Throwbacks with Matt Leinart & Jerry Ferrara - The Reality TV Jets, Top 3 Sports Video Games and Max Greenfield on the Knicks, Meeting Luka & More!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Oh my God, Lucas warming up. This security guard comes over to us. When you see him come to the free throw line, he's going to make a beeline to like the gate or whatever, the tunnel. And he's like, just get ready. And so he comes through and I don't know what I turned into. But I don't even remember this happening, but it definitely did happen. I look, I look, I look.

Starting point is 00:00:42 All right, everybody. Welcome to another episode of throwbacks. Thank you, everybody. However, you're taking the show in today, subscribe to us on YouTube. Follow us on Apple and Spotify. And of course follow us on all social media platforms at throwback show. Cause as Matt and I like to say, we actually will respond to you on social media and not ignore you even though you listen to our show. Now Matt, real quick, we got a good show for everybody today. I can't stop saying something on Twitter that pisses

Starting point is 00:01:12 people off and I'm not doing this on purpose. I'm not trying to be Skip Bayless reincarnated. Well it's because you're on Twitter, you're on Twitter way too much. Is that true? Would you say as a friend I'm on Twitter too much? I would say the days that if it's NFL Sunday or if there's basketball going on, what I'm noticing about you is that you get real, you get real heavy fingers on some of these certain days of the week when you're now that it's playoff baseball and NFL Sunday, you just, you just can't help yourself. So naturally, the more you tweet, the more controversy you're going to.

Starting point is 00:01:46 Now, why can't you ask? I know Twitter is successful in a lot of ways, but you know, I watched the Yankees beat, you know, beat Kansas City, move on to the next round to the ALCS, which is a great accomplishment. But then, and I knew this, I watched baseball. I know every team celebrates after a rep, but this particular round, and maybe it's because it's the Yankees when they're spraying each other And beer and champagne. I'm like you guys gotta wait eight more games You're not even that you're a third of the way through the playoff run But is their third champagne bath in three weeks for the Yankees for the egg

Starting point is 00:02:17 Yeah, but is that but is that but is that because you're just a Yankees fan and you're just you're tired of being let down And you just like, hey, focus. Yes and no. I guess it is the Kobe fan and me, and you could relate to this too with like, hey, you're up three one, jobs not finished, nothing to be happy about. You don't see it in any other sport.

Starting point is 00:02:37 Do you pop champagne if you get to the NFC championship game? No, but this is baseball though. I mean, this is like a tradition in baseball where they wear the ski goggles and they pop the champagne and they pour the beer. Every round and when you clinch a playoff spot and when you win the division, every single round. By the way, when you play 9,000 games in a season.

Starting point is 00:02:59 That's where you lose me. Because I'm going to go to a famous quote by Jon Hamm from the show Mad Men. That's what the money's for. You play 162 games. Yes, it's a grind. You don't get to see your family. It's a shit ton of work. That's what the money's for, isn't it? Listen man, I look at, I don't care as much. If they want to celebrate, I've been so let down by my Dodgers over the years that I don't care. If you want to celebrate an NL West championship, go for it. If you want to celebrate an NLCS, go for it. I will be personally celebrating when we win a World Series.

Starting point is 00:03:31 That's it. I'm not celebrating until that. So well, we might have to ask at the end of the show to have a poll because this got me to a lot of trouble. Really good show for you today. Joining us later is one of my best friends in the world. An actor, also a great sports fan, Max Greenfield. You know him from New Girl, you know him from the show The Neighborhood.

Starting point is 00:03:49 He's in like 40 other movies and he also wrote quite a few children's books. You're going to love him. I predict you guys are going to be friends. I just predict. I feel like we're going to be friends and I think it's how you guys met and your guys' stories is awesome. I'm excited to hear him. And he's a dad. He's kind of what a legend, dude. Just writing books, couple hit TV shows, a lot to unpack there. He's one of my sports friends.

Starting point is 00:04:18 Big video game guy. But when something goes down with the Knicks or the Giants or the Dodgers even, he's who I call to unpack stuff You know you have that friend who you like to unpack stuff with that's that's max and then later Cuz you know now we really made this throwback three a thing. You know, I think I came up with a good topic for this week I'm gonna tease it right now We're gonna do our throwback three all-time sports video games

Starting point is 00:04:46 Okay sports has to be sports. So I'm curious to hear yours You know what? We've both done a lot of TV and stuff like this and had to do a lot This was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I I'm still debating on my top three I've so it's not even a finalized list yet. It's gonna be final when we talk about it I'm just gonna I'm just gonna go with my gut. I'm going to go with what brings me back to my childhood. But there's so many to choose from. But it's a great topic, dude. I'll give you that.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Well, being that you are also one of my unpacking friends, but we do it on this podcast, I definitely thought of you. And we were texting in our group chat when the Devonte Adams trade went down. New York has got a whole bunch of stuff going on in general. And I'm like, I'm going to go with my gut. I'm going to go with my heart. I'm going to go with my gut. I definitely thought of you and was we were texting our group chat when the Devante Adams trade went down. New York has got a whole bunch of stuff going on in general but coming off that loss my immediate question I wanted to ask you

Starting point is 00:05:34 was you know we saw that last interception Mike Williams slips falls down did he run the wrong route from what you saw I know Rogers said that in the press conference and then what does that feel like as a quarterback when you get the INT that's going on your record but the guy ran the wrong route? I would say generally, I don't even say most of the time but I would say half of, I don't want to put a percentage

Starting point is 00:06:03 because I'm going to get crushed for this. Let's just say half, okay? Let's just say half. I would say half of quarterbacks interceptions stem from something that particularly might not be their fault. And what do I mean by that? Maybe an offensive line,

Starting point is 00:06:19 and I'm not throwing anyone under the bus. I'm just saying this is what happens. In general. In general, when you watch the film, like I'm going to lean towards Aaron Rodgers, clearly in this one, because he's not, and he broke down the exact play

Starting point is 00:06:31 of what he was supposed to do. He's supposed to run an end cut. As he went to throw, Mike clearly went the opposite way and it screwed up Aaron Rodgers and he under threw it. And you can kind of tell now, once he breaks it down,

Starting point is 00:06:41 you're like, oh, okay, that's, like he doesn't miss a guy that badly. Most of the time, there's a lot of times where receivers might run the wrong route, they might not get the right depth, that's the biggest thing because in the NFL, you might not talk about details and all this, depth of a route is the most important thing. So an in breaking route, let's just say it's 12 to 15

Starting point is 00:07:05 and go to 12 yards to 15 yards and come across. If a guy runs it 10 to 12 yards and comes across, our timing is off and that allows for a defensive back to either jump cut it, knock it down, or be in the position because we're getting the ball out, football is all timing. So you're throwing the ball, you've seen it a million times, you're throwing the ball before a receiver even looks, right? Because you're throwing it to a spot,

Starting point is 00:07:29 you're throwing it to where they're supposed to be. And that's what Rogers is doing in that moment, he's done that, I mean, quarterbacks, we've done that a million times. But in real time, the blame falls on the quarterback, which it always does, and that's fine. But given the situation in New York, and Robert Sala gets fired, and now you have Devontae Adams name

Starting point is 00:07:52 floating around for weeks, you have Mike Williams running the wrong route. Aaron Rogers is a pissed off dude right now. Like I can understand like I don't look at it as throwing the bus. He's like, Listen, like this is, this is where I expected him to be. It wasn't there. I threw a pick and we lost. That's the bottom line. Do you think, how do I say this? I think the Jets have other problems than just receiver,

Starting point is 00:08:17 but who am I? You know, I'm just a fan, right? Obviously, Devonte Adams is an upgrade, but we haven't really seen Devontae Adams be one, healthy, and two, effective, because the team was so bad with the Raiders. Jerry, let's be honest. Devontae's been healthy.

Starting point is 00:08:34 He has not been playing. I don't want to, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I This dude, by the way, you don't think he and Aaron Rodgers have been texting every day the past month. Don't worry, bro, I'll get you here. Don't worry. Just keep nursing that hammy, okay? He wasted three years of his career in Oakland or in Vegas. And now he gets to, does it, like now the question is, does it make them the super bowlers? They're all in, right?

Starting point is 00:09:02 They're all in. Well, one, they're all in. They can't be more all in. Which you got to credit Woodyody johnson got accredited there there you know upstairs but look you can't you can't teach chemistry and those guys were doing it for a long time at the highest level and when you're on the same page and you just you just have that connection you know Brady had it with Gronk and and Edelman all those years and and my homes and Kelsey's a perfect example sometimes

Starting point is 00:09:27 Sometimes you just got it with the guy that you know that they're wonder They're as good as you know Devante Adams a Hall of Famer And now you put him on the other side of Garrett Wilson who we know is outstanding They just haven't been able to get anything going It just it just it it makes them much more to defend. Now does it make them you know, hey, they're going to win the Super Bowl? No, but I'll tell you what, it makes them a lot better. And I think it gives Aaron Rodgers more comfort in this offense. And has anyone benefited more from Aaron Rodgers being a New York jet than Pat McAfee. That reveal, I gotta say.

Starting point is 00:10:05 That was sick, I'm not gonna lie. I watched it like 10 times. Yeah, I think of things, I watch sports and consume it for the story. I really do, I love stats and I love talking to you about the ins and outs of Xs and Os, but I want the story. The reveal of Devonte Adams

Starting point is 00:10:20 was straight out of an HBO show. That was perfect. Again, it goes back to like, those guys, like they knew, they knew it was gonna happen. They knew it was gonna happen. And then losing the way they did, Aaron's like, too, we gotta change something. My boy is out there.

Starting point is 00:10:37 My boy is out there. And anyway, yeah. I think it's happening whether Mike Williams runs the wrong route and falls down. He he was there the next day for sure. Oh, yeah, he was probably having dinner with he was probably at Aaron's house the night before the night of they lost. Listen, it's a wild it is the best reality show on TV right now, I think, is the New York Jets.

Starting point is 00:11:00 Well, I want to ask you about New York in general. Speaking of New York, you know, you no longer live there, but you're a New Yorker. This, you think about the Mets, the Yankees, you think about the Liberty and the WNBA, obviously shout out to them. They got a squad, the Jets saga, the Giants, obviously you're diehard.

Starting point is 00:11:23 What is the buzz like in New York right now? It's one of my favorite cities ever to go to, especially this time of the year. Yeah, there is nothing better. And again, I'm not in New York these days nearly as much. I do still go a lot. And my mom and brother are still there. I always judge it on how my group chats are with all my sports buddies.

Starting point is 00:11:46 And I actually have to like turn my phone off at night now because sports are going so late with baseball at night. But I know Major League Baseball is probably not hoping for Mets Yankees. They probably want Mets Dodgers. I mean, Yankees Dodgers. But as far as New York, another subway series, that would be so intense that I don't even know if I could, I mean, I'll watch, but I might be watching like a scary movie with one eye closed because the Mets stuff was cute.

Starting point is 00:12:14 Meaning for me saying like, Oh, I want the Mets to beat the Phillies. I ran my mouth saying I hate Philly fans more than Mets fans, but I'll tell you what the thought of losing to the Mets in a World Series that's terrifying because those meth fans will never ever stop talking about that ever it will never go away that's on the record that's almost worse than the Red Sox beating the Yankees in 04 the way. So are you are you a are you a if they go to the World Series whether it's Yankees Dodgers Yankees Mets are you a I got to get to a World Series game in New York or are you, Hey, I'm going to watch with my boys on the couch. And it just, I mean, there's totally two different experiences, but I feel like there's two schools of thought. Cause I, when the Dodgers are in the World

Starting point is 00:12:58 Series, I always try to say like, I want to go to one game. It's right down the street, but I'm also like, man, it's kind of nice to watch it on the couch and you know, with whoever. You know, I've been to a bunch of Yankee playoff games. I've never been to a World Series game throughout that run in the nineties and early two thousands. There was no chance I was really getting in that stadium and definitely didn't have the money to buy a ticket. So if they're in the World Series, I'm going, but I'll tell you what, another argument, controversial argument I had on this show, even with Dontrell Willis, was I'm going Thursday night and Friday night Yankees Guardians in

Starting point is 00:13:32 Cleveland and let me tell you Matt, if that game was last night, I might not have gone because it was 38 degrees freezing hailing rain in and out for the night. I cannot think of a worse experience to go watch a damn base. It would've felt like a Browns game. Well, I can, and honestly, what's worse than that, what's worse than that is, how come your wife has your boys in Cleveland guardian hats?

Starting point is 00:13:57 Oh, it's over for me. It's over. What are we doing? And you know, I might have to ask Max this later in the show too, because he's raising his kids in LA, but he's a New York dude as well. What am I doing? Here's how that went down. Game's about to start. I said, you know, I want the kids to watch some baseball, even if it's on in the background, let them see it. I put it on and right away my kids are like, oh, where's my Guardians hat? Because they had, they got a Guardians hat from last year. I'm like, well, son,

Starting point is 00:14:22 they're playing the Yankees from New York. That's where dad's from. They're like, dad, from last year. I'm like, well, son, they're playing the Yankees from New York. That's where dad's from. They're like, dad, we're guardians fans. Well, that's your cause. That is your fault. Well, also it's because last year I threw out the first pitch at a guardians game and they came on the field with me and that's what they saw. So it's over. So I think I'm okay with it. I think I'm okay with the guardians fan thing. I got to figure out if I'm okay with my kids being like Browns fans and Knicks fans. Cause that could be lifetime of sports therapy that they might need.

Starting point is 00:14:50 I don't know man. I don't know how I feel about that. I don't know. They're trolling too. They know how to bust them balls. They know the wife is trolling you on Instagram. I'm just like, I'm like, oh man. If my, like there's a UCLA t-shirt in one of my boys drawers and you know,

Starting point is 00:15:06 I get him help him get him dressed for school. And the minute that thing ever, I don't throw it away. Cause like, you know, Josie's like, ah, it's stupid, just keep it in there. But if they ever come down in that, that will be taken off. Go back, go right back in the drawer

Starting point is 00:15:19 and go pick out a different shirt. The same with like Clippers. The only non Dodger Laker jersey that we have in the house is a, I'm not just going to kill you actually, is a Big Poppy Boston Red Sox jersey. But, but my wife's father, who passed away a while ago, was a diehard Red Sox fan. Okay, so that's a connection to grandpa.

Starting point is 00:15:43 That was a connection that we got him. He wanted a Red Sox jersey. And I'm like, you know what? That is OK. Yeah. That was your poppy's team. And you can have that. And he'll rock it every once in a while.

Starting point is 00:15:54 That's it. But that's all we got, man. We got Dodgers. We got Lakers. And we got some old Liner Cardinal jerseys in there. Well, to answer your question before we get back into football, what a time to be in sports radio in New York. All the dudes at WFAA can yell at each other and yell at fans

Starting point is 00:16:13 and Michael. Everyone could just go back to yelling, except it's actual playoff games you're yelling about and not something else. So yeah, good luck. Subway series would be absolutely terrifying. So I wanted to toy with something with football here and speaking of sports media and stuff, I this, this is a fantastic sports football quote, but sports in general. And a lot of

Starting point is 00:16:37 people use this quote to end an argument. Almost. I'm going to end this sports debate because Bill Parcells said, you are what your record says you are. That's true. Great quote when he said it. It is true, but I want to get in the lane of thinking about it the other way. What teams in the NFL right now are not what your record says you are? Because that is a thing too. I mean, Parcells is the best quotable, quote machine, but is that really true at this point with football? Because I asked you to make a little bit of a list

Starting point is 00:17:12 or pick a team, and I have one here. But this is what you don't understand. You know how hard it is to win games in the NFL? Of course. So if, like, it is hard. Like, it is really hard to win NFL games. So if a team is five and oh, and again,

Starting point is 00:17:31 we can jobs as an analyst sort of break down, okay, well you beat this team and you didn't really beat this team. At that level, dude, it doesn't matter. So I think it's funny. Like I wanna hear your team, but like, okay. So I mean, we're going to go Vikings. You want to go Vikings?

Starting point is 00:17:48 I know you're strong about the Vikings. No, I think, I think, I think the Vikings are five and oh, I think they've been the best team in the league so far. I have no problem with the Vikings being five and oh, I, because they've also outplayed pretty much. They've convincingly won four of the five games for the most part. So I have no problem with what the Vikings are doing. So who is it? Who's a team that you think, OK, they got a good record, but they're a fraud?

Starting point is 00:18:13 You might not. Look, this is a sensitive one, because there is some delightful stuff coming from this team. I can't look at the Washington commanders at four and two and say, yeah, that's a four and 0 team. I can't look at the Washington commanders at four and two and say, yeah, that's a four and O team. That's the leader in the clubhouse in the NFC East right now in pole position to win that division. I think Jayden Daniels is unbelievable. I think for the next 10 years, they're fantastic. I think they have some wins that are, but they've beaten, they, they've beaten the bucks. No, they lost the bucks. Oh, they lost they've beaten, they beaten the Bucs.

Starting point is 00:18:45 No, they lost the Bucs. Oh, they lost to the Bucs. They lost to the Bucs week one. They beat the Giants in, I get it. You want, what you're saying is right. You won an NFL football game. So that's the point. Okay.

Starting point is 00:18:57 So they, they, they didn't score a touchdown in that game. Okay. So they lost to the Bucs, they beat the Giants, they beat the Bengals, they beat the Cardinals. They beat the Bengals, they beat the Cardinals. They beat the Bengals, which that is no, that's not... In their four wins, they're winning by an average of almost 19 points. That is wild. Whether it was the Bengals, they won by five, but the Cardinals, they absolutely blew out.

Starting point is 00:19:18 They blew out the Cardinals and the Browns. The Cardinals got blown out by the Packers again. They played the Baltimore Ravens. They played a damn good team in the Baltimore Ravens. Pretty close. Pretty close. But that's my team. That's my, you are not what your record says you are.

Starting point is 00:19:34 Oh, I disagree. I think that team is a playoff team. And I think whether or not Jaden Dan is a rookie or not, he makes them very dangerous. Like, defenses do not want to play that guy. Telling you man. And that division. Do you have a team that your record is not what it says you are? I'm still, I'm still kind of on the Steelers and, and, and, you know, they're four and

Starting point is 00:19:59 two and Mike Tomlin is great. And again, a lot of chatter about Russell Wilson this week. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. Well, you think Fields, right? I think you're fantastic with Fields. How do you not? Well, plus, I mean, we can't get enamored. The thing is we get enamored by numbers and stats and all this.

Starting point is 00:20:20 It's like, they don't throw the ball. It doesn't matter what he brings in the run game. Like, you completely take that away. And Russ is a hall of fame guy. And I get that, but you take that away from what is working for them now. And Russ is Russ moves around, but all that, but it's just a different offense. And at four and two, man, I don't know. Is Russ hall of fame? Is that a dumb question? I mean, when a bowl, you want a super bowl, you played for 10 years, 12 years? Yeah, I think he's Hall of Fame.

Starting point is 00:20:50 All right, well then that's great for my guy Eli too. Oh, Eli's a first ballot Hall of Famer. Well, I love people, we won't do the Eli manning People think he doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Well, his regular season stuff is- Yeah, but he went on the great... Two Bulls. Oh, you're not gonna convince me.

Starting point is 00:21:08 I'll put him in. All right, so if... I hear you on the Steelers, because that's gonna bring me to the next thing here, when we always do our what team needs to win the most this weekend in the NFL, for me, it's the Jets, for all the things we just said.

Starting point is 00:21:24 And also, could you believe, again, talking about the TV show that is the New York Jets, they're playing on Sunday night after this trade. It's insane. So good. From Monday night to Sunday night and it's versus Steelers. That's a good game. That's a good game. They have to win.

Starting point is 00:21:41 They cannot go two and five after putting in all the chips for Adams. They can't go two and five. I It's it's hard because the matchups this week I was kind of staying good matchups to yeah, I was staying in the NFC East I Was gonna go Eagles Playing your Giants and honestly, I didn't do that on purpose That's okay. Just with the Sirianni stuff kind of this week and you know like, Philly's tough man

Starting point is 00:22:12 and they're three and two but you lose to the Giants and then we just talked about the commanders who in first. Dallas. They need it. They just need it because Dallas, I don't know how good Dallas is or not and I know they got their ass kicked last week, but like they're desperate. Like there's a lot of teams that are just desperate.

Starting point is 00:22:29 And the Eagles, for what, there's a fascination about the Philadelphia Eagles and this coach. And if they're good or not, and I just feel like you get to four and two, you're sitting in a good spot. You're either one game out of first place, you're tied with the, you know, the commander. So I'm gonna go with the Eagles playing your Giants. Well, I'm with you on that, because here's how I'll word it.

Starting point is 00:22:50 I think they need a convincing win. And the Giants were now without Andrew Thomas for the rest of the season, which is horrible for Giants fans. They just need to blow the Giants out. I was going to say, are you just, I mean, we're over the Giants at this point. It's over. We don't even need to. In all those things we talked about with New York, notice we didn't really mention the Giants as the Knicks are gonna basically tip off next week as well. The Giants we don't need to talk about. So do you not watch the Giants the rest of the season or

Starting point is 00:23:16 you just kind of have them in the background? I'm officially on the red zone now. You're on red zone. I put on the red zone and I on my laptop I'll have like a specific game depending on who I bet that week which by the way I caught a rough beat with that Alan touchdown in the Jets game getting called back that crushed like a seven like parlay. All right we're gonna now segue we're gonna go we're gonna bring Max on in a minute but first we are gonna do it's time for my favorite part of the show my favorite segment We're gonna do the can't get enough sauce moment of the week brought to you everybody by Wendy's This is where we highlight a player who we feel is just we can't get enough of I Don't know if you're gonna like mine

Starting point is 00:23:56 Mine is so off the wall. It's so random, but I don't know if you're gonna like mine Do you know the name Jordan Mott? Does that name ring a bell to you? OK, he's not a football player, but he's the dude, the Penn State fan that paid the money to run out with USC wearing Penn State jersey. I don't know how I feel about that. That's on your school. They should have been aware.

Starting point is 00:24:21 Well, I feel a whole lot of emotions about my school right now. And then I'm on our big noon chat, and they sent that to the chat, USC paying, what, $1,500 to any fan to run the team out. And I'm thinking, what are we doing? Can't we pay $1,500 to our collective to go get a kid or something?

Starting point is 00:24:41 What are we doing? In the story I read, it said, they were like, oh, we've never had an opposing fan. What did you think was gonna happen? Dude, trust me, I can't. To the point where I think USC has changed some of the rules of how that goes down. So Jordan Mott, that was, I mean,

Starting point is 00:24:57 that was spicy ghost pepper right there. You dipped that nug in the spicy ghost pepper and enjoy. More power to him, dude. I mean, the balls that takes and then to do it, then the win. saucy saucy i'm going with mark davis i know okay let's hear it so make the case owner of our vegas raiders yeah sure a usc trojan i did play for oakland raiders my last year so i I know Mark, love the guy. Okay. Little, little quirky, little out there, but loves his team. And his quote was, which I

Starting point is 00:25:33 thought was absolutely awesome, traded Devontae Adams for Tom Brady in the third round pick. Because Tom now just got approved by all of the NFL owners to be a minority owner in the Las Vegas Raiders. I thought it was just kind of one of those things where like you have a disgruntled player, you know, you paid him a lot of money, he's out. What a flex to be, well, I just traded you for Tom Brady, who now is an owner of the team with me. I was like, that's saucy.

Starting point is 00:26:03 That's saucy. That just made me chuckle. I was like, good's saucy. That's saucy. That's saucy. It just made me chuckle. I was like, good on you, Mark Davis. You got a third round pick. You got rid of a player who was about to sit out the rest of the season anyway. And then you get Tom Brady, who will bring an enormous amount of knowledge, anything to an ownership that will only help your team and make your team more valuable. So I think he won at the end of the day.

Starting point is 00:26:26 All right, well, that's our can't get enough sauce moment of the week brought to you by Wendy's. Thank you to Wendy's. I'm hungry now, by the way. Every time I do that segment, I'm hungry. Shout out to Wendy's. Shout out. Maybe I'll take, we'll take a quick break.

Starting point is 00:26:36 Maybe I'll go get some food real quick because we're going to come back with my bestie, my buddy. You guys know him as Schmidt. I know him as Max Greenfield, coming back. Miller Lite, the light beer brewed for people who love the taste of beer and the perfect pairing for your game time. When Miller Lite set out to brew a light beer,

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Starting point is 00:27:57 However you choose to do it. Because when you're not worried about doing things the right way, you're free to discover your way. And that's what running's all about. Run your way at newbalance.com slash running. All right, coming back, he played one of the most iconic TV characters, in my opinion, of all time in the hit sitcom New Girl, Schmidt.

Starting point is 00:28:27 We all love Schmidt. He's the author of some very, very popular children's books, including his most recent one, which he sent to my kids, Good Night Thoughts. And his current show, The Neighborhood, returns to CBS on October 21st for season seven, seven years. It's like a sports franchise at this point. He's my good buddy, Max Greenfield, joining us. And also he is who, he's my first phone call

Starting point is 00:28:50 when something goes down with the Knicks. Can I tell you something? Not, can I tell you something? Not true. When you walk into Madison Square Garden, there is a different level of fame. I'm like, is Jerry Leonard de Caprio? Like, and not even like, like maybe that's a bad example

Starting point is 00:29:06 It's more like like a pop star like people lose right? I'm Nick's famous. I'm Nick's fame Is there a such thing as Nick's famous? Yeah, but in the in in New York? No It's a different thing. It surpasses even Nick's famous. It's something about it's like Madison Square Garden famous Which is by the way kind of the coolest kind of legendary. I can't wait. I can't wait to be your turtle, dude. When we set courtside, I'm just going to know I need that. I was. Well, like, hey, by the way, I am on TV too. Listen, we're recording. So this is all staying in because I, Matt, the other thing to win. New York, new girl crossover. Well, that's not true.

Starting point is 00:29:57 Max is lying. Number one, first thing when Max and I get to the game, you know, you never know who you're going to sit next to, right? You could be sitting next to Chris Rock. You could be sitting next to Jerry Seinfeld, anybody. We get down there, and this is weeks before, I mean, Aaron Rodgers just joined the Jets. So they sit me and Max next to Aaron Rodgers and Sauce Gardner. That was the foursome sitting courtside. So obviously everyone's looking at him. Matt, let me tell me tell you before so we get to the game. And you know, Jerry, Jerry's treated like a king there. Yeah. And we go up to

Starting point is 00:30:33 like this incredible like little lounge or whatever you don't know where you're sitting. And we're in this lounge and all of these famous people start rolling in. And Jerry has been going to these games forever. While the Knicks were terrible, Chris Doohan years, nobody, nobody wanted to go to Knicks games. And Jerry was like the only one in this lounge forever. And so we're sitting there and we're like eating. I'm as excited as I've ever been in my life because I've never been. And Jerry's

Starting point is 00:31:00 like, this is usually not like this. There's so many people there. It's usually not like this. This is and and he I can see and I know Jerry for such a long time. He's such a good friend that I'm like, he's genuinely anxious right now and getting at and getting frustrated and aggravated and at some point he just whispers to me it's like this. Our feet better be touching wood. And I got Jerry, wherever we're sitting, it's gonna be great. This is this is playoff basketball. We

Starting point is 00:31:35 have a great team. This is so exciting. He goes like this. I know. I know. I know. Look, bro. I'm excited to be here. This is great. But like, one beat. I want to be touching more. This is a good Ferrari. Jerry, how pissed would you have been if you were like just second row? I would have been fine. There's no, there's no. If it was no fifth row, he would not have been fine. So they take us down and they're like walking us down and we set, we at some point like, you know,

Starting point is 00:32:02 make that turn onto the court and Jerry just turns down and looks at me because I'm behind him just like, oh my god, this is crazy. He point like, you know, make that turn onto the court. And Jerry just turns down and looks at me because I'm behind him just like, oh my God, this is crazy. He's like, they hooked us up, bro. And they sit us right next to Aaron Rodgers and South Gardner and we were like this, oh my God. That is great. Did you talk shit to them? No, all I remember and Max back me up to it Rod like we Rodgers talked like deep NBA cuts basketball

Starting point is 00:32:30 Well, he was so locked in it was Nick's heat So it was two years ago game three the playoffs no Jimmy Butler. He went locked in and the Bucks Yeah, see you he went deep on the Bucks I guess he was a big Bucks fan when he was out there see See, but Max is being coy though, because he's saying he didn't get no love. We came down after halftime, and this is during a playoff game, and I see him talking to RJ Barrett. Max, as I start sneaking pictures of Max just chatting it up with RJ Barrett, who is a big, was it new girl, Max?

Starting point is 00:33:02 Yes, right? I don't know. There was a couple 21-year year old girls who like work at. They loved you. They were excited. Everybody else was like, Jerry! I can't wait.

Starting point is 00:33:13 I cannot wait for that night, man. It's gonna be just a random, random regular season game, but they're gonna be fired up to see you, that's for sure. They're gonna put you on the big screen, on the Jumbotron, man. They might show the bush push. I'm going to wear my Brunson jersey.

Starting point is 00:33:26 I already told you. Oh my god. Great. Max, what do you feel about grown men wearing jerseys? Got to be the right one. Got to be the right one. Got to be the right one. You got to know when to wear it.

Starting point is 00:33:39 OK, explain, though. Because I had this take a couple of weeks ago. It's got a lot of heat on this take. Oh, I got a lot of heat. Because then they started saying, well, we're going to burn your effing jersey liner. Screw you. I'm just saying, when I see a grown 55-year-old guy walking

Starting point is 00:33:55 down the street of the South Bay on a Saturday, just like, why? It's just weird to me. Well, look, I mean, certainly you have a different perspective than we do, as you are an actual athlete with an actual jersey. That war that war won professionally for a living as a as a uniform. Jerry and I do not have that experience, but I would say, you know what? If you're in the South Bay and you're watching some dude on like, I'm like a cruiser skateboard, riding up the boardwalk and he's got his Chargers

Starting point is 00:34:33 jersey on. Let that dude live. He's got his guy. I actually took a video. I took a He's got shades on. He's just cruising. Let him live, man. He's like, Big Hit Dobbins is gonna have a big one this week. That's shit. I took a video of a guy last week walking, I think I should, did I not send it to you? I took a video of a guy who's wearing a Packers jersey walking into a dentist appointment on like a Monday

Starting point is 00:34:59 at like one o'clock in the afternoon. I was like, this is why, this is what I'm talking about. Yeah, I go- I guess if your kids, like if your kids wear one and they want you to wear one, I don't know. But I got roasted, dude, just roasted. Well, speaking of kids, Max, your boy, your son, Ozzy, big week in the Greenfield house.

Starting point is 00:35:16 I saw it on the gram. Now, a little context, how old is he, eight, nine? How old is Ozzy? Nine. Nine. He already waxed me in 2k when I went to your house that one time he is he's in on basketball so who did he meet this past week see huge huge day we so his favorite team somehow and this is before

Starting point is 00:35:41 they got really really good he I think through 2K and through YouTube, he discovered Vince Carter. Oh, nice. And the version of Vince Carter that he latched onto was the Mavs arrow. Vince Carter. So random. He's an outside the box thinker. Yeah. By the way, I read him.

Starting point is 00:36:03 He got real into Vince Carter and I tried to introduce him to the book of basketball Simmons book. And we were like, you know what, here's a great way to do it. Let's read the Vince Carter section. And then maybe we can this will be like a fun we can read like pages. We'll read this book forever. It's like 100. That's like 1000 pages. And so we went right to the Vince Carter section and Simmons kills Vince Carter. And Ozzy got so mad because I don't ever want to read that book again. And I tried to get him back into the book and he goes, is that the one with Vince Carter? And I'm like, no. And he goes, I know it is. I don't want to read it.

Starting point is 00:36:40 Anyway, so through that, he became a Mavs fan and then latched on obviously to Luka Donchich who's his favorite player. He has made me buy him buy him his like high school Tekka jersey. So good. Yeah, he has a Luka Tekka jersey. Because I can't figure out the sizing. We have one that's this small, like tiny, tiny. We have one that fits me, which is like really nice, by the way,

Starting point is 00:37:06 which rocket probably will wear. And we can't figure it out anyway. So he finally gets like a Mavs Donchus jersey and they're playing the Clippers Monday night preseason pre first preseason game in the Intuit Dome, which, by the way, let me tell you. Oh, yeah. What's the review of the Intuit Dome which by the way let me tell you oh yeah what's the review of the Intuit Dome what's the review? home run really home run. Wow that's big. I mean, Mama put all the money into it and was like I want this to be a

Starting point is 00:37:36 great you can tell he's like I really want this to be a great experience for people who come here and I think it's the right move I think there are people because the Clippers are in like a weird place. And we're not really sure like who's the draw there is Kawhi playing. And I think the dome is real draw is the draw. It's amazing. Your experience there is the leveled seating. There's not a bad seat in the house. And then they have this screen that goes all the way around

Starting point is 00:38:05 the top of the thing. It's like, it's sort of like a SoFi. For basketball. Yeah, it's like SoFi for basketball. It's got like a little bit of a sphere vibe. It's crazy. I'm so glad we got a review. That's like the first throwbacks.

Starting point is 00:38:19 You got this legit review. Thank you, bro. Yeah, it was really good. We had, I got seats from, LaMarrn has season tickets. And the award winning award winner Lamorne Morris has season tickets. He let us he let us borrow the tickets because he knows Ozzy is a big fan. And he's second row. And some arenas you go

Starting point is 00:38:38 second row is like kind of the worst place to be sitting. Because you're right behind the first row and you're from and if you're down there and you're down there, it usually there's usually not any gradient. Yeah, stuck. If you're stuck behind somebody tall, like you can't really see the game like me who's shorter than everyone. I mean, I got a nine year old with me. And so they have the gradient at every level. And so you are, it was, it was incredible. And that place is staffed up in a way that is. And he got, he got what happened.

Starting point is 00:39:11 Yeah. What happened to young. So we get there super early. And because we want to see warmups. And so we walk by and we're walking in towards the Clippers section and there's a, you know, I think I hardened was out there. We're like, oh, cool. all right, he's playing tonight. That'll be exciting.

Starting point is 00:39:28 And then we walked down to the other side and we see like, oh my God, Lucas warming up. He was just so low down there and he was warming up. And we were like, couldn't believe it. And then we thought, maybe he's playing tonight. Anyway, so we get down to our seats and we're watching him. And the two of us are just like, I can't believe this. We're so lucky.

Starting point is 00:39:46 We didn't even think he'd be here. Like, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, so this security guard comes over to us who is the nicest man I've ever met in my life. He says, hey, listen, he's going to go to half court. He's going to shoot some shots from half court. Then he's going to come to the free throw line. When you see him come to the free throw line. He's going to make a beeline to like the gate or whatever the the time

Starting point is 00:40:12 right. And, and he's like, just get ready. And because we were right by the tunnel. And so we're like, okay, okay. I'm now like having a heart attack. And Ozzie is watching him. And I'm like, Ozzie, just get ready, get ready. And we're like, OK, OK. I'm now like having a heart attack and Ozzie's watching him. And I'm like, Ozzie, just get ready, get ready. And we're like, see, it's like like circling the half court line. So great. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. And I have the camera. I have my phone ready, but it keeps shutting off because it's on too long.

Starting point is 00:40:37 And I'm going like, don't don't don't you be the one to blow this. Yeah, don't mess this up. And I'm thinking we're just going to a picture and like maybe and like a passing like sort of maybe a fist bump and if I can get the picture of the fist bump. Anyway, so he finally takes his free throw shot. He comes down, there was a dad and another kid right there and it's preseason which was really cool because it wasn't like, it's chill. People is very chill. And so he comes through, there was a

Starting point is 00:41:03 kid and a dad there and he stopped and he was so nice. And he took a picture with this kid and I thought, Oh my god, are we gonna get a picture? And so he comes through and I turned into the dad. I don't know what I turned into. But I don't like, I don't even remember this happening, but it definitely did happen. I mean, Luca, Luca, Luca. I don't even remember this happening, but it definitely did happen. I went, Luca, Luca, Luca. And so.

Starting point is 00:41:25 With your voice high pitched. It was so bad. It was really embarrassing. And meanwhile, my nine year old son is just like has his Jersey out like this. And Luca was like totally clocked it, was like very present in the moment, saw my son and turned around.

Starting point is 00:41:42 He took a bunch of pictures with him. And then this security guard, who's the coolest guy in the world, somehow slips him a sharpie in that moment. Oh, what a gangster this guy is. And like, Luca turns him around and I could see my son's face like this. What is happening? And he signs the jersey. And I like, I don't know that we can ever go to a basketball game again.

Starting point is 00:42:07 It's over. Dude, you just gave me goosebumps, dude. That's got it. What a memory. It was the craziest. So cool. And I gotta say, you know, as somebody who will go through an airport or in as and sometime in situations where people would like a photo or whatever it is.

Starting point is 00:42:27 I always do it always good karma always always and every every so often every so often you're like this man. It would be really cool if this came back like this moment. You got it back. Totally did. But Luca was very cool man. He is now at the top of the list So 30 years from now when Ozzy is at dinner with some friends and they start talking about who's your goat? Is it a thousand percent Ozzy's going Luca? Dog? It's just the greatest basketball player of all that's his favorite player for life now I think it's gonna be hard for him to come down from Luca. Yeah, and I get it, man. He's also like, you know, he's one of those guys, like we are watching him just warm up. You were like, he's different. Yeah, he's a different guy. He's like, this is a top five player in the league, top three, top two. And you know, like at any moment, he's the best player in the league. He's an L he's an elevated guy. And if things go the way that you think they're gonna go for him, he's a, you know,'s the best player in the league. He's an elevated guy and if things go the way

Starting point is 00:43:25 that you think they're gonna go for him, he's an iconic legendary player in the NBA. And you can feel it. This pre-season's been kinda interesting. You to me and my Knicks friend circle have had the best quote of that situation. Speaking of fathers and sons, Rick Brunson, Jalen Brunson, Dante DiVincenzo.

Starting point is 00:43:48 Now I know it's been analyzed, but we are the real heart of this because we are true Nick fans. What were your thoughts on DiVincenzo talking trash at the free throw line and then mixing it up with his best friend's dad? That would be like if I got into an argument, Max, with your father on Thanksgiving. I just hated it. I felt like it was like a divorce. I hated it. I didn't like it. Do you remember your quote to me? Via text? Oh, I said, yeah, I go, this is what happens when a family business, when a family business or when a family makes a business decision. What happens when a family makes a business decision. What happens when a family makes a business decision.

Starting point is 00:44:27 Yes, yes. Which may come back to haunt them. I don't know. But I mean, I'm daily on it. I don't know, Matt, if you've experienced Jerry's emotional response. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I am wrapped up in this Knicks world all of a sudden in the last three months. I witnessed watching a Knicks playoff game

Starting point is 00:44:49 with Jerry in New York. Actually, I'm going to tell this story really quick because I want to get your take. We have, Jerry's got two, has his courtside tickets for what series? That was Pacers. It was like- It was game two Knicks Pacers this past playoff. Game two That was Pacers. It was like. It was game two, Nick's Pacers this past playoff.

Starting point is 00:45:06 Game two, Nick's Pacers. And I'm in New York and we're doing press and stuff for this podcast, right? Which was important. And this was like the first time Jerry and I were really hanging out. 15 blocks from MSG. I would have been, with my bad hips and all,

Starting point is 00:45:20 I would have been running for those courts. So we're there and it's like, we have to leave at a certain point, but we go on stage to talk about the pod and all this things. It was like upfronts and I'm sitting there the whole time. I'm thinking, dude, like we can make this game. We could get there by the second quarter. We're going to sit court side. I'm going to get to see MSG with Jerry for our, he says no. And we watch it from a sports bar. By the way, by the way, and I'm like, I'm like, are you serious?

Starting point is 00:45:46 Like, this is the first time. So mad at me. I was so pissed because I'm watching this game and then I'm watching him. I'm literally sweating watching him sweat watching the Knicks because every single point is like, yeah, or actually Jerry's actually pretty quiet. He was just like, still like, like people are trying to come up to him

Starting point is 00:46:03 and we're mingling and trying to meet people and he is just in a zone. I'm like, dude, this dude is crazy. But that would have been, we had courtside seats that he passed up. I get it. I was pissed. Well, the Indiana series was weird because it was- But this was early.

Starting point is 00:46:19 It was early. It was the game OJ, OG, I don't know if it was TOR's hamstring. But up to that point, we were well in control. Yeah. It was that it was the game. OJ og. I don't know be Taurus hamstring, but We were well in control. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but still that was yeah, but that was it was still a tense That was I felt very tense that whole time Because you have gone though. Would you have left? Would you run a place with a hundred foot screen the games on? Matt and I finished the up front and if we jet over the MSG, we could get into the seats by probably midway second you think or early third quarter, but we would have missed the chunk.

Starting point is 00:46:51 Would you have gone? It would have been a really cool thing for you to do for me. Yeah, I agree. As a new buddy. It could have been like an ultimate flex. Hey man, let's go Nix. If you were solo, I understand you saying, but. Thank you, Max. You couldn't take it. I don't like you two. Sorry. Ganging up on me at all.

Starting point is 00:47:12 You couldn't take it. Listen, well. Okay, so where are we at on the trade? Yes, where are we at? Look. This is where I'm working. I'm just gonna sit back and listen to this more Nix tricks. This is where I've ultimately, this is where I've landed today. For last night when I was thinking about it, because I knew we were doing this today. I looked at the big swing trades from teams that were in contention.

Starting point is 00:47:48 And that were not as a result of like a player saying, I want out. Right, forcing their way out. Yeah, so Minnesota is one of them, the Gold Bear trade. That was a good team. And they took a huge swing. And everyone in Minnesota hated that trade. Everyone in the world hated that trade. And the first year was kind of dicey. And the second year,

Starting point is 00:48:11 Pretty good. Pretty good. I mean, there was a week of podcasts where everybody was saying that that was the greatest defense. That's true. That's true. They're like, is this a top three defense ever? Um, and then they played the math and you're like, okay, but ultimately that trade worked out. I think the Celtics did the same thing. I don't think everyone in Boston was like, poor Zingas is a home run. And

Starting point is 00:48:37 they lost Marcus Martin that deal. Yeah, so you're like, I don't know. But that worked out. The Dane thing in Milwaukee, we'll see. But they felt like they had to do something. And I think this was not a dissimilar move by the Knicks, who I have to give them credit are trying to win a title. And I think, look, I think as Constra, I would have liked to have seen it, but obviously they felt like they had to make the move at the timing that they did.

Starting point is 00:49:11 But I don't see a version where we play the Celtics in the playoffs without a legitimate scoring big. legitimate scoring big and win because if you're if you have a team that has Drew Holiday and Derek White, you can take Brunson out of the game. And I agree. Good point. The way that we had played all year long, the game that I always come back to that was like the most fun game of the year, but also the scariest game was that San Antonio game where Brunson scored like 60 something. Yeah. Every time down the floor, it became like the whole team just like went into the left corner.

Starting point is 00:49:55 And it was this one on ones with Brunson every every possession. And it was like Brunson versus Wemba and Yama. And I was like was like this is fun but this is not sustainable. And if you're playing the Celtics like they just have they have too much and that's a team you have to go through and I don't and then there's no going around it so I think and this was the swing and I think ultimately if you look at like just the math of it I think you have to look at it like it was Hardenstein. We basically gave up Hardenstein, Randall and Deven Chenzo for and an OB because of the money cat and bridges, cat and bridges. And yeah, me like if you look at it like that and a bunch of picks and if you look at it like that, you're like, I kind of do that every time. As much as I love Nick stock guys, every single day transitioning us right now, I want, I

Starting point is 00:50:50 want to transition us into how you guys met. Cause I know Max, Jerry and I were talking this week. I'm like, there's video games. There's the gentlemen's league. I told them a little bit about our gentlemen's league. He gave a little not show clips yet. I want to take us back to memory lane here. How'd you guys meet?

Starting point is 00:51:07 We did, I don't know if we've ever talked about this on like a show. We have never ever talked about it on this show. People just think we know each other. So it was right around the time of like cable TV was starting to make real shows. Sopranos, the shield. I mean, long time ago. We're all old man. Throwbacks. I'm right there with you guys. Throwbacks. Throwback. Oh,

Starting point is 00:51:35 but yeah, so all of these cable networks were feeling like, oh man, we can make, we can do a different version of what the network TV is doing and have shows that are bringing people to our networks. And so MTV decided they were gonna get into the scripted business. Put their hat in the ring. And they bought a script from our friend Larry Golan, who had written this like sort of young, it wasn't a young sopranos, but it was like a bunch of guys in New York growing up. I think they were

Starting point is 00:52:11 all in high school. They were like, see, yeah, my god. Yeah, it was like a high school show. This is how long ago was. Anyway, so if they were casting out of LA LA and every New York actor who lived in Los Angeles came to this one final audition. And there was like three or four guys for every role. And Jerry and I met at this reading or like this audition process.

Starting point is 00:52:39 And I think the two of us had an idea, like it'd be cool if it was you and I. Right, this could work. We're gonna get this. And I've been in those situations before I had the same thing with New Girl where I met Jake Johnson. And I think two of us were like, it'd be cool if it was us. Right. Yeah. And so we met during that audition process. And then hold before they decided to shoot the pilot. And they kept extending the hold and they would give us like $2,500 for a month. We were rich.

Starting point is 00:53:17 And the two of us were like this. Holy shit. I remember that we were like playing Madden in a yes, in Jerry's basement. And we're so good. Two of us were just like this. Now, we made it. I hope they keep this show on hold forever. So true.

Starting point is 00:53:38 And then I think we were on hold for like six months or seven before they finally passed on it. And then Larry Golan, who had written the show, got the script back and decided to write it out as an independent film that we made in New York. And so we spent like this wild, long time together. And then had this crazy independent film experience in the Bronx.

Starting point is 00:54:03 Yeah, not far from Yankee Stadium. Not far from Yankee Stadium. Not far from Yankee Stadium. No, not at all. And I've just been friends ever since. So you guys audition, and then in that six months, are you auditioning for anything else? No, we're not allowed to. We're not allowed to, really.

Starting point is 00:54:19 You're just in the basement playing. Living the life, Matt. $2,500 a month to do nothing that's a great type in but just like smoking weed playing and just like man this is like this is what acting's all about let's go you were like we fucking made it I remember my mom used to call me like what do you what are you doing today I'm like I'm on hold I'm high I'm on hold mine I'm on. I'm on hold, man. I'm on hold. So look, you brought up something good there though.

Starting point is 00:54:47 That's so good. Also, at the end of every episode, we do like our throwback three and we pick a topic. This week I picked top three throwback sports video games. You and I have played a lot of Madden. Some of my favorite memories with you then transitioned to a game that Matt was probably in and was in in and several times NCAA where we used to play. But then I also did see you talked about this publicly on New Girl you guys used to play

Starting point is 00:55:14 Madden but you were like were you the OC and someone was that because I feel like you're cheating on me now. Yeah Jerry was Jerry Jerry was pissed. That was like our thing bro. You played strong safety. I was courted like that was our thing He's like yeah cheated on you I'd never felt like I was cheating on you. It felt like a totally different relationship. That's how it always goes

Starting point is 00:55:32 That's how it always goes and now that I'm I apologize. I'm sorry eventually look I I messed up But yeah, so we on that show there were like lengthy lengthy periods of time when we were waiting And I think it took us like a season or two before Maybe two or three before one of us like connected an Xbox either that or it took Jake and I Two years to figure out how to yeah, like who brought it in Jake brought it in whose trailer. I'm not totally sure Okay, I don't remember I think Lamar and like got one for free and then I went to an Xbox party yeah he like went to an I don't really know what

Starting point is 00:56:12 happened but we were like so we'll play that and we we hooked it up in the trailer and we decided that playing each other would have caused we would have just it would have it just would have been it would ruin the vibe. So we decided it was funnier if we played offense and defensive coordinators on the same team and just like did a did a full season and and created created like you know characters for the offensive defensive coordinator. The saddest part of it is that we played many, many seasons of that. Of that game. And we didn't win that many.

Starting point is 00:56:56 You got fired. A lot of seasons where we were like this. Turn it off. Restart. Quit. Yeah. Restart, quit. Yeah, restart with new season. And like a lot of the fights that Jake and I got on, like that you see on camera.

Starting point is 00:57:14 What result we're just like, we were so pissed at each other in the trailer that we would then go straight from the trailer onto set and just seamlessly walk into a scene, probably not even know our lines, and just start arguing and try to take the football out of it. But that's where it all came from, just us screaming each other about how one of us screwed up in the fourth quarter or threw a pick or let up a touchdown. It was humiliating.

Starting point is 00:57:46 Isn't that the greatest thing? You guys are probably doing like these iconic scenes on that show and all in your mind, you're just thinking, how the fuck did we lose that game 30 minutes ago? I love that. We really thought we were, and we were, there was always like, you know, a second AD who was like, had to knock on our trailer.

Starting point is 00:58:04 Hey guys, we're ready. We'll be right there. Hey guys, I wish it was that nice. We were like this, where's the middle one, fuck off! Are you, do you play Madden against your son? You play video games with him? Madden, we've played once or twice. He likes it, but he plays against the computer

Starting point is 00:58:24 because when I play him, I just, I mean, there's certain things you know about the game. Yeah. And he gets really upset. And so I'm like, I'm not. I love it. I love it. I'm not playing you.

Starting point is 00:58:39 I'm not doing it. Cause then, cause he really likes to talk shit. And I'm like, if you're going to talk shit, I'm going to play you for real. And so, and then he gets crazy. He gets crazy. And so I'm like, I'm not playing you. But I'll play him in 2K and it's pretty even.

Starting point is 00:58:55 See, I'm not here yet. What do you do, Matt? What your- So my oldest, Max is 17. And I used to play, you know, when he was nine, 10, when your son's age, and I used to just beat his ass. I was like, I'm not, just like I did in the backyard basketball,

Starting point is 00:59:10 like I never took it easy on him, but he started to get a little bit better. We played Madden a lot, a little bit better, and then my boys would come over, and he would talk so much shit to them to the point where my boys would be like, they look at me and they're like, are you gonna tell him to stop,

Starting point is 00:59:24 or I'm gonna kick his ass? I'm like, it's all you guys. I'm like Cole, watch your mouth, they're gonna get your ass kicked. This was when he was 10 years old. Now he's 17 and we don't play a lot of games. He kind of transitioned into like Fortnite and he does some of that stuff.

Starting point is 00:59:37 But yeah, I never took it easy on him, but he could beat me now, which is unfortunate because you never hear the end of it. So run it up. If you got like, I'm not there yet. My oldest is five. The video games are coming. I can already see the trolliness in them.

Starting point is 00:59:53 So run it up. No mercy. Sweep the leg. Is that what we're saying here? I think you sort of like vibe out with them a little bit. You see like emotionally where they are. And you're like, man, I know what I could do right now, but this is going to cause an explosion. I'm like, this is going

Starting point is 01:00:14 to cause Ozzy to yell at me, potentially throw a controller. Yeah. Oh yeah. And then end up in his room for two hours where I then have to like somehow go apologize. Dude, this brings me back to, you were telling on the set, I was playing a Monday night game, it was the Bears game in 06, and Denny Green used to allow us to spend the night at our house the night before if you were like, whatever, bet, or rookies had to stay or whatever.

Starting point is 01:00:45 Most of the time we're in a hotel, even for home games, and I remember playing ping pong, and my best friend moved out with me to Arizona after college, and we were just playing like ping pong at one o'clock in the afternoon. I got a Monday night game like five hours later, and he's just kicking my ass, and I end up, and I'm a very, very hyper competitive person,

Starting point is 01:01:06 obviously, and I started chucking my paddle at him. I literally gashed him right in the, oh yeah, this is, yeah, this is Monday Night Football game, the Bears, the Bears game. Never told you that, Jerry, yeah. I was thinking, my mind going to that was like, how the hell did I lose in ping pong to this guy? I was so pissed, dude.

Starting point is 01:01:23 And you smacked, smacked. I was the word I would throw controllers paddles. Yeah, I'm not a not this is if you beat me in this basketball competition, which we can get into later, I might throw a ball at your face. It's so funny. But I we I've been to Clayton Kershaw's ping pong. Yeah, a couple times serious stuff. This. Yeah, that's a great idea. First of all, which by the way, is like such a wonderful organization.

Starting point is 01:01:47 She's the greatest. And Cedric, the entertainer, and I hosted it, not last year, but the year before. He has like all the, the wonderful thing about that Dodger team is they are like genuinely all friends. It's such a good vibe with those guys. But so they all come to the event

Starting point is 01:02:04 and they all pair with each other, which is completely unfair. They're playing like, you know, Mila Kunis and it's like, wow, like running it up. You're like, relax. And it always ends up being like a grouping of Dodgers at the end. Right. It's like a tournament. They run it towards the end. And these guys are so competitive.

Starting point is 01:02:32 It is why it is. It's such a it's such a different level. You know, my daughter plays volleyball, loves it. She plays JV, she's on the JV team right now. She's a freshman in high school and she plays club. But she loves it and she has so much fun with it and I love going to the games and it's great for her. But there's such a difference between her and then there's another girl who's the same age,

Starting point is 01:02:58 who's in ninth grade, who's like an athlete. Who's going to get, you know, she's going to get a D1 scholarship to work like wherever she wants. She's on the varsity team. She's unbelievable. She hits the ball a ton like, what is happening here? This is just looks like a different sport. But you can see the way that she approaches the game is with such a different level of like, just authentic of like just authentic competitiveness and a level of like seriousness

Starting point is 01:03:35 that is such a wild difference from, you know, somebody who's just playing and enjoying the game. What kind of dad are you on the sideline or watching? I mean, cause you're competitive obviously. I have different levels. It depends sort of, if I'm like, if I'm having a bad day, there was one time when I was having a bad day and I was like this, she better play fucking good. I was like, I need this.

Starting point is 01:04:00 And then I realized midway through, I was like, you need to chill out. No, I'm pretty good. I mean, I like to just check in with her and make sure she's like in a good zone. And she she genuinely she loves it so much. Girls volleyball is the greatest. It's fun. Yeah, it's a lot of fun to watch. And and she she just is one of those she's like has her approach to it is with such a joy and so much fun that I sort of just try to like lean into that. And if she's not having fun, I'm like, I'm more concerned like what's wrong, what's going on with you. But she usually, you know, she's the one who's like

Starting point is 01:04:35 just cheering for everybody and like runs on the court, you know, and her rotation, she plays libero, we're like back, and she'll like run on, and she'll go, woo, and you're like, this is great. This is the best sport, love it. I already have my cognitive behavioral therapist booked for when my kids start playing sports. Because if you thought me getting upset at OG Ananobe

Starting point is 01:04:54 tearing his hamstring, imagine me at a 10-year-old basketball game. I'm not even ready for that. I've already decided I'm going to have to just change who I am fundamentally as a person. I coach my son's basketball league. So good. And shout out to Doug Lutterhand.

Starting point is 01:05:10 Doug Lutterhand, sir. Doug and I coach our son's team. And we were in like the playoffs last year. And there was a moment where the other team was a little bit shorthanded and they had one kid that was like just dominating and he was scoring all their points but there's a rule that each player is only allowed to play a certain amount of time right and they were trying to keep him in in the fourth quarter and already played him out of his extended period.

Starting point is 01:05:46 And there was one of the dads on the sideline kept looking at me going, he shouldn't be playing. Tell me you kicked him out. And I was, no, he was advocating for us. Like, yeah, the other team get the kid out of there. Yeah. And I was like, I'm not going to I can't do this. This is this kids. These are kids. These are kids. This is too much. And if they're like, if they're choosing to do this, I don't I don't think it's right. But I'm also like not going to be the one to go to like center court. I died on this hill. Yeah, I'm not going to like the bench to be like, this eight year old has got to get out of the game.

Starting point is 01:06:28 So this dad, all of a sudden just comes walking across the court and looks at me like, you coward. He called you a coward. That was the vibe. He looked at me like, you coward. And then walked past me and walked right to the end. He goes, that boy should not be in the vibe. He looked at me like, you coward. And then walked past me and walked right to then he goes, that boy should not be in the game. Dude, that's a playoff game, Max. And they checked the thing and they were like, yeah, no, he's got to get out. And they pulled him.

Starting point is 01:06:54 And then he walked past us again and looked at both Doug and I like, Disgrace. You know, it's really the team culture though that you built over there, Matt. They're taught, like if we're going on first take today, we're going to be talking about Greenfield and Lugterhand's team culture and what they... By the way, if that was me, I would, and it's a playoff game, I would have sent my assistant coach to be like, that kid needs to leave. I would have, yeah, we're trying to win.

Starting point is 01:07:18 Well Aiden's dad really took care of it. Dude, that's so good. So two more things before we let you go. I'm trying to make this a thing. I don't know if I could actually get this to become a thing, but I think this is a good place for sports and acting to intersect, right? I used to talk to Kevin Connelly a lot about this.

Starting point is 01:07:37 What are rings for actors, right? Because I've thought about this. It's not winning, you've been nominated for an Emmy. I don't think it's winning an Emmy or an Oscar, because that, to me, I would almost say, that's like an MVP award for an actor, if you win an Oscar or Emmy, right? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:07:54 But what, like, who's Robert Ory in the acting world? Meaning, like, you got four rings. You've hit some big shots. You never made an All-Star game. Like, I could make the case look I did you know 100 episodes of entourage I only wanted and get nominated which by the way is winning a ring to me 70 episodes of Pat entourage never won I never won power and never nominated for nothing good shit like is there a world where I could say I got a ring you

Starting point is 01:08:22 Have done Hundreds of episodes of TV. You were nominated, so that goes on your case. Like, are you like one SNL hosting gig away from being like, Matt Greenfield got a ring. He got a ring. I don't know. You got a championship ring.

Starting point is 01:08:36 I think, it's a hard comparison to make. I think it's whatever a ring is to you personally, as an actor. You're going into season seven, October 21st in the neighborhood, that shit's a ring, bro. Seven seasons of a show, that's a ring. Yeah, I mean, seven seasons, and then that's coming off of seven seasons of New Girl.

Starting point is 01:09:00 By the way, that's your Hall of Fame status. Hall of Fame status? Well, I mean. You're on two major hit shows. That's just the longevity. The idea that we've been able to maintain these shows and keep them going. I think I'm definitely more proud of the neighborhood

Starting point is 01:09:18 just in the sense that like, you know, the New Girl, I was just sort of like on. And I was like, there for the ride. And I was like, oh my god, I can't believe this is happening. And it was a crazy fun whirlwind experience. But the neighborhood was something like, okay, well, now you're coming off of that. And then you're building on to the knit and you're building on this and you're coming in in a more

Starting point is 01:09:37 leadership role. And how are you going to approach that and you sort of have to like really, I remember like really focusing on and dedicating ourselves to launching that show. Yeah. And that's something I wasn't really a part of on New Girl. And so, you know, I think that's really the thing. It's a different, it's different with sports because with a TV show, you know, you have to like build

Starting point is 01:10:05 it in the beginning and build the foundations, especially with a network TV show where like, you know, you're not doing these these big arcs. You know, it's not it's not entourage. We're doing eight episodes a season. You're doing a bunch of episodes. You're doing your you're like the beautiful thing about a network TV sitcom specifically is the consistency of it. You know, people tune into it every week just to be like, this is nice. These are the people that I invite into my living room every, every Monday night. And like, I just enjoy

Starting point is 01:10:35 this and this makes me feel nice. And I can see that they're having fun and that makes me feel good. And I just I like these people, but in order to get there, you have to build that and build that trust and make, and tell these people like, this is real and this really works. And this is why. Well, first of all, hall of fame in my opinion, and Jerry, you too, Jerry, I might second ballot maybe second ballot, second from, I'm curious even for you too, Jerry, because I married, uh, my wife was an actress and then she's now a lawyer But so I kind of went through this with her at the Tain and she had a you know Went on shows and had a successful career, but then got burnt out and all that what was there a for both you guys

Starting point is 01:11:15 Was there a time maybe it was from when he was smoking weed in the basement playing Madden to new girl or to entourage that and playing Madden to new girl or to entourage that you were like, man, this is hard and this isn't for me or I want to pursue a different passion. Is there ever a moment in your careers where you had that early on? Or was it always just, you know, you're getting picked up, you're getting shows, all those things? Well, no, I mean, I can say certainly, you know, early on, there were moments where you're like, I got to get out of this. Maybe this is not for me.

Starting point is 01:11:47 And you're like auditioning and not getting stuff. And I had that for a long time. It was like, I can't pull and you start to get to a place where you're like, I'm getting so close and this is not working. Maybe it's not supposed to work. Right. You know, maybe like, it's either I'm getting so close to this is bound to work at some point, but then it keeps happening and you keep getting turned down and people keep saying no.

Starting point is 01:12:12 And you get to a place where you get past that idea and you go, maybe this just isn't supposed to work. And that's a real bummer. But I would say really like, you know. Again, I'll come back to like, you know, the neighborhood, you get to a place where you can you talk about that consistency and you talk about doing it every day. And you know, I would sort of maybe equate it a little bit to, you know, what you do as an athlete at some point where you're like, we're running the same offense, we're doing the same thing. And the consistency is what, you know, it's like the attention and detail and the consistency that really is what you have to focus on. But sometimes that can be tedious and you really got to stay like on it because all of a sudden your,

Starting point is 01:12:58 you know, brain starts to drift and you're like, maybe I'll do something different this week. That's not what people tune in to see. Like Mike Williams running different routes that's getting him traded out of New York for Devonte Adams. Keep going. Keep going. Yeah, and what's beautiful about the neighborhood and having been on seven seasons and especially now

Starting point is 01:13:17 when there's so few shows like that. And we're still one of the few network TV shows that gets to do 20 episodes. You look around and it's not, again, it's like you look around and you're like, you have now built a team. This is not about you at all. Right. And so you are looking around and you're like,

Starting point is 01:13:31 this is about keeping this show up, keeping this show in the place that it needs to be so that we can keep going because you're, I mean, essentially you look around and it's like, there's 150, almost 200 people that are employed because of this show. Yeah. You know, seven months out of the year because of this show. And so maybe don't get an idea of like this week I'm gonna do it different. Or like I'm bored. Or like, you know, but also like, you know,

Starting point is 01:14:01 there's the other part of that is looking at, you know, the other stuff out there. And, you know, you didn't do in the show for seven years, and you're looking at like, Oh, well, I want to maybe I want to be doing what that person's doing, or like, who they're, you know, they're on the new hit show. And like, you're just like riding through it. And you're like, No, man, this is where I need to be. And I love these people. And, and we're so proud of the show. And we're so excited that it's doing

Starting point is 01:14:25 what it's doing and that we're in season seven and you know, Cedric the entertainer, which is the greatest. Killed it on power too when he came on power. Killed it on power. But he's definitely our, he's the number one on our team. And he's just he's the greatest. And I cannot say enough about him. And he's got the greatest sports stories. Oh, you know what? Something you could help us with. I would love to get Cedric on this show. You got to get him. The running joke on the show is that like he'll come in on

Starting point is 01:15:01 Monday. We tape on Mondays and Tuesdays. And so he'll come in on Monday and every once in a while be like, he'll like look at the sides or whatever. Look at the material that we're supposed to do that day. And he'll go, what are we doing here? And I'll be like, did you not run lines with Dave Justice this weekend? Every day. He's on a golf tournament every weekend. He's like golfing with Dave.

Starting point is 01:15:22 He's got like this crew of retired athletes that he's always out with. It's like Dave Justice, Dave Winfield. There's like a bunch of guys. The Daves. I'm with the Daves. He was at the Cabo event, Jerry, that you didn't go to. He was at the Cabo? Oh, that's right. They did a whole comedy show when he kind of hosted that. He's awesome.

Starting point is 01:15:43 He's the greatest. Magic Johnson's like his best friend he's got his magic stories that's one favor I would love from my old offensive coordinator Max Greenfield to get us you would love to get us cuz I don't hear him talk sports enough I know you behind the scenes he's probably always to put publicly I haven't heard him talk sports a ton so I'd love to ask him now you've got great stories St. Louis guy yeah uh last thing too which we're talking about what's a ring and and Hall a ton. So I'd love to ask him. You've got great stories. St. Louis guy. Yeah. Last thing, too, which we're talking about, what's a ring and and Hall of Fame career do

Starting point is 01:16:09 it like one of my most proud things. Like I see one of my friends like my friends and author like I had never thought growing up in Brooklyn that I'd have a good friend who like wrote books and stuff you in the books or 40 pages, 40 pages.

Starting point is 01:16:22 32. You've you've written some very, very popular children's books. The most recent one, which you sent me, Goodnight Thoughts, and Jacob loves it. We got to send some for Matt's kids. Matt's kids are my age too. I would love a book. But really quick before we let you go, number one, and then I have a pitch for you.

Starting point is 01:16:40 I have a book pitch for you. Now your friends are going to start pitching you books. That's what's going to be it. Now it's not going to be scripts anymore Now your friends are going to start pitching you books. That's what's going to be it. Now. It's not going to be scripts anymore. Your friends are going to start pitching you books. But what is the difference between that sort? I've seen you've been on like a press tour and promoting a book verse promoting a TV show. Is it the same or is it, you know, it's got to be grueling in its own way. Yeah, it's definitely, yeah, there's something, you can sort of do a TV, you can get a TV show out there, you know, through media, I think,

Starting point is 01:17:17 a lot more effectively. I think with a book, the wild thing about a book is, you have to be sort of on the ground with it, right? You're like Willie Lohman. You're like selling stuff. You're like a salesman. Yeah, and it's not even like it's just showing up and like reading the book Well, what's wonderful about the children's books, right? You get to read them in front of people like we'll take them out and won't when we go on tour We go to like schools and stuff and I'll read to kids and that's the most rewarding experience Yeah, you know, it's great. You get to see their reaction and I'll read to kids and that's the most rewarding experience.

Starting point is 01:17:45 You know, it's great. You get to see their reaction and now that we've had a couple of them come out, you know, they know the first couple books and when you know, there's like fun surprises in the first book when you read it, it's like an interactive experience. But now they know the book so well that you're like you're sort of ruining my like my experience with this. But yeah, like it's totally different. So you're really just, you're out there and you're sort of sharing that book with those people. And it would be like taking a TV show out and showing them and then sitting there afterwards and being like, okay, so now let's talk about it. Um, which is really like,

Starting point is 01:18:27 not something that you do, but I'd say it's, it's much more rewarding in that sense where you really get to share the experience while they're experiencing it. You know, usually you get people who run up to you and you're like this, I watched all 146 episodes of new girl last week. All right, you've got to check. But with the book, it's like you'll read it to them and you get to sort of feel their experience with it. And it's the best, especially with the children's book.

Starting point is 01:19:02 I don't have an experience with a real book. Well, stick around now because we're about to go behind the scenes. We're going to peel back the curtain. I'm going to pitch author Max Greenfield on a kid's book. You ready for this? Okay. I read a lot of books to my kids. Most of them involve construction sites or bedtime thoughts, wonderful

Starting point is 01:19:26 things. My kids know more about construction vehicles than I do because of these books. We don't really have a good sports book for really really young kids. So my idea is it's a little sandlot, right? It's like a neighborhood, so to speak, the neighborhood. And these kids come together every day after school and they play a different sport. And in each story, there is a lesson. Hold on.

Starting point is 01:19:54 This is what happens in Hollywood. He's bumping me. It's a pass. I was going to say he's not interested. Each book, for instance like. There was Penguin, they passed. They passed. Book number one is, you know, we. That was Penguin, they passed. They passed. Book number one is, you know, we're

Starting point is 01:20:07 going to teach why we clap when a player gets hurt, even if he's not on our team. Like, not the lessons of how to play baseball, sportsmanship lessons. Are you in, Max Greenfield? I got to wrap my head around it. You're going to get back to me? Here's the issue with it.

Starting point is 01:20:21 You're gonna get back to me? Here's the issue with it. It's, um, you want to sort of, like baseball is so specific, so if you're- It can be any sport though, any sport. I know, but any sport is specific. You want to keep these things wide for kids. Interesting, cast a wide net, okay.

Starting point is 01:20:40 I like the idea of like a- What about a series of books? What you would want to do is a book about competition, right? Oh really about like Matt throwing a controller a ping-pong Like a cartoon character of math throwing a ping-pong paddle across at someone's head and you know We I mean you make it for kids. So maybe it hits him in the shoulder Well, maybe it's like a soft pad like a foam pat. Yeah, and the lessons we learn from that. Buddy, you're the best. I can't thank you enough for doing this.

Starting point is 01:21:10 Can I ask one question? Yeah, are you kidding? Here's my question, it's for Matt. And this coincides with acting. This is a good acting and sports crossover. All right, I don't think Woody Johnson talked to Aaron Rogers about about firing Salah. I don't I don't think he did. Everybody thinks he did. I don't think he did. I don't think when you it's like every actor on a show, you hear people

Starting point is 01:21:41 on like Game of Thrones or or Sopranos or whatever it is like they're like, I don't know it's getting killed until you know I've read the script at the table happened to me on power Yeah, totally and you what how did they tell you they called me in the office and Courtney can't look to me and smiles like so This week we're gonna kill you. It's like what so yeah, you you don't think a player of Aaron Rodgers stature has the power to have a loose conversation with an owner that is heavily involved and talks a little bit about the trajectory of where this franchise is going. Here's what I think. And obviously-

Starting point is 01:22:27 That's how I'm phrasing that back to you. So you got him fired up now, Max. This is what I deal with. Here's what I think, and I know nothing. I think, I think the way that it went down and the way that it was and the way that people are framing it in the moment is tough for me.

Starting point is 01:22:49 I think those conversations in a broad sense probably have been going on for a long time. And I agree with that, yeah. And I think there could have been a conversation that, you know, these are things I think about, that could have gone like this. How you feeling? That was a rough one. And just like got the vibe and was like,

Starting point is 01:23:16 this is not the team that I thought we were going to have. And the guy that we're paying all this money to is not in a good mood. And like, we've got to change something. I think to your point, there's it's it's obviously there's more to it. And I told Jerry this, I'm like, there's more within those walls that maybe and Robert Sala was my DB coach when I was in Houston. He was great. He's a fantastic coach.

Starting point is 01:23:41 But there's more going on behind the scenes that we don't see. But I will just say this. And to your point, he brings in Alan Lazard. Devontae Adams, all of a sudden, is in the background, him doing McAfee this week. That was crazy. Which was awesome. So I just know, and I've been around teams

Starting point is 01:24:00 where some of your heavy hitters and some of your guys that have been around have a lot more power than you would think. Now do I think he went up to Woody Johnson said Sala needs to go or I'm out? No. But to your point there's a little bit of a conversation be like well this is a shitty year if we don't make a change and that's that's all that has to be said. So I don't think... plausible deniability. Yeah it's that that happens a lot. I mean it happens all the time. When you're a Tom Brady or you're an Aaron Rodgers, someone like that. Rodgers got a lot of pull there, man. I'm telling

Starting point is 01:24:30 you. I don't disagree, but I really like, I don't think he was, I don't think the way that it's been framed by so many people is that he was the one who got rid of them. Yeah, I don't think he went up there and said, S has got to go. I don't I don't think he said that. I think there's a way that that conversation happened, where what he was like, I see, I see where this is going. And it's not going in a direction that's, you know, healthy for our organization. Yeah, totally. And I've been around shows and big actors before, and I've seen them have that communication with the people

Starting point is 01:25:06 who are running the show. And I've seen those conversations happen about big things that are happening within the show. And there's a way that they talk to each other, because they know how this goes. It's like, look, man, this is sort of where I'm at with things. This is like you can. But I know you're going to make whatever decisions you're right. You do what you need to do. But yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 01:25:36 God, I wish we could talk to you longer, man. I'm so fascinated in your guys's world. I love it. Oh, good. Max got good stories, too. I know he's got, great. Max got good stories, too. I know. He's got some, he's got good stories. Buddy, you're the best. Dude, that was awesome.

Starting point is 01:25:48 I love you. Neighborhood Returns, CBS, October 21st, and Goodnight Thoughts. My kids love it. We're gonna send one to Maddie Ice over there. And love to the family. I look forward to coming over and Ozzy destroying me in 2K soon.

Starting point is 01:26:00 Oh my God. Thank you guys for having me. This podcast is so much fun. I've been listening to all of them. You got, when Jerry comes out to LA, we all gotta get together. By the way, the mid November, it's happening. And I can't think of a new budding friendship

Starting point is 01:26:13 more than the two of you. I could already see Matt, Max down in Manhattan Beach with you, hitting the CrossFit over there at Rosillo, meeting you for a nice coffee. I could already see it. I could already see the friendship. It was love at first sight, guys.

Starting point is 01:26:27 Yeah, man. We'll do some lunges. You know. Oh, let's go. We'll get some coffee., we invite you to explore the colors of New Brunswick. Here you'll discover festivals that celebrate our music, food and people. Farmers markets that offer the best of the fall harvest. Winery and brewery tours. And cozy overnights that encourage you to get a little closer.

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Starting point is 01:28:18 Now, I picked it, of course, so I could be biased. But Matt, are you ready? Are you ready to do your throwback three top three sports? Video games of all time now. These are yours. So these are your opinions. You know how hard this was for me This was a hard because you think about your thing about eras like we were both born in the 80s you bought your night I'm seven. I'm November of 79 So we grew up 80s video games, 90s video games, which I think are some of the most iconic games.

Starting point is 01:28:48 And then obviously now we're not probably playing video games as much, but the child, like thinking about these games and the nostalgia and the memories that came back, I mean, this is my favorite, but this was so hard. I'm going to be curious to see what everybody else thinks too because there's not really a wrong answer. No, this is all personal. This is a very personal thing.

Starting point is 01:29:11 And I know the old heads who listen to this podcast are going to love this because they're going to recognize a lot of the names we're going to talk. For you youngsters out there, not everything was 2K and all these great grabs. Just so you know, give it a Google. If we mention a game you've never heard of and you're like, why? They're going to have no idea what games we're talking about.

Starting point is 01:29:30 Do one search and you'll see. And I think it's worth your time. If you truly love video games and you consider yourself a gamer and you don't know one of these games, throw it a Google so you can take a look after the show. You ready, Matt? Are you ready? You want me to start with number three?

Starting point is 01:29:44 We're going to start. We're going to go three to one because we do need an all time. So what is your number three? RBI Baseball. Wow. Do you remember that game? Of course I remember. I feel like I used to use the Oakland A's a lot in RBI Baseball. So the original baseball was just the game called baseball.

Starting point is 01:30:04 Baseball. Baseball. And that one, I almost put that on there because I played hours in that. But RBI baseball was one my brother and I played after school. He was five years older than me, but every single day. And I had to get a baseball game in there. There was a Ken Griffey baseball was in there. That's a great one too.

Starting point is 01:30:22 That was right there for my, for honorable mention, but I'm going to go with RBI baseball. Yeah. You know, that was back to when they weren't able to really make any difference of what a player looked like, but I do remember they had like a great knuckle curve that looked like a strike coming the whole way and it just hit the dirt. It was an unhittable pitch. All the players looked the same. And all the players looked the same. That's a great one. Okay, my number three. I'm sorry, I have to do it.

Starting point is 01:30:52 And it's not even that. It's not that old. Yeah, that's a good one. I'm going, this is a 2K. It's 2K11. Now I know that's only 13 years ago. But there's a method behind my- NBA, NFL.

Starting point is 01:31:04 NBA 2K11 with Michael Jordan on the cover where you could play out the Michael Jordan storyline. But the biggest thing for me was this is where they made throwback teams in 2k that changed the game for us. You could play the 96 bulls. the game for us. You could play the 96 Bulls. You could play the 18 year old Kobe Lakers. You know, you could be Sean Kemp and Gary Payne, be the Sonic. So that and here's what me and my buddy Charlie O'Connell, formerly of the Bachelor used to do. We'd go to his house. We would take all current teams out and you could put in all the throwback teams, me and him, and then we would have a draft. You draft your own team and we would simulate the playoffs. So we met each other in the playoffs and we'd do a best of seven series. I had teams like Michael Jordan, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing.

Starting point is 01:31:55 For me, it was the throwback teams and it was unbelievable. That's my number three. That was good. OK, so my second one is an all time classic football game. I'm going, I'm going back to original and Nintendo console because that's, that's where I spent a majority of my video games. Tech mobile. I think, I think it was, it's an obvious one, I think in a lot of lists, but for me, it was the first football game. And then that led into Bill Walsh college football for Sega Genesis, which is my honorable mention. I used to play with SC 79 and Notre Dame 88. And I mean, just again, my brother and I just battles. But Tecmo Bowl was just one that it was like, I don't know, every day you come home from school, you throw on Tecmo Bowl, you play for about an hour, you do your homework, you

Starting point is 01:32:49 go back and play. So I'm going to go with Tecmo Bowl. Did you always use Bo Jackson in the Raiders? Bo Jackson was, yes, he was the best player in the game. Elway's Broncos are pretty legit in that game. I think not very good, but Lawrence Taylor was an absolute. Yes, Lawrence Taylor and Bo Jackson. Elway, I think Marino, I think I might use Marino in that game. Sure.

Starting point is 01:33:12 But yeah, I mean, who else are the Seahawks were in there? Jets were in there because that was 1980. That was an 80s game. Yes. The Jets, I don't remember, but I remember Bo Jackson. Maybe not, I don't know, but that, yeah, that's a great one. So, full disclosure, I left Madden out

Starting point is 01:33:32 because we could have an entire draft of just which Maddens are the best, what year, so I didn't go that route. That's a great call. All right, I didn't really want to do this, but we gotta do it. I go Mike Tyson want to do this, but we got to do it. I go Mike Tyson's punch out. Since we're going Nintendo, and if I am just

Starting point is 01:33:49 thinking of a game that imprinted things on my brain, I still remember the code to get directly up to Mike Tyson. You're doubting me? 0073735963. You think I'm looking at Google? 0073735963. That's the code to get right up to my two games that had code member Contra. Up up, down, down, left, right, left, right, AB, AB or whatever.

Starting point is 01:34:14 Yeah. Contra and Mike Tyson's Mike Tyson's punch out, man. Honestly, maybe the greatest game of all time. After we're done, I'm going to go rip something off the walls. Go away. What do you have? Let me see. You want me to do it now? Yeah, do it now. Hold on. I know. We could cut this up to make this move quicker. I'll keep talking. Mike Tyson's punch out. The best part about Mike Tyson's punch out,

Starting point is 01:34:35 the code directly to Tyson, but also the characters. And there's no way right now, if you're listening, Jerry is going to get something off his wall that appears to be the characters of my- So you want to know why I knew you were going to be friends? I'm telling everybody what you're doing right now. Well, this was- here's the appetizer. Oh, you have- There's a little appetizer. You have concert something I bought an art show. You want to know what else I bought at an art show because I'm a maniac.

Starting point is 01:35:12 Oh dude, that might be a little harder to show. This is every character from Mike Tyson's punch out in like chronological order. I know there's a lot of glare on the computer. See Glastio, forget the Russian dude's name, Piston Honda. Piston Honda, King Hippo. King Hippo, this is bald bull and soda pop Kinski, Super Macho and so on. Oh, that is the greatest thing of all time.

Starting point is 01:35:45 There's the man himself. Let me get that in the camera. There's the man himself. Mike Tyson right there. Just biting an ear off. What, dude? By the way, that is legendary. Great pose.

Starting point is 01:35:55 I mean, let me tell you, this was not cheap. This was not cheap. Great poster. Can't say I'd walk into an art show. I'm not really the walk into an art show and buy something, dude. But when I saw that, I said that has to be cool. By the way, the fact that you have Contra, too, just randomly, is awesome. Contra is the best two player outside of Super Mario at times.

Starting point is 01:36:14 That's like the best two player game. So if we ever do a non-sports game, Contra will be up there. OK, my number two. That was my number two. So now we're going to your number one. I haven't even given honorable mentions yet. So if you want to get any other honorable mentions out before your number one Oh time Gosh, well Mike Tyson's punch out was on my list

Starting point is 01:36:35 So I texted this to Andrea producer ten yard fight. You remember ten yard fight He didn't he's like what game is that I said is that? I said, are you kidding me? Whatever the sound was, 10 yard fight. Then you would just go left to right and up and you get tackled by 14 people. Dude, good for you. That is an amazing pull. So 10 yard fight. And then the other one, which RC Pro-Am and I don't know, I guess that I guess that is, does that count as a sports game? I'll give you an honor. It's a racing game.

Starting point is 01:37:14 Yeah. Cause I wanted to put in a lot of wrestling games too. There's so many wrestling games. I mean, I could do it. I have a list of a hundred and I could go off on the, and we haven't even said FIFA or all the ones, but blades steel, the blades of steel. So here's some, here's some honorable mention of those Nintendo. Remember just ice hockey where you could pick the fat guy, the medium guy and the skinny guy. That was a great one. Double dribble. I double dribble shot bases loaded. You ever play bases loaded? Of course. That was all college teams and there used to be a glitch where if you hit the cleanup batter in the seventh inning,

Starting point is 01:37:48 he charges the mound. And I made it happen one time. I was the coolest kid in the neighborhood because I made it happen. Do you ever play baseball stars? Baseball stars is right here, yeah. Climb the wall. First game where you could climb the wall.

Starting point is 01:38:03 Those Nintendo games were out. They were all time. I actually, I have the little system where you know you can go online. You can buy like the little thing that has like 400 games in it. Do yourself. It's like 50 bucks. Go get it. Plug it into the back of your TV. You will play every game for about five minutes and then you're over it, but it will bring you back to 1989. All right. You ready for my number one? Yeah. What's your number one? This is pretty interesting because it's, it's probably my fourth favorite sport, maybe, maybe fifth favorite sport, but not as a kid. But I still to this day will say this sport translates to the best sports video game in general NHL 94 specifically NHL 94 the one that Vince Vaughn says in swingers want to see me

Starting point is 01:38:55 make Wayne Ingratsky's head bleed where you could check a player who just collapses on the ice and his head explodes blood this game was was iconic. Also, first time you could have a manual goalie. You can actually switch to the goalie, play goalie. You get a hat trick, hats on the ice. Chicago, Chicago, blackhawks. We're dirty, bro. The blackhawks were dirty. Jeremy Roenick. Cellios.

Starting point is 01:39:20 Dude. The Red Wings, Iserman and Fedorov. Just great. I'm looking up right now because it is by far that's arguably my favorite game of all time. I used to smash people in that game. When my friends and I got together and we got going on Genesis and we kind of we would draft teams, you know, some teams get stuck with like the Vancouver Canucks weren't bad. But like even like the Penguins, they weren't good, but they had Lemieux, they had

Starting point is 01:39:48 like a young dog. I'm looking at this right now. This is so good. So good. I'm sorry. And the one timer, the one time, the one timer. Yeah. Changed video games and down. And to this day, I'll pick up a hockey game every now and then. And it's still mechanics wise and feel it still plays The best and it's the most fun to do the team up with teaming up in 2k is fun Teaming up with Madden's fun teaming up in hockey Is used to rock Jeremy Ronek every day. I remember. Yeah, that's a good one. So that's my number one

Starting point is 01:40:21 I hope all you listening, hit us on Twitter or Instagram, wherever you're on, at throwback show, let us know yours. Look, we left off things, of course. There's no real winner here, but I can't believe you had a 10 yard fight. That's so good. Dude, I still have my number one.

Starting point is 01:40:37 I haven't even given you my number one yet. Let's hear it. I'm still blown away by that. Let's hear your number one. 10 yard fight, I know, it's so good. All right, I'm going basketball and maybe the most iconic arcade style game of all time. NBA Jam, NBA Jam. He's on fire. And the reason why was fun. But talk about the old school parents. I'm

Starting point is 01:41:03 already I'm thinking about right now. I'm thinking about it right now. I'm thinking the teams that you could beat. The Gold State Warriors was Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullen. The Blazers, I think, was Clyde Drexler. Porter? And it might have been Porter or it might have been Dale Davis. Right.

Starting point is 01:41:22 Because they needed a big guy. Yep. That game, still to this day, man. NBA Jam. I think it was on Sega Genesis, too. Because that was just past Nintendo. So I remember going down. I could close my eyes and I could smell the pizza.

Starting point is 01:41:41 Because I used to go to the pizzeria. That was the arcade game in the pizzeria. Oh, yeah. And you put your quarter up for next that's how you decided you had next game when people were playing you put your quarter in like you line it up and I learned I could taste the fountain fruit punch and just go right up and plant yeah how dope is it that the creators of those games too like they like put you they were like unlockable characters you could unlock the actual creators of the game they really did well with the cheat codes to like the big head players and all the things I'm looking

Starting point is 01:42:10 Yeah, I'm looking at some of the other teams. It's a great one That's one if you're gonna buy an arcade game for your house ever. That's one you throw my brother. My brother. My brother is 46 and just is a child. He's got a room in his house with all arcade games. He's got NBA Jam. No, he's got golden tea, which by the way, I almost put in there but then more of an arcade game. He might have NBA Jam. He's got Pac Man and the room is small, but he's got like five arcade games. And so I texted him this. I was like, dude, what are your best sports games of all time? I think he put NBA jam, golden T. Um, but a lot of the games that we said, bill Walsh college football was our game that we played growing up.

Starting point is 01:42:52 That's a, I mean, that, that game was hard to also shout out. You mentioned golden T. I left out probably my most favorite. I'll mention was tiger woods 2004 golf tiger woods. I mean the time on that tiger woods was lot of time on that. Tiger Woods was great. The FIFA games have been awesome. Pretty much the NHL is great because every hockey game is for whatever reason, it just translates into a video game. It is so much fun to play. Well, let us know yours.

Starting point is 01:43:18 I can't wait to see what people say because gosh, RBI bases loaded. Bases loaded. I used to be that Omaha team. lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie.

Starting point is 01:43:30 I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie.

Starting point is 01:43:38 I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not football. We got, we got a good one. And we got a good one. Uh, we're at Indiana this week, so no longer a basketball school, Jerry, we're

Starting point is 01:43:50 a football school now six and oh, they're playing Nebraska. So kind of a big game for both teams. Uh, but Georgia, Texas is the big one. That's the big one. That's the big one. Bama Tennessee is big, but Georgia, Texas is, you know, Texas is rolling a kind of a passing of the torch game, maybe from Georgia to Texas, if, you know, Texas is rolling a kind of a passing of the torch game, maybe from Georgia to Texas, if Texas can win, Georgia already has a loss.

Starting point is 01:44:09 So that will be, I think it's one versus five or one versus four, something like that. So one verse five. And we're coming off an epic last weekend of games. Oregon, Ohio state was lived up to the hype. So this, another, another great weekend of college football and another great weekend of MLB baseball, man. I have to say it's based by, you know, I'm watching. I'm go, like I said, I'm going tonight. I'm going tomorrow. Have fun freezing my ass off, but it's going to be great. And I'll be watching over the weekend too. So have fun, dude. Well, safe travels to you. Enjoy that game. Again, big thank you to Max Greenfield for joining us. Safe travels to you. Enjoy that game. Again, big thank you to Max Greenfield for joining us. I'm still reeling off the video game thing. We should go grind some video games at some point.

Starting point is 01:44:49 Dude, I'm just still thinking about you and Max in the basement of your apartment back in 1998. Just smoke. Just smoke. Yeah, man. It was a good time. We're getting that $2,500 a month to do that. Hey, man, what are you doing? Jerry? Dude, I'm rich, man. I'm on hold. I'm on hold. And this is a good life. It's a good life. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you next week.

Throwbacks with Matt Leinart & Jerry Ferrara - The Reality TV Jets, Top 3 Sports Video Games and Max Greenfield on the Knicks, Meeting Luka & More!

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