Andrew Luck In Studio, Brian Windhorst On The Shocking Luka Trade + Monday Reading Live From Super Bowl Week In Nola

Summary

Pardon My Take Episode Summary: February 3, 2025

Hosts: Big Cat & PFT Commenter
Guests: Andrew Luck, Brian Windhorst
Location: New Orleans, Super Bowl Week

---

1. Introduction

The episode kicks off with Big Cat and PFT Commenter setting the stage for a Super Bowl week special. They express excitement about finally securing an in-depth interview with former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck, highlighting the significance of this long-awaited conversation. Additionally, they tease a segment featuring NBA insider Brian Windhorst discussing the unprecedented trade of Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Notable Quote:

• Big Cat [00:00]: "On today's Pardon my take, it is Super Bowl week and we have an awesome interview coming for the people. Andrew Locke."

2. Luka Dončić Trade to the Lakers

A significant portion of the episode delves into the shocking NBA trade that sent Luka Dončić from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. The hosts and Windhorst dissect the complexity and ramifications of the trade.

Key Points:

• Trade Details: Luka Dončić, Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris traded to Lakers. Mavericks receive Anthony Davis, Maxi Christie, and 2029 first-round pick.
• Shock Factor: Considered one of the most shocking trades in NBA history due to Luka's young age (25) and his status as one of the league's top players.
• Brian Windhorst’s Insight: Windhorst emphasizes the unprecedented nature of the trade, comparing it to hypothetical scenarios like trading Lamar Jackson for Joe Burrow in the NFL.

Notable Quotes:

• Big Cat [04:54]: "Traded for Anthony Davis. So the official trade not."
• Brian Windhorst [116:16]: "This is one of the most shocking transactions in American sports history for the magnitude and the way it came out of the blue."

3. Impact on Teams and Players

The discussion moves to the broader impact of the trade on both franchises and key players involved.

Key Points:

• Mavericks' Perspective: The Mavericks' decision appears baffling, raising questions about their long-term strategy and the loss felt by their fanbase.
• Lakers' Strategy: The Lakers aim to build a championship-contending team around LeBron James and Luka Dončić, alleviating pressure on LeBron by adding a dynamic playmaker.
• Anthony Davis Situation: With Davis joining the Lakers, questions arise about his fit and LeBron's potential role in the team's future.

Notable Quotes:

• PFT Commenter [05:35]: "Luka Doncic will definitely make the Lakers a championship contending team. He'll take the pressure off LeBron because of his scoring ability and playmaking."
• Big Cat [06:25]: "I feel like this is one of those situations where...to put it simply, Luka got traded. It was a true, what the fuck Trade."

4. Andrew Luck’s Interview

The highlight of the episode features an extensive interview with Andrew Luck, where he discusses his transition from the NFL to his current role as the General Manager at Stanford University.

Key Topics:

• Retirement Decision: Luck shares the emotional and challenging process of retiring from professional football, emphasizing the support from his family and friends.
• New Role at Stanford: He elaborates on his responsibilities, focusing on managing the transfer portal and building a competitive NCAA football program.
• Mental and Physical Health: Luck touches on his approach to maintaining physical health and the psychological aspects of being a quarterback.
• Reflections on Coaching: Discussing his time under coaches like Jim Harbaugh and Bruce Arians, Luck highlights the lessons learned and their impact on his career.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Luck [37:20]: "The hardest decision in my life, but also, like, the most clarity I've had about something."
• Andrew Luck [55:38]: "I never felt alone through that as well. I can't imagine going through a process feeling alone."

5. Monday Reading: Time Capsule

As part of the episode's special segments, the hosts engage in their "Monday Reading" time capsule, reflecting on memorable moments from the show's history. They recount a humorous anecdote involving Max's experience on a plane, highlighting the camaraderie and lightheartedness that defines the podcast.

Key Points:

• Flashback to a Year Ago: They reminisce about a Super Bowl week a year prior, sharing amusing stories about fellow host Max's in-flight behavior.
• Humorous Interactions: The segment underscores the show's blend of sports commentary and personal banter, fostering a relatable and entertaining atmosphere.

Notable Quotes:

• PFT Commenter [133:12]: "It's exactly one year ago today... Max was completely in his own world."
• Big Cat [139:43]: "This is a yearly tradition, and I think probably next year. I wonder what we're gonna do for next year."

6. Predictions and Wrap-Up

The hosts conclude the episode with their annual Super Bowl score predictions, demonstrating the playful and speculative nature of the show. They also engage in lighthearted banter, further cementing the show's signature humor.

Key Points:

• Super Bowl Predictions: Max predicts a high-scoring game favoring the Eagles, while others share their takes.
• Closing Remarks: The episode wraps up with reflections on the discussions and a nod to upcoming segments and guests.

Notable Quotes:

• Max [131:26]: "Right now I'm going to go 32, 24, Eagles 32."
• Big Cat [133:27]: "Just a little bit... It's a good show, boys."

---

Conclusion

This episode of "Pardon My Take" offers a blend of in-depth sports analysis, exclusive interviews, and the hosts' trademark humor. From dissecting one of the most surprising NBA trades to gaining insights from a retired NFL star transitioning to a management role, listeners are treated to a comprehensive overview of current sports dynamics. The inclusion of personal stories and lighthearted segments like the Time Capsule ensures an engaging and well-rounded listening experience for both avid sports fans and casual listeners alike.

Transcript

[Big Cat]

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 Pardon my take, it is super bowl week and we have an awesome interview coming for the people. Andrew Locke. We've been looking to get this interview done for about seven years. He came into HQ actually, Sunday morning and before we left for New Orleans. Really, really great interview. Awesome.

[PFT Commenter]

To talk to him, he autographed our AFC finalist banner.

[Big Cat]

He did so. Very cool guy. I think everyone's gonna really enjoy it. Hot. Some people are saying hot. We also called the emergency Brian Windhorse bat phone and got him on for 15 minutes to talk about the Luca trade to the Lakers, which shocked everyone. We're here in New Orleans. We're going to talk a little Super Bowl. We have a Monday reading for the people time capsule.

[PFT Commenter]

We do this every Monday. Super Bowl.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And it's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. This ain't the little itty bitty, teeny, tiny bowl. This is Super Bowl 59. Get it on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of Super Bowl 59. Scoring touchdowns is key to hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and you have a shot to score big by betting on them at DraftKings Sportsbook, the number one place to bet touchdowns. Ready to place your first bet? Try betting on something simple like a player. To score six, go to the DraftKings sportsbook app. Make your pick. New DraftKings customers can bet $5. Get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. For new customers, get $200 in bonus bets instantly. When you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings sportsbook, the crown is yours. Gambling problem.

[Andrew Luck]

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[Big Cat]

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[Andrew Luck]

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[Big Cat]

Boyd in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus pets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG co Audio. Okay, let's go. I love guys who like football and.

[Andrew Luck]

Guys who like football. They like me back and I like.

[Big Cat]

Them back and you guys don't like football.

[Andrew Luck]

They try to avoid me because I'm always Trying to get them like football, football.

[Big Cat]

Football. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. For new customers, get $200 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings sportsbook. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, February 3rd, and welcome to Max week. Max.

[PFT Commenter]

No, it's like, max, Max, Max, max.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah, there's a little football game going on too.

[PFT Commenter]

It's like, it's mega. Think about it. Instead of mega, it's just Max. We're taking the show to the max this week.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's Max week.

[Max]

I don't know I'm dialed. I'm dialed on the birds. I don't know. I. I don't know what you guys are trying.

[PFT Commenter]

You're not wearing any.

[Hank]

You're wearing a dog. You're wearing a dog on your shirt right now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he's wearing Casey Roback.

[Big Cat]

Roback. But the real story is Luca got traded to the Lakers.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, I thought you're going to lead with Dwana Bonner signed with a fever.

[Big Cat]

That too. Big time stories everywhere, but yeah, Luca.

[PFT Commenter]

Doncic, instant championship contenders.

[Big Cat]

That is Big time fever are actually building a bully.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, Hank doesn't know because he's a misogynist.

[Big Cat]

That's true.

[Hank]

False.

[Big Cat]

Luka Doncic traded to the Lakers late Saturday night, shocked the NBA world. Traded for Anthony Davis. So the official trade not. Listen, I'm not saying that it's Max week, but the official trade was Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, Markief Morris. And then the Mavericks receive Anthony Davis, max Christie and 2029 LA first round pick. Two maxes in the trade.

[PFT Commenter]

And now Luca can't get the supermax.

[Big Cat]

And sue, he can't get the supermax. And then obviously the Jazz also got in there because Danny angel is sniffing a trade and was like, I want in. They traded Jalen Hood, Schiffino 2025 Clippers second. 2025 Mavericks second. I don't even know how the Jazz get into it, but it's not hyper. Hyperbole to say this is probably the most shocking trade in NBA history just because Luka is 25 years old. He's one of the top five players in the NBA. He just took his team to the finals and he gets traded to the Lakers with no bidding whatsoever.

[PFT Commenter]

There was a mystery team.

[Big Cat]

There was a mystery team which I think was added just to make Nico. What's his name? Nico Hollands. The what's it what is his name?

[PFT Commenter]

The Mavs gm?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Nico Collins. Call him Nico Nico. Make him feel a little better. But it seems like they did this deal. Nico Harrison, guy who screwed up the Steph Curry to Nike deal. It. It's crazy because it feels like Luca could have gotten. The Mavs could have gotten way more for Luca, and instead he goes to Lakers. And now I don't even know what to like. It was a true. What the fuck Trade. Well, let's actually had to say. I'm not. I have not been hacked. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

This is serious. Let's kick it over to Magic Johnson, who had a great reply.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Summed it up nicely. Luka Doncic will definitely make the Lakers a championship contending team. He'll take the pressure off LeBron because of his scoring ability and playmaking. It'll make every Laker better. LeBron James will be a positive influence on Luca, teaching him his championship mentality. That includes taking his conditioning seriously.

[Big Cat]

I actually do believe in that part. Like that. If. What.

[PFT Commenter]

That's Magic calling Luca fat.

[Big Cat]

Well, I mean, Luke has been called fat. I mean, there was. There was a report that he's 270 pounds. I think it's discrimination against big boys, that they're basically. They're trying to drag Luca through the mud, being like, the guy's just so fat, he can't. We had to trade them. When in reality, you didn't have to trade him. It made no sense to trade him. I mean, Mark Cuban, even. I know he's not the owner of the Mavs anymore. But remember a few years ago when he said, like, if you made me decide between my wife and Luca, I'll see you at the divorce proceedings?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I mean, like, Lucas, Crazy Lucas, everything you want. If you're a fan. If you're a fan of the Dallas Mavericks, that sucks. Because Luca, he got you to an NBA Finals last year. Who cares if he's 270 pounds, if he's scoring 40 points every game in the playoffs? You need a guy like that to get there. You need. As Big Cat said, you need a top five. He's one of the best players in the NBA. The Celtics, we looked last year, they had. They had Brown. You gotta have a superstar.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. You have to. I mean, this is. It's. It's shocking. I don't understand what the Mavericks were thinking. If you're a mad fan, I feel like, so, so sad for you because you get a guy like Luca and he's going to be part of your life for 15 years. And you're like, we're always going to at least be competing because we have Luka Doncic. And then he gets traded, 25 years old, to the Lakers. I don't know how the Lakers keep getting away with it. I also, is there any chance that Jerry Jones was involved in this because Luca was. You know, the Cowboys have been so bad. New coach Luka's the star in Dallas. Get him out of town.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know. But I recall a trade that didn't go through way back in the day. Chris Paul, you remember that trade. And David Stern was like, no, I'm not going to allow this for the good of the league. It feels like this is obviously, AD Is a great player. He's very good defensively. He's like been all NBA first team defense, what, like seven times. He's a Hall of Fame.

[Big Cat]

He's a top 15.

[PFT Commenter]

So this is not. I'm not saying that it's something where the commissioner should step in and be like, no, this trade can't happen. But if this trade happens and there's nobody else offering anything for it, if you don't put it out for. For bid right across the league, right? It seems like you're maybe. Maybe you owe something. Maybe you're in debt to the ownership of the Lakers. Maybe you need a favor from the Lakers at a later date and you're playing nice with them.

[Big Cat]

Maybe the league needs the Lakers to be good. And they're like, LeBron's getting old and we got to put superstar in Los Angeles because, I mean, that is the history of the Los Angeles Lakers is they just go from superstar to superstar. Magic, I mean, well, before even Magic. Kareem Wilt Chamberlain, Magic. Kobe, Kwame Brown. Kwame Brown, Smush Parker. Like all these guys.

[PFT Commenter]

Steve Blake.

[Big Cat]

And now they go LeBron. Anthony Davis to Luca. It's crazy. It's crazy.

[PFT Commenter]

It is. So I was looking at the Lakers roster earlier today. You've got LeBron, you've got Luca, you've got Austin Reeves, you've got Dalton connect.

[Big Cat]

Why are Hank and Max making eyes together?

[Max]

Celtics and six are playing right now. So six are just blew a 20 point lead.

[Big Cat]

Oh, no. Okay, keep going. Let me.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, so the roster.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, they were literally making like, you eyes.

[Max]

I was trying to communicate the score of what is going on.

[Big Cat]

Got it.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. Max is locked in on the birds. Philly sports. Got it. You've got LeBron, Luca, you've got Austin Reeves, Dalton connect. How many balls are there in the NBA? How many balls there's one on the court at any given time.

[Big Cat]

Well, actually there's two. Lonzo Lamelo. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

When they're out there.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, but there's one.

[PFT Commenter]

So the Lakers, I guess they're just gonna, you can score your way to maybe a playoff series win, but I don't know, I, I feel like it's a great move long term for the Lakers. I don't know if they're gonna be good this year, but the, the, they'll be good.

[Big Cat]

I just don't know if they'll win this title to be made.

[Hank]

There's more moves, but it's not gonna be the roster.

[Big Cat]

It doesn't matter for like LeBron might not win another title. Luke is 25 and they just have him now. Like, they're going to give him the max. He's going to stay in la. They're going to build a whole team around him.

[PFT Commenter]

The food is healthier in LA too.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go to Erewhon and be like, what the is this? He's going to lose 10 pounds just looking at it.

[Hank]

The conspiracies. When you see what other players, all star players, all pro players, the, you know, what the teams that traded them got back in return compared to what the Mavs got for Luca. That's where the conspiracy really, really gets hot. Because it's like Kevin Durant, they got a million picks.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Paul George, the Thunder God, a million picks.

[Big Cat]

I mean, we're going to talk to Wendy, but he, I mean like, the spurs have nine first round picks. I think. You don't think the spurs would have given up nine first round picks for Luca. I mean, he, yeah, yeah. What was. Kevin Ray was four first round picks and Mikhail Bridges, and Luca is younger than that. And like, it just makes no sense. I don't understand.

[Hank]

They traded Mikhail Bridges for like three first rounds.

[Big Cat]

I don't understand any of this. I, I, it was shocking. I feel like everyone's still in shock. The big loser in all of this is the Mavs fans. I actually think the Mavs might, I mean, Anthony Davis, like, they'll be a good team, but it's the wind and the. Davis is a very good player. He's 31 years old. Lucas, 25.

[Hank]

How bad do you think it must feel for Anthony Davis where it's like, you're like, I'm a, I'm an NBA champion, All Pro, like, unbelievable player. And everyone is just like, what a.

[Big Cat]

This is, like, this is one of those situations where it's like if you, if you like two people that, that cheat on their significant others and then get together, it's like that relationship eventually is going to end up with them cheating again. Anthony Davis got traded to the Lakers when LeBron was like, we need help and we need to get everyone out of here. And then. I'm not saying LeBron said it this time, but that's how he got there.

[Hank]

He had no idea.

[Big Cat]

He had no idea. No idea.

[PFT Commenter]

He found out just like the rest of us.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

Now, did you see the press conference that Jason Kidd did with Nico?

[Big Cat]

No.

[PFT Commenter]

That was awkward.

[Big Cat]

Well, it was. Also, the entire Mavs team sat out today. They basically protested and they lost by a billion to the.

[PFT Commenter]

It was very awkward. You had Nico sitting next to Jason Kid, who looked like he was in a hostage tape, and Jason Kid didn't know about it until the trade happened either. And then Nico was like, yeah, you know, this might be one that we look back on maybe, you know, it could be the greatest thing that happened, could be bad. And Jason Kid's just like, jesus Christ.

[Big Cat]

What is. Did he.

[Hank]

Like, something happened.

[Big Cat]

Something happened. Something has to have happened, because otherwise it makes no sense. And it's. It can't just be Lucas Fat. And obviously, we had the clip of Nico after they won the Western Conference last year. Taking the beer out of Lucas hand, Maybe that's where the rift started. You never take a beer out of another man's hand. But something had to have happened. It can't just be Lucas. £270, but he's not bad.

[Hank]

Luca also twisted the knife. I feel really bad for Maths fans, but his statement where he was like, I love Dallas. I thought I was going to be here for my whole career and win a championship. I'm sad it didn't happen like that. If you're a Mavs fan and you read that like that they were doing.

[Big Cat]

You see the Mavs fans with the casket? No, they had a casket outside of American Airlines Arena. It was just like he. He died. I mean, I, I, I don't know how you, how do you get off the mat if you're a Maps fan? You just went to the finals with Luca. Yeah, he's a little pudgy. Yeah, he's a little out of shape. He's 25. I do think he's going to get in really good shape with LeBron.

[Hank]

That's where it's like. If you treat him because he's fat, it does. It's not that that's a fixable thing, but he's also.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, the thing is he's not fat. He might be a little pudgy.

[Hank]

He doesn't play defense.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Well, he's not in the best shape that he could be in and that obviously you need him to be in better shape, but I do. I think he's in better shape around LeBron.

[PFT Commenter]

He's in better shape than Zion.

[Big Cat]

Well, that was. The thing is Zion's got to be like I want. I would imagine Zion was like, watching this trade happen. He's like, wait, they can trade you because you're fat? Like, this is going to be bad.

[PFT Commenter]

That was James Harden's entire strategy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, right. It's true. Yeah. Yeah. But he was just like, oh, I better. I better try to get in better shape.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, no, I'll get traded to the Lakers.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, right. What? You guys already just said what the score is that.

[Max]

I wasn't even looking. That was Hank.

[PFT Commenter]

You guys are not locked in. Max is not locked.

[Hank]

I'm locked in.

[Big Cat]

No, Max is not locked in. Max also isn't any wearing any Birds gear.

[PFT Commenter]

Why aren't you wearing any Eagles gear?

[Max]

It's a long super bowl week. It's Sunday.

[PFT Commenter]

It's.

[Big Cat]

We saw a woman with birds gear.

[Hank]

Question. Do you have enough Eagles gear to wear for eight days with me and.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Hank]

In life.

[Max]

In life.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Hank]

So why wouldn't you just. Why would you just pack eight days worth of Eagles gear? I'm super bowl week.

[Max]

I will wear Eagles gear every other. Every other day.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, every other day. Meaning you wear it tomorrow and then not Tuesday, then you'll wear it again on Wednesday?

[Max]

No.

[PFT Commenter]

Every day this week.

[Max]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

If there's another Eagles fan that walks by you, they don't know to say go Birds.

[Max]

Incorrect.

[PFT Commenter]

I think they look at Max. They know I got to see his eye.

[Max]

Someone. Someone did it in the lobby today. Right?

[Andrew Luck]

Right.

[Max]

When they. As they were giving me about not wearing Eagles gear and that no one was going to say, go Birds. Some guy walked by right away, said, go, Birds.

[Big Cat]

Go Birds.

[PFT Commenter]

I would be head to toe on Commander Skier if we were in this game. Max. Head to toe.

[Max]

You basically were.

[PFT Commenter]

I've been thinking, come on, one point game. Yeah, it is. It's sad because I. I got here and I. I just looked at outside and I was like, how awesome would this week be if the Commanders were in the game? I would like our chances if we were playing this game, I really would.

[Big Cat]

Even after losing by.

[PFT Commenter]

No, no. Because if we were in this game.

[Big Cat]

But what if they had just been like, you know what? You guys are going to this, like, if all the.

[PFT Commenter]

If every Eagle got arrested.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

If they shut down the team. There's still time.

[Big Cat]

Chances.

[PFT Commenter]

No.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

No, but if. If we had beaten the Eagles.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I would have. I would have agreed.

[PFT Commenter]

If we had won.

[Big Cat]

Oh, my God.

[PFT Commenter]

I would love our chance.

[Big Cat]

I would like your chances as well. Yeah. All right. So anything else on Luca? I just. It's baffling. Yeah. The Mavs, I. I need to. I need.

[Hank]

I need Cuban. Unfiltered. That's what I really. I don't know that I. I'm sure it'll release some type of statement, but I would love for him to just.

[Big Cat]

And people are blaming Cuban, which I like. Obviously, he had nothing to do with it, but he did have something to do with it because he sold the team. And Mark Cuban never in a million years would have traded Luca because He understands the NBA. And when you have a top five guy, you don't trade him when he's 25. That's.

[Hank]

And that's all like Wind Horse and all the other, you know, guys on tv. The insiders are like, I've never gotten reached out by this many GMs. And, you know, people within the league being like, this makes no sense. That's what. None of it makes sense to anyone except for Nico.

[PFT Commenter]

There's gonna be some other stuff that is very weird, I feel to see. The Athletic is going to write a post mortem on this trade in like two months.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

That's when you're going to get the real one where it's like, here's exactly everything. We'll probably hear something later on this week, but I don't think we're going to know the full story for a while. And I don't think that this is done. But, hey, credit to the NBA. It's super bowl week.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

And all it took was the most bizarre trade of all time to get us to talk about the league.

[Big Cat]

They are going to trash Luca this week. There's going to be a lot of like. I even saw some like. Well, they don't know his injury might be. Take him longer to get back. Who cares? Yeah, he could have. He could have been out for this entire year. You still don't trademark. Oh, they were worried about giving him the supermax. Who cares? It's crazy.

[Hank]

Fourth of July, Kevin Durant, warriors was like the last time.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we're shocked. And that was. You know how shocking it is when you saw actual players like Kevin Durant being shown on the Sideline and him being like, what? How is this. I just don't understand the part that I can't get over. Like, take out the fact that it's shocking. Luka got traded. Like the Mavs, they'll be good, but only for a couple more years. Who knows what's going to happen? Everyone wants Luka. Why didn't you just say, hey, Luka's available? Every team would have lined up to give everything for Luca.

[PFT Commenter]

That's the part that makes you do the wind Horse fingers, right? It's like, why, why this guy? And then why don't you give every other team an opportunity to bring their best and final offer, and then you get a fucking king's ransom.

[Big Cat]

Because Luke even said he had no idea about this. Which again, you're right. Like, we're going to find out more in a couple months. But the only way that it would, this trade would make sense is if Lucas said to them, hey, I'm never signing the supermax here. All I want to do is go to the Lakers. And then he has to do whatever he can to get him to Lakers. But I don't think even then you're, if you're a gm, just you, you have all, you have the leverage. Go fucking trade him somewhere else.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't think that would happen. What, what player would be like, I don't want to sign the Supermax players, sign with shitty teams for supermaxes all the time.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So Bradley Beal ended up in Phoenix, but the thing is, with the gm, in his statement that he put out afterwards, he said, like, this is us getting ahead of what could be a tumultuous summer as we decide whether or not to give him the Superbac. He basically didn't want to have to make a hard decision.

[Big Cat]

It's not a hard decision.

[PFT Commenter]

So he trades.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, like, I don't know, sign him to Supermax, put him on Ozempic. That's an easy decision. I, I don't get it. I, none of this makes sense to me. I'll, I'll be baffled forever for this trade. Unless something crazy comes out. It's like Luca actually is going to retire and move back to, to Europe.

[Max]

What about the International League? Come.

[Big Cat]

What about it?

[Hank]

What if, I don't know, it's all supermaxes?

[Big Cat]

I, I, we have the supermax at home.

[PFT Commenter]

I have floated this on the plane. I don't know if that's what Max is bringing up that, that they're starting.

[Big Cat]

By the way, this might not be a full conspiracy. Theories.

[PFT Commenter]

It might not be meant for the podcast, but since Max brought it up, I was like, oh, what if LeBron, when he starts his International League, he. He gets the Saudi oil money in and Luca knows that he's gonna be able to get paid 500 million.

[Big Cat]

Was this before or after the. Hank said that we have like five years Max left to live because the army. Maybe Nico is on under the line of thinking of. Of Hank, where it's like, just joking around. Luca, we only have a five year window on life.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm just trying to like, the world kill time.

[Big Cat]

Luca being 25 means nothing.

[PFT Commenter]

He's like, have you noticed that we don't talk about the bridge in Baltimore anymore? Something's up.

[Big Cat]

The Dolphins by the end of it.

[PFT Commenter]

I think it's an underwater volcano that's.

[Hank]

Going to go off and no one cares about it.

[PFT Commenter]

I think Hank fully believes that we're living a simulation right now.

[Hank]

Podcast discussion.

[Big Cat]

You brought up the simulation.

[PFT Commenter]

I got you deep into the simulation.

[Hank]

I didn't even know about the simulation until you brought it up.

[PFT Commenter]

But now you think you're living in.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Hank]

But you think you're living in one. And you trying to indoctrinate me.

[Big Cat]

Oh, refuse.

[PFT Commenter]

You're too real.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, you are too real.

[Hank]

I was just trying to, like, have some light combo with the boys, like.

[PFT Commenter]

About we're all gonna die.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Oh, while we're on the plane, let's talk about some plane accident. Yeah. Memes being like, oh, yeah. Some British tick tocker predicted that there would be a plane crash of. Of social media company. So that was social. Social media.

[PFT Commenter]

Couple.

[Big Cat]

Couple.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. A couple.

[Big Cat]

We're a couple.

[Hank]

I'm just gonna enjoy with you guys.

[Max]

So the International Basketball League, that could be a thing. Worldwide WOB said. I will say this, something I've been made privy to this morning. The timing of the International Basketball League is not a coincidence.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, was I right?

[Max]

Worldwide WOB source.

[Hank]

Question, answer, score.

[Max]

Oh, I was looking at. I was looking at Twitter.

[Andrew Luck]

It.

[Max]

Answer. Yeah, it's over. Celtira 5.

[Andrew Luck]

Let's go.

[Max]

Minute, minute, minute 12.

[Big Cat]

Stay locked in on the birds.

[Max]

Yeah, who cares? I want. I want the Sixers to tank anyway.

[Big Cat]

Other sports.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, there's. There was one other person that weighed in on this, on this trade. Schefter. Oh, Adam Schefter. And I think we have to discuss this with him at the combine. But he tweeted out an NFL equivalent. The Ravens trading Lamar Jackson plus to the Bengals in exchange for Joe Burrow plus.

[Big Cat]

No, not even Close.

[PFT Commenter]

You don't. You don't agree with that? First of all, I don't know.

[Hank]

Ages are different.

[PFT Commenter]

I told him that Lamar Jackson plus who is who in that situation. That sounds like a streaming service.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like he's exchanging two different. No, but in that, there's no. There's no ads.

[Big Cat]

The one that I saw that made sense for the NFL would be like after the Bengals went to the super bowl because they lost in the Super Bowl. Like Matt, like the Mavs lost in the Finals. It'd be like trading Joe Burrow for like Dak Prescott. He'd be like, why? Why would you do that?

[PFT Commenter]

If Dak had won anything.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I guess if Dak had won the bubble championship.

[Max]

Matt Stafford.

[Big Cat]

Matt Stafford. But yeah, the bubble champion. Yeah. Matt Stafford would be a good Stafford. But yeah, like trading Joe Burrow in his prime. Yeah. Right before, like, to someone who's also good. But. But I guess, yeah. Matt Stafford's more. Because Dak is 17th ranked quarterback. Someone who's older. It's like, why would you do that? That makes no sense.

[PFT Commenter]

But nice try, Shafter, but I like him getting involved.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And then everybody else was just putting trades in, in NFL terms all day.

[Big Cat]

Do you think Woj would have known about this?

[PFT Commenter]

I think Woj.

[Big Cat]

Is this a Woj vacuum where we. We were surprised because Woj isn't with us.

[PFT Commenter]

Here's what I like to imagine happened. I like to imagine that Woj got the scoop.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And he had it first.

[Big Cat]

He knew it for a week.

[PFT Commenter]

And he looked at his phone and there was a moment where he thought to himself, I'm about to go back to the old me.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And then he smiled and he goes, nope, I left that life behind a long time ago. And put the phone away.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And just didn't log on for about 12 hours.

[Big Cat]

He's beer man in the St. Bonnie student section. He's like, no, this is the life I live now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I'm here with my people.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I like to think he knew. He should have. He should have just tweeted, being like, I knew about this.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Just eyeballs.

[Hank]

It was waiting for this to come out. Crazy story.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah, that's. They told me about this two months ago.

[PFT Commenter]

Just give us. Give us the eyeballs next time. You know something, you don't have to break it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. He could do that for every single one. All right. Other national sports podcast news. Coach Cal going back to Kentucky dropped his nuts on.

[Andrew Luck]

On.

[Big Cat]

On Kentucky. That sucked for Kentucky fans. I also did you guys see there was like multiple people being like, don't boo him.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. That was a big conversation.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Boom.

[Big Cat]

Boom.

[PFT Commenter]

He wanted to leave. Boom.

[Big Cat]

You could celebrate him. When time has passed and he's not coaching the SEC anymore, there'll be a night where you can have Cal come back and. And celebrate the 2012 team and all that. You. Boom. When he comes back. Right now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, agreed. He's a league rival.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, exactly. Boom. Boo the. Out of him. Chip Kelly's back in the NFL.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Raiders love that. Is he just gonna bounce around? I kind of like this.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I think so. I don't know if one place can tie old Chip down. Yeah. But yeah, he had a great season at Ohio. His stock was at a high. It was at a premium.

[Big Cat]

It was.

[PFT Commenter]

And so Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly. I do. I like what they're building in Las Vegas. I think I might.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Oh, I forgot this one. Stat hole sports. Our guy. He did mention that Luca was 300 points away from breaking the all time Mavs record for points scored, which is held by Michael Finley. Michael Finley is part of the front office.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, interesting.

[Big Cat]

So maybe Michael Finley was like, can't lose this stat. What breaking moves? Luca's actually 300 pounds. Sacramento is finalizing a trade to send De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio spurs.

[Andrew Luck]

In a multi team trade that moves.

[PFT Commenter]

Chicago Bulls Zach Levine to the Kings.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right. They did it.

[PFT Commenter]

All right, so Darren Fox.

[Hank]

Darren Fox on the Bulls would be fun.

[Big Cat]

Oh, no. We want to lose.

[PFT Commenter]

I feel like that's a great trade for the Spurs.

[Hank]

What are the oddball.

[PFT Commenter]

What do the spurs give up? Terms are not out yet. Okay. So it must be somebody really good. No, that's. That's great. That's great for the Spurs. I want to see Wimby in some actual serious, like, playoff time this year.

[Big Cat]

Wait, so what is in. What else is in the trade, dear Fox?

[PFT Commenter]

The Spurs, Bulls.

[Big Cat]

So what do the Bulls get? They even get a pick.

[Hank]

Big cat suite right now is finally. Let's lose some games.

[Big Cat]

No, it's the Bulls actually. Did it lose? Get picks, Lose some more. That's. I mean, they. They're. They shouldn't. I'm tired of being the 10C.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And losing the playing game.

[Hank]

Bulls need to get mellow.

[Big Cat]

You want. You want balls together and draft Chicago would be.

[Andrew Luck]

Would be electric.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the Chicago balls. Glenny. Glenny's their coach. All right. So. All right. That was good breaking moves. So it doesn't hit like the Luca trade, though. No, nothing's gonna hit, like, the Luca trade. That was aware.

[Hank]

Like, that was. I was. I was in bed. Everyone remembers where they were.

[Big Cat]

I was also in bed.

[Hank]

I was in bed. And then I didn't sleep for like an hour and a half. Like, I was. I was ready to go to sleep. One last check, and then I was like, there's. There's no way this is happening. And then I was sleeping.

[Big Cat]

I was taught. I was so exhausted from The Taylor Mathis vs Jeff Naju spaces that I had to go to bed.

[Max]

I was sleeping in. Stephen Chase tweet broken the news to me.

[Big Cat]

What was Stephen Chase street again?

[Max]

It was so dumb. And that's how I found out. And I was so pissed.

[PFT Commenter]

A baby that was conceived during the maverick Celtics finals would not yet be born. And Luca is no longer on the Mavericks.

[Max]

What a stupid fucking tweet. I read it, like, four times. I was like, what does this mean? And then I finally read the quote tweet underneath, and I was like, holy shit.

[PFT Commenter]

It just means what just happened. Less than nine months happened. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

All right, should we do who's back the week? Back of the week. And it is a new sponsor alert.

[Hank]

Big one.

[Big Cat]

Hit it, hit it. Hit the new sponsor alert. Sound get is truly unruly. 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. Comes in four fresh flavors. Tropical twist, berry blast, Citrus crush, Strawberry smash. It's the official hard seltzer of Pardon my take. Find Truly Unruly at a store near you or visit www.trulyhardselter.com. thank you. The people at Truly, they love Pardon my take. We love them. We got some awesome stuff coming. We're going to get unruly. Truly unruly. Go check it out now. Like I said, four fresh flavors. Tropical twist, Berry blast, Citrus crush, Strawberry Smash. And with 8% ABV, it's. It hits hard, but still tastes amazing. Find Truly Unruly at a store near you or visit www.trulyhardselter.com. we've got a lot of stuff coming with Truly, so thank you. Truly loves us, so let's love them back. All awls. Let's get. Let's get unruly. It's truly unruly time. So thank you to Truly. All right, who's back of the week?

[Hank]

Fantastic. Fantastic. Drinks for the golf course.

[Big Cat]

Let's go. Yes.

[Hank]

Especially The Berry Blast.

[Big Cat]

My favorite way to work golf into it.

[Hank]

And my. Who's back? Lucas Roy McElroy.

[Andrew Luck]

Oh.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah. He's smashing.

[Big Cat]

Nice.

[Hank]

He won the AT T Pro Am at Pell Beach.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

I saw it.

[Hank]

27Th one on tour.

[PFT Commenter]

He nuked to drive like 340 yards and then hit a seven iron or 220.

[Hank]

Yeah, easy eagle.

[PFT Commenter]

If I had that distance, I'd be so good.

[Big Cat]

The Bulls got no picks.

[PFT Commenter]

All right, all right.

[Big Cat]

Kevin Herder, red hair, and he's a friend of ours. Yeah. Fuck, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Hurt or injured, I knew they were.

[Big Cat]

They just.

[Hank]

They just got rid of Levine.

[Big Cat]

They weren't going to get picks. Well, I think we said this was Brazil. Like, they're not. They weren't going to get picks.

[Hank]

So they just offloaded Levine.

[Big Cat]

Basically, yes. But they're going to get picks when they keep their picks by not finishing in the playing game.

[PFT Commenter]

They're getting worse.

[Big Cat]

Updating my tweet. Okay, no picks now, but picks coming, I think. No pick.

[PFT Commenter]

Got to get worse before you go. Picks now, you're real bad.

[Big Cat]

But picks when they lose.

[Hank]

Do you guys have cap space?

[Big Cat]

Keep their picks. Well, yeah, because Zach Levine was taking up a lot. Picks when they lose. That's the plan. Balls in the future, maybe. Picks in the future, Parentheses maybe. Okay. Rory McElroy. Golf doesn't start. To the Masters. What are we doing?

[PFT Commenter]

But this is a tune up for the Masters.

[Hank]

This might be his year.

[Big Cat]

This is the Masters. Tune up. Oh, his year to what? Blow it and finish second?

[Hank]

No, that is the year he might turn around.

[PFT Commenter]

You think so?

[Hank]

It's kind of after. After this weekend.

[PFT Commenter]

I like Jake Knapp.

[Hank]

He's great. Swing a long shot a little younger, but yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

20,000 to one.

[Hank]

Okay.

[Max]

I like Max Homa 72.

[PFT Commenter]

It's MaxWeek.

[Big Cat]

Max Week. It's super Max week. Super Max week.

[Max]

Birds week.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Birds week. Max week. Okay. Pft.

[PFT Commenter]

Truly's really good. Do people call them truly in Edelman's? I think I might pass me one of those. Truly an edible.

[Big Cat]

I like that. I like that.

[PFT Commenter]

I feel like that's got legs.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

My.

[PFT Commenter]

Who's back of the week is Six Nations Rugby.

[Big Cat]

Rugby. Oh, you guys are just so on brand right now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, listen, if you can't get up for Six nations rugby, there's something wrong with you. Check your ticker. It's great. Wait, you don't like Six Nations?

[Hank]

What was this?

[Big Cat]

I forget.

[Hank]

What day was it? Thursday. We're in the cave. Or maybe Friday.

[PFT Commenter]

Friday and Saturday morning.

[Hank]

Can you turn on some Six Nations? He was just like, what?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, he's going to start watching. It's incredible. England, Ireland had a great match on Saturday morning. It's a perfect thing to watch on Saturday morning when there's nothing else. If you don't want to watch soccer.

[Hank]

Sevens.

[PFT Commenter]

No, no, it's full 15s. Yeah. So it's 80 minute games, actual starting national teams for all these countries, and they just beat the out of each other. It's incredible to watch.

[Big Cat]

Are.

[Hank]

Are we in it?

[PFT Commenter]

No, we're not. One of the six nations. Oh, it's like the Four Aces. I probably couldn't name all of them. Italy, Wales, England.

[Hank]

That's like one nation.

[PFT Commenter]

Ireland. No, these are the six nations. France and then who's. Who's a six nation?

[Max]

Australia.

[Hank]

All Blacks.

[Max]

I was watching some Jordan.

[PFT Commenter]

I think Six nations highlights.

[Andrew Luck]

He. It.

[Big Cat]

What?

[PFT Commenter]

He's a problem.

[Max]

He was a issue on the pitch is what they call it.

[Big Cat]

The pitch?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, the pitch.

[Big Cat]

Football, though. That is pretty. I mean, Jordan, Scotland.

[Andrew Luck]

Jordan.

[PFT Commenter]

My lotta Scotland. Six Nations.

[Big Cat]

So we're gonna win.

[PFT Commenter]

We're not gonna lose.

[Big Cat]

We're gonna finish second. Like Rory.

[PFT Commenter]

No, we're not in it.

[Big Cat]

This is the U.S. oh, okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

So we're not gonna lose.

[PFT Commenter]

We're not gonna lose. That's a guaranteed.

[Big Cat]

All right. My. Who's back of the week is Kanye West. The Grammys were tonight. He had his wife fully naked. Hot.

[PFT Commenter]

Not fully.

[Big Cat]

I guess she had a sheer.

[PFT Commenter]

A sheer. She was wearing a sheer.

[Hank]

Also was invited.

[Big Cat]

Wasn't invited. Hot.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, really?

[Big Cat]

No.

[Hank]

I saw. I said I got kicked out on a court of him not being invited, not the nakedness. So I assumed when you read the tweet, it's like, oh, he's getting removed from the Grammys because of nakedness. I was like, no.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I also think my general rule is if you're not invited somewhere, don't show up naked.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. But I also think it should be a rule if you're as hot as his wife, you should be allowed to be naked. And it's not a problem. People should be let. Hot people should be able to get naked.

[Hank]

He kind of got cucked by Luca trade too, because he was doing his like once a year random, like Twitter pop in.

[Big Cat]

So that was tweets.

[Hank]

A million things.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So.

[Hank]

And that probably would have been what people were talking about this morning. Like, oh, did you see Kanye's crazy tweets? And.

[Andrew Luck]

Nope.

[Big Cat]

So he tweeted. He tweeted. Kamala seems like A very nice human. I just want to say sorry to her kids. And I was like, oh, that's weird. And then I didn't realize that he had. It was because he had just deleted a tweet that said I used to want to Kamala until she lost. I don't fuck losers anymore more. And he spelled losers with two O's.

[Max]

I also like how he said anymore that like he used to recently was loser.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, like Kim Kardashian. She's a loser.

[Big Cat]

And then also my. Who's back is the Royal Rumble. So it happened. Jay USO won. Very popular with fans, but huge surprise, he. He won. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins were both eliminated by CM Punk. I'm just reading Brandon's text to me. Spenk was eliminated by Logan Paul Speed.

[PFT Commenter]

Took that hit stream.

[Big Cat]

Yes, I show. Speed was speared by Braun Breaker. Braun is Rick Steiner's son. Cody beat Kevin Owens in a ladder match.

[Hank]

His last match ever.

[Big Cat]

What?

[Hank]

I. I thought. I thought I saw that.

[Big Cat]

Oh, no. He's on a retirement year.

[Hank]

His last. It was his last rumble.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that that happened. I mean the spear was awesome.

[PFT Commenter]

It was.

[Big Cat]

I. I show Speed like needs. That was legit. He took a big time bump. Max Hoosier, who's back of the week?

[Max]

I normally don't back the week. Arsenal. Arsenal was excited about an Arsenal.

[PFT Commenter]

What happened?

[Max]

They beat Man City.

[Hank]

Five one.

[Max]

Yep. I was gonna say four one.

[PFT Commenter]

Quite a result.

[Hank]

Might have been four one.

[Max]

Quite a result. Quite a result for the. For the footy.

[Andrew Luck]

Huge result.

[Big Cat]

Bad.

[PFT Commenter]

Bad result for menu today. Bad result.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

They get relegated?

[PFT Commenter]

No, but they're like getting towards the bottom of the league. It'd just be very funny if man, you got relegated. That would be the funniest.

[Max]

I'm rooting for that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that would be me as a.

[Max]

As a fan of the footy.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Max]

Rooting for that.

[Big Cat]

Max, you're out of your walking boot.

[Max]

Yeah, but it'll be back on during the Super Bowl.

[Big Cat]

Oh, okay.

[Max]

I have it with me.

[Big Cat]

If anyone missed Max's performance in the case race, go watch it. Because he was laying the boom.

[PFT Commenter]

I was giving out some bumps.

[Big Cat]

Laying the boom.

[PFT Commenter]

That was not a Coke reference. That was like an actual wrestling. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Did you have any athletes reach out to you?

[Max]

Colin Gillespie.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Nice.

[Max]

That was awesome.

[Big Cat]

Huge.

[Max]

No.

[Big Cat]

Any others?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, I was thinking culling glass.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

That.

[PFT Commenter]

It's weird that there's two guys.

[Max]

Colin Gillespie.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Max]

Nova legend and what do you say? Animal. Exclamation point.

[Big Cat]

Oh, nice. Nice. Okay. Let's get to our interview with Andrew Luck. Then we're going to talk to Brian Windhorse. Then we have a very special Monday reading. And we're also going to get a prediction from Max on the super bowl score, which we're going to do every single show this week.

[PFT Commenter]

Before we get to Andrew Luck, he's brought to you by Mountain Dew. You can add a blast of refreshing tropical lime flavor to your game day with Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Mountain Dew Baja Blast. It's always been part of my game day ritual. You hear that sound? That's the sound of a mountain. Big cat just opened up a mountain into the mic. Hank, crank one. Crank a Dew.

[Big Cat]

That is the best.

[PFT Commenter]

The boys are cranking dues.

[Big Cat]

Oh, my gosh.

[PFT Commenter]

I like cranking a Dew right at halftime. Gives you energy for the second half. Put your fours up. When fourth quarter hits, Mountain Dew is the absolute best. And the tropical lime flavor of Mountain Dew Baja Blast is as refreshing as hitting a game winning kick. It says refreshing as your team winning in the playoffs. It says refreshing as the Super Bowl. Can't wait. Big game this week. We're down in Nola and we're drinking some Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Ride the Baja Wave on game day. Grab Mountain Dew Baja Blast for you and your crew wherever refreshing beverages are sold. And now, here's Andrew Luck.

[Big Cat]

Okay. We now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest. There's a long time coming. It is Andrew Luck in studio. It is so long time coming. Andrew, I don't even know if you'd realize this, but your. Your good friend and our good friend Sam Schwarzeneg is here. He's been working on it for probably six or seven years. But there was a moment where this podcast was going to read a book just to try to get you on this show. Do you know how hard that is for us to read a book? And we were willing to do it to try to get into your book club to have you come be a guest. So we've been waiting a long time for this.

[Andrew Luck]

That's amazing to know. I do think you can do it.

[Big Cat]

I don't know.

[Andrew Luck]

I know. I know you can. I believe in you guys.

[Big Cat]

But that's like, just to put in perspective, the.

[Andrew Luck]

Our.

[Big Cat]

Our listeners, we've been doing this for nine years. Are nodding along, being like, holy shit. That's like when they're like, oh, do you pay for guests? No, we don't pay for guests. But we did almost read a book for Andrew Locke.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, we tried to read the Book we bought Boys in the Boat. I think that was book one of your book club. And we got through, like, the first page, and we're like, this isn't for us. Then we had Blake Bortles on the show.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Of ours. And so we said, you know what? Instead of doing a book club, let's just do the Blake Bortles Wikipedia club.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Where every time he's on the show, he'll pick a different topic. We'll all read that Wikipedia page, and then we'll discuss.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Did it lead to substantive discussion about new topics and.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, there were. Yeah, there were a couple new topics.

[PFT Commenter]

I remember what we.

[Big Cat]

I mean, the big one was Blake learned that snow is wet. He had not realized it being from Florida.

[Andrew Luck]

From D.

[Big Cat]

Oh, man. Well, all right, let's. You know, let's start there, because I have a million questions. But when you see an introductory press conference from a coach, knowing that you've lived it, are you like, should we, as stupid fans, judge this? Or is it like, this is all just the same shit?

[Andrew Luck]

Well, you have to.

[Big Cat]

Liam Cohen doing the duel. Oh, you didn't. You just had that quote.

[Andrew Luck]

I don't have heavy Internet or access. Honestly, everybody needs a friend like Sam for many, many reasons, including I know about you guys because he will send me text messages back in the day of big cat soccer takes.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, they're bad.

[Andrew Luck]

That's how I know about you.

[Big Cat]

They were always bad.

[Andrew Luck]

No, they were great.

[Big Cat]

We do think.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, you got to give me context.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we'll skip that. The phone thing. Do you still have a flip phone?

[Andrew Luck]

No. When my daughter was born, I realized I needed pictures. It was a deep, primal need to take pictures of my daughter and share pictures of my daughter. And now that's fair. And receive pictures of my daughter.

[Big Cat]

How long did you. I mean, that flip phone thing, that was real. You were just like, I don't want to be attached to the Internet. I don't want to have people be able to text me all the time and call me all the time. I want a flip phone.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. It was real. I'll be honest. I don't think I thought too much about it. I hadn't in high school, and I did not feel the need to upgrade, per se. And I still am happy. I didn't upgrade until when I upgraded. And there's still a massive part of me that wants to go back. Yeah. But having a real job and, like, look at me now. I got two phones, baby. Two iPhones. Oh, two computers.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, so you're texting like non stop now.

[Andrew Luck]

I'm trying not to.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

But when you got two it's like yeah, you are on call with your real job. You are the GM of Stanford.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Is that fair to say? Is that the official title?

[Andrew Luck]

Oh it's absolutely fair.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So how is that, what is your day to day like?

[Andrew Luck]

Day to day is a lot. We hopped in during the transfer portal and when I say we I mean the assistant GM as well also named Sam, different Sam than that Sam. Also Stanford grad, a great guy. But we hopped in during the transfer portal and the day to day during a transfer portal was a lot different than the day to day now of like okay, the roster, there's some solidity around it. Obviously prepare for another portal in April but but different focus now feels a little bit like a 9 to 5 job. Not like oh my gosh, I've got to call this parent up of a 20 year old wide receiver from University XYZ and discuss many things about why, why Stanford makes sense for him. So it's been a lot, it's been like drinking from a fire hose in many ways. But I love the school, love the university and we're, we're on the right path.

[Big Cat]

Were you watching tape of some of.

[Andrew Luck]

The transfer port, the system that we had? I inserted myself of watching the quarterbacks. Yeah. Because I felt like that's like I had to like I played quarterback. You know, obviously that is where my expertise is and I'd watch a little bit else but no, I trust our folks, our guys and gals to you know, go through the process and make sure we're getting out there with kids that can play ball and handle the academic regular.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So let's just say me and Big Cat are five star recruits. Both play quarterback.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

What's your pitch to us? Because we're also getting offers from Miami, lsu, Ohio State, James Madison, all the big dogs, University of Texas. And then you want Stanford to be in that. You want, you want us to be Stanford football players.

[Andrew Luck]

All right, there's a couple things. One, John Elway, Jim Plunkett, myself Kevin Hogan, incredible history. Our head coach, quarterback. When I was a, when I went to Stanford, head coach was a quarterback. Jim Harbaugh, your guys best friend.

[PFT Commenter]

I understand, right?

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Andrew Luck]

Awesome. Two, we are competitive in the nil world and the Stanford decision both is nil here and now. And then I think in many ways OG nil of like you're going to be connected to the best network in the world and whatever industry you want to go in. This place produces leaders at a scale that no other place in the world does. And Stanford is special in that way. And you're going to have a long NFL career, you're going to crush it in college, gonna go to bowl games, gonna do all that, all that fun stuff. And then at some point, you know, you're gonna have to transition to be a podcast host and, you know, running multi billion dollar media conglomerate. And you're gonna want to know Stanford people to help you get there.

[Big Cat]

Okay, question. That was a really good speech. And we're very interested in Stanford. If we attend Stanford, will he have to read a book?

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, baby.

[Big Cat]

Okay. All right, so we're out.

[PFT Commenter]

Lou, Mike and I just want. I want to have a phone call with Tiger Woods. Oh, can you make that happen?

[Andrew Luck]

Absolutely.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, okay.

[Andrew Luck]

Tiger. Tiger was an honorary captain for us twice while I played. I think he's been honorary captain a few times. There's a. There's a great story. We lost both of those games though, so I got like a bone to pick with Tiger about that. But it's a great story about Tiger that David Shaw, our old head coach, used to say, and he was our coordinator when I was earlier in my career at Stanford, where David played for Stanford. So they got back at like 2 or 3am from like Corvallis or, you know, somewhere. Played a game in the weekend and it was raining and it doesn't off rain at. Up in Palo Alto and on campus, although it is raining today. I think when they get back, it's like 2 or 3am they're riding their bikes back to the dorms and there's a guy standing in like the grass in the courtyard between the dormitories, like with. With some type of club, like whacking the ground. People like, who is that? What's going on? So Coach Shaw walks over and it's like, tiger, what are you doing? He's like, it doesn't rain enough here. I need to practice in the rain.

[Big Cat]

That's perfect.

[PFT Commenter]

I love that.

[Big Cat]

Committed to it. Did you. When David Shaw was your head coach, were you ever like, hey, maybe we don't punt every time?

[Andrew Luck]

No.

[Big Cat]

Okay. All right. That's just a gambling thing where I. He's. He has punted in like, I think probably in the. On the like +35. I think I've seen him punt before. He likes to punt.

[Andrew Luck]

I. He's not punted on the plus.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I believe so. Against Northwestern. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure I Could find him punting.

[Andrew Luck]

Okay. The Internet will tell us.

[Big Cat]

All right, I'll find, I'm gonna find it.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm gonna find it.

[Big Cat]

Worst punts, I mean I have a. He liked to punt. He liked to punt. There was times when he liked to punt. All right, so how, how are you feeling physically? Are you, or do you feel, are you still having any nagging injuries or you feel good?

[Andrew Luck]

I feel great. I'm. I am grateful for where my body's at. I can do this. I can ski with my kids and ski with my dad and ski with my friends. I can go surf. I can fly fish, I can hike, I can camp. I can, I can try to play old man pickup basketball, but that's hard. Like you got to be in shape.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And I'm not in shape enough to do that.

[PFT Commenter]

You just find somebody that's equally in bad shape and you say, hey, let's just not run. I'll defend you, you defend me. We're not going to say any picks will hang out at three point line. Yeah, that's a good.

[Andrew Luck]

But you don't often get to just do that though.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

You know, sometimes you actually have to play defense and box out.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I don't like that. Every time I play basketball if I just get through without an injury, I'm like, that's a good day.

[Andrew Luck]

It's a win.

[PFT Commenter]

That's a great day playing.

[Big Cat]

That's a big one.

[Andrew Luck]

And it's fun to play pickup hoops. Like it.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Genuinely fun.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. It's good to just get a sweat going. That is get a sweat going, not get injured. That's a successful workout for me. Your coach at, at Stanford, Jim Harbaugh, great friend of ours, we all know he's a little, he's a special guy. He's a very different guy. When was the first time that you realized that, hey, Jim Harbaugh is wired a little bit differently from everybody else?

[Andrew Luck]

That's a good question.

[Big Cat]

Good question.

[PFT Commenter]

Thank you.

[Andrew Luck]

Great question.

[Big Cat]

Great question.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, fantastic question. He certainly has a charisma and an energy that comes off of him that is authentic and it's part of what I think drew a lot of us recruiting wise to Stanford at that moment. You know that he was hired after a one on 11 season and some down years and so to go there around that time, I think you took a leap of faith. I certainly took a leap of faith but I think the 17 year old Andrew myself realized that he was going to get the most out of me. As a quarterback like that, it was going to be hard and challenging, but that's, I think, what I wanted, and I think what a lot of the guys who went to Stanford wanted was to be pushed and to get, you know, to become the best version of football player they could be under him. Trying to think of specific moments. I do remember sitting in his office with my father. Like, my dad took me for spring break out to. Out to the west coast to, like, do, like, unofficial visits or whatever, and then go ski in Tahoe, which was an awesome father son trip, and go to a San Jose Earthquakes game, which was super fun, too. I remember sitting in his office, and we were sitting there during construction, and Jim was like, I don't mind. Don't mind the construction. They're building me a bathroom. We're going to trimming fat. We're cutting drag. Really efficient. I thought, yeah, this guy's thinking about efficiency on football so he can have his own bathroom. And this bathroom's a little bit controversial. I think there's a great Pete Carroll quote about it where he's like, well, we at USC walk down the hall like everybody else.

[Big Cat]

To use the name of the rivalry rocks.

[PFT Commenter]

That's wasted energy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Yep. Cutting. Cutting drag. Trimming the fat. And that. That. That was how the experience for playing him was like, I mean, you were kept on your toes. There was a lot of energy. You were pushed, like, pushed hard. It was challenging. You know, football's not an easy game. It's not easy to be a good team. It's not easy to develop, you know, players. And. And he certainly pushed us and challenged us.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he is a great coach. And you see it even with the Chargers this year. They. They're in a rebuilding year and they went to the playoffs. And his culture, you just see it in the post game and how much everyone buys in. Was that immediate when you got to Stanford and you're like, okay, this is like, everyone's bought into what he's selling. And you can feel it in the locker room. You can feel it in training camp.

[Andrew Luck]

That's. That's a good question, I think. Thank you. I'm gonna stop saying good question.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we're gonna do that.

[Andrew Luck]

Is this a bit every single time? It's like a bit.

[PFT Commenter]

No matter what you say, good question. Then we all compliment. But it's a very effective technique in terms of, like, if you get asked a question, then you say, good question. It gives you, like, five seconds.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

About what your answer is going to be.

[Big Cat]

And Then we just compliment each other.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, I'm hedging for time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I forgot the question. Yeah, good question.

[Big Cat]

It was such a good question. Like in terms of culture, when you, when you get, when you get to Stanford and you're watching how he deals with the team and how he coaches the team, was it immediate where you're like, okay, this is the. I made the right choice and what he's doing and what he's building here is going to be special?

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, I didn't doubt that for a second. And the staff was awesome. I, Coach Shaw, Willie Taggart, I mean, like we were around an amazing staff. Our strength coach, Shannon Turley. But I also think like as an 18 year old, part of me, I think once you get there, you're just like, I just want to do everything right and be a good teammate and be a player. And you don't. I wasn't thinking too big picture about it and I certainly didn't go in. I decided to go to Stanford. So why would I go in and doubt what this was all about?

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Andrew Luck]

So I don't think I was thinking too much sort of at the meta level about it. And then we, I think the proof does have to be in the pudding on things, right? Like, and we, I think when I, while we registered my freshman year, we won more games than the previous year. So you can point to that as proof of progress. And then, and then I think we, we understood that this was going to work and it sort of did. And also, like, I got to play around there. There's some really incredible football players. Like last, last night we had had. Sam and I had dinner with Jim Dre, the tight ends coach for the Chicago Bears. He was one of the older guys in the locker room when we came there. He was an incredibly tough dude. He tore everything in his knee on punt before he got there and walked himself unaided across the field, you know, to get off. Right, Right. And then comes back and he's a second. I think he ended his career at Stanford, a second team all conference, PAC 10 at the time rip with 17 catches.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Andrew Luck]

Like, what tight end gets a second team all conference? But he was tough. He blocked. He did everything right. So we played with a bunch of good players and had a lot of fun and bought in.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Did they call the big guns when they were recruiting you? And they. Did they have Stanford Steve give you a call?

[Andrew Luck]

No, no, I didn't talk to Stanford Steve till I made it okay. Yeah. Then he gave me the time of Day.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Then he was like, all right, Steve, by the way, fourth and five from the Northwestern 37.

[Andrew Luck]

Okay, punt. Is that plus 35?

[Big Cat]

I'm just saying. Punt.

[PFT Commenter]

It's plus 30. Plus 37.

[Big Cat]

Seven. I mean, that's a. That's a crazy punt with Christian McCaffrey. 10, three game, second half, fourth and five on the Northwestern 37. I remember these things.

[Andrew Luck]

That is. That is impressive. Is the winningest coach all time in Stanford football.

[Big Cat]

Doesn't matter for me, it's like, I'll just. If I. If I ever meet him, I'm just gonna be like, why'd you punt on. On the 37 in 2015 against Northwestern?

[Andrew Luck]

That game was here.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it was. And it was. I just. I'm pretty sure I bet Stanford because I was like, oh, there's no chance that, you know, Northwestern is going to beat Stanford. And then he punted on the 37 and I was mad for life.

[Andrew Luck]

I'm so uncomfortable. You talk about betting on Stanford right now.

[Big Cat]

You guys were good.

[Andrew Luck]

No more.

[Big Cat]

What about the. What about the bowl game against Oklahoma State when you guys. Did you guys. You ran the same run play? Was it 13 times in a row? Was that the. Was that it?

[Andrew Luck]

No, not bowl game versus Oklahoma State.

[Big Cat]

Who was it?

[Andrew Luck]

I need to check the archives. With what?

[PFT Commenter]

Sam just.

[Big Cat]

It was against sc. USC.

[PFT Commenter]

Sam just said that you punted, what, 30. You only punted 34 times when you were the quarterback.

[Big Cat]

Okay, well, you were a little different than. Yeah, the. I mean, you. You don't have to have your teams punt that much, so. All right, so the.

[Andrew Luck]

A punt can be an incredibly effective.

[Big Cat]

From the 37.

[Andrew Luck]

Like, I got to play with Pat and Indy and he had an all pro year as a punter. And it, like when you're pinning guys in the 10, in the 5.

[Big Cat]

Oh, this was a touchback, by the way. That's a 17 yard punt. Yeah. So there you go.

[Andrew Luck]

Next. Next topic.

[PFT Commenter]

Walked right into that one. I do love the fact that you enjoy a good punt. Jim Trestle, he.

[Big Cat]

He taught us that.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, he's a good sweater vest, too.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he's the biggest fan. It's the only playing football where it changes possession.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, designed by design. By design.

[Big Cat]

By design.

[PFT Commenter]

So what was the hardest thing that you had to do at Sanford? You said that it was like, you want to challenge yourself. You get there and you're like, oh, this is. This is really hard playing competitive college football. What was the hardest thing that stood out? And you're like, okay, this isn't this isn't high school anymore.

[Andrew Luck]

We had tough practices. Now, as a quarterback practice, football practice is fun. I think as a lineman, football practice isn't fun. Yeah, right. So like, we used to like freshman year, red shirting, you know, and maybe red shirting is not in vogue anymore and I'm not sure why. I think, I think one of Coach Taylor's, our head coach's quotes, we were talking recently, I was like, Andrew, you know, not all experience is good experience. You know, you can go out early in football and be damaged in a sense, but red shirting. We used to have these Wednesdays of just like grinder, full padded scout team. You know, we were running the scout team. I maintain we may have had one of the better scout teams ever in the history of college football. Like David De Castro, John Martin, Sam was center, Griff Whalen, Chris Owusu would come down and play like he was an all American kick returner. You know, fast, incredible. It was awesome. But these would be like 30 play periods of full pads against. And we called it the death march and we would just sort of hum the, you know, the, the Star wars, whatever it is, you know, the whole time. But they, you know, we survived those and I think we proved our mettle to each other and I think, you know, that sort of helped us build this mythology that we are a tough team. You know, even when we're red shirting, we're like, we're doing 30 plays in a row of run to get, to get our guys ready. So that, that was fun. And balance in school and sports is hard. I mean, it is hard. Like we do read books and go to class and turn in, turn in our work and do do all the little things. Right. And so while it's, you know, you've got to go earn it. And I certainly believe that about Stanford. I also think it's why Stanford's so special for me and why I believe in it. And that like, you know, the hard things genuinely have value to them.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And stuff that's given to you for free or for nothing is cheap.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

At the end of the day. And there's nothing, there's nothing sort of cheap about the Stanford experience.

[Big Cat]

What was it like being for two years straight, everyone being like, he's the number one pick, he's generational talent. Because I always find that to be interesting to have that kind of pressure on a college kid. When we've seen it a couple times where like a guy stays and everyone just is like, hey, they're talking about him. And then what ends up happening is you kind of get picked apart a little bit because it's two straight years of being the number one pick and you're like, hey, this is kind of crazy. Just because I stayed, you're gonna pick me apart? Now was that. Did you feel that pressure of everyone talking you about. About you? Like that?

[Andrew Luck]

Bad question.

[Big Cat]

Okay, Bad question.

[Andrew Luck]

So look, like, I think. Did my friends talk about that? No, not at all. Did my teammates talk about it? No, not at all. Did my girlfriend who's got my wife talk about that? Not at all. Did friends on campus, professors? No. And I had a flip phone and I wasn't scrolling through whatever it was at the time. So I think, I think I was aware of the pressure. I also knew I'd earned, like, but part of it was like, I'd earned. I, I was aware also of how good I was at football.

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Andrew Luck]

So like, okay, cool. People think I'm the number one pick. Yeah. I understand why. I'm probably the best player.

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Andrew Luck]

Like, it wasn't.

[Big Cat]

That's gotta be a cool thing.

[Andrew Luck]

It wasn't like an. Yeah, it was.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Andrew Luck]

And I don't mean that in like, like, yeah, my ego liked it for sure. But it was also like when you know, you know.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[PFT Commenter]

It's like earned confidence.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Andrew Luck]

And so, and I knew I'd. And I knew that we. And I was on a team that earned all of that confidence.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Andrew Luck]

Like, it was not bravado. I think it was more of a level of self awareness that like. Okay, yeah, I get it. Cool. But like, I wasn't surrounding myself with it in a day. Like, there wasn't a slow drip into my brain right of. Go out. You're number one. You're number whatever.

[Big Cat]

That's a very healthy way to deal with it because I don't know how. I don't know a lot of. Of 20, 21 year olds that would be able to deal with it that way. Having the whole world talk about you that way for two plus years of, hey, you're the number one pick.

[Andrew Luck]

Whole world, though.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

There's a lot of people that don't care about.

[Big Cat]

They all love football. No, that is not true. Yeah, those are losers. Yeah, we don't care about those people.

[Andrew Luck]

They don't listen to the show. They don't exist.

[PFT Commenter]

Why do you get out of bed in the morning if you're not doing your mock drafts?

[Big Cat]

The whole world that I care. Care about is what I should have said.

[PFT Commenter]

So as you go into that process you're interviewing, you know, all the teams are bringing in, they're talking to you. Actually, our colleague John Gruden said that you blew him away on the. On the whiteboard.

[Big Cat]

I have some questions from Coach Gruden.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So Coach Gruden fell in love with you immediately. I'm assuming that you talked to a lot of teams that were not ever going to be in a position to draft you, but how did those interviews go with teams that just kind of wanted to.

[Andrew Luck]

I'll be honest, I didn't talk to teams that weren't in a position to draft me. Not know, like, I think they didn't want to waste their time. I didn't want to waste mine. Like, I should say, like, the 49er staff was all my old Stanford staff, by and large. So of course to talk to them and hang out and chat, like when at the combine and show up, I wanted to get that experience and go to the room where everybody's sitting there and grab and like, you know, that was cool. But like, I only really spoke with Indianapolis and Washington. Yeah, yeah. So. And again, like, I think I knew.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

You know, and Indy did make it somewhat clear eventually that, like, yeah, we'd like to pick you.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And just having. Yeah. The horseshoe and luck next to it.

[Andrew Luck]

Oh, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I felt like it was destiny at that point.

[Andrew Luck]

It's destiny.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Do you want your Gruden questions right now?

[Andrew Luck]

Sure.

[Big Cat]

Okay. The first one is he. He said you have the greatest snap count in history, so he wants you to do the snap count. You've got to get him to do the snap count.

[Andrew Luck]

Let's talk snap count for a sec. Because this is like such a niche part of playing quarterback that I worry so much with this whole like, clap thing.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Andrew Luck]

And I think there's value to the clap, et cetera, et cetera. But I think Pat Mahomes incredible at it. I bet if you. I bet if your stats. If your analytics team. I saw the whole analytics quarter, these.

[Big Cat]

Three guys, big analytics team.

[Andrew Luck]

How many PhDs between the. Just gonna Google it.

[Big Cat]

And they'll probably Google it incorrectly, but I bet.

[Andrew Luck]

I bet if you look at how many offsides he's drawn over the last his career since starting, I bet it's gonna be probably the highest ever.

[PFT Commenter]

It's Cause ref cheat.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I don't know about that.

[Andrew Luck]

Rogers and then Rogers. Yeah. So those two. I really enjoyed certainly Aaron because he was older and I. You grew up watching and I remember, you know, all the free plays I feel like he would just hit a touchdown every other game to Jordy Nelson on a free play that was busting to throw it up. Or Randall Cobb, like, it was awesome. Or James Jones. And then when I got to Stanford, Jim Harbaugh would do, like, a lesson for us on. He's like, you gotta have a voice to play quarterback. You gotta have a voice. You gotta have a. It's gotta be gravelly. It's gotta cut. It's gotta cut through. It's gotta cut through everybody. You gotta cut, gotta cut. And so he wanted us to have. Not like red. It had to have, like, it had to cut. You know, it had to go. So I embraced it. I think part of why. What I loved about playing quarterback was there's all these little things that you actually can work, work on.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And working on a snap count was something that was fun and enjoyable and then. And we didn't draw a bunch of people off sides at Stanford. Not at all. But we were doing, like, double counts and long counts because we actually had play calls that where we killed and alerted things and needed to see what the defense was doing. So I was. I feel very fortunate I was taught how to play quarterback while I was there.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Andrew Luck]

Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, the way Greg Roman taught run game to me, it was a gift. Right. I think I got to one. It was awesome. That's what the identity of our team, in many ways was this, like, very physical, tough, smart run game. And also when I got to the NFL, I felt like I'd been prepared to handle a run game.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Andrew Luck]

And if you can't, and if you can't operate a run game in the NFL, there's only so far your team's gonna go.

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Andrew Luck]

I think I truly believe that. And then, yeah. Snapcount. Once it got to the NFL, though, Bruce Arians would dog my snap count the first minicamp, because I would sit there and go, like, sigo, red 80, just draw it out. Because I was thinking, I was like, oh, fuck, this is overwhelming. NFL defense, Andrew and BA and his voice, which I can't do a great impression of, who was amazing as well and worth probably a podcast series on him as a coach.

[PFT Commenter]

He had some very nice things to say about you too.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we've had him on a couple.

[Andrew Luck]

Of times to say about VA as well.

[PFT Commenter]

So we asked Bruce Arians if you were to take all the quarterbacks you've ever coached, because he's coached so many great quarterbacks, and if you were to piece them together, by body part, by brain. Okay, whose legs are you putting on here? Whose right arm? Whose brain, Whose heart? Whose hips are you taking? He goes, I'm gonna stop you. It's just all one person. And the answer is Andrew Locke.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

For everything. So he thought that you were, you were the best quarterback at everything that he'd ever coached. But I'm sure that there was something like when he, when he was working with you that you guys just clicked immediately and kind of got each other.

[Andrew Luck]

He was awesome. He was. He. He taught football and looked at football in such a different way. And like, he, he treated. He coached everybody hard and like, hard and it was. And I, and I appreciated that so much. And then he'd, you know, he'd cuss you out or like, you know, whatever. Very colorful, like an odd mixture of like east coast and southern accent. I don't know quite where it lands. Like, real pirate filled language. And like, he'd tell Bear Bryant stories like, oh, my God, he coached under Bear Bryant at some point. Yeah, that's. That's neat. But like, with, with the snap count, he was like, Andrew, what are you doing? Speed it up. Like, we got it. We gotta go. And this was part of his thing. Bruce had a. He didn't care about time of possession. He cared how many points per. He wanted a point a minute. If we couldn't get a point a minute, what's, you know, what's the, what's the point of holding on to the ball? What does it matter? He was awesome. And then I realized in snap, like, so with snap, I'm gonna go back to the snap counter. That's related to Bruce. Bruce was. Bruce was really fun to play with Adam for a year. And it was an incredible year too, because coach Pagano got sick with leukemia and Bruce took over. And like, I was certainly very focused on playing quarterback because you have to be at. It's too overwhelming of a position to think about. Much else requires. But, like, it wasn't only honestly till I retired and looked back like, oh, my God, like, coach Pagano was going through, like, yeah, he was in a cancer ward five blocks from the stadium. Like, that's. That's scary, right? That's nuts. And so ba, like, guided that ship and then certainly got the opportunity to be a head coach and have this amazing success, which I was super stoked for. But with snap counts, because we got to go back to snap counts.

[Big Cat]

Prudent said, you have the best ever, greatest snap count in history.

[Andrew Luck]

But I started to real like Anthony Costanza, like, left tackles, like, there's. I think there's like two personalities that play left tackle. Either you're completely type B and just, like, chill, or you are as neurotic as neurotic can be and just like, so focused on everything to help give you an advantage because it is a tough position.

[Big Cat]

Position to play.

[Andrew Luck]

I mean, really, really, really tough. And so I realized that Anthony and I started having these conversations about how to help each other, how to help each other, and realized snap count was needed. Like, yeah. To. Absolutely. You know, and it's. Obviously there's self preservation as part of that, but we, you know. Yeah. Realize, like, when you're under center, you know, on the hut, if you're doing a hard count, you needed your flex, your bottom hand to make it look like the ball was about to come. So if you had a three tech or a nose, who got the jump on hand, like you use that you had to marry snap counts and words from. From previous. And I. And I wasn't, you know, this was a thing. This was an iterative process. So I was certainly better at it at the end of the career. End of my career than not. But, ah, snap counts. I hope football doesn't lose snap counts because they're too good.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You try to get me and Big Cat to jump.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. So there's a couple different ways, but, like, the biggest way is this. Everybody knows, you know, hut is like the word to go. So I preferred the hut, hut, hut rhythm as opposed to the hut, hut rhythm. Right. So an on one would be like, so go color number, color number, hut. You know, so go green 80. Green 80.

[Big Cat]

Hut.

[Andrew Luck]

And that's the ball snapped, right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And so then a hard count, the one I preferred, the one I settled on, the one I'd consider as part of my. Like, it's my baby.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And I'd be curious if other. If other coaches or other quarterbacks think about this was. Was like, so go green 90. Green 90.

[Big Cat]

That was awesome.

[Andrew Luck]

I don't do that enough.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I mean, it's your baby.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. I'm just gonna start. I'm just gonna go walk through the airport. I'm gonna walk through midway today thinking about that all day.

[Big Cat]

That's great.

[PFT Commenter]

I'd be like, got your movie?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Great question. All right, so here's the other question. This one's not as nice. He said, I thought he had the ugliest beard in the history of quarterbacks. And I studied this carefully.

[Andrew Luck]

It's a weird. It's a Weird question.

[Big Cat]

I like that I studied this carefully.

[Andrew Luck]

Because I actually believe John Gruden not study anything.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, right. I believe that he literally had, like, a big board of all the beards and was like.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, I believe in second chances. I believe I deserve a second chance.

[Big Cat]

It looks good now. Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

I think we're in the same. So I can't grow as well of a good. Of a mustache.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Though.

[Big Cat]

But it does get long. When it gets long, it gets a little unkempt.

[Andrew Luck]

Oh, definitely was unkempt. Yeah. What time when you play quarterback, do you have to shave, though?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

What time? You got to cut drag. You got to trim the fat. You got to focus on what's important. My beard was not important.

[Big Cat]

So you.

[Andrew Luck]

You had that.

[Big Cat]

You had that. I read that Incredible article in 2022 about you and, like, post football and everything in the decision and. And. And you had that quote of, like, you don't have time for basically anything else if you're a quarterback in the NFL. And that one quote, I can't remember who said it to you. Like, if you're a quarterback in the NFL, you have to think of yourself as God's gift. Otherwise the doubt creeps in. And that's got to be a weird feeling to have to hold yourself to that and be like, I have to control everything and only think about this one thing. Not exactly healthy, I would imagine.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. I think this is an idea that I would certainly love to keep flesh it out and talk to others about. I think it is fascinating, and certainly the quote comes off as quite extreme, and maybe in real life it's not as extreme, perhaps, but I do think there are kernels of truth in there, for sure.

[Big Cat]

Well, I mean, you're the. A quarterback in the. They call it the most important position in sports for a reason. It is. The franchise rests on the quarterback's shoulders, whether they want it to or not.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, I do. When I think about it and whatever had the time to process and think, I do think when you go on the field as a quarterback, you cannot leave any room for doubt. And I think one way of doing that is, especially if it's connected to preparing and working hard and, like, you know, being on it, et cetera. But you have to go out there thinking that, like, you are God's gift to this thing. And that's a level. It is an intense level of confidence. Yeah. And I do think you. You know, and. And I grew up in football. I had, like, my dad was my Pop Warner coach. He played quarterback so, obviously, as a kid, I had a schema and, like, I want to be like my dad. I want to play. Play quarterback. And then I had great high school coaches, Coach Allen, Coach Green, Coach Sanders, you know, Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw at Stanford. So I was taught that you had to work hard. You didn't just roll the ball out there and feel like, you know, the preparation was part of it. And so that was part of what I. I knew I had to convince myself, you can do this, dude. Yeah, you're talented, all this stuff, but, like, you're putting the work in, and you're putting the work in with a team and that, like, that was the only scheme I knew.

[Big Cat]

And.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, and I did not, you know, I did not, while I played, do a great job of tending to life outside of it, including relationships, and thankfully, you know, didn't burn. Burn too many bridges and mess too much up irrevocably. But that. It's a. It's an odd. It's an odd balance, I think, for those playing the position. Yeah. And frankly, I haven't talked to many others about it like that. Have played quarterback in the NFL sort of at that level. And it is something I'm curious to hear from others about, of how they sort of psychologically handle it.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, right. I think the great quarterbacks kind of see that same burden and that same responsibility. They have to throw themselves into it because they feel, okay, it's on me. In order to go out there and, you know, do the best for my teammate, do the best for my coach, I'm going to need to be the most prepared person in the world. But then there's some guys that are just like, no, it's a job, it's fun, but they don't reach that. That high level of success. Would you say that, like, did you get burned out on playing quarterback?

[Andrew Luck]

That's a good question.

[Big Cat]

Good question.

[PFT Commenter]

Thank you.

[Andrew Luck]

Damn it.

[PFT Commenter]

No, it's okay. It was a good question. I could tell you it was a good question. Like, was. Is there burnout factor?

[Andrew Luck]

Not about being court. Maybe a little bit about being quarterback. And I think in. In that article you referenced Big Cat that, you know, I think I. I addressed that to a certain degree. Injuries adding up, you know, I think is a common theme in any professional athletes sort of coming to an end in a career. And that was certainly a big part of mine. And. Yeah. And yes, parts of it, I think got tiring. Maybe that's too light of a way to say. Maybe burnout is. Yeah. Part of it, for sure.

[PFT Commenter]

Was football still fun for you at the end?

[Andrew Luck]

No, not like a game. And I found the fun in it. Again, though, not playing, which is. Which is. I'm not gonna say full circle, but I think in the windy way that life works. I did not love football when I, you know, and I did not love football like you need to. To play quarterback. I think I also realized that to go back to playing quarterback, you either, like, all in or you're not. It's a. To me, in my mind, the scheme of how, like, how you. Emotionally invested, physically, psychologically spiritually invested, and quarterback is like, it's binary. You either aren't or you are 100% in. And I hit a point in my life where I was like, I am unwilling to hop to the 100% end, so I can't do it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And the article was, like, I said, really great because I feel like you were able to fully explain it. And I reading it was like, oh, I think I understand the complexity of this, because as fans, we just see it as Andrew Luck just walked away from something that everyone, like, would dream their dream job. Like, how could he do this? But was it. Were you shocked yourself when you came to the conclusion? Like, your own conclusion? Were you like, oh, shit, I actually think I can. I do kind of want to walk away, because I feel like that would be a very illuminating moment where you. It clicks and you're like, oh, man, absolutely. Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

It was by far the hardest decision of my life. And then when it. When it didn't. When it did, sort of. But finally when I allowed the. Sort of. When I allowed myself to ask the actual question that mattered, right? And allowed myself to give an answer to the question that was truthful, it was like, whoa, okay, this has been hard, but, yeah, this is what I have to do.

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Andrew Luck]

So there was a moment of clarity. It was the hardest decision in my life, but also, like, the most clarity I've had about something. And look, I did not feel alone through. Through that as well. And I can't imagine going through a process feeling alone through that. Like my girlfriend at the time, her wife, my agents, my friends. I mean, Sam flew to Indianapolis to talk to me. And this was kicked. But, like, man, it feels amazing to have people that love you around you. Like, that's like, we all deserve that. And I. And then I'll say this. It was my dream to play quarterback, and I feel so grateful and privileged that I got to do that. It was awesome. And it did not end Fairy tale esque. By any means. We, you know, we have an, you have an AFC finalist banner for us. You don't have a Super bowl banner for.

[PFT Commenter]

How many guys can say they have an AFC finalist banner?

[Big Cat]

Not a lot.

[Andrew Luck]

Not a lot.

[Big Cat]

Not a lot. Because they don't make those banners.

[PFT Commenter]

When they hung that up, were you like, oh, God, I didn't, I didn't.

[Andrew Luck]

Pay one bit of attention. I have no idea when it was hung up or taken down. I, I understand that you guys have a, have had a story about it.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Andrew Luck]

For a while.

[Big Cat]

This is back to you having a flip phone. Which is smart. Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Which is, which is cool. But like, yeah, I know. I, Sam explained on the drive in that, like there's going to be a banner there. I was like, I think I know that there's some story behind this. And then it turns out the banner's huge.

[Big Cat]

Yes. Enormous. Enormous.

[PFT Commenter]

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[Big Cat]

So. All right, so when, when you do make the decision and you, I, I, I always felt bad that it like got leaked obviously with Schefter. And then you have the moment on the field that, that had to be like, really hard to have to have it be rushed because you had it probably in your head, like, hey, this is how I want to do it. I know it's a big decision. I know it's going to shock some people, but then have it kind of taken away from you where someone else reports it and you don't get to say it. And then you have to deal with the fans on the field and everything. That sucks.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. I ain't gonna lie. It was difficult. Yeah. Also, like, you survive, you move on. I felt A couple things. One, I had written a draft, a couple drafts of, like, a retirement press conference. It wasn't, like, going to be a happy retirement press conference, obviously, not like, you know, like, the traditional ones you see. But I'd written a couple drafts and shared it with Matt Conti, our PR guy at the time, and I still think so. So he at least had a copy of something for me to talk about after the game. So I was thankful about that. I felt good about it. I was like, you know, this is like writing a. It's like writing a paper for school, and you actually put in a couple drafts and get notes back from the professor.

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. Good job, Andrew. There you go. Pat on the back. Yeah. Two things I told. I had taken the opportunity to tell the guys on the team on Friday and Saturday morning that I'd been with for a while.

[Big Cat]

That's good.

[Andrew Luck]

That I'd felt very much, like, tethered to, like, Ty Hilton, like, who I love and who I like, who made playing football, like, fun, like, throwing to a dude like that. I don't think people understand how fun it is when, like, you have a connection to a receiver like that when your rookies together and, like, fun. And so that was like, the bittersweet. The real bittersweet stuff was telling him and Jack Doyle and Anthony and. And Quentin Nelson, who I didn't. You know, we played one year together as a rookie, but, like, just like, lovable and loving guy in Ryan College. So I'd had the chance to tell. And Clayton Gethers and some of the coaches. So at least. At least. And I didn't have a chance to tell everybody. And that's what hurts. Cause, you know, being a teammate. But, like, to a certain degree, I was also quitting on them. And I understand that, like, that's hard. That's hard. And it's not. It's hard to celebrate that. Yeah. And that's a part of me that, like. Yeah, I get, you know, it stinks. I live with that, knowing it. That's okay. It's part of me. Yeah. The other thing is, during the game, like, I remember there are eight minutes left, and I swear I felt the. Like, the cameras turn on me or something. And, like, immediately, like, I don't know if you've had this experience in life where there was just such certainty that something has happened.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Andrew Luck]

It's like, oh, shit, it's out. Yeah, I know it's out. And I just remember going and standing next to Anthony Costanzo, I think Mark Lewinsky and Ryan Kelly and just standing between them and just like, hey, guys, I'm just gonna stand between you for the next.

[Big Cat]

Protect me one last time.

[Andrew Luck]

And I'm standing. And again, I felt. I didn't feel alone. And I think I don't mean this in a cheesy way. Like, I felt like they had my back for those eight minutes, and I'll be forever appreciative of that. Indebted to that. Cause they were great teammates. In a moment, they didn't have to be.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And then at all. Then after this all comes out, were you aware that O.J. simpson had just drafted you for his fantasy football team?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. You didn't think of the fantasy owners. That was my one.

[PFT Commenter]

Everyone was doing the drafts, and then oj, God rest his soul, friend of the program, he drafted Andrew Luck, and you just blindsided him. Did you ever apologize to O.J. for that?

[Andrew Luck]

I unaware. Did not. Yeah, I had no need to apologize.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

No, no.

[Big Cat]

But the fan. Think about.

[Andrew Luck]

Bad question. Bad.

[Big Cat]

Think about the fantasy owners.

[PFT Commenter]

You were on OJ's can cut list, which is a good place to be.

[Big Cat]

That is huge place.

[Andrew Luck]

I don't get it.

[Big Cat]

Don't explain the fantasy owners, though, that it is always fun. We mock it because it's like a player will get like a gra. Like a gruesome injury, like week two, and immediately people will be tweeting like, oh, my fantasy team screwed. It's like, yeah, but that guy just got really hurt. Like, think about that. So, yeah, you screwed the fantasy owners over that late in the preseason.

[Andrew Luck]

What do you guys. What do you. What do you guys enjoy mocking most?

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, there's a lot to.

[Andrew Luck]

Give me a good question.

[PFT Commenter]

Darren Ravel, probably.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, Max, A lot of things. Basically every where. Our whole show is basically the fact that sports are taken too seriously. And it's just a joke.

[Andrew Luck]

Like that. I know about the show.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Like, it's all I like. Can I interview you guys for a second?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

[Andrew Luck]

Like the genesis of it.

[PFT Commenter]

Good question.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, good question.

[Andrew Luck]

Great question. Good question.

[PFT Commenter]

You say talk about. Reporters love doing that. Talk about the genesis.

[Andrew Luck]

Well, the genesis of it was more of a good statement.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. Well, maybe it was. There's a choice. Yeah, Talk about that. Tell me. Yeah, enlighten me. Indulge me.

[Big Cat]

So we got very lucky because we started this at a time when podcasts were very new.

[Andrew Luck]

What year?

[Big Cat]

2016. So we're coming up on nine years. So, like, now everyone has a podcast. We were not. That podcast didn't exist before 2016, but there was definitely a wide open lane for us. And our goal from the very beginning was we have to have fun and make sure people know we're having fun because sports are supposed to be fun. And I think this, the world got very serious around that time as well. So we became a little bit of a breath of fresh air where it's like, hey, we're not gonna, we're not gonna burden you with any big picture things, with any, like, politics, with any serious topics. We're gonna watch sports and we're gonna make fun of sports and make fun of ourselves more than anything. So that's been the big thing. And you did screw over the fantasy owners.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Well, specifically O.J.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, specifically O.J.

[Andrew Luck]

Tell me more about the genesis. Yeah. You guys, like, were you guys watch listening to sports radio? Like, like I used to listen to sports radio, dive it into school, school in high school.

[PFT Commenter]

And like, we're, I think me and Big Cat both had the same point of view when it came to, like, the sports media ecosystem, which is, you know, they took themselves very seriously. You would get dressed up in a suit and tie to get on TV and scream and yell about the National Football League. And it was like they weren't, they weren't treating the viewers with respect almost. It's like they became so self important when they were talking about this stuff. And then I also became obsessed with the comment section, anybody that would, like, comment on an article and their, their mindset that they almost took the league more seriously than people who were being paid to write and talk about the league. And it became just this giant, like, big gas of our big ball of gas of bluster of everybody that was obsessed with insisting their viewpoint was correct. And it was just very funny that they were taking it so seriously. So me and Big Cat started following each other online. And then we met up, had a beer and said at some point we should do a podcast together. And then, you know, time ticked by for about a year, brought us to the right spot, and we're like, okay, let's do this.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, that's awesome.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

So the etymology of pft. Commenter.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Andrew Luck]

Is that you were actually commenting.

[PFT Commenter]

I was obsessed with the comment section.

[Andrew Luck]

And you were injecting a levity and humor and not so serious takes.

[PFT Commenter]

I would.

[Andrew Luck]

In the comment sections or were you just reading them?

[PFT Commenter]

I would read the comments section and then I, I, I created an account and a character that was like, what if you gave your, your typical commenter their own blog? And then Gave them, like a long form place to write about everything, and they had the stupidest takes on everything possible. And so that's kind of where I was.

[Big Cat]

So we. Yeah, we intentionally have very dumb takes that might have a kernel of truth, but we're mocking as well. Like, actually, when you retired, I went to. In 2015. 15. I went to the Final Four in Indianapolis. We had a. We. We got, like, taken out to St. Elmo's. We went and sat in the basement where Peyton Manning used to do his dinners. I think you used to do your dinners. And I asked them what you order, and I think the waiter said, chicken. And then, like, I. I was like, yeah, no, Andrew Luck retired. He's a chicken guy. Over steak. Like that. That's my take now. You know what I mean? Like, something like that where we're mocking this entire idea that, like, you aren't allowed to retire when you want to retire. Like, you owed it to us.

[Andrew Luck]

Cool.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So. But you did owe it to the fantasy owner saying, OJ So wait, wait. So the real question, though, when you retire, because I think everyone thinks this. Was there ever a second where you got a call or you're like, oh, maybe I want to come back. Because that's. I think that's the part that people always are drawn to, whether it be Barry Sanders or Calvin Johnson or anyone who walks away a little bit early.

[PFT Commenter]

Brett Favre.

[Big Cat]

They always think in the off season or just random times like, oh, maybe Andrew Locke will come back. You know what I mean? And so it's. It's this. It's a dumb thing that fans do, but they have that in the back of their head for a very long time thinking, oh, yeah, maybe he's gonna come back. There was never a second where it was even like a little bit of, ooh, maybe. Maybe I should do it.

[Andrew Luck]

Nope, That's.

[Big Cat]

I mean, that's pretty awesome because I. I don't think think having that clarity and having that ability to be like, that's it.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Because I'm sure you got calls. No, I. I said the one from. Was it Frank Reich texted you? Being, like, message in a bottle. I sent it out in sos.

[Andrew Luck]

I have a great relationship with.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And Nick Sirianni and stoked for him as well. But no, like, yeah, I would stay friendly with Frank and yeah. But no, and like, again, like, Like, I love football in a different way right now. I volunteer coached at Palo Alto High School for the past couple years. It's why I'm back in this Position for many reasons, you know, at Stanford and. But just not as a quarterback.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I do have some tape for you that I want to watch real quick. Max, you pull it up. Do you? One of the things I loved about you quarterbacking is I feel like you were in the mold of, like. I don't want to swear on camera. Do you? You probably don't remember this, but this is tape of you. You short circuited when you swore by accident. Do you remember this?

[Andrew Luck]

I absolutely remember it.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Andrew Luck]

There's more context.

[Big Cat]

You're literally short circuited. I've never seen someone's brain short circuit live on air. All right, go ahead.

[Andrew Luck]

Look at the film. Look at the highlights. He's the guy that just makes plays. Oh, sorry. Shoot. Makes. Makes plays. And, you know, just when you apologize.

[Big Cat]

For that, heading into a bye week, you were so mad at yourself. It was just a swear. You were. First of all, you were, like, devastated.

[Andrew Luck]

My beard's not that bad.

[PFT Commenter]

No, that's.

[Big Cat]

I didn't say your beard was bad. Gruden said your beard was bad.

[Andrew Luck]

Oh, John.

[Big Cat]

Coach Gruden.

[Andrew Luck]

My beard's not that bad. I'm also, like, you know, late 20s, not early 20s. I did say that was about Griff Whan, who was my college roommate. A walk on Toledo, Ohio. Sylvania Southview. Earned a scholarship, had a legit NFL career. Also one of Sam's roommates as well. My best friends in the world. That was after the Denver Broncos. 2015. 15, I want to say. Okay, 2015. What's the timestamp of the Twitter thing?

[Big Cat]

Oh, this was just me after you retired. I just said, now you can swear whenever you want.

[Andrew Luck]

Oh, thanks.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And that was Peyton coming back to Indy, which is, like, cool, like, electric atmospheres. There'd been a lot going on that year. We were sort of going like this, and then that year, we were going like that. And I lacerated my kidney in that game with, like, seven minutes left.

[Big Cat]

Oh, no.

[Andrew Luck]

When a knee got me. So I ended up in the emergency room the next day because I was not feeling so very good. And so I think that's truly authentically how I felt in the moment. Griff Whalen just made fucking plays that game.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And we won, and that was cool.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And then.

[Andrew Luck]

And Ahmad Bradshaw caught a touchdown to sort of ice the game. Yeah. Awesome.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Also, anybody that sees you retire and is like that, that I could. I would. I would kill to play quarterback. You lacerated your kidney in a game. Yeah, that's it. I think most and you just described.

[Big Cat]

It as, I wasn't feeling very good.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, most, most reasonable people, if they went out there and they did something at their job where they went home one day with a lacerated kidney, they'd probably talk to their wife and be like, you know, I'm. I don't know if this is the right career for me. Yeah, I think that's a completely fair conversation to have. And then there is a flip side to it though. So once you reach that decision where you say, I'm confident, I no longer. My heart's not in it. It's not fair to everybody else if I keep playing. It's not fair to myself if I keep playing. That's got to be a great moment of clarity where you realize confidently, this is what I want to do. And then after you actually walk away, there's probably going to be some time where you have to establish a brand new identity for yourself. Because your job, if you're an NFL player and a quarterback, especially for so long, that's been a big part of your identity. And so did that. Did you feel like, I don't know, I don't want to say empty, if that's the right word, but did you feel like, okay, I need to separate myself and start my own new identity at this moment?

[Andrew Luck]

Before I answer that, I'll go back to the job thing and the lacerating kidney. It was such a privilege to play quarterback and to make money doing it and do it like it was awesome. So I never once felt pity for myself for playing the position and getting paid. Amazing, right? Amazing. Two Identity. Yeah, it was way more. Being a quarterback was way more of my identity than I realized. Absolutely. And in discovering. I don't mean this, maybe it sounds mumbo jumbo, but like having to learn about myself and discover a new one. And like we had a, we had our first daughter born a few months after I retired. That certainly helped provide purpose. Like, obviously there's a deep biological purpose, you know, of like kids, you know, and tending to them. But my wife also, like, she, you know, I was processing Covid hits, so we're all together with a little baby stuff and I was processing football and I'm, you know, in a career and you know, finding myself and had some amazing people, you know, through it and still and friends, etc. And she, and she turned to me one day and I'm an out loud processor. I just talk and most of it's just like air. If I'm just like. She turned to me one day in the middle of COVID And I was like, is it possible for someone to talk about themselves more than you right now? And I said, probably not. I kept doing it. We made it through. But yeah, yeah. A big part of it was identity and I think it's like, you know, sort of locating myself, who I am in the world and grounding me in it. I think that was part of the process.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Did you ever. Did your dad call you up when he started the xfl? Did he call you and say, hey, Andrew, I can get you 25?

[Big Cat]

Really?

[PFT Commenter]

You want to come back from one season?

[Andrew Luck]

Bad question. No, not at all.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, that's. I mean it's. It's reading that article. Like I said, everyone should go read it because it did feel like you do read. I do read, but it's article and it took me. I think I.

[Andrew Luck]

That wasn't a short article.

[Big Cat]

I think I stopped, started four different times.

[Andrew Luck]

You made it through?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but I made four quarters.

[Andrew Luck]

Four quarters. Hey, when you got to the fourth restart. Yeah, like four quarter. Do you give yourself the fours?

[Big Cat]

I was like, hell yes. Put up the fours. Oh, man. Do you ever. Do you ever dream of football?

[Andrew Luck]

I have dreamt of football.

[Big Cat]

Like, do you have memories of like games and stuff where you're dreaming, you wake up, you're like, oh, shit, that was.

[Andrew Luck]

No, no. The last time I dreamed about, dreamt about football, I want to say was like showing up to a locker room without like the equipment and freaking out that like, where's my helmet?

[Big Cat]

I can't go.

[Andrew Luck]

Like the embarrassed dream. I don't know, like the what the, like the freak out. You're never actually playing. But like, I don't have the helmet and I have my hip pads. Where are my hip pads?

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Andrew Luck]

I need my hip pads and my tailbone. Tailbone gonna hurt my tailbone.

[PFT Commenter]

I think it's a pretty common dream. Most people have it just about like high school. They show up for the last day and they haven't gone to that class all semester. Yeah, you just think about that. Like football, like, oh, I'm not prepared.

[Andrew Luck]

But it was once and it was. I don't know, I don't remember was, but I remember waking up thinking like, ah, that weird.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you still watch the NFL?

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, I do.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you find yourself like rooting for the Colts? Do you find yourself rooting for quarterbacks?

[Andrew Luck]

I have a. I absolutely have a soft spot in my heart for the Colts. It was, I mean, like spent age 21 drafted there. Like I felt like a Kid, when I was drafted there, my girlfriend and I went there. Like, we grew up, in a sense there. Our daughters were born there. Like, highs and lows memories. Like, life was lived there. Lived. I very much feel that. So I absolutely have a soft spot there. And guys like Quinton Nelson and Ryan Kelly, who's a free agent now, like Braden Smith, Jack Doyle played after. Like, Jack Doyle is one of my favorite teammates ever. So, of course, root for those guys when things happen. And then watching the NFL for me now is who do I know on the team, if anybody, which gets fewer and fewer guys every year. And now it's more what coaches do. I know that are coaching on the teams. And, like, so this year, it's like watching Zach Ertz play for Washington. It's like, you know, I've known Zach since he was 17. I was 18. He's a year behind me in school. Like, we. We worked out together. I accidentally whacked one time. I was struck. You know, we went through a phase where we were stretching with, like, those long wooden staffs. Like, I don't know, like, felt like a movie or something. And I was sitting there with it behind my back, and I turned and I just whipped it around and I whacked him right in the. Whacked him right in the face. And. And Zach didn't beat me up, which was good. We always worked out together. But it's like, I root for him.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, for sure.

[Andrew Luck]

And Tavita Pritchard's the quarterback coach at Washington, and Tavita and I were teammates, like, so I root for him, of course. And then Nick Sirianni and Vic Fangio are on the Eagles during their thing, so I try to root for them as well. It becomes like, my fandom, like, my team fandom is like soccer, US national team. Like, that's what I'll get, fandom. Or, like, watching Stanford men's hoops or women's hoops or any Stanford team. That's where I let myself just be like, a. Like a fan.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Because it's fun to be a fan, right? Like, really fun to be a fan. But when. When watching NFL, it's more, hey, you know, can my guys make it out healthy? Right. And can they go ball out and. And win?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I love that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I remember. I think it might have been right before the draft, you might have done, like, a walk and talk with Peter King at some point, and you. You fascinated him with your love of architecture. Are you still a big architecture guy?

[Andrew Luck]

Big architecture guy, yeah. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So I have A couple. I have a tough architect also.

[Andrew Luck]

I grew up reading Peter King. Yeah, yeah. And like so that, that was fun for me. Like I love, like I loved reading, you know, I love getting Sports Illustrated. Love reading like Rick Riley in the back, the last page when I was doing that comment, like I would. I died for the Houston Chronicle in the mornings in Houston because Norman Chad had its syndicated column, you know, like the nationally syndicated column there. I felt like that type of humor hit me is whatever ever a 15 year old kid? So it was cool. Like those are pinch me moments in the NFL. Like walking with Peter King.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You guys were looking at the architect. Was that in Chicago?

[Andrew Luck]

I don't remember.

[PFT Commenter]

It might have been. But so he, he.

[Andrew Luck]

Great architecture Boat tour here by the.

[PFT Commenter]

Great architecture.

[Andrew Luck]

Great.

[PFT Commenter]

How many times have you been on it?

[Andrew Luck]

Two times.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes. It's awesome. It's very fun. All right, so are you familiar with the premise fmk? Marry, kill. So you gotta one, you gotta marry one. And it's.

[Big Cat]

He's gonna search. I'll listen to the question.

[Andrew Luck]

I reserve the right to not answer a question.

[PFT Commenter]

Fuck, marry, kill. Doric columns, Ionian columns, Corinthian columns.

[Big Cat]

Oh, good question. Good question.

[Andrew Luck]

Not answering it.

[Big Cat]

Can you rank them?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I rank them.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, look, I, I want them. If, if I'm remembering correctly, the Corinthian column is a bit too flowery for my aesthetic taste. Doric has a level of simplicity and, and, and very much form is connected to function, which, which I find pleasing. And ionics. Yeah, it's cool. It's groovy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. I think that's fair. I think I would say Mary Ionian. I think I would kill Doric and then I would have sex with the Corinthian column.

[Big Cat]

That makes.

[PFT Commenter]

So you don't settle down.

[Big Cat]

That makes sense.

[PFT Commenter]

What are your thoughts on Soviet brutalism?

[Andrew Luck]

No. Positive thoughts.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. Coach Gruden, the Soviet brutalism's also inextricably linked to the use of concrete. Yes. Yeah, that's my thoughts.

[PFT Commenter]

It's like designed to kill your soul.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Right. Coach Gruden actually said that he was shocked that you knew every part about cement. I don't know why that shocked him.

[Andrew Luck]

I went on a cement kick. Read a book. I certainly did not know every part of cement.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he was just like that guy, he knows everything about cement. When I told him you were coming in. So I don't. Do you still know everything about cement?

[Andrew Luck]

No, I never did.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Andrew Luck]

And certainly do not. But I do think what's fascinating about Cement.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. This is the good stuff.

[Andrew Luck]

I think they just realized they did like just prove this like, like Roman stuff has stood for a long, long, long time. Like way longer than the roads and bridges we've been building.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Andrew Luck]

Here in the world. Not just, you know, here, but sort of here. And they realized that somehow baked into the property of this man. I'm going to mess this up. But when romance meant fixes itself when it cracks like something about oxygen and water getting in activates like a self healing mechanism. I think like researchers in Australia. I could be completely wrong in the language I'm using. But just Google, Google it.

[PFT Commenter]

What else have you been reading about?

[Andrew Luck]

I've been on a sci fi kick lately.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh.

[Andrew Luck]

I think when I realized taking a job being general manager, like I'm using brain power again a lot.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

It was real stuff and etc. And so at the end of the nights I like to read before going to bed. And I've been on the series, the Red Rising series of good sci fi.

[Big Cat]

This is a book or show?

[Andrew Luck]

It's a book.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

They'll make a show eventually.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And then we'll watch it and then we'll say that we read it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Do you watch Severance?

[Andrew Luck]

Say it again.

[Big Cat]

Do you watch Severance?

[Andrew Luck]

I don't watch Severance. I know what it is. Cool. That's the second person the last two days to tell me about Jack Muhort, my old teammate in Indianapolis. I was talking to him because I'm going to Toledo and staying with him tomorrow. Yeah, we were talking. He was like. He asked the same question.

[Big Cat]

Yes, San Francisco is very good.

[Andrew Luck]

But you're reminding me of. We had a Game of Thrones book club in our Stanford locker room back in the day. We would get into real. There were four or five of us, myself included that when I read Are you Game of Thrones people? I've watched the show. Yeah. When the Red Wedding scene came up in Book Whatever I want to say three and I read it and stormed into the locker room like very emotionally shook by this thing. And we had a big. It turned out that all of us were in the shower yelling about Game of Thrones at the time, you know, the whole thing. And a few people walked in like what the heck are these guys doing? And so I felt like the cool kid. When the world was freaking out about the Red Wedding episode. I was like, haha. You don't know about everybody who already knows about this, who's had years to emotionally process what just Happened. We were ahead of you guys. All of y'all. We are ahead.

[Big Cat]

That's incredible.

[PFT Commenter]

Did you find yourself ready for it when it came out?

[Andrew Luck]

The show?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah. When the. When the Red Wedding specifically happened?

[Andrew Luck]

Well, I didn't really watch the show.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, okay.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. So you read the books?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You're like, I already know.

[Andrew Luck]

I mean, I picked, you know, episodes here and there. Just, you know, whatever. It's cool.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Well, I'm start reading about. I'm going to read one book about cement this year. I'm right.

[Andrew Luck]

You don't have to do that.

[Big Cat]

I'm not. I'll read a Twitter thread.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Find. That's a good one. A good Twitter thread. Just really break down that. So wait, so American soccer, real quick. Are we going to win the World Cup?

[Andrew Luck]

Oh, yeah, we are. Why not?

[Big Cat]

Do you think we would be better if we had, like, LeBron, Wemby, Luca on the team?

[Andrew Luck]

Not Luca and Wemby, because they were countries. You're better than that.

[Big Cat]

They would be on our.

[Andrew Luck]

Better than that.

[PFT Commenter]

Joel embiId.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. Shake SGA playing I have no idea.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Andrew Luck]

If we would be better or not.

[Big Cat]

The answer is yes. If we. If we just.

[PFT Commenter]

Jaden Daniels, he'd be so good.

[Big Cat]

Our best players. No, we just do that to troll and get people upset.

[Andrew Luck]

OBJ was an incredible soccer player. I want to say.

[Big Cat]

I believe it. I believe it. Sweet. We're not going to win anything, though.

[Andrew Luck]

I. I'm so hopeful. I am eternally optimistic as a US Soccer fan. The World Cup's gonna be here and in Mexico and Canada and. Yeah, it's fun to be. It's fun to be a fan. It's fun to be a fan of your national team. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

It's fun to win, though, also, like, being at the.

[Andrew Luck]

I got to go to the Olympics. My wife's a producer for gymnastics on television, so she was working. And I was just, like, having the time of my life rooting for Americans, you know, bringing my daughters to stuff and having, like, 59 Stanford athletes there, including, like, friends of ours that were. We were freshmen together, like Katerina Stefaniti or Eric Shoji. Just amazing. Like, watching Katie Ledecky swim was so cool. It's fun to root for America in sports. It's really fun. Like, really, really, really fun. I enjoyed that a lot. And my wife, but she stole the tickets to the women's gold medal match, soccer, so she got to go with her friends, and I was. That's the one thing I was jealous of her about from that Trip, she got to go to that gold medal match of the women and watch us win.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

By the way, and we love winners here.

[Big Cat]

We love winners.

[PFT Commenter]

And I'll tell you what, the roster that we have right now, I've been telling Big Cat this for the last two years going into this World cup, that is the best roster that the US Will have ever had. At that point, just looking at the players that play competitively overseas, that's as talented as we've ever been, I think. And if it's gonna, if we're gonna do it, it's gonna be at home in this World Cup. So, like, get all in right now.

[Andrew Luck]

In usa I'm with you. Get all in. I, I, you know, maybe I don't have as deep a perspective as you. Pft.

[Big Cat]

No.

[PFT Commenter]

I just gave you everything I know.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Good. Well, that I like it. I'm all in. And I do think it seems like at scale, we just, we have a lot of guys competing in really important places around the world. And the MLS is stronger than it's ever been. Like, our domestic game is stronger than it's ever been. Ever been.

[PFT Commenter]

And I'm thinking maybe our new coach, he's very close with Messi. Why not just have Messi become a U. S. Citizen?

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, it doesn't work like that, though.

[Big Cat]

No, it does.

[Andrew Luck]

There's already cap tied to Argentina.

[Big Cat]

You can do whatever.

[Andrew Luck]

No, you can't.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

This was talking captive.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, he's captied. Oh, no. We can't figure out a way around that. No.

[Big Cat]

By the way, 20, FIFA would never.

[PFT Commenter]

Allow something illegal to happen. There's. That's not a problem that money can fix.

[Big Cat]

2014, USC versus Stanford. Fourth and 13 at the USC 32 punt, and then fourth and 22 at the USC 29 punt for a touchback. That's a nine yard punt. So.

[Andrew Luck]

So I don't think we'll ever get Messy on the U.S. roster. And, and I'm very excited and I'm very excited for the World Cup.

[Big Cat]

You get a showdown. You get this show.

[Andrew Luck]

Anytime we talk about soccer. One of the things I was stoked about when I was, I was still playing professionally and I was in Europe for something in the offseason, I was like, I gotta go see Christian Pulisic play. He was still playing for Borussia Dortmund. So I hopped in the car, I was in Amsterdam and I drove over and I reached out to his agent. So I got to watch the game. Unfortunately, he maybe even played like 10 minutes at the end of the game. It was, like, versus Hoffenheim or someone, I want to say. But I got to have pizza with Christian afterwards. And, like, you know, like, I'm a fan. He was younger, but I'm a fan. He's a cool dude, so I'm stoked for what he's doing right now. Yeah. And then I hope somehow, some way, we channel the attitude that Clint Dempsey brought to the soccer team and to just sports in general, because that dude was so fun to watch. I loved watching him from, like, East Texas was an amazing story. And he was tough. And one of my favorite quotes, like, sport quotes all time was Bruce arena when he was the. I think he was the men's national team coach at this point. Asked about, like, what. What made Clint different or special. He's like. Because he tries and, like, Clint did, and he was so fun to watch.

[PFT Commenter]

So he was never scared.

[Andrew Luck]

No. Never scared. Like, all those clips of him getting. I mean, watching the clips now, they're on the Internets and the YouTube and such, but, like, watching them play, like, that was an attitude that I think resonated with a lot of us watching.

[PFT Commenter]

You need a guy like that to beat Mexico, that's not afraid of Mexico. And he. Yeah, he was the best. Maybe Joe Scally's our guy.

[Andrew Luck]

You think so?

[PFT Commenter]

He's one of the defenders on the team. He's one of our security guys. Nephews.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Really?

[Big Cat]

Which is pretty cool.

[PFT Commenter]

Staten island guy. We need some, like, Staten island tough guy on his team.

[Andrew Luck]

East Texas or Staten Island? One of the two.

[Big Cat]

Fourth and 11 from the Cal 34. Ten minutes left in the game. Punt.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, you're not. You're not Gonna beat the 29.

[Big Cat]

29 is crazy.

[PFT Commenter]

That's like a piece of art. Okay, I have a. I have a serious question for you.

[Big Cat]

Oh.

[PFT Commenter]

Hypothetically, the Colts make it to the super bowl, but Anthony Richardson and Joe Flacco both get mono and they can't play.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

They weren't kissing each other freshman year. They're kissing somebody else.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And you get a call. Andrew, can you play in the super bowl for us? You don't even have to practice. You probably want to practice. You have to practice three days and then play in the Super Bowl. What do you say?

[Andrew Luck]

No, thank you. Appreciate it. And I'll say, why it. That's cheap. That's not. You gotta. You gotta go all season. You got. You gotta earn it.

[PFT Commenter]

Gotta earn that.

[Andrew Luck]

You gotta earn it.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

What if. What if?

[Andrew Luck]

I'd be hyped for the Colts, though, if they're there.

[Big Cat]

What if. What if Jim Merce calls you up? He's like, hey, we got this new technology. We're turning injuries off for an entire season. Would you come back and play injuries off? You literally cannot get injured.

[Andrew Luck]

No, I'd asked to be able to invest in the technology.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

All right. That's actually a smart answer.

[Big Cat]

We need to get this technology.

[PFT Commenter]

Did Jim Mercy ever show you his guitar collection?

[Andrew Luck]

His guitar collection's sweet.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Andrew Luck]

It seems like I grew up watching or watching, listening to classic rock, because my dad's a classic rock aile. You know, the first concert my dad took me to was ZZ Top in Houston, which is like, yeah, it's a great gateway concert into, you know, live shows. It's amazing. And then went to Springsteen. We actually came to Chicago one year to see the Stones at whatever the basketball arena is. United Center. And so, like, going into his office, he does have an incredible guitar collection. And then when you go to Stanford, you realize the Grateful Dead is a thing. And, like, Jerry Garcia and. And so I. And we have friends that are Deadheads. And, like, the dad used to do impromptu shows on campus back in the day. Like, there's a whole culture in Palo Alto around the Grateful Dead. So to see him, like a Jerry Garcia guitar actually meant a little bit of something to me. Yeah. And the Beatles drum set.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he's got it all.

[Andrew Luck]

It's cool.

[Big Cat]

He's.

[PFT Commenter]

He's convinced, and I think he's convinced me, that the technology will exist one day to extract all the sounds that have ever been played out of an instrument just. And just have it play. I guess the best way to say is he believes. If you buy a guitar from Eric Clapton, somewhere in that wood is the. It's the actual music and the actual notes that were once played. And eventually we'll be able to hook a machine up to it and get that exact sound out of the guitar. Do you believe that?

[Andrew Luck]

Cool.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I believe it. I believe it.

[Big Cat]

I.

[PFT Commenter]

If he believes it, I believe it.

[Big Cat]

Things I don't understand, I just believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, all right, that sounds cool.

[Andrew Luck]

Healthy way to live life.

[Brian Windhorst]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, would you rather that that technology existed? I would.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I would choose to live in that world.

[Big Cat]

Absolutely. Absolutely.

[Andrew Luck]

Well, this conversation is devolving.

[Big Cat]

It always does. This has been so awesome, though. We really appreciate it. I have one last question for you. It's a rollback question. R H O-B A C K.com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. Q Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code take, take, go right now. Huddle. Hoodie is the new one that I love. Roback.com promo code take is there that so?

[Andrew Luck]

Well, stop.

[Big Cat]

I do it every time.

[Andrew Luck]

That was. Wow.

[Big Cat]

We. We have a robot question to finish every interview. Shout out Roback, our wonderful sponsor. Is there one, is there one pass that you think of? You're like, yeah, that was it. That was it. Like, remember me for this one pass, this one play.

[Andrew Luck]

Remember me?

[Big Cat]

Yes. No, but I would assume, like, there's one that you could think of. Like, man, did I absolutely fucking crush that.

[Andrew Luck]

It's funny, I think of interceptions I've thrown more than I think of. Like sweet tutters. Right, right, right. No, I'll be honest. Part of what was so fun. What was. So Frank Reich asked me this, like, what do you love about football? We were sitting, talking once before I, before I retired. I said, like, dude, I get to throw the ball to my friends.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, you're playing catch. Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

It's really cool.

[PFT Commenter]

That's awesome.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah. And so, so there is not one throw, there's not one throw to rule them all, but like throwing a. Ty Hilton and Jack Doyle and an amazing year with, you know, Eric Ebron had this, we had an incredible year together. And Kobe Fleener and Griffin. Like, I got to play in the NFL with my college roommate Griff Whalen, and he cut touchdowns like he ran a bang 8 on skinny post. I think on one of the Texans corners in the big game. Like, this is an undrafted guy, a walk on receiver who's playing. That's awesome. Kobe Fleener and I played together in college, you know, so I feel very fortunate that I got to throw the football to my friends, especially Ty Hilton. Like, I'll say this again, I don't think it's fun to play with a guy who's different and he was different.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

And I'm not sure he gets the respect he deserves for what he did on the football field. He brought an attitude that was, that was just awesome. And like, you know, we probably couldn't have come from two different places. But like, it's part of what's amazing about sports and football in particular. I know this is an unserious podcast, but. But I will be serious. Like, I get like, we're friends.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Andrew Luck]

I don't get that otherwise. Right. My life is like way better for that. And that's just one micro. I got to play with Frank Gore, who's awesome by the way, like, no one knew, no one knew pass protection better than Frank Gore. The dude got football. Like, he would pick stuff out before I would pick it out. He'd start yelling at the linemen about what technique to use. Like, he is. He is the teach tape on how to be a pass protecting running back. And he's also the teach tape on how to be a gap scheme running running back. Like, the dude was unbelievable. I got to play with Ahmad Brashaw from Bluefield, West Virginia. Yeah, right. Like, he's a dog and tough. He caught eight touchdown passes one year. Like that, that part of that part of football, I think, you know, I say grateful, like, yeah, I got paid and I get to make choices in life that I know others don't. I get privileged and it's amazing. But, like, it's more that, like, I got to play football. I got to throw a ball to my friends and nerd out over snap. Like, who gets to a portion of my salary went to finding a better snap count. I got paid to sit in a room and then go out to practice and think about and talk to left tackles and guys. All right, this week, guys, we're going to use black as the color. That's the live color. We're going to do a triple count. We're going to say it three times. We're going to go, yes, I go. And then I'm gonna go kill, kill, kill. Because last week we did kill, kill, kill. And we ran the ball and then we're red 80, ready, hot, hot, hot. And then we're gonna go black 80 by, you know, like, yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, kidding. What type of life is that?

[Big Cat]

That is awesome.

[Andrew Luck]

And now I get to be back in football in a different capacity with Stanford at an alma mater that I love. And, and people are counting us out and they're wrong to count us out. So get on early. Just like the US national team.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, now's the time.

[Big Cat]

And, and this, this interview has been for, you know, it's been a seven year wait. And I want to say that this has been so awesome to have you here. And also you're making us better podcasters because you got a little emotional there. And you mentioned Frank Gore. And I didn't mention the fact that he has enormous balls. And I used to take videos of him running without a, you know, any type of underwear on. His balls would be flopping everywhere.

[PFT Commenter]

Big Cat would have done that.

[Big Cat]

I, I was this close to saying it, but I was like, you know what? Let me let Andrew finish His moment. So thank you for making us better.

[Andrew Luck]

That's good discipline.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I'm really proud of you. My face.

[Andrew Luck]

I was just like, I'm really proud of you.

[Big Cat]

Say Free Core has huge balls. Look at this. Look at the picture. Look how big his balls are. That's insane.

[PFT Commenter]

If there's.

[Big Cat]

I think you get the show now.

[PFT Commenter]

If there's not one pass to remember you by. What about a half? What about that playoff game against Kansas City? Yeah, how cool was that?

[Andrew Luck]

We've had some good halves like that. Also been part of some bad halves.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Some of them in New England.

[PFT Commenter]

How fun was that?

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah, that was cool. Actually, Alex and I were talking of Alex is Alex Smith's awesome, by the way. I mean, like, you want a role model in life. Like that dude is cool. But we were talking about that recently. We live not too far from each other and get to run into each other every now and then. And that one, I was glad to be on the other side of it. The ball bounced our way. I think they. They lost like four guys in the secondary throughout the game. Right. So like we were rolling. But I do remember one play from that game. We were in a timeout and we had Fleener, Ty and another receiver, I wasn't sure who ready to go. I don't know what down in distances was, but we were sitting there. Pep and I were talking Pep Hamilton, OC at the time, we were sitting there like, let's switch. You know, originally Kobe was supposed to run a clear out post and Ty was going to get the corner. And then I was like, I think. I think one of us or either TI Was like, they can't run with him right now. Like, they just can't run with Ty Hilton. So let's put Ty on the post and Kobe on the corner. So we came out of the timeout, we did it. I remember looking in the huddle at Ty and saying something like, run, motherfucker. Like, run. Like run. You're gonna get it. Like you're gonna get it. And BA used to. Bruce Arians used to just call Ty little motherfucker. Come on, little motherfucker. Time. And. Oh, is that what cussing on on podcast feels like? That's a good feeling. But so, so he did. He. He ran and he took the top off and the ball and we, you know, protected it up and the ball made it there and he scored. But it was fun to feel like the first half was. Everything could go wrong and the second half was sort of everything was just going right it was an awesome game. Great game.

[Big Cat]

Awesome. Well, Andrew, thank you so much, man. We really appreciate it. You're a recurring guest now, so you have to come on anytime we ask. I don't know if you knew that. You didn't read the fine print for that.

[Andrew Luck]

That's right. You're Stanford fans now.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Listen. Yeah. When we want to push Stanford because, you know, little old Stanford needs, you know, some nil money. We'll help you. Stanford doesn't need anything.

[PFT Commenter]

You guys got it.

[Big Cat]

Turn that fire hose on.

[Andrew Luck]

All right.

[PFT Commenter]

Me and Big Cat, we're also thinking about as quarterbacks, we want to start a company that just need one drop of blood. And then you could examine that and then you could change the world. Does. Do you have contacts that can help us?

[Andrew Luck]

There's. There's old Theranos office space. Yeah, I think that's available.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, Good. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Come play quarterback.

[PFT Commenter]

No. Good luck. We'll be rooting for you.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we will.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I mean, it's fun when Stanford gets in the mix. I mean, those. Your guys. Teams with Harbaugh was. It was fun just watching you, especially like it's watching Pete Carroll be like, this isn't supposed to be happening. Like, Stanford's not supposed to beat us. Like, it would. It was just fun to watch.

[Andrew Luck]

So I had fun watching Stanford after, too, watching Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Coach Shaw's teams and.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

We'll get there.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Great basket.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Great basket.

[Andrew Luck]

The tree.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Thanks so much, Andrew. Appreciate it, man.

[Andrew Luck]

My pleasure, Andrew.

[PFT Commenter]

Luck was brought to you by Dove Men's. As you prepare to host your big game celebrations, what are some possible whole body odor related issues that you might encounter that might make you feel a little less confident in your hosting duties? Maybe taking your shoes off. Maybe you're afraid that your feet stink. Maybe sitting down on the couch next to somebody that you kind of know but don't really know that well, you sit down, you catch a whiff, and for a second you think to yourself, is that me? That can't be me. Well, you can tackle whole body odor with Dove men plus care whole body do. If you're afraid to take your shoes off when you're going to your friend's house, if you're getting nervous that your team's down at halftime, you think you might be stinking a little bit. It will tackle whole body odor with Dove men plus care whole body deal. This whole body deal defends against all your odor zones from pits, privates, defeat. And it's long lasting with 72 hour odor protection. Find Dove Men Whole Body deal at Walmart today. Spray up.

[Big Cat]

I'm spray right now.

[PFT Commenter]

Spray up. It actually smells really good in the studio right now. Might be because it is Sunday night and we haven't lived in here all week yet, but my money's on it. Coming from Dove Men's and their whole body deal. And now here's our good friend, Brian Windhorse.

[Big Cat]

Okay, we now welcome on our very, very good friend. It is Brian Windhorse. He is an insider. You can see him on espn. You can listen to the Hoop Collective, a great, great podcast, all things NBA. Wendy. We called. We hit. We hit. The Wendy bat phone basically was like, hey, can you please come on for 10 minutes to tell us what's going on? You have not slept. You're all the way in LA now. What the hell's going on?

[Brian Windhorst]

Cat, in my career, never have I had my phone go crazy like this. I'm talking about players, head coaches, assistant coaches, executives, referees, agents, lawyers, workout guys, you know, and they all had the exact same question. We don't understand. What don't we understand what's going on? And I don't have a great answer. This is one of the most shocking transactions. I mean, I can't speak to the NHL or whatever. It's one of the most shocking transactions in American sports history for the magnitude and the way it came out of the blue.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, so let's talk about that part first. So this shocked everyone. So were the Mavs just. They weren't shopping, Luca, they just did a deal with the Lakers. Is that. Is that correct to say?

[Brian Windhorst]

Yeah. So as far as I understand, and, like, I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't have the full 360 of this yet. I'm trying, but picture this like, you had a really nice house, all right, and you wanted to sell the house. What. How would you go about that? Would you put it on the market to get a lot of offers? Probably. And let's say you had somebody that you specifically wanted to sell it to, you wouldn't sell it to that person for a discount. Because if you're going to buy something off market, you know, if it's something of high quality, which Luka Doncic certainly is, you have to. You have to overpay for it. Like, if I'm going to keep this off the market, you got to pay me, like, everything I want. So think of. Think of Luca like, like a super nice beachfront house. But that's not what happened here. This was a pocket sale that went down where they got a discount, the Lakers got a discount. That's not to put down Anthony Davis. But Luca is a 25 year old in, you know, not even in his prime yet megastar. I mean, Luka Doncic has made more first team all NBAs than Steph Curry has.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Brian Windhorst]

Okay, so the fact that this trade would happen, that they would trade a 25 year old in their own conference where if this goes sideways, they could be beat over the head with this for the next decade, to do it, you know, clandestinely, where it doesn't hit the open market and, and to do it like in this nature is just absolutely nobody can get their mind around it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I've seen some people say that the, the Mavs are in win now mode. They, they were already winning now. I don't, I don't understand what, like what, what addition, how is this going to help them win now more than Luca would?

[Brian Windhorst]

Basically they're like, okay, we're not going to take the 25 year old with warts. Definitely has issues, definitely could hold him back. Like, no doubt about it. But they're basically like, okay, we're going to take the 31 year old and the 33 year old or whatever. Kyrie's 33 or 34. And we're going to say that's what we're going to do.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Brian Windhorst]

And who, guys, who knows what they could have gotten if it was on the open market. Like, there are some teams out there that are holding enormous amounts of draft picks. The Grant, you wouldn't have Anthony Davis, but, but Mikhail Bridges got five first round picks. Mikhail Bridge has never been an all star. Luca has been first team all NBA five times. He's 25.

[Big Cat]

Right. It's shocking.

[PFT Commenter]

And then the one, the one piece that nobody's talking about, the Utah Jazz were involved in this trade. Why was that?

[Brian Windhorst]

Oh, can you imagine? This is what I'm thinking. Justin Zanuck and Danny an, can you imagine they get a phone call in the last couple of days, hey, we need you to take on a salary as part of a deal. Okay. Who's it going to be? Jalen, Hood, Schiffino? Okay, maybe we'll do it for a second round pick. What's the trade? Oh, it's Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. I'm sorry, what did you just say? Like the Jazz is rolled in the situation. Like they must have been. Can you imagine them on these conference calls? Yeah, like they, like, I would pay good money to see the video of them listening to the conference call going, do you believe this? Like, they're putting it on mute. They're going to do it. Can you believe they're actually going to do it? They're going to give Luca to the Lakers. Yeah, yeah. We'll take the 20, 25 second. Yeah. Okay. Back on mute. Oh, my God. I can't believe this. Like, this is unbelievable. I can't even imagine what was like in the Jazz offices the last couple days.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. In the. Luca, like, personally, he had to have been shocked. He also loses out on the supermax. So how much, how much money does he end up losing because he can't now sign a supermax with the Lakers. He could have with the Mavs. How much money does he end up losing out on?

[Brian Windhorst]

It might be $100 million.

[Big Cat]

Jesus.

[Brian Windhorst]

So, you know, I'm not Bobby Marks. I don't have the numbers right in front of me. But here's the thing. When you supermax means you get 5% more of the cap per year, it's something like, it's worth like something like 70 or 80 million. The difference between getting the supermax or not the supermax at Lucas spot. So part of that is an extra year that you get, which would be like, like 50, 60 million. He's eventually going to play that year and get money. But he also is when you build your next contract off, you're building it off a lower contract. So that's a lot of mumbo jumbo. It's tens and tens and tens of millions. Plus, he plays in Texas right now for like half or so of his games. He pays no state tax. Now he goes to California where he's going to pay 14% state tax for, you know, almost all of his games, most of his home games and all those games in California, it's going to cost him millions of dollars a year in state tax. So I'm not saying, like, that is why that makes a big difference, but you tack out all that on, it's potentially a hundred million dollar, you know, slap in the face to this guy who thought he was going to be a maverick for a long time.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So. So was there any inkling that the Mavs were thinking about, like, was there any, like, just through sourcing, like, Luca is not happy or the Mavs aren't happy? So it was really as shocking as shock.

[Brian Windhorst]

I mean, I think the Mavs are frustrated. Have been frustrated with them. I mean, he's a guy who frustrates you. He's also a guy who's so amazing. You live with it. And certainly at age 25, I mean, maybe in a couple of years, if the, if the things weren't working out, if he had a couple more, you know, pouting sessions where he killed them in the playoffs, but age 25, if there's a. If there was a reason why this happened, like a precipitating event, maybe that is true. I don't know it. And I'll say something else. There's people that have been trying to figure out, like, well, why did the Lakers do it? Was there like an issue with AD and JJ Redick? Was there an issue with AD and LeBron? The Lakers did it because they got Luka Doncic right the end. Right the end. You know, I know that they were probably annoyed that AD did that interview with Sean Charania the other day where he was like, get me a center. I'm sure that didn't make the Lakers weak, but they did this because Luka Doncic, that's why they did it.

[Big Cat]

They have now a succession plan for LeBron. Now, how does LeBron work into this where it's like, does LeBron say, from a basketball fit? I don't know how much it fits, but you just figured that out later because it's Luca and you just go get him, like you said. But is this LeBron like, hey, I'm going to play for three more years now because I got Luca with me.

[Brian Windhorst]

Yeah. So we're waiting to hear on that. So I'm not going to speculate on that. I do know that LeBron has an incredible affinity for Luca. He's loved him for a long time. There's some, you know, he's tried to get into business with him at different occasions. They actually, I think, fit together beautifully because you can take the stress off of LeBron having to play so much point guard, but they can, they can kind of play together. I could see LeBron being like, this could help me extend my career. Because one of the things that's happened over the last few years is LeBron has wanted Anthony Davis to take on.

[PFT Commenter]

More of a role.

[Brian Windhorst]

He's really been like, like pushing that and supporting that. Not just because Anthony Davis is a really good player, but because LeBron's like, I can't carry this load. So I could see LeBron saying, I'm bought in here. I could also see teams calling the Lakers and saying, hey, you just picked up a 25 year old. Do you want to offload your 40 year old now? LeBron is a no trade Clause, But I could see that those calls coming. I will say this, though. The Lakers roster is now lopsided. They have no center, starting quality center. Their best center right now is Jackson Hayes. So they gotta find a trade between now and Thursday where they get some sort of center. Also Austin Reeves, I'm not sure how he fits. This is actually one of the amazing things about this trade, is that the Lakers did this deal and somehow are still holding a first round pick. 20, 31 and holding Austin Reeves. Yeah, nobody understands that, but they still have those two things. And, and maybe there's a world where Austin Reaves stays. Reaves is having a great year, but Reaves is only really successful when he has the ball right. And now he's going to be down the line. So we'll see what happens. That may not be something that happens till later. They may try it out, but they now have too many ball handlers. They have no perimeter defense and no rim protection. So the Lakers have been on this. They've won 8 out of 10. They've been playing really good. Now their team's a little lopsided. So Lakers are going to have to make some, you know, make some more. More moves and either by Thursday or certainly by the summer.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Very important question. Who gets the last shot?

[Brian Windhorst]

That's the most important question. Yes, let's.

[PFT Commenter]

One shot.

[Brian Windhorst]

Let's. Let's open first take with that one shot. I'm Gonna speak to Mr. Smith about, about setting that up.

[PFT Commenter]

One shot. And if it's not LeBron, will LeBron be happy that he's not getting the last shot?

[Brian Windhorst]

I think, in all honesty, I think. Think you want the Paul Lucas hands. Yeah, I think LeBron. I think LeBron would agree with that.

[PFT Commenter]

Is there another domino that's about to fall? I feel like there has to be, right?

[Brian Windhorst]

No, definitely. I mean, there's going to be. I. I kind of wonder, you know, how in college. So right now there's like all these sort of large contract players that are sort of just dangling on the market. Zach Levine, Brandon ingram, Jimmy Butler, De'Aaron Fox. This is. I feel like this could be like, you know how when the conferences and college like realign, like, like there's all this sort of tension and then like one team, one conference makes a move and then there's like 17 other conferences. The next thing you know, Boise State is in the acc. That is what could happen here. Not for sure, but there's been sort of pent up stuff. This could be a cascading thing that ends up leading to some major movement by Thursday. We thought, this is going to be a quiet deadline. We should have known better.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. What if Rob Polinka last night, he's doing this deal, and the Mavs say, we're ready to do this deal, but we demand Bronnie. Does he still do the deal?

[Brian Windhorst]

Big Cat, that is an amazing question. Thank you. Here's the thing. Like, I actually believe that LeBron didn't know. I know people don't. But I think the reason they didn't. I think they don't tell LeBron because they don't want it on LeBron. He's got to make a decision on AD or not.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Brian Windhorst]

I don't think they want that. So. But it would have been fascinating if they were like, we got brawny. We need some minutes at the backup. Backup. Backup wing. You know, they would have to go to LeBron. And I got to believe that LeBron would say, send us Luca, you know, bro. But that is. That is remarkable.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. One last question for you, Woody. Gun to your head. Where does Jimmy Butler end up?

[Brian Windhorst]

Guys, I'm not sure. He's getting traded.

[Big Cat]

Wow.

[Brian Windhorst]

I think it's either going to be Phoenix or Golden State, But Phoenix can't seem to find a home for Bradley Beal. And they've been trying for six weeks. And I don't know if that's going to happen the next four days. And the warriors have other options. And, you know, I think if it happens, I think Golden State is more likely than Phoenix. But, you know, but I gotta tell you something. The easiest way you can look like a fool right now is to try to predict this trade deadline. Prediction for the trade deadline. That business is over because nobody saw this one coming.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. All right, Wendy, I got one last question. Roback question. Rhobac.com promo code, take 20 off your first purchase. Q, zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code, take. What do we say to Mavs fans? Because I feel very bad for Mavs fans. They woke up, they thought, you got a guy like Luca. He's 25. We know what the NBA is. You need a top five player to win a championship. They had Luca in their minds for the next decade, and then they wake up and Luca's not there anymore. What? What happened? Like, I. I don't even know how the fan base reacts to something like this.

[Brian Windhorst]

The only thing I can say is that when Nico Harrison, their gm, did the Kyrie Irving deal two years ago, I thought it was A terrible mistake. I thought that would not work. I did not think Nico made a smart move. I told this to him to his face. I. I saw him a few days after the deal, and I said, good luck with this one, because Kyrie's situation in Brooklyn had gone so poorly, and Nico knew what he was doing. He knew the. He knew the. You know, Nico was previously at Nike for 20 years. His number one client was. Was Kobe Bryant, by the way. His agent was Rob Pelinka. I think that might have had something to do with. There's a relationship that goes back 20 years with Rob Pelinka. I'll do it for sure. They.

[Big Cat]

They. They.

[Brian Windhorst]

They first started doing business together in 2003 when Kobe came from Adidas to Nike, which in today's day and age would be a massive story. Back then was like sports business journal, But. But Nico, when he did that deal with Kyrie Irving, he's like, this is what I think our team needs. I believe in it. I thought it was a mistake. It's turned out to be a genius move. It's totally transformed the franchise. So I will just say, while I don't understand this, and I think this is potentially a catastrophic mistake, Nico Harrison has got some capital with the Mavs fans, but, my God, if Luca turns into this, if this pushes him into, like, focusing on the right things and getting rid of some of his bad habits, and the Lakers have another era, and Luca has a statue outside crypto, and Luca puts up more banners, Nico Harrison will live in infamy. And that is. That is on the table, right?

[Big Cat]

It is absolutely on the table.

[PFT Commenter]

What were those business deals that you were talking about with Luca and LeBron?

[Brian Windhorst]

So LeBron really wanted Luca to be in his shoe brand at Nike. LeBron hasn't had guys like that. It's not been, like, Jordan, where, like, guys wore his shoe. And he wanted Luca to be the first guy to, like, be the. In the LeBron shoe. And he, like, recruited him and everything and ended up going with Jordan. And I'm sure Nike, he made that choice as well, but, like, he really, really wanted him to be in there. And then, of course, he drafted him in the draft in the all star draft, but he drafted a bunch of guys in the all star draft. Half of them he's gotten on his team. Half of them he has. I'm not. I'm not sure what's going. What to make of that.

[Big Cat]

All right, well, Wendy, you're the best. Thank you for picking up the bat phone. Get some sleep and we'll talk to you.

[Brian Windhorst]

Hey, enjoy the super bowl, guys.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Thank you. Thank you. We're off right now. We got a flight right now, now. So thank you so much.

[PFT Commenter]

Wendy was brought to you by Chevy. Chevy has packed more capability into the Silverado Trail Boss so that you can pack more fun into your weekend. Have yourself a Friday, a Saturday and Sunday fun. Yay. With a truck that says no to nothing. Tailgates, spontaneous camping trips, DIY projects. Bring it on. What about a cross country road trip? Silverado was the perfect ride for last year's grill week out west. And recently they helped us give fullbacks the recognition they deserve with the Lowman award going to Tyler Crow of Boise State. Well, the Silverado Trail Boss is built like a fullback. We're talking 495 foot pounds of torque. Hold on to those sodas, Max. Plus, the Trail Boss gives you an extra 2 inch lift, so maybe Hank can finally dunk. Silverado brings the grit. Then pairs it with the latest truck tech, inside and out. The result, a truck. They can do it all. Then show up on Monday with a story to tell. Check out the Silverado trail [e-mail] Chevrolet together. Let's drive.

[Big Cat]

Okay, let's wrap up. We got two things we got to do. We got to do Monday reading. And Max, you want to. While PFT pulls up the Monday reading. We were going to do this every single day, every single show this week. Score prediction for the Super Bowl. And you're allowed to change it however you feel like if you're not feeling too super confident right now. And then by Friday you finally put on some Eagles gear and you feel confident you can change it.

[Max]

Right now I'm going to go 32, 24, Eagles 32.

[Big Cat]

How'd you get to 32?

[Max]

Couple two point conversions.

[Big Cat]

Okay, couple of them.

[Max]

Maybe, maybe none of them.

[Big Cat]

Is that a missed extra point in there? Two miss sexual maybe.

[Max]

It's four touchdowns, all with two point conversions.

[PFT Commenter]

Touch pushes. All of them.

[Big Cat]

Four touchdowns, all two point conversions. Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

And do you think that the Chiefs get there? You said 24, right?

[Big Cat]

24.

[PFT Commenter]

Is that. Is that like backdoor 24, like you're smoking leading.

[Max]

They're up 30. They're up 32, 21 with five minutes to go.

[PFT Commenter]

But I thought your final score was 32. 32.

[Big Cat]

32.

[Max]

24.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Max]

And then they get a field goal to make it a one possession game.

[Andrew Luck]

Okay.

[Max]

And then they don't get the ball.

[Big Cat]

They don't get the ball back. Wow. What was the halftime score?

[Max]

17:10 Wait, no, I thought it was.

[Hank]

I don't know.

[Big Cat]

I thought it was two.

[PFT Commenter]

They can't get 1710 if they 1610. Okay. Yep.

[Big Cat]

1610. Two touchdowns, two two point conversions.

[Max]

I don't know how I get to 21 though.

[PFT Commenter]

Now what's the best commercial?

[Max]

No 167.

[Big Cat]

No 1610. And then the. The Chiefs are like, oh, we got to start going for two.

[Max]

Yeah, right, right, right.

[Big Cat]

24:18. Then it's field goal.

[Max]

I have it all.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, don't worry about it.

[Max]

All right, so do this really nice Monday reading.

[Big Cat]

What is it about? Pft.

[PFT Commenter]

Monday? Well, it's the time capsules.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

It's the part of my take time. What we do is every super bowl.

[Big Cat]

We actually do do.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So we're gonna flashback a random moment in part of my take history.

[Big Cat]

Okay. I hope you do a Super bowl week moment.

[PFT Commenter]

It actually is.

[Big Cat]

Oh, wow.

[PFT Commenter]

So it's exactly one year ago today.

[Big Cat]

Wow.

[PFT Commenter]

On the Sunday that we were flying out to Las Vegas. Remember we landed and Adam Schefter tweeted out that thing about the commanders have arrived at the Super Bowl? Yeah, that whole thing. We're recording, we're watching the Grammys. Miley Cyrus looked fantastic. And I get a text because I took a picture of Miley Cyrus on the TV and Max was actually in the picture that I. I took. And I tweeted it out and I got a text from our good friend from the Diana Rossini show. Diana Rossini, the host. The co host of Diana Rossini. And she said, I know, I. I.

[Max]

Don'T like listening to this.

[PFT Commenter]

Does Max live in New York? And I said, max, who? I sat next to a guy in a plane who's really big. Is Max big? Whoever you just posted a picture of? Hahaha. Yes, he was in New York this weekend. She says he's disgusting. He ate his food on the plane like a monster, was basically breathing heavy and smelled terrible. Don't tell him I said it, but I was so grossed out. And then I sent her a picture. This picture right here of Max that was. This the guy? It's Max wearing a Sixers shirt. Ask me if he sat aisle row. If so, he farted during his naps. It was United business. He sat right next to me, ripping them during the nap with I think six or seven peas There he is one of the most disgusting human beings I've ever sat next to ask him if he scarfed some burrito sandwich before we took off. I said, yeah, it's him. And she says, he's definitely single parenthesis. Cute face, by the way. What a nice thing to say.

[Hank]

Cute face, cute face, cute face, cute face.

[PFT Commenter]

He was completely in his own world. He smelled of hungover. He's also very unhealthy. Two sodas. Did you write this down or something? Amazing level of detail. I asked her. She says, no. I observed. I was so grossed out and bothered.

[Max]

God damn it. I thought it was done. The people get the point.

[PFT Commenter]

I said. I said, two sodas. I said, you're a great reporter. She said, thank you. He listens to his music way too loudly. I'm very concerned about Max's overall health. He's gonna die. By 25. He was blasting techno.

[Big Cat]

He's 29 right now.

[PFT Commenter]

He just farted and belts her wrong.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, there you go.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I don't want to be mean spirited, but I change poopy diapers six to eight times a day. And his starts smelled like my kid's diaper genie. I recently read about a guy who got kicked off a plane for farting so much, and I texted my husband and said, I want this guy kicked off. Swear to God. So that was a year ago today. And now you guys are the best of friends.

[Max]

I now that made me want to hate her again.

[Big Cat]

Oh, that's the best.

[PFT Commenter]

Cute face, by the way.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Time capsule Monday. Reading time capsule. Capsule.

[Max]

We always do that.

[Big Cat]

We always. It is a yearly tradition.

[PFT Commenter]

It's a yearly tradition, and I think probably next year. I wonder what we're gonna do for next year.

[Big Cat]

Oh, my God. Ripping farts.

[Max]

I don't. I don't think I was ripping far.

[PFT Commenter]

One thing I. I noticed about Max on. On today's plane ride, when he falls asleep, he tucks his arms. He pulls his arms all the way inside of his sleeves and then wraps them around his stomach inside of his shirt. So he's, like, hugging himself with just these loose arm sleeves hanging off to the side. It's very bizarre.

[Max]

Well, that was on a plane. It was a little chilly. It's almost like a blanket, if you like that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he took a nice nap, got a little cranky. When he woke up, we had to play the game of, like, who's gonna wake up? Because it's gonna be.

[Max]

And it just had to be me.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Hank, do you want to educate the people on some of the stuff that you were saying?

[Big Cat]

Come on, just a little bit.

[PFT Commenter]

No, but all this stuff keeps happening.

[Hank]

Listen, there's. There's a lot of things going on in the world.

[Big Cat]

Why aren't we talking about the bridge.

[Hank]

People moved on from the bridge. Listen, we're in New Orleans. People moved on from New Orleans. It's a serious subject. You guys are trying to make light of it. I was just trying to, you know, have some playful banter on the.

[Big Cat]

What. What? Should we. Should we bring up the bridge in New Orleans, like, every episode?

[Hank]

No, it's just. It's not. It wasn't you guys specifically. I didn't say we should be talking about. On the show, but part of the media as.

[PFT Commenter]

As we reminded Hank of. Of all these things underwater.

[Hank]

Underwater volcano and the dolphins.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep. Dolphins are swimming away.

[Big Cat]

That's not a. Volcanoes do go off.

[Hank]

Underwater volcanoes.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I think it goes off once every, like, 50 years.

[Big Cat]

Probably going to be an earthquake. Are you going to think that's related well to the. To the bridge?

[Hank]

No, no, no, no, no. You guys are trying to paint me and. And. And label me crazy and. And. And put this narrative out there, and that's fine.

[PFT Commenter]

No. Does think that we're part of the problem.

[Big Cat]

Yo, you're.

[Hank]

You're a simulation boy. You're.

[Big Cat]

When I told Hank, I was like, the reason why we don't think about these things because life's hard enough, and you just gotta kind of move on and keep it moving. He just looked at me like, you.

[Andrew Luck]

It.

[Big Cat]

You're part of the problem. Yeah. Okay. Good show, boys.

[Andrew Luck]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Hank, national sports podcast. Use your voice.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Sports podcast.

[Big Cat]

Speak up.

[PFT Commenter]

Sports and bridge.

[Big Cat]

We got a big week in nola. Big week in Noah, how many gumbos so far?

[PFT Commenter]

I just had one.

[Big Cat]

Just one.

[PFT Commenter]

But I'm about to have a nightcap.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Nightcap. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna end up having two today as well. Well, we should get a total gumbo for the whole crew. For four of us. How many gumbos we have? Have you had one? You're about to.

[Max]

No, I'm about to have one.

[Hank]

I don't think I would make it all week, but I'm.

[Max]

No, I want to try it.

[Hank]

Feels good.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Max]

Like, I want a po.

[Andrew Luck]

Boy.

[Max]

I want some catfish. I want some shrimp and grits. Like, I'm. I'm gonna try and, like, poke all the things and then. And then diet starts next week.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, this isn't helping. The Diana diet starts next week.

[PFT Commenter]

This is sodium week.

[Andrew Luck]

You're.

[Big Cat]

I mean, aren't you going on vacation two weeks. You're gonna start a diet a week before vacation.

[Max]

Skiing is basically a fitness vacation.

[Hank]

Yeah, that's so true.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

You're going to automatic.

[Max]

Yeah.

[Andrew Luck]

Oh, all right.

[Big Cat]

All right, well, we did the lottery ball back in the studio, so let's kick it to ourselves, Numbers boys.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm gonna go with 76.

[Big Cat]

I'm gonna go three.

[Hank]

I'm gonna go 40.

[Big Cat]

11. I'm gonna go two. Two.

[Andrew Luck]

Eat 11. That's one.

[PFT Commenter]

I, I, I guessed correctly for PFT. That's what I got. No, that's the one you got PFT as my. That's my ball.

[Big Cat]

71. That looked like 11. Someone guess 11.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, Maxi, Maxi, maxi. Love you guys.