Dianna Russini On Coach Firings/Hirings, Brandon Walker On CFB, Who Is Under The Most Pressure Wild Card Weekend + Guys On Chicks

Summary

Pardon My Take - Episode Summary: January 8, 2025

In this engaging episode of "Pardon My Take," hosts Big Cat and PFT Commenter navigate through the tumultuous aftermath of Black Monday’s NFL coach firings and hirings, delve into the pressures weighing down top coaches and quarterbacks ahead of Wild Card Weekend, and explore the College Football Playoff landscape with insights from their guest Brandon Walker. Additionally, Diana Rossini, a senior NFL reporter for The Athletic, provides expert analysis on recent NFL developments. The episode blends serious sports analysis with the hosts' signature humor, making it a comprehensive listen for both avid and casual sports fans.

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1. Black Monday: NFL Coach Firings and Hirings

The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the repercussions of Black Monday, a day marked by significant coaching changes across the NFL. The hosts express surprise and disbelief over several key decisions:

• Patriots' Shock Move: The Patriots' decision to fire their head coach comes as a major surprise, stirring extensive discussion and speculation about the reasons behind such a drastic change.

  • Big Cat [52:16]: “The Patriots really did it. There was a lot of chatter about it, but I can’t believe they really pulled the trigger.”

• Giants' Controversial Retentions: Despite a challenging season, the Giants retain Joe Shane and Brian Dabel, sparking debate about their decision to stick with underperforming staff.

  • Diana Rossini [53:06]: “I cannot believe the Giants kept Joe Shane and Brian Dabel...”

• Jacksonville’s GM Trent Balky: Balky's continued tenure in Jacksonville, despite Doug Peterson's firing, raises questions about his role and influence within the organization.

  • Big Cat [04:48]: “Trent Balky without Doug Peterson was 4 and 29.”

2. Pressures on NFL Coaches and Quarterbacks

Big Cat and PFT Commenter shift focus to the mounting pressures on various NFL coaches and quarterbacks:

• Sean McDermott (Buffalo Bills): McDermott faces intense scrutiny as the Bills aim for Super Bowl success, putting his job security on the line.

  • PFT Commenter [20:34]: “Sean McDermott is being put on a really, really hard spot.”

• Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers): Tomlin grapples with the Steelers' declining playoff performance, leading to questions about his long-term position.

  • Big Cat [22:15]: “Mike Tomlin has a ton of pressure because he hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016...”

• Quarterbacks Under Fire:

  • Josh Allen (Buffalo Bills): Allen's stellar regular-season performance and playoff potential place him in the spotlight, with his playoff performances crucial for future contracts.
  • Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens): Jackson faces pressure to elevate his play in the playoffs to match his regular-season prowess.
  • PFT Commenter [23:00]: “Sam Darnold was going to be my next pick...”

3. Interview with Diana Rossini: Insights on NFL Coaching Carousel

Diana Rossini joins the conversation to provide a seasoned perspective on the current NFL coaching landscape:

• Patriots' Decision: Rossini expresses astonishment at the Patriots' decision to fire their coach, highlighting the potential long-term impacts on the team.

  • Diana Rossini [53:24]: “They don't know what they want. They make emotional decisions.”

• Jacksonville’s Hiring Challenges: Rossini discusses the complexities Balky faces in Jacksonville, noting the difficulty top coaches have in aligning with his management style.

  • Diana Rossini [53:57]: “Ben Johnson probably has a much better chance landing in Chicago now that Trent Balky is in Jacksonville.”

• Chicago Bears’ Coaching Search: The Bears' extensive coaching search, including potential hires like Mike McCarthy and Ben Johnson, is examined, with Rossini emphasizing the strategic moves required to stabilize the team.

  • Diana Rossini [60:33]: “I think Ben Johnson still has a lot of questions about management in both organizations.”

4. College Football Playoff Preview with Brandon Walker

Transitioning to college football, Brandon Walker provides an expert preview of the College Football Playoffs:

• Key Matchups and Predictions: Walker analyzes pivotal games and predicts outcomes, emphasizing the significance of quarterback performance and defensive strategies.

  • Memes [90:07]: “The first round sucked, but all the players were playing and trying their hardest.”

• Transfer Portal and NIL Impact: The discussion highlights the challenges posed by the transfer portal and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies, with proposed solutions to enhance player stability and team cohesion.

  • Walker [122:55]: “Some players transfer immediately and never give themselves a chance to grow.”

• SEC vs. Big Ten Dynamics: Walker critiques the SEC’s dominance and compares it to the Big Ten, debating the future trajectories of conferences in the playoff landscape.

  • Memes [87:30]: “It's the only sport that really gets meticulously picked apart for the playoff games...”

5. Hosts’ Interactions and Light-Hearted Segments

Amidst the intense analysis, Big Cat, PFT Commenter, and Memes engage in humorous exchanges and personal anecdotes:

• Diet Dilemmas: Conversations about diet choices, such as the keto diet, add a relatable and entertaining layer to the episode.

  • Hank [130:10]: “My boyfriend decided he was going on a keto diet to start the new year...”

• Naming Conventions: The hosts humorously debate baby name suggestions, blending sports references with personal choices.

  • Memes [124:38]: “I want to see them be successful, but it's the same story over again.”

• Unconventional Ideas: Creative yet impractical sports strategies, like unconventional field goal attempts, spark laughter and playful critiques.

  • Big Cat [137:02]: “That is bullshit. I think you should get…”

6. Concluding Remarks and Looking Ahead

As the episode wraps up, the hosts express excitement for the upcoming playoffs, teasing future episodes and encouraging listener engagement. They highlight the importance of staying informed and maintaining a balanced perspective on both NFL and college football developments.

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Notable Quotes

• Big Cat [52:16]: “The Patriots really did it. There was a lot of chatter about it, but I can’t believe they really pulled the trigger.”
• Diana Rossini [53:06]: “John Mara, sticking with his words… it's like painful for him.”
• PFT Commenter [23:00]: “Sam Darnold was going to be my next pick...”

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This episode of "Pardon My Take" offers a blend of sharp sports analysis, expert insights from Diana Rossini and Brandon Walker, and the hosts' entertaining banter. Whether discussing the high-stakes NFL coaching carousel or the dynamic College Football Playoffs, Big Cat and PFT Commenter ensure listeners are both informed and entertained.

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. Hey, this is Fran from Chicks in the Office. Ypb Abercrombie's active line just dropped a ton of new things for the new year to build your routine around YPB's newest fabric. Studio Flex is buttery, soft and perfect for your studio girl lifestyle. It comes in leggings, tops, these amazing skort dresses is. I'll be wearing YPB Studio Flex to my next yoga class. I'm not someone who sets resolutions, so I love that. YPB by Abercrombie is made to bring your personal best all year long. Add YPB to your routine. Shop online or in store. On today's part of my take, we've got a two for we're talking Black Monday firings, hirings with our good friend Diana Rossini and then we're going to do a little college football playoff preview with unfortunately our college football expert because he won the duel with Tom Fornelli.

[PFT Commenter]

Has it been one?

[Big Cat]

It has. He's got three out of four of the la the last teams. Brandon Walker. He also. We haven't taped Brandon yet, but he will be in this show. He'd said to me before, is it my coronation? So basically our worst case, worst case scenario.

[PFT Commenter]

Wait, so does is Tom totally out of teams?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he's got one team left, but statistically he can't.

[PFT Commenter]

But we should put some stock o if you pick the champion. Yeah, that should mean something.

[Big Cat]

That should mean something.

[PFT Commenter]

We're winners on this podcast.

[Big Cat]

We haven't decided yet. We're gonna do Hot Seat, Cool Throne. We're do some pressure rankings. We're gonna do guys on chicks. We got a great show for everyone and it's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings NFL Playoffs. We're talking about the NFL playoffs. Playoffs. You bet. We are getting on the Action DraftKings sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Scoring Touchdown is touchdowns is key to winning the NFL playoffs. And the key to you scoring big is betting on them at DraftKings, 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. Here's another reason to watch your favorite players crush it in the playoffs. New customers bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets. Instantly score big during the NFL playoffs with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app, use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. For new customers. You get $20 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings Sportsbook. The crown is yours. Gambling problem.

[Memes]

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[Big Cat]

Okay, let's go. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Score big during the NFL playoffs. Draft King sportsbook. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use code TAKE. That's code TAKE. For new customers to get $20 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings sportsbook. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, January 8th, and PFT Black Monday has occurred. And we just want to remind everyone that those guys have families.

[PFT Commenter]

Kids have to change schools.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, getting fired is not fun.

[PFT Commenter]

No, this is. It's a very somber day. Thoughts and prayers. Anyone that takes joy in their coach being fired is a sicko.

[Big Cat]

See you, Doug Peterson.

[PFT Commenter]

Adios, bitch.

[Big Cat]

So it was crazy. We're going to get into more with Diana Rossini about it, but that was, I think, the most shocking news was Trent Balky staying in, Doug Peterson going because Trent Balky is a. He's a cockroach. He just sticks around for every. He has been the GM of two teams, and he is now about to hire his sixth head coach. And I looked it up. Trent balky as the GM of the Jacksonville Jaguars is 26 and 58. Or. Sorry, he started as like a. I think he was a senior player, personnel or whatever, and then became the GM. So his time in Jacksonville, 26 and 58. Doug Peterson's time in Jacksonville was 22 and 29. So Trent Balky without Doug Peterson was 4 and 29.

[PFT Commenter]

22 and 29. Sounds pretty good.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it does. And. But. So Doug Peterson got fired, but Trent Balky didn't.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

And you separate those and you're like, wait a second now. I'm not saying Doug Peters should have kept his job, but it seems like the Jag should have fired both of them.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So Trent Balky, he was there for the 49ers. The, the Jim Harbaugh, Jim Tomsula days. Y. I believe he hired Jim Kelly. He hired Jim Tomsula. He hired Chip Kelly.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

And he was part of that whole scene where allegedly Harbaugh may have told some high up people when they walked into the room, sorry, this room is for men only.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

And then that, you know, you know what he's really good at? He's really good at sitting next to the owner.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And being the one with the most facetime around the owner.

[Big Cat]

Even how he got the job in Jacksonville. He started as a, like I said, senior player personnel or something. And then they fired their gm and then he was like, I'll be the interim gm. And then after a while I was like, wait, I guess I'll just stick as the gm. Yeah, he just, he's, he's a survivor.

[PFT Commenter]

Sitting next to the owner during games is actually worth a lot in terms of job security. And he's very good at that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So that was a big news. Then the Giants also big news. Keeping both Dable and Shane crazy. I, I mean, I guess John Merritt deserves credit for being a man of his word.

[PFT Commenter]

I guess so. He, he also really kind of threw him under the bus while saying that he's keeping them.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

He's like, this is one of the hardest decisions I've had to make. But we're not firing him.

[Big Cat]

And it's, it's a, it's a dumpster fire decision in this, in this respect. One, you have a gm, they both are on the hot seat, the hottest seat possible going into the season. So what is the GM going to do? He's probably going to spend as much money as he possibly can at. In free agency. I think someone posted last night like, Gettleman spent the most money in his hot seat year. Who was their GM after Gettleman? Can't remember his name, but he spent the most money in his hot seat year. And now you have the coach and GM in their hot seat years gonna just try to spend as much money as possible and hope that it keeps.

[PFT Commenter]

Their job and also probably draft a quarterback. And then maybe I would say that the pressure would be on them to play that quarterback on the early side rather than on the delayed side.

[Memes]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

So I'm not saying that if they get like Cam Ward and he's great, they put him in too soon. But if they get Cam Ward or Shador or somebody like that and they wait around for, you know, four weeks in the regular season and he doesn't look great in practice. They're going to be more likely to be like it. Let's just pull the emergency start rookie quarterback lever so that we can save our own job.

[Big Cat]

Correct.

[PFT Commenter]

But I do think that Dable, I think he's a I, I've changed a little bit as the course of this year went on but I still think that he is a guy that can be a very good head coach.

[Big Cat]

I agree with you.

[PFT Commenter]

If he had the right tools around him. They got to do a lot of other stuff like the roster is not so great. But yeah, they're going to be sticking around and and Mr. Mara, I would have I would feel so bad if I was if I was the head coach and the owner gave a press conference being like I know everybody in the world wanted me to fire this guy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And I wanted to fire this guy but I'm not going to fire this guy.

[Big Cat]

Yes, yes. But it was Jerry Reese before Gett he had a hot seat year where he went max in the in the free agency. I think they made the playoffs and Gettleman did the same. So it's going to be they're going to be all in also. I saw this so Jordan Renan said how rare is it for a coach to get another season after winning just three games in their third year? It's only happened twice since 1980. Bruce Costlet in 1999 and David Dave Shula in 95 both with Cincy and both crashed out. Definitely a weird thing for year three. Like year one three wins you could keep your job. Year two maybe even year three three wins def usually is you're gone.

[PFT Commenter]

I think they both made such an equal amount of mistakes that it was hard to pin most of the blame on one of them.

[Big Cat]

It's kind of smart.

[PFT Commenter]

It's very to cover each other's so they're like they can if they both get a little bit better then we're in a good spot.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

But I can't identify which guy is the issue.

[Big Cat]

And then the names are piling in for each job. The Bears are going to hire are going to interview every single person ever. Mike McCarthy, David Shaw, Kafka, Robert Salah. The list just goes on and on. I did see an old friend though. Memes are you excited for Matt Nagy era in New York? He's just getting an interview. He's not he's not the next coach.

[PFT Commenter]

What's wrong with talking to guys?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Who do you want? Because Ben Johnson is not going to the jets or the Saints because He's. Those teams did not offer him an interview, which means he basically was like, don't even. Don't even bother interviewing me.

[Memes]

Be.

[Big Cat]

Ben Johnson would have been Adam Gates 2.0 on the. On the Jets. Nice spin zone.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he's very. I don't like his attitude when it comes to taking meetings either.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I don't either. It's. It's kind of crazy. We got three. Three. We got two teams in the playoffs and three teams looking for new head coaches here on this podcast. So who do you want? Either variable. Okay. I mean, Hank just went like this. You. You sad, sad boy.

[PFT Commenter]

Hey.

[Big Cat]

I mean, it's still possible. Aaron Glenn. Okay. Brian Flores. I'm sure Dolphins fans are probably like, yeah, take him. Yeah, well, yeah, I'll take him. That's pretty much.

[PFT Commenter]

It sounds like you're thinking about kidnapping. Y'all take that guy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. It doesn't seem like you're very enthused about this.

[PFT Commenter]

I think you should want Rex Ryan. I think you should want Rex Ryan more than anything you've ever wanted, because at the very least, it's gonna be a fucking blast.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. But the end of the Rex Ryan days weren't great. Right? And I'm getting were. And what would you be doing when you hire him? You going back to the beginning. Back to the beginning. But he's old now. You don't know how he deals with the new players. He's thinner. We need facts. If. If Rex agrees to put on 200 pounds.

[PFT Commenter]

Fat Rex back.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Fat rack. See, I'm in the. I'm the reverse Mike McCarthy. If Mike McCarthy. If the Bears decide to hire Mike McCarthy, it has to come with Ozempic.

[PFT Commenter]

Because, like, the first person ever to move to Chicago and lose weight.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. He'd have to do it. He'd have to do it because I. I was talking with Eddie, our good friend, and he was like. He. He basically was like, I don't want Mike McCarthy because of the face he's gonna make. And I explained to him, well, there's no big Jumbotron in Soldier Field, so at least you won't do that. But I agree. You gotta lose weight if you're Mike McCarthy.

[PFT Commenter]

I want Mike McCarthy to the Bears because you're.

[Big Cat]

You're rooting for my demise.

[PFT Commenter]

No, not. Not for your demise. Specifically.

[Big Cat]

Torture.

[PFT Commenter]

He's a good coach.

[Big Cat]

You know, the. The honesty is that, like Bacardi, the Bears would be a disaster. I think it would be funny to watch. I'm fine with people wanting anyone To.

[Hank]

Bears would be a disaster.

[PFT Commenter]

I think he's a good coach.

[Hank]

A coordinator is not a proven good head coach. There's been many examples of stud offensive coordinators not working out as head coaches. Mike McCarthy has at least proved himself as a head coach. Like, you have a better chance with Mike McCarthy than Ben Johnson. I'm not even joking about that.

[Big Cat]

You'll at least be honest. You just want to see my pain, and no matter what makes it funny.

[Hank]

But yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

I think, honestly, if I really want to see your pain, Ben Johnson would be more painful because you'd get so much higher up, and then when he.

[Big Cat]

Sucked, you'd never get it. I'm never getting higher than 6 out of 10, but that's a lie.

[PFT Commenter]

Johnson. If I really wanted to take glee in your pain, I would root for Ron Rivera to the Bears, but I'm not, and I'm rooting for Mike.

[Big Cat]

But you would also love that.

[PFT Commenter]

No, actually, I don't think that I would. I don't think I would.

[Big Cat]

You'd find a way to love it.

[PFT Commenter]

No, because he's so nice, and he'd probably stop in. Probably have to be nice to him again.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that would be too close to us.

[Max]

If you get Ben Johnson 6 out of 10. That's such a lie. That's such a lie, and you know it.

[Big Cat]

I'm like, that's awesome.

[Max]

So if you Get Ben Johnson 6 out of 10, you get Mike McCarthy. Where are you at.

[Big Cat]

2? 2 out of 10?

[PFT Commenter]

I'm rooting for Mike now because I. I feel bad for the way he's been treated in Dallas. I think you got a raw deal.

[Max]

So you're. You'll be more excited than if you got. If you got Mike McCarthy. You're going to be excited if you get Ben Johnson. I want you to get Ben Johnson just because I Want to see 6 out of 10. See you walk back this take.

[PFT Commenter]

So if. If it sounds like they're going to get Ben Johnson, then Big Cat gets to watch the rest of the playoffs and see every play and be like, oh, fuck yeah.

[Big Cat]

But stay six out of ten, Hank, what do you. What are you guys gonna do? You got it set. Variable. It's just on you. You're just. You don't even have to worry about it.

[PFT Commenter]

You have a backup plan.

[Big Cat]

That's so annoying. He's just like. He's. Look at his smile.

[PFT Commenter]

Aren't you A little bit. Are you a little bit worried about Tom Brady? How much joy would it give Tom Brady, the guy that demanded his release from the New England Patriots to then take their potential next coach and put him in Las Vegas.

[Hank]

I don't, I think Tom Brady and Mr. Kraft have a good relationship, so I don't think it would give him that much joy. Like, there's no, there's not bad blood.

[Big Cat]

He's not even thinking about anything. That.

[Hank]

The release with the Patriots, that was a Brady Belichick thing.

[PFT Commenter]

Give me a backup plan, though, for Boston, for New England, probably Ben Johnson.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. He's a UNC quarterback. Drake Macy, UNC quarterback. There's that connection.

[PFT Commenter]

That's. Your backup is Ben.

[Hank]

I'll take Mike McCarthy, proven winner. I, I, I don't know a lot of ball, but I would rather take a proven head coach than a unproven coordinator.

[PFT Commenter]

You are rolling the dice a little bit. There's a lot that go. There's a lot that happens, but we, we're getting that you don't, you don't get practice for as an oc and he has the best guy ever to manage that team and be the leader of that team in Dan Campbell while he gets to try all this.

[Hank]

Josh McDaniels.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Max]

Hank keeps saying this thing where it's like, you've seen head coaches. How often is it that a head coach goes to his third team and is more successful? Yeah, because there's just as many instances as offensive coordinators, good. Offensive coordinators being good and going to a new team as there are head coaches going to another team. Yeah, your whole thing of like, yeah, offensive coordinators going to a new team sometimes doesn't work sometimes. Head coaches going to a new team.

[PFT Commenter]

Also doesn't work sometimes. What about, like, Andy Reid?

[Big Cat]

What about Sean McVeigh? What about Kyle Shanahan? What about. That was.

[Max]

What about Matt LaFleur?

[Big Cat]

Second, not his third.

[PFT Commenter]

I know, but I said. He, he just said, going to a new team.

[Hank]

All right, remove the, Remove the Redskins and then, Then let's do it again, huh? Remove the entire Redskins coaching tree.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Hank]

Like, you just named one organization, and that's just because the Redskins are.

[PFT Commenter]

We build coaches.

[Big Cat]

I just said Matt Lafor Manafort, he.

[PFT Commenter]

Was on the team.

[Big Cat]

Say Kevin O'Connor, Kevin Stefanski, coach of the year twice. No big deal.

[Hank]

I mean, no, I mean, I'm talking, I'm basically.

[Big Cat]

John Harbaugh was a special teams coordinator.

[Hank]

I'm basically just talking specifically about McDaniels. That's. I'm obviously have a Patriots bias, but that, that is how I see it.

[Big Cat]

It's just, you have to, you have to have already coached before.

[PFT Commenter]

Sometimes it doesn't work.

[Hank]

I'd rather take a proven winner.

[Big Cat]

Okay. I mean, I think it's probably the same, like, it's probably the probably success rate. Proven winner.

[Max]

Doug Peterson. Doug Peterson was a head coach. I went to another team and did not work out for the second max.

[PFT Commenter]

Let me give you one, because we'll. We'll adjust it now. We'll not go second team.

[Big Cat]

John Fox.

[PFT Commenter]

We'll go third team. Bill Belichick.

[Big Cat]

Uncle.

[PFT Commenter]

No, I mean.

[Big Cat]

Oh, you're counting the Jets.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Browns, Jets, Patriots.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Third time's a charm.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep. I guess.

[Big Cat]

Whatever. I don't want Mike McCarthy, but I'm probably gonna end up with them. Did you guys. I'm gonna end up with Brian Flores. They're interviewing 100 people just so that Ryan Poles can hire the guy he played college football with.

[PFT Commenter]

Did you guys see Jerry Jones on Landman?

[Big Cat]

No.

[PFT Commenter]

His acting job.

[Big Cat]

What is Landman?

[PFT Commenter]

It's a. It's a show. It's got, like, Billy Bob Thornton, John Hamm in it.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

It's a crazy show. But Jerry had, like, a 90 second cameo.

[Big Cat]

Was good.

[PFT Commenter]

It was incredible.

[Big Cat]

Whoa.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, this guy can act.

[Big Cat]

Whoa.

[PFT Commenter]

He started to tear up and, like, have sniffles during it. He gave it a. A passionate speech. He out acted John Ham and Billy Bob Thorton in the same scene. That's what Jerry should be doing.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

More time acting.

[Big Cat]

Jerry be an actor.

[PFT Commenter]

But it made me think Mike might be coming back. Like, if this. The emotion that he was able to demonstrate, he was.

[Big Cat]

He was thinking about firing Mike McCarthy.

[PFT Commenter]

He was talking about just life and family and having people around you that you care about deeply. And made like he meant it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And obviously he feels that way about his son, but. Yeah, it made me think. I think he's. He's not cut out for firing guys anymore.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he hasn't. He doesn't fire guys. Jason Garrett was there for way too long. Do you guys want to do some pressure talk? Who's got the most pressure? I also. I also did a rankings of which QB I'd want in this playoffs. I don't know if you guys wanted to pick apart my rankings or we could do it together. I could rip through it. You could tell me. I think you would like it. Pft.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

My rankings are Patrick Mahomes, 1.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't like it.

[Big Cat]

Josh Allen, 2. Lamar Jackson, 3. Matthew Stafford, 4. Jared Goff, 5. Justin Herbert, 6. Baker Mayfield, 7. Jaden Daniels, 8. Jalen Hurts, 9. Jordan Love, 10. Sam Darnold 11, C.J. stroud, 12, Bo Nix, and then Russell Wilson. Last. Your head of Jalen hurts.

[PFT Commenter]

That's a. It's a lot of. It's a lot of names to try to remember the exact order of them, but there's also difference between quarterback and quarterback in the system that they're currently in.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I'm just saying which quarterback I want. I just want, like, who I trust. It's my trust rankings.

[PFT Commenter]

I think that's pretty. That's pretty good.

[Big Cat]

Would you go any different than Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson in your top three? Maybe not Lamar. Trust in the.

[PFT Commenter]

Based on how good Lamar has been, I understand his interceptions aren't really interceptions.

[Big Cat]

We could do a quick. We could do a quick snake draft of drafting the quarterbacks. Yeah, let's do that. All right, Hank, you ready? We'll do a three man draft because it's. There's. We each get four quarter. No, it's 14, right? Yeah. Yep, it's 14. So that's a number that doesn't work in this.

[PFT Commenter]

We could do two. Just left out.

[Big Cat]

Two left out.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Okay. I like that. All right.

[PFT Commenter]

That's the. Do not trust Hank.

[Big Cat]

Do you want to start?

[Memes]

No.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Pft. Do you want to start?

[PFT Commenter]

Y'all start.

[Big Cat]

All right.

[PFT Commenter]

I'll take Patrick Mahomes.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Good pick.

[PFT Commenter]

Thank you.

[Big Cat]

Good pick. I'll take Josh Allen.

[Hank]

I'll take Jared Goff.

[Big Cat]

And then you also have one coming back.

[Hank]

And I will take Lamar Jackson.

[Big Cat]

Okay. I'll take Matthew Stafford. Super winner.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Okay. I will take Jaden Daniels. Baker Mayfield.

[Big Cat]

Okay. I will take Justin Herbert. And Jalen Hurts.

[Hank]

I will take super bowl winner Russell Wilson.

[Big Cat]

Wait, no, I only have one. Sorry. Justin Herbert. I don't know why I picked two there. That was really stupid. Justin Herbert.

[Hank]

Jalen hurts.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Super bowl winner.

[Max]

Didn't you just take Jones?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I took two by accident. Justin Herbert was my pick. This is. We're doing a great job.

[Hank]

And Russell Wilson.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

My last pick. CJ Stroud. I kind of wanted to take Sam Donald.

[Hank]

Seems like you guys.

[PFT Commenter]

Do I get a last. You guys certainly have my last pick. What's our type?

[Big Cat]

Well, I wasn't gonna take Jordan Love.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm gonna go Malik Willis.

[Big Cat]

Good pick.

[PFT Commenter]

No. Can I change it?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Tanner McKee.

[Big Cat]

Maliquos and Tenor McKee.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Malik. Malik McKee.

[Big Cat]

We'll put it up for vote. Blind vote. And loser has to do an hour stand up.

[PFT Commenter]

Nope.

[Big Cat]

Loser has to go to a bachelor party.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Okay. You want to Talk pressure rankings or who's under the most pressure. I have a few that I. I had listed.

[PFT Commenter]

I've got. I've got a one one. And it might be different from what you had talked.

[Big Cat]

All right, so give. Give me your.

[PFT Commenter]

My one one is Sean McDermott.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Are we doing individuals or teams?

[Big Cat]

It's. It could be individuals and teams, but I. I make your case for Sean McDermott, because I have a different coach that I think might have more pressure.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. Because. Because Josh Allen has been an alien this year. He's been incredible. It's his best year ever. He might win the mvp, and he's probably going to be incredible in the playoffs again, because Josh plays very well in the playoffs. The playoff losses, you can look at all of them and say, that's not really on Josh.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, he played out. He played good enough to win 99.9 of games.

[Big Cat]

He played two perfect playoff games the year that they lost the chiefs in the 13 seconds.

[PFT Commenter]

Right. So who gets the blame for those losses? Sean McDermott, I think, deservedly. I don't think that. Obviously, there's a narrative out there, because he wants to beat Mahomes. He wants to say, okay, I'm the guy in the afc. I can lead my team to Super Bowl. I get that. But in reality, it's a lot more on his head coach than it is on him.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And McDermott, I. I thought this after the heartbreaking loss last year, and it would be shocking if it happened, but if they get bounced in a terrible fashion again, I wouldn't be surprised if the Bills moved on from McDermott, even though he's been a great coach for him. He turned the entire franchise around along with Josh. But at some point, these win or these losses add up.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And you just. You become that guy, and then it breaks your brain, and you spend all your time thinking about how to get over this one little hump, and then things just fall apart.

[Big Cat]

It's a good point. I don't know if they'd fire him. I don't know if they'd fire my coach that I picked. But it's kind of similar vein. I think Mike Tomlin has a ton of pressure because Mike Tomlin, he hasn't won a playoff game since 2016.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And if you look at his playoff record, because he's been in Pittsburgh in forever. His first four years in Pittsburgh, he was 5 and 2 in the playoffs, including a Super bowl. And his last 14 years in Pittsburgh, he's 3 and 8. So it's not been good. And I think the way this season has ended. I know there was some murmurings last year, like I don't think Mike Thomas gonna get fired. But this is just another year where it's like, hey, you can't, like you have not won a playoff game. That we're going to be going on almost a decade of you not winning a playoff game. What's going on here? We're Pittsburgh, we're the Steelers. We need to win playoff games.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

So that was my coach and also I think Russell Wilson. There's two guys that are under pressure in terms of money.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Russell Wilson and Sam Darnold.

[PFT Commenter]

Sam Darnold was going to be my next pick.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Because the, the difference and how much money he's going to make next year based on how he performs in the playoffs is there's probably a hundred million dollar difference.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

If, if he stinks, he could get franchise tagged. He could get picked up and signed for some team. If he hits the open market, some team will overpay for him. So it probably won't be in the 25 to 30 million dollars range. They'll probably pay like a little bit more. But if he plays really, really well in the playoffs, now we're talking about like $150 million.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

175, 200 million. The way quarterbacks get paid. You don't know. So this is like, it's a hundred million dollar difference based strictly on how he plays. I would say in the next two games.

[Big Cat]

And like it, it, you know, you can't just take a small sample size. But that's, this is also the reality of it. Like the game on Sunday was, you know, a very consequential game. Playoff atmosphere. If he comes out and has a dud in the actual playoffs, that's two pressure games where you're like, what just happened?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. And the most recent games you've seen.

[Big Cat]

Right, right. And yeah. So Sam, Donald and Russ. I think Russ is the same way. If Russ comes out and he's just awful again, like, who's going to sign him?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, no one.

[Big Cat]

No one's going to sign him. As for the quarterbacks, I had a little pushback when I said it on Sunday from people online, but I do think Lamar is under more pressure than Josh Allen and that's because something that you said. Josh Allen has not been the reason why the Bills have lost in the playoffs. He's been an absolute alien. He's 24 touchdowns, four interceptions. He had those games. The Chiefs game he played Perfect. Their, their defense couldn't get a stop in 13 seconds. Lamar, Lamar's 2 and 4 in the playoffs and he's had some really good teams and he's had some years where I mean his, his QB, his passer rating is 75 in the playoffs. He's had interceptions. He's had. I looked it up last night. Four out of six of the games he has not gone over 200 yards. Two of those games like the, the other two were catch up games. Remember the game when they were the one seed against the Titans and he was just throwing the entire second half. And then last year when they were down against the Chiefs. I think there's just a lot of pressure on the mar. Just because this is, you gotta like another insane season. If they get bounced by the Steelers especially, it's like what is going on here?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I, I actually agree with that. I disagreed with you. I think on Sunday and thought that it was mostly on Josh, but that's, that's a good point. Yeah, I think that Lamar. Yeah. Especially the season he has, especially if he wins mvp. Like if you, if you lose in the playoff, if you're Josh or Lamar and you lose early on in the playoffs, you probably don't want to win mvp, right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

If you're like yeah, maybe Josh, maybe Josh, but if you're Lamar, you're like well I got a third one. But again it almost serves to like magnify your playoff loss.

[Big Cat]

Right. And, and, and Josh definitely has pressure on it. The Bills have pressure on Sean McDermott like you said. It's just that if you look at both of their, those guys and what they've done in the playoffs and obviously it's not all on the quarterback but that is how works is if the quarterback doesn't elevate their game. Josh has elevated his game in the playoffs. Lamar has not. So Lamar has to do that this year because this is like if, if not now, when the good news is. Have you guys seen that? I believe it is every 12 years the Ravens win the Super Bowl.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And it's always with a 28 year old quarterback and Lamar is 28. So Trent Dilfer won it in 2002 as a 28 year old quarterback. The Joe Flacco wanted as a 28 quarter, 28 year old quarterback in whatever year that would be. Do I have. Oh no.

[PFT Commenter]

Flacco won in 2012.

[Big Cat]

Trent Delfer won it in 2000.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Flacco won it in 2012 and it's 2024. All 28 year old quarterbacks.

[PFT Commenter]

All right, so we've got, we've got right now a sample size of 2 for that.

[Big Cat]

Correct.

[PFT Commenter]

But this would fulfill the pattern.

[Big Cat]

Significant sample size.

[PFT Commenter]

It's like 17 years from now there will be another darts champion.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Because that's how the prophecy has been foretold.

[Big Cat]

How sick would that be if someone was just guaranteed like, hey, every 12 years you can win a Super Bowl. I can wait that long.

[PFT Commenter]

I would easily.

[Big Cat]

Great.

[PFT Commenter]

Easily. Take it.

[Big Cat]

That's about when you would get restless for the next one.

[PFT Commenter]

You kidding me?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Second, I think Cam Dicker, the kicker for the Chargers has a lot of pressure. Just because Harbaugh.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

If you blow a kick and you should. Justin Herbert would be my actual pick.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Justin Herbert, also the kicker for the Vikings. Will. Will record. He's got a lot of pressure.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. But Herbert.

[Big Cat]

Herbert definitely has pressure.

[PFT Commenter]

He's got pressure. They were beating the Jaguars at one point, but the narrative will be out there that you can't win the playoffs.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Even though he's a very good quarterback. Also fun. I just found this out yesterday. Game in Houston, the annual wild card game there. You know who's leading the Texans out onto the field?

[Big Cat]

Who?

[PFT Commenter]

Arian Foster.

[Big Cat]

Oh yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So that's awesome. I don't know if that's good or bad for the Texans.

[Big Cat]

I think it's good.

[Hank]

I think it's good to wear the jacket.

[PFT Commenter]

I need to get in touch with him.

[Big Cat]

They.

[PFT Commenter]

They want. No, they lost that.

[Big Cat]

They lost.

[Hank]

They got killed.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they lost. That was J.J. watts jacket. It was his idea. But yeah, Arian Foster will be leading Houston Texans onto the field for this playoff game. So I'm pumped for him. But yeah, in this game I would say there is some pressure on CJ Stroud, but not nearly to the extent of Herbert.

[Big Cat]

And CJ Stroud also has the. As weird as it is and the Texans going into the season were dark horse super bowl and it looks like it's. That's not going to happen with the amount of injuries they've had on offense and CJ Shroud just having not a very good year overall. It can be like, hey, even you could tell yourself even his floor is playoffs.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

So we're going to be okay. And yeah, there's gravy teams. There's team. I mean the commanders. I actually think the Commanders are going to win on Sunday night. We'll. We'll talk. We'll do all of our picks and analysis on Friday. But the commanders, you know, everything's Gravy. The Broncos, everything's gravy. I even think the Chargers. Justin Herbert has pressure on them, but this was a lot quicker to get to the playoffs than they might have expected.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

So it's a little bit of a gravy. The Rams, like, I. You gotta. Matthew Stafford's getting old, but that was another one where they had a bad year last year and they were able to flip it pretty quickly. And then the other two pressure teams I had, one was the Packers. That was simply because, like, there's word out that maybe the Bears broke the Packers. So, yeah, I hope that's not the case, because I want to have. I don't want to just be one of those teams that just beats their rival all the time. And that's unfortunately, so far this year. That's exactly what's happened.

[PFT Commenter]

Sometimes you see that happen, but the opposite way.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

This might be a Michigan, Ohio State thing.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Where you beat them and then they get. Now they get really, really good.

[Big Cat]

But they. They can't. They literally can't beat us as of recently. So I'm. Packers have pressure because that. We might have just broken them. And then the Eagles. Nick Sirianni's got some pressure. I actually don't think he has as much pressure as he did in the beginning of the season. You think he has just as much.

[Max]

No, I agree. I'm saying I'm nodding in agreement.

[Big Cat]

So what's the pressure Count on. On. On Nick Sirianni, like, is. If you guys flame out, what. What happens? I mean, nothing.

[Max]

Nothing. So he might not even be going to get fired.

[Big Cat]

So he might not even be under pressure.

[Max]

I mean, it's still pressure from. There's always pressure from the city to win.

[Big Cat]

And you.

[Max]

The team is so. This is the most talented Eagles team that I've ever seen.

[Big Cat]

I think. Whoa. Shot at Jason Kelsey.

[Max]

No, I think most.

[Big Cat]

Most, by the way, has another show, Shout Out.

[Max]

I watched the whole thing. Good show.

[Big Cat]

Of course you did.

[Max]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

What's your favorite part?

[Max]

I liked when you watched the whole thing.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

No, he had a nice panel. He had Lil Dicky, Charles Barkley and Baldy on it. Are guys. I liked when they. They were just. There was. There was a couple bits that they.

[Big Cat]

Did in the beginning part was the other people.

[Max]

They did like an. I liked when they were just talking ball.

[Memes]

Okay.

[Max]

I didn't. I wasn't a fan of. They did a lot of bits that I wasn't a fan of, but I did like when they sat down.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. So you Like Charles Barkley. And then you didn't like the Bits. I. I love the whole show. I thought it was great.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, me, too.

[Max]

You asked me my opinion.

[PFT Commenter]

My favorite part was when it was just Jason.

[Big Cat]

No, it was Jason and his wife.

[Max]

Yeah, his wife was great.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

Queen.

[PFT Commenter]

She has a name.

[Max]

Kylie.

[Big Cat]

Queen.

[Hank]

Queen.

[Big Cat]

Queen.

[Max]

Kylie.

[Big Cat]

What. What are you doing? Oh. All right. So not a lot of pressure under Nick Sirianni.

[Max]

I mean, there's just pressure to win in Philadelphia, but there's no job. There's no job pressure, if that's what you're asking.

[Big Cat]

Right, right. Okay. I.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you think there's any job pressure for Kevin OConnell?

[Big Cat]

No, I.

[PFT Commenter]

So not. Not in the sense of he'll be fired, but kind of in the sense of this is he's getting a new contract.

[Big Cat]

He's getting a new contract. I don't think so. I. I obviously saw the.

[Memes]

The.

[Big Cat]

The Kevin OConnell could be traded. Report that to me. Just, I assume was his agent writing that, you know, telling someone, hey, can you report this? Because we want to put some pressure on the Vikings to actually sign this guy for what he deserves.

[PFT Commenter]

It'd be insane if you. If you're the Vikings and you traded Kevin O'Connell.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So I don't. I. I don't think he has that type. I think they're going to give him a lot of money no matter what the.

[PFT Commenter]

I think that there might be some truth to what you just said, because he was upset that he didn't get a contract extension earlier.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[PFT Commenter]

And so he's, like, telling his agent, yeah, it's okay if you leak this.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Make some.

[PFT Commenter]

Make some noise, because there are probably some teams that would line up to trade for him.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Now, I. The. The last one I had was the Lions. If Ben Johnson accepts a job, I don't know if he'd accept a job while they're still in the playoffs, but he might, like. I don't know how that would work.

[PFT Commenter]

I do. So I do think that there is some pressure on. On the Lions. Yeah, there is.

[Big Cat]

Well, you might lose both your coordinators, so you never know how long that's gonna. You know, it's not that the Lions will all of a sudden be bad, but any team that has success and loses talented people in the organization, it makes it a little bit more difficult to get back there the next year.

[PFT Commenter]

And if Dan Campbell, if he makes one of his super aggressive decisions and it doesn't work out for him, then there's a lot of pressure On Dan Campbell.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Then people start talking.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

But he is like, he will make super aggressive decisions.

[Big Cat]

100.

[PFT Commenter]

That's what's going.

[Big Cat]

And he's a winner.

[PFT Commenter]

He's a winner.

[Big Cat]

He's a winner.

[PFT Commenter]

You see the post game video. It was awesome in the locker room.

[Memes]

Awesome.

[PFT Commenter]

When I grew up, I want to play football for Dan Campbell.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. This is like all roads through Detroit. Like all the. The entire thing was. You understand why those guys will just do anything for him and why Alex Anzalone will rush back with, you know, a broken arm and they'll. They die for him.

[PFT Commenter]

That quote from. What was their cornerback's name? The guy that said, they tried to bury me, but you can't bury what came from dirt.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

That's great.

[Big Cat]

Great quote.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Great quote. I'm just excited for the playoffs. This is one of my favorite weekends of the year. I'm excited to get into it.

[Memes]

We're gonna.

[Big Cat]

We're gonna break down each game on Friday's show. But it was good to set the stage. I'm also just excited not to. I'm sure, Memes, you agree just to not have our teams playing to. To make football look worse. It's nice to watch some good teams play. Are you feel. Where's your. Where's your confidence at right now? PFD midweek?

[PFT Commenter]

It's actually pretty high.

[Big Cat]

Okay. I. I agree.

[PFT Commenter]

So sometimes Memes gets pissed at me for not being as, like, super confident about my team as I should be, but I feel like I'm also realistic.

[Big Cat]

Also.

[PFT Commenter]

These are. This is the result of decades of scars of being disappointed by my team. Where I think most normal people, they. They take that forward and they are less likely to get excited about things. Memes is not a normal person.

[Big Cat]

No.

[PFT Commenter]

So he's just like, yeah, jets will be great next week. I. I think that we have a very good chance against Todd Bowles and the Bucs defense. I'm now back big time thinking that Jaden Daniels is going to put on a crazy display where I'm talking. I think he's going to run all over the Bucks.

[Big Cat]

Oh, that's.

[PFT Commenter]

And I know they have a good rush defense, but I think I know what Todd Bowles is going to do. I think I'm one step ahead of time.

[Big Cat]

Hell, yes.

[PFT Commenter]

And that's got to feel good. I've got an answer for it.

[Big Cat]

That's got to feel good to know.

[Memes]

You're.

[Big Cat]

It's Tuesday and you're already one step ahead.

[PFT Commenter]

I've got the game plan and Guess what? I've got an answer for it.

[Big Cat]

I like to, I, I, when we do our picks, I, I like the Commanders in this game.

[PFT Commenter]

I, I like them too. But again, like you mentioned, it's a really no risk. It's a free roll where if we lose in the playoffs, still great. 10 out of 10 season.

[Big Cat]

You just don't want to look bad.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I don't want to look bad. And I would like to see Jaden play well in the playoffs. I would like to see Dan Quinn make good decisions during games.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And I would like to see some, some spark out of a run game.

[Big Cat]

It's also a win no matter what. Just because there's always like so many bad stats about rookie quarterbacks making their first start or just guys making their first start in the playoffs. And you get this one out of the way as early as possible.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I mean Jaden, he, luckily he played in big games in the SEC back when the SEC used to mean something back in the day. But I think, yeah, I'm confident we'll talk more on Friday. But yeah, I'm, I'm gonna bet on the commanders for like the first time in a very, very long time. I usually stay away from those games and I've got, I've got a little parlay cooking too.

[Big Cat]

I like it. All right, let's do hot seat Cool throne. Hot seat Cool throne is brought to you by our friends at game time. It's football season. You want to pull up tickets for the game in Tampa Bay. Yeah, it's football season. We can't wait to get out some games the help of game time. It's playoff season. The official ticketing partner of Barstool sports. You know how much we love game time. Now with their brand new game time picks feature, they're making it even easier to get to a game. Game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seeds so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets looking at tickets for bucks Commander Sunday night football.

[PFT Commenter]

Bucks Commander's Sunday night football pulling it up on game time. Right now. It looks like the get in price is a hundred and two dollars to get in. They've got some sweet lower level end zone seats. 216 bucks. That's the super deal they have there. I actually might buy Commanders NFC championship game tickets just in case. It's Commander's Packers, $2,000 a pop right now.

[Big Cat]

I like that.

[PFT Commenter]

And then give them away.

[Memes]

Wow.

[PFT Commenter]

No chance I'd be allowed to go you know what?

[Big Cat]

I'll match.

[PFT Commenter]

You want to match?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I'll match.

[PFT Commenter]

You want to get tickets?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You get refunded if.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, no, I know, I know. I'll match.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

I'm not gonna buy them till it happens, but I'm matching.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. I think I'll buy the tickets and then I gotta. I gotta figure out who I'll give them away to.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we'll find someone.

[PFT Commenter]

You know what? In the spirit of bipartisanship, I will give them away to Donald Trump and Joe Biden if they would like to attend together and send a strong message to America that all politicians are great.

[Big Cat]

Yes. No, I. I want. I'll give my two away to just anyone who's not a Packers fan because I don't want packers fans taking over. Ral John.

[PFT Commenter]

I love that.

[Big Cat]

Yes. All right, so buy the tickets at game time. Just pull up your chosen event, turn on the GT pick setting at the top of the screen or browse the best local game time picks deal near you or are on your game time app homepage. What are you waiting for? Go buy those tickets now. Download the game time app and use code PMT to easily score great deals with new game time picks. What time is it? Game time. We're also brought to you by our friends at Planet Fitness. Start the year strong. Planet Fitness offers high value memberships that support any fitness journey. A judgment free environment where you're free to get strong your way on your time. Feel your strongest, best self. The best in class equipment for a full workout. From strength training to cardio to stretching. Brand new plate loaded machines like hack, squat and supine bench. Planet Fitness has the same high quality best in class equipment as other more expensive gyms. Their classic membership is just 15amonth. We have our Planet Fitness in the corner of our court now.

[Hank]

It's elite.

[Big Cat]

It's awesome. So we get the full gym. We love Planet Fitness. Hours, amenities and offers vary by club. Check out planetfitness.com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18 years old to enroll or 13 to 17 with parent or guardian. We're all strong on this planet. Join today in club online or in the free Planet fitness app. Hank, Hot seat, cool truck, hot seat.

[Hank]

Yeah, I mean you said we have the gym now. We also have an in house golf instructor. So I was thinking about it earlier and everything, everything's come together in this office.

[Big Cat]

I fixed my golf shot.

[Hank]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

People are not going to like the new one.

[PFT Commenter]

I would like to hire a long drive coach. Oh, I Like Kyle Berkshire, if you're out there. Yeah, Kyle, let's do a video together.

[Hank]

He's out there.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Well, if he's listening. Not Hank. Not right now, Hank. Trying to interfere with my training right now.

[Big Cat]

Hank, how do you think people are going to respond to my new golf shot if it's. If it is good. I. I literally walked up and tested it today, and I hit it four feet from the pin from 100 yards out. How do you think people are going to respond to it, though?

[Hank]

Listen, people online hate. There's no perfect golf swing. Tiger woods could post a swing, and the people online would be like, blah. But you just got to do what works for you, and that swing works for you.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Hank]

Even though it's a drill.

[PFT Commenter]

I haven't seen it.

[Big Cat]

It's.

[Hank]

He got told to do a drill and. Yeah, he just said.

[Big Cat]

He's told me. Showed me a drill where you just put all your weight on the front foot and you put your back foot all the way back.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And that's just my new swing.

[PFT Commenter]

I like that. Like a. Like a closed stance in baseball.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

My hot seat are North Koreans.

[Big Cat]

Oh.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, you actually took mine, Hank.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Oh.

[PFT Commenter]

But good pick.

[Hank]

But, yeah, if you were thinking about, you know, maybe moving to North Korea, you heard some good things.

[Big Cat]

I don't think you might want to.

[Hank]

Rethink it because North Korea has banned eating hot dogs.

[Big Cat]

Oh, I'm out.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Cooking and selling hot dogs as part of a crackdown on Western culture infiltrating the hermit kingdom.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they. They crack down on some other stuff, too, besides just hot dogs. You can't wear jeans. No leather jackets.

[Hank]

Fine. That's fine.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

No microwaves.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

My air fryers.

[Hank]

What about air fryers?

[PFT Commenter]

I don't see air fryers on here. No weed, Hank. They probably actually.

[Hank]

That's fine. That's fine.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. You quit.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

No slang.

[Big Cat]

No slang.

[PFT Commenter]

Slang.

[Big Cat]

That's actually good for us.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. That is.

[Big Cat]

No new slang.

[PFT Commenter]

Porn. No porn. But I think that was already a rule.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

That's why the North Korean soldiers that went to Russia and fought against the Ukraine, they all kind of just kind of went away because they got addicted to porn.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Which is pretty cool.

[Big Cat]

Okay, that was your. No hot dogs is a deal breaker for me.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Yeah. No, it's my hot seat. My cool throne is wwe.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

They are on Netflix now. I'm not a, you know, WWE guy. I think you guys are more wrestling people when you're younger. I was not. But, I mean, Netflix is the Answer. Getting anything on Netflix. Like, I went on Netflix last night to watch something else, and I saw wwe. I was like, I'll watch this for a little bit. I. That's never happened. I've been on TV a million times. I've scrolled past it. Never watched it, but it was like, open Netflix wwe. I was like, oh, what's this about?

[Big Cat]

And I realized they just own everything.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Our eyeballs. But that's got to be.

[Hank]

It's got to be great for. For wwe.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yes. And I heard it was awesome. Did you enjoy it?

[Hank]

Yeah, I mean, it was. I watched it for, like, 20 minutes and then turned on Dune.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

What's your favorite part?

[Hank]

The panel. The promo. Yeah, a couple great promos. Cody Rhodes, I think the Rock.

[Big Cat]

That was our wrestling talk.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

I've never. I've never wrestled.

[PFT Commenter]

My. My hot seat is meth streams. The site we all love and have agreed silently to not discuss on the show. Because you don't want to talk about streams because it'll get taken down. It was a big part of. I'd say my entire 20s. First crack screams. Then it was meth streams. And the sites have been taken down. And there's a note on there that says, I believe it's from the owner of the site. I'll be taking a break from live streaming. Reminder that the only domains in which I operate are meth streams and crack streams. So no more meth. No more crack is there? Why did this happen? This guy. This guy made so many people happy by having this website.

[Big Cat]

Did he just get bought out fcc? Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Or the FBI.

[Hank]

Dana White showed up to his house and beat him up.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. This sucks. It's a very, very sad day. And very sad, as I always love the chat on the side of these streams. Trying to trick you. That's where you got to.

[Hank]

Really?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah. I was actually. I was watching. I was watching the Caps game yesterday, and for a second, I had to pull up the Score app, and I just went over to the chat, and every single comment in the chat on the Score app was Thai game.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, people that were like, I'm at the game. They just scored.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that's. Elio's in there.

[PFT Commenter]

It's.

[Big Cat]

It's that he's a troll in the. In the score app.

[PFT Commenter]

It was very, very funny. Then my cool throne is Mayor's Bets. They're back on. This is the time of year in playoff season where the mayors come out of the closet and they just make a bunch of bets with each other. It's always for the dorky as that they send back and forth. But this time, the mayor's bed is actually between J.D. vance and Ted Cruz.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

For the UT Ohio State game.

[Big Cat]

Ah.

[PFT Commenter]

So Ted Cruz says, hey, J.D. vance, care for a wager? Loser brings beer and food from his home state and delivers it wearing the winning jersey. And then JD Van says, all right, which Texas ice cream should I have Ted bring when the Buckeyes win? It's just merit bet season.

[Big Cat]

Wow.

[PFT Commenter]

And they're always quirky. The stakes couldn't be higher.

[Big Cat]

Can't wait for this.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Also, shout out you to Aftab Pureval, the mayor of Cincinnati. He still owes me a case of Skyline chili.

[Big Cat]

He also.

[PFT Commenter]

They don't pay up on that. I'm waiting for my case of Skyline. Aftab didn't.

[Big Cat]

It wasn't having the Bengals not been in the playoffs since he got all.

[PFT Commenter]

Cocky since Travis Kelsey called him a jabroni.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I think it's been a while.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, they were. Yeah, they weren't.

[Big Cat]

No, they. They. Their last playoff game was a loss to the Chiefs. Yeah. The AFC championship game.

[PFT Commenter]

I think there's an Aftab curse.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Until. Until you send me my Skyline. You're never gonna make the playoffs, buddy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Okay. My hot seat is concussion protocol.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, why?

[Big Cat]

Jaylen hurts still in it.

[PFT Commenter]

But isn't that cool throwing concussion protocol? Because they're taking good care of them.

[Big Cat]

That's true. Good point. I'm nervous. It's crazy. Shefty tweeted that when he didn't even have the concussion test that day.

[Max]

Correct.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. He's crazy.

[Max]

Literally could not have been out of concussion protocol yesterday.

[Big Cat]

It's crazy because I needed that tweet to have this. You're.

[Memes]

You're.

[Max]

I mean, it's crazy. I told PFT my panic level was at a 4 out of 10 yesterday. It's at a. It's down to a 2 out of.

[Big Cat]

Oh, the tweet made it go.

[Max]

Okay, well, then a lot of people. Because I got it. I got worried, and then a lot of people were like, he literally cannot be out of concussion protocol until Wednesday.

[PFT Commenter]

So.

[Max]

Yes, that is technically correct. But you won't. We won't know anything until Thursday because he has to practice a full day and then the next day wake up with no symptoms, and then you're out of bed.

[Big Cat]

Sounds like we're running out of time.

[PFT Commenter]

So if you practice his Wednesday, you.

[Max]

Want him to play.

[Big Cat]

I know. I do.

[Max]

Like this is what I'm saying.

[Big Cat]

I want you to Respect. Concussion protocol work? Yes, it does.

[Max]

Doesn't work. I want him to play the packers now.

[Big Cat]

I want him to play Big Cat. But I want you. I want you. I want you to acknowledge that it's a concern.

[Max]

It's not until Thursday.

[PFT Commenter]

Wait, that's not. You told me yesterday was a concern.

[Max]

But that's because I didn't know the rules.

[PFT Commenter]

But. No.

[Max]

Sorry, Sorry. I was concerned of my stupidness.

[Hank]

You should be more concerned. Max kind of has a point.

[Big Cat]

I've. I've been concerned.

[Max]

No, but he's.

[Big Cat]

What are you talking about? I'm the one who's concerned. I'm saying get him out of concussion protocol. It's crazy. I know how the concussion protocol. You don't respect it. I do.

[Hank]

Part of you wants him to not play.

[Big Cat]

No. No. Absolutely not. Because if the packers win that game, then I got PFC.

[Max]

Look at PFD's face.

[Big Cat]

I don't.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, there is a part.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Memes]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

No.

[Max]

There's zero part of me trolling this hard.

[Big Cat]

There's zero part.

[Hank]

You got some joy out of the concussion protocol.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yes. I told you on Sunday I wanted one more. One more day, and then I need him out.

[Max]

So what happens on.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, what.

[Max]

What would happen on Thursday?

[Hank]

We're getting an update today.

[Max]

Pro. There's no update until.

[Big Cat]

We're still not in problem territory.

[Max]

You can't get out of concussion protocol until you practice a full day and then wake up the next day.

[Big Cat]

If he's in concussion protocol on Thursday, Max, I will be more concerned than you.

[Max]

They're not practicing today or tomorrow. Wednesday is their first practice.

[Memes]

Practice.

[Big Cat]

I will be very upset if he's not tomorrow.

[Max]

Oh, correct.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And today, when the show comes out.

[Big Cat]

I told you my timeline. I have a timeline for the concussion protocol.

[Max]

I mean. No, you're Packer. Dan, it's fine.

[Big Cat]

No, I'm not. I have a timeline. My timeline has expired after today. I said to this you on Sunday I wanted one more day, and she. Doing that tweet was awesome and crazy. It's.

[Max]

I mean, it was just absolute rage, baby. That's all it.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, how long has it been?

[Max]

I think he did that. I think he did that tweet just for you.

[Big Cat]

Maybe.

[PFT Commenter]

Has it been, what, 12 days?

[Max]

I don't know.

[PFT Commenter]

It's been a long time.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Gosh. Protocol is bad.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, I care about him as a person, first and foremost.

[Big Cat]

Me, too. Is Jordan Love.

[Max]

Okay, you say he's like, the 10th best quarterback in the playoffs.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, that was Trust. It was trust rankings.

[Max]

Yeah, because I did not.

[Big Cat]

I did.

[Max]

All the quarterbacks ahead of him have played good super bowl games, right?

[PFT Commenter]

What?

[Big Cat]

Jalen hurts. Nine. I had him nine.

[Max]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Ahead of Jordan Love. Just call me pack again. Jordan Love stinks.

[PFT Commenter]

Also me, Big Cat and Hank each took four guys, so the. The least we could have him is number four true on our personal roster.

[Max]

No, I. I was speaking of mine. He had him at nine.

[Big Cat]

Well, that's because he's in the concussion protocol, you idiot. My cool throne is Fart coin. Fart Coin? If you bought Fart Coin a month ago, you outperformed the entire stock market since 1869.

[PFT Commenter]

So we're. Is it at the moon?

[Big Cat]

I. It must be at the moon. I don't know. I'm pissed that I missed the fart coin.

[PFT Commenter]

Are we in a fart bubble right now?

[Big Cat]

Fart coin. I'm an idiot.

[PFT Commenter]

How long has fartcoin been around?

[Big Cat]

1869.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, the. Wait. The market cap on fart coin is $1.2 billion.

[Big Cat]

Love it. Fart coin's going crazy.

[PFT Commenter]

I might get in on. On Hawk to a coin. Oh, I feel like that's gonna pop.

[Big Cat]

Not buy the dip.

[PFT Commenter]

That's gonna pop by the day.

[Big Cat]

Is she just gone?

[PFT Commenter]

No, she was back.

[Hank]

She's in sleep. She's asleep.

[PFT Commenter]

She. No, a picture of her came out. She was just chilling on the beach. Oh, Rocking two thousand dollar swimsuit. Oh, yeah.

[Big Cat]

Nice respect. Good for her. Okay, let's get to our interviews. We've got Diana Rossini. We're going to talk some Black Monday coach firings hirings coming up. And then we have Brandon Walker, our college football expert, talking about the college football playoffs.

[PFT Commenter]

Before we get to Diana Orsini, she's brought to you by Experian. For the awls who really know us, you know how responsible we are with our money. The secret reason we have so much to gamble is because Experian helps us save money across our other purchases. League rights, they're getting out of hand. We have to subscribe to way too many streaming services so we can watch every key game. And that's where Experian comes in. They'll find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions for you so you don't have to worry about paying for services you forgot about. You can also have Experian negotiate your bills like cable, Internet or cell phone. And you keep all the savings all around. Experian does the work so you can save money. It's a one stop shop for your financial health. Download the app today. Results will vary. Savings are not guaranteed and some may not see any savings. Not all bills or subscriptions are eligible for negotiation or cancellation and eligible paid membership is required. Download the Experian app and see how much you could save today. Diane is also brought to you by our friends at Kevin's Natural Foods. We got a bunch of Kevin's Natural Food sent to us. It was delicious. Their coconut chicken soup one of the best soups that I've ever had. Their general so's chicken stir fry is incredible. If you want a delicious protein packed meal on the table in five minutes, Kevin's Natural Foods Heat and Serve entrees are your mvp. They're clean, nutritious meals. They taste like something you get at a restaurant. Kevin's entrees include fully cooked, antibiotic free beef or chicken and incredible sauces. So all you need to do is heat and eat. Plus they're free from refined sugar, gluten and soy, making them the perfect mealtime solution for anyone looking to fuel up without sacrificing flavor. It's hard to believe something this tasty can be ready this fast. Skip the greasy takeout. Grab Kevin's Natural Foods instead. It's the perfect mealtime hack when you're too busy to cook and you want healthy food and you won't regret it later, kick off 2025 with Kevin's and make it your healthiest and tastiest year yet. Find Kevin's Natural Foods in the refrigerated section of your local grocer. And now, here's Diana Rossini.

[Big Cat]

Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend. It is Diana Rossini, senior NFL reporter for the Athletic. You can find her on the Athletic also Scoop City podcast. She does very good. She has her ear to the streets of all the NFL coaching and GM hirings and firings. So Black Monday's done. I'll start with this. Diana, what was the most shocking thing that happened on Black Monday that you league wide, you were just like, everyone's confused as to why this occurred.

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah, it was less about the firings and more about who was being retained. Yeah, like I would say from the like, let's just start with the firing category. I'm shocked. The Patriots really did it. There was a lot of chatter about it, but I can't believe they really pulled the trigger. But in terms of those that were retaining, like, I can't believe the Giants kept Joe Shane and Brian Dabel. I cannot believe it. From everything we saw in Hard Knocks to obviously Saquon Barkley having the most ridiculous season, to the mess with Daniel Jones, to winning just three games. All of the drama in New York just. It just seemed like this was the time. This isn't working. And just even from things, I know this isn't working. But John Mara, sticking with his words that he said in October, which was that he didn't want any change yet. Did you hear him talking about retaining them? Like, it's like painful for him.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

To say that he. Like, these guys are going to have to win every game, otherwise they're going to be walking up the field going, am I getting fired today? And I just think it's a really. They're being put a really, really hard spot. And in Jacksonville, too, with GM Brent Trent bulky, I think that one was pretty surprising. A lot of people thought he'd be out.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And with Doug Peterson being gone and it. It shocked me to find this out. Yesterday, our good friend Uncle Chap sent me a very sad Jaguar stat that Doug Peterson actually has the third best winning percentage of all time for the Jaguars in the history of their franchise. And so Balky sticks around. He's a survivor. You can't get rid of that guy. What does that mean for the Jags coaching search? Does that make it like. Which. Which coaches do you think would be less likely to work with a guy like Trent?

[Diana Rossini]

Bill Belichick.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Jim Harbaugh.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

That's a good one. Look, I think that job is actually more coveted than you'd realize. You know, when you take a look, big picture, I would say, let's just put it in order. I'd go Patriots, Bears, Jags. In terms of openings of what coaches I know that I've been talking to want and the Jags roster with Trevor Lawrence, there's not this belief around the league that Trevor Lawrence is not the guy.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Diana Rossini]

Even though he hasn't been great. Every coach wants a quarterback. You have to go to a place to have success that has a quarterback in place that's decent and that that can win you games. And those are those three teams, which is why everyone is trying to get those interview. And you see everyone is off and running. But the Trent Balke situation is to me that just. I read it as the owner doesn't want to go through the process of searching.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

For a head coach without some guidance. These guys are not football guys. They don't know. Look at the Jets. They hired a search firm of people they fired just to do it so they didn't have To.

[Big Cat]

Right, right.

[PFT Commenter]

That sounded mean. That sounded like that was targeted at memes.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Did you mean to target that at memes? Be honest.

[Diana Rossini]

No, I. Look, I don't like memes, but I don't not like. Like, I like the Jets.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that's.

[Big Cat]

I don't know about that.

[PFT Commenter]

No. It'd be good for you, I think, if the jets were. Were good. Right.

[Diana Rossini]

People don't know this. I grew up a Jets fan.

[Memes]

They.

[Diana Rossini]

I live it.

[Big Cat]

Be your own people. It. Be your own people like that.

[Diana Rossini]

I. I want to see them be successful. But it's the same story over. And memes. You feel this and. And you're a lot younger than me, so you. Your pain is different than mine, and mine is much worse. They've been making these mistakes that are so ridiculous every single year, and it just seems like they can't get out of their own way as. As you guys know and have been following all the reporting.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So let's. Let's talk about the Jets. So Mike Greenberg got an interview to be the GM for the Jets. That sounds like a dream job for him. But who are you hearing in terms of their. Their coaching options right now? Now?

[Diana Rossini]

Well, last week they had Ron Rivera in the building and Mike Vrabel in the building at Florin park with. With the team out practicing at the same time. Just wild. But that's what they chose to do. They are casting a very, very wide net, as you're seeing almost. Almost to a point where I wonder if Mike Tannenbaum's getting paid per interview. It's just like every. I'm sure you guys were following along yesterday. How many slips went like. I must have typed the word jets 50 times yesterday in terms of, you know, coaches that. That are going to be taking and general managers interviews with them. Look, I think Aaron Glenn, Brian Flores, Brian Greasy Arthur Smith, Joe Brady.

[Big Cat]

I mean, Matt Nagy.

[Diana Rossini]

Matt Nagy. Yeah. Yeah. Matt Nagy's gonna get a job.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

I think in this cycle, he's getting a lot of love by the scenes from teams. And I. I think. I think Nagy was. I think the best move he made was to go back to Kansas City, sort of reset, figure out where he messed up, what mistakes he made, get that confidence back up by being around the, you know, the greatest to do it. And. And he's ready to go. So I'm interested to see what his staff is going to look like because that's obviously going to be an important element in all this.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that. Is that an unusual thing to do to have two coaches that are interviewing for your job go out and. And watch practice at the same time.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Diana Rossini]

That is weird.

[PFT Commenter]

It's very weird.

[Diana Rossini]

It's also like, like, look at the Bears, right? They technically could have had Ron Rivera, Mike Rainbow come in last week. You know, they had that ability to do it, Right. They chose not to do it because. Well, first of all, the Chicago Bears, their first round of interviews are all virtual.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Diana Rossini]

So you're not, like, Mike Rainbow and Ron Rivera are not flying in there. That. Ron's not going there, by the way. But, yeah, everything is virtual first. And then through those virtual interviews, then they're gonna pick the guys for their. For the next round to come in to meet in person. And obviously, the Bears don't think Mike Rabel is too big to interview.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah, he should.

[Diana Rossini]

Like, guys. I, I. No, no.

[Big Cat]

What? No, you reported that.

[PFT Commenter]

I, I was amplifying your reporting on this.

[Diana Rossini]

We've done this so many times, and it's.

[PFT Commenter]

So how big is too big?

[Big Cat]

If he lost 20 pounds, would he get a job?

[Diana Rossini]

Okay, I was thinking about. I was like, I'm not telling them this, but I'm gonna tell you.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Diana Rossini]

Somebody from the jets said, damn, he's really big.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

Why not? I've been saying this.

[PFT Commenter]

That sounds like Brick.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Brick was like, damn. Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah. Brave standing next to Brick for short.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

And no, Brick and Jack were not in the interviews from. From what I heard. And they're not participating in the ones that are going down with Rex Ryan, you know, in Palm Beach. But you're the awesome listeners of the show, will come up to me and ask me if I've destroyed Mike Rabble's career, because I said that teams don't like that he's fat, which is so not what I reported.

[Big Cat]

We never said he was fat. We never say he's fat. He's a big man. Football. He's powerful.

[Diana Rossini]

Manager said to me that Mike Vrabel is very intimidating to a lot of people, that he. His personality, his size. That's all I said. And it wasn't just one general manager. It was multiple.

[Big Cat]

It's also. It's true. It's also. That's. That's on the general managers, because Rabel is not that intimidating once you get to know him. He's just a big guy. He's a strong guy. He's a strong, masculine man. He's a leader of men. I want him as the Bears head coach. So. All right, let me ask you about the pairs this is my thought process. You can grade my thought process, tell me I'm crazy, whatever you, you want to go with this. So the I want Vrabel or Ben Johnson. The Patriots are probably going to have Variable, right? I would assume Ben Johnson has not done it. He's not accepted an interview with the jets or the Saints. They never, they never reach out because he's basically like, I'm not doing it. So it's.

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah, people are back channel like, hey, yeah.

[Big Cat]

And so he's not doing that. So it's down to. There's, there's two seat. There's two guys. Rabel and Ben Johnson for three seats. The Jaguars, the Patriots and the Bears. Balky coming back. Does this mean that once Variable takes a job with the Patriots, then Ben Johnson might be the target for the Bears or vice versa?

[Diana Rossini]

Look, as someone has had to report a lot of crappy news to you over the last few weeks. Yes, I think this will be. I think it's good for you.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Diana Rossini]

I think when the print balking news broke you that for your back, you're back.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Diana Rossini]

I think Ben Johnson still has a lot of questions about management in both of those organizations, which I think is pretty well known at this point. There are questions. Ryan Poles is leading the search. Ryan Polls is not going anywhere. I think there's some Chicago people who are who believe he's going to get fired at some point here when the search ends. Kevin Warren and Ryan Polls are in lockstep in this search and they 100% have their eye on Ben Johnson and Mike Vrabel for sure as, as their top candidates. So you know, let's say in, in this world and in it would be, I guess Hank's best world. Graves goes to New England. Yeah. I think Ben Johnson probably they. The chance of him landing in Chicago are much better now that Trent Bucky is in Jacksonville, which if you're a Jags fan, it's like, yeah. Oh my goodness. Are you kidding?

[Big Cat]

What are we doing?

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah, what are we doing? You know? But I'm interested to hear what happens after these interviews because you find out a lot about these organizations and what their plans are and how they envision themselves and what the philosophies are and when you find out what kind of questions they've been asking. Yeah, so we'll see what they're after.

[Big Cat]

Do you think what, what would the percentage chance be? Because I've, I've played this whole thing out and obviously I want Ben Johnson, but I do think that him staying at the Lions is still a possibility. So what?

[Diana Rossini]

I'm so glad you said that. Yeah, I'm so glad you said it because I. Somebody yesterday text me was like, hey, don't forget there's a world where Ben Johnson stays, right. And looks at this coaching cycle and goes, this is, this is not for me. Right. This is not what I'm signing up for.

[Big Cat]

Damn.

[PFT Commenter]

And weirdly like, that drives the price up every year.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

That. He says no, but it's like, oh, I got. I gotta get this guy.

[Diana Rossini]

Learn from him.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

Look, he's great. He's an awesome play caller. I love his self awareness, his, his understanding of. Look, I've only been to the playoffs twice in my life. I want to. I wanted to come back to Detroit to just watch not only this team get back, but watch how they handle success. Because that's another part of growth as a coach, of not just dealing with the problems, dealing with when things are good and how to manage your team and how to make good coaching decisions. So I appreciate that emotional maturity. But at some point here, you gotta jump in the pool.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

You gotta do this thing.

[Big Cat]

Well, a good, A good cautionary tale is, is lure Lou Anarumo from the Bengals, who was a, you know, a hot name in the, in the NFL coaching circles three years ago, and he just got fired by the Bengals. So it's you, you. You might not, it might not last forever. You might not be the guy that everyone's lusting for forever. So I'm hoping that that will push Ben Johnson to the Bears.

[Diana Rossini]

You look at it this way, the second the Detroit lines stink, his chances are going to go away.

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Diana Rossini]

That's just, that's just the reality. Right. How many times have we seen this where the, like you just mentioned, Louis defense was tremendous in the Super Bowl. He's considered the Patrick Mahomes killer.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Diana Rossini]

And he fired him, you know.

[PFT Commenter]

Right. Is he going to get a job somewhere?

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah, Yeah, I think, I think Lou's one of those coordinators. I, I know. I don't mean to be insensitive to the process because I'm sure he was hurt and upset about it, but he's one of those. They get fired and you go, all right, which head coaching candidate is going to bring Lou Adarumo on as their D.C. yeah. And, and I can tell you there are several right now who are, who are talking to him to try to see what he wants to do next.

[Big Cat]

Ben Johnson to the Bears with Lou. They put, they, they coach together in Miami. I'VE already done this all in my head. I've gone way too deep with all the connections.

[PFT Commenter]

I. I do like that format, though, when you get a younger head coach and then he brings in a guy that's just been around for forever to kind of, like, show him, like, what Wade Phillips did in LA when McVeigh was.

[Diana Rossini]

He's like, the guy for a while there where, like, you bring that veteran presence of, like, Nah. Look at Brian Callahan in Tennessee, right? He brought his dad.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

To help out, you know. Tennessee Titans fired their general manager, Ran Carthon.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So the statement that they put out today was really, really strange. They said that Ran was hired to be, like, the description of the job was different when they brought him in, which was to be in lockstep with the head coach. Now the description of that job has changed, which also implies that now Rand's job is to be like Brian Callahan's daddy and tell him what to do all the time. And he didn't fit that job description.

[Big Cat]

What.

[PFT Commenter]

What happened in Tennessee?

[Diana Rossini]

Well, he's got a daddy. His daddy's.

[PFT Commenter]

His daddy's daddy. He's getting two daddies.

[Diana Rossini]

Look, I. I'm going more big picture. Right? So you just go back one year ago, just one year ago, when they were making a decision of what to do with the general manager position after John Robinson obviously was let go. And we know what came with that with the A.J. brown trade and all the things with communication issues that he had with the owner, they move on. All right, so they collaborate with Mike Variable at the time and say, okay, what do we want to do next? Variable goes, I want to go with my. My player personnel guy, Ryan Cowden, who's now currently with the New York Giants. Guy kind of understands how I work.

[Big Cat]

We.

[Diana Rossini]

We view things the same way. And he's like a real football guy. He's a true scout. And the Titans said, no, we want Ran Carthon. He's the guy. And from what I understand, Rabel just made the suggestion of, hey, like, I like Ran, too. He's a great dude. Let's just make him an assistant GM and let him grow on the job with Ryan. And then when the time is right, you know, he can get a GM job. And they didn't want to do it. And then in the end, they obviously fired Mike Ruble, gave the power to Ran Carth on here, and now a year later, Ran Carthan is out.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

So to me, this says they don't know what they want. This also says to me that they make emotional decisions.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

Which are the worst times? Which is. You know, I think there's a difference too, in making emotional decisions. Robert Kraft was emotional talking about the Gerard Mayo, but I don't think that's emotion. I don't think that's just a reaction to a bad year. That's. This is not up to the standard. I need this team to be right. This in Tennessee is. I have to blame someone. I'm sick of it. Go. Someone needs to fix this, Ran. It's not you. Goodbye.

[PFT Commenter]

That's got to be such a shitty feeling. As a gm, you have the number one pick. Like, you're excited for a couple weeks. Like after week 18, you're like, yeah, okay, now it's Ran season, baby. And then it's like, no, you don't even get to make that choice.

[Big Cat]

You don't get to open this present.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that sucks.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

But, yeah, no, I, I can see that. That's. There is a difference between being emotional about a decision that you made and then making this, the decision because your emotions took over.

[Diana Rossini]

Correct.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

And look, it's human nature to be emotional about it and be frustrated and angry. But I think they were emotional when they fired their head coach last year and it sounds like they're emotional here. I don't, I don't know if that's a great quality to have when you're running a business.

[PFT Commenter]

We'll get back to Diana Rossini in a second. She's being brought to you by prime and wild card playoffs. They're coming on Saturday. We got T.J. watt and the Steelers taking on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in a playoff showdown between AFC north rivals. And it's only on Prime Video. Is there any love lost in this game? That's my first question. Second question, what should I do with the record book? Should I keep them or should I throw them out the window? Do these teams like each other? A lot of questions should be answered. If you're not a Prime member, you can sign up for a 30 day free trial to stream the game. The Steelers, Ravens. It's a big spread, but you know that these teams play pretty close. So it's going to be a great game. It's playoff football. Steelers, Ravens. What could be better than that? The Steelers and the Ravens in Prime's exclusive wild card playoff game. Powered by Verizon. Saturday at 7:30 Eastern. Only on Prime Video.

[Big Cat]

What's going to happen with Mike McCarthy? Because his presence, and it's a large presence.

[PFT Commenter]

Is he too large to get A head coaching job.

[Big Cat]

It might be. It might. It's messing me up mentally because what the Bears are really good at is they've inter. They're interviewing every single person that's ever coached football. And there's some names on that list that scare the fuck out of me. So then I find myself being like, well, Mike McCarthy better than this guy. And then I have to take a step back and be like, wait a second. Am I talking myself into Mike McCarthy? So can he just stay in Dallas so I don't have to talk myself into Mike McCarthy?

[Diana Rossini]

No, I think the chances of him staying in. In Dallas are fair. Like, I think that could happen. Look, I know that they did a little bit of work on some head coaches behind the scenes of the last few weeks, so it wouldn't shock me if they also move on. I just don't like how they're going about their business, how they're just kind of hanging them out to dry right now, trying to figure out what he's going to do next. This entire year is really hard if you're him.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

Of, you know, not knowing what's going to be next. Look, I. I think if Mike McCarthy does wind up moving on or the Dallas Jerry says, yeah, we're gonna go in a different direction. I 100 think he has a good shot at getting that Chicago Bears show.

[PFT Commenter]

That would be the funniest possible actually. Yeah. Funniest possible outcome. I think.

[Diana Rossini]

What's the worst I've thought about this about Dan. I've like David Shaw, why I'm imagining your pain. What would move Dan so. So angry that I don't even want to be around him.

[Big Cat]

David Shaw. I. I've like, I don't want Brian Flores, but I've somehow talked myself into maybe the second time around he'll be better. But I. I'm. I just don't want a defensive guy. I. Except for Mike Vrabel who he. He's a different cat because he's who.

[Diana Rossini]

He'S hired in the past at oc they go on to be head coaches. Right. Arthur Smith, Matt LaFleur. He obviously knows how to pick a good OC. See, so I. That's a good point. Anthony Weaver is a name.

[Big Cat]

Don't worry.

[Diana Rossini]

I'm hearing a lot of teams are putting in for. He spent three years with the Baltimore Ravens. Right now he's the DC for the Miami Dolphins.

[Big Cat]

Coach.

[Diana Rossini]

He was with the Texans. Another. Another large man.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

But he. I don't want to say he's like verbal light because that's taking away from, from Anthony's abilities individually, but he has a great way of connecting with players, holding them accountable. But he's just a little bit more laid back. Like he's, he's, he's cool, but he's smart. So, you know, I can tell you people in Baltimore were, they think that this is going to be the run he gets. This is the cycle. He'll be a head coach. It's time. So you shouldn't be disappointed if that becomes a real.

[Big Cat]

I just don't want a defensive coordinator. I want, I want an offensive guy. I want someone who's, who's going to come in here and be like Caleb Williams. We have to do everything this organization has to do, everything in its his power to make Caleb Williams great. And so that's all I'm scared about.

[PFT Commenter]

One other name in Chicago is Cliff Kingsbury that people thrown out.

[Big Cat]

I, I don't want to put myself into that.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't want it because I, I selfishly want to keep him around in Washington. And I think he's a, he's a very good oc. Didn't work out for him at all as a head coach. And he's one of these guys where when they get fired from being a head coach, they immediately say, like in that moment of truth, after, after you realize what you just got freed from, like, yeah, being a head coach kind of sucks. Like, that might not be for me, but then, then a year later though, these guys are like, yeah, I want to coach football again. Like, they forget so fast.

[Diana Rossini]

Well, it goes back to what we were talking about, how everyone knows there's such a small chance of getting those jobs. So you do it, you take it. Even if you're not ready, you just, you just do it. But I think Cliff has had some time here. Time off, away. As we know, he traveled the world to sort of recenter himself. And now that he's having so much success as a coordinator, and he's told me in the past too, I like play calling.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

Like all the other crap that comes with being a head coach and all the headaches that you have to deal with and the things that you have to think about and manage is, you know, it's exhausting. So I do think he will take an interview, but I think when it comes down to it, it may be one of those situations where he decides to just stay in Washington.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right, so Memes, I think has some questions for you. Before we do that, though. A question on Max's Behalf. Is Jalen Hurts gonna ever clear the concussion protocol?

[Diana Rossini]

I am not happy about this. This is concerning to me.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

This has been over two weeks. Look, Wednesday's practice day is going to be the most important part of this process, obviously, because we'll know if he's cleared. But we're obviously starting here the playoffs, and the starting quarterback is still in concussion protocol.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

So, yeah. Max, you should be. You should be freaking out, my friend.

[PFT Commenter]

You should be fre out. The word I heard was concerned. How are things?

[Diana Rossini]

What?

[Big Cat]

Max. What?

[Max]

This is obviously. Pft. Just texting her ahead of time. To say. To say this.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Max]

100%.

[PFT Commenter]

Are you saying that. That her integrity as a reporter is so low that I could text her and make her put out a false report? You don't respect women.

[Max]

That's not what I said. That's not what I said.

[Diana Rossini]

You sound like memes.

[Max]

What I am saying is that actually, I don't know. Don't.

[Big Cat]

You need to.

[Max]

You can't you not clear concussion protocol until a practice day?

[Diana Rossini]

Correct.

[Big Cat]

So that.

[Max]

There was no way of clearing concussion protocol yesterday.

[Big Cat]

But it. Shifter did tweet it on Wednesday.

[Diana Rossini]

But remember, Max, this is. This is. This is the news that you have to watch. He will get tested again. If he gets tested and fails, he's got to go through the whole thing again.

[Big Cat]

Oh, no. He's got to do the colors. Yeah, that would be bad.

[PFT Commenter]

Everything count backwards by seven. How are things inside your own house? House? Is. Is your husband as. As deeply into the Tanner McKee lore as Max is?

[Diana Rossini]

Oh, yeah. It's. Look, I'm at a point now where I manage Kevin the way you guys manage Max. Like, it's the same. You're the same person. So.

[Max]

I love this guy.

[Diana Rossini]

I know what he's dealing with. Just all the obnoxiousness and the concerns and the. My favorite thing to do because we're always. We have a big calendar in our kitchen because we're busy.

[Big Cat]

And the big calendar. You need the big calendar.

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah. We're like a 1983 home. Like, it's just gigantic. Instead of using phones. Yeah. And I will just do this. I'm like, well, if the Eagles get bounced out of the first round. Da, da, da. And I mean, just. You want to cause havoc. That's all you got to do. I've been planning things on. He goes to all the games. I've been planning things on Sundays, and I put them in there. He's like, I don't know why I'm.

[PFT Commenter]

Putting things in there.

[Diana Rossini]

I don't know why I know that.

[Big Cat]

That's great. All right, memes, you got questions. I have two questions. Okay? The first one's for me, and the other is from Tom Lay. He's a co worker, also a Jets fan. Mine is, who's your source inside the jets building and why do they keep showing up for a job they hate? Okay. And then the follow up from Tom Lay. What's your fucking problem? It's good questions, good questions. Would you like to address either of those? Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

It's the janitor. Everyone always says it's the custodian. It's the security guard, it's the cheerleader.

[Memes]

It's.

[Diana Rossini]

It's actually Salah. He's still at the building. Yeah, yeah, It's Joe Bonino. It's. It's. Any New York Jet fan, If you come up to me and just tell me a story about the Jets, I'll report it. New York Times, they don't care.

[Big Cat]

Memes. Doesn't know sarcasm. He's gonna be like, she said.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, she said it.

[Big Cat]

I knew that.

[PFT Commenter]

She finally admits it.

[Diana Rossini]

I know memes.

[Big Cat]

You.

[Diana Rossini]

You do hate my reporting. I have noticed it, and I realize that you. I think. I don't think you hate me. I just think you hate the information that I'm putting out there. Is that true?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

He can't separate it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. No. The whole. Don't shoot the messenger, shoot the message. He shoots the message.

[PFT Commenter]

To him, you are the news.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, he. It's easier to get mad at you than it would be to, like, I'm the mad reading. Yes.

[Diana Rossini]

I'm. I'm the one who did that.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes. So speaking of the jets with the Rex Ryan thing, do you think it's a good strategy for Rex Ryan to say, like, I'm going to go in there and tell Aaron Rodgers that the country club days are over?

[Diana Rossini]

It's brilliant. It's brilliant. I love what Rex is doing right now. I'm all behind this campaign. It's ridiculous, but it's smart because he's telling the Jets, I want this job. I'm going to do this job. You know when you're so overwhelmed by someone's confidence that you're like, like, wait, maybe they are good. Yeah. He's telling them what he wants them to believe. Whereas you think Mike Vrabel was sitting there going, I want this job. I'm doing this job. I know how to fix this. Ron Rivera wasn't doing that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, right.

[Diana Rossini]

So you're getting a different message. So he's going to separate himself? Yeah. To me, it's worth the risk.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it'd be fun. See, I have one question about the Raiders, because we talked about the teams that didn't do anything. I'm not sure that we can put the Raiders into that category just yet. That. Because I think Mark Davis is kind of just like, thinking it over. I don't know. He's taking his time. What's going on with Tom Brady and the Raiders and the relationship with Mark Davis and do you. Is Antonio Pierce safe?

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah. So it's. The Tom Brady influence is bigger than I think people realize. I know he's the minority owner and there were some question marks of like, all right, well, he'll be in the background to just. Tom Brady's not going to be. Has Tom Brady ever been in the background of anything? Right. Like, he's full on in the decision making for the Vegas Raiders. He talks to Mark Davis all the time. And I think you're going to see tons of Tom Brady ways and just influence on how this team is going to run. So I think the question that we probably need to consider is, is Tom Brady an Antonio Pierce fan? Does he like what he sees?

[PFT Commenter]

I'm going to guess probably not from his personal history with the Giants.

[Diana Rossini]

I don't even think it has to do with the Giants. I just think, look how Tom likes to do things. It's discipline. It's New England. Right. It's the Patriot way.

[Big Cat]

It's.

[Diana Rossini]

It's. It's tight. It's accountability. It's all the things that we know. It's everything that Hank is. This is just. I don't think Antonio Pierce runs his team that way.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

You know, I'm not saying one is better than the other. I just think when it comes down to it, it goes back to that. That comfort of.

[PFT Commenter]

Of.

[Diana Rossini]

I know I can operate with that. So who's on. Who's left that can do something in the way that Tom Brady wants it? Brian Flores, Mike Rainbow. Right. That there's New England again.

[PFT Commenter]

Shiano.

[Big Cat]

Shiano.

[PFT Commenter]

No one's talked about Shiano.

[Diana Rossini]

Are we doing this again?

[PFT Commenter]

No one's talking about Shia.

[Big Cat]

Are we talking about Shiano? Talking about Shadow. Is it Mike Vrabel to the Patriots is done?

[Diana Rossini]

I don't think so. He's meeting with the Bears. He's meeting with the Saints.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Diana Rossini]

I'm curious when he's gonna meet with the Patriots. That. That's. That's the one I haven't seen yet.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Diana Rossini]

I'm gonna go dig on that.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Diana Rossini]

And Hank is all in on this, right?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

He reported it already?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he did. He reported it.

[Diana Rossini]

So he reported Mike Rubble to the.

[Big Cat]

Video based on his feelings? Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

That's good.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah, it's. That's our reporting standard here, is. Do you.

[Diana Rossini]

I actually think that's the least interesting hire, though. Like, it's like, yeah, it's great, and it's cool he returns home. But, but that, that's not like, a shocking move if that happens.

[Big Cat]

No, I, I actually, like, expect it to happen. I want it to happen. So it's like the, the chessboard starts to clear up a little.

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah. I mean, if he picks the Jags, then I'm like, holy cow. Like that. That came out.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Do we have time for one last question? I know that you have another thing coming up to the robot question. Robot question. Joggers, hoodies, shorts. RHOBAC.com promo code, take 20 off. Joggers, hoodies, shorts. Okay, so is there, Is there a college coach that is drawing interest that maybe we haven't heard about as much? Because I'm thinking about two guys. Nacciano Dabo, because he hates coaching college now it seems like he's fed up with the, the transfer portal nil stuff. And then Sark.

[Diana Rossini]

Fine. Like, those are. I don't think those two are going to be in the cycle aggressively. I don't know what Stark wants to do, but every coach in college likes that buzz of the NFL. Bill O'Brien is the name I'm watching. I know he loves Boston College and they love him up there, but that's a name I'm watching. Matt Campbell is a name I'm watching.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. Yeah, I don't know about, but Bill O'Brien. I think I said Raiders would make a lot of sense for Bill O'Brien.

[Diana Rossini]

There's another new England connection. I forgot about that. I didn't, I didn't connect that. That's great. Yeah. Look, I, I, I, the question was, could I see these college coaches maybe getting an opportunity? Like, yeah, but I haven't heard any of these yet. But th, those are the names. If I had a guess at this point, I, I'd keep an eye on them.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

Do teams have to announce when they do an interview?

[Diana Rossini]

They just like to do it. It's not. It's not.

[PFT Commenter]

But they don't have to.

[Big Cat]

They could interview someone that we don't know about, and then all of a sudden it's like, well, that's the coach.

[Diana Rossini]

Yeah. They just like to let the world know. They just like to let the fan bases go. Look, we're working.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

The Jaguars publishing their list of people that they've asked to interview for the job was pretty strange.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. See, I would.

[Diana Rossini]

Teams putting out comments that they're retaining their coaches and GMs. When did we start doing this?

[Big Cat]

I know. Yeah, I know. Yeah. If I were. If I were running a team, I would just go, like, crabby, like, yeah. We're interviewing the ghost of Vince Lombardi. We're interviewing just, you know, George Washington, leader of men.

[PFT Commenter]

I would move in silence.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Diana Rossini]

But that's how I would do it. But don't you think if you have to put out a statement, like, do you think the Chiefs are going to put out Andy Reid is funny.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. After they win the Super Bowl, Decided to retain Andy. We're gonna stick around.

[Diana Rossini]

The Rams are like, we love Sean McVeigh. He's allowed to return back. Like, no. Dang.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right, well, Diana, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We love having you on. And we'll see you at the combine. We'll see you at super bowl week. We'll see you at the combine. And, you know, don't just let me down easy. If, you know, if you find out something before I see it, just let me down easy.

[Diana Rossini]

I am hoping this all comes together on your 40th birthday. And John is the hope for me. So I can't wait to give you that big, big present. Ben Johnson, that Josh McCown's your head coach. Guys.

[PFT Commenter]

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[Big Cat]

Enough for something completely different. Okay. We now welcome on a very special guest. It is our college football expert, not by choice, but by a stupid tournament that we did and he happened to win. It is Brandon Walker who has already made demands on this studio. He demanded the couch be put back because Hank was sitting on Vinnie Woodhead chair, which Vanny Woodhead's near and dear to our heart.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, Vinny Woodhead. It's our van. Sure. Hank just said unilaterally that he was going to move the chair, install the chair, and then whenever we'd have a guest off, he'd force Memes to come in here and move the entire couch back.

[Memes]

Right. Two things. Oh, did you hook up? Two things. Okay. A, I'm not a guest. I'm part of the show now as the resident college football expert. And B, the couch has nothing to do with me. I'm sitting on the couch. But you guys are engaging in the couch fight with Hank right now.

[Big Cat]

Or false, you sat down on the chair, you said, what's this chair? True.

[Memes]

But I really was. I didn't know what the chair was.

[Big Cat]

I rest my case.

[Memes]

I didn't know. But Hank is part of the show.

[Big Cat]

Shouldn't you know that? It's Vanny Woodhead.

[Memes]

Aren't you and Hank fighting?

[Big Cat]

But didn't you just say you're part of the show? You don't know Vanny Woodhead.

[Memes]

I don't know the intricacies of any Woodhead.

[Big Cat]

I don't know where he's a part of the show. You know who knows about Vanny Woodhead? Tom Fornelli.

[Memes]

Well, you know what? He doesn't know about college football. And that's why I'm here.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, well, Brandon's also not. His ass isn't really bad built for a chair. It's more of a couch ass.

[Memes]

I sat in the chair. I immediately got concerned I was going to break the chair. Yeah, there were concerns with the chair, but Hank is fighting the chair battle, not me. I don't care if the chair's here or not.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, clearly you should have opinion one way as well.

[Memes]

I do have an opinion. I want our guests to be as comfortable as possible here.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

All right.

[Big Cat]

So you're here.

[Memes]

I'm here.

[PFT Commenter]

Wait, are you a guest on your own show now?

[Memes]

No, I'm not a guest, but you.

[PFT Commenter]

Might be a guest on your own show.

[Memes]

I'm in a pretzel now. What. What do I. How do I get out of it?

[Big Cat]

Triggs make Brandon really fat in the COVID art.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that's how you get why.

[Big Cat]

Go ahead. Why? No, that. I was talking. I wasn't talking to you.

[Memes]

I understand that, but why would you do. You don't even have to do that much.

[Big Cat]

I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to Trigs.

[Memes]

Weighed in at 273 yesterday. I'm trying to. I thought I was 265.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, Brandon told me that he ordered dark chicken for lunch instead of having the chicken breast meal that we had for lunch for the whole office thinking it was health healthier. I think that's actually way worse. So you're probably up to 276 now.

[Memes]

I love that dark meat.

[Big Cat]

Brandon.

[Memes]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

Jason Whitlock over here.

[Memes]

I know what I'm watching.

[Big Cat]

Watch it. Cans stay away. He said can.

[Memes]

He said a huge rack.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he said huge several times.

[Big Cat]

Gotta stay away.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I've never seen someone co parder with not being able to get laid.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I wouldn't allow myself around her because I knew. I knew you'd get me in the same room as that.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I'll tell you one thing.

[Memes]

Huge.

[PFT Commenter]

You know me.

[Big Cat]

Me and my wife have a deal. I can Never be in the same room as Sydney Sweeney.

[Memes]

That's right. You know, capable.

[Big Cat]

You know what I'm capable of. All right. So, Brandon, College Football Playoff. We want to talk about the matchups.

[Memes]

Sure.

[Big Cat]

We're down to four.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Overall, how would you say the first college football playoff has gone? Are you one of the. The. The. Let me ask this a better way. Why is it that college football seems like there's just an endless amount of fans that just don't seem to like the sport?

[Memes]

It's the only sport that really gets meticulously picked apart for the qual games. Doesn't really happen to the NBA playoffs or the NHL playoffs. Doesn't really happen to anybody else. It's the only sport where if there's a bad game, it is suddenly an indictment of the entire sport.

[Big Cat]

Correct.

[Memes]

Whereas a playoff is just that. You are playing off to find out who's the best team at the end. There's no guarantee you're going to have some aesthetically pleasing games along the way. You've just collected through a 12 team, 12 game sample size, who deserves to be here. We pretty much got that this year. I don't know that it was perfect, but we got that. We can't help that some of the games weren't as good.

[Big Cat]

The Super bowl when PFCI were growing up, you were in your like 30s, in the 90s was always a blowout.

[Memes]

Yeah. It just seemed like you're just going out of your way to take shots at some times, like, oh, you're part of the show.

[PFT Commenter]

I think that because they installed this new playoff then there are now a bunch of people out there that are looking at it and trying to tweak it, trying to move around, trying to add things, trying to inject their own ideas into it. You got to be careful with that. You got to be careful because. Because if you do too much, you're going to become the NBA and you don't want that.

[Memes]

People believe that the playoff was implemented because it was supposed to be some grand fix. Well, it wasn't fixing, so nothing was broken. It was just a better way to determine a champion. It's more seats at the table, it's more excitement. And it gave us an October and November that were unparalleled in excitement. November had games. Would anybody have cared about Ole Miss, Florida in previous years? No. Would anybody have cared about certain games? No. It gave us a great November. It gave us a bad first round, but then it also gave us Texas, Arizona State, which was remarkable.

[Big Cat]

But the other the pushback I always have for people is so the first round sucked. What was the alternative of the first round? It would have been Indiana and Tennessee playing in a bowl game that half the players opted out and no one gave a fuck. So yeah, it was a blowout, but all the players were playing and they were trying their hardest. And I'd rather watch that even if it's a blow up.

[Memes]

People are nostalgic liars about college football. They're like, well, we should go back to how it used to be 30 years ago. Penn State goes undefeated and gets nothing. They get nothing. Right there, there. There are these times in history where we're just letting sports writers decide. So we've, we've come step by step by step. The 12 team playoff I think is the best way to do it. Until we have a 16 team playoff, which we will be better.

[PFT Commenter]

How about we compromise? How about we keep the current format but the winner gets the old trophy?

[Memes]

That could work. Now I will say this year it might have. You don't know this, this is year to year. Maybe eight teams was enough for this year. But you can't go based on.

[PFT Commenter]

You can't do that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And the fixes that I do think think should happen are you don't do the automatic buys, the seating. That should be. It should just be the four best teams get a buy.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And there should be. The first two rounds should be on campus. Because I do think what we're finding is part of college football. It's obviously the game, but it's the atmosphere as well. And when you ask a fan base to travel potentially three times in a three week stretch, you just aren't going to get the same atmosphere. You're just not like the fan. The crowds are not going to be the same as they were when it was like, here's our one big bowl game.

[PFT Commenter]

It also takes time to build up to that schedule, to make it part of a fan base's routine where if you're a big school that has national title aspirations every year.

[Memes]

Sure.

[PFT Commenter]

That you just pencil in. Okay. Like late December through mid January. I got to keep my calendar open because it might be on the road.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

I mean, if you're a Texas fan, you're in your second straight playoff or you're going to. I don't even know where they played that last game. Were they the Fiesta Bowl? Were they?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Memes]

No, they weren't in the Fiesta Bowl.

[Big Cat]

They were in the Peach.

[Memes]

They were in the Peach Bowl. Are you going to Atlanta knowing that you Might have two other trips in the next two weeks. Maybe you're not. Maybe you say, well, I'll get them the next time. So it creates some issues and stuff, but there are small issues we have to work towards overall. This is a better way to do it than we've ever had, and it is going to get tweaked. The buys, the auto buys for conference champions got to go away. That has to go away. It created a spot where the six seed had the easiest pass to where we are right now, which I think Penn State probably was good enough to get there anyway. I'm not going to hold it against them, but they had an easier path than, say, Oregon.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, Oregon got screwed. Oregon should have just lost the Big Ten championship. I mean, they still probably would be alive.

[Memes]

Yeah. Yeah. They would have gotten a home game. They would have won it. Then they would have gone on. They wouldn't have had the rust that they dealt with against Ohio State. Now, Ohio State killed him so much. You can't really blame that. But still, there were issues, and we'll. We'll fix them along the way.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, good.

[Big Cat]

Oh, I was gonna say, I think the other thing we agree on, Brandon, is that the national championship game should be at the Rosebud Bowl.

[Memes]

We don't believe in that. You try to make it personal with me about the Rose bowl because you try to make it personal with me a lot about a lot of things.

[Big Cat]

No, I don't. You may.

[Memes]

You like to point fingers and say, brandon Walker hates a Rose bowl. And you turn everyone against me by saying, no, I don't hate the Rose Bowl. I think the Rose bowl is magnificent and wonderful. And it is also absolutely in love with itself and thinks it's bigger than the sport and the Rose bowl needs to be taken down a peg. The Rose bowl holds up college football progress. It's done it before. It stands in the way. It has to have things its way. And it is not that special.

[PFT Commenter]

Are you describing the Rose bowl or the sec?

[Memes]

It is special.

[Big Cat]

Good one. Pft.

[PFT Commenter]

Literally everything.

[Memes]

Not the worst counterpoint.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Memes]

Not the worst counterpoint I've ever heard, but it's better than his counterpoints where he just says, I hate it. No, I don't hate it. I just think it.

[Big Cat]

It's in love with a migraine.

[Memes]

If you want the. The Texas Arizona State game. They are in overtime, playoff game, Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl.

[Big Cat]

Sunset.

[Memes]

The Rose bowl will not hold up. The Rose bowl keeps.

[Big Cat]

You keep saying the farts thing, but the farts smell incredible.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they smell like roses.

[Memes]

I don't think the Rose bowl farts smell that good.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, well, Brandon, they had to. They had to kick off because the game is built. It's not. It doesn't go by the battle sunset fox. It goes by the sun.

[Big Cat]

You don't respect the sunsets.

[PFT Commenter]

Also, there's.

[Big Cat]

Imagine that. Not respecting the sun.

[PFT Commenter]

There was a. There's an airplane that was. You don't even know what they fly over for the Rose Bowl.

[Big Cat]

No, you don't.

[Memes]

You didn't know either.

[Big Cat]

Did you always know what fly over.

[Memes]

Did you not know you. There was a flyover. You didn't know.

[Big Cat]

He knows all.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, there was.

[Big Cat]

There was a flyer, but that was.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, an experimental aircraft that I couldn't.

[Memes]

What was the stealth that flew over the Rose Bow? Right.

[PFT Commenter]

It's called a B2 bomber. Yeah, come on.

[Memes]

B2 bomber.

[PFT Commenter]

All right, maybe you knew we called the stealth somewhat. Yeah, like casuals would call it stealth bomber.

[Big Cat]

People don't respect the Rose Bowl.

[Memes]

I respect stealth bombers and the Rose Bowl. I respect the Rose Ball. Here's the problem with it. You turn it into this, where you either love it unconditionally.

[Big Cat]

I. I'll. I'll. I'll admit to one thing. My feelings were hurt a little bit because I didn't. Usually I can pick up on your mocking tone. And when we were January 1st, we spent the whole day together, and I did not pick up your. On your mocking tone for about three hours. And then when I did, I was like, God damn it. He's been mocking me this whole time on you.

[Memes]

You live your entire life with me on a mocking tone.

[Big Cat]

I know, but you. Then also, I found out a gift. He bought me two gifts. Guess where the gifts are from? Pft.

[PFT Commenter]

Spencer's.

[Big Cat]

The Rose Bowl. He's buying me mocking gifts.

[PFT Commenter]

Brandon was nailing you for three, and you didn't realize it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

If I. If I bought myself Rose bowl gifts. That's mocking.

[Big Cat]

He was mocking me.

[Memes]

I know that he loves the Rose bowl, so I got him Rose bowl gifts.

[PFT Commenter]

Honestly, Big Cat, if I were you, I. I would be fine with that arrangement. If somebody wanted to buy me a mocking gift that I actually enjoyed, I'd be like, okay, But I don't know.

[Big Cat]

If I enjoy it anymore, because every time I enjoy it, Brandon's laughing, and.

[Memes]

You just walk up there and you see Wisconsin Badgers, 1994 Rose Bowl Champs, and a picture of the Rose Bowl. You. You. You don't.

[Big Cat]

I'm like, God damn it. He got Me again.

[Memes]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

That's how our friendship works.

[PFT Commenter]

That's a great friendship.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So, as an SEC fan, Brandon, how do you feel about the mighty shoulders of Texas carrying the mantle for the SEC?

[Big Cat]

Still Big 12.

[Memes]

It's been a.

[Big Cat]

It's.

[Memes]

It is weird. It feels weird. It's been a bad bowl season for SEC. It's been a bad season for the SEC.

[PFT Commenter]

Would you like to apologize for the SEC?

[Memes]

100%. No. Because fuck the SEC. I am. I'm a fan of Mississippi State University. When Georgia loses, I think it's hilarious. When Alabama loses, I think it's fucking hilarious. So this myth that you guys think that we're all sitting in our trailer parks down south just waiting for Alabama and Georgia to bail us out is wrong.

[Big Cat]

Trailer parks.

[Memes]

It is wrong.

[PFT Commenter]

I was gonna say Super 8.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Oh, whatever. Wherever we're hanging out down south at the dog fighting ring. Wherever we're hanging out down south, we're not cousin fast. We're not just waiting. We would never talk football the cousin. We're never talking. Waiting for Alabama to bail us out. When they win, we're like, God damn, this is proof of how tough it is down here when they lose. It's hilarious.

[Big Cat]

I like that.

[PFT Commenter]

But in a weird way, the SEC school, Texas going up against Ohio State, kind of built like an SEC team.

[Memes]

Ohio State? Yeah. They've been the one team constantly, and Clemson touched it for a few years. That have been built like an elite SEC team. It's not built like an SEC team. It's built like an elite SEC team. Because there's teams built like, you know, Florida right now and Kentucky and A and M. And then there's teams built like Alabama and Georgia over the last 15 years, which is just take the fives of the five stars and put them in every position and. And destroy everybody. And Texas is like that. Ohio State's like that.

[Big Cat]

So if Ohio State wins this national championship, shouldn't we be saying that Georgia's built like an elite Big Ten team?

[Memes]

I don't represent the Big Ten. I don't have a Big Ten accent. That's on you to start turning around the.

[Big Cat]

No, I actually find the whole thing funny. And it's like the. The Big Ten cat thing that I do. Like, I don't actually. I'm kind of with you. Like, I'm not rooting for Ohio State.

[Memes]

It helps you none as a Wisconsin.

[Big Cat]

No, I know. I'm not rooting for them. I will. I will benefit if they win it all. I will benefit it by saying, wow, toughest conference. Look at me.

[Memes]

But when you get.

[Big Cat]

I know that, like, I'm not rooting for them.

[Memes]

When you get to the end of the season and it's happened in the SEC a couple of times, it might happen in the Big Ten this year and two SEC team play for a national title and your team like went nine and three in that conference, you're like, look at what we had to do.

[Big Cat]

We're never. I'm never winning anything ever again. Neither of you. It sucks.

[Memes]

Speak for yourself, buddy. You're talking to 20, 21 College World Series champion.

[Big Cat]

Okay, well, I've actually got a dynasty going with women's hockey.

[Memes]

Well, yeah, but you don't really watch one of the games.

[Big Cat]

I did. I watched the third period of one of the championship games.

[Memes]

Yeah, you can't name any players. Like, I can name all the Mississippi State players. Chad, Austin, Cody.

[Big Cat]

All right, let's talk about the games.

[Memes]

Let's.

[Big Cat]

Thursday night.

[Memes]

Sure.

[Big Cat]

Penn State, Notre Dame. Slug path to get here. Penn State, nothing. Haven't had to play a big game. Notre Dame acquitted themselves very nicely against Georgia. Marcus Freeman pants. Kirby Smart.

[Memes]

Absolutely pantsed him.

[Big Cat]

Pants them. Had him crying like a.

[Memes]

Loved it.

[Big Cat]

And Georgia, by the way, is going to be back. Like, I don't. They're. They're going to be fine long term.

[Memes]

Oh, they've already gotten two of the best wide receiver transfers in the country. They're fixing their problems now.

[Big Cat]

And Kirby Smart is one of those coaches that like, kind of like Nick Saban. When they lose, it's actually bad for everyone else because they're just going to come back with more vengeance.

[Memes]

Well, I kind of say that about the entire sec. If everybody wants to shit on the SEC right now, that's fine if you want to do the collective conference thing. But embarrassing Alabama and embarrassing Georgia, them going through that, it's just going to turn them into monsters this offseason and it's going to be nastier.

[PFT Commenter]

I think most of the shitting on the SEC is because the SEC so vehemently defended itself going into the playoffs. And also they openly lobby.

[Big Cat]

They've had a 20 year run where they've just kicked the shit out of it.

[Memes]

Yeah, but everybody would lobby in that scenario, I think. I didn't. I didn't think Alabama deserved. Or South Carolina or Ole Miss.

[Big Cat]

That's where you hate South Carolina. All right, so this game.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

You've actually predicted the playoffs perfectly so far.

[Memes]

I have, yeah.

[Big Cat]

That's our college football expert, folks.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Who do you have winning this game.

[Memes]

And why I have Penn State winning this game because I think Penn State and our name are very, very, very similar. I think Penn State's a little bit better version of the team they're going for. They have a better quarterback, great defense, better quarterback, both elite running game, both very, very, very physical. Penn State just has one more explosive playmaker than Notre Dame has. They have the incredible tight end Tyler Warren. And they have a quarterback who I think is not going to make the mistakes that the backup quarterback for Georgia made. Listen, Notre Dame, they're both built to win games the same way, get a 7 to 10 point lead, use their defense, ride it out, win the game. Right. And Notre Dame pulled that off to a tee against Georgia. They had. Notre Dame had two plays. They had the sack, fumble to get the ball at the nine yard line and then they had the kick return that gave them two touchdowns of separation. And they never let Georgia breathe. They never let him get. If those two plays don't happen, they had 250 yards of total offense. They're playing a more physical defense. And I don't think Aller is going to make the mistakes the backup quarterback made. I just like Penn State as a little bit better version of what both teams are going for.

[Big Cat]

It does. The Tyler Warren pieces is good point. Because when you watch Notre Dame. Yeah, like Jeremiah Love is electric. Riley Leonard can run very well. He's a tough runner. It just doesn't feel like anyone's getting like crazy open.

[Memes]

No.

[Big Cat]

Whereas Tyler Warren is one of those guys where it's like you just throw it up to him and he'll get it.

[Memes]

I think Notre Dame had 80 yards passing against, which is a great touchdown by Fison. Which was, which was all. Which was all fine. You know, that's what they needed to do to beat Georgia. But I just don't know if that's going to be Penn State.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Memes]

Because I think Penn State's going to get a couple touchdowns from the combination of Aller and Warren. And I, I know that a lot of people, it feels like more people believe Notre Dame is going to win than believe Penn State's going to win. But I think that's totally due to the path that Penn State has and the path that Notre Dame has.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Do you think that Aller is, Do you trust him?

[Memes]

I think he is very good. I've been on the Drew Aller train for two years, to my detriment. Last year when they lost Ohio State and Michigan, people were like, see we told you he's terrible.

[PFT Commenter]

That was a bad game. That was a bad game.

[Memes]

It was a bad game. But it was also due to the two best defenses in the country. Well, this year he doesn't turn the ball over. I think last year I might have had four interceptions. This year three. Something ridiculous. I don't know if those are exact numbers, but he doesn't turn the ball over, doesn't make mistakes. If they had elite receivers, this would be an elite offense. They don't have elite receivers. So it's a really good offense.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Did you plan on this? When you're thinking about who's going to win this game, it's the 100th anniversary of the Four Horsemen.

[Big Cat]

Knut Rockne.

[Memes]

I don't believe Ric Flair and Arn Anderson were together 100 years ago.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

You're familiar with Canute?

[Memes]

I am familiar with Canute. Doesn't that feel like win one for the Giffer?

[PFT Commenter]

Right, Giffer. Yeah. Doesn't that feel like Team of Destiny vibes?

[Memes]

Do we know if there's any 100 year anniversaries for Penn State?

[Big Cat]

Probably don't want to look in their past.

[PFT Commenter]

Have we checked this is Catholics versus.

[Big Cat]

Catholics or Catholics versus Convicts.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, both. Catholics versus Catholic convicts.

[Memes]

Catholics.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, sure. Well, Catholic convicts versus Catholic convicts.

[PFT Commenter]

Good point.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Question about this game.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Big Game James.

[Memes]

Sure.

[Big Cat]

Which I think we should start calling him Big Game James. Remember when we called James Shield Big Game James? It's like. Well, like why?

[Memes]

It's just, it just rhymes with goes great with James.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So Big Game James.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Are we worried at all about Big Game James not being Big Game James?

[Memes]

I think about it. Is it fair to say he hasn't won a big game when he just won two playoff games?

[Big Cat]

I understand those aren't big games.

[Memes]

Right.

[PFT Commenter]

Max said they weren't big.

[Memes]

Isn't that rich? Okay, so is. Could I argue that Georgia without its starting quarterback.

[Big Cat]

No, it's still Georgia.

[Memes]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

So Big game.

[Memes]

So we're really massaging the word big game to, to fit our narrative right now.

[Big Cat]

It's a team that's like, you know, he's not greatly favored over.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And you know, it's a toss up game against a top five team Penn.

[Memes]

State has not been able to overcome. When Michigan was at the top of the sport the last three years, I couldn't overcome them. And when Ohio State's. They have no overcome Ohio State once. Can I ask you this?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Over the last four years, what's Notre Dame's record against those two teams, what would it be? Because it'd be the exact same as Penn State. No, it's a fair point. And.

[Big Cat]

But that's also a little Brian Kelly.

[Memes]

In there and Freeman, who I think, again, he pants Kirby Smart. He looked great.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Memes]

This is. This is a guy that lost Northern Illinois this year. This guy who has lost tough team.

[Big Cat]

One of the best Mountain west teams.

[Memes]

This is a guy who's. Who's lost some games he shouldn't lose, but suddenly, because he beats Georgia, all the questioning is still on James Franklin.

[Big Cat]

I don't. I don't think called narratives.

[Memes]

I don't think this is all about the coaches here. I think this is. This is one team has a better quarterback than the other. That's what I think.

[Big Cat]

I agree. I agree with you.

[Memes]

If you, if you extrapolate, if you go out the whole playoff, it's four coaches, somebody's breaking through for the first time. Ryan Day gets rid of his problem. James Franklin gets rid of his problems. Marcus Freeman ascends to the top of the sport for the first time, and Sarkeesian battles through everything he had to battle through. So it's a fascinating coach narrative.

[Big Cat]

I agree.

[PFT Commenter]

It is. So. So with Marcus Freeman, the pantsing really occurred on that. That fourth down.

[Memes]

Yeah, the fake. The fake. Go.

[PFT Commenter]

Did you know that they. That Georgia had a giant banner on the sidelines that said DJO like you. You remember that djo. That was like on the bottom screen the entire game because it was boom.

[Memes]

Boom, right there on the sidelines.

[PFT Commenter]

Don't jump off side.

[Memes]

That makes sense.

[PFT Commenter]

That's what the banner meant.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And then they jumped off sides.

[Memes]

Well, they also have posted speed limits in Athens, Georgia, and they don't really pay attention to those either.

[Big Cat]

They also should probably had a banner saying, don't get in the way of refs.

[Memes]

Don't get in the way of refs.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Don't drink and drive.

[PFT Commenter]

But I think that having the don't jump off sides better makes you more likely if that's the one thing that you're emphasizing.

[Memes]

The last words I don't read.

[PFT Commenter]

Don't hit the ball in the water. Hank.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

If the last word you read going onto the field is offside, it's in your mind to jump off.

[PFT Commenter]

It's in your DNA.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

All right, so officially, Penn State.

[Memes]

I like Penn State.

[Big Cat]

Would you be willing to put your reputation. I agree with you. I like Penn.

[PFT Commenter]

Expert on the line.

[Memes]

I have already earned that reputation via winning this battle this year. So I don't know that I have to put it back on the line.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you need a banner to hang behind you? Because I don't think you won the big game Boomer banner, Big game Boomer.

[Memes]

Hasn'T put one out yet.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, so you haven't won it, right?

[Memes]

I haven't won it, but I haven't lost it either.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Memes]

If we went through all of 2024 without. Without a new banner.

[Big Cat]

True. I'm with you. I think I'm going to bet Penn State.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

What's the current line of draft?

[Memes]

Two and a half, I think. Or maybe two. I think it'll be a pick them by game time. I feel like the late money is coming in on Penn State.

[Big Cat]

I also hate to do it, but it. I don't know. Under it's low 44 and a half. You can't have a kick return or college football play something stupid happen. But these teams both want to play.

[Memes]

I mean, both those things happened in the last game and the total ended up at 33.

[Big Cat]

I know.

[PFT Commenter]

So the one thing that's been jumping out to me about Notre Dame is their secondary.

[Memes]

Yeah. Very good.

[PFT Commenter]

So good.

[Memes]

Yeah. Xavier Watts is one of the best players in the country.

[PFT Commenter]

So I feel like. Yeah.

[Memes]

But they're good at every level of their defense.

[PFT Commenter]

As much as you want to, you want to trust Penn State, you want to trust Drew Aller. That is going to be a tough battle for him.

[Memes]

It's going to be very tough, especially because his receivers don't really get much separation. But it's not so much just trusting Drew Allers, trusting Drew Aller more than you're trusting Riley Leonard to throw the ball down the field. So I think. I don't think Penn State is going to go out there and throw for 350 yards and four touchdowns. But if you had to tell me, you know, one team's going to win by throwing for 215 yards and two touchdowns, I would say that's Penn State.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Max, you have any Penn State questions for Brandon?

[Max]

No, I had no notes. I think it's a great job.

[Big Cat]

It's gonna be a great stream. We'll have. We'll have Max there. We'll have Chief there representing Notre Dame. I think Frank's gonna be here representing Notre Dame. Connor Griffin, Penn State. Jeff D. Lowe, Penn State.

[PFT Commenter]

McKinsey, Notre Dame.

[Big Cat]

Yep. So it'll be great. Be packed house. Okay. Second game.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Texas, Ohio State. Now the knee jerk is. Ohio State looks unbeatable.

[Memes]

Right.

[Big Cat]

And Texas has not Looked like incredible. I mean, they kind of played a little around with Clemson. I know that was never really in doubt.

[Memes]

Right.

[Big Cat]

But. And then Arizona State probably should have won that game.

[Memes]

They got right to the edge of.

[Big Cat]

Losing that targeting call. That changes everything in a 4th and.

[Memes]

13, if he overthrows it by an inch zero blitz.

[Big Cat]

I know. So is this going to be Ohio State kicking their ass?

[Memes]

So if I went by what the two teams have done to the playoff, it has to be that, right? It has to be. Because Ohio State got the embarrassment against Michigan three weeks they heard how terrible they are, how big of a train wreck they are, and they came out and their play calling was different, their attitude was different, Everything was better. They had fixed. However, I wonder about this Ohio State now, by virtue of their two performances they put on, does the pressure now circle back around to get on their shoulders again? Because they had that pressure going into Michigan the last couple of years. They've had that pressure. And Ryan Day traditionally doesn't do that great with pressure. Now that they have shown they are unequivocally the most talented and the best team in this playoff, does the pressure come back and then do they go into that shell again where they're play calling isn't as aggressive, where the play calling isn't as down the field. I wonder about that. Otherwise, if Ryan Day and Chip Kelly don't hold this team back, if they call plays the same way they've been called plays, I think they went by two touchdowns.

[Big Cat]

Breaking moves like that. Breaking moves. Yeah. That's good. That's good. Cow. Because we don't want to have to re tape it. Raiders fire Antarctica.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, they do? Okay, interesting.

[Big Cat]

So Raiders fire Antonio Pierce. That is another Vrabel opening.

[PFT Commenter]

It is possibly variable. Bring Josh McDaniels back.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So do we have any thoughts on that while we before we get back to college football? You're not. You've watched one NFL game in your life.

[Memes]

I've watched a bunch of NFL games. They play every Sunday still.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You're gonna be here on Sunday, right?

[Memes]

No, no, absolutely not.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

How many variable. I know how many openings there are. How many variable openings are there?

[Big Cat]

5.

[Memes]

So are all the openings.

[PFT Commenter]

Whatever opening he wants, he takes.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Okay.

[Memes]

Jacksonville is not a variable opening. Right. They're not hiring variable.

[PFT Commenter]

They probably want to.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, everyone wants to.

[Memes]

Right. But you can't be a variable. Opening of. Rabel would never get to you. He would pick another job before you pick that one. Right.

[PFT Commenter]

Maybe Ohio State.

[Memes]

Y'all got you guys Got to be honest about your variable opening.

[Big Cat]

I'm. I'm.

[PFT Commenter]

This.

[Big Cat]

This immediate reaction is bad for the.

[Memes]

Bears because that's your immediate reaction to everything.

[Big Cat]

I agree. But I do think there's a chance that Ben Johnson goes to the Patriots and Vrabel goes to the Raiders. And then why would he choose the.

[Memes]

Raiders over the Bears?

[Big Cat]

Tom Brady. No. Vrabel.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Why would variable Tom Brady.

[PFT Commenter]

Tom Brady's part owner of the Raiders. You probably didn't know that.

[Memes]

No, I knew that.

[Big Cat]

Like I needed Vrabel to go to the Patriots. So Ben Johnson come to the Bears. Now it's. It's back to. There's multiple seats open for those two.

[Memes]

I understand they were longtime teammates, but is there any personal evidence that says he's going to tie his future career into whatever Tom Brady wants him to do?

[Big Cat]

I think Mike Vrabel's a pretty good coach and I think he. Yeah, I. You don't have a quarterback though. Actually Raiders is not Ben Johnson.

[PFT Commenter]

So that Raiders could be.

[Memes]

Why wouldn't Raiders.

[PFT Commenter]

Deion Sanders.

[Memes]

Why wouldn't Rabel be Patriots?

[Big Cat]

I think he will be.

[Memes]

He's not a good enough coach for.

[Big Cat]

I think he will be Patriots. I don't know where. I don't think Ben Johnson will be Raiders because they don't have a quarterback.

[Memes]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

But I need Vrabel to go to the Patriots so that Ben Johnson go to the Bears.

[Memes]

Fair. All right.

[Big Cat]

So that's where I'm nervous because if Rabel goes to the Raiders and Ben Johnson will go to the Patriots and.

[Memes]

You believe in a year of our Lord 2025, the Patriots are a more appealing destination for Ben Johnson than the Bears would be.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm the quarterback.

[Big Cat]

Maybe connections guy.

[Memes]

I feel like both quarterbacks.

[PFT Commenter]

No, they're both good. What I'm saying is like it's not. So the quarterback obviously is why somebody would be interested in England.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Second is Robert Kraft feels like he would typically be a good owner to work.

[Memes]

But I bet for a coach, an offensive minded coach, I know whatever he put on the field this year, I bet Caleb Williams is really fucking enticing.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

I bet you think you can unlock the best.

[Big Cat]

Here's. I do all my coach hirings and firings on connections. That's why Mike Vrabel to the Raiders. Tom Brady.

[Memes]

Sure.

[Big Cat]

Ben Johnson played quarterback at unc, but Drake may also did. It's as simple as that.

[Memes]

Right.

[Big Cat]

That's what makes me nervous.

[PFT Commenter]

I also think that the. The guy who is the longtime offensive coordinator of a Team that he's been very committed to the Lions. He stayed out of the coaching search last year. He took himself out because he wanted to return to the Lions. Yeah, he's super close. I think it'd be. It's not impossible for him to do it, but I think it's. It adds another reason why he maybe wouldn't want to go to the Bears.

[Memes]

But, guys, we can talk about the NFL when the season starts again next year. Season's over.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, no, I know. We just did. We were going to have to include do this in the podcast anyway, so why not just do it?

[Memes]

Are they doing. They're not. Are they doing a playoff this year for the end?

[PFT Commenter]

So we actually do our transfer portal after the season's over? I know that sounds weird.

[Memes]

That is weird.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And the playoffs, actually, it's not based on just a bunch of old dudes sitting in a room.

[Memes]

Why not?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's. It's weird. All right, so, Texas. So you think the pressure on Ohio State.

[Memes]

I think I. I could surface. I think it could resurface. And we've seen Ryan Day not be able to deal with that before, right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

If all of a sudden he's the heavy favorite again and. And you have no. No excuse not to. Not to win. I feel like that could creep back on him. Him and Chip Kelly, who.

[Big Cat]

How does Texas win this game?

[PFT Commenter]

I'm.

[Big Cat]

Personally, I'm kind of done with Quinn. Yours.

[Memes]

So Texas is the. Is probably the most interesting team. I believe they have Ohio State ceiling in there somewhere every now and then for like two drives, maybe a quarter. That Texas offense looks like. Oh, my God. Circle.

[Big Cat]

Getting his bag a Mr.

[Memes]

Bag.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Quinn will be throwing darts.

[Big Cat]

Darts.

[Memes]

Because every now and then, Quinn, Yours. Just throws fucking darts. And then he'll throw a floater into triple coverage. You're like, what? Where did this guy come from? If they could, for four quarters, tap into their actual true potential, which is going to be tough against Ohio State, which I think is the best defense in the country. It's going to be tough against them. But if they could. They're as talented as Ohio State.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Or they're. You know what? They're not as talented. Nobody is. But they're as talented as anybody not named Ohio State. And that would give them a punch or something.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So do you think that the formula is going to be run the ball.

[Big Cat]

Get physical for Texas?

[PFT Commenter]

They have a very good offensive line.

[Memes]

No, I think it. I don't. I don't think so. That defensive line is really, really good. I think it has to be making plays 25 yards down the field. I think it has to be Marcus Golden. I think it has to be even maybe get Isaiah Bond involved. It has to be Quinn Ewers hitting at least three or four game breaking passes.

[PFT Commenter]

Or put on Michigan uniforms.

[Memes]

Or put on Michigan uniforms. And that causes Chip Kelly and Ryan Day to fucking freak out and want to win the game a certain way that they shouldn't be wanting to win the game.

[PFT Commenter]

They do have a Golden and a blue. Yes, I know it's not Maze and blue, but it's close.

[Memes]

Well, golden and blue would be. Would be Notre Dame, wouldn't it? No, but blue and gold would be Notre Dame.

[PFT Commenter]

They got, they got two players, golden, blue and blue.

[Memes]

Yeah, but that's not Michigan. That's. His name isn't Maze.

[PFT Commenter]

That's true. That's what I said.

[Memes]

Which is Mexican.

[PFT Commenter]

I said, I know it's not Maze, but it's close.

[Memes]

Maze is Mexican corn, right?

[PFT Commenter]

It is corn or Native American corn?

[Big Cat]

Native American Indian. So your, your official pick is Ohio State. State. I kind of want to take the over in this game. This Texas, Texas defense is good though too.

[Memes]

It is very good. It also gave up 510 yards and 31 points to Arizona State.

[Big Cat]

Thing that wasn't a fluke. Arizona State didn't fluke that game. They just bullied him in the second bigger flu.

[Memes]

I mean, Arizona State had the ball in the red zone in the first half four times. Didn't score any points. Yeah, like they, they moved the ball all day. Finally scatter Boo. And, and Levitt got it going. But they scored 31 points and it's overtime. So they scored 24 in regulation, but they had 510 yards. Yeah, that's a lot of yards.

[PFT Commenter]

How do you shut down Jeremiah Smith?

[Memes]

You don't.

[PFT Commenter]

Not possible.

[Memes]

You don't. You just, you either. You either just hope you shut down everybody else or you hope Chip Kelly and Ryan Day don't force feed him like they've been force feeding him.

[PFT Commenter]

You hope that.

[Big Cat]

They probably should.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Memes]

They didn't force feed him against Michigan like they didn't force feed him against Penn State the first time. Yeah, and they kind of, they kind of pussy footed around it. They came out in the playoff and realized, hey, we have the best receiver room in the country because it's not just Jeremiah Smith, he's the one getting the headlines. But Puka has been great. Like Carnell Tate's been pretty good too. Like they have their third Best receiver would be the best receiver on any other team. And you just hope they go away from that.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, you got to get inside their brain somehow.

[Memes]

Against Penn State and against Michigan, Ohio State ran the ball on first down, ran the ball on second down and tried to be tougher up front. Tried to be out and out physical teams, and they couldn't do it. As long as they don't try to do that again, I don't know how you stop.

[PFT Commenter]

So the, the thing that concerns me is, and I agree with you, I was planning on betting on Ohio State. I feel like they, they're not going to make the same mistakes that they made against Michigan. They just can't. That was like shock therapy where they woke up.

[Memes]

Right.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. We can't do that again. But it also seems like everybody else in America is saying Ohio State by two touchdowns.

[Memes]

Well, Texas is a hell of a lot better than Michigan too. Right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

They beat the out.

[Memes]

Yeah. So. So Texas. I don't want them to get disrespected here. I just don't think they have the high end. They don't have the high end potential of Ohio State because Quinn Ewers can never be that guy for a full game. They have not played a full consistency.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, they've consistently. They played, you know, that SEC championship game. They played Georgia very tough. They got killed by Georgia when they, when they played at home in Austin. And then all the rest of their resume is, you know, not much even. Like I said, even the Clemson game, I mean, they were killing Clemson. Clemson again. It was never 14 points. Right. But it was, it was also like, wait, whoa, do we have to look at this game again?

[Memes]

Yeah. And I can imagine like an NFL scout as they get ready for the draft and I think he's going to go back to college and transfer somewhere else. But like, looking at Quinn Ewers has to be one of the most frustrating things you can look at because you will see three throws. You're like, this guy is a top five pick. I can't. We got to trade up and get this guy. And then the next three throws, nobody get near this guy. Undrafted free agent.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

The game winning throw against Arizona State was incredible. That was a great play by him.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like staying in the face of pressure for 13.

[Memes]

But yeah, that was a great play.

[PFT Commenter]

He's capable of doing great.

[Memes]

But the interception he threw was six minutes left when they're nursing an eight point lead was among the worst throws you've ever seen. He throws in a double coverage and he Floats it. It's just basically an arm punt.

[PFT Commenter]

I would trust him more if he brought the mullet back.

[Big Cat]

I'd agree.

[Memes]

I kind of would agree with that, too. Yeah. At least indicates, you know, some. Some swagger to him that he really doesn't have.

[PFT Commenter]

Right. It would actually transform this entire discussion from like, he really frustrates me with the interceptions to, that's Quinn. He's a gunslinger.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[PFT Commenter]

He's going to take his chances.

[Big Cat]

What? So Ohio State beats Penn State in the national championship?

[Memes]

I think Ohio State beats.

[Big Cat]

Man, that would be such an. Imagine James Franklin wins a national championship over Ohio State. It would basically solve every one of his life's problems.

[Memes]

Who's that a bigger kick in the dick for? Is it a bigger kick of. James Franklin finally breaks through, gets the national title game, and he has to play Ohio State, a team that he just can't beat, or Ryan Day fights or everything, gets to a national title game, and then loses to Penn State, who he's never lost.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, you know what it'd be. Ohio State fights through, gets the national championship, loses to Notre Dame. Lou Holtz laughs in his face.

[Memes]

Oh, I didn't even think of that.

[Big Cat]

When he wakes up the next day. Right.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they should, actually. You know how ESPN always does, like, the seven different simulcasts? Sure. A Lou Holtz one should be like, the Lou Holtz cast, and it's just him asleep on his chair.

[Big Cat]

But to answer your question, I think it would probably be a bigger kick in the dick to Ryan Day, only because James Franklin is kind of used to it.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Like, he's. He's been there, done that. Losing to Ohio State, no one be like, oh, man, James Franklin lost to Ohio State. If Ryan Day loses to Penn State in the national championship game after losing to Michigan at the end of the season and you're already in your January 20th, you can't fire him.

[Memes]

Right, Right.

[Big Cat]

That would be very unsettling for Ohio State. Whereas Penn State would be like, listen, we just got to the national title. We got to stay the course, you know, keep taking shots. James Franklin. Yeah. He can't beat Ohio State, but maybe someday we'll get there.

[Memes]

And as. As much as I like Penn State and think they're a very good team, their roster is not as good as Ohio State's. Like. Right. Them losing to Ohio State, they don't.

[Big Cat]

Have a Jeremiah Smith.

[Memes]

Nobody does.

[Big Cat]

Right. But they never, like, it feels like they're always missing that one guy on the outside that can be just everything.

[Memes]

Yeah, they are.

[PFT Commenter]

Any Any home field advantage at all for Texas?

[Memes]

I don't think so. I think Ohio State travels well enough and it'll be 50, 50 at worst.

[Big Cat]

What?

[Memes]

It'll be 60, 40, something like that. I don't think there'll be a home field advantage.

[PFT Commenter]

Ohio State's very concerned about the temperature at game time. We saw that with Tennessee too. I think it's going to be very cold actually in Dallas. Is it indoors? It's indoors, but it's going to bump the ac.

[Memes]

They're having some.

[Big Cat]

What if someone leaves the door?

[Memes]

They're expecting some snow.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. What if someone leaves the door open?

[Memes]

What's the.

[Big Cat]

The big door. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

There's a giant window with the sun. But you don't respect.

[Memes]

Wouldn't Ohio State want to leave the door open? So it could be.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

That's actually my favorite sunset in sports is that like 15 minute window when it's at Jerry World and it blinds all the receivers.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Remember?

[Memes]

Yeah, I guess they still have that. I guess. I remember Texas stadium when I was a kid too. They had the hole directly in the roof and it was just.

[Big Cat]

Oh, it's the dumbest thing ever. It was the Leon. One of the Leon Unleck games where this. The fumble against the Dolphins.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So that God could watch the Cowboys. That's what they said.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. It was snowing. Snowing in an indoor state.

[Memes]

That's right.

[Big Cat]

Crazy. Okay, I got robot question. Rho, b a c k.com promo code take 20 off your first purchase. Q, zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code take. Who's going to win the 2026 national title?

[Memes]

It's a great question.

[Big Cat]

Thank you. Great question.

[PFT Commenter]

Thank you.

[Big Cat]

Thank you.

[Memes]

So Jeremiah Smith will be back.

[Big Cat]

Maybe he transfers to.

[Memes]

To where? Wisconsin.

[Big Cat]

Whoever wants to pay him $10 million, he should just do it.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

See if he could probably make more money in college football in the next two years.

[Memes]

You think Portnoy would try to get his rich uncle to buy him too?

[Big Cat]

I don't know if he's related to Larry Ellison.

[Memes]

He's probably going to call him that.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. How big of a Michigan fan is Larry Ellison's girlfriend?

[Memes]

Got to be the biggest in the world.

[Big Cat]

12 million. Who?

[Memes]

So when the Texas with Arch Manning. How about Texas?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, okay.

[Memes]

I think they're still going to be real. Damn.

[Big Cat]

Caleb going to be okay?

[Memes]

No. Oh, he will be a two and out guy.

[Big Cat]

Whoa.

[Memes]

He will be. Who's our quarterback next year?

[Big Cat]

It is very funny that Alabama like They're kind of not screwed in nil, but they are not the same as Ohio State or Michigan or Texas. Like they don't have the same boosters.

[Memes]

Yeah, listen, Alabama, not to brag, but me and 4Nellie did sit on his couch before the year and said Alabama's not going to be competing national because Milro is not good enough.

[Big Cat]

I also said Travis Hunter win the Heisman.

[Memes]

But you did. But Milroe was still the best they had. Like what's, what's coming down the pipe at Alabama and running back, they've been normal forever. Receiver, they're normal. Well, Ryan Williams, they're just Ryan Williams.

[PFT Commenter]

Good point, Big Cat.

[Big Cat]

Not normal whatsoever.

[Memes]

They are way closer to a normal SEC team than they ever been. And nothing is happening to make me think that's going to change.

[Big Cat]

Gonna have to come back and save him.

[Memes]

I don't know. I guarantee you if, if they go nine and three again or nine and four with the, with a bowl, he's out.

[PFT Commenter]

I got two words they will not let that's coming down the pipeline at quarterback, Jaden Rashada.

[Memes]

Jaden Rashada.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you want in on him?

[Memes]

I know. No, he doesn't want in on him. He won't stay anywhere long enough to be in on something.

[PFT Commenter]

He does have a pretty crazy Resume.

[Memes]

He spent 11 year in school. He's been to three schools.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And then I think in high school he went to two or three different high schools.

[Memes]

Yeah. I just.

[Big Cat]

He's a friendly guy.

[Memes]

And Oregon has a guy who signed and already transferred. Like these guys don't understand. Just go somewhere and plant yourself for a year or two and see. Just, just see what happens and see how it unfolds. Don't just leave immediately.

[Big Cat]

My big fix for the transfer portal is because now schools coming up, schools are going to be able to pay directly to the players. What you should do is freshmen should get whatever, let's just say round numbers, 50k.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Sophomores get 100k, juniors get 150. Whatever it is, if you transfer, you go back to freshman.

[Memes]

That's not a terrible idea. I thought of maybe. Maybe if you sign out of high school, you have to stay somewhere two years. Now that's not very American. It's not very free. But I think it's better for the players. Like you transfer. If you transfer immediately, you're never going to because it's going to make it. It's like a concussion. Right. Once you get one, it's easier to do it again.

[PFT Commenter]

Is that true?

[Big Cat]

Like Jalen hurts having two this year.

[Memes]

Did he have.

[Big Cat]

He might have had one of the first commanders.

[Memes]

We have so many of these transfer zombies that are now 4 and 5 and 6 and 7.

[Big Cat]

Post game interview in that game.

[Memes]

Ridiculous.

[Big Cat]

He's wearing glasses.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it's.

[Memes]

We're doing Jalen hurts now.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know.

[Big Cat]

He's just in the concussion program. I don't worried about him.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know what it's going to look like when the schools start paying directly, but you are going to be able to. You can have contracts. I don't think that's un American. If you sign up for a contract and you like probably have some sort of collective bargaining with the players.

[Memes]

Well, what people don't realize is this is college football. It's great that the schools are going to be paying them and everything, but the behind the scenes and the under the table money still going to be flowing bigger than ever. So all these freshmen that, oh, he's only getting 50k. Yeah. He's not getting 50k. He's getting 500k somewhere else. So it's all going to be nasty.

[Big Cat]

I've my take on the whole transfer portal and nil stuff is the pendulum has swung as we. For the longest time guys couldn't make it. Couldn't even fucking get a job.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Now we've swung all the way the other way and we're going to find somewhere in the middle.

[Memes]

I just feel like some players, you know, I like player freedom. I like guys going to find an opportunity. And some of these schools lie to players. But sometimes when you go to a place and you leave immediately, you never give yourself a chance to grow into anything. And if you're always looking for the quick fix, the school is too. And you're never going to find anything.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Memes]

And you're just going to be that guy for the entire five years you're in college and it's never going to work.

[Big Cat]

And if you don't have an NFL career, having a college career at one school, that means something very valuable.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You look at a guy like Jalen Hurts, he stuck around, right. He stuck through it, showed that he's a good teammate. Then he got out of there and.

[Big Cat]

Then he got concussed twice.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Memes]

He went to the school that valued loyalty the most.

[PFT Commenter]

He's probably a great backup quarterback. That's the. That's what you can say about that, man.

[Memes]

So you guys are just transitioned fully into messing with Max right now.

[Big Cat]

Would you say it's. If your quarterback's concussion protocol the week of a playoff game.

[Memes]

That's not great.

[Max]

Big Cat's trying to play this game that like he's huge.

[Big Cat]

I just won Max. I am.

[Max]

I need the Eagles.

[Big Cat]

I need him out of concussion protocol.

[Max]

Beat the Packers. I need him out of trolling me about Jalen hurts.

[Memes]

So it's Packer Daniel, you would admit Max the Monday of a playoff game here in the work concussion protocol is troubling.

[Big Cat]

Thank you.

[Max]

It is trouble. Technicality.

[Memes]

It's a bad technicality.

[Max]

It was impossible for him to get out of concussion protocol yesterday.

[Memes]

But is that not a troubling technicality?

[Big Cat]

Concussed.

[Max]

No. Know he would have had to have gotten out of concussion protocol last week if he was going to. Because he wasn't out of concussion protocol last week. He had to still be in concussion protocol Monday.

[Big Cat]

I think. Let me just say this. I think the fact that Max is talking so much about the concussion. You're talking about the concussion.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm not.

[Max]

I'm not triggering. I know what you're trying to do.

[PFT Commenter]

Why Packer Dan when barstool Big pack was right there.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Because Yankee Dan get him out of concussion protest protocol. And he did have. That is his second. If you look at the video after the Washington game, the first one. Sorry, I've been concussed.

[Memes]

I was just here.

[Big Cat]

Oh yeah.

[Max]

So PFT just is a constant state of concussion.

[PFT Commenter]

No, we just. We just hit guys hard. We played.

[Big Cat]

You said that. Yeah.

[Max]

Because you were wearing sunglasses in the concussion.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, yeah. Wear sunglasses inside. Actually up with your brain.

[Big Cat]

Did have a concussion. The salt shed.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I had multiple concussions. I also may have gotten bit by a rabid bat. Still came out. Did the show the night.

[Big Cat]

Brandon, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. College football.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you have any questions for us?

[Memes]

No, no. I just as my first official appearance as the official college football expert on the show. Officially I had a good time. Officially.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Memes]

Officially.

[Big Cat]

Good job.

[Memes]

And we never did actually say. But the contest that I won. I had three schools left in the college football playoff for Nelli has one. He has Penn State.

[Big Cat]

Okay. If Penn State wins at all. I think for Nelli he should probably.

[PFT Commenter]

That's what I said.

[Memes]

But no, he. Even if they win at all, he is still short of my point total.

[Big Cat]

Because if don't get the champion, it's kind of un.

[Memes]

That's not what we said.

[Big Cat]

We'll have to review the tape. You.

[Max]

You can review two buy schools.

[Memes]

That's him. That's him. If you choose by Lifestyle choice.

[PFT Commenter]

Those are. Those are wins too. But yeah, USA Rugby does the same thing. You finish in second place long enough, you get first place. It's like Kobe Bryant's career. It's like he was never the best player ever in the NBA, sure, but he was always like, number two.

[Memes]

Three guys. I have officially already made an appearance as the. As the expert. I don't know what. We can't that out. Let's clip what out.

[Big Cat]

We're going to bleep out me saying expert.

[PFT Commenter]

We can bleep out the Kobe stuff too. I don't. I don't have time for the Kobe stance.

[Big Cat]

Bleep out concussion as well, and then the whole entire podcast will just be a bleep. All right, thanks, Brandon.

[Memes]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

You fat bleep. Brandon Walker was brought to you by Netflix and their gripping new limited series coming called American Primeval. Starring Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin, American Primeval is about one of the most beautiful, brutal, and isolated parts of America in 1857, as men and women violently clash over land, culture, religion, and community. American Primeval is a very violent story of rebellion, pain, hatred, fear, and ultimate survival as one woman fights to save her son as they try to get through the American Primeval is brought to you by Pete Berg, Mark L. Smith, and Eric Newman. American Primeval only on Netflix January 9th.

[Big Cat]

All right, let's finish up with guys on chicks. Henry.

[PFT Commenter]

Hank, how many of these questions are.

[Big Cat]

Hey.

[PFT Commenter]

As a female awl, I was greatly disappointed to hear that Max would not attend my bachelorette party.

[Memes]

A lot.

[Big Cat]

A lot.

[PFT Commenter]

And that's sad.

[Max]

I didn't. I. I was just abiding by the rules. I was obliging to Oblige.

[Big Cat]

Did anyone tell you that you were saying that word incorrectly?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Isn't that disgusting, Hank, that we have a producer that can't pronounce words?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's sickening. Did you guys hear the other day? I would.

[Hank]

I. If I lost that bet, I would be at so many bachelorette parties.

[PFT Commenter]

That's the thing. Yeah, you would.

[Hank]

That's the bad thing about me.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

He loves women.

[Big Cat]

Did you guys.

[Hank]

I didn't respect them.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Unlike Max, I have a girlfriend.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So you can't respect some women if.

[Big Cat]

She could go, too.

[PFT Commenter]

If you're in a relationship, you can't respect women. Women.

[Big Cat]

What are you, Mike Pence can't be in the same room.

[Hank]

Some of your most respected women are.

[PFT Commenter]

Your girlfriend Max is afraid of getting in a room with some of that peanut butter skin.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. You just Know what you do. So you got to stay away from it.

[PFT Commenter]

God, those.

[Big Cat]

Those cannons.

[PFT Commenter]

You know what you're capable of.

[Big Cat]

Max, I meant to bring this up. I don't know. It's like maybe. I think it was over Christmas. Maybe. Char. Do you. Charles. I think it was Charles Davis. Davis. We had a. Because I was talking about oblige and how you said that wrong. He said it was a Nick Klaus situation. He said Canute Rockne.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah.

[Big Cat]

And he was like. That's actually. If you. If you look it up. That's actually how it was pronounced.

[PFT Commenter]

That's how you would have wrote the word.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So Canute Rockney.

[PFT Commenter]

Am I. Am I wrong? But is this the 100 year anniversary of the Knut Rockney?

[Big Cat]

I don't know.

[PFT Commenter]

Is it. Was it the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

What do you guys talk.

[Big Cat]

I'm pretty sure that was. Newt Rockne is a famous football player.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm pretty sure that was 19.

[Big Cat]

Way back when.

[PFT Commenter]

If so.

[Big Cat]

Or coach.

[PFT Commenter]

Sorry, if so. That would be like. I mean, team of destiny. Notre Dame. Right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Not the echoes literally getting woken up.

[Big Cat]

He coached from 18. 1918 to 1930. So Knut Rockne, shout out the legend. Yeah, the. The Four Horsemen. 1924 included the Four Horsemen backfield, the Harry Stol, Drake. Dre. Dre, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden. Don't see a lot of Elmer's in the backfield anymore.

[PFT Commenter]

Elmer Laden was a problem.

[Big Cat]

Laden. All right. Hey, guys, on chicks, speaking of pronunciation.

[Hank]

This actually kind of plays into it. We also got a note about this. K E T, O.

[Big Cat]

Keto.

[PFT Commenter]

Keto.

[Hank]

Keto.

[Big Cat]

Keto.

[Hank]

Yeah, that's the correct pronunciation. Okay, fun fact.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Hank]

My boyfriend decided that he was going on a keto diet to start the new year. I thought. I always thought it was keto, too. Ketosis.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Is it ketosis?

[Hank]

I guess. I don't know. Keto.

[PFT Commenter]

Keto. Kalin.

[Hank]

My boyfriend decided he was going on a keto diet to start the new year. I thought he was kidding, but when I came home from work the other day, he filled almost the entire fridge and freezer with meat. Like a fridge almost entirely of fish, beef, and chicken. He's not crazy chunky. And I never said he had to lose weight. I actually like the little plump. I actually like.

[Big Cat]

Oh, that's mean.

[Hank]

But he's fully doing this and it's kind of annoying. Probably piss smells bad too, right? Am I a bad girlfriend if I tell him to stop? Because I don't want our entire fridge and freezer filled with meat. Do I let him go for this? I'm thinking this resolution will end soon anyways. That's. That's the answer.

[Big Cat]

You got to just ride it out.

[PFT Commenter]

He's. He's gonna want carbs by Friday.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the. The. Every diet goes the same way, especially.

[Hank]

The January 1st one.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. In the. In the keto, you're like, damn, this. This is awesome. I can eat steak. I can eat bacon. All I have to do is eat meat. And then you do it for, like, two weeks, and you say, you know what I would, like, die for right now is a piece of pizza.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Guys see, like, an influencer who's in tremendous shape. He's like, all I have to do is eat as much meat as I want all the time. And it's very easy for a guy to say, yeah, that sounds like the easiest diet ever. But at the end of the day, he's going to want a bag of chips.

[Hank]

I went through this with the dunk when I was, like, looking up the easiest and. Or not the fastest ways to lose weight without, you know, losing, like, muscle or strength, and it's keto. But it's. Then I looked into actually how you do it, and I was like, I'm not. That's not possible.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, no, it's. It's. It's kind of one of those trick diets where if you Google, like, how.

[Hank]

Do I do this?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And you say, hey, do you like steak? Yes. Oh, do you like chicken? Yes. Well, I have a diet for you, but then you eat it, and you're just like, this sucks.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Also, you know what else I really like is all the sides that come with steak.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. Give me the. Give me the cream of corn.

[PFT Commenter]

Give me the twice baked potato.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah. Give me the mashed. Give me the sweet potato fries. Give me all that. Give me the lobster Mac.

[PFT Commenter]

It turns out that everything has carbs in it.

[Hank]

And sugar.

[PFT Commenter]

And sugar, which is a carb.

[Big Cat]

But I'm not eating candy.

[PFT Commenter]

But you're right.

[Big Cat]

Grapes.

[Hank]

When I found out grapes were carbs, blew my mind. It did?

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Hey, guys, My husband is a huge Baltimore sports fan. We are expecting our first child, and he is adamant on naming the boy Jack Jackson. Well, I do love the name Jackson. He wants to name the middle. He wants to name the middle name either Lamar or Holiday. Is enough enough, or do I bend the knee? Has his sports fandom gone too far to run for the hills?

[Big Cat]

You got to go Holiday. I mean, that's because you get you cover both or does that then take away the Lamar? What? What's the question?

[Max]

I don't think it covers. I think it's just Jackson Holliday.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he's just naming him his name, I think.

[Max]

And Jackson Holiday is also. He's a great prostitute prospect.

[Big Cat]

But, yeah, you might want to be Lamar Jackson would be a safer bet.

[Max]

What if Jackson, like, it happens a lot. That good prospects?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. What about Jackson? Gunner? That would be good.

[Max]

I like Gunner. I think Gunner Jackson flows.

[Big Cat]

Gunner Jackson is great. All right. Yeah, Gunner Jackson's cool.

[PFT Commenter]

If you want to go with, like a tried and true Baltimore guy, you could go Calvin Jackson.

[Big Cat]

Then he sounds like a future president.

[PFT Commenter]

That's true.

[Big Cat]

Jackson's actually not a bad first name because you can. You can do things with it. Like, you give them chances. If you. If you're. If you're naming your son something after a sports player or something weird, give them a chance. Give them a chance to change it if they want so they become Jack. That's not a weird thing.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I also don't do the X. I don't think he would. But the J, A, X, O, N is crazy.

[PFT Commenter]

Also, Jackson to me, sounds like more of a Southern name, doesn't it?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, if you're from Georgia, your name Jackson, that's different from if you're from.

[Big Cat]

Baltimore, a Nashville suburb.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. How about this? How about Jackson Stavros?

[Big Cat]

That's good. Jackson Stavros. The Wire.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Yeah, I think Jackson, though's, a good name. Maybe don't do Jackson Holiday, because then that's just. Then you're naming after Jackson Holiday, not Lamar Jackson. And also, like Max said, prospects don't always pan out.

[Max]

Also, the one Jackson that we know sucks.

[Big Cat]

What's the Jackson McCarthy. Oh, he's Jackson. I should know that because I'm his dad.

[PFT Commenter]

Also, there's something weird about naming, naming your son after, like a 21 year old that's not related to you, right? Yeah. With Lamar, at least he's got some age and he's. He's become a part of Baltimore. Yeah. At this point, it's like you're naming your son after a 21 year old who's good at sports.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I think you were right with the Cal thing. Like, you want to name after a guy whose career is over because you can't change it now. You could change it in, like, I don't know, hypothetically, like a double murder kind of situation. So maybe don't name name Moj. But you can't You. You can't change what they did, what they did after they retired. So maybe go Cal. Or Lamar. Jackson's safe just because, at bare minimum, he's got two MVPs.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And he was electric. Like, if he never wins a Super bowl, you still would be. Like, he had an insane career.

[PFT Commenter]

But would that. Like, if you were from Miami, you named your kid Marino. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Maybe. Go Joe Flacco. Yeah, Flacco. Jackson the wire.

[PFT Commenter]

Flacco.

[Big Cat]

Gunner. Flaco Jackson the wire gunner. Last name?

[Memes]

All right.

[Hank]

One with a part in your take. Hey, boys, new take. Why hasn't anyone tried to block a field goal at the crossbar? Obviously would never have to be. Obviously would have to be a long field goal. So the kick has a chance of landing short, but I feel like there's enough there to at least give it a try. The Lions could have tried against the Ravens back when tucker kicked the 66 yarder. The crossbar is 10ft above the ground, and anyone who can dunk could give it a shot. What do you guys think? Much love. Go, Hawks.

[Big Cat]

I. I agree with this. I don't know if it's legal. Can you.

[PFT Commenter]

Can you have golden field goal rules right now?

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm not sure, but we're gonna find.

[Hank]

Out what would make it illegal.

[Big Cat]

I don't know if there's golden.

[Hank]

What's the difference between 5 inches?

[Big Cat]

I agree.

[Hank]

And 50 yards?

[PFT Commenter]

Because if not, why not? You sign Wimby for a playoff contract and just put them back there on field goals.

[Hank]

I'm guessing you can't put your hand on the crossbar, but if you're just straight up jumping up.

[Big Cat]

All right, so here we go.

[PFT Commenter]

Must pass through the vertical plane of the goal, which is the area above the crossbar. If the ball passes through the goal and returns through the goal without striking the ground or some object or person beyond the goal, the attempt is unsuccessful.

[Big Cat]

It's. So I'm reading right here that Morris Stroud of the Chiefs used to do that, and then they changed the rule. Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1 is formally known as the Stroud Rule. Goaltending by any player leaping up to deflect a kick as it passes above the crossbar of a goalpost is prohibited. The referee could award three points for a palpably unfair act. Huh?

[Hank]

Bullshit.

[Big Cat]

That is bullshit. I think you should get. What would be interesting is if they change the rules where you can goal tend, you have to catch it, though.

[PFT Commenter]

Or it's a live ball.

[Hank]

That'd be hard.

[Big Cat]

I know, but it would Be, you know, at the end of a game, like, hey, we gotta. This guy's got it. Because then how electric would be if the guy tipped it to himself and dropped it and then it became goaltending.

[PFT Commenter]

And if you. If you reject it above the crossbar and catch it and return it for a touchdown, that's worth 10 points.

[Big Cat]

I like that. That's automatic Super Bowl.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I like that a lot.

[PFT Commenter]

This is a weird penalty for them to implement because the chance of this happening got to be very, very rare, right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I'd agree. It doesn't. I mean, I guess someone was doing it, but. Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like they made it illegal. That sucks. That'd be fun. I also wish that the Arizona State field goal counted. People were trying to say that it did.

[PFT Commenter]

The one that bounced in.

[Memes]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

That'd be cool as well. Okay. Okay, Numbers. What? We're like a week into 20, 25, and meme still has never gotten it.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm going to go with 5.

[Max]

11, 3.

[Big Cat]

Do you want 3? No, I'm thinking 33. Let me find a number in here. Memes, what are you most worried about? PFT getting it for a second time or Jack getting it and then you being literally the only one to never. PFT has never gotten by himself.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, that's actually not true.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he actually has gotten.

[PFT Commenter]

I got by by himself on this machine. I've gotten it on the old machine. I get it several times.

[Big Cat]

You've never gotten on any machine ever.

[Hank]

That's crazy.

[Big Cat]

I also think Memes like something people.

[Hank]

Don'T under us like people underestimate the fact that you never got it in the old office either.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, they never got it. I also think something's up with Memes. I think he likes, got concussed over the break or something because he seems, like, a little bit happier. I don't know what it is. It's the jumpsuit. Really? Okay.

[Max]

He's really excited about the jumpsuit.

[Big Cat]

Like, he was smiling to me today. I was like, this is weird.

[PFT Commenter]

Memes got hacked.

[Big Cat]

He's never done this before. Yeah. And the jet season is over. Yeah. And we're winning the super bowl this year. Nice. Okay. 3, 8, 21, 99. Pug, 48, 48's Jack, what was yours?

[Memes]

55.

[Big Cat]

Max, what was yours? 11. What was yours? Hank?

[PFT Commenter]

33.

[Big Cat]

57. 57.

[PFT Commenter]

Love you guys.

[Memes]

Guys.

[Big Cat]

Sa.