No, I don't change. I talk to them crazy just like I talk to the linebackers. They look at me crazy too like, what are you like, that's not quarterback talk. Like that's okay, it's football talk. Yeah. Football's football. I like that.

Football's football, man. Let's not ever get confused, right? So that's how we operate here. And again, obviously we gotta be sensitive to them at times, how we touch them. Yeah. But how we talk is how we talk. Do you talk football to the kickers? We do them.

They gotta make tackles. Kick off room, right? So Daniel Carson did a good job that day with the media, man he's talking about like, man I'm doing biceps and getting a little bench press going because I gotta make some tackles there, you know? I gotta be involved. So yeah, we talk a little bit,

try not to get those guys too much, but uh Yeah, you don't want to bog them down with too much. No, we don't and we got two special guys man with AJ and Daniel so we talked a little bit but I Little bit sensitive because they're more with the feet. Yeah, right a little different Yeah, the kickers are weird very strange people. I've our kickers are cool. Yeah. We got cool kickers. I've been around weird kickers. I've been around some weird guys. Like, ah, man, this dude's a weirdo.

But these guys can hang. They can hang. Oh, they got these. We can hang out together. They can hang out with a lot of them. Steve Weatherford. Were you with him? Yes, Steve.

He's a weirdo. I played with Jay Feely. Yeah. Jay used to come with all the wristbands hooked up. He's going to knock somebody out of a king of the land. He's got the weirdos. Did you ever see the picture of Jay Feely when his daughter was going to prom? and he had a gun in his hand?

Jay Feely, like it's funny. We came in the same year in New York Giants together both of free agents the signees and So we played a couple years together. I got a good Jay Feely story, man. We play in Seattle We missed a couple field goals and and and shock. He just goes haywire He's in the damn locker room throwing chairs at him. And Jay's bobbing the weave, and man, like I actually kicked one of them damn things, you know what I mean? Kind of cool with him, but Jay was like a tough dude, man. Like he was a guy that wasn't supposed to be a kicker.

He was supposed to be like a linebacker. He just happened to be a little short, a little stubby. He's a good linebacker. I feel like Weatherford was kind of like that too, where he was self-conscious about being a punter. So he spent all this time just working his arms out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, pretty good.

He was the most jacked up punter of all time. working his eyes out. Yeah. Yeah. Jacked up. Jacked up one of all time. Yeah. Yeah. So we are obsessed with the owner of the Raiders. We want to get him on the show at some point. Mark Davis, have you gone to, listen, we saw him at Super Bowl. We kind of, we might've ambushed him at a hotel

and we're like, hey, you're gonna come on. He's like, yeah, okay. So I don't think that's gonna happen. But have you gone to P.F. Chang's with him? No. Will you? Why P.F. Chang's with him? No. Will you? That's all he's on. That's where he eats all the time.

That's every- It's his favorite meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I thought it was In-N-Out. Oh! So I heard that earlier too, that he's spending a lot of time at In-N-Out. But I also think he goes to P.F. Chang's

and that's like his meditation spot. Yeah. He sits down by himself. It's his spa. Eats the meal. So I don't think none of us will be going with him if he goes by himself and he's eating a meal at P.F. Chang's. I think we're gonna leave that to P.F. Chang's and that's like his meditation spot. He sits down by himself, eats the meal. I don't think none of us will be going with him if he goes by himself and he's eating the meal at P.F. Chang's, I think we're gonna leave that to him.

That's our dream, to go to P.F. Chang's with him. You gotta catch him. We might just have to stake out at P.F. Chang's. That's fine, yeah, so we'll just have to go to P.F. Chang's every day. There's not a lot of things, I mean, there's only a handful, right? Okay, yeah, we'll just, yeah.

Spot guys and spotters. Yeah, he's got his minivan. I don't know if he still rides around in that thing. That thing rocks. Yeah. He's got some toys too now. Yeah. I'm gonna pull out every one of them.

What was it like when you got offered the job, like officially? It was good. Came downstairs and kind of looked me in the eye. He says, man, I think you're the guy for the job. And got a good little bear hug. And I told him, I said, man, I'm not gonna disappoint you. We're gonna be consistent.

What you've seen last year is we're gonna just grow. And we got a good relationship, man. That's cool. Like I reach out to Mark a lot, keep him informed of what's going on. It's good to see him around the building. He was at practice just a couple of weeks ago, just to see the guys and watch the scrimmage and stuff, man.

And I think it's important when your owner's presence is around the team. Because when I was a player, I looked like, where's the owner? Does he care, does he not around? Because I had two different organizations, right? I had one guy, you know, the team you like. He was probably drunk in Cuba somewhere.

Never around, right? And then I was with another organization where they were always there. And I thought that was important. Which team was better? Just curious. Which team was better? Let you choose the one on that side, yeah. I would have stayed with that one if there was better.

But anyway, but no, man, listen, Mark, one thing about Mark, he just wants to win. He was born a Raider. If anybody was born a Raider. He was born, he probably came out in silver and black. I don't know about that, bro. Most times you get that pretty blank, he probably had a Raider blanket. Yeah. I didn't have a Raider blanket.

I just happened to see the colors and fell in love with him. Yeah. And he wears the white jeans, which rock. Nobody can pull that off. No one. I can't pull that off. I've been seeing, he's sometimes in the owner's suite with white jeans, white shirt, eating like buffalo wings. But not a stain on his shirt.

Yeah, he doesn't spill. He's an adrenaline junkie. Or you just keep a couple white shirts with you. You get one, you just flip it. That might be the case. I think he could afford, yeah, you could probably afford. Yeah, you could probably get more than one white shirt. All right, I know you gotta run in a minute probably could. More than one white shirt. Yeah.

All right, I know you gotta run in a minute. So we got a couple last questions. My last question, Chevy question, Chevy.com. Go to Chevy. The Silverado's the best truck ever. Great sponsor for Grit Week. So how often, like in day to day, do people bring up that 2007 Giants team?

And has there ever been a time where you've talked about him and it was awkward? No, no, I'm never not a team meeting. Now you know what the question was. I don't think I was asked the question. I just made a reference. It goes back to the mindset, man. It goes back to that mindset. You go against the best. best You gotta do something a little different right? Yeah, and approach it differently You know, I mean what what you did in past doesn't work with this team and that's kind of what it was But yeah, I've been asked that question quite a few and when if you ask me the question better be ready for the answer

Yeah, that's a good that's a very very fair point Maybe some people would cut too close to the bone and they just be very sensitive about it hypothetically My last last question is just I read that you had interned on the Howard Stern show What was it? What was it? What was the process like for that? Why did you decide like I would I would enjoy being interned for the Howard Stern show? So when I was with the Giants, I did a bunch of how about weekly show I think it was a Pierce fierce reporters when we called it and after one of Super Bowl I was like hey man, I want to I want to construct play with stray and play with Tiki barber two guys

I went to the media right at the football. So I'm like man. I want to I want I want to do some internships I did the J which is cool. It's crazy. I did which nobody really talked about the Jamie Foxx the Playboy Which was you into that Playboy? Fong. I'm gonna stay with Howard Stern. Hey, hey, hey. And then they were like, Howard wants you to do it. So I'm like, cool.

So the first day, I literally did all the stuff with Sal Richard, Howard, and all the guys behind the scenes. And then the next day, like, we're gonna put you on camera. And then it was crazy, man. I wish I could do it again. Because I didn't know Howard as well as I know him now. Especially back then. I knew who he was and how big he was.

I didn't realize how smart he was, how sharp he was. But then also I didn't know what goes on in the back rooms. The back rooms are real. Like, when they pull back this curtain, I need them shades. You better be prepared. But no, man, it's funny because I get asked about that probably second most other than the Super Bowl game. If I had known you were an entry for Playboy, I would have just strictly written Playboy

questions. That was weird. I said I want to be diverse and they gave me the most damn diverse things possible. If I could do a Howard Stern show again, I'd love to do it, man. Howard is a good gentleman, obviously very sharp. They got a good thing going on me. How many years now? Yeah, it's forever. 30 years.

Yeah, he's the king of media. Yeah, he's the godfather. Yeah. Well, coach, thank you so much. I know you're going to have grit on these Raiders. Oh, yes. Like just being around you pumps me up. So we're big fans and best of luck this season.

You want to do a prediction? Yeah. Okay. We're going to win a lot of games. A best of luck this season. You want to do a prediction? Yeah. Okay. We're gonna win a lot of games. A lot of games. Okay. I'm gonna take you over on that a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

What games do they think? Okay. I like that. Very good. Wrong. Yeah. All right. Thanks so much coach.

I appreciate it. Thanks man. Antonio Pierce is brought to you by part of my cheesesteak football is finally back the pre-seasons here and ordering part of my cheesesteak for a game day meal. Our late night eats is the best play call that you can make. Part of my cheesesteak brings you awesome cheesesteaks and loaded fries delivered right to your doorstep. Take your pick of delicious cheesesteaks made with fresh, thinly sliced steak,

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Use code PMC20 for 20% off your order. And now here's Jagzkid. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. This is a gritty interview because we only have one camera set up. Backstory, we're at the Long Beach, we're in Legends at Long Beach doing a fan meetup and a guy comes up to me and he says, Big Cat, you've talked about me a lot but you don't know who I am. And I was very skeptical and I was like, what the fuck is this guy talking about? And he says, I'm Andy, I'm the kid that got my head stuck in the Jacksonville Jaguars statue. However many years ago? 20 years ago? 1997?

1997. So I verified. He showed me his ID. I verified it with the news stories. So we were like, we have to have at least five minutes with the kid that got his head stuck in the Jagu statue in 1997, an all time iconic picture. So Andy, what, I mean, just what happened? Well, first of all, thank you guys for having me for grit week. This is, uh, I don't know if what I did was gritty enough over worthy of this, uh, sit down.

I'd say it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Without a doubt. Yeah. Um, so no, I was, uh, so I grew up in Jacksonville Love Jacksonville. I was nine years old. I think my parents took me there We were there we were going to some because you know Jackson was like a Navy port city I think they were had some the Navy Boat Museum thing they were doing and so we were already downtown So I go let's go to the statue and like or the stadium and like kind of hang out and like check out the vibe or Whatever and I was like I think of the time I was like, oh my god This will be a really funny picture when I stick my head in here. Yeah.

And so I, you know, did my thing, went up there. It was your idea? It was my idea. Because there's a lot, I'm glad we're getting this moment because there's a lot of different things. I know you guys have speculated my death a couple of times. I think we talked to Tony Khan. I think one of you said, well, I think he might be dead.

Yeah. He just died in the staff room. Yeah, because we saw, we saw the the picture where this kid is so dumb, there's no way he's lasted many years past this. Oh, yeah, no, I was nominated for a Darwin Award. OK, yeah, yeah. I thought that there was a chance that maybe you died in the statue, and then the news just covered it up.

Oh, yeah, I mean, those conspiracies, it's a full spectrum of all those situations. OK, so back to what happened on that day, a fateful day. Yeah, so I stuck my head in the statue for a picture thinking it'd be funny And I I have like remember after the picture was done I was like, you know, I'm so I can't get out and I think at first mom was like All right, get in the fucking car kind of thing like we're like, you know, I'm nine and like what I'm with like You know, it's just me my mom my brother and my sister

Hanging out there. And I was like, no, for real, like, this is like a thing. And it escalated from like a holy shit, this is actually happening moment from like a parent who's like freaking out to like, how are we gonna, what do we do from here kind of thing. So I think some Jaguar security like came out, monitor the situation.

The first thing they did late into it is they put Vaseline all over my head. Okay. I had to like wiggle me out, holding me monitor the situation. The first thing they did late into it is they put Vaseline all over my head. I feel like wiggle me out, holding me by the feet and like holding me, holding me by the feet and trying to like wiggle me out. And then I just remember them being like, it's not going to do it. And I, and I, and all I'm like nine, my head's in there. They put a towel over me. So I'm not like looking out at all of the people.

Cause as there's a crowd. As this is happening, it's starting to trickle in. Like, there's, as this is happening, it's starting to trickle in. Like, a whole like, like circle is forming. That's when I thought they killed you. When they put the towel over you, like a race horse. Oh yeah, and they're like, just put this guy out there. It's been euthanized.

There were just too many eyes on at the time. It would be hard to pull off. So how long were you in the statue? A little bit over, I would say like an hour and a half. Oh my god. And so you got stuck in there because the, you were saying earlier the curvature of the Jaguars fangs, you can go in, but then when you try to go out, the fangs...

Yeah, that was the number one question. That was the thing that was hitting. And this was pre-social media obviously, but this was still like, this was so big that my mom's sister found out in Germany and no one from America called her. They were like, is this Andy? Is this your son? And this was, like I said, this was pre-social media pre any of that.

So this was a big story. And the number one thing, my parents got all these phone calls to come on these talk shows. I remember Nickelodeon ones, I think it was a Summer Sanders, I don't remember the name of it, like thing, some like Rosie O'Donnell, et cetera. Like all these like talk shows were like, oh, we gotta get like the story or whatever. And my dad's like, there's no story, whatever. I do remember that one of the big things

that they talked about was the Jags were, like the Jags were nervous at the time. There was like things like, oh my God, these family is gonna sue us. This is gonna be, this is gonna be a thing. Like whatever. And I think my dad was just like, and he got a lot of respect for this. My dad's like, we family is gonna sue us. Yeah, this is gonna be yeah This is gonna be a thing now like whatever and I think my dad was just like and he got a lot of respect for this My dad's like we're not gonna sue you. We're not like those type of people like it's a shithead. Yeah, exactly Yeah, he's nine. Yeah, he's just like whatever but there was a lot of people like oh my god like freaking out and the Jaguars

We're super thankful the owner at the time was owned by the weaver. I know it's shot con now prior to that It was the weavers the weavers came out and like, you know, made sure everything was okay. I got a football sign like all the Jaguars back then because I've been a hardcore fan since ever. So I was like, I came out and I didn't understand the gravity of how big this was. It was like, oh, this is a, I was nine. I was like, oh, this was kind of a shitty day. So, so wait, so how did they get you out? So after the Vaseline procedure failed, they're like, we're going to have to give the jaws of life.

So the fire department shows up. The fire department shows up. I was on rescue 911. There's still like some, there's still some clips you can find of this. So they call the fire department. They try to do something with a couple of tools first. And then eventually they're like, no, we got to bring out the jaws of life. So that's when I think, and it might've been around the moment when they actually put the

towel on me because they don't want me to see because they had that thing. Yeah. It's just like, you know, right above like my head, but going back to your thing earlier, when you were talking about the actual, how does that work? And I explained it because the number one question was like, how does, how does it get in and not out? That's just the number one, you'll never not hear that question. I explained it like a crab trap where like you can push your ears backwards, like bending back, but then so forward forward and so that was like the simplicity of it But everyone like that was the number one thing people were like, how does that? How is that even possible? So alright, so you get out and then like when you were growing up with people like hey, you're the statue kid

Yes, a hundred percent and I again like I knew when I got home that day I remember I do remember getting home and being like all, I knew when I got home that day, I remember, I do remember getting home and being like, all I thought about when I got home was, oh my God, I have a football signed by like Mark Brunel. Yeah. And like, oh, that's all I cared about. I was nine, but I was a diehard Jack. It has like, it taught you the wrong lesson through this, which is like, do something really stupid. And then everyone gives you stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. Congratulations.

Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. No. Um, so I remember getting home and being kind of stoked. I was like, look at this football I got. Like, this is kind of rad. And I remember my dad, you know, my dad's a doctor and he got home like late that night. And he just like, and my mom, I think I had like called him at that point. He just like comes in. I just remember him being like, like this big sigh. Cause it's like, I don't know how relatable that moment is when you're kid. I know you have kids. Yeah. Like if you just found out your kid is about to be all over the news, right.

Cause they got stuck in the bear stack. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like that. You'd be like, I don't even, how do we move forward with this? And so from that point on it was, you know, parents getting calls to do this, that I want to talk about it.

And then me at school, I was in fourth grade. So when I remember I came back, I had some friends like, yeah, dude, you're like, you know, you're a legend or like whatever I this was in 1997 in fourth grade and then I had to get like strategic about it as I got older later in life because it's like I'm not gonna like, you know, actually my college essay that helped me get in like I feel like to school I went to Emory was like I bet you never heard of a kid who got his head stuck in a jaguar Yeah, and lived to tell the tale Yeah, because that became like you look for a hook for those right right that's a good hook and that stood out

But I also had to be careful and not like any other kind of particular jogging reason be like oh, yeah I'm an idiot. Yeah, I got my head stuck in a Jaguar. So you when I was nine so how it so I used to do NFL recap blogs Like way back early bar stool, and I would use the picture every time the Jaguars lost. I would see it every time. Yeah, so would you like, you obviously get older and you're like, all right, that was the thing of the past. Like, have you had moments where you're like,

fuck, it keeps coming up? No one, I mean, I didn't know, you came up to me, I had no idea who you were. No, no, I know, exactly. Like, that's the thing. I was lucky it was pre-social media, even know that people like you and other people, and I'm not saying this is a dig, I think it's still fun. I don't it doesn't like affect

Yeah, the Jaguars official account posted on their tik-tok like a few weeks ago and people started people don't know a lot of people like who I didn't know in Jacksonville who knew of the story growing up or like where is he now? Whatever and I was laughing at the comments cuz some were like like I heard he's like in Bangladesh like one guy was like and then one guy it was funny I saw a caption was like I actually heard like he's in LA like he's a producer on Vanderpump rules Which with the time that was correct and I was like I was like, oh shit this guy He knows this guy's been digging. Yeah, like how long into a relationship if you're like dating somebody How long do you wait to tell them like just so you know, I'm the kid that got his head stuck in the statue

Oh my god. Um, I wouldn't say it's an icebreaker, but it's definitely that something that comes up, I would say, I don't know, three weeks in, once you're past the like awkward vibe, whatever, then they're comfortable with you, then it's like, hey, here's a fun story. Yeah, if you wait like two years, then they'll be like, why the fuck didn't you tell me that earlier? Exactly. And I wouldn't put on my dating profile if it was like a fire? Yeah All right, so last question I have do you think you've cursed the Jaguars it's a great question

There's been a lot of speculation. I was actually before we got on the bus I was trying to dig back so that there were some really funny old Facebook messages I would get from seriously angry fans that would be like fuck you like fuck you ever since you did that We've been terrible. We were sick back then and now you went to a FC After and like we were sick back then and we've been nothing but garbage since then it's all your fault And if I ever like fucking see you in Jacksonville, you better like keep your head on the swivel And it was dead and the guy was like and I don't get like tons of those, but like those exist. Like people on the internet are crazy. That's incredible.

So I'll get something like that occasionally. And I'm just, yeah. Well, so what we're going to do for you, because we know Tony, I'm going to send Tony a picture of this. And I'm going to be like, if the Jags ever win the Super Bowl, I think you need to be part of the parade. Yeah, and we should all get to get the Jags I'm hoping we're gonna go so we're not gonna we're not gonna go to Jacksonville, but you are you're gonna go to Jacksonville No, we will Jackson. Yeah, we do love Jacksonville, but we're not We're not gonna go to Jackson. I might go play sawgrass again. You see I saw that I saw your tweets Yeah, of course, but I want you to be I want to like embrace you I want to like going forward you need to be, I want the Jags to like embrace you.

I want to like going forward, you need to be like, hey, we found them and everything's gonna be good now. It's a matter of fact that you cannot tell the story of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Without this kid getting his head stuck in the statue. That's like a very, very big part of the Jacksonville Jaguars. I was seriously starstruck. I said to Hank, I was like, I don't remember the last time I felt this way. When you told me that you were the kid, I

was just like, Oh my God. Coming up. Cause I know you get everywhere you guys go. There's like, Hey, I have a funny story. Anytime someone prefaces, especially to you at this point in your career, when they say I have a funny story, I know you're on your life. Sure. Yeah. Go ahead and shoot, man. No, no, no. This is one that's really gonna, I thought you were dead and out. Yeah. No, I might have started that rumor all right well Andy thank you thank you um the story's not ending though I want to see you with the Jags when they win a Super Bowl oh yeah and maybe we'll get maybe we get like a paper mache like Jags hat that's just the the statue is still there yeah so

the statue is still there at one point. So when they gave me the tooth, and it sucks because I actually, I gave it back to them. And I wish I didn't. Why? I know, at the time, I just didn't. So I gave it back to them. Then they put like a rubber, like fake stub tooth. And it was so funny because I want to say like, I mean, this was probably like eight years ago,

I was back home and we went to like Monster Jam at the Jaguar Stadium or something. Oh yeah. There was a yellow security guard standing out who was just monitoring to make sure like, kids don't get near the statue My buddy's like dude you created a job Job creator Andy. All right. Well, thanks man. Appreciate you coming out. Thanks for having me guys

I really appreciate it. I feel like a sense of relief that I thought that you're not dead We can finally move on that we know yeah, and we found each other in the most unexpected Sports bar in Long Beach, California. I kept that tooth though. That would go so hard as like a necklace Yeah, we gotta get you another one. I know can I say one thing too? Yeah going forward when you guys talk about you know I listen you guys religiously from beginning when you do your recaps the week I get the joke sometimes when you do like Oh Jags, Tennessee. We're like we can just skip that. Yeah Yeah, there's a big Jag we love the Jaguars there's no big deal like and we love listening to you guys I know you're laughing I think that was pre Trevor Lawrence though like because you guys had some years

between yeah but after Blake yeah yeah and then you had the Urban Meyer year all right well we'll do we'll do maybe more at a minute yeah and that was talking Jaguars that's what we'll do now that was talking Jaguars. That's what we'll do Yeah, I can off yeah, I can off. All right. Thank you Andy. Thank you guys. I really appreciate it We're about to get to head coach Eric Musselman, and he's brought to you by Mountain Dew You know what we all need to get more of off our ass with bold flavors and refreshing citrus kick Mountain Dew is gonna get you off your ass. have you feeling like you're on an actual mountain. I love the original, the Baja Blast is incredible. And then there's the go-to Code Red. I remember when Code Red came out, change the game. Code Red is an elite flavor, Baja Blast. Love it. If it's

frozen, love it. If it's regular, love it. Great flavor. I like the zero sugar too. It makes you feel like you're on a mountain where the weather is always perfect your friends are always ready to hang and A day of epic proportions awaits after we got done with our workout with with coach muscleman We got back on the bus first thing we did grab the Mountain Dew Hey the spot the mountains calling you should answer grab your friends grab an ice-cold Mountain Dew wherever refreshing beverages are sold and do the do Okay, it's time to wrap up the show with our good good friend. It is coach Eric Musselman USC basketball coach we just went through a workout with you

Let's start with that. How how how do we do? I was super impressed one with the Effort okay energy and the enthusiasm. All right, you know, there's no basketball skills. I like that Yes, the energy is yes Three ease you brought it and then the fourth the you guys executed. Okay, we put in a play you guys executed You had good reads We kind of lacked ball skills. Yep, true.

Yep. We for sure lacked shooting. Yep. Yep. These are now, would you say shooting the basketball is important in basketball? Not that important. I mean not... Just a little bit.

Yeah. The meanest thing that you said was, I think you were trying to be nice, but the fact that you were impressed with us, you were surprised, and that really speaks poorly to what you thought of us going into this workout. Well, I hadn't seen, you know, I hadn't had the ability to really scout you guys. Yeah, that's actually our secret weapon, is people don't know how unathletic we are.

Yeah, so it would be hard to- Right, it would surprise you. It's hard to put a practice plan together and it's hard to coach. You guys were fairly easy to coach, great coachability, but that usually happens. Like lack of skill, really coachable and then super skilled and maybe not so easy to coach. It's perfect that we have you on the show because we're in Southern California for Grit Week. There were a few people that were pointing out that maybe it's hard to be gritty in Southern California. It's too nice, but you are a perfect example. So can you teach us how to maintain our grit

while living in 73 degree weather year round? Well, I think it's all about where you are. You know what I mean? So like if you're between the lines in the Galen Center, you got to have grit, you know, and then maybe tonight, uh, at the Manhattan beach pier, you don't really need the grit, you know? And so it's a, it's all about your environment and where you're at at the time. You know, but you don't need grit 24 seven, right? You just need it when you're competing. Yeah. And you are a gritty coach. You, you know, your teams always play very hard, always running.

So what is it like when you get guys and you're like, hey, we're going to run. I'm going to expect the most out of you. How do you get that out of guys? I think the big thing is it starts in the recruiting process. You got to go recruit and get guys that kind of fit your style, fit your system, fit the identity

that you want to play. It's kind of hard to change guys You can tweak it get them to step over the line a little bit more than maybe where that where they are and that all comes With player development buy-in, you know, it's hard to run, you know, everybody says they want to run and then you're like, hey Here's the commitment that it takes to play with some pace to play with defensive intensity And then all of a sudden guys guys might not wanna do that. Yeah, how do you get that? How do you get the conditioning? What's the conditioning drill that you do

to get your guys to a point where it's like, they're gonna be able to outrun and outlast the other team? Yep, so the first thing we do is there's a mile test that you have to pass. Okay. And if you do not pass the mile, you have to do it again like two or three days later What's the passing time? So it's 530 for the

Yeah, it is a bike huh, can we ride a bike you could okay? Yeah, each cruiser. Yeah, and then it's 545 for the wings. Okay, then 555 for the for the big, the fours and fives. Damn. Yeah. That's really fast. And then what happens after that? After they pass the test?

Once you pass, you're good to go. Okay. And then we have a conditioning test that is in the gym with the strength coach that we've taken from Miami Heat. Coach Riley did it, Coach Spolster did it, or does it. And then they gotta do that with the strength coach. And what's that? That's a sideline to sideline thing

that I let him kind of run and kick take. They'll do that when they, so we just finished our eight week segment. We did the mile, everybody passed, but two guys, so when they come back, they'll continue to try to work on the mile. The rest of the team, when they come back, they'll do this Miami heat conditioning in the gym.

So it starts on the track and then it evolves onto the court. I noticed in your evaluation of us, you didn't mention if we had aura. Is that part of your evaluation process? Aura. Yeah, do we have aura, mojo? Yeah, I thought there was a lot of confidence. You know, maybe at a few of the positions,

too much confidence, you know, maybe at a few of the positions, too much confidence, but certainly swag. I would say the swag was there. That would be the biggest thing, you know, is you guys walked out there like you belonged. Yeah. You know, and that's half the battle. You got to look good in the layup line. Yeah. It's also insanity thinking that we belong out there. Probably, probably. But yeah, but. I did, when we went to the practice facility, I hit like four threes in a row. And then one of your assistant coaches gave me a bad pass, and I missed the next like 10.

And I was like, that bad pass probably ended my career. Yeah, you know. Because I was kind of in a point where I was like, if Musk gets a look at this, he's going to be like, damn. You know the deal, big cat, never shoot a bad pass. Oh, I like that. So you got to remember that. whether you're watching an NBA game, or it's really hard to make a shot off a bad pass.

So you got to you should have thrown it right back coach and said, hey, man, hit me in the chest, hit me in my shooting pocket. Get your stuff together. Yeah, because that's not on you that. Yeah. Okay. So maybe I'm back. Yeah, you're back.

Yeah. All right. So we have our listener submitted grit questions Hank has him Hank will fire him off and we'll answer them to the best. Hank did have grit today, too Yeah, I mean when he dove on the floor. Yeah, he showed great. I can't wait till people see this video We were flopping all over the floor Max. Maybe some butt crack. We'll have to There was some big-time butt crack for Max. Yeah, Huey with an all-time hustle play Yeah, chasing down that loose ball. Yeah all the way into the stands. He went a couple rows up.

That was incredible. Yeah. Okay, Hank. Is grit and moxie the same thing? Having moxie in the pocket or having grit on the line, are they the same? Ooh. I think Mojo Coach also showed us the the Mojo plays. Yeah. And like Mojo, grit, or I feel like it's all kind of the same I don't think grit and moxie are the same. I don't think I actually don't agree with you Yeah, I don't think that you can have aura and grit at the same time. I think they're mutually exclusive. Yeah moxie is like You could have grit in moxie. I don't know but if you have moxie, I don't know if you have grit Yeah, like Like in football terms, I'd say that Drew Locke has moxie. Right. And like Taysom Hill has grit. Yeah. So what would you

rather have in a guy you're recruiting a moxie or grit? Both. You need the combination? Yeah. How many grit guys, if you have a 12 man roster, how many grit guys you need? How many moxie guys do you need? I don't think you can have a lot of moxie guys. Okay, so I would say moxie guys three. Okay, right and the rest grit. Yeah, and then you're going to win. I think that's right because if you have too many moxie guys, everyone there's only one ball. Everyone. Yeah, moxie. There's a little ego involved. Yeah, right. It's just toughness. You're like a sewer rat. Yeah. Yeah, but how good is it? You

do need the one thing I love about basketball is you do need at least one guy on the roster who thinks he's just never going to miss, right? Oh, no question. Yeah. You gotta have a guy that's just got unbelievable confidence. Yeah, like too much confidence where you're like, he's actually insane, but you need that. No doubt. Yeah. Good question. As an avid pickup basketball player, what's a good way for me to consistently be the grittiest guy out there? Floor burns. Yeah. I mean, what's a good way for me to consistently be the grittiest guy out there? Mmm. Floor burns. Yeah. I mean, it's a little hard if you play outdoor. Pick up basketball though.

You're diving on the floor and pick up basketball. I mean, nobody wants to do that. Okay. You know, so if you can do that or forget diving on the floor then it's all about when the ball's in the air. How many loose balls can you get? get long rebounds balls that are floating around can you get those yeah it's like a receiver you think every every rebound with balls in the air that's your ball yeah go get it I personally who's wait what was the exact question how can you be the bet the most great it's a good way for me to consistently be the grittiest guy out so the two tips I would give is you want to save your energy so always try to correct the score every time down be like hey hold up check ball who wants to score again?

And then use your timeouts so timeout will always stop the game for at least 30 seconds everyone like dude There's no timeouts and pick up and then you get your breath back a little bit. It's just y'all ball Yeah, when people are shooting yeah If you call a timeout though, and you're playing with the wrong guys and pick up ball, especially if it's outdoor, you might. Yeah, that's true. But listen to time out. Everyone looks around. They're like, what are you doing? Calling a timeout? There's no question. Yeah. Yeah. I called the time out today during

practice. Mike. Yeah. When we're getting mic'd up that save me. Yeah, right. It's all about that. That's that can maximize your grit. Can you please ask must what grit means to him when it comes to what makes a great walk-on Oh, does he have any good stories from walk-on tryouts specifically in Nevada and a walk-on abilities to juggle and ride a unicycle Also, does he have any good Gilbert arenas or Ron our test stories? Oh Good question. Where do you want me to start just with the walk-on? Yeah Yeah, what grit means to him when it comes to what makes a great walk-on? Yeah, a great walk. Well, first of all, a great walk-on has got to be the grittiest guy on the team.

Mm-hmm. I mean, that's, there's no questions about that. Or the coach's son. Or the coach's son. That'll work too. Or grandson. But I would say, uh, Coach K. You know, a great walk-on story, right? Was that part of the question? Yes, I'm guessing he's talking about himself. Specifically in Nevada, in a walk-on's abilities to juggle and ride a unicycle. What was this guy's name? It doesn't have his name. So was there a walk-on in Nevada that rode a unicycle?

We did a pregame warm-up at Nevada, which was we had a guy that rode a unicycle and juggled. So this is his question for sure. So we had a walk-on tryout at Nevada, and one of the assistant coaches was really serious. He was having him do ball handling shooting. Alls I wanted was a walk-on who could ride the unicycle for the pregame warmup. So I kind of stopped the thing and go,

hey, let's stop with the basketball stuff. I just want to find a guy that can juggle and ride a unicycle for this warmup. You wanted Red Panda on the team. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, exactly. Do you ever have walk-ons that try too hard in practice

or is that not a thing? Oh no, for sure. Great question. Yeah, because if you've got a walk-on who's too excited and really, you know, like you don't want an injury, right? You know what I mean? And a lot of walk-ons oftentimes are smaller Maybe not as skilled not as athletic You don't want to walk on like hard file bill lamby or hard foul right on one of your better players

So you do have to tell some walk-ons like hey man chill or you're only on the scout team You don't need to go like 50% right now, right, man, chill, or you're only on the scout team. You don't need to go like 50% right now. We're not going, you know. Yeah. What if you're playing against a team like, I don't know, Houston comes to mind, or a team that's just going to absolutely shove you around and be physical,

do you then tell your practice team, like, hey, we need to actually dial it up with the intensity? We need to be a little bit more physical? Yeah, we haven't played Houston. But if you're playing Calvin Sampson's team, yeah. I'd probably throw seven walk-ons out there and have our guys try to guard five, five on seven, and put seven scout team guys going to the offensive glass.

Because that's what it looks like when Houston, when a shot goes up, like, their best offense is a missed shot. So yeah, we would probably over-exaggerate what we would have to do to try to take away their offensive rebounding game. Yeah okay and then what was it Ron Artesta or Gilbert Arenas? So do you have any good stories about them? I mean there's so many with both of them. So you were an assistant coach when they were on what teams? No I was a head coach with Gilbert Arenas his second year playing for the Warriors. He didn't play much his first year.

I got hired as the head coach. And probably about the second or third practice, about 15 minutes in, I don't ever leave practice. I left practice, went upstairs, the GM was Gary St. Gene. I'm like, this guy down here is an all-star. Like, he's gonna be a bona fide all-star. He was so talented, could go get his own shot whenever he wanted.

So that's the one thing that, and then with Ron, our test, I mean, it was, it was every game. I was the head coach of the Kings. First close game we had, right? It's like 15 seconds left. We call a timeout, we're playing in Milwaukee. Ron comes sprinting up to me. Coach, what are we doing?

The Kings need a basket and we're down one against Milwaukee Bucks. I'm like, I don't know. He goes, get the ball to run our test. That's a good answer. I'm like, all right, let's get the ball to run. Gilberto I mean, he's one of those guys that had unbelievable confidence in himself. Yeah, he did.

And he could back it up. Yeah. Yeah. He really could. Unbelievable player. All right, well, last one. Who's your favorite or player with most grit from your time at Arkansas? Ooh, that's a tough...

I would say we had a lot of guys at Arkansas that had grit, but I would say the one guy and he kind of changed our season was a guy named Trey Wade. And he was a guy that just kind of stuck with it. And we had some other more offensively talented players, but as soon as we added him in the lineup, our team took off, an elite eight beat Gonzaga who was you know number one at the time and Trey Wade was the grittiest guy he was six foot five and a half six six he ended up garden shed Holmgren did a great job of doing all the dirty things yeah mm-hmm yeah I mean your teams are great tournament teams I mean I loved the Nevada teams were so much fun to watch. I mean, I've told Ruta a bunch, but like I would stay up. We were living in New York at the time.

I'd stay up 11 o'clock tip off in New York time. She'd be like, gotta watch Mus' guys, gotta watch the Martins going crazy. Hitting every three. Super talented team. Yeah, and how are we feeling about this upcoming season for USC? Yeah, we're like our we had finished our eight week summer session was unbelievable. Got great chemistry, guys really get

along. We lack certain things, but we know what areas you know, we're like at that center spot, we don't have a lot of depth. So we're gonna have to play small ball. Those are some of the things that we're trying to figure out. We've had a lot of injuries, but there are injuries that everybody should heal. But this will be a great experiment. Like we're going to have to win off grit. We're going to have to win off togetherness. We're going to have to win off team chemistry. We're going to have to win off having a better locker room than the other team as far as being together. Because there are going to be some teams that probably have

a little bit more talent in certain areas or certain positions. But it's a team that's super fun to coach. OK. You guys got a theme for this year, or something that you're hammering home to the team? Like, this is going to be your motto moving forward? Yeah, we don't have one yet.

It's interesting you bring that up, because we've talked about it. We wanted to go through the summer. We had a two-week break where we needed to come up with a hashtag or a theme. And then we got to be talked about it. We wanted to go through the summer. We had a two-week break where we needed to come up with a hashtag or a theme or, you know. And then we got to be all about it. It's one thing to put it on a wall or put it on a shirt. But then how do you execute that identity?

Yeah, it's got to match up. You got to have that. You got to spend some time meditating on it. Let it come to you. Let the universe speak it right into existence. And welcome to the Big Ten. It's tough basketball. Tough basketball. Physical league, really hard to win on the road in this league.

And then you think about the travel that USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, you know, we have to go through the three time zones way more than the other. You know, they come to us once. And we got to go there four times. Yeah. So it's how you manage that is super important. We've tried to study. We've a couple of weeks ago, we were over with the Rams asking them how they travel. When do you leave for a Sunday game? If it's an afternoon game, what do you know, what's what time do you want to arrive at

the hotel? Do you try to change your sleep habits or do you stay the same? And so all those things, it's gonna be like for us, quite frankly, the first year we're gonna be learning on the fly. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited though. Coach, you're the best. We're gonna finish off, we got, we guess a number. We have a lottery ball machine in our office, so we don't have it here, but we do random number generators. So I want you you to any number from one to a hundred guess whatever you want I'll let you start we're all gonna guess a

number and then we're gonna we're gonna randomly generate it perfect so what's your number 13 13 17 8 I'll go 20 you guys what memes got 3 max 11 21. All right, here we go. PFT you're watching. Yeah. 4848. So nobody got it. One one. Is that exciting? I mean, I wish somebody really hard to explain. Yeah, yeah, it would have been. It's all right. You got to get better. Yes. Yeah, you got to get better. We all got to get better. Next time gets the right number okay question. Yeah work no excuses right? Yes. Yes. All right. Well. Thank you so much Thank you guys. It was awesome great day. Appreciate you having us on yes awesome way to start the day I don't know what I'm to say I'm saved anyway Today's another day to find you

Shine away I'll be coming for your love, okay Shine away I'll be coming for your love, okay Take on me Take me on I'll be gone, but I need so little work. But I'm here, you stole my little boy So learn that life is okay Say after me

It's no better to be safe than sorry Say after me It's no better to be safe than sorry Take on me Take me on Come here, take me home I'll be gone in a day or two I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started.

I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. Thank you.