Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, we have our good friend. I can say good friend now because he's been on twice. Coach Tom Izzo Michigan State Huge win on Sunday. Little controversy. Also won the Big Ten title outright regular season. So awesome talking to him. It is March. It is Tom Izzo. We also are going to talk some NFL free agency which is about to open. But we had some huge moves happen over the weekend that we're going to break down. Talk a little college ball, a little NBA who's Back of the week. And we have a Monday reading. So let's get to all of it. It's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season. You are with the all new way to get in on the action. DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. DraftKings is the home of NBA player props, so you can get behind your favorite players any which way. From monster slams to dishing the rock to cleaning the glass, it's super easy for first timers to get started.

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Barn at my tape.

Yeah, Barn at my tape. Welcome to part in my take presented by DraftKings. Take to the rack with DraftKings Sportsbook. Every point counts. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. For new customers. Get 150 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, March 10th. And oh boy, do we have sports. We got a lot of sports.

It's all happening right now.

It's all happening.

It's the start of the legal tampering window.

We got, we got NFL news, we've got conference champions, championship week. We've got NBA drama both on and off the court. We have sports, a lot of sports. Let's start with NFL because it is the official league. The, the. The tampering window has opened. Even though there's been a ton of deals.

Well, it's interesting because there's a lot of, a lot of guys that are deciding not to test the free agent market.

Correct.

And resigning with their teams that they were going to be leaving. But they're doing that before they were legally allowed to be tampered with.

Correct.

Which is very interesting just to point out.

That is so. Yeah. Let's start, let's start with the NFL. The biggest story I would say is Miles Garrett is staying put. So Miles Garrett, who said. Who, who mockingly said because. Because his GM Andrew Barry was quoted saying the goal was never to or sorry. He said that we envisioned him going from Cleveland to Canton when his career is over. Talking about Miles Garrett wanting to keep him as a Brown and then Miles Garrett a couple of days after that said the goal was never to go from Cleveland to Canton. It has always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl. He wanted to go to a championship contender. And then there was a material change to the tune of $123 million guaranteed four year deal averaging 40 million a year. Everybody's got a price.

I think they, the Browns just show that they are committed to winning. Yeah, the Browns football organization is one that is. They're putting their best foot forward trying to deliver championship. And Miles Garrett said, you know what? Now I believe you. I think that we're actually going to do it. And step number one towards committing to a championship is to pay Miles Garrett a shitload of money.

$123 million guaranteed. That is a lot of money. It is the largest contract for a non quarterback. It just. Listen, we always knew it was always about the price, but this is a good reminder. It's always about the price. It doesn't matter. Anyone could say anything. The money talks. And I think Pete Prisco always says that. Money over everything, it does not matter. And the money talked here I do. So he'd signed this contract on Sunday. Max Crosby had the largest non quarterback deal that he signed earlier last week, which was 103 or, sorry, 101.5 million guaranteed. Three year, 106.5 million. I think there should be a new rule that if you sign the biggest contract, whether it be the biggest quarterback contract, the biggest non quarterback contract, you should get seven days to wear the crown. Myles Garrett should have had to wait.

Seven days to take that crown away.

Max Crosby should have had seven days where he was like, yeah, I had the, I had the largest contract non quarterback contract ever. And then Miles Gary, it was too quick.

It's like in the. Was that the AFC championship or was that in a regular season game where the Bills kicker and the Chiefs kicker went back and forth breaking each other's records?

Right.

Longest field goal.

Give it some breathing.

15 minutes. Yeah, it would be nice. I mean, Max Crosby at one point was the highest non quarterback for about four days. For about four days. And then Miles Garrett took that from him. And miles Garrett is. LeBron could learn a lot from Al Garrett about how to stay loyal to Cleveland. Yeah, like he decided he, he wanted to check the market out there, maybe go to a warmer climate, build a super team. And then he said, you know what? I'm not going to break those kids hearts in Cleveland because they mean something.

I want to be here for the city of Cleveland. The losers in all of, I would say are the Dallas Cowboys, the Cincinnati Bengals, or anyone who's trying to trade for an edge rusher and has to pay them because the price has gone up.

Yeah, Michael Parsons is now going to take that crown.

Trey Hendrickson, Jamar Chase, all these guys, the price just keeps going up and up and up. And it does feel like more than ever, the better move is to just get the deal done earlier than later. And because the price is just always. When you have a guy like this and you can put Micah Parsons in that group and Trey Hendrickson and Jamar Chase, like I said, the price is always going to go up. The cap has gone up significantly. The price is going to keep going up. And so those, those teams are looking around being like, fuck, we just screwed this because now we have to pay a lot more money.

I did think that Miles Garrett was going to try to either sit out or force the trade. I didn't think that he was going to come back.

I thought it was always going to be the money.

I was, I was surprised when they announced that he' staying this morning.

Yeah. Because that also Max is probably in the same boat you guys had. You had thoughts Of. Of. Of Miles Garrett wearing your team's uniform.

Max and I are both losers in this one, too. Although you can make the argument that we're both winners in this one, because part of the reason why we each wanted him was to keep him away from the other team.

True. Yeah, I was. No, I had no problem with that news. Yeah.

So congrats on winning this deal.

But if you want to trade for Trey Hendrickson, you got to pay him a lot of money.

Now you're gonna have to pay.

You have to pay him a lot.

Of money for sure, but you won't have to give anything up in terms of the trade. So that's kind of nice.

Yes, that's true. And then Josh also is going to get. Yeah.

Yes.

And T. Higgins and all of them.

Josh Allen just broke Desean Watson's record for most guaranteed money. 250 million guaranteed. The total, I think, was like 330 million on six years, but it's. I think it's five years fully guaranteed. 250 million guaranteed. Biggest guaranteed total given to an NFL player ever. Josh still has not paid us from his second contract that he got, so he owes us 10% of 250 million guarantee with interest. 25 million dollars guaranteed to part of my take.

That's a lot of getting excited about Josh Allen. You can buy.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is a lot.

But this is. The Bills did it, right? Because the Bills. Josh Allen, I still. I think per year, Dak Prescott is still getting paid more than Josh Allen. But Josh Allen, this was a correction to the fact that, like, hey, he was still under contract for what, four years or something. It wasn't like they needed to give him a new contract. They probably moved some money around, did do the cap shit that everyone. No one understands, but they're like, let's get this done now, money in hand. And he didn't have to. He didn't. You didn't have to pay him more than Dak Prescott per year.

And also, thank you to the Bills for doing that. Just that we can keep saying, like, Dak Prescott actually is the highest paid player in the NFL. Because that's funny to say.

Right? And we also. We threw around the idea, and this is a loose idea. We're not going to actually enact it, but if awls want to enact it and maybe tweeted them, we thought maybe we would throw out there that we're going to stop doing the podcast if Josh Allen doesn't pay us the 10% that he said he would pay Us.

Yeah. Because otherwise we're looking like schmucks here.

Right. So if people want to tweet him and just be like, hey, you're the fate of pardon my take is in Josh Allen's hands, which are very big hands, by the way. That'd be fine. Yeah, that's totally fine. I'm not gonna tell people what to do.

I'm willing to say that we won't put out a podcast. I'm not willing to not put out the podcast, but I'm willing to say we say that publicly. We will cease.

So that those are big news.

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We had Geno Smith getting traded to the Raiders.

Yeah.

So Geno Smith gets traded to the Raiders for a third round pick, reunited with Pete Carroll. Felt like the. The. I mean, we knew this from when they gave Geno Smith that new contract a couple of years ago. And it was basically, you know, this is the season where everyone, we should put this PSA out there. Don't ever believe whatever the newsbreakers tweet in terms of years and money because they're just getting that directly from the agent. About 50 minutes later, you'll find out what the actual deal is. And Geno Smith, when he signed his new contract with the Seahawks and we found out afterwards that it was essentially like a one year deal. I think that they could cut him.

Yeah. Every contract at the most is really two years.

Yeah. So. But. So they were never all the way in on Geno. Geno's all the way in on Geno. Gino thinks he deserves a lot of money, which, I mean, I think he's a pretty good quarterback. You can do a lot worse than Geno Smith. But now he's on the Raiders. Did you hear the rumor that the Raiders initially actually knows? I think it was the Seahawks initially wanted to trade Geno Smith and DK for Max Crosby, which. That would have been crazy.

That would be a wild trade. Trades like that never happen in the NFL.

Yeah. There was also a tweet that someone had from combine week that was on a plane, and he was like, I just watched Pete Carroll walk up to John Schneider. I bet you they're trying to talk about Geno Smith getting traded. And it was like, two weeks ago.

Trying to spot. Yeah. Do the thing where they saw, like, the Dallas Mavericks and the Lakers talking in coffee shop.

Yeah.

Be like, this is the origin.

This is the origin.

It all went down. I did Pete Carroll and Geno Smith. Are we qualifying that as, like, a reunion that everybody's wanted to see?

I mean, it definitely was the. Geno Smith's career was saved by Pete Carroll.

Yeah, well, Pete Carroll was the head coach.

Yeah.

But it's not like it's Pete Carroll's playbook.

No, but it was Pete Carroll, you know, calling the shots. And Gino was saved.

Yeah.

That was. I mean, he was. He was nothing.

And then what I like about this, though, is just that the Raiders do have a plan.

Yeah.

Whereas last year it felt like they got into mid summer. They're like, oh, fuck, we don't really have. We've got two backup quarterbacks.

Yeah.

But now they have one.

Now the Seahawks do. The Seahawks have a place. Seahawks then traded DK Metcalf to the Steelers. Credit to you. Pft. You were talking about it on Friday.

I just wanted to see it bad.

DK and. And George Pickens together is going to be fantastic. What is the Seahawks play? Is the Seahawks plan to get Sam Darnold? Because. Is it crazy to say that? I think I would maybe rather have Geno that.

In Sam Darnold.

Yeah, probably. Because Sam Darl's probably gonna cost more right now. I don't know. I don't know what Geno's new contract will be.

Yeah, I don't know either, but I don't think it's. Yeah, they're.

They're kind of the same. Yeah.

Kind of the same. Like Sam. Right now, Sam Darnold, the way that he played last year makes me think I would rather have Sam Darnold.

Whoa.

For most of the year.

Yeah.

I was gonna say until the end.

Yeah.

Whereas Gino. I feel like Gino from, like, two years ago. That would line up with Sam Darnold from last year.

Yes. Yes. But it's the musical chairs then. And then there was a rumor that Aaron Rodgers. So Aaron Rodgers looks like the Giants, but then there was a rumor that the Vikings could be interested in Aaron Rodgers, which I think we all are rooting for. Well, actually, I'm not because I don't want to have to play Aaron Rodgers. But it would be funny just for the far story arc.

Yeah, the Brett Favre.

But yeah, the. The musical chairs are. Are very interesting right now with Geno going to the Raiders and now another Sam Darnold. Because we thought the Seahawks weren't going to be a Sam Darn. Now it feels like Seahawks, Steelers, possibly. Still, I don't know. Where else would Sam Darnold go?

I don't know. But if he. I don't know how the Steelers are going to manage the DK Metcalf and the George Pickens situation. I'm excited to see how they do it. That's why I wanted this to happen. It's the funniest possible combination of receivers that you could get. I would almost just say run it back with. With Justin Fields and Russ Wilson and just give one of those guys their own quarterbacks deep balls to.

I mean, they. They are with DK and George Pickens. They're. They're basically building the whole plane out of. Out of just crazy routes.

Yeah, just crazy.

Just run just two freaks on the outside. Just run as fast as you can down the field.

You can't double both the freaks. No, you can double one of them.

I want it so bad. I want them to. I. I'm afraid they're going to try to trade. Trade George Pickens.

Also, they Both wear number 14.

Yeah.

So I'm excited to see how they resolve that one.

That should just be a battle royale.

Also, Sam Darnold wears number 14.

Oh, so we could just have maybe like college rules. Everyone wears 14. Also, DK Metcalf, another reminder of which we. You don't even remind people the Miles Garrett. It's always about the money. DK did say he wanted to go somewhere warm. Pittsburgh, not known for its tropical weather.

Well, that's interesting you brought that up because I looked it up. It is warmer than Seattle.

Okay.

On the average. So in terms of weather in Seattle, we got in the. In football months, 67 degrees, 59 degrees, 51 degrees, 46 degrees. In Pittsburgh, it's 78 degrees, 65 degrees, 53 degrees, 43 degrees. So every football month besides December, in the regular season, it's actually warmer in Pittsburgh.

Okay.

So he's going to get warm.

So he is going to get warm. What are you looking at me? Max, you got to look. Hank, I got nothing I didn't mean to give a look all the. All the big. It feels like the. I. I was reading. I think Albert Brewer had an article. He's. He pulled the league. And. And the. The quote was that this free agent class is trash.

Trash.

Because a lot of these guys. Miles Garrett, you know, I mean, I know he wasn't gonna be a free agent, but, like, a lot of these guys are resigning. Like, Ronnie Stanley signed with the Ravens. Obviously, there's been a franchise tag on T. Higgins. There's been a franchise tag on who. Who is. Oh, Trey Smith. Right. So there's. That was what I heard. It was trash. And what wide receivers out there. Devonte Adams now a Ram.

He's a Ram. He wanted to go someplace warmer, too, I think.

Yeah.

I think he said he wanted to play on the West Coast.

That also might mean that Aaron Rodgers could be washed.

It also was devonte Adams.

Wouldn't you think he would be like, oh, I'm gonna wait to see where Rogers goes? And he's like, no, I'd actually rather just go with Stafford.

There's a good chance that Aaron Rodgers just wasn't around his phone this whole weekend.

That's.

So devonte's like, hey, I'm trying to make my decision. If we could speed this up. And Aaron was in a. A tree stump somewhere in Portland, Oregon.

Yeah, that might be. Yeah. They hit a little gnome knock up.

Yeah.

Knock on the door. Be like, hey, devonte's trying to reach you. He's like, no, it's fine. So go wherever I go.

Devonte taking over Cooper Cup's role.

I.

Am I crazy to think that he's going to be pretty good on the Rams?

Yeah, that's going to be very good.

I feel like that's a great place for him to be.

Yeah, no, that. That. That was a. That was a huge signing for the Rams.

Who are the Chargers going to get?

The Chargers. Shane is very upset. The Chargers have a lot of cap space and they don't have anyone. I'm trying to think who else. Who. What other big. Oh, Tommy DeVito resigned. Giants.

Congrats to the Giants.

Zach Bond with the Eagles. That was big, Max. Like, that's the thing is a lot of these guys are staying with their teams and getting paid because I think the problem is the cap goes up. The cap went up significantly. Everyone can afford to keep their guys.

Yeah. Zach Ertz. Back to the commanders.

Daniel Jones.

Daniel Jones. Deciding between Minnesota and Indianapolis and possibly Pittsburgh. Hmm.

Are you just throwing Pittsburgh in?

I just Threw Pittsburgh.

I feel like Pittsburgh, they might not know what's going to happen. All they know is that Mike Tomlin. This is actually a little bit different from Mike's normal mo which is to draft insane wide receivers.

Yep.

This time, he's bringing in a crazy guy from out of. Like, he's outsourcing his craziness.

Yes.

And dk, again, I don't think.

Yeah, he's crazy on the field.

He's a live wire. Yeah, yeah, he's a live wire on the field. He's not a crazy guy in the same way that George Pickens is crazy in the same way that Antonio Brown is crazy. But he gets, like, he. He will get thrown out of a couple games.

Yeah, no, there'll be some.

There's that out of your wide receiver one, though, like.

Yeah, yeah.

No, he's a dog. There. There will be some significant. There will be some funny moments where both George Pickens and DK Metcalf are costing them 15 yards on the same drive.

Well, if they have a bad quarterback, that's going to be the problem.

Yes.

That's why they should get their own quarterbacks.

They should.

DK's like, Russie, he's my guy. You don't talk to Russie.

That's another one where we don't.

George Pickens is like, you don't talk to Jussie. That's my guy.

We don't know. Similar to the Pete Carol, Geno Smith, were Russie and George or DK Metcalf, were they tight?

I. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they. They had their moments.

Okay.

I think DK had enough good games with Rossi where he's like, okay, I can. I can get excited about, you know what?

The situation is fluid.

I don't think.

I don't think they were tight.

I don't think they're tight.

I think Russell Wilson, like, not talk to the team.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anyone probably was tight with Russell Wilson, but the situation is fluid. You don't know. He might have been humbled when he had to take the A team friendly deal in Pittsburgh because the Broncos are still paying him, like, a billion dollars.

Yeah. I don't. Yeah. I think Hank's right. Nobody. Nobody's really that close with Russell Wilson, so I'd say probably he's happy. Like, he was happy when he was getting thrown the ball in Seattle.

Yeah.

He had some monster games with Russell.

Yeah. All right, what. What other big moves are we waiting for? I mean, there's I'm excited there's going to be it. Who. Who's out there though still because oh, Aaron Jones got resigned in Minnesota. Yeah. We're looking at Chiefs resigned. Nick Bolton, that was another big free agent guy that people thought was going to get some A lot of money. Patriots. Harold Landry.

That's good signing.

Yeah, there's. There's not like what's. Who's going to be the biggest name that goes on Monday because it will happen pretty quickly. Right. I know the Bears are Godwin, maybe get Khalil Mack back and Dahlman center, which would be awesome.

Godwin. I feel.

Oh, Godwin's a good probably goal.

Probably.

I want. I want the Bears to get Khalil Mack. I would. I would very much like that on a deal that makes sense. But the cap went up. Cap went up. I. This is why I'd be such a terrible. Well, there's a million reasons why I'd be a terrible gm but if you give me more cap, I'm spending all of it.

Yeah, you don't right away keep it.

I'm also just assuming the cap will always go up like that. That's. That. That would be a very bad assumption on my part, but I would do that. All right, you got it. So Sam Darnold is the biggest name. Josh. Josh Sweat, a big name. And then Milton Williams. So a couple Eagles. And then you had Drew Dahlman, who I think the Bears hopefully will sign, which would be nice because then they'd have their interior of offensive line set. Yeah. Look, a lot of these guys have already resigned with their teams.

I expect Godwin to go back. I feel like he'll be. He'll be in Tampa again next year. But if not that, that is the guy that the Chargers should get.

Yeah. Tevin Jenkins is going to be good somewhere because he's going to stay healthy. And I'm like, fuck, that's going to happen. What are the. What. What are the commanders going to do now that they lost out on Miles Garrett. Trey Hendrickson.

I think Trey Hendrickson. I think that's what we're looking at.

Me a spicy meatball.

Very spicy meatball.

Very spicy meatball.

I'm excited. So I don't think you can announce. You can't announce the signings until Wednesday, correct.

Wait, I thought Trey Hendrickson still had a year left. Does he not? I'm pretty sure you'd have to trade for him still. I thought he had a. I thought he had. I thought he just wants new money.

And they're not going to pay him.

Let's see. He is an un. Yeah. Yeah. He's got. He's got one more year.

One year left.

So he. So, yeah, so they're going to. They'd have to trade for him.

Probably not the same price tag that you'd pay for Miles Garrett, though, right? Because Miles had. I feel like he had more years left.

He's gonna.

They're probably gonna. They'll give him a new deal no matter what.

Oh, yeah. He'll. He'll. He'll get a new deal wherever he go. Wherever he goes. But to trade for him, you'd have to. It'd have to be a second at the minimum. Right.

Let's see. The Cincinnati Bengals aren't eager to pay edge rusher Trey Hendrickson. The Commanders are positioned well to trade for the star.

What is it saying? It's. It's. It might be your first rounder, right? Could be. Because it is. You're picking at the bottom of the draft. Have you. Have you thought about.

No, I haven't. So we're in Indy. It was funny because we're in Indy, and I was saying to somebody, like, there's just not that much buzz around the draft this year. I feel like it's not as much juice as it normally is. And then this person was like, well, dude, when was the last time you picked in the 20s in the draft? I was like, oh, yeah, that's a great point. Like, if it's not your team that's active in it, you're like, oh, not. Kind of. Kind of a dull draft season.

Right, right, right. I'm excited, though. I'm juiced. A lot of teams, getting some new players. Oh, yeah. You guys. You guys released Jonathan Allen, right?

Yes, we tried to find.

How'd you feel about that?

So Jonathan Allen. I. I like Jonathan Allen a lot. He played on some really shitty teams, and he played very well on some really shitty teams. And he had that famous quote last season where he was like, I'm sick of this. I'm just sick of this. This sucks. This. And I was like, God damn it, he's right. He's right. And if he wants to get traded, like, I. I wish him the best, but he just wasn't worth it to bring back next year. And so I hope he finds a good place. I feel like we could have traded him somewhere for, like, not a lot of compensation. And we said, you know what? We're going to set you free.

Yeah.

Find your own spot.

Yeah.

You're a good Player.

Yeah. Memes, did I see a rumor that the jets might think about doing Justin Fields?

You did see that?

They're very interested. Strong interest. And are you interested in.

Yeah, it'd be good to have a.

Mobile quarterback for once. Okay, that's. You always say. You memes, saying mobile. Mobile is insane. You say it every time. And I had. I had to address. And so you're saying, thank you for addressing that.

It would just be interesting to see a quarterback run around a little bit.

Yeah.

There were moments last year where you're just like, the yards are right in front of you.

Aaron just run.

And he couldn't run because he's old as shit.

So you put Justin Fields in that scenario.

He gets those yards. Yep.

Memes, let me ask you this. You produce this show called Pardon My Take.

Yeah.

You were probably one of the people, if not the person who edited the majority of the roller coaster of my experience with Justin Fields. Do you not. Does that not give you a sense of, like, oh, this is bad.

Young quarterback.

Like, you had a front row seat. You. You not only watched it in real time, but then you would go to your computer and have to edit it and watch it back and then post it?

Yeah, but we're in Chicago. Got to watch a lot of Bears games and.

And that Atlanta Falcons game when the.

Entire stadium's just cheering, Justin Fields.

Justin Fields.

He was a stud. Means he has those games where he is a stud. I want you to be honest with me. How many times have you said the words Justin Fields is ass? Oh, I think it's probably a lot. No, not that many.

He was good at times. When he would break out for one of those runs, you would just be like, oh, my God.

I know, but memes, you are the. You are the biggest hater in the world, and you especially hate our quarterbacks when they play poorly. You're the first guy to be like, that's correct.

Yeah. He also didn't have an offensive line there. All right, let me ask. Let me ask.

It's wild, the justifications you're making for him. Like, that's. That's verbatim.

What? Big cat, I'm telling you, I'm you and you. Let me ask a different way. Max. Hank, you guys also producers have. Pardon my take. Hank, More of a co host. Shout out. Cass, you guys saw it. Front row. Would you want Justin Fields on your team?

God, no.

Me, no memes. Maybe, like, what option does he have? I like Justin Fields. A guy, awesome guy. But he's. You can't be like, this is our plan. But what would the plan. Sam Darnold. But everyone's saying Sam Darnold. Not everyone. Rogers.

Daniel Jones.

I think I would rather have Justin.

Fields and bringing back Aaron Rodgers. You're wrong. It actually wouldn't be the worst idea. Fast. What now? Hear me out.

He's faster.

Yeah. What if the jets signed Aaron Rodgers and it was kind of like a, you know, you got divorced, you moved out, and then you started dating again. Like, oh, man, I really like this person.

If you love something, set it free.

Yeah. What? Why not? Memes. But what if Justin Fields has that redemption arc like Sam Darnold did with the jets, and then we go, but it's the Jets. Your team sucks too, Hank.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

It's a fair point.

Also, could be a good rebuilding quarterback. Could be a bridge quarterback. Like, could be. Could be a good enough quarterback to be bad next year to get a good quarterback.

I mean, this is. This is where we start to look at the most impactful free agent being James Winston.

Yes. Well, James, his name out there. He'd be awesome in Seattle.

Yeah, he would.

He'd be awesome in Pittsburgh. He doesn't get enough in like in person meetings. Do you think Jameis throwing to DK and George Pickens, that would be.

This is.

All right, so if James Winston went to. To the Pittsburgh Steelers, I'm going to make an executive decision right now and you guys have no choice but to follow along. But you could also tell me I'm crazy if Jameis Winston is quarterbacking for the Pittsburgh Steelers and DK Metcalf and George Pickens are on the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Pittsburgh Steelers are playing every game in the middle TV next year. Yeah, like that's with sound every single game.

I'm down. James Winston is the antidote to the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive struggles. Whatever disease they have in Pittsburgh for the last, what, six years?

Yeah.

Seven years. You get Jameis in there with DK and George Pickens throwing. Go balls. It's a different team. God, the vibes are different. Also Hard Knocks. Can we please get Hard Knocks in Pittsburgh?

Do it.

They made the playoffs.

Fuck yeah.

Stupid Hard Knocks rules.

So who's eligible for Hard Knocks Right now?

It's teams that did not make the playoffs and don't have a first year head coach.

Okay, so that would be the Dallas Cowboys. First your head coach.

The Seahawks.

Seahawks. The Giants.

This is some good.

Giants will definitely not let them do.

Titans.

Yeah.

Titans would be eligible. Yep. Colts, Colts will be eligible this Is some good podcast. Cardinals right now. Dolphins. I feel like they might. Dolphins might do it.

Yeah.

Cardinals are up there. Yeah. 49ers fun. That would be a fun, like, redemption. Arc. Bengals. Bengals would actually be. If they. If they go into the year with all these guys not under contract. Trey Henderson doesn't get traded, and, like, I feel like they would do the Bengals.

Yeah.

Right.

I. I think the Dolphins, too.

Yeah. Guessing hard knocks.

I completely forgot.

Do we miss football playoffs?

Yes, we do. We do. Very deeply.

I told you guys the other day it was a moment of weakness. But we were talking about. I think we were talking about the weather and, like, you know, the calendar year. And I said that I just need. What? March Madness is one of my favorite times a year. And then as soon as March Madness ends, it's like, it's almost football.

Yeah.

That's how my brain works.

Well, because March Madness, I'm like, well.

Summer'S in front of us, and then it's football.

Here's how it goes. March Madness ends. Then there's the Masters, which means that it's getting warm.

Yeah.

And then after the Masters, you got the draft, which is football season.

Pretty much. My. My entire point was that I love life in the calendar year from March 1st till the end of the Super Bowl.

Yeah.

So it's pretty much from the end of the Super bowl till March 1st. I'm like, this fucking sucks. February, life sucks. And then you get through it, and you're like, we got everything in front of us. We got summer in front of us. And then football.

I think football season starts after the draft because then you got rookie minicamps. You got OTAs.

True.

You got some other stuff going on. You got piss tests.

Yeah. Okay. We're going to talk some other sports real quick, but before we do that, no Bull, if you're going to work out, you've got to try out no Bull footwear. Best shoes. The most comfortable for both in the gym and on the go. We love no Bull. We love the shoes. Shoes are super, super comfortable. Hank, your boy has invested heavily. Tom Brady. So no Bull is an awesome athletic wear. Awesome shoes. Our friend Mike Rapoli. So go check it out right now. The shoes are super, super comfortable. We wear them all the time. And they look good, too. So exclusively for. Pardon my Take listeners, no Bull is offering 30% off your order. Visit no bullproject.compmt for 30% off. Your entire order is a great deal. You get some new shoes, get some new gear. 30% off. That's www.n o b u l l project p r o j ect.com backslash pmt for 30% off. No bull project.com backslash pmt For 30% off. Do it now and get some awesome gear. Okay. Other sports. Should we talk about Stephen Avers LeBron?

Yeah.

So on Thursday night, Elite Stephen a. Smith and LeBron had a little doot to do after the Lakers game.

In the middle of the game.

Oh, it was in the middle of.

The game, middle of a timeout.

Larry David sitting right there, which is very funny. It was literally just a curb your enthusiasm episode. LeBron went up to Stephen A. Smith. It was caught on camera. Stephen A. Smith would never have talked about it publicly if it had not gone viral.

It was just too viral. Stephen A. Smith would never talk about his interaction with another player. He would never mention anything of the sort. But the fact that he. He basically was forced to talk about it.

Yeah.

By LeBron getting him his face.

And then why did LeBron go up to him?

I went up to him because he had some. He had. He took some umbrage.

Yeah.

LeBron took umbrage with Stephen A. Smith's remarks regarding Bronny James.

Yes. He went up to him as a father, not a basketball player. Stephen A. Smith was like, you should have just made contact with me in a private meeting. I actually have no problem with LeBron doing this, just because I do actually think that, like, LeBron is. Is LeBron James a better father than he is basketball player?

Yeah, I think. You know, didn't we determine that on Friday?

Yeah.

The fact that he got Bronnie drafted.

Yeah.

No basketball player has ever done that before.

But I do think he went up to him. Like, Stephen A. Smith played the role afterwards. He got in his very serious tone and was like, he came up to me as a father. But I think the. The issue LeBron had was when Stephen A. Smith, a couple months ago, was pleading with LeBron James as a father. Stop this. When you say as a father, I think that's where it becomes a little bit more direct. A direct shot. And LeBron, like, he grew up without a dad. He. I think he. He takes being a father very seriously. Obviously, you have to talk about Bronnie, and you can say, like, hey, Bronnie shouldn't be in the NBA. This is crazy. But saying LeBron James as a father. Stop this. That probably pissed LeBron off. And I would understand LeBron being like, hey, don't do that.

Stephen A. Smith saying that, like, LeBron James is not being a good dad.

Right.

Essentially by getting. When I think he's actually being the best dad ever by getting his son an NBA contract that he shouldn't be getting.

Correct. So, like, in a weird way, I do think the whole situation, and I've maintained this, Bronnie is the big loser in this. Brownie's not a loser, but he's the big loser in this. And the fact that he's been put in a situation where he's talked about in this way and like Stephen A. Smith is going on first take and talking about LeBron as a father, that sucks. This. This probably sucks for him. He probably wishes in a. In a weird alternate world that he could be on an NBA roster that isn't with his dad on it, and people are talking about him as a player and not him as LeBron's side project.

The only way for LeBron to win this interaction is if he use it. He flexes the remainder of his muscle in the NBA and he says, fuck it. We're drafting Stephen A. Smith.

Yeah.

And I'm going to. I'm going to force Stephen A. To get some minutes in the NBA and just watch him get swatted into oblivion.

That's a great idea.

How awesome would that be? That LeBron, if you want to get back at him, this is the best way to do it.

Yeah, but I. Hank, did you have a problem with LeBron doing it? No.

And Brian has been playing good in the D league, but it's also LeBron like, the Edwin was.

That's. LeBron's gonna come up to you and talk to you about that.

Everyone resurfaced the tweet of LeBron from last year, which is just him.

Ridiculous.

Lightweight. Hilarious is funny. But he was like, yeah, I'm watching league pass, and Bronnie's better than a lot of these cats. It's lightweight, hilarious.

That was a bad tweet. Bad tweet.

But also, as a father, again, I get it, right? Like, as a dad, he's like, my son's better than these guys.

Like, I. If LeBron had gone up to Stephen A. Smith and said, do not talk about my son, I would 100% be on Stephen A. Smith's side being like, that's ridiculous. Your son is in the NBA. He has to be talked about. Does he get talked about more than every other rookie by a long shot? Because he's LeBron James Jr. But I think the father part, like, if Stephen A. Smith calls him out as a father, I think LeBron has every right to be like, dude, don't do that.

I think it's kind of fair play for both sides.

Yeah.

I don't think even has. Does he have kids?

Oh, he might have a kid.

Stephen A. Fox.

I think he might have a kid.

No, Stephen A. Has his. His boys swim.

Yeah.

He's a confirmed sex haver. But I. I think it's fine for Stephen. He's been like, lebron, you got your son drafted to be on your team, probably shouldn't be in the league. He's not that great.

He's not really playing on it.

He's. He's.

He's is playing in the G League.

Still. Still a great dad move. But also part of what goes with that.

Correct.

You. You should have at some point thought Stephen A. Smith is going to have some thoughts.

Right. The scrutiny is fair until you say you're stop this as a father. That's where it's like, hey, dude, what are you talking about? He's a pretty fucking good dad. Yeah.

Defending.

I'm defending LeBron again.

I think Stephen A. Smith was like, you're. You're forcing me to talk about your son.

Yeah.

Not a good father move.

I also don't think it was very funny timing, but I. From what I looked into, it was taped before, but it came out on Friday that Skip and Stephen A. Are reunited.

Correct.

My. Who's back of the week.

Yeah. And also Skip is in. In a doo to do with kd because he said. Skip said that Kevin Durant is. Looks like he's semi retired. Yeah.

He said. Well, then Katie came back at him and said, we're both washed, Skip.

Yeah. Okay. We also had Jokic have the first ever 30, 20, 20.

Just insane.

Insane. It's crazy. It was overtime, but it doesn't matter. He's so good.

It looked so easy for him out there, too. Everything was in slow motion. He was doing the crazy passes where only he knows where the ball is going to go and he knows it like two pass in advance. And he still doesn't look like he's really enjoying himself that much. And then after the game, did you see SVP got the exclusive interview with. With Joker.

Okay.

And SVP was like, all of us, he was pumped because we've never seen that before. And it was such a great game and it was so fun to watch. After the game, he's like, I know you don't really get amped up, Jokic, but is there a part of you that's like, this was really fun out There. This is amazing. I can't believe I did that. And then Jokic, his response was, you know, I go out to try to play basketball. Like he did not give a. He was like, I wish I had been with Horse instead. He did not give a fuck that he just dropped 30, 20 and 20. Face of the league does not care. But that's what makes me love Jokic so much.

Yeah. And he. We have a real MVP debate going with him and sga. It's. People are. People are choosing sides and diminishing. We on this show would never diminish anyone in. In any kind of postseason award debate. That's crazy. But it's a good debate. It's have it. We're having it. And it's. It's a classic voter fatigue verse, you know, best team in the league. Okc.

I think it's gonna be in the debate. It's going to be sga. I think.

I think so too, but I think voter fatigue.

But if I had a vote, you go to Jokic.

I. I would vote for Jokic too.

Probably every year until he retires.

He's so good. He's so goddamn good. And he basically just. He runs everything. He runs the. He's the point guard, he's the center. He's everything. Ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working? Nah. Neither has Ariat. Ariat work jackets and boots are packed with all the cold stopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions. So you can take any job out there and always deliver. Check out Ariat in your local workwear retailer or visit ariat.com work to get 10% off your first order when you sign up for email and weather whatever in Ariat work year. Okay. College basketball. It's March. Do we have any thoughts from this weekend? I saw NC State fired their coach off of a Final Four appearance. Everyone was like, how can you do this? Maybe because it was the flukiest Final Four. No, I mean, it was an incredible run. Nothing to take away from NC State, but if Virginia had fouled up three in the tournament, he would have been fired last year.

It's still kind of weird, still kind of shocking that after a team goes on that run, they fire their coach. Yeah, but like, fans don't care.

No fans.

We. We forget about that shit within a month.

Yeah. Very quick. Also, we had Cal drop some bars. I don't know if you saw. I said everyone put us in a coffin. They forgot the nails. I like that one. I like that one a lot. The Omaha St. Thomas game, they're not scoring points. They just have started the second half and they're not scoring points. Sorry.

This be how many in a row?

16. We had the craziest win ever on, on Saturday for the Kentucky Missouri. I was at, I was at a birthday party, Climb zone. I had all the dads huddled around an iPad getting. They were like, it trickled around Climb zone. That like the fifth, the 14, you know, man was in the building trying to go 15 and oh. And it was like a whole scene of people just being like, oh shit, is it going to happen?

How did the wives feel about it?

My wife was there, so she didn't know, so that was good.

Listen, were there any wives huddled around in the.

No, there were not a six year old birthday party. Anyone can, any parent can back me up here. When you go to a birthday party, it's, it's. You just let your kid go. They just had the fucking time of their life. It was an arcade, climb zone, laser tag. They were having the best time ever. They didn't even know it. Like, kids go to birthday parties and they're just like, see ya. Yeah, they fucking love it. Yeah.

What, what percentage of kids birthday parties at a trampoline park end with everybody uninjured? 100. Health.

I don't know about uninjured, but there's always tears. Yeah, we, we, we, we survive without tear. Which it would have been my tears if that over didn't hit. But we survived without tears.

That's good.

Yeah. And it's March. We're conference tournament week.

Also, the Auburn, Alabama game is awesome.

Awesome.

That was such a fun game to watch.

Huge win for Alabama. Nate Oats was, was, was riling up the crowd.

He's feeling himself a little bit.

Yeah. Auburn fans were getting upset about that. I mean, Bruce Pearl does do semantics as well. I think it's fair on both sides.

There was some litter that was thrown.

Yeah, they were thrown.

So I think University of Tennessee fans broke into the, the arena and they threw trash.

Yes. But it's, it's the best March. And I, I also. The Badgers had the worst loss ever. I, I'm, I've downgraded my expectations.

That's a shame.

Yeah.

No thanks, Hank. I've downgraded my expertise.

They'll be back. You're going a little run into the conference tournament. They'll be back.

I had a moment during the Duke UNC game and I've talked about, you know, not caring as much about Duke over the years. And obviously it started. Started with Caleb back in the day, but they did the celebrities in the crowd during that game, and it was Belichick first and then Drake May. And I was like, yeah, yeah.

I was like.

You know, you think they.

You think they talk to each other?

Definitely.

You think so?

Yeah. Belich.

I mean, spending time with Gruden, it's a insight into a true football guy's mind, which Belichick is as well. Like, they're just talking X's nose, you know that he's just there. Like he could talk to any football player and just talk about their film or whatever it may be. You know, Belichick's watching Drake May. You know that he doesn't take his personal feelings with the Patriots when he's talking to a player. Like, they just. They could just talk ball.

Yeah.

And that goes for any football player with any coach ever.

Without. Without Belichick, Drake May would not be there.

True.

Just fact.

That's a good point.

Did you feel like. Were you. Were you rubbing it in, like, any UNC fans faces? Do you get pleasure out of beating them in a down year? No, no, no.

Yeah. UNC's in trouble. UNC's in a lot of trouble. It was a good game. They fought hard.

Yeah. For a second.

Douche is really, really good. Okay. Anything else?

People were giving online? I saw there was a clip of a UNC fan crying in the stands after, and they caught her mouth saying, at least they tried really hard.

Yeah.

And people were giving her, which I don't.

Oh, what was that?

I don't know. Max is finding something.

Max is pulling up a picture of a chick in a bikini.

Wrong. Tap holding. Loading. 4K. Max. Wrong. I was trying addiction baddie.

I was going. I was trying to pull up the.

Video that they were talking about accidentally. I accidentally put up Twitch instead of Twitter because it's.

It's X. The everything app. It's all happening on X.

Action. Baddie Addiction baddie.

And this was just the first picture that came up. That's an interesting picture.

On a boat. Wow. Good job, Max. Now I'm just not going to find the video. Well, you got to put that into the show. You got to put addiction baddie into the show for the. For the. For the viewers.

She is on a boat, isn't she?

Please subscribe to the YouTube. Yeah, well, I will. Addiction baddie to the. To the show. Shout out everyone who punched a ticket to the dance. Drake, big win. They deserved it to be in anyway. High point. Yep. I think Lipscomb got in. This is the best time of year. It's going to be. It's conference tournament week, so we'll have someone on to talk some conference tournament week. Maybe our friend Stanford Steve. But yeah, I love this. I love these two weeks.

Sunbelt finals are semifinals on right now. JMU looks like they're probably going to lose Detroit. A lot of time left.

A lot of time left.

Don't feel. Don't feel great about the spot I'm in right now.

Same.

You remember last year, though?

Yeah. That was fun.

So fun.

Yeah. All right. So bad. I need points. You haven't. Have you been betting or fading? Nothing. Nothing. Do you believe in Max? We believe him. He's. I've. I've heard from Jerry. Was Jersey. Jerry thought he was breaking news to me. He was like. I was playing Call of Duty with Hank the other night, and he was like, PJ2K. Oh, it was 2.2PGA2K. He's like, I can't wait to fade Big cat in. In conference tournament. In the tournament. And he thought. He was, like, telling me. I was like, dude, he's literally said it to my face, like seven times. And it hurts every time because I know he's probably right and he's gonna have, like, the best tournament ever. But so. So it goes. So it goes.

Maybe not. I mean, that. That when Saturday was.

Yeah, God. God touched me.

Something.

Something. Yeah, God.

Something else.

God was on my side. God was on my side. We'll see. We'll see how this game is dead. I'm dead. All right, let's do who's Back of the Week. Who's Back of the Week is brought to you by Truly. Truly Unruly is the first high ABV hard seltzer that actually tastes good. Truly Unruly is a hard seltzer that breaks all the rules. Drinks light, parties hard with 8% ABV. It hits hard but still tastes amazing. It's the official hard seltzer part of my take. Find Truly Unruly at a store near you or Visit truly hard Seltzer.com it is. It was 60 degrees in Chicago today. We had the clocks change. We got some light late at, you know, in the afternoon. It's about to be golf season. It's about to be beach season. It's about to be backyard barbecue season. It's about to be truly season. It's about to be truly. We're going to get unruly this summer. So find Truly Unruly to store near you or Visit truly hard seltzer.com. all right, who's back of the week? Hank. Yeah.

My first one was shorts. Another treacherous winner of Chicago survived. It was like two cold weeks. Now it's 60 degrees again. So all the people that you know said, Chicago's gonna be so tough. The winners are so bad.

There has been snow in April here.

Yeah, we're gonna probably get a couple more just like shitty days that are gonna be tossed in there. Some false shit. We're just gonna get some. We're gonna get like a 30 degree day out of nowhere.

We got mid-60s this week.

Yeah.

All you need is a couple nice. Like today was really nice. Tomorrow's gonna be really nice.

The clock's changing.

Clocks change like the. The end is near. Summer is here.

It's gonna be 63 on. On Saturday for the St. Patrick's Day celebration. That's pretty good.

Dangerous either.

Who's back Was the Celtics as a national. I mean, NBA championship favorite.

Is LeBron hurt or is he just.

I need LeBron.

I need some.

If they won that game, he might not be hurt.

I need two weeks before the playoff stretch. It's.

I need two weeks before the playoff stretch.

Yeah. Take some time off the Lakers.

The Lakers were scaring me. They've been, you know, they won eight straight. They were playing really well. And it, you know, the conspiracy of how does Luca end up in la? The NBA needs a Celtics, Lakers, NBA Finals for ratings.

Yep.

I hope that happens.

I do too.

I hope that happens. The Celtics love Luca. They love hating Luca. They love DM up and showing the world that he's not as good as, you know, people says he is. Showed it again last night. Al Horford, 40 plus. Maybe not 40 plus, but he's so old. DNL, LeBron D and up Luca. It was just a beautiful sight to see. And with no Porzinius.

Yeah, he had Luca locked up pretty good on a couple things. I saw where Luca was just traveling all over the gym. He was taking like seven steps and.

He got kneed in the face on that Al Horford dunk.

Yeah, he got pickpocketed on one end, kneed in the face on the other. It was just.

You're having the time of your life.

You're calling him out, you're calling LeBron out.

Yeah, I was. I was a little. There was, you know, a little bit of concern with, like, LeBron Luca, team of destiny. Could this be the team that beats the Celtics now?

But you want to play him now?

Yeah.

So you're rooting for the Lakers in the playoffs.

Okay, I like. Yeah, I put.

I put a.

Two futures, obviously.

Celtics are such heavy favorites, but I did Celtics to beat the Nuggets in the finals and Celtics to be the Lakers in the finals.

Are they gonna. Are the Celtics have any chance at the one seater? No.

No.

Okay. So that's.

I think they're probably six or seven back. Cavs don't lose.

It's crazy. Cavs are really good. Yeah, they're seven and a half back. Yeah, the Cavs are. Cavs are awesome. A really good team. You're not scared of them?

I'm a little concerned, but I, you know, we're the champs. You got to beat the champs to be the champs.

Okay.

Can't be scared of a team that hasn't done it.

Okay. Pft. Your who's back of the week?

Yeah, my who's back of the week is Skip and Stephen A. Yeah, Skip and Stephen A. Have reunited. They're back together. They taped an episode of. I believe it was Skip's podcast. Right. Which if you had asked me, whose podcast would it be? I would say probably Stephen A.

Right.

Great booking by Skip to get Stephen A. To go on his show. Maybe the LeBron thing had something to do with that.

Maybe.

Maybe skip saw LeBron, Stephen A. Yelling at each other and Skip was like, come talk to me about this, my son. Like, this is. This is friendly territory for you to get all. All the feelings off your chest about LeBron.

But I'm pretty sure that's. That was what I was hoping. Like they saw that and was like, finally, it's time. Let's. Let's get back together.

Yeah, it's like LeBron parent trapped him.

I think the report came out on Friday that they had already taped it earlier in the week. I hope the case is. Yeah, we need lebr talk about that for the whole time. But yeah, I'm pretty sure that the report came out Friday that they taped earlier in the week and the LeBron thing happened late Thursday night.

I mean, if they taped and then that happened, Skip. Skip had to call up Stephen A. And be like, we need to do like an appendix to this. Yeah, we need to do like another segment because this is going to be what people tune in for.

Yeah.

I'm just very excited because if you. If you did not live through the. The first take years where it was Skip and Stephen A. It was perfect television.

Yeah.

Just two. Two guys who have never been wrong in their lives disagreeing on everything they.

It'S one of those. We were lucky enough to be born at the same time that those two guys found each other and were on tv. And it was perfect. It was perfect. All right. My who's back is baseball injuries because Garrett Cole's out for the year.

Bad Tommy John.

Bad Tommy John.

Not good.

Bad. Really bad.

They should never change the rules about shaving your face. Facts.

That's absolutely, absolutely true.

Like this. This would not have happened if he was clean shaven.

That's true. That's your. Your face. Your face is connected to your shoulder, to your elbow. Your elbow, without a doubt. Max, what do you get? Oh, oh. Giancarlo also may have season ending in surgery.

See, I'm telling you. I'm telling you. It all went downhill.

Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Jalen Brunson got hurt too.

Second guys grow a beard.

That's bad. They got St. John's basketball, though. Max, are you excited for your fills?

Ah, yeah.

I don't know. Okay.

Just say birds. Just say birds. Birds are getting older.

I mean, I'm gonna be excited for opening day. We'll see how we do.

But I don't have the highest of hopes for the Phil season.

Got it, Got it.

Oh, also national sports podcast, Ovi scored again.

Oh, yeah. So what is he, 10 away?

Empty netter at the end. I think he's digits. I think he's nine away. He's 886 right now.

Damn.

Yeah, single digits. It was an open netter, but it was also from center ice, backhander off the boards. So it was a sick goal.

That is.

And also, if you're a hater, that says to me, empty netters. Another empty netter for Rovi. You have to be winning the game to score an empty netter.

Yeah.

So that's pretty good.

Also, national sports podcast, the NHL trade deadline. Brad Marshawn trade to the Panthers.

Tough.

Very sad. Very, very sad. Again, not a die hard Bruins fan. But.

But you're a puckhead.

I'm a puckhead in the playoffs. And.

So you won't be doing puck.

That was the very, very. It's tough that he went to the Panthers like that hurt. It's tough to get over our rivals. Hated rivals. And truly the end. The final person of someone who won a championship for Boston when I was still in high school. Last player on any of the teams. So it's sad, sad, sad day for.

For young Hank and he wanted to stick around too.

Yeah, it sounds like they, they the Bruins it all up.

Like I know that you're not supposed to pay a guy based on what he's done for the team.

But some guys, but like a centerpiece.

Like that, I, I feel like he wasn't even asking them to break the bank. Right. He said, I'll come down. I think he had a face to face meeting with him. Said, I'll, I'll bring my request down. If you can meet me in the middle, we'll make something happen. I don't want to play anywhere else. And they said, okay, we'll talk about it. Pack your bags, go to Florida.

Yeah. All right. Should we get to our interview with coach Tom Izzo? Awesome interview.

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No maintenance fees, fee free overdraft up to 200 or getting paid up to two days early. With direct deposit. Making progress has never been easier than it has with Chime. And if you ever want access to your pay before payday, you can use my pay to get up to 500 of your pay before payday with no mandatory fees or interest. Join millions of Chime customers who are working on financial progress. A Chime checking account helps you make progress with fee free overdraft up to 200 bucks. And to date, Chime has spotted members over $30 billion. Make progress towards a better financial future with Chime. Open your account in two minutes at chime.compmt that's chime.compmt Chime feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp NA or Stride bank in a members FDIC spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Fees apply at out of network ATMs. My pipe, my pay eligibility requirements apply. Credit limits range $20 to $500. Two dollar fee applies to get funds instantly. Chime checking account required. Go to chime.com disclosures for details. And now here's coach Tom Izzo.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. He is March. He is coming off a record tying 11th Big Ten title. Incredible run that his Michigan State Spartans are on right now. It is head coach Tom Izzo. Coach, first of all, congrats on the title. I know you got more work to do, but I wanted to start with that because I know we got to talk about what happens when a team stands on a logo and what goes on with that. But I want to talk with your team and how they're playing right now. Like three weeks ago, you guys were 19 and five. You were lost three of four. You had a gauntlet coming up at the end of the Big Ten schedule. You ripped off seven straight wins to finish 26 and five win the Big Ten outright. What changed and how are we here right now where you guys are looking prime for a deep run in March?

Well, to be honest with you guys, my staff did an unbelievable job. I mean we spent a lot of time, we felt like, you know, we've got a good team but it's not a talent laden team. And so we started working together more. We became very good defensively. We just couldn't make a shot from three. We're shooting it good, we're getting to the line, we're making free throws, we're scoring 80 points a game. And I said if we ever make some threes, we could be really good. Well, we got a little better with. Now we're making threes and you know, we're still maintaining our defensive stuff. I think the players and my staff did an unbelievable job and I've, I've got along for the ride.

Coach, that's, that's too humble.

Yeah, you, this might be, you know, one of your best coaching jobs that, that you've ever done this year considering where, you know, you came to the season, what the expectations were and then how you guys are playing. I also just love the voice Right now your, your voice sounds like March basketball. Are you going to Take a couple days off. Are you putting yourself on, like a. A word count for the next couple days? Try to gain that back?

You know, guys, the only time I lose my voice is when I don't sleep. And I haven't had a lot of sleep lately, as you can tell by how I look. But, no, you know, we are taking a day off tomorrow. We've been on a grind, and now we don't play till Friday. So guys deserve a day off. But, you know, you'd really like my team, my players, they've worked their tail off, they've been selfless, they've sacrificed for each other, and it's kind of a good team to. To cheer for. And yet we still make our mistakes. You know, we have our times when we don't take care of the ball or we kind of go through these little stretches, and so we got to try to correct that this week.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, today was the big win against Michigan. You guys had already wrapped up the Big Ten title, so obviously you're playing for your seniors, but, you know, the effort was there, and you guys. You guys killed Michigan. We had a little. Little dupe to do at the end of the game with some Michigan players standing on the logo when seniors are going to kiss the floor. And Trey Hallman took it in under his own hands. I gotta start with Trey. He was. He was made in the Izzo factory. How do you always get these guys? He's a dog. He's got, like, so much heart, and it's down to the thick headband. I feel like you always got the dogs with the thick head. When they put on the thick headband, it's like, that's an Izzo guy. And, you know, you can go to war with that guy. So is he. Would it be safe to say that he's kind of the heartbeat of the team? And you liked what he did there, like, you know, kind of standing up for. For the Spartans and for all the home fans and everyone there.

Well, I didn't love what happened, you know, because the game was going along pretty good. They came back. Give them credit. And we have a tradition here, and it's been a tradition for 30 years, and I didn't even see all of it. You know, Dusty's done a good job with his team, but, you know, we've gone through a few things over the years with Michigan, and, you know, that hits home a little bit. But I would never do anything on somebody else's court. We did not celebrate the Big Ten championship at Iowa, you know, I wouldn't do any of that, but we are going to celebrate at home when we win. And I think it just got out of hand quick. I don't even know totally what happened. I do know this. Our guys are kind of trained by the guys before them, not by me. Team Cleaves comes back, or Steve Smith is there, even back to Magic Johnson. I mean, you know, Draymond Green. I mean, the rivalry is a rivalry. I mean, you're not supposed to love your rival, but you're supposed to respect them. And I felt like, you know, Trey was sticking up for not only his teammates, but all the players that have come before him that got a chance on this special day to kiss the ass and kind of.

Kind of symbolize, you know, what we are here. You know, we're not flashy and this and that. We're just kind of grimy. You know, we get down and kiss the floor. I mean, that's not always good, you know, to kiss the floor. There's a lot of people, but on that floor.

Yeah, what we do.

And I hope that doesn't take away from, you know, how good we played the game. And they came back in the second half and played good also.

Yeah, I loved it. I. Listen, you're. You're on the right show because we're a big supporter of rivalries. Should be. You shouldn't like your rival. That's what makes sports fun. Like, that's. Those moments are what we tune in as fans. And I love Trey Hallman doing that, standing up for him. Hey, listen, there's a pretty basic rule. Don't stand on another man's logo. You can't do that. Can't stand on another man's logo.

Get him off there. And if there's one thing I know about the University of Michigan, they don't tolerate post game theatrics at midfield or at half court. That's just not their D. So they're probably shocked to see something like that happen. There was a funny moment, though, as all this was being cleaned up. You had your arm around Dusty May. He had his arm around. You guys were talking to each other. What was that? Were you guys. Were you explaining to him? Because I don't think that Dusty knew about the tradition. Were you letting him know, hey, Dusty, this is what we do when we win at the end of the season.

Well, we do it when we lose. I mean, Draymond Green, senior year, we lost the game. I mean, it's tradition. It's not tradition when we Win or tradition, this is what you do. Some guys have been there four years. Blood, sweat and tears. That's what we do. And I just told Dusty that. But he was at Indiana. You know, he's been in the state at Eastern. You know, I think he's done a hell of a job this year with his team, and I give them all the credit. But let's be real here. Nobody is disrupting us from kissing the ass.

Yeah, yeah. Can't do it.

15,000 people and price, 600,000 living alums watching for that moment. And we would have done it if they would have beat us. Yeah, this is just about winning, guys. Draymond Green lost that game to Ohio State. I think we had one or two other guys, but that was devastating. They hit a last second shot, beat us by one. And Draymond, we had to live that. You know, he had to kiss the ass on a loss. So it's not something we do as front runners. We do it because it's who we are, what we are. It was started by Sean Respert. It was reinvented by Mateen Cleaves. Those are two of the greatest players that ever played here. And it's going to continue, hopefully the rest of my life. But definitely, as long as I'm head coach, it's going to continue.

I got a question about that because I, I learned something today because we were trying to get John this afternoon and. And you had your mother in attendance and she's 99 years old. And it dawned on me, with those genetics, are you going to coach for another 20 years? I feel like you're never going to stop. You're going to coach forever. I mean, your 99 year old mother was at, was at the Breslin center today. I heard reports that she was handling the stairs just fine. So, like, you're going to coach forever.

Well, I got 29 years to catch her, so who knows, you know? But I tell you guys, it was a thrill of mine. I have my family there, my grandchild there, my 99 year old mother and a lot of former players came back and like I said, Michigan and Michigan State this year. Rivalries aren't rivalries if both teams aren't good.

Right.

That's another thing about rivalries. You know, you don't have a rivalry. I mean, my first three years here, I couldn't call it a rivalry. You got beat by 20 every night, right. And then we went on a stretcher, we did a lot of the beating and, you know, then John Beeline came Along and we, I think had a very tough rivalry, but a very respectful rivalry. But knowing you guys, the way you are there at barstools, I would probably figure that you'd like us to drop the gloves.

Yeah.

Have a big hockey fist fight.

Yeah.

I would appreciate it.

I wouldn't go over big for me, but I guess once in a while I understand how you guys feel.

Yes, yes. We, we, we love rivalries. We love bad blood. Have you ever kissed the ass, by the way? It's kissing the s not kissing ass. Yeah. Are you an ass kisser? It did definitely sound like the first time you said it. Kissing ass.

I've done that a lot, but no, I haven't. You only do that on your last time in Breslin. This is my last time in Breslin. When it is, I'm positive I'll kiss the ass.

Yes.

Gotcha.

Got to. Speaking of Breslin, I got a question for you. So I'm a Badger. We played you guys last Sunday. What do you do? It's the Izzo Magic. There was a moment in the game where, where Tanjay went up, got called and won. They went to I think commercial break and they're like haha, just kidding. It's ball out out the side. There was no foul there. And then you guys went on a 100 run and ended up winning the game pretty easily. Was that just. You just talked to the ref and you're like, hey, listen, that's not going to happen in my house.

You guys are crazy, man.

You know the moment I'm talking about the game swung on that moment. I'm not an excuse guy, but it swung on that moment.

What do you think I had Uncle Guido doing the refereeing or what?

I don't know, I'm just asking, just asking questions.

Now the truth of it is and Greg Garden, I talk a lot. He's one of my favorite guys. So believe it or not, I guess I got to like you a little bit because I love playing in the job he did. I think he was coach of the year this year. When you look at where they were picked 12, 13. He reinvented his team. He's done an unbelievable job. It's too bad that he has some alums that are turn out like you guys. No, I didn't, I didn't talk to the official. Those guys make mistakes, you know, once in a while. Yeah, once in a while.

Yeah, they make mistakes. Yeah. It was just, it was an interesting mistake. I so, so about Greg Garden. The big ten as A whole. Because you played Iowa on Thursday night and Fran McCaffrey, it's not a. They've had a bad season. And you talked afterwards. You're like, look, this guy's a great coach. You got to stick with these guys. You don't want to make a mistake and move on. You've had some years in your career where it's maybe not been up to expectations. What does it feel like when that kind of the walls close. Do you feel that? Are you like, hey, look, I'm trying my best here, but it's, it's year to year, and the ball doesn't bounce your way sometimes.

You know, there's a lot of things that happen, especially now with this transfer portal and everything. You know, it's, I mean, I look at Greg, guard last year, struggled a little bit, right?

Yeah.

And then. And you, I hope you weren't one of them that was leading the charge.

Never said a bad word.

That guy did an unbelievable job this year. I mean, not only did he reinvent his team, but he reinvented his style. You know, they were scoring 90 points a game.

Yeah.

Bo probably was turning over in his bed out there in Palm Springs. But I was really. No, I, I, I just think that coaches nowadays are in trouble because everybody thinks because you're paying players, you should win. Well, other people are paying players, too.

Yeah.

And you got a lot of problems with these kids leaving and coming and going and, and you can be up one year and down the next. It's going to be. You know, I saw where they just fired the guy at North Carolina State.

Yeah. Yeah.

He went to a Final Four last year. Now, I don't know the particulars to it, so I'm not speaking about it either way. But, you know, there's administrators out there that are crazy, too. You know, it's not just coaches that are crazy. There's administrators that are crazy, too.

Yeah. It feels like the whole college sports, the pressure has just been ramped up even more in terms of urgency and, and just like, win now, win now. And if you don't, like you said, the NIL has changed the landscape for it.

And even in the off season, if you don't, if you don't add guys that your fan base is excited about going to the next year, they almost, like, put you in the hot seat preemptively. Where, where were Spartans fans with you this off season? Were they excited about this year?

I don't know. You know, I do something really good that would probably bother you guys. I'VE never been on Twitter in my life, and I don't plan on starting it.

No.

Because. So they were probably upset with me. I don't know. But I. I didn't know it. I tricked them.

Yeah.

I just didn't read anything. You know, my wife has a rule here. There's no. No newspapers, no online stuff, no anything. So I just kind of do my job. But it is getting harder. You are. You are so right in college athletics in general. But I. I think we still. I think you'd be surprised. You know, it's not 40% of the people are 30 or maybe even 20. It's 10% of the people are 15 that make all the noise.

Right.

And somebody believes them because sometimes administrators, you know, they used to be former coaches, and so the coach understood what was going on. Now, some of them are not former coaches, and I don't think they understand, you know, one big injury like Franny. Yeah, he lost the freshman of the year last year. The guy was averaging almost 17 points a game. He's 6 10, and all of a sudden you don't have him. And, you know, in sports, they do it a lot. In football, they say, well, the theory is next man up. Right? You always hear that line man up. If the next man up was as good as the guy that was there before him, he'd have been a starter. So it's in the same man.

True, true.

Especially when there's not as many men.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

It's like you got. You got five. Good luck. If you lose one, you're gonna have to coach that guy up. When did you realize, though, that this year was it? When the three started falling, you realize that this team might be special?

No, because the three started falling just, you know, maybe a week or two ago, I, you know, we took our team to Spain. We. We did a bunch of stuff this summer to try to keep the culture and camaraderie. I was really lucky because had some guys coming back. Jeremy Fears, who was injured last year, you know, he's come back. I get a guy like Jace Richardson, whose dad one, two Big Ten championships and a national championship here. I think they knew what the culture was. What has really impressed me about my guys is the. The way they bonded together and pulled for one another, and the selfless acts, you know, the sacrifices they made. Maybe a few minutes here, a few points there, and I got to admit, it's been one of the more fun teams I've had to coach. Now, sometimes we're not as good, but we found a way to hang in there, and I'm proud of them.

Yeah. Three, two. The buzzer beater. It's like it started to feel. And you. You had quotes and talking about, like, you know, these guys understand Michigan State. And I was like, oh, this is a problem for the Big Ten because this is Izzo. There's some of. I can kind of. I've been, you know, I know you from afar for a long time. I can tell when you start to get a little swagger. I could tell when you feel like you got some guys and that that happened a few weeks ago. I was like, no, this is a problem.

Well, in that game, you know, the only thing I was frustrated with is we had pretty much been up eight or nine points, you know, and we screwed up at the end, so we need the heroic play. And everybody made it out to be. We were lucky. I thought we played pretty well most of that game.

Yeah.

But it's not the Izzo swagger that does it, because, believe it or not, guys, I never shoot a shot, never get a rebound or make a pass. These guys have. Have taken on their own personality. You kind of hope each team each year has something that they can hang their hat on. You know what I mean? You always want them to learn from the players before them, but you also want them to bring their own identity. This team has been different than most teams before. What's been the same is they got good guys. I think they play for the name on the front and back. I don't think it's just that way where you play for the name on your front anymore. Those days are kind of gone. But if you just play for the name on your back, you got problems. So I think this team has found a way to play for both, and I'm really kind of proud and excited about it, and I'm also enjoying it, you know, and you know me. I don't enjoy a lot of things. So this is.

Are you still daring teams to zone? You, you. You. You threw that out there a couple weeks ago. You said, I dare you to zone us. Is that still standing now that you're hitting your threes?

Well, when I say, Darren, to zone us, I mean, listen, we played Indiana, and I went to the press conference, said I did a poor job. Don't blame the players. Don't. But we did not prepare enough for it. They played like 2% zone. We hadn't worked on it as much. And so it wasn't only that we didn't shoot well. We didn't execute well. And that was, you know, I mean, there's times when coaches got to look in the mirror and say, you know what? I didn't do my job. And I said that in front of everybody. But I vowed then we're going to be making sure that never happens again. So we're working at it harder. But at the end of the day, as you guys know, you can work on anything all you want. If the ball doesn't go in the hoop, it's like hockey, you know, or soccer. You know, you can pepper that goalie, but if it don't go in there, you don't score.

Yeah.

And so there's a combination. You know, we needed to get better at what we do. We need to make some shots, but. But we have to execute better, and that's what we've improved on. Now we're starting to make shots, and then we'd be a much better team.

Yeah.

Have you had to break out the football pads this year?

You know, you guys laugh about that. Every time my old players come back, that's the first thing they talk about. You know, I did it because I was mad, and we had so much fun. I'd have done it again. I just afraid this day and age, some lawyer come in and sue me, you know, I'd get fired. But the guys love it. It's. It's another part of our identity. So maybe someday I'll shut off the cameras and lock the doors and go ask Jonathan to borrow some football gear. That was fun, man. Nick Saban sent over 12 sets. It was awesome.

Yeah. Hey, quick question about your bobblehead. Do you see your bobblehead? Do you think they did a good job with your bobblehead? They have Izzo counter for wins because you're going up there in all the records, like I said. But, you know, you broke Bobby Knight's big ten win record. You just tied him for the conference record. You just keep going, going and going. But they made a bobblehead. I think they could have gotten a little more izzo, maybe put on that, like, crazy leprechaun sweater that you wear, something like that.

No, I don't. Look at my. My bobblehead. I haven't seen my bobblehead. And I'm sure it's not. I'm sure it's not very good. You know, my bobblehead doesn't have to be that big. I'm not that tall, so I don't know what the bobblehead is. But I keep saying I don't win those games, the players win those games. And I mean that, I mean that out of my heart. And. But I also, you know, guys, it's, it's, it's been an interesting three, four years and yet, you know, we won a championship, I think in 17 or 18, 19 and 20, and now another one in 25. So we had a little bit of a downstretch there, but right now, you know how good we are. I don't know. Like I said, it's not the talent laden team that maybe you normally see, but it sure has been a fun team to coach and guys are getting better and I think they believe in each other and they, they play for each other.

Yeah.

And get better than that.

How, how much importance do you put on the tournament now? Now on the, on the conference tournament, Is this something where it means a lot to you, it would mean a lot to the program if you guys won the whole thing, or is it, let's just go out there, let's work on some stuff, we'll try to win, but if we don't win, it's not the end of the world.

Yeah, I don't think I'd ever admit that. But the truth of the matter is, you know, winning the regular season is so important to me because it's that 20 game stretch, you know, and you get lucky or unlucky in three games and you might be in or out here, but I still think it's important because it teaches you how to play when it's one and done time. In other words, if you lose Friday, you're done. And so that's where we had a stretch today. We didn't play very well. And that's first thing I told our guys. Hey guys, you know, if this happens in the NCAA tournament or the Big Ten tournament and you go down, you're out, you know, it's not. Yeah, you just get another chance. So those will be things we'll be working on this week. So it's still important to me, but it doesn't supersede the 20 game grind that we just went through.

Yeah. All right, Coach, I got one last question. This has been so much fun. We, we love having you on. We appreciate you giving us some time. Rollback? Rhobac.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Q zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code take it's actually a two part.

Man, I can't even understand you.

Slow down. It's a two part question because I got. Can you sit up for a second? I want to see the Positive Vibes Only sweatshirt. It looks awesome. Wait, let me get that in frame. See if you can get it in frame. I want to get the. There we go. Positive vibes only. I love that you're wearing that. I don't know if you. I would imagine in, like, the. You know, when you're preseason and you're coaching the guys tough, you're probably not like, hey, guys, positive vibes only. That's all we're going to do. I don't know if that matches your style. You could tell me if I'm wrong. You don't seem like a total Positive Vibes Only guy.

Yeah, you're probably right about that. But it's hard not to be positive when you just went through this 20, you know, game grind and we won the Big Ten championship. Right. So at least for tonight, by tomorrow, we'll be back to dog eat dog. But tonight, we're into the Positive Vibe.

I like that. So my last question, my real last question. You. You. You've been coaching for 30 years. You've seen it all. You've been in all these tournament settings. Do you kind of relish getting into March Madness, into the big Dance, knowing that you have a little bit of an edge because you have seen it all? And that quick turnaround, that's what I love about the tournament, where it's like, you play Thursday, you play Saturday. The coaching staffs do. Players make the plays. You said it a million times. But the coaching staffs do matter because you have such a little prep time for the. For the opponent. It could be a team you never seen. Style you never seen. Do you feel extra confident, though, going in, being like, look, I've seen it all. I know how to coach on 24 hours. I know how to get my team ready quickly on a quick turnaround.

You know, honestly, I would say that's one thing that I'll give my staff's credit of. Over the years, I think we have had enough experience in the eight Final Fours and the things we've done that quick turnarounds are a key. So I feel really comfortable that we'll have our teams prepared, but you still got to play well. But I think. I think the experience, even for a player, experience matters, you know, And I think experience matters in that respect as far as preparing them. But you still got to play the game.

Yeah. Yeah.

How are we feeling about the talk of expanding the tournament? I know that they said that they might look to add eight teams, 16 teams. There's all these plans out there for the future. Where do you stand as a coach?

Yeah, you know, I. I was involved in a lot of things. I was on a lot of committees. But this last. A couple of things that have happened. I've kind of just decided I care about the game a lot. I work for a guy who loved the game. I mean, he. He cared more about how the game went sometimes in our own team. But I would say this. I'm. I'm not really putting enough time in to figure out what's right. I hope they do what's right for basketball, what's right for the players in the game, and not just for money or something else. I hope it's, you know, the best interest of basketball, and I don't know what that would be until I really sat down and observed it. But right now, there's some younger coaches out there that I really respect, are on some of these committees that I think will fight those fights. And in the meantime, I'm going to just. They want my opinion. I give my opinion. And you're going to say, well, what's your opinion? I worry if they expand it too much. You know, we have already. It's tough because we have Cinderella.

You know, football doesn't have Cinderella. Everybody that's in there, I mean, I've been beaten by a 15, right. You know, my good friend Tony Bennett, you know, was beaten by a 16. You know, I mean, it happens in football. That will never happen because that team will never be in there. So the more you expand it, the more those kind of things happen. Which you guys all like the first day, right? But TB doesn't like it. The second round.

No, no.

So it's always fun and exciting for you guys, and meanwhile, I'm sitting home ready to, you know, whatever, and. But I do respect the little guys, too, because I was a Division 2 guy to start with, and. And I have great respect for Cinderella. I have great respect for what VCU did back when Shaka was there. You know, that was. I was pulling for him. But now that I'm on this side, I. It's scary. You know, I. We. We faced Middle Tennessee State, for example, and we were really good. And Denzel, Ballantyne and I thought I had to make it to a Final Four, and we were, I think, one in the country. Defensively, I think they shot 58% in the field and 54% from the three.

Right.

I mean, they just beat us, and that was kind of bone crushing, you know.

Yeah.

I don't know what I'm. What I hope for. I don't want it to be too watered down. And yet I want everybody to get a chance that deserves a chance.

Yeah. Good answer. All right, coach, thank you. Rest that voice. And you, you are very humble, but incredible year, incredible team, and we're excited to watch you guys in March.

Well, you know, the only person would be more excited than YouTube that I did. Come on. Is my son because he spends all the time watching you guys. So clean your act up, do a good job. Talk good about everybody. Be positive.

Yep. Positive vibes sometimes.

Positive vibes sometimes. Then it's dog eat dog.

All right? There you go.

Thank you, coach. Appreciate it so much.

Take care.

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All right, let's wrap up. We got a Monday reading. This one was sent to memes. Good. Am I the question on Reddit. Have you not read this?

I'm just looking at this picture of ISO you posted.

Oh, yeah. Positive vibes only. He looks. He looks like he's a hostage. Yeah, looks like a hostage.

A good rule of thumb is if you're posting something to Am I the yeah, you're usually an.

Yeah. All right. So this one is am I the for letting a neighbor make pack lunch for me. My wife used to pack lunch for me, but I noticed a while back that she stopped making lunch like she used to already. Bad, bad start before. She would get creative with it, take her time, try new recipes, put little special touches here and there. Then I felt like it just became okay, what are the kids having? I'll just make an extra one and give it to them. Or give it. Give that to him, I would make my own lunch. But for one, it's not the same as when she makes it. Haha. And two, I work in construction, so by the time I come home, all I want to do is hit the sheets. And all the places to get lunch near the construction site are expensive, so I'd rather just bring something from home. So I brought it up to her one day and we talked about it, and she told me that she had so many things to do in a day that she didn't have as much time to put her energy into making my lunches like she used to.

Seems reasonable.

It also seems like the lunch might be a metaphor for something else in this relationship.

Yeah, well, it's. So far we've learned that this guy is mad that his lunch wasn't made.

Well.

And also when he gets home, he goes right to bed.

And also, she spends more time making the kids lunches than she does making his lunch.

Yes. God damn it. You got to make technical free throws. You have to make tactical free throws. That's a sidebar. But I could see that she genuinely felt bad, because I noticed the next few lunches were more polished than the previous ones. And I appreciate her so much for trying that when the quality of the lunches started to go down again, I didn't even have the heart to complain. Wow. Fast forward. I have a day off, so my wife drags me to a Bible study that was being hosted at a neighbor's house. The food was so good that I kept going back for more. After my third plate, the woman who had made the food and I started talking. Basically, she told me that she was flattered that I liked her food so much and that she was training to be a chef and that she had more food that she would like me to try out. I told her that that would be perfect because I always am looking for different things to try. And whatever food she made, I could just pick up up in the morning and take with me to lunch.

Okay, so you're let.

You're.

You're asking your neighbor now to make you lunch every day. Does that also entail, like, you going over to her house first thing in the morning?

Well, yes, and. Good question.

To lunch up.

Yes. We exchange information. The next day, she sent me an address to her home, which turned out to be right on the way to work.

Wow.

And not too far from the construction site. So that's where I've been getting lunch for the past few days.

This does seem like a big metaphor.

Yeah.

Like my Wife. It was great. When we first got married, the lunch was fantastic.

But my neighbor, she would do special.

Tricks and it would be, you know, try something new all the time. A lot of variety there. Then it got stale.

Kids showed up.

But then I met. Then I met my neighbor, and man, she makes a hot lunch.

Yeah, and met her at Bible study. So, you know there's nothing there.

Right? This is.

He's hitting all the cliches. I told my wife that she didn't have to make lunch for me anymore. And she didn't say anything until today. She said. She said she thought I was getting lunch from the store. And I said that I don't see why that matters where I'm getting it from. She said she doesn't want me to pick up lunch from there anymore. I told her she was being unreasonable for no reason. We had a big argument a few hours ago and she's still mad. Am I the asshole? I really don't see what the problem is. She doesn't have to worry about taking time out of her day to make lunch for me. And I'm getting quality lunches again. How is this not a win win for everybody? I'm confused. This guy's the most guy brain ever.

It's just lunch, baby.

He is like. He's just quintessential guy. Like, well, I like special lunches. You didn't make me special lunches. I found special lunches. Win win.

There's no difference between me getting the lunch from my neighbor and me buying it at the store. There's no difference if somebody else made it. Why don't you get upset if I go to Wendy's during the day?

All right, Edit, I know what you guys are implying, but it can't be because she thinks I'm cheating. I told her that she can literally check my hours when I arrive at work. I have to clock in. If I was going over to her place to cheat, I would be clocking in late. Unless you come fast. Yeah.

Check my location.

Yeah. Edit two to clarify one, I complained once, but after I saw how bad she felt, I didn't complain again and quietly kept eating the lunch she made.

Good guy.

Hero.

Good guy.

2. Stop making it seem like I intentionally went out looking for another woman to make me food. She's a chef. She saw that I enjoyed her food and came up to me and offered again. She's a chef in training. Obviously she wants people to try out her food. Please stop making it seem like it's more than that because it's not. I love my wife. She's a chef.

I wonder if this guy. Because he's going to construction every day. Do they do trades at lunch and construction like they do in elementary school?

Oh, yeah.

Like, you show up with Dunkaroos elementary school, you roll in with a pack of gushers. You can take five people's sandwiches.

Yeah.

For that one thing.

Absolutely.

So I feel like on a construction site, you probably are able to. To wheel and deal and upgrade. And he probably just. Since she wasn't doing a good job making his lunch anymore, he was probably just left out of the trading circle.

Yeah. Yeah. Edit 3. Well, basically, it seems like it's unanimous that I'm the asshole, but I really can't. He must have just been getting roasted. But I really came here hoping to find out why. And no one really explained to me why it's wrong for me to eat food that a chef ordered offered to me. Especially since my wife has already said in that she's usually too busy to make lunch the way she used to. I thought this would be easier on her and let her have more time in her day to focus on other things. But somehow I wind up the bad guy shaking my head. Thank you for all the responses, but I think I'm going to keep eating at the chef's house. I can't stress enough. This dude is just like. He has the most, like, caveman brain.

I like that he. His whole point of view is, I thought you'd appreciate it.

Yeah.

I thought that. I'm doing this for us.

No one is telling me why this is bad.

I'm doing it for us, babe. I thought you'd be happy that I was going over to her house every morning.

Yeah.

Picking up food.

Here's a reason. It might be why your overstressed wife, who's busy taking care of your kids, maybe doesn't love the fact that you love the food that your. Your hot neighbor is making for you.

And maybe because she was still going out of her way to make you lunch every day.

Yeah.

Your wife was making you lunch every day and it just wasn't up to you.

It wasn't special.

It wasn't like it used to be.

Yeah. I editorialized hot. But we all agree this chef is hot. Hot.

Oh, for sure.

Bible study chef hot.

For sure.

And she's also, like, she is definitely unhappy in her marriage if she's making lunch for a random construction.

Yeah. Does her husband know that? How would this guy feel if he came home and. And there was another guy that was just mowing his lawn.

A construction dude is pulling up to his house every morning, being like, where's my food?

He's. Yeah, he's pulling up. He's got his hard hat on. Oh, he looks like a village person. Maybe just only wearing the vest.

Probably got some sick tattoos. Edit 4 last edit wow. She locked the bedroom door. So I guess I'll be here reading responses from time to time until I fall asleep. How did I get here? I love this dude.

I kind of agree with him.

I love this dude.

It's just lunch.

This dude wants to. Come on. We can. We can have his back and just be like, dude, we still don't understand it. That food. Like, yeah, it's just lunch.

Why didn't she make you special? She doesn't put the treats in there anymore.

Wouldn't win. This is crazy.

She's trained. By the way, she's training to be a chef. Could mean a lot of things.

Oh, yeah.

It could just mean, like, she likes cooking food.

Yeah.

And it's been her dream. Like, when she was a kid, she saw a movie about a chef, and she's like, oh, that'd be fun.

Yeah.

And she just thought about it for a couple years. Or she could actually be in school. My guess is that she just enjoys cooking.

Yeah.

And the guy's like, she's trained to be a chef, man.

She's trained to be a chef and that she's someday going to just be, like, making food for the whole Bible study.

All the boys on the construction.

Yeah. I hope she's an inspiring, like, food tiktoker. Yeah. Like, she has, like, 500 followers on TikTok and, like, is really trying to blow up her page. Yeah. Yeah, that would be great. I love this dude, though. What a meathead. Absolute meathead. All right, good show, boys. Great. Two weeks coming up. Memes. Welcome back. Numbers 3, 33, 8. Three has never been pulled. Memes. Not here. Okay.

I got to pick a new number. I go 60.

You guys go first.

99P51. 21.

Shane, do you want to do 15 seconds on the chargers? Go. Did we already start? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Five bad so far. Very disappointed.

Give me one name. You want fast?

Devonte Adams. I. I don't know. Who's available?

Chris.

Justin Jefferson. Okay.

Okay. All right.

All right. Justin Jefferson. Good call.

56.

3 means you're not gonna get this, so I don't know why. 25. 25. Love you guys.

It.