Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald, March Has Arrived, CBB, Combine Cleanup + 10 Years Of Pardon My Take Memories

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. In sports, winning takes more than talent. It takes strength, reliability, and the drive to go the distance. Sound familiar? That's the same DNA you'll find in a Chevy Silverado. As capable and dependable as a winning team, Chevy Silverado shows up and gets the job done. It won't flinch when the pressure's on. It doesn't take plays off. When it comes to trucks, Chevy Silverado is football guy approved. To learn more about Silverado, visit Chevy.com. On today's part of my take, presented by DraftKings, we have Super Bowl-winning head coach Mike McDonald on the show. Awesome interview with him, Seattle Seahawks head coach. Ten years a part of my take. We're going to talk about it after the Mike McDonald interview. We have a murky timeline on the exact ten-year anniversary, but March 1st feels right. We're going to do some national sports podcast talk. We got two weeks to brackets. Two weeks to brackets. This is March. This is March. Two weeks to brackets. Some stories from the combine. I don't know. We had some guys running fast. Who's back of the week? And it's all brought to you by our friends at Experian. Experian offers features like subscription cancellation, where Experian scans the accounts you link, finds recurring charges and puts the power in your hands. You can keep the subscriptions you want and cancel the ones you no longer need. Experian can cancel over 200 eligible subscriptions from streaming services to entertainment apps and more. Experian's bill negotiation can also help put money back in your pocket. Their expert negotiators can help you by finding better rates on eligible bills. You're already paying the best part. You get to keep 100% of your savings. Results will vary. Not all bills or subscriptions are eligible. Savings not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. See Experian.com for details. Get started in the Experian app now. Okay, let's go. Yeah, part of my take. Yeah, part of my take. Yeah, part of my take. Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, March 2nd, and this is March, PFT. We made it. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. something about it man something about march you turn the calendar i know that there probably will still be a couple weeks left of uh cold weather somewhere mixed in here but the calendar turns you got march madness you got conference championship week you got brackets you have baseball will be played this month you got bait well pitchers and catchers already reported i watched baseball time i watched baseball today yeah which is crazy playing games for weeks There is no offseason baseball. But he is right. Pitchers and catchers have already reported. They've already reported. But I watched a spring training game. I watched actual baseball on TV. Yeah. It's all happening. It feels good. I think it's the official end of winter. Winter's done. Yeah, I just don't like to tempt fate. It was like 30 degrees this morning, and that's fine. 30 degrees, bitch-made weather. Next week, it's going to be 60. Get the golf shoes out. Get the shorts out. We made it. Another jokier of winter in Chicago. Yeah. I'll say it. Yeah. The only thing that sucked about this winter was the, well, again, I don't want to tempt it because we will get, it will probably snow in April now that we've said all this, but the snowstorm we had in Thanksgiving, that's what sucked when it was early. But other than that, it wasn't that bad. I feel like the Northeast got it worse than us this year. Yeah. Soft winter in the Midwest. I think winter is now just earlier. Like it starts in November and ends mid middle of February. Are you saying that just because of this winter? Yeah. Okay. Because as you say, last winter was not that at all. That's how it's going to go. Okay. What just happened is going to keep happening. Yeah. Yeah. It starts early, ends early. I agree. It did feel like winter Irish goodbye to us this year. Yeah. It just kind of left and we're gone. And fuck off, winter. By the way, hand up. We are an accountable podcast. When we get things wrong, we say we get things wrong. we fucked up the uh clocks are changing this saturday yeah so hand up we fucked that up i woke up this morning i was very confused like i thought it was this weekend uh but yeah that does mean more sunlight hank sunlight sun's gonna be setting at like 6 45 you know what that means sunday you get to spend more time with the kids yeah yep very excited about that it's golf season also we gotta do something about the clocks our clock situation i feel like the uh the daylight savings i'm dead snafu starts from the top down because our our wall of clocks right now it's in bad shape i don't i don't know we've got some that are just on zero i don't know if that was a countdown to world war three and we hit that on saturday morning um there are some that say 658 what that's like ours by the way that's that's world war three number 15 yeah yeah we've had a lot of world war threes i think it was the first world war three of the year though i feel like those are getting earlier and earlier every year i do distinctly remember World War III like three or four years ago where Billy was like, no, you guys don't get it. This is World War III. Yeah. One of those outlets had to be unplugged because Zach had to plug in his bomb. Yeah. By the way, speaking of World War III, Zach, how are you feeling? You did a 36-hour stream. You did it. Yeah, me and Max were able to accomplish quite a few hours live at the same time. I think it went good. It was a lot of fun. It was a great time. That's a great way to phrase it. How did you just collapse when you got home last night? Yeah Got home, ordered a pizza, ate some slices Good pizza? Passed right out I thought I ordered a deep dish I didn't order a deep dish But I definitely ordered like a thicker pie And then it came skinniest pie you've ever seen So Zach, I did the exact opposite last night I tried to order a skinny pizza And then I got home, it got delivered And I took it from the guy I was like, this is the heaviest pizza I've ever had in my hands I think we might have switched pies Because I brought it inside And I was like, what am I going to do with this? It was like a 15-pound pizza. Oh, if only we would have had that discourse yesterday. I would have traded you. Yeah, I would have driven this pizza over to your apartment and just traded right then. But you did a good job, Zach. Proud of you. I came by on Saturday afternoon to maybe the saddest thing I'd ever seen. It was no one in the office, Zach, playing Oregon Trail, just full conversation with the chat. To stay awake, I assume. Yes, I was fading pretty bad at that point. The Chinese workout saved me. It did. It really did. and then we played a little video games. I had to leave and you, I mean, you did it. You did it. That was a haul of a stream. Just got to get better picks. What was your favorite moment, Max, from the stream? You stayed extra. You stayed till 7 a.m. I gave Zach an extra five. I was supposed to do 18 hours. I did 23. I think the scheduling in hindsight, we did Zach a little dirty with the scheduling. Yeah, we probably should have scheduled it where either Max comes in for the last 18 or during a work week when people are here. Because again, it was like, it was kind of creepy walking into the office, not a soul in this office. And like how the office is laid out, going all the way through the office to the PMT studio, into the PMT studio, into this little corner. And then Zach's just like huddled over a screen. Yeah. I think, well, the big thing is we had to use the studio and we don't have to, it's hard to find two full days where we're just not using this studio. So that was the reasoning of why it was. We could have done Saturday into Sunday. We should have just done it where you came for the last 18, not the first 18. Yeah, that would have worked as well. Can we look back at the segments that you guys had planned and kind of give them grades based on how they turned out compared to how you had them planned? We're excited. The sassy Legos got off to a hot start. A plus for visuals, F minus for execution. It's impossible. You didn't build the Lego. You can't build the Lego with those on. I've been seeing them everywhere. We got nails all around the office. They fell off sporadically within 20 minutes. Listen, I might not be a sassy Lego guy. One thing that we still owe the people, we still have to write Sleep Tight Saquon. Yes. You didn't do Sleep Tight Saquon? So we had some technical issues on Friday night that led to a big problem that really derailed a lot of the things that we had planned for Friday night. So we are going to do a stream soon where Zach and I do write Sleep Tight Saquon. Okay, good. Going to need that one. What about Itchy Golf? I thought Itchy Golf was great. The itchy part wasn't great. The itchy part wasn't great. It's kind of a big part of Itchy Golf. Well, we bought a product that was supposed to be itching powder. It was baby powder. I think you got some product that was stepped on. It felt good on your hands. Yeah, it was not itchy. It wasn't itchy at all. I would have put it on my balls for sure. Even if the itchy powder was extremely itchy, I think the hardest part there is still the golf. The golf's impossible. And how long did it take you to get your birdie? Five hours. I think five hours is inaccurate. Longer? I thought it was going to be like two or three hours. I committed to staying, and I think I left at like eight, and we started at three. What about the booth 10K? Booth 10K was good. You guys finished it. Kind of. What did you finish? I got a dub in Fall Guy. Yeah, 36 Tower Street. And we got a birdie. And you got a birdie. I mean, Big Cat got tattoos. Yeah. Yeah. If you're watching on Netflix, check it out. Look at that beast. You got the Vanny Woodhead tire. I forgot about it, and I woke up on Saturday morning. Blake woke me up by jumping on the bed. middle claw boom directly to the ribs right on the tat i got the uh i got vanney woodhead right on my forearm love it love it so yeah hank what'd you get didn't get one it's basically his way of quitting our friendship yeah that's insane no but he'll always have but guess what who got the first yeah we can be insane seven years ago maybe we're just gonna be messy bitches about it and be like hank hank is just quiet quit us that's fine it's peer pressure i can tell when we're not wanted This is the moment we can look back and be like, yeah, we should have known. Hank's on for bigger and better things. The Michael Scott podcast. It is weird that you got an impulsive tattoo. I promise you there will be no other podcast if I'm not on this one. Max actually believed me there. His head, he was like, you got an impulsive tattoo? Well, I thought there was like maybe. I don't know. Hank, would you ever start your own podcast? You wouldn't want to? I would actually love a spinoff version of Hank. Fantasy Football Factory. Yeah. Yeah. How'd that go? Hank and I did talk about doing a spinoff pod like seven years ago. Do your pod. Just Patriots related. I'm down to restart that. I think you talked about Hank. Hank sat in the room while he talked about it. He rolled his eyes. I'm 100% down to restart that idea if you want to. I would love for you guys to do that. It's one episode. We'll do one episode. Yeah. Maybe a season preview. Yeah. That's basically what part of my take was over. It was just you two talking about the Patriots. It was D-O-P-T-E-R. People love it. People love it. Okay, let's do some national sports. We're going to talk some more 10-year stuff after Mike McDonald. By the way, incredible interview. Super Bowl winning head coach. Let's do some national sports podcast talk. You want to do it? You want to dive into it? Let's dive in. Let me hit a read real quick, and then we'll dive into some national sports podcast stuff. DraftKings, for one electrifying Tuesday in the NBA, The stakes rise higher and the crown shines brighter. DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner, the NBA, presents a $3 million king of the court. Opt in, use your token, make a $5 pregame bet on the player you believe will dominate if you pick a player who finishes top three in the league in points, rebounds, and assists that night. They're crowned king of the court, and you'll claim your piece of that player's $1 million prize pool in bonus bets. That's $3 million total in bonus bets. Choose your king, claim your crown, download DraftKings Sportsbook, use code TAKE for your shot at a share of $3 million total in bonus bets with code TAKE in partnership with DraftKings Sportsbook. The crown is yours. Token per customer. Token expires at the start of the final NBA game on March 3rd, 2026. Bet placed on one of the day's top three PRA stat leaders receives equal share of 1 million in non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days. Additional wagering restrictions apply. Terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promos. Okay. You want to talk some college hoops? Cause we are two weeks from brackets and I have, I've said for the last few weeks, this is in sports winning takes more than talent. It takes strength, reliability, and the drive to go the distance. Sound familiar? That's the same DNA you'll find in a Chevy Silverado. As capable and dependable as a winning team, Chevy Silverado shows up and gets the job done. It won't flinch when the pressure's on. It doesn't take plays off. When it comes to trucks, Chevy Silverado is football guy approved. To learn more about Silverado, visit Chevy.com. One of my favorite college hoop seasons we've had in a long time, and I think this past week has crystallized it in the fact that we have five, you could even maybe go to six, just absolutely dominant teams. So in the past week, we had the Power Five conferences all had matchups where it was the number one team versus the number two team in their conference. And here are the scores. Here's what the number one team did. The number one team won all of them. it started with on Wednesday night when St. John's and UConn played. UConn beat them 72-40, killed them. Then Friday night, Michigan beat Illinois at Illinois 84-70. Duke pieced up Virginia. Again, one versus two, 77-51. Arizona kicked the shit out of Kansas 84-61. And then Florida beat Arkansas by 34 points on Saturday night. And it's these five teams right now, Michigan, UConn, Duke, Arizona and Florida that are playing at such an insane level. I'm so excited for brackets. So excited. And there's some second tier teams, too, that are capable of winning it all. But yeah, it did separate a little bit. UConn seems to be feeling themselves a little bit now, too, which is nice to see. Although they struggle a little with Seton Hall. Yeah, but on senior day. I would not leave UConn out of the discussion for a team that could win a championship. Florida, though. I've been talking about Florida for three weeks. they can shoot threes now they absolutely kicked that was the worst lost Calipari I think it was tied for the worst lost Calipari's ever had and they just throttled teams and I saw the stat from Matthew Winnick he said that just from an analytical where these teams would rank in net ratings in previous years because you have these top one seeds right now are projected to be or at least the top four teams in the net right now are Duke, Michigan, Arizona, and Florida. And basically, they would be the best team. All four of them would be the best team in the previous five years. And they're all four in this year. So there might be some chaos. There are going to be some really good games at the end. Right. Well, I mean, there are really good teams. Yeah, I mean, what Texas Tech did to Iowa State was shocking as well. That was a crazy, crazy game. Alabama's playing lights out, like going to Tennessee and winning that game. There's just a lot of really good teams. and then there are a handful of extremely dominant teams to the point where if they were in any other season, they would be the best team, but there's four or five of them right now. I was kind of hoping that Alabama was going to get their big man back again against Tennessee. There was going to be another judge's ruling where this guy could only play games against the University of Tennessee, and then there would be another stay or an injunction, and he'd have to go back to the NBA. Yeah, there's some great, great teams. Purdue, very funny loss by Purdue. Two losses this week. Really enjoyed that from the Boilermakers. Yeah, they lost twice this week. And they're still... I mean, they won't be top 10 after this week, but two losses this week. The bubble's getting tighter. We've got also... I do think this is the year Nebraska gets their win. Yeah? I think they have to. Yeah? I think that might be my game of the century of the week. Okay. It's like... They're going to be like a three or four. They'll probably be a three seed. It's now or never. They've got to win. They've got to win one. They're going to be like minus 300 in the first round, minus 400 they got to win we also have the uh the the pre-mad we we have it working both ways we have the some of the old school um people saying that Miami of Ohio has to win the Mac to get in they shouldn't be in otherwise then we have people pre-mad about it they're gonna be in no matter what I'm just saying right now the winning every conference if they go undefeated in the conference that is so hard to do in college basketball no matter what conference you play in but I did like Bruce Pearl no matter what yeah yeah I think they'll be in no matter what I do I do what if they lose in like the second round of the conference tournament I think they still should be the Mac does kind of screw the Mac like it sucks for the I don't think they'll be in no matter what if it does suck for Miami of Ohio that the Mac doesn't there's some conference tournaments where like the Big Ten has a triple buy for for their top four teams the Mac I'm pretty sure just goes eight teams regular bracket so it does it does hurt that i i think if they if they win if they go undefeated in the conference they have to i think how many games they've left they have two games left one game left two games left in the conference i'm saying if they go undefeated in the conference and then lose in the conference tournament i think they will be in but bruce pearl very funny uh using his time on cbs because he's on the desk now saying that they're not one of the 68 best teams and they have to win their tournament to qualify. I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that Bruce Pearl's son, who is now the coach of Auburn, is firmly on the bubble. Yeah, at large. It has nothing to do with it. It's just a coincidence. Just a real weird coincidence that happened. You know how when you go on CNBC, you have to disclose if you have a short position in whatever stock you're talking about? Yeah. Bruce Pearl should be forced to remind everybody, hey, I gave my son the head coaching job at Auburn. Yeah. Just so you guys know. Yeah. I think it's just so difficult to win every conference game, given how long the season is. I mean, you look at some of the results that happen. Iowa goes to Penn State yesterday and loses. Like UCLA. Who did UCLA lose to this weekend? I don't know. I can't remember who they lost to, but off of looking like they had kind of righted the ship, UCLA lost. Minnesota, yeah. At Minnesota. It's just very hard to win every conference game. There's a Florida who looks incredible lost to Auburn a month and a half ago. Chad Baker-Mazzara is out at USC right now, so he'll probably – can he come back for a 10th year? He has to be able to. Is there any more eligibility? Yeah, USC is – unfortunately, the wheels have fallen off there. I was looking at the bracket for the Sunbelt Championship, and the bracket for this tournament is just so awesome. Yeah, the one where you get like 17 buys. You've got Troy and Marshall that are grandfathered into the semifinals already. And then so on each side, it's like, yeah, Louisiana, they could win the Sunbelt tournament, but they'd have to win one, two, three, four, five, six, seven games in a row. Whereas Troy could win the tournament. They would have to win two games. Yeah, the whack is similar. Gonzaga and St. Mary's are always in the semifinals. It's a great format for a tournament. By the way, I'm happy St. Mary's won. That was the final regular season game. not talked about enough that Gonzaga's going to the Pac-12. So that was the final regular season game between Gonzaga and St. Mary's as conference opponents. Hopefully they'll schedule out of conference. They should. And also it's very funny that Gonzaga's finally joining the Pac-12 now. Yeah. After decades of us begging them to. Max, you got white suited. Rick Pitino shows up in the white suit. They had all his friends were in the white suit. You had Roundball Lenny, Wildcat Paul, Michigan Mike. they had a little... At no point was Villanova ever going to win that game. I told both of you... Credit to Max. Saturday morning, I was like, they have no shot. He was like, they got no shot. This is going to be the... Rick Pitino said it. He was like, this is the most important game of my career. I don't know if he said career, but I think he at least said this is the biggest game of the year by far. When he breaks out the white suit... And he brought out the white suit. There was... They were never going to win that game. At no point. At no point. At no point. You think he only orders Alfredo when he's eating in the white suit, right? Like no marinara. He doesn't do Alfredo. Not even the white suit? Alfredo's fake Italian. Yeah. What? Oh, yeah. Is this true? Alfredo's not real Italian. I think that's fake Italian. He would maybe do a chicken, a lemon chicken. Maybe do a lemon chicken. Piccata? Yeah, piccata. I mean, like Cacio e Pepe, that's Italian. Yeah. But Alfredo sauce? There's no heavy cream in Italian cuisine. This is going to start a war. Yeah, I don't know if this is true. Max is very sure of himself. I'm going to trust him. That's a slur. Alfredo's a slur. Remember Cuomo said it's like saying the N-word for Italians? You can't call him that. You can't call him that. Pitino's got the white pants on. One of the all-time quotes. The white pants, nice and camo. He could spill whatever he wants on those. You won't be able to tell. Whatever he wants. Cuomo just trying to be like, Just make up a vicious slur out of thin air. Be like, you don't say that. I mean, Villanova, they are what they are. They have no shot of actually making a run. It looks like they're still going to make the tournament. Are you on bubble now? No, we're still pretty comfortably not in the bubble. You got an injury that you got to deal with, though. Yeah, we had a couple guys get banged up. One of them looks worse than the other. I was trying to look. That's a problem with college basketball. You just don't get injury updates. Yeah. It's like they don't have to say anything. No. State secrets. Yeah. Like in NFL, you'll know within the next morning about what happened. No, college basketball, you won't know until 15 minutes before because the guy's actually dressed on the floor. Yeah. That's when you find out that he's actually going to play. I had a visualization the other day when I was thinking about what's going to happen this Final Four. I think it just feels like it's Izzo. It feels like in a visualization, how is he going to go out? he's going to go out in the Final Four. He's going to get there. Are you going to say he's overrated? This is for whether or not he's overrated or not. Okay, all right. Because I was just saying this feels like you're in a win-win situation where if he doesn't get to the Final Four, you could be like, I told you he's overrated. If he does, you're like, I called it. But I like the fact that you're saying the Final Four decides whether he's overrated or not. He has to get to the Final Four. Cohen Carr's awesome. I will admit that I was wrong. I heard 10 years of being wrong about Tom Izzo if they make it to this Final Four. It's such an Izzo team, too. Jackson Kohler looks like a 90s bully, high school bully. He's got the hair. He's got a little bit of a chin strap. Waps a couple threes every now and then. Just like, oh, I hate the Michigan State team. And I say that with all due respect because when Izzo gets his guys like this, it's like, watch out. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Any other college basketball takes? I'm so pumped. Dude, Florida looks good. I can't wait for conference tourney week. It's going to be. Duke looks good. I'm worried about Duke. Although this is like I keep wrestling with the idea of Florida and Duke both look so dominant, but is their conference down? They definitely are both down, but Duke does look better than they were last year. Yeah. Or more dominant. I'll say that I don't know if they're better. They look more dominant than they did last year. If they don't win it this year, it would be a shock. Yeah. I think so. Big disappointment. I think it would be the biggest disappointment since last year. It would be like a double generation of disappointment with Boozer. Every single... Boozer won. Every single year. It would be doubly disappointing. Every single year is the biggest disappointment. The brotherhood takes a knock. That's another loss on Carlos Boozer's record as well. Got it. you don't agree with this? If Boozer had lost, I would agree with it, but he won. He did win a championship and then left early, and then Coach K tried to blackmail him to stay and got really upset at him for leaving. Different era. For a kid trying to make his life's dream come true, Coach K was like, oh, you can't do that. Actually, I have it on my card. Let me see. What about UConn? I want to read the actual. I have a UConn future from preseason. The two futures I have, or I guess three. It's a worse odds right now. Wisconsin, technically, I do have one on Wisconsin, but it's UConn at 15-1 and Florida at 19-1. Hold on, let me see if I can read this. I'm going to try to find my... This is my Coach K fact sheet that I hold in my wallet. It's so hard to read. Fill the time so I can figure out where I can find Boozer. Hank, who do you think is the biggest disappointment in Duke history. Wow. A lot to pick from. I mean, the Zion team was a major disappointment. Yeah. Three top five picks or three lottery picks. Barely made it to the Sweet 16. I mean, almost had to get a cat because of that team. You could say last year as well. Cooper Flag, Knipple. I mean the team that lost is CJ McCollum yeah I love JJ Redick I love JJ Redick and Sheldon Williams but they they should have got one John Sire Stud I'm trying to yeah that Zion team was that team was too good to be true and they dominated the regular season and they just couldn't get it done. I mean, the team that lost Coach K's last season, too. Big Cat, did you cash out of your Gonzaga future? Yeah. Yeah, a long time ago. I'm still holding that. Oh, the minute they got killed by Michigan. I'm talking like November I cashed out. Well, I took it the day before Michigan. You told us to take it. Rico. It's Rico. Posco. I think I had the Gonzaga future for 15 hours and lost like $8,000. I still have it. I was like, I I got to get out now because this team's not going to win. Maybe Michigan State. I'm trying to look for a value play right now. I know. All the value. Florida went down to what are they? 8-1. Yeah. What do you have UConn at, Hank? I have Florida and UConn both at 12-1. Oh, nice. You got in on Florida? All of these are on the DraftKings Sportsbook, by the way. All right. I can't find it. Whatever. Michigan State, 40-1. Is there any value there? Yes. Meme says yes. Yeah, I think there is. The 10-1 to get to the final four. Their offense goes. It's like very Izzo. Well, BYU. No, they suck. And they lost twice this week, right? And Saunders is out for the year. Yeah, Saunders is out. They lost to West Virginia. Max wanted value. I'm finding value for him. St. John's is the value. Yeah. Arkansas, too. 70-1. Alabama might be value. If Alabama just shoots. What's Houston at now? 10-1. Yeah, value. Marquette. You can say anything. Marquette. Marquette. Marquette is one of the worst. Yeah, they need to win the Big East to get in. I actually think they might not even, if they won, they just might still. I don't think so. Marquette. I'm going to say Marquette. That might not even be listed. No, it is. No, I'm looking at it. Oh, yeah. What is that? A hundred to one? Marquette. That might be. One dollar to win a thousand. It's a thousand to one. A thousand to one. Marquette. That's value, dude. That is value. That's really good, Valley. Okay, let's transition to some cleanup on NFL Combine. The first and I think the biggest headline from NFL Combine was Aaron Glenn fell asleep. That's some fake news. That's some fake news. That's rubbish. This is classic legacy media cat trying to chime in. What happened? They caught a bad angle of Aaron Glenn. He's looking down at his tablet. I'm going to get memes back on this. He was looking at his tablet. Guys can't look at their tablets anymore because people think that they're falling asleep. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. Now everyone is starting to think that maybe the coach of the New York Jets doesn't have his shit together. And it's bullshit, Memes. I got your back. Aaron Glenn is locked in. He's as ready as he's ever been. Memes. Jets playoffs next year. Memes, is he asleep? I think he was looking down. He could have been sleeping. I really wish this happened to another coach. But after thinking about it, I don't think it matters. Right. Because you're just watching guys running a straight line. Here's the question. It doesn't matter at all. Given the Jets' history of guys that they have drafted, wouldn't it be better if they were paying less attention at the combine? Yeah, if they all closed their eyes? Yeah. That's fucking mean. Just saying. That's really mean. Yeah, other than that, from the combine, we had some guys run really fucking fast. Yeah, the running backs. The running backs have decided that the way that they'll all get paid more is if they all get really, really fast. I saw a theory floated out there that we're right on the cusp of like around six, seven years ago was when high. Yeah, six, seven. When was when high school athletes started training, like getting, you know, personal trainers and training like pros. And now you're seeing just an absolute like because it did feel like there was a ton of guys that had eye popping like numbers. and it's because we're reaching those guys who started training in the high school range as pros are now about to be pros yeah everyone's getting really fast and i feel like this is about like the the peak of what the human body can do at these sizes and these weights yep because now i'm i don't know about you guys i'm starting to get like fatigued or numb to the good times that players are putting up yeah like 10 years ago if there was a guy that was 300 pounds that ran like a 4 seven or four eight i'd be like holy shit that's incredible now i hear about like five of these guys every year i you looked at the running back times this year and everyone's like four three something and i'm like oh okay yeah that's pretty much what i've come to expect yeah that's what you need to be yeah the the one that did get me pumped was uh kenyan sadiq our guy from oregon who we just spam when we play dougs he ran the fastest uh tight end time since 2003 that is pretty incredible so 4.39 that's fucking fast yeah also an absolute monster it's a smokescreen season for makai lemon everyone's free i've seen i don't think i've ever seen as many anonymous reports about makai lemon and and how weird he was in his combine interviews as i have this year like it feels like that's the most talked about rumor going around the combine and no one's giving any specifics whatsoever it's just like every team was kind of freaked out by this guy well yeah he He had the press conference where he was looking kind of weird, staring at reporters. And then, yeah, you're right. The anonymous sourcing, none of it. I mean, the guy's really good at football. Yeah. Who the fuck cares? Yeah. Also, kind of what you want from a wide receiver. Wide receiver. Yes. Do we have, is Fernando Mendoza's hands too small? Are they too small? No, I don't think. But he might be fat. Oh. Fernando Mendoza actually has just built like a brick shithouse. I think he's like 230. Yeah. which is heavier than people thought he was going to be, but in a good way. Yeah. Because there was one picture of Mendoza from the combine taken from behind, and it's just his arms with these veins. He looks jacked. With the veins in them. So, yeah, it's like he's the same body size as Big Ben coming out. Yeah, his hands were 9 1⁄2 inches, which I think is fine. That's fine. It's not a freak. How big were his arms? His arms were huge, massive. Arms were 31 7⁄8. I don't even know what that – what is that? I think that's fine. Yeah, I think that's fine. The smallest hands were Cade Klubnick with nine and a quarter. We didn't have any sub nines. Yeah, nine. I think sub nine is when we start to mock them. It's like right at nine. Yeah. That's where the cutoff usually is. There's also a- Carson Beck had the largest with 10. Oh, Hugh Chance? Hugh Chance. There's a big, like a story that's brewing under wraps at the Combine, and it's been happening for the last couple years. but the guy that measures arm length at the combines is not good at measuring arm length. Oh, no. Because now this is going to be two years in a row where the arm length that's measured at the combine does not add up to what happens at the individual workouts or the guy's pro days. Yeah, but those numbers, the pro days are always... It's one guy? It's one guy that measures at least the offensive lineman. There's one guy who's in charge of the tape measure for the arms, and apparently he's got a short measurement. I don't know. Oh, Hank, that's good. Because it doesn't add up to everything else. Yeah, but the pro days are always very funny because the pro day numbers are always way better. They're way better. Way, way better. Because, I mean, like Ohio State has a 37-yard, 40-yard dash. They have their guys do. And then we also had the grades. We had the grades, the NFLPA grades for all the teams, everything. There weren't many notable things other than the Bengals went from an F in food to an F minus. That's pretty hard to do. Like most of the teams, they actually try to get better. The Bengals are like, no, we're going to give you even worse food. The Bengals punish you for opening your mouth. Yeah. You guys thought it was bad. Here's really bad. I want to stand up for the Bengals real quick because F minus is not a real grade. No one in school has ever gotten an F minus. You get an F. That's as bad as it gets. Yeah, I mean, I guess the food is that bad. Also, the Steelers locker room only has five bathroom stalls for the entire team. That's egregious. That was very funny. That's insane. Five bathroom stalls for 53 large men that have to take shits all the time. That's actually torture. Yeah, TJ Watt probably stabbed himself in the lung because he's like, I just need to get out of this place so I can take a shit. If you're a Steelers fan, think about this. Your favorite player is oftentimes awkwardly trying to silence his shit which no man should have to do That probably what drove Antonio Brown and Le Bell crazy Yeah Was just having to work in that environment for so long There nothing worse than when you go into a packed bathroom and you have to sit next to something Like, you know, you're next to someone who's been there and you got to put a little bit of the silencer on it. You just can't. You can't let it go. The socks. The other thing I noticed in these grades is that every team hates their home field. Yeah. Well, it's because the turf. Yeah. Well, even some teams that have grass playing fields, they don't like it. The Steelers, yeah, because they play like a million football games that are not Steelers football on that field. But, yeah, across the board, it's like, yeah, we don't like our home team. We don't like our home field. We also don't like travel. None of the guys like their travel department. Big surprise there. The last story I had from Combine, this was like news and notes. What's going on with J.J. McCarthy? I feel like the Vikings are maybe putting out some troubles. I heard Kyler, potentially Geno Smith. hmm hmm is jj i i read an article that everyone's like yeah none of that was geno's fault last year well if you look at what the uh the nflpa report card was for the raiders they hated their offensive coordinator right so um i i don't know there's a chance that the raiders keep geno smith is geno smith this year's geno smith he might be whereas like everyone wrote him off yeah kyler gino i mean the vikings if if you see what happened with sam darnold wouldn't you want to go to the vikings yeah probably the spot probably i think i think kyler should definitely want to go to the vikings yeah i think jj mccarthy should want to go back to the he should want to he should want to play for kevin o'connell yeah maybe kevin o'connell's really good at finding guys that have sucked other places and then bring them in fixing them maybe he's not so good at identifying guys straight out of college that are already good. Why are you guys yelling at each other? Because Hank is watching this Sixers-Celtics game, and he just doesn't look. He just looks at his phone when the Sixers go on a run, and every time the Celtics make one basket, he looks at me, and he's like, two to the head. And he just looks down at his phone when the Sixers go on an 8-0 run. Yeah, see? Wow. Also, the Sixers suck. Two to the head. The Sixers are a bad team. Two to the head. And Embiid's not playing. They lose it. The Sixers are back to losing every game that Embiid doesn't play. Damn. Either way, I agree with the PFT. J.J. McCarthy should want to play for Kevin O'Connell. Yeah. 100%. J.J. McCarthy should do the Chet Powers thing and just disguise himself as somebody else and then be like, hey, can you fix me, Kevin O'Connell? I'm some unheard of former college football player. Bring me into your system. Did you see, like, J.J. McCarthy won a national championship, what, three years ago? Was it top 10? Was he the 12th pick? What was he picked? Nine. Either way. I don't think he was nine. He is nine. But is a professional quarterback in the NFL. Did you see the Ayatollah on the nine meme? That's tough. I did not see that. He had Ayatollah on the 9 jersey in the locker room. I do remember the Ayatollah. Where are we at as a world? Professional quarterback's getting mixed up in geopolitics. Well, there was somebody, I think it was at Menejad, the former president of Iran, is a big-time University of Michigan fan. Oh. And back in 2018, he said like, Yeah, he was like, Inshallah, the University of Michigan will return to its glory in football. Yeah, RIP. Wait, he died too? Mahmoud Ahmed Najad? Okay, he died too. I think so. Did he get the nine treatment? He got nine, yeah. I did see the- You see there's some guy has the Expos account, Montreal Expos. He has the actual official account, and he runs it like the official Expos team. And he's like, due to unforeseen circumstances, we have canceled the Ayatollah Khomeini's bobblehead night from April 14th. Okay, what else? Any other national sports podcast topics? Was there – did Shane Lowry choke? Oh, big time. Big time. Biggest choke I've ever seen. Give me the stage for the choke. He was up three with three to go. He double bogeyed two holes in a row, which he's never done in his pro career. Double bogeyed two in a row? Both of them wide right. Yeah, he went in the water two holes in a row, bear trap. He said it stung the most because he just wanted to win for the first time in front of his daughter. his daughter was there and he choked so so you know how last week we were talking about the hack to winning a golf tournament is to like have a kid or to get married and then that way they'll definitely show you on the broadcast and like show your your wife and your kids as you're going up the 18th fairway and all that uh they tried to do that this week with the guy that won echevarria but the thing about him was like he just closed on a house earlier this week and so what a magical week this has been for him and his young wife so they were just talking about what a What a great story it was. This youngster buys a house and wins a golf tournament. Bought a house. You can't write this. If you tried to bring that to a script developer in Hollywood, they would light your eyebrows on fire and stab you in the throat. They would say, this is too unrealistic. Get the fuck out of my office. Yeah. I'm looking. Hank just sent every tee shot hit at 16 this week, and then the white dot being Shane. How did he hit it there? That's just a true old-fashioned joke. Yeah. Shank. Two shanks in a row. And then the next hole stepped up. Same thing. It wasn't as bad, but he was up three with three to go. Oh, I think there was a there was a stat like a win probability. It was like ninety nine point six percent. Like you could have won the tournament easily. Easily. I could have righty or lefty up three. We could have had the first ever women's slalom gold medalist. I would lose by 10. What was the event? yeah if it was a slalom golf hole then I'd dominate so the second shot that he hit was so bad and then he started yelling at his caddy afterwards he's like what the fuck dude why'd you make me do that again it was very weird I think Shane Lowry just has a temper and he just needed to direct it somewhere my three iron if you're Shane Lowry's caddy your job is just like get bitched at if Shane does something bad Brooks and Max played well today okay good Good. The boys are back. Max is a doubleheader. Max is the Mike Tirico. Max is playing right now. He's the Mike Tirico of golf. Oh, he's playing simulator golf. Yeah. TGL. Was it right there? It's in Florida, yeah. Okay. So he didn't have to get on a plane. That would have been commitment to the game. We should do the thing where it shows his travel for today and just hits Google Maps. It's just a drive. Him on the highway. Yeah. Did you guys see the... We talked a little baseball because it is about to happen. You see the Cardinals are offering a $29 all-you-can-eat concessions set up? I saw that. This actually, I actually was thinking about it. I don't know why more teams don't do this. Because there's no way that you can. Oh, Hank's doing it again. He just put a three in his face. There's no way you can eat as much as they give you for $29. You buy it, and you're like, this is a great deal. And then you have two hot dogs and nachos. You're like, I'm full. but how much does how much the hot dogs cost normally I don't know that's a good question I think that shout out to Madison Mallards they do the duck blind where it's I think it's $30 all you can eat all you can drink too though beer and they open before the game starts you get unlimited hot dogs chicken tenders bratwurst nachos fries popcorns peanuts chips ice cream bottomless soda that's a great deal but I feel like no one's gonna there's gonna be like a couple people who would test it but a lot of people will spend the 29 dollars and if you do the math you're like oh but also just yeah you're right that the markup is probably so severe it makes sense anyway and you know what this is this is what teams are able to do now that the games are only like two hours long true if this was a four-hour game you never be able they would get put out of business you'd never be able to i would do this if i were like if the cubs did this i would i'd definitely buy it because my kids ripped through half the half those things like one bite of everything. They're mini Dave Portnoy's. Yeah, that's like the activity when you go to a ball game with a kid. It's just like every inning, let's get up and do something else. Let's get another treat. Okay, should we do who's back of the week? And then we have Mike McDonald on the show. Great interview. And then we'll talk some 10-year... Oh, Hank's doing it again. He's three-ing in his face. Did you get three-ed up? He just keeps three-ing in his face. You guys just don't even talk about Tom Hinn with this chip. Tom Hinn with Let's go. I'm just. That's a caption. Tom him. Tom him with this chip. Let's go. Doesn't go in. Yikes. Memes. How do you grade that as a social media guy? Caption. Well, they've gotten 19 likes. Tom. How do you grade it, memes? I'll give it a B minus. Okay. What would you have done? Probably wouldn't. Probably just wouldn't have tweeted it. Yeah, or just like decent chip. Decent chip that doesn't go in. What about, come on. I like the first reply to this tweet is, wicked respect to Max Homa for popping out after playing at the Cognizant. Yeah. Yeah, wicked respect. Wicked respect for Max. Okay, before we do, who's back of the week? Lucy. Lucy is the obvious choice for the true nicotine pouch connoisseurs. That's why they're the official nicotine pouch partner of Barstool Sports. Every other pouch is the same. Lucy Breaker is the only ones doing it differently to give you the longest lasting flavor in pouches. Lucy pouches go up to 12 milligram strength and have unique shape that feels great. Lucy is in stores nationwide now or get your Lucy delivered to you ASAP on apps like DoorDash and GoPuff. Lucy, the only pouch that delivers long lasting on demand flavor. Find a store near you at Lucy.co slash stores or get it shipped with 20% off your first order at Lucy.co. slash PMT using code PMT. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every customer's age verified. 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And obviously, it's probably just because it's a picture of me, but I've never had an influx of messages and tags like I have in the last five days. Hand up, I might have had a part in that, too. I don't know how many. I mean, hundreds of thousands of people listening to this show. I think every single one of them bought a dog. I did say a few days ago, I was like, every time I see one, it's an instant retweet. It's so good. And I've just been retweeting all of them. I love the ones with the dogs that are getting particularly violent with the Hank stuffed toys, and they're just chomping at him, fighting over it. I just pull up Twitter, and I just see a dog with Hank's stupid face, and I laugh every time. Like, oh, here's a dog. Here's the cutest dog looking at this shithead face, and it's just so funny. Sorry, Hank. No offense. Yeah, I was trying to work out. Look at that one. It's just Hank. And for some reason, dogs absolutely love it. They love your stupid face. And it's just that's a good sign of character, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's just like thinking of like this person. He's just sitting there having a Saturday and it's just he looks over. It's just Hank's dumb face in his dog's mouth. Yeah. Man. Look at that. If you just look up, that's a funny thing to look up to. When you're sitting in your living room, it's, oh, there's Hank's dumb face again. I love it when they're just chewing off his ear, too. Yeah, his dumb ear. Yeah, his big dumb ear coming out. But yeah, a lot of dogs. Just fang right into your eye. Put them all in the show. Yeah. Yeah, love it. Okay. And then my other who's back, just the Celtics, they're putting belt to ass on the Sixers right now. Oh, okay. They also had, they had like. Hey, Max. How about this, Max? Two right in your forehead I mean the Sixers went on an 8-0 run to cut it to single digits It was Hank Watt Shut up I was watching the game Every time I was doing threes you're just looking I don't even know what you're looking at Yeah because that's what you do And also my eyeline is You're in my eyeline But you're still not looking at me I'm currently looking at you Actually fuck you I won't look at you But that wasn't the point of my who's back Regardless they had the best offensive rating in NBA history on Friday night. Who'd they play? The Nets. The Nets. The Nets are good. Oh, wow, dude. You beat the fucking Nets. The Nets. The Nets are good, right? Name three players on the Nets. It wasn't that they beat the Nets. Name three players on the Nets. They had the best offensive rating of all time. Let's have 15 wins. Hank, name three players on the Nets. Name three players on the Nets, Hank. Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Darry Williams, Name one. Jason Kidd. Can you name one player on the Nets? One player on the Nets. I could name one. I had one. Yeah. I just pulled up. I had one from Frank the Tank. You should be able to get that. One player? No. Nick Claxton. Michael Porter Jr. is still on the team, right? Clank! Nick Claxton. Clank! But regardless, it's all-time NBA history. Oh, yeah, and Danny Wolfe from Michigan. I don't know if he even plays. all-time NBA history against the Nets. That's impressive. That happened. Did you watch the game? No. You just knew it was good. I just saw it. Yeah, you saw the history afterwards. That's how I like to consume my history. Well, yeah, you see of stats. It's like, all right, history. History, checkmark. Done. What'd you do Friday night? Did you do history? I would watch the game. I was busy watching Max and Zach struggle with itchy golf. Game was definitely still on after I don't know why he started at 6 I don't know why he's hating on the fact that you did something that's never been done before History Most NBA games end in two hours Two and a half hours, yeah I had to drive home And then I turned the game on, they were up 100 And he was like, oh that must have been history Boom, turns out Hank was right, he knows ball Yeah What was the final score? Like 148 to, I don't even know I want to look at this box They're probably sending that ball to Springfield, huh? I don't know what your guys' problem is. I have no problem. I'm an admirer of history. You have to admit the Nets part is funny. The Nets are so bad. History is history. This is a sports history podcast. No, it is. Oh, wow. So they did shoot 65% from three. 22 for 34. That's pretty insane. I tend to look forward, Hank. That is insane. The past is in the past. 22 for 34 I won't do who's back anymore I'm looking at the box score Hank and I appreciate you bringing this up 22 for 34 from 3 is nuts that's it that's all I got are you on strike now from who's back no I don't know I don't know what I'm supposed to do here well you're being a dick Max this was me going on the attack because you're being a dick if you were a better golfer I would have been watching of witnessing history. Two in your face, Max. Right in your forehead. Deal with it. I like the two in the forehead. There's one. There's one. You're doing free throws to the face? That's what Hank was doing. It was every single point. Free throws to the temple. It was a two-point layup in the middle of the third quarter, and he was looking at me going twos to the forehead. Oh, Hank. Clank. Okay, PFT, who's your who's back? My Who's Back of the Week is part of my take inserting themselves into international diplomatic crises. Oh, no. Because I think that we need to speak up about something. Okay. And there's a big story that took place this weekend that I feel like we need to use our platform to address to our listeners. Chet Hanks is stuck in Colombia right now. Yeah. Chet Hanks, Chet Hayes, whatever you want to call him, he was just with his boys in Puerto Rico just going for a nice vacation. And one of them was like, hey, Chet, let's just bounce over to Colombia real quick. I got a bro in Medellin. Let's just go hang out. And because Chet Hanks is a good friend, he said, yeah, okay, let's go over to Colombia. Oh, shit, I don't have my American passport. I've got my Greek passport, which he has for some reason. So he goes to Colombia. He's in Medellin. And now he can't get back to the United States because they won't let him back in. He has to get a green card now and wait in line for that to get back to the United States. There's no greater American than Chet Hanks. and we're in danger of having white boy summer canceled this year if Chet's still stuck in Columbia. So we have to have an AWL that works. I feel like Chet Hanks in Columbia is like white boy summer primetime. But then we don't get to participate. Like, we need Chet back stateside. Can Chet just get back by just dropping the accent? He could get into Jamaica. Yeah, no, I'm saying, like, do you think that he lost his passport? He keeps coming. Yeah. Going to customs with the accent. They're like, dude, you're not American. And Chet, just talk like you probably have talked your entire life. They're like, Chet, what's wrong with your passport? It's disqualification. Disqualification! All I'm saying is that we need to get Chet Hanks back. He's stuck in Medellin right now, probably having a terrible time in Medellin. I can't imagine a guy like that has too much pressure. Max is standing up to look at him. Well, because he looks at me after everything. I'm watching the game, I can't look over. Whatever the Sixers score It's just silence You can look over when you score I just wanted to see if you were looking Yeah, I wanted to see if you were looking This podcast has quickly become Just a live stream reaction show To a nothing game I don't care about It's a game 63 in the NBA season And let the record show Max doesn't care about this game I care about Hank being a fucking asshole Listen, we got bigger things to take care of right now And that's getting Chet Hanks back to the United States And the Twitter search is fucking horrendous That's also pissing me off disqualification. Can we please we have to have an AWO that works in the consulate get free chat. Please. Free chat please. And then chat if you get back you are now legally bound to come on part of my take. Yeah. Okay my who's back of the week is Mark Sanchez because he's back in the news they have the preliminary investigation. Is he stuck in Medellin too? He's not but Mark Sanchez when he got stabbed in Indy had cocaine, fentanyl marijuana and alcohol in his system damn dude did you have a game you were calling the next day yep that's a wild one he just fucked around had he went for a four piece was it the next day or was it i think was it like a friday i don't know and then he had like one i think there might have been one day that he had either way dude was rocking around we hit the cycle on on just a casual indie night just being like i'm going for all four it sounds like he had something that was stepped on. I don't know. That's what it sounds like to me. Uh-oh. We got another one? Max, yeah, another three. He looked that time, though, so I respect it. I respect that he looked. I'm not bringing this up, by the way. I've never said this one time. I've been silently doing this. Yeah, but you did start it with the two to the forehead. But that was between me and Max. And you also said the Celtics were going belt to ass on the Sixers. Max, it's a six-point game. It's the third quarter. We got a lot of games left. He said belt to ass. Six points in the third quarter. We have so much game left in this game that doesn't matter. I agreed, and I didn't care about this game before Hank started being a dick. The Sixers lose every game and B doesn't play again. Also, Shia LaBeouf is back because that interview was wild. Charlie Sheen energy. Did you see any of it? Yeah, strange. The Mike Piazza one was very funny. Strange guy. Him just being like, fuck Mike Piazza. I tried to get his autograph 90 times, and he never gave it to me. I like that. That's a grudge. It's a serious run. Yeah, I kind of stand with Shea. Yeah. That's a Jersey Jerry type thing. He would never forget that. No, never. All right, Zach, who's your who's back? My who's back of the week is NASCAR driver Tyler Reddick. They had the Duramax Texas Grand Prix today, which is the third race of the season. And he did win, but he's won the previous two races as well. So he's the first driver in history to start the season 3-0. Is this Jordan's guy? It is Jordan's guy. So he goes 3-0 after going winless last year. He's won three? Yes, sir. In a row? Yes, sir. Fuck yes. Three and O is pretty solid. I wasn't his kid there. Shut up. It's ice. It's ice in his shirt. What? He's three and O, though. Yes, sir. Three and O. And that's never been done? No, first guy to do it. I thought Denny Hamlin won. Interesting. I think the first three races of the year, I believe. That's interesting. He may have won three races in a row, but I believe this gentleman won the first three in a row. Like. Oh, no. So Daytona 500, Auto Trader 400, and the Duramax Grand Prix. Stud. I also had no idea just how physical NASCAR driving was until today. Like, you could just lose 10 pounds driving in a car. Oh, yeah. It's hot. I had no clue. It's like 150 degrees. Yeah. Sweating. That's good who's back. Max, you have a who's back? What are the boys doing sitting in the booth? They come in too early. They always come in early. I'm sorry. I love the boys. Shane, you can't blame Shane. Why? Because he missed his number last week. Yeah, but I don't want them to. What was he supposed to do? They would have had to stand. He comes in too late. He misses his number. We still have like 15 minutes. Yeah, they would have had to stand for another 15 minutes. That would have sucked for them. Is that right? I thought it was an early. Well, we still have the interview coming, too. We have the interview that we have to do, and we also have to finish this whole game. We don't have to finish. Yeah, we do. We got to finish. Is that because the Celtics hit a three, right? No, the Sixers hit a three. Oh, so what's the score? Six-point game going on to four. If you're listening this morning and you went to sleep early, you missed a thriller. Belt to ass. Yeah. Again, who could forget game 62? are the Sixers even the Sixers are bad like they're the six seed right now and hey six seed's not playing six seed's not playing okay PFT you got a couple ads before we get to our interview with Mike McDonald yes before we get to our interview with Super Bowl winning head coach Mike McDonald's brought to you by our great friends over at Microsoft Microsoft Copilot Microsoft 365 Copilot knows that the world moves fast and your workday moves even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps that you already use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through the clutter and clear path to your best work. Learn more at microsoft.com slash m365copilot. That's microsoft.com slash m365copilot. and Mike McDonald's also brought to you by Chevy and the Silverado. Football season might be over, but you know how it goes. The minute the big game ends, we're already talking about what's next. Free agency, the draft, who's getting paid, who's grinding, because for football guys, there's no off season. That's exactly why they roll with the Chevy Silverado. Silverado is the truck that shows up every time, built to haul, tow, take a beating, but smart where it counts, with modern tech that makes life easy. You've got big screens, available camera views that help with towing and parking, and a cabin that feels right whether you're road tripping, heading to practice, or loading up for the weekend. During the season, it's the MVP of the tailgate. After the season, it turns your training camp truck, hauling gear, tackling home projects, and doing the work that never stops because the grind doesn't take breaks. Neither does the Silverado. Check out the current offers. Build your own Chevy Silverado today at Chevy.com. And now here is Mike McDonald. okay we now welcome on a very very very very very special guest super bowl winning head coach from the seattle seahawks mike mcdonald does let's start with that does that get old has it gotten old yet to be introduced i'll never get old nor will i ever believe it like it's this weird like did it happen i was there i'm pretty sure i was there but it happened it happened it happened kind of bittersweet like after the game's over you don't get to play any more football Well, then I see my son now. That was my other first question was like to have to win the Super Bowl and meet your son on the same day. It was epic. Had to be incredible. Yeah, you could tell he wasn't happy to meet me at that point. I did see the clip, though, after that you were kind of upset that you didn't have any more practice. Like that's how much of a football cycle you are. You're just like, well, yeah, we don't get to practice tomorrow. Yeah, I do miss the group. Like it was such a great group. It's like going to work with your buddies every day, you know. The wives aren't excited to hear that, but they're like, you just get to go to work with your boys and talk football all day. It's like, yeah, it's pretty much what we do. So it's over. It's kind of a bummer. That was a very strange thing to come out on the news, though. It's like the graphic just looked bad when it was like Coach Mike McDonald spends 30 minutes a week with his son. When you look at that on a quote card, it doesn't look so great. And we were saying at the time, I think we defended you. I did because I have three kids, and I was like, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Your kids are probably around you during the week. It's just maybe you're not at home all the time during the season. Well, yeah. Well, for one, you can't go back and be like, that's not what I meant because that's a bad deal. But it was just an extra 30 minutes on Thursday. That was what I was trying to say. It didn't come across the right way. But Jack's like, he's 14 months. He goes to bed at 7 o'clock. Right. He wakes up after I'm gone. But yeah. Do you plan it out, though, like a practice session? We're like, first 10 minutes, we're going to read a book, next 10 minutes. Well, originally, like when he was younger, it was like, okay, between naps was like definitely down to the minute of like exactly what we're going to do. Yeah, script out our first 15. Yeah, because I mean, those were slow intervals. But when you go from the two naps to the one nap. Yeah, that was, oh yeah, it was three, then it was two, now it's one. Oh my God, all right, there's only one nap? Yeah. It must be surreal though, this whole offseason for you. Now you're like, you're getting to spend this offseason as like the genius. Are you a football genius? Oh. No, no. Like, couldn't say anything to make me any more uncomfortable. Football genius. Yeah, it's like, no, it's kind of like, it's like not, I don't know, it takes away from, like, what the players do, I think, you know. It's like, that's what makes it uncomfortable. Like, you watch our guys play and you watch what they do and, like, the inputs every day to make it come to life. And you're like, yeah, they're the ones that do it, you know. Right. You look at your job as just being like it's your responsibility to put them in the best position to do what they do the best. Yeah, totally. It's like my job is to do everything we possibly can to put you in the best spot as many times as we possibly can in a game. And like when you fall short of that, that's when you're like kicking yourself in games where, you know, teams, you know, dice you up or whatever. You're like, man, shoot, we really screwed that up for the guys. Do you have a photographic memory? Do you remember every play? No. Can I test you on one play? Sure. See, maybe if you remember. All right. So it's in the Super Bowl. It's the third quarter, 16 seconds left. Third and six. Drake Mays got the ball. Yeah. What happens? Are we in – we're in – well, there's some more to the call, but are we in the man-aligned cover two sack fumble? I was about to say that, but, yeah. Yeah, it sounds like you remember it pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. Did you know that third and six was – I thought it was third and five, actually. So it's interesting you say that because on the broadcast, it did say third and five initially then they went back they updated it later to make it third and six well so i shouldn't have called it then because it was originally for like the third and medium category yeah and then third and five was like in the first category and i was like ah like one yard you know like is it worth doing it but we said that was our next call and we ripped it and the guys it worked out it worked out pretty sweet i didn't know if you had done any film in the scouting on drake may ahead of time but third and six he's a great quarterback but Third and six is the one down and distance he struggles with disproportionately. Just that yard? Yeah, just that one yard. I'm glad they fixed it then. So I'm glad it actually wasn't third and five. Yeah, that's why that happened is because of that weird stat. We were scouting them on third down. They were undefeated on third and two, third and three. Third and six. Third and six. It's obvious. Different story. I got a question about the Super Bowl. Your use of Devin Witherspoon in the Super Bowl. Because he didn't blitz. I think I read he blitzed, what, 12 times maybe? Or it might have been 20 times during the season in 12 games. And then you blitzed him six times in the Super Bowl. Was that something that comes to you during the week of preparation where you're like, this is something they won't expect and we know we have an edge here? And we didn't think it through that lens. I think he's such a great blitzer. But on first, second down, Nick's normally at that position. And Spoon's been playing outside a ton. So it's hard to blitz him when he's outside. But we just felt like in that game plan, some of the stuff that we were able to get to in some of those passing situations, it was important to bring the nickel. And it turns out he's a great blitzer. So I was like, all right, let's go for it. And you did it early, too. I rewatched some of the blitzes because they're incredible. There was one where it was Nick and Devin Witherspoon on opposite sides, and then you drop both tackles. And it's like there's nothing the offense can do because you're basically holding the ends and the running back has to make a choice and they're going to be wrong no matter what. You can design blitzes. There you go. That's all you got to do. You just got to make sure you have an extra guy. Yeah, but that was early in the game where maybe they aren't expecting that and it felt like the aggression was dialed up a little bit for the Super Bowl. Well, Spoon is such a great knack for the timing of plays and when to kind of uncover and when to blitz. But yeah, we're in zero, so it's not like it's the smartest thing of all time. We're just bringing an extra guy. Right. But it's how you disguise it and how you hide it. We're so much shell, and we don't blitz that much. So when we do do it, you want to make sure you're right. Yeah. Have you gone back and watched the Super Bowl? I haven't. You should go back and watch the TV at the Super Bowl. It's pretty sick. It was pretty good watching on TV. I've never watched a TV copy, but I think I'm going to watch this one. You have to. You should, yeah. I'm going to like commercials and everything. Yeah. I want to just watch it straight through. Enjoy the moment. Like, it's honestly amazing that the Seahawks are now back so soon after they had success, like, earlier this decade. The GM that you work with, Schneider, seems like just the greatest dude's dude of all time. Absolutely. Have you had a word with him about the importance of undershirts? The pit stains sometimes look like they're a bit much. What I respect about Johnny is he's owned it. It's like, yeah, dude, I sweat. Like, that's what I do. It's kind of his thing. It's, like, kind of cool. It's a calling card. It seems like he's a great guy to work with, everyone that has worked with and around him has nothing but the best things to say. What's that relationship like when it comes to evaluating who's actually going to be on the field for you? Because I'm sure you want to have your say, he wants to have his say. Yeah, I think we just look at it through the lens of who do we need up for this game to go win? And so he's not like, hey, you need to play this guy or play that guy. It's just, okay, and a lot of times there's transactions to go with it too. Like we've got to elevate guys from the practice squad or maybe we've got to sign a guy onto the team and now you've got to cut a guy. It's like there's a lot of moving parts, and so he's kind of like a problem solver to get to the most optimum roster going into every game. So he's great at that. Nolan Teasley does a great job of that too. He's our assistant GM. He's always got the out-of-box type of ideas. But, yeah, he's really responsible for the environment of the building that makes it so much fun to come to work every day. So it's really his fault that I wanted to come back to work and not hang out with the family. What was – like how did the decision to bring Sam Darnold in? Was that John starting it and then you were being like, hey, I think this could work? Because obviously, you know the narrative for Sam was the outside public being like the seeing ghost guy and the guy at the Jets. But he was so phenomenal, wins the Super Bowl, like incredible, incredible story. But how did that all start and come together? Well, I think it happened in like, what, like three or four days from when we traded Gino to once like Sam happened. So when it became clear that we weren't going to be able to get Gino back, it was like, OK, what's the next thing? And so, you know, there's some good quarterbacks on the market. And Sam was one of those guys. And I mean, he's still super. I mean, you forget how young he is. Yeah. And then, you know, we played him the year before and he diced us up at our place, which sucked. And then so it's like, OK, this guy's pretty good. and then having Clint and working for the whole year. So it was like we had all these data points and there's people in our building that were with him at USC that loved him, loved the person. So it just kind of came together like, man, this guy sounds like a great teammate. He's going to be a great leader. He's got great tape. I think what people were attributing to at the end of the season, like I think it was the Rams game and maybe it was the Lions game or something. It's like not a great take. Like, okay, there's a couple rough games. you know you could argue on why those things happen but you look at like the you know the whole season and what he did I was like damn he won 14 games and yeah and he played at a high level and he came in and beat us like this guy's pretty good yeah that must have stuck with you because you mentioned it a couple times like the fact that he came in and you got to see what he can do against your defense who you obviously believe pretty highly in yeah uh and to see that up close that sounds like that was like the x factor that yeah it's like I'm not a quarterback guru by any by any means but i do think like it does mean something like feel the guy in person you know of like what it can you like tilt the field do you feel like the competitor do you feel like he's turning it down um do you feel the poise you know like if we if we feel like we're putting like stress on him like how does he handle those types of things and uh like we just we couldn't he was like on you know couldn't get to him that game so that that stuck with us yeah have you uh have you updated your linkedin page to include super bowl champion no i did i did like became to my attention that i i remember i had a linkedin page and i was so upset with myself that i updated it as like head coach i was like that was a that was a that was kind of a chotch move no that's awesome no i just and then i'm like well now you now it's like an overthink thing so it's like well now do i delete it but now it's a thing yeah it's like a vince vaughn wedding crashers my mind is like you know awards and recognition segment like super bowl champion head coach yeah you just got put it up to heavy yeah yeah i don know maybe it kind of cool the way it is right now I don know Just like a time capsule and I have a hard time thinking I gonna like go in and like type that in Log it in That gonna be a tough That gonna be a tough thing to do How close for you because the story your story is awesome. You're the first Super Bowl winning head coach in play in college football. You thought about maybe going to Wall Street. Were you close to doing that? Or was it always like, hey, this is football. It's gonna be football. well i i like i wanted to be in football but i mean i was a georgia was a grind i mean i learned a lot but that was before there's like small armies of support staff so you're doing like everything all the time sleeping at the facility like no family at that time so i wasn't like sacrificing that yet but you would have yeah i would totally would have neglected like everybody included yeah um and it just i just got to the point where i was like man there's no future for I mean, like, I got to rip. I got to get out of here. And it's like, as God has it, he just puts the Baltimore opportunity in your life and just like, and then there you go. Like, okay, let's go. Would you have crushed it on Wall Street? I don't know. I don't know. It sounds so boring. It does, but. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't Wall Street. It was KPMG, like a consulting gig. Okay. What year was this? 2014. Everybody's making money. Yeah. You would have crushed it. Yeah. You would have done it. You would have crushed it. Yeah, and I was a finance major. I totally knew that, by the way. Wait, so the Baltimore thing happens, and you also went to the University of Michigan. We love the Harbaugh's. We've had both of them on. We've dubbed ourselves Harbaugh Whisperers because for some reason they keep coming on our show and liking to come on our show. And Tom Crean. And Tom Crean, yeah, all of them. But what's the difference between being in both of their systems? What's the difference between the two of them? I got this question a ton at Michigan, and I finally told Jim. I was like, hey, I keep getting these. He's like, just tell him I'm taller. That's perfect. And he can beat him up. Jim can beat up John. I'll let them figure that out. So then I told John, I was like, hey, this is what Jim said to tell me to say. And John was like, well, tell him I'm 2-0. And I was like, oh, okay, now we got to. They're exactly like that, though. I remember last year in the combine, I was actually at a dinner with the two of them. And halfway through the dinner, they started having an argument whose head was bigger. And they took my hat, and they were testing it on my hat. And I was just like, what's going on? I believe that 100%. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Imagine that at least once a day, Jim gets up and goes back to back with somebody to see who's taller. Yeah. He's like, come on, let's see. We would race people to see. It was like the last guy in camp. Like the punters would like race. Yeah. He was like, let's just, we should race. And whoever wins. And I was like, that's brilliant. You know, it was just like, he just thinks of those things immediately. Just compete. It's unbelievable. I got a question about your childhood. Okay. you're from situate massachusetts yeah so our producer hank also from situate massachusetts right on he didn't believe me i i was calling you situate michael all year and hank was like he's not from situate dude you are from situate yeah yeah i lived in situate for six years six years there you go so it's like you're on the mount rushmore of situate i think it's you ryan whitney and hank and hank yeah who else this is an honor yeah anyone else think Jim Walmore? Yeah, clearly. How did you forget him? I texted you, credit to Hank, after the Patriots lost Super Bowl to the Seahawks. He was like, another situate guy is just doing big things. So he had a nice spin zone on it. Yeah, sorry to do that to you. It's all right. You guys have enough, right? Yeah. Yeah, six is good. So you lived there until you were six and then you moved? Yeah, I went to Georgia. And then when did you decide that you were going to try to coach football? Oh, shoot. I mean, the first time I got, like, I sucked in high school, and then I ended up getting hurt. And so then my whole senior year, I basically coached the linebackers. I thought I invented power. Like, I would doodle, like, plays during class. And I, like, brought it to my, and, like, we were running this play, and I was playing fullback, and my job was to kick out the defensive end. And I just got, like, my ass kicked, like, all day, every day. Like, the guy would kick my ass. And I'm like, well, if we would just, like, pull the guard, they were like, we might have something here. And I brought it to my coach. I'm like, hey, look, like, what do you think? And he's looking at me like, you're an idiot. You know, just like, shut up and get away. So I was always interested in it. And then I did it when I was hurt my senior year. And then, again, like, my high school coach ended up taking a job in Athens, not, you know, not near Atlanta. And then it was like, man, I got to go for this. Did you play a lot of Madden? Oh, yeah. Did you get good at, like, clock management and time management? Yeah, NCAA was my favorite growing up. And then that game kind of, hmm. Yeah. Madden got better like, what, 10 years ago? Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything like specifically about video games that you can look at and see, like this really helped me in my progression coaching actual football? You know, it really is like problem solving. Like this guy won't be running this freaking play or he's got like a glitch play and it's just like pissing you off and you got to figure out a way to like stop it, you know? And so like that happens, shoot every play when you're calling plays, you know, You're always either attacking something or you're mitigating risk somehow or trying to protect somebody or attacking somebody. So it's always a reason on why you're calling it, but you're really playing off the guy that's calling plays across from you. So yeah, that definitely transfers. Was there a specific thing that the Rams – because your defense was so good all year and then you played these two Rams games at the end of the year. Yeah. We're still looking for answers too. Yeah, you won them, but they did have the most success that anyone had against your defense. Was there anything specific that they were doing that was like you just couldn't figure out or crack the code? I hate to say, like, I mean, it's just we got enough stops to win, but, like, we didn't play, like, up to our standard, and they played great football, and they had great game plans. So, like, a combination of, you know, I think they did some great stuff, IDing some things, how we operated operationally. that they're great at how they operate. And then Sean's great at having change-ups and compliments off of things. And then you've got the MVP with a great – I mean, the personnel they have, Puka making the plays he's making. It's just – those are some tough games, man. I mean, our guys played hard. The game we came back, we sucked in the first half. We played great in the second half. Ended up giving it a touchdown. We've had these back and forth with the Rams really for the last three years. Yeah. I feel like we're just going to keep evolving and like sharpen each other for the next, I don't know how many years we go at it. It's exciting. Two things in those two games, though, the punt return from Shahid and then the muff punt by the Rams in the playoff game. Yeah. It feels like you put a very big emphasis on special teams and other teams around the league maybe don't. Like, is that something that you're very deliberate about? Because it does feel like when we get in these playoff games, it's always like, oh, a special teams play can swing everything. Well, you know, another Harbaugh. Yeah. You know, Jay's our special teams coordinator. Right. And he's just – he's a lead at his job. And, I mean, all we know is how Jim and John, you know, they treat special teams. So, like, that's how we've been trained. And it does turn out it's a third of the game. Right. You know, it's like why would you treat that any differently? But don't tell anybody, you know. We'll keep playing great special teams and keep helping us win games. Yeah. Yeah. Is it important to you to keep calling plays on defense? Does it feel like that's something that you're ever going to give up as a coach? When I came into the opportunity, I told everybody, like, we'll call plays as long as we feel like it's best for the team. Ultimately, at one point, I've always thought, like, I would like to just coach, like, the whole team, you know. So we'll see. I mean, I think the timeline's a little different than we thought coming in. I thought it was going to be like a year or two before like we kind of moved in a different direction. But I think the thing that we have right now on our staff, like it's not just me like calling plays in the corner. It's like, you know, AD's hand on the front. We're marrying the front in the rush. You know, Carl's doing, you know, coverage adjustments with Jeff and KO and those guys. So it's kind of like this, like it's kind of this like organized chaos on the headset, like what we're going to next, how we're building things. so ultimately i'm the guy like saying the words but it's really like everybody's you know kind of coming together on on how we're gonna really progress throughout the game you know like if you call a third down and third down and five or third down and six it's like well do we're gonna come back with the same time next time or is there a compliment the next one like it's you gotta be thought out on and you gotta be ready because you know things happen and like if i tell a player if i tell the guys hey look the next third and six is going to be this call and they have like 10 minutes to think about it like they're going to execute that way better rather than just be like, oh, shit, whatever. In the spur of the moment, execution goes way down when that happens. I would say whatever you're doing right now is working pretty good. Yeah, I heard that you don't finish your play call sheet until like two hours before the game, which is very atypical. Most coaches are finishing it Friday or Saturday at the latest. Is that something you always have done, or is it just like you got thoughts going all the way up until kickoff? When I was in Baltimore, I'd finish it earlier, And so, but I would still like, you know, going through like different, I don't really know that situation as well as I should right now. I got to go, let me go like, like buzz that again, get ready to go or two, maybe it's two minute. But in the last two years, like you got so much stuff at like throughout the week as a head coach, like my process gets kicked back and I procrastinate like a, like a son of a gun with everything I do. So like, I just want to wait till the last second. And so we actually have a cool cadence now. Like after the 90-minute meeting, Carl comes in and AD comes in and we write down our final pass rush fronts. We write down what we're going to do in two minutes, and sometimes it's fourth down. Sometimes it's short yardage with CP. Yeah, we go all the way up there. So you really go up until the gun. You wait all the way. I mean, we know what's in. We're not installing anything, but organizing our thoughts on how we're going to go, yeah, in some of those critical situations. Was there a moment in the Super Bowl that – and I know there was a clip of you being like, I'm not celebrating until it's zeros. But was there a moment where you're like, I think we're better than them, like significantly? Because it felt like, especially early on with some of the blitzes, with some of the situations you're putting in, it's like if the Seahawks just take care of the ball, this is going to be very tough for the Patriots. We gave up some big leads in Baltimore. The first half of that first season I was coordinating. And so I learned very quickly, like, you got to keep your pedal, like the foot on the gas, stay aggressive, and like you're trying to go win the game. We're trying not to like not lose the game. Right. And so, you know, you're calculating possessions and time on like how you're going to handle the game, like game management wise. But like even after like Chenna's touchdown, I'm like, well, shit, that's pretty big lead. Like, that's kind of cool. Like, I think we might win, you know. And then they go right down the field and score. Like, well, shit, here we are. You're like, now we need another stop. So that's where their mind was. Just like, okay, what's next type of mentality? And then honestly, until like the last drive, because it was like, well, the last drive, they could just go score. Now they're on an onside kick to like tie the game. Right. And so really to the last play, I was like, oh, shit, now we're going to win. Yeah, you're going to win the Super Bowl. Do you have, I know it's hard, you know, after winning a Super Bowl to say you have any regrets from the season. But do you have any regrets from the season? And why is it that you didn't get the ball to Jake Bobo enough? How awesome is it they made the play? He's the man. We screwed that up. We're surprised. Yeah. What are you talking about? It's Bobo. I know. We really screwed that up. Yeah. We had him on the show of Super Bowl week, and he's the man. He's like, I need to play more. Yeah. No, we're trying to gas him up. We're like, you need to go in there and say, give me the ball. He should have done that. Maybe we would have won three more games. Yeah. I mean, he was very polite and reserved and gave all the credit to his coaching staff. We're like, dude, you got to be more of a wide receiver. To be honest, a real wide receiver, a diva, would be like, give me the ball, and Bobo doesn't do that enough. I mean, he had every right to. Yeah. He had every right to. Just feed Bobo, please. We got to have that. Just Jake Bobo. I know. That's probably the biggest regret. Good. Good. Was there anything that you had in the tank for the Super Bowl that you didn't get to use, like a trick play or a gadget play, but it was so much of a blowout that it wasn't necessary? No, it was actually funny. I mean, I remember on the sideline telling the guys in the headstands, I was like, guys, we're just about out of pressures. We pretty much called everything on the call sheet. We got things that are in every game and stuff, but I'm glad that we didn't need it later on in the game because we kind of fired all our bullets pretty early. Did you have one that was someone other than Sam Donald throwing a pass, like a wide receiver or anything? Yes. God damn it. Every Super Bowl I bet over two and a half players to have a pass attempt. And you just, yeah. Yeah, tough, tough. Yeah, I didn't get to that one. That's Clint's fault. You can blame him on Clint. Yeah, that is. That's good. Now he's the enemy. Yeah, right. Yeah, we should get after him. Make Clint as uncomfortable as possible. Is it true that good offense beats good defense? No. So what about perfect offense versus perfect defense? Is that possible? Is it true that there's no defense for the perfect pass? Dan Marino. Respectfully, no. Okay. So what is the defense for the perfect pass? Perfect defense. Okay. Is that possible? A guy who gets touche on the ball. Touche. Well played. Yeah, I love this. Just living in theoretical spaces. This is awesome. Just cliches about football that you've heard people say all the time. Yeah, I mean, yeah, great defense is going to beat great offense, right? I mean, defense wins championships. There's a lot of like – Is that true? Yeah. It is this year. Is it true? Yeah. I mean, I feel like there's a lot of like Super Bowls and big games in the past where I feel like if you were just like chalk up all the ones where like the great defense went against the great offense, I feel like the defense is probably one more. I'd agree. Yeah. Especially also what you are able to do is get pressure with four. You don't like blitzing. I love blitzing. But you don't do it often. I love blitzing when it's going to work. Yeah. Yeah. Why blitz if it's not going to work? That's a good point. How are you able to – is there something you do specifically to time up the quarterback's snap count and everything? Because you were – How dare you suggest that? No, I'm just saying like studying tape and stuff because, like I said, in the Super Bowl, Witherspoon was – he was just shot out of a cannon multiple times where he just had it perfectly. This is a shout-out to the 12s. It's way easier to do that when they're on silent cadence. If they're on verbal, they can go on anything they want. their verbal cadence is to the point where like they can bring it down like really low and still adjust protections and stuff but when you're on silent your operation's pretty much locked in at a certain point and um spoon's got a great feel for that so yeah shout out to the 12 the 12s were yeah i i know it was really incredible wasn't it it was it was one of those things where we were watching because the last time the seahawks were in the playoffs was during covid at home yeah and And when the opening kick gets returned back to the 49ers, we're like, oh, fuck. Like, this game is over. We forgot about the 12s. Like, we forgot how crazy this is. Yeah. And you could really feel it when teams were playing there in the playoffs. Well, it sucked last year because we couldn't win at home. Right. And in our first year, I'm like, gosh, you know. But the place was still rocking. But, like, it wasn't. You could tell, like, there's another level to, like, where it could go. And so we finally made it come to life this year, man. And it was freaking awesome. The playoff atmosphere was insane. Yeah, we brought that up actually a few times. You were kind of an anomaly where you were like insane on the road to start your career. Yeah. What was that? I don't know. It was crazy because it was like you had Seattle. Yeah, and it was like Mike McDonald just doesn't lose on the road. Yeah, we just love losing at home. Yeah, it was great just to keep it close. I don't know. Like defensively, it is harder to play at home, believe it or not. Yeah, I was going to ask, is the noise level a factor? Because obviously it disrupts the offense, right? Yeah, we've had to adjust how we operate on a certain level and what we can call and things like that. But it turns out how you play is way more important than being in a sweet call. So we learned that one the hard way. Do you have anything in mind for – because winning a Super Bowl is very, very hard. Repeating is even harder. Not a lot of teams have done it. I saw a lot of your messaging this year was how much you love the guys. Have you thought about how you're going to change it up? Just like maybe OTAs, you show up and you're like, I hate you guys. like just switch it on them yeah just keep them on their toes or like the we don't care like maybe this year maybe this year it's like we're going to read every comment yeah guys we're going to care we're going to care too much what's the Seattle Seahawks Reddit saying about us like you pull that up maybe that's what you should say that's a great source material and it's like never going to run out so I'll always have a team meeting ready to go we care too much what do you think about the nickname the dark side do you like that nickname i do i think it's pretty cool who came up with that i'm pretty i'm pretty sure i'm pretty sure leo came up with it right leonard i'm not sure i wasn't sure if it was like born from the team or if it was born from like a writer i'm pretty sure i'm pretty sure leo and the guys came up with it i feel like it's a it's a very menacing nickname it's very when it goes when it goes well yeah if it doesn't go well it does the dark side's really easy to to like point out and be like oh the dark side all right here's the first thing on the seattle Seahawks read it right now. Perfect. It's don't talk about my QB. Oh, that's good. And just Sam Darnold with his some good stats about Sam Darnold. So you're locked in. People are very happy. There's a graphic that somebody made that makes it look like you guys are Star Wars and you're the Super Bowl champions. This is actually rat poison. This is like too good. The stuff that they're saying about you right now. Yeah. How does that work? Do we need to like struggle for maybe Yeah. You know. Oh, here's some adversity. Yeah. Get some adversity. Then get them talking shit and then we can care more yeah that's exactly what you got it sounds like it sounds like a winning strategy oh here's a good one uh have you ever seen this meme before it's like a timeline of a game right and at the start says oh boy am i excited to watch my favorite team play and then right in the middle it says i'm going to kill reek woolen and then it says nice we won um no i haven't seen that one shut out reek that was a pretty crazy moment in that rams game huh but i i said like i don't know what you're talking about all right i thought it was really good that he like the team was able to bounce back from that moment yeah after what could have just been like a disaster yeah i totally agree well one i was the one that probably had to come back to back to earth i was pretty upset but i actually i watched it actually on the tv copy on like the um it's because it's like interspice on the on the system so it really wasn't that bad of a penalty like i thought like in real time i thought it was way worse. Now he shouldn't have gone over there, but I like, I don't know. I've seen worse. Yeah. You know, not the best decision, but. Yeah. I think in that moment it would have been really easy to just crumble, to like mentally fall apart. Yeah. After you go from fourth down. And I screwed him up on the next play. I put him in one-on-one and that was dumb. I shouldn't have done that. Yeah. Alright, so here's another one from the Seahawks Reddit. Radicus9, this was after your first year. Someone posted just saying what is everyone's thoughts on Mike McDonald after the first year. Radicus9 said He said, he's okay, had some huge things work in his favor, and was unable to take advantage of them. A considerable regression is likely next season. Whoops. That guy was wrong. I love that. Yeah. I love that. What do you think? Is he like, you think he's like, hey, you know, I screwed that up? I don't know what he's screwed at. He's like sticking to his guns. We need to hear from Radicus and I and be like, dude, you said a regression's happening. He's like, year two, like lucky Super Bowl, year three, he's screwed. Yeah, and then this was Crypto Klepto said he's done a good job, not bad, but also not great. He's into crypto, so he knows what's going on. Yeah, so maybe this is the new thing. You care too much. You just, instead of studying film, you just read the comments. Here's an anonymous quote from me. Yeah, that's brilliant. Anonymous player, I'd like to be traded away from Seattle. I'd prefer to be dealt to a contending team. That was from before last offseason. That was on Reddit? Anonymous player said that. Oh, no, that's a report from Adam Schefter about DK Metcalf. My mistake. My mistake. what is it like though when you when you go back with the guys this year is there a plan to change things at all or is it like hey it worked because you got to keep it fresh but you also you had an incredible season you won the super bowl i think i mean you always have to evolve right i mean so how we do our off-season program is going to be a little i have some ideas on how we're going to do it but you know we have a shorter off-season window so how do we like maximize the time away but also get the biggest bang for our buck during those eight to ten weeks. So we say methods and principles. So principles, how we work, how we compete, great spirit. We get after it, take care of all that stuff. That's not going to change. But what we do in the building, how long we're there, what exercises we do, how we do the install, all that stuff will change up. How we build our systems offensively, we have a new coordinator, so it's important for the guys to be there and get back to work. but it'll look different than last offseason for sure. What's the conditioning drill that you do? Because I heard you kick the shit out of everyone. Well, I was a little disappointed. The guys don't want to do it. I'm like, no duh. That's conditioning. Yeah. This is not the time. You can't care now. Right. We're off that changeup. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to do the reason there's conditioning tests is so you're in shape to go to training camp, so you stay healthy, and your team's in shape, so you can practice. So what is the test? What's the test? Yeah. It's six 150s at a certain 25 yards and back three times. Is that 150? Whatever that is. 25 yards and back. You're the nerd. We're not the numbers guys. Clearly not. So it's 50 times six? No, 25 times six is 150. Oh, 50 times three. 50 times three, 150. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah, you got it. You just said a bunch of numbers. And you got to do it like in a certain amount of time based on your position. and like a certain amount of rest. That's not that hard. You're confused why guys – Thank you. Yeah, I used to do it when Trestman was the Bears coach. Every year I would try out for the team by doing the conditioning test passed every year. That's elite. Yeah, no big deal. I did pass it like the nose tackle position. Players love hearing that. When Albert Hainsworth, he like tried and failed 11 times, I think, for Washington. I got drunk. I drank a Mad Dog, and then I went out, I did the test, and passed it. the lineman test like yeah is way easier now it's like a joke yeah it's only the skill guys but the lineman ones is a joke you're confused why people don't like doing the test well i know why they don't like it but like now's not the time to like lower your standard it's a good point you know it's like oh we won so now you don't want to do what it takes to win yeah that doesn't make any sense what's your number one uh combine question you ask a guy do you like a ping pong balls in this in a triple seven or anything like that no i'm not weird i just i don't really say much i don't really ask much honestly yeah you kind of get a feel for like where the guy it kind of depends on like what you feel like where the guy's coming from i don't know anybody that goes in those meetings and says like okay i'm gonna get this guy pinned of like i know i asked the perfect question like dude you're an idiot yeah yeah and that's like completely disrespectful to scouts it was spent like three to four years like following this guy's every move right now here we are for 20 minutes like yeah look i i got him you know i asked him three questions i cracked the case yeah i cracked the code guys yeah this you know has there been one guy that you've you've talked to that has either like confirmed something that you liked about him already and you're like yeah i really i'm now more convinced than ever because i got to meet him in person that i wanted well full disclosure i haven't watched like any of these guys on tape yet so this is like my first exposure to him a couple of them are guys that i started you know recruiting when i was at michigan because I was a terrible recruiter, but they were on the recruiting list. So I watched them in high school and stuff. So it's cool that it's kind of come full circle and now they're entering the draft. I remember that guy. I think I was sweet in high school. Yeah. Wait, why were you a terrible recruiter? I'm just awkward and just wanted... Oh, I actually had a question about that. There was an article I read. Did you know you have an awkward pause before you answered things? I don't think... I haven't noticed it in the interview, but there was a whole article about Mike McDonald's awkward pause. um i did i was aware that i did pause but i didn't do it on purpose right yeah yeah people said that it was you just like downloading information and coming up with a perfect response i mean that's probably what i was trying to do yeah yeah yeah it sounds like somebody wrote an article being like mike mcdonald thinks before he talks is this a red flag yeah maybe i'm thinking maybe i'm caring too much maybe that's the thing i gotta like care less yeah yeah i mean if they wrote that our same article about us they'd be like these guys say some dumb shit without thinking They talk too fast. Yeah. Yeah. It's way worse. Okay. Appreciate it. It's way worse to be us. You sound like a normal person when you talk. Right. Thank you. Yeah. Are you such a preparation freak that you prepared the Gatorade bath? Because it got you perfectly. I was actually, I was just like fired up there was going to be one. Yeah. Because the game ended and I'm like, wait, like there's no. Where's my Gatorade? Is there going to be a Gatorade bath, you know? And then it was like coming straight at me. So I was like, well, you just embrace it and just jump into it, you know? Yeah. I did, like, screw my ear. I got ear infection, like, a week later. Really? You got swimmer's ear from the Gatorade bath? Like, I sound funky right now. Like, I'm still dealing with it. It's like, yeah, but I had an ear infection. Like, I was hurting for a minute, yeah. That's crazy. Totally worth it. Totally worth it. I thought it was your fullback that got you, right? It was Patio and Brady Russell, yeah. Yeah, the sin of the fullback with the mullet out as a captain was a power move. You did that just to. That was on purpose. To intimidate, right? Yeah. You need to use that story, by the way, next training camp. Be like, hey, if you guys are injured, if you're hurt, just know I got an ear infection from the Gatorade bath, and I still went to the party. Yeah, I had a great time. I didn't bitch on a podcast or anything. Yeah, you didn't complain. No. If you have to do it over again, is it worth it to win the Super Bowl to get an ear infection? I don't know. I just don't know if we want to. How bad are we talking ear infection? Was the flight uncomfortable for you? yeah this is something i'm gonna deal the rest of my life this is this is like this is permanent battle scars yeah that's right we i have one last question about the super bowl two weeks off going into the super bowl were you going a little crazy being like i just want to play because i'm i'm thinking about all the things i want to draw up like is there a moment where you're like i'm actually overthinking this oh totally well that's me all the time yeah yeah well you know you like you you ask coaches that have been in the super bowl hey what's the best way to do it there's like different philosophies behind it and i think like again being a procrastinator it's like and we want to keep the guys like mentally into it the whole time so if you're like hey let's do a full full game plan the first week and then we'll rinse repeat that next week like it gets old for the guys and like you don't come up with the best ideas you're under the gun so we kind of kind of like ramped into the second week had like a base foundation of what we felt like we were strongly what we wanted to do and then like we really kind of dialed it in the second week and And it added a sense of urgency behind what we were doing. That Tuesday before the Tuesday that guys had off when we were in California, that was a long day. And we were just sitting there. I'm like, hey, well, what about this? And our staff's like, dude, we're good. Just do that. We're going to be fine. We can play those plays in this defense. I'm like, yeah, but I don't know. But that's how we work together. I bring up all the problems, and they calm me down. Yeah. Did you think at any point during the Super Bowl that like, what have I done? We might have a kicker as MVP. I actually, I, so the game ended and I didn't know. So the game ended. Okay. You do the awkward stare at the sky thing and then you're walking towards the stage. And then there, I think it was Dave was with me. He's like, oh yeah, by the way, Kim Walker's MVP. I was like, oh yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sweet. He was awesome. That's good. Yeah, great. But there was a moment watching at home where we were like, we might have a kicker. It might be a kicker. That'd be kind of, I mean, that's, if you win, it's all good, right? That's true. Yeah. It's totally worth winning the Super Bowl again. Ear infection. At what cost to have a kicker be the face of the league? Ear infection, kicker's the MVP. I don't know if he's even prepared for this, but we have a guy that he played high-level college football. He was a center. He's not prepared for this. I wonder who it is. I want you to scout him. Mike Cady. So he was on the Hoosiers. So he's a legitimately good center. You want to just give him a set and you can judge? We're at the combine right now. Yeah, we might as well. This is a job interview, Mike. I played center. I also played both guards. Okay, we got a ball here. Oh, yeah, give him a ball. Give him a ball, Max. Max, you be quarterback. I played with AJ for three years. It's a sniff right there. Here we go. Let's see what you got. What do you got, Katie? So, can I ask what defense you're in? Running? Yeah, let's say there's like a shade right to your left and a five technique on the snap. They're going to run like a – T? Like a – yeah, T. All right, so we're sliding left. Yeah. All right. Let's go 48 to the mic. Hey, Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie. I want to bring pressure over here really bad. Oh, should we – wait, so then you have to check. Hey, flip, flip, flip. Check. Hey, right. Hey, Roger, Roger. Roger, Roger. Green 80. Green 80. Check. Oh, he blocked the whole team. Yeah. That was good. He got the whole team. Yeah. No warm-up. Yeah. Thank you, Coach. And that's just called, like, ligaments intact. Yeah. Yeah. Right meniscus lateral after the 2021 season. Didn't miss any games. Is that as bad as an ear infection or is that? It's probably, you know. So I bet your ear infection is probably worse. But, yeah. Yeah, it's impressive. Oh, cool. It's just straight cold, too. Yeah. Re-ID the protection the whole night. I'll tell you what, we didn't tie it up very well. Yeah. Yeah, it was bad. Really nervous. Spoon wasn't playing. It's interesting seeing how a defensive coach approaches that as opposed to an offensive coach because we had – so we worked with John Gruden. And the first time he met Kadic, he came in the office, and Kadic was like, yeah, I was a center at Indiana. And Gruden just goes immediately, all right, get down your three-point stance. and just goes up, puts his hand in his butt. I feel like Jim would have done something like that. Yeah, I tell the story, but we were at Chargers camp. Might have been two years ago. My third child was just born, and he asked how the kids were, and I showed him a picture of my youngest, and he was, I think, six months old at the time. And Coach Harbaugh just goes, he's got a great skull for football. I was like, he's six months, dude. That's an all-time line. yeah that's just how does he think like he would say he says things i'm like how does he think that fast he's just always thinking i'm pausing trying to think of it he's just like banging it out are you going to get any residuals for when the team gets sold because you increase the value so much but when it's i feel like that's worth at least 20 million dollars right like it break you off the top if we could just like keep me in my job that would be worth it yeah you know it'd suck if they just said like, hey, we're going to change everybody. I think you're good. I think they'll probably stay with what works. Give us a chance at least, you know. Yeah, that's a weird circumstance. I assume you have absolutely zero to do with, like no control over what happens. But it's going to be in the background for the next like six months or a year or however long. Yeah, it is going on. It doesn't really like affect us. I mean, just what we do like day to day, you know. I mean, there's going to be some sort of transition period at some point. it's probably gonna happen maybe during the season if it does just kind of like whatever we'll just keep rolling yeah what's the most uh important position for you on defense that you were like i need this to run my defense just give us great players man we'll make it okay the life what the d line i mean the d line playing as well as they did just kind of unlocks everything yeah but it feels like too that you if you have a really good safety like you had kyle hamilton and then you know in seattle like having having a safety who can can do everything like gives you the ability to just call everything and nowadays like you know they they're trying to teams are trying to like manipulate you and like your structures that you're in based on who's on the field and are you single high too high man's all that stuff so it's our philosophy is like well let's just let's give you one input you know and then just make you operate to like without having like cheat codes and nick allows us to do that you know yeah we can stay in the same people and pretty much get to anything we need to get to which is like kind of rare yeah yeah is there a game from this season that you can look back on say this this forced us to make a change in a meaningful way yeah tampa okay yeah what happened there uh nick didn't start that game and he balled out he played really well but like again that was one of those like game plans were like this is dumb like i put these guys in like this situation this situation this situation we sucked at it like we had a terrible friday practice and i'm like no well no wonder we had a bad practice like we had done we had it was just a bad game plan you know it's like hey trust your players a little bit more you know like let's be a little bit more cleaner throughout the week and then and then the players i think they understood like hey look we need to like the standard of how we practice every day does matter you know we got to bring it even on a Friday and so like together we're like okay let's kind of strip this thing down a little bit we found our identity here like we found like our sweet spot let's just like hammer that home you know and get really great at that and after that I thought I thought we played pretty great defense the rest of the year yeah the um the game against the Colts did you tell your guys like hey don't like kill Phil Rivers they had a great game plan he was he was throwing it so fast he was getting the ball out yeah they had a great game plan I mean like they definitely operated differently than they had in all the other groups, which for a guy like me, it's hard to be like, I need tape. I need to go off of something to build a game plan. It's hard for me to be like, hey, we're just going to run our stuff and let's go. So not knowing how they're going to operate with him was a challenge. And then he came in and he was doing it like old school Phil River style. I mean, he's IDing stuff and talking shit if they scored a touchdown. It was actually kind of cool. Yeah. As much as you hate giving up a touchdown, I was like, I've seen that guy before. Yeah. Did he yell something at you? no but he has done that in the past when i've been on that not to me personally but i want to be on the sideline like we're in a we're in a um we actually like got him to re-id the protection when i was in baltimore brought an extra guy away from the slide kind of like we just did with the over here he saw it like drifted away knew we were in a certain coverage through the post and just talked and he was like deuce you know he's like ha ha you're in deuce and it's like He knew exactly the coverage, yelling at us right down the sideline. I was like, man, what a savage. The guy's awesome. Yeah, who'd you have running scout team Phillip Rivers? Jalen Milrow would have been a tough comp that week. Jalen Milrow, but he has to only hop on one leg. Yeah, it's like a one-legged J. Mill back there. He can't move, you know. Put him in like a knee brace or something. Yeah, yeah. Leg brace. Well, this has been awesome. I have one last question for you. It's a rowback question, RHOBACK.com, promo code TAKE. Q-ZIPS, hoodies, joggers, shorts. PFT's wearing it right now. It looks great My last question is could you give us two barks He goes give me two bark There we go Give me two bark Hoo AJ Barner told me he like you got to ask for two barks We'll do it right in the middle of a team meeting. AJ will just start barking in the middle of a team meeting. And then I'll just like, oh, I probably need to do that now. So you bark back at him? Oh, yeah. Do you bark louder? No. Wait, so he yells, give me two barks? No, so that's Jay Reid's thing. Yeah. But then when AJ gets excited, he'll just bark. Start barking in the meeting. And then you, as a dog, have to respond to the barks. Yes. Now I understand why it's fun to go to work. The team is this organized chaos at a certain point. Once you put your guard, it's just like, whatever. Let's just do great work and have a good time. And let's roll. Yeah, bark at each other. And sometimes you have to bark until you move on. Like, okay, I barked back. Can we get back to the conversation? So when it started, did you know the story about how it started? No, give it to us. So Jay, what game was it? It was, I think it was San Francisco at their place. We were fired up, about to go out on the field initially. And Jay Reed's like, give me two barks with everybody that's about to go out. And nobody knew that that was coming. So I'm standing back there. I'm like, that was weird. And then so he yells it again. And then so by the fourth time he yells it, the guys start barking back. And then we're like, okay, that was really weird, man. Like, all right, whatever. So we took the field, and then we won the game. And he's like, wow, I was trying to think of something to, like, get the guys going. And it just came to my mind that we're dogs and we need to bark and whatever. And he said something at the end. And then, like, the guys just loved it. And so then that was the thing we do before games now. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. That's awesome. That was great. So. Give me two marks. Hoo-hoo. Are we allowed to do that or is that stolen valor? No, you guys are honorary. Honorary barkers. As a student at Georgia, did you ever bark at another man? Well, they're calling all the dogs. Yeah, unfortunately, I did some really dumb things while I was at Georgia. Luckily, it was not recorded. Oh, man. Well, Coach, congrats on everything. Awesome having you on. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks, guys. And now you're a recurring guest, so you have to come on anytime we ask. Love it. Football genius. Yeah. Football genius and Barker and dog and also ear infection survivor. Yeah, that's probably my most proud moment. Yeah, I mean, let's hope you don't take a turn for the worse here. Well, I would say survivor. We got to get you cleared medically. You're fighting. McDonald's strong. Just keep him going. As long as the Super Bowl's come, we'll do infections will keep going. Mike McDonald has retired after winning the Super Bowl because of an ear infection. Thanks, Coach. All right, guys. Thanks. Mike McDonald is brought to you by Venmo. You can get in the game with the college-branded Venmo debit card and earn up to 5% cash back at some of your favorite brands with Venmo Stash Rewards. You can add your Venmo debit card to your mobile wallet as soon as you sign up. Pay online and in-store right from your phone. And the best part, the card is tied right to your Venmo account. Got paid back for dinner? Well, you can immediately access the money in your Venmo balance, and you can spend it on what you want, game day snacks, tickets, new merch. You can easily split purchases in the app, and there's no monthly fee. There's no minimum balance. What would you spend your Venmo stash on? Think about it. 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Okay, boys. 10 years 10 years pardon my take uh pretty crazy so we talked about it on friday we figured out that we recorded our first episode ever on february 29th our first episode launched on march 2nd so march 1st does feel like our 10 year anniversary i wanted to start with it um appreciate everyone who tweeted had messages today it was really cool i always i struggle with this i don't know if you struggle with this too pft it's always um a little weird being like you know people uh glazing us or talking us in a certain way because it makes me feel a little uncomfortable but i've i've started to realize like you got to at least enjoy these moments like i don't like birthdays anymore i don't like anniversaries but you do have to have a step back and be like hey you know what this is really cool and it's awesome that it means this much to a lot of people but i thought the perfect uh description that I saw today when scrolling was um can't guard jake yeah I tweeted this one yeah 10 years of pmt to the day dumbest thing I've ever listened to complete garbage bunch of idiots who have no idea what they're talking about I haven't missed an episode five stars would recommend yeah that's it right it's perfect that's our legacy that's a great encapsulation I'm with you I'm with you I I never like if if we're on a list or if there's like a sports podcast award unless it's the time list um which i was really broken up about the tennis podcast kind of usurped us on i never give that any mention it makes you feel comfortable like if we're on a list of like you know the top five sports podcasts in the united states whatever that's great but i don't i never feel like any sort of emotion about being included in some like industry thing right but 10 years did make me stop and look back and think about it because it's 10 years of my life right and it's 10 years of what we've done all day, every day. And I got drunk yesterday. And when I went home from the bar, I actually wrote down something. I started to write a tweet out. Oh. And so I wrote the tweet. And then I just kept writing the tweet. And I was like, I'm not going to post this. I'm just going to save this and say it on part of my take out loud. I love that. And I just opened it up right now. I haven't read it. Again, I was hammered when I wrote this last time. Do you want Zach to read it? uh yeah zach do you want to read what can you please read it the hammered pft tweet from yes yeah i can read it if you'd like me to yeah i think it'd be good coming for you is yeah it's like out of body experience it's gonna be good that way i can have like plausible denial like i didn't say any of that no i i don't have emotions zach has emotions not me i'm a man Zach what email address PMT bachelor party Oh no PMT they did They put the nipple ring on you Oh yeah yeah no I retweeted that that's very funny Oh no For all the shit that we talked about Ryan Day You gotta know Oh man Alright so Zach I just sent you the tweet that I started to write last night But I did not finish I want you to read it Okay here we go Zach It's from Zach Cornelius If anything bad is said A lot can happen in 10 years. Since we started Pardon My Take, we've seen the death of dynasties, a bunch of Boston sports championships, one Chicago championship, one Philly title, two Washington titles, zero New York championships. 10 years ago, we were bloggers. Hank was thinking about quitting. I didn't have health care or face. In the last 10 years, I've seen Hank become a creative boss with amazing production and hiring instincts. All the success of Barstool since 2016 is a direct result of his growth. I've seen Big Cat grow into becoming a father and the most talented voice in all sports media and a college football national champion winning coach. Thank you. We've been through a lot together. Failed TV shows, the predatory sports media business trying their best to split us up or weaken us. But the one thing that kept us together was the realization that we've got a great thing. we're lucky enough to have built this from the ground up and we don't need egos to break it up collar daddy could learn a lot from us banger banger that was great we're the luckiest guys in the entire world and we got the best job in the entire world i get to work with my best friends at the best job yeah these guys have been there through starting this podcast to fail tv shows to two cross-country moves to family starting to some very tough times personally like the loss of my dad. So much has happened and the only way to make it worth through these 10 years of ups and downs is you better have good people in your corner. And I've had the best right here in this room. We owe so much to the guys and the girls who listen to this show who are always there for us. To the people who used to listen, we appreciate you. To the new listeners, we love you guys too. Lucky doesn't even begin to describe us. 10 years ago, we were hardworking shitheads with a commitment to consistent stupidity. And even though the show has changed, and I don't really see much of a change in what got us to this point, I'd be honored to do 10 more with you guys. Thanks for changing my life. Yeah. Oh, that was perfect, PFT. Thank you, Zach. Or Zach. Yeah, good job. Good thoughts, Zach. That was good, because then you didn't have to get sentimental. That way, I didn't cry. Yeah. But it's the truth. Everything you said there was perfect. I said it today. I was like, here's to 10 more and then probably 10 more after that because what the fuck else am I going to do? This is the best thing in the world. It's the best job ever. I always tell people that if I had told a guidance counselor when I was in college or high school what I wanted to do when I grow up, I would have said something very similar to what this job is right now. Yeah. And my counselor probably would have said, well, that's impossible because that job doesn't exist. Nobody will ever pay. Yeah, right. Much less what we've been able to do together and build. And it makes me sentimental thinking back over 10 years. 10 years is a big part of my life. I don't know about you guys. Longest job I've ever had by far. Yeah, by far. It's the only job I've ever had. I honestly want this to be the only job that I have for the rest of my life. And it's incredible that we get to do it every day. And I am the luckiest person on the planet for getting to work with you guys. The other, so I got two tattoos on Friday, and one was Vanny Woodhead, and the other is one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs, and the lyric is, grass ain't greener, wine ain't sweeter. And it kind of fit with Vanny Woodhead in the fact that this is a very difficult, and no one feels bad for it, difficult business in what you said in that message is there are people always trying to climb the ladder. There's people who are always trying to split people apart. Be like, oh, we can, you know, whispering in your ears saying, oh, you can get this. You can get that. Oh, why don't you do TV? This or that or the other. We realized a long time ago that there's nothing better than this. And it has been a blessing that we've all come to that conclusion on our own and as a group where it's like we got it. And to be able to comfortably sit in a seat and not want for anything else is such a blessing. And that's what the show has provided. And I think that's why we've done it for 10 years. And we're going to do it for 10 more years. And then 10 years after that. I look back at episode one. I was thinking about episode one last week. And then memes went back and listened to it. God bless you, memes, for getting through it. Oh, boy. Was it hard to get through? No, it was pretty much the same. Hank's audio was extremely low. Oh, okay. That's it. You're just like criticize Hank. Hank has always sucked. No, no, no, no, no, no. It was just his first episode. His audio was low. He forgot a tripod to the shoot you guys were going to in California. What was that shoot? I love that we're having this sentimental moment, and Max and Hank are literally in a blood war right now, just locked in. I don't. I can game. I saw the Celtics were playing the Sixers, and I was like, I don't care about this game, but now I do because I hate it. This is like when Diana said, oh, yeah, the people at the Athletics say, you know, be more like, pardon my take. We're like, why? This is why. We can't script any of this. We're having an actual moment, and it's 99-91 in a game that means absolutely nothing. It's just three minutes before I end again. memes told me that in the first episode there was one thing that that stood out we we promised to join a cult every week oh no is that true memes uh yeah i wrote it down list of things you guys said you were going to do uh one was monthly remote show from a different airport in america all right we've done a couple of those airport reviews yeah and cult week join a cult in the summer during july that one we could still do i think maybe what about in grit week well we created our own cult. Yeah. I mean, we haven't... It is kind of bad that we said we would join a cult. We haven't done Texas A&M. We haven't been to Clemson. And we haven't been to Penn State. Those are like the big three. We should do... But we should do cult week where it's just those three schools. Yeah. But it's pretty incredible. It really is like... I feel very blessed, again, not only for the success of this show, but being able to do it with people because you just look across any job any it's like being you know in a marriage it's the same thing where it's like our relationships are so deep and we spend so much time together to be able to get 10 years without having anything you know catastrophically break us up or cause a problem is a true blessing and that's to all you guys and everyone in this room i wrote this in the book uh yeah book out in august we're gonna get it we get into everything but i i have always like felt weird i i am the luckiest person in the world just the fact that i was involved with the show since the beginning and you guys are super humble and gracious that when you know you talk about the show you're like oh me pft or me big cat and you'd throw my name in there with you because it's like i was just happened to be the person that was producing and editing it in the beginning and i always get like a little awkward when people like combine the three of us because it's always been like it's it's your guy's show i feel very lucky to be here since the beginning uh but yeah i also hope I never I don't plan on ever having another job no the show also I think I'll just disappear if the show ends yeah and it's the guys in the booth too yeah and the guys who came in way too early to do the lottery ball them too it's everyone yeah and hey you you deserve to be mentioned in that yeah sure like the show would not be the same if it wasn't for you and I I did mean what I wrote when I was uh pretty hammered that like watching Hank grow from being like literally the guy that would show up to press record and then get it uploaded into like what you've become since that has been one of the really really cool things about doing this show i also think hank talking about um how we're so lucky that we've made it this far without having uh you know anything break us up you're a big part of that you guys in the booth are a big part of that if it was just me and pft doing the same show just the two of us and our only we it was only our two voices every single monday wednesday friday for 10 years it probably would have ended because that's just hard to do. Having the ensemble cast and having everyone be a part of it, it's why coming to work every day is the best because you just come in and you just bust each other's balls and have fun and some laughs. And this also goes for everyone. Jake, Billy, everyone, Bubba, all these guys who have been part of it. Chili, Lenny Dykstra, anyone who's been part of it at any point shares in this and it's pretty awesome. Pug. I miss Pug. Yeah, I miss all of them. yeah i do i miss all of them but yeah it's it's it's great and and thank you to everyone who's listened i mean we we know we i think that's the biggest message from all this 10 year stuff yeah uh is like we fully understand how lucky we are and we fully understand how awesome this whole experience is it is and we are going to ride it until we are the biggest old losers that everyone makes fun of yeah and parodies because we started parodying everyone else where we started eventually that will come for us well that's that's what it will be it will happen we'll just laugh with it kind of the beauty of the show is yeah we started off making fun of everybody else in the business and then what do you do when you become like one of the biggest in the business yeah that's how you got there that's when that's when you got to start putting your fucking name on cheesesteaks it is funny yeah if you if you ran down a list if you listen to like the first four months of the podcast the the advertisers that we had that oh my god they were probably all like offshore gambling companies i would guess the founders of all the companies that advertise with us are probably in prison right now shout out them though yeah they're important too and there was a uh yeah there was something that zach read off and i forgot why i put it in there but now i remember like the people that used to listen to the show because i did see a couple tweets from people being like i haven't listened as much recently and it's like yeah we we do hear that a lot from people that like as they get older you know you don't have enough time to yeah but it was i saw a couple i was like dude like can you let us have one one day but you don't have to point out but honestly respect to those guys because they were like i used to listen a lot i don't as much anymore because i've gotten older but i'm really fucking pumped for them yeah that's true it's like even there were people it's naturally you don't stay i don't listen to the same shows with the same frequency as i did 10 years ago like things change in your life you don't have enough time to listen to certain things but it's cool that we can part on good terms with the people that you yes like yeah we both went our separate ways amicably i just always laugh and like every now and then maybe late night yeah like you know thinking about it they're just like you know you know i'm gonna do you i just love when people i want to hear what max and hank are up to let's tap in oh shit they're watching a game and doing threes in their face, I'm out again. Yeah, now I realize why I broke up with you guys. I just laugh when people announce that they no longer listen like they're choosing a college. It's like, I just want to let all my fans out there know I'm no longer listening to this podcast. But you're right. I listen to podcasts going waves in and out. I mean, life changes. But hopefully they'll find their way back every now and then. I think we still- The show's still growing. That's the thing. The show's still free. The show is still free. The thing that I love the most is I know everyone will always pick, oh, here was my specific time that I thought was the best or that. I really do think it's different, but it's still so much fun that I think we keep hitting peaks that we've never hit before, and there's moments that I'm like, that was the funniest thing we've ever done. So it's like I think we still got it. I still want to keep going. Maybe we renew our vows. Yeah, I'm down. We get a podcast. We'll do it in Vegas. What if we renew our vows in Vegas? Just add it to the list. The Max Bachelor Party is getting a lot of hands. Mark Davis. Mark Davis renew our vows in Vegas. It's getting a little out of hands. In terms of people invited? No, if someday they're like, Big Cat lost all his money. Like, where did it start? Max Bachelor Party. I love my boy. I want to have fun with the boys. It's going to be a weekend. It's going to be a weekend. It's going to be a movie. I felt like when I was thinking about it earlier that I was 22 when the podcast started. I felt older than 22 at the time. Now, thinking back about how young 22 is, it seems way younger than I guess I felt. But I'm 32 now. You guys were 32 when this podcast started. 31. Thank you. 31, sorry. But I still feel way younger now than I felt like you guys were when the podcast started. That was just a long way of saying we've been old for a long ass time. No, just maturity. I think it feels like maturity. You guys were so old when we started the show. I'm asking if you guys feel the same way. Sorry. And now you're really old. I actually feel opposite. I feel like. Do you think I'm? I don't know. I guess. I think you're more mature for sure. Yeah. You're an adult now. Do you think I'm as mature now as you guys were when I started? I think maturity in this room is a sliding scale. We are truly the lost boys. Peter Pan. we're never going to grow up when people will say stuff like two 41 year old dudes talking about getting horny I'm like yeah that's we got to talk about tits on a show I'm in year 20 25 of my midlife crisis going strong I don't think I'm going to ever have a midlife crisis I think I'm just resigned to the fact that I'm always just going to have the humor of a 16 year old and I'm cool with that maybe a little older I'm like the semester after you join the frat and i get to haze all the pledges i've that's where my maturity yeah i've honestly felt like i've been 23 years old for the last uh like 17 years of my life yeah that's kind of where you stay and you do get like a little time capsule with pft every time he comes to work like that shirt i think is from 2016 this that's why i wore it today yeah it's a 2016 shirt That's incredible. And I still fit into it really well. No, it's tight in some places it wasn't tight before. That's the same. You wear shirts like that all the time. Yeah, no. The other thing about that shirt is different. PFT wears things that got sent to us for free in 2017. This is an official 2016 part. I have nothing but respect. Did anyone look at PFT's shirt and be like, that's an oddly fitting PFT shirt? Not at all. Wearing a shirt of the podcast that I'm on? No, I'm saying it didn't fit. You said it didn't fit. It fits good. It fits really good. What is the booth? Anything for the booth? Look at my body. You wear shirts. It doesn't look bad. Thank you. You're making this compliment sound like an insult. Hank made it seem like an insult. Three in your head. It is like I'm jealous of your wardrobe. As much as I give you shit for it, it's like... The confidence is liberating. And just like you hold on to things that like. He's close to saying the confidence to look like shit. No, it's like we get sent like cheap, like random things. I look really good. From like random colleges 10 years ago and like you'll just, you'll pop up. I'm like, I remember when that got sent in New York, maybe before we moved to New York. Respect. Anything for the booth? Was it? Yeah, I mean, it's different for us because I mean, obviously we've only been here for Well, I hope you guys know how important you guys are to the whole thing. I started to do a tweet, like a tweet thanking you guys. And then I, like midway through, I just deleted it. I was like, listen, we're men. We're not going to do feelings. I was like, this is lame. This is the most we'll ever do feelings. And then none of us are ever going to listen to this back. I started to do a sentimental thing. And then I deleted it. And I just put it on my Instagram story. I said, love my boys. I was like, that's how sentimental I feel comfortable being. I love that. But yeah, no, I appreciated this. is i've listened to this show since day one i remember listening to the first episode wow oh yeah uh it was it was my favorite show for forever it was the first podcast chris long i mean we also whatever i'm a historian of the show at this point that would actually have been really funny if you're like and then i i stopped listening like two years ago well i listen yeah i listen to chris long but then you guys went woke and had bomani on week two and i was like fuck these guys yeah i mean the my interview at Barstool was with Dave. The one thing that he like kept in the video was I was like, when I got into pod, got into doing production, it was because I listened to this show and was such a fan. And I was like, if Hank can do it, I can do it. And I said that to Dave. And that was like the one thing that Dave laughed at. He was like, that's a good, that's a good point. I wonder how many people that Hank is inspiring. So, yeah, I mean, it's a big, you know, volume flow. Yeah. Yeah. Visibility is important. Well, I mean, there was a point where I was like a junior in college. I was doing marketing. I was like, I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. And I switched to getting into production because I was like, what is something that I really want to do? And my mom asked me, like when I was transferring from Hofstra to Villanova, I was like, I want to get into. Like if I had any job in the world, it would be to work at part of my take, my favorite show. And then it's. Love that. We've been, you know, you guys have been doing this for 10 years. I feel like it's different because it's like I saw like a lot of AWLs that were like, oh, yeah. Like, I feel like I've this is like a 10 year anniversary as like a listener, too. So it's like interesting to be in like the halfway point of like, yeah, I've been there from the beginning. And now I've been in on the show for like four years. And it's the best show in the world. I appreciate we got we got the retweet finally from Dave Portnoy today. Oh, 10th anniversary. No, actually. No commentary, just retweet. Yeah, he did. That was awesome. Retweet on today's official 10-year anniversary part of my take. Do you think over under half an episode that Dave has listened to? Under. Way under. Way under. He's watched clips. Clips. Clips for sure. Is the extent of it. Yeah. Under. He was on episode. Yeah. He was, yeah. Yeah. What was I about to say? Oh, the Chris Long interview, you guys were like, we want to do playoff music. Yeah. And I took the soundtrack from Air Bud, the movie. That's just a fun fact. That's a fun historical fact. This is why I love this show. It was never. You're like, we need Oscars music. And I was like, how about the Air Bud soundtrack? Now podcasts come out and they're already fully polished, have great studios and a bunch of of people behind it. You can't replicate what the show has been because we're so stupid. And when we started, we were so dumb. And man, has it been fun. Memes, you got anything? I mean, you were a super fan. I also had a sentimental tweet right now, but I deleted it. I love that we all did that. Why would I ever say anything positive ever? You turned baby face yeah uh but i was thinking last night i was like i don't even know how i lasted this long and it's been like five years at this point i didn't even own a laptop when i first started working here i was just doing everything off my phone uh listening at home i don't know if it's it's definitely not legal actually but but memes was really good at he was like doing basically what he's doing now for free and i remember dming him and i was like how old are you because i was Like, if this guy is, like, 40 or something, like, it's not, like, we're not offering an internship. Not cool. I think that's also very illegal. Yeah. No. I said that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He said memes, are you pregnant? Yeah. Yeah. Because I was just like, oh, this guy's great, but if he's, like, a 50-year-old, that's going to be awkward. Memes also admitted something to me recently that he never had social media, like, at all before he started the meme account, which I don't even understand how that's possible. because I feel like you know everything on the internet. Yeah, if you go to my personal accounts, I have no photos on Instagram. I'm just living. Yeah, but you had them. You're just living. I was just living. And then the internet trapped you. And then COVID happened. Yeah. Zach, what does 10 years mean to you? Did you listen to any episodes before? I would listen, yes, for sure. Oh, really? I've obviously been here for five minutes. So like... Well said. but but i do want to say happy anniversary guys 10 years that's awesome you're part of it okay i bet boston's gonna have a 10-year anniversary like next week yeah by accident they're not gonna realize it so dumb just be like oh yeah it's our 10-year anniversary how many episodes do you think we've actually done oh 500 can i use my calculator no no okay well yeah yeah i guess i mean that'll be easy well no it'd be like 150 i would say 1500 i think i don't actually know the answer well it's like 150 a year right so 52 150 160 a year no less than that i think three a week three oh yeah yeah you're right two weeks yeah yeah so 150 a year for 10 years so 1500 yeah it's a lot of a lot of podcasting and i think about it all the time oh yeah think about it all the time my kids someday finding us and just being like what yeah that i mean i'm not even close to that but that there's some people i think they'll laugh my digital footprint is horrifying there's some people that started listening to us when they were probably in like ninth grade yeah they went through high school went through college they're probably married now dude we're at a point it's so crazy i uh my my kid's school like you know friends with some of the the other parents and and one of the parents uh told me that his fifth grader like what he wants to be when he grows up as a podcaster i was like what they're like well bring him to the office well i'll show him around but like think about that as a fifth grade like that was not even an option we said it wasn't even an option when we were 22 no that it was an option to do something like this no he's gonna be in He's probably going to be the one who's going to parody us eventually. Good luck. Yeah. It's tough to parody stuff that's this stupid. You'd never know which way we're zagging. Yeah. We're going to say these guys don't watch sports, and then they're going to spend an entire episode watching a Celtics-Sixers game and interrupting everything they do. Three said. Ball game. All right. We got to get David Wallace back on. Yeah, we do. We also got to get Lenny Dykstra back on. Yeah. No, not actually. People are always like, I wish they still called Lenny. He's like, eh. No. When he showed up to the office and he was strapped. Yeah. He got caught by a fake Dave. It was so funny when he showed up. He just walked into our office. With a gun. And he was like, yeah, Dave told me to come here. And we pulled up the account and had 17 followers. It was dual Presidente with a Z. Okay. Good show, boys. there's enough self-suck thank you to everyone who who wrote really nice messages they were awesome very very cool day never thought we'd get here and we're not we're not ever i don't think we ever celebrated any of the anniversaries up until this one no 10 just feels so you won't don't worry about us we're not going to do this every year it's be next next one that happens is 20 i think 25. 25? All right, fine. 25. Anniversaries are like birthdays. You get your decades. Okay, so 20. 25 means a lot. Also, the first episode did come on March 3rd, so I think we'll have to do it on Tuesday as well. Okay, all right, good. This is part one of the self-suck. Nah, March 2nd. Just the tip. March 2nd. We'll go full throat on Wednesday. Yeah. No, just March 2nd. I do hate the constant anniversary people. Yeah, I don't like that either. Online. So we did one for 10. We're going to write a book. We're going to do a live show. And then for 20, we'll do a porn. We'll do a porn together. If we make it to 20, put that on the list with the cult. If we make it to 20, we will do a porn. Softcore? Nine-way gangbang. Softcore? Of Zach. Okay. Okie cookie. Oh, okie cookie. You'd rather do a porn? Oh, numbers, numbers. 23. Six. 48, 3, 56, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 3, 3, 7, 7, 7, 7, 3, 10, 3, 82, 86. You need someone to get there. 42. Should we do one more? Yeah. Let's do 10. Try to get someone on the board. Everyone say your number again. 40, 56, 3, 14, 48, 10, 48, 23, 21, 71. 18 18 Jake got it One more Last one I would like the Jets to make the playoffs One time while I'm on the show This is a wish cast I just want to say I'm sorry I included the zero For the 20th anniversary The Jets will make the playoffs That's so far away That actually might be what breaks up this show If the Jets win a Super Bowl It means you're so mean to all of them They'll make the playing game DJ Emco Just fucking killing people I mean that's fast 79 You see what he did to the fan 79 He kicked a fan in the face He kicked an old woman in the face He kicked an old woman in the face 79. Happy birthday to part of my take. Also, happy birthday to Sebastian Janikowski and Big Ben. And Tua. That felt mean throwing Tua like that. And Tua. And Tua, I guess. Love you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.