MLB Playoffs With Jeff Passan, CFB With Matt Leinart, Bears Beat Commanders In The PMT Bowl + Guys On Chicks

Summary

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Pardon My Take — Oct 15, 2025

Episode Title: MLB Playoffs With Jeff Passan, CFB With Matt Leinart, Bears Beat Commanders In The PMT Bowl + Guys On Chicks

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Episode Overview

In this quintessential PMT episode, Big Cat and PFT Commenter deliver their signature boisterous, snarky, but insightful takes on the MLB playoffs (with ESPN’s Jeff Passan), college football (with Fox’s Matt Leinart), and recap the PMT Bowl — a.k.a. the Bears-Commanders Monday Night Football game that ended with major fan therapy. The show also weaves in topical NFL storylines, coach drama, record-breaking stats, and plenty of irreverent moments, all capped by their classic “Guys On Chicks” mailbag.

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Main Segments & Key Discussion Points

1. MLB Playoffs: Dodgers’ Domination and Mariners Magic

[03:06–15:25; 82:33–128:33]

• Dodgers: The Unfair Juggernaut
  • The crew discusses the Dodgers’ playoff run, particularly their overwhelming pitching depth (Yamamoto and Snell both pitching gems), massive lineup, and Shohei Ohtani’s ability to disappear in the regular season and reappear in decisive moments.
  • Big Cat (07:24):* “The Dodgers are a divorce attorney. They slowly bleed you dry over the years. It’s no fun, nobody’s happy at the end, but the lawyer gets paid.”
• Dodgers-Brewers as a Proxy for MLB Economics
  • Jeff Passan frames the Dodgers-Brewers matchup as a “proxy war” for baseball labor issues — the contrast between the high-spending Dodgers and frugal Brewers will fuel the salary cap debate looming in MLB’s next CBA.
    Jeff Passan (95:17): “If the brewers go and win this year, can’t you, if you’re the Players Association, make the argument that if you can win on $125 million, then … it’s something that can be replicated?”
• Seattle Mariners: Team of Destiny?
  • The Mariners have electrified with dramatic wins, strong pitching (Gilbert, Kirby, Castillo), and the surprising heroics of Jorge Polanco.*
    Big Cat (88:48): “Cal Raleigh season … the home run that he hit to the guy wearing the Cal Raleigh shirt, right into his lap, that’s a team of destiny thing.”
  • Passan explains Seattle’s rise: deep farm system, perfectly timed trades, and playoff chemistry.
• Baseball Culture: Celebrating Too Much?
  • The guys debate whether MLB teams celebrate clinches and playoff wins too much.
    PFT (93:04): “I’m a big believer: celebrate everything. … You don’t know where your next celebration’s going to be.”
• Yankees, Mets & Phillies: Who’s in Trouble?
  • Yankees have lost their “mystique” and big-spender status (“run like a Fortune 500 company now, not a baseball team”).
  • The Phillies are entering a transition: the current roster “just has failed. They have not been able to win a championship. ... At some point you just gotta change the mix in the room.”
  • Mets: even with huge spending, 2025 was a monumental collapse — but the farm system is improving.

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2. College Football Deep Dive with Matt Leinart

[132:24–165:41]

• USC’s Big Ten Era & Michigan Win
  • Leinart relives how USC shed its “West Coast Soft” label by dominating Michigan: “They completely dominated them on both sides of the ball… it’s a confidence booster, a program changer, knowing they can do it.”
  • Big Cat pokes fun at Leinart for storing his Heisman in his garage: “You don’t have, like, a shelf for the Heisman?”
• Notre Dame Rivalry & Playoff Stakes
  • This year’s USC-Notre Dame game is a playoff elimination game: “It means a lot more than it’s had. Notre Dame has owned this the last decade. But we got a fighting chance.”
• Conference Realignment, CA Stereotypes, and Lineman Recruiting
  • Discussion turns to Big Ten dynamics and how “West Coast Soft” is more reputation than fact, but admits it’s harder to “get fat linemen in California.”
  • Leinart: “My six-year-old, all he eats is salad… my four-year-old, all he eats is mac and cheese. He’d line up at right guard for Wisconsin.”
• Coach Carousel & Penn State
  • Major talk about James Franklin (Penn State) being on the hot seat; expected replacement names: Curt Cignetti (Indiana), Matt Rhule (Nebraska), and wild-card Brian Hartline (Ohio State).
• Heisman Race & Breakout Teams
  • The panel effusively praises Indiana and QB Fernando Mendoza for their “team of destiny” run.
    PFT (150:19): “That moment where you’re Indiana…threw a pick-six…this is where you crumble. [Mendoza] goes on a 75-yard drive. That’s a dude.”
  • Alabama and Texas Tech both exceed expectations.
• NIL/Early Recruiting & ‘Star System’ Skepticism
  • Leinart explains the modern recruiting world: “It’s all bullshit, dude. A lot of these guys…get stars based on offers…seven-on-seven is all about social media.”
  • Reflects on his own potential NIL earnings (“At least 4–5 mil a year”).

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3. NFL Recap: Monday Night Football & State of the League

[25:13–76:46]

• Bears vs Commanders (PMT Bowl)
  • Extended therapy session for both teams. The Bears win 25–24, thanks to backup kicker Jake Moody hitting four FGs.
  • Blame is assigned: refs (took 14 points off the board per the guys), late-game fumbles, and lack of offensive explosiveness for the Commanders.
    Big Cat (41:38): “The Bears are not a good football team, but they are unequivocally no longer a bad football team. That’s a very important distinction.”
  • The chat dives into coaching improvements ("Ben Johnson is a 25–24 merchant"), run-game fixes, and tough future schedules.
• Falcons Stun the Bills
  • Bijan Robinson explodes; Falcons’ offense shows frightening potential.
  • Bills and Eagles both enter “are they okay?” category after consecutive losses.
• NFL Trends & Coach Drama
  • Chief conspiracy theories: UTEP study says KC gets more “subjective” calls than others, sparking “NFL Rigged” debates ([65:35]).
  • Tua calls out Dolphins teammates for skipping player meetings, then gets publicly corrected by McDaniel: “As a franchise quarterback, that’s not the forum… I think he knows that now.”
  • Early firing of Titans’ coach Callahan and the subsequent hustle by a ticket rep (“if Brian Callahan is fired…”).

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4. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jeff Passan on Mariners magic:

  "Jorge Polanco has had three consecutive game-winning hits in the fifth inning or later of playoff games … This is what World Series runs take. A middle infielder who nobody thinks is going to be the hero just going and having the week or two of his life.” (86:44)

• Big Cat, on Dodgers ownership:

  "They have built the team every fan wants to root for, and they've done it within the confines of what the rules are … I want an owner who will spend like them." (104:10)

• Leinart, on rivalry hierarchy:

  “UCLA was terrible when we played them…it didn’t mean as much. … Notre Dame, we lost my redshirt year, so it meant more. Pete [Carroll] always did a great job with that game, really respecting the history.”

• Big Cat, after MNF:

  “That was a game the Bears don’t win, and now they’ve got two of those with the Raiders [and] the Commanders. That’s coaching… The culture has shifted!” (42:02)

• On Refs:

  “Those refs, by the way, are the worst refs in the league. First-year crew … 95 penalties in five games and 22 declined. They're so bad.” (35:36)

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5. Rapid-Fire NFL & Sports Miscellany

• Nick Mangold Needs a Kidney
  • The show and the NFL community come together, encouraging fans from every team base to consider donating.
    Big Cat (18:20): “If we can get a rep from all 32 NFL teams … I think that’d be a good thing for us to do.”
• Hot Seat/Cool Throne
  • Range from online cookies and actual cookies, to Cape Verde (smallest World Cup qualifier), and Tua/Mike McDaniel drama.
• Pop Culture & Guys On Chicks
  • Hosts bemoan Netflix documentary quality decline, recommend the "Mayor of Easttown," and field mailbag questions — including NFL players’ hotness and how to get your spouse into football.
• Lottery Ball Segment
  • Shane gets his fourth win; memes still doesn’t find victory, maintaining the running show joke/curse.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Discussion | |-------------|---------------------------------| | 03:06–15:25 | Early MLB playoff takes (Dodgers/Mariners) | | 25:13–47:49 | NFL Recap — Falcons-Bills & Bears-Comm. | | 82:33–128:33| Jeff Passan Interview (MLB deep dive, labor, banter) | | 132:24–165:41| Matt Leinart Interview (CFB, USC-ND, recruiting) | | 165:43–181:16| Guys On Chicks, Misc., Lottery Ball |

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Episode Tone & Style

• Irreverent and humorous but shows genuine enthusiasm and depth in sports talk.
• Constant inter-host ribbing, running gags (e.g., memes’ lottery ball woes, Heisman in a garage, “soft” California schools).
• Frequent digressions into sports pop culture, fantasy, food, and personal stories, but always cycles back with stats and fan insight.

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In Summary

This PMT episode is a smorgasbord of whip-smart sports banter spanning MLB October—framed by labor intrigue and the possible end of Yankee mystique—plus in-depth college football discussion with a national champ in Leinart and a classic PMT Monday Night Football hangover. Sports culture, fandom pain, and running show memes tie it all together, with clear respect for the games, the fans, and the perpetual inability to take anything too seriously.

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For Listeners:
If you missed it, check out Jeff Passan's explanation of why this Dodgers-Brewers series could impact the next MLB labor war ([95:17–99:20]), and Matt Leinart's honest breakdown of recruiting and early NIL chaos ([158:33–161:08]).
Also: Don't skip the Hot Seat/Cool Throne for takes on cookies, soccer upstarts, and NFL rigging theory ([61:13–76:46]).

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Transcript

[PFT Commenter]

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.

[Matt Leinart]

Folks, it's the foreplay guys. Let's talk Truly Unruly when you spend every day following the countless laws of golf like us, it's refreshing to get a little unruly.

[PFT Commenter]

Whether that means using the old hand.

[Matt Leinart]

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[Big Cat]

Truly Unruly is the first high alk.

[Matt Leinart]

Seltzer that actually tastes good. It's hard hitting but still light and.

[PFT Commenter]

Refreshing, making it perfect for everything from.

[Matt Leinart]

The front nine to the clubhouse. Find it near you at trulyhardselter.com Locations.

[PFT Commenter]

That's trulyhardselter.com Locations Hard Seltzer Beverage Co. Boston, MA Please drink responsibly on today's Part of My take presented by DraftKings. We've got a pack show. We got Jeff Passon on to talk MLB playoffs, the looming lockout and a lot of other cool stuff. He's been on the road with the Blue Jays and Mariners series. We're going to talk playoff baseball. We also have Matt Leiner on to talk some college football. We're going to talk Monday Night Football. The Bears big win in Washington. The Falcons big win over the Bills. We got guys on chicks. Great pack show for you on a Wednesday and is all brought to you by Game time. The NFL is in full swing. Tailgates pack stands that buzz before kickoff. But getting in a nightmare cues, price jumps, getting logged out midclick. All you want is to be there, beer in hand, losing your voice with the crowd. The GameTime app gives the advantage back to fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use. The Game time guarantee means you can Trust you'll get 100% authentic tickets on time and at the best price. Plus fees are always included. So what you see is what you pay. Hank what game are we looking at this weekend?

[Hank]

Looking at the Saints at the Bears. Bears are back. The city is buzzing. Tickets to the Bears. Saints of Bears is $258 right now in the game timeout.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, so get to soldier field. The 3 and 2 bears game time has the deal for you. Take the guesswork out of buying NFL tickets with game time. Download the game app, Create an account use code PMT for $20 off your first purchase terms. Apply. Again. Create an account redeem code PMT for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket. Go download the Gametime app today. Okay. Let's go.

[Big Cat]

Part of my take. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Welcome to Part of my take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, October 15th. And listen, we're not leading the show with the Bears commanders. It's coming up back in studio. But the Bears did have a big win in Washington on Monday night. So I just wanted to let everyone know because if they're listening, you're going to be like, hey, why aren't they talking about the game right now? We were taping the first 10 minutes about baseball. But the Bears did have a big win on Monday night against the Washington Commanders.

[Big Cat]

And to be clear, we're not leading with that.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, we could lead. We could talk about it more. We've already talked about it, but we could talk about it more if you wanted to.

[Big Cat]

We're not leading. We're not going to talk about that at the top of the show.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, we're talking. Yeah. But I wanted to let everyone know that the Bears beat the commanders and we're going to be talking about it because they probably tuned in. They're like, why aren't they talking about it?

[Big Cat]

I just want to drive that point home for the list.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, but we, that's why we're not talking about the Bears big win against the commanders right off the top.

[Big Cat]

Agreed.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Actually, what we should be talking about is, is Zach's big gif from that stream. I think the real winner of that stream was, was Zach's surprise reaction face. Because that gift is going to outlive all of us. Have you seen that?

[Hank]

Wait, Zach, talk us through the moment. What happened and what caused you to do that reaction?

[PFT Commenter]

There's a couple moments during this game.

[Matt Leinart]

That could have been that reaction.

[PFT Commenter]

I think that may have either been.

[Matt Leinart]

A field goal situation or the. The handoff.

[PFT Commenter]

So what happened? What happened?

[Big Cat]

Walk us through like it was an.

[PFT Commenter]

Interception, fumble or game winning field goal.

[Big Cat]

Hank is such a piece of. I'm.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm trying to pull up.

[Big Cat]

I'm trying to fumble. Everyone knows the weather.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't. I didn't see it. Zach, who was fumbled, though? Who fumbled?

[Matt Leinart]

Handoff guy.

[PFT Commenter]

Who come call the handoff guy. Jane Daniels didn't hand it off. Okay.

[Hank]

And your reaction was surprised.

[Matt Leinart]

It was just a bad.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, you can't fumble there. No, you can't. I just pfd.

[Big Cat]

I'm trying to get more information.

[PFT Commenter]

You can talk of the stream.

[Big Cat]

It's happened. Hank, you're a piece of. For the record. But I'm. We're not. We're not talking about that game right now.

[PFT Commenter]

He's giving context to the viewers. They don't know. You brought it up, Hank.

[Big Cat]

If that happened to you, you would just not show up for the next show. I definitely wouldn't bring up the worst.

[Hank]

Moment of the game on at the top of the show.

[Big Cat]

I was trying to shed a little light on my man Zach. Every time I see that gif, I laugh my ass off. It's a. It's an outstanding reaction shot.

[PFT Commenter]

Can you explain the gif? I didn't see it.

[Big Cat]

Memes. Can you drop it in the group chat?

[PFT Commenter]

Explain the gif and explain what we were watching when you saw the gif. When. When the gif.

[Big Cat]

We were watching the game. It could have been one of three games. It was either the Build Falcons game.

[PFT Commenter]

It could have been the.

[Big Cat]

It could have been the baseball game. It's a great. An amazing gift, right?

[PFT Commenter]

This is the fumble face. When Jaden Daniels fumbled the game away. Zach.

[Big Cat]

It might. It might have been Wintering ducked out of the way of that. That pitch that should have hit him. I'm not sure which one it was.

[PFT Commenter]

This is a. I mean, like, if you show. If you walked on the street and you're like, what. Who. What is he watching? People would just be like, that must be Jaden Daniels fumbling Monday Night Football away.

[Big Cat]

All right, I'm being a good sport. If this was Hank, he wouldn't be here. If this is Big Cat during this segment, he would have rage quit the podcast, fired. Everybody brought it up.

[PFT Commenter]

That's not true at all. I haven't rage quit ever. So you. You walked out pretty fast last night. Listen, we all don't deal with losses well. It happens. But we are going to talk about it.

[Big Cat]

I sat in my car for about 15 minutes.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, we all suck at losing. That's the. And everyone who watches sucks at losing. And then they say, oh, that person sucks at losing. And it's like, yeah, we all do. No one likes to lose. That's. That's reality. All right, let's play talk playoff baseball. Dudes on dudes. That's what the Dodgers are. They just have dudes everywhere. They just hit home runs. They have. They had Blake SNELL Start game one and go eight innings, one hit. What do you have, 10 Ks? And then they had Yamamoto go game two, and he went eight innings, three hits. What did he end up happening? Oh, no, he's still going. It's 5:1 right now. He's going to go. He's going to go complete game. He had six Ks. He's going to go complete game. He gave up one home run. It just depends on which night if you know, oh, Muncie's gonna hit a home run tonight. De Oscar Hernandez is gonna hit a home run. Oh, Tommy Edmond's gonna hit a double. They just. Freddie Freeman's gonna have a big hit. Oh, Shohei. He hasn't even been that good in the playoffs, but he'll get. He'll get hot.

[Jeff Passan]

It's.

[PFT Commenter]

It's crazy how good the Dodgers are. It's not fair. It's not fair. I agree.

[Big Cat]

It's not fair. I was trying to think of an analogy, like a Colin Coward analogy for how good the Dodgers are. And the only thing I could come up with is like, getting divorced. It's like going to see your turn. They slowly bleed you dry over the years. It's no fun. Eventually you reach the finish line. Nobody's happy after it's over. But the lawyer is going to make their money. And that's what, that's what the Dodgers are a divorce attorney. They're so good though, Yamamoto, by the way, I don't. They usually don't let him go nine innings, right?

[PFT Commenter]

No. And they. And it was just like.

[Big Cat]

But he used to all the time. Like, that was his thing in Japan. Is like, this guy is a beast. He had like a bunch of complete game, no hitters, a bunch of complete game shutouts. And I think he won. I think he won a triple. Triple crown in Japan. Like, led the league in strikeouts, era. And what would the other one be? Wins. Did that. Did that, those three. Three things. Three years in a row in Japan before. And then Dodgers are like, oh, yeah, here's $300 million we're just going to be good for forever.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. And so he officially has.

[Jeff Passan]

He.

[PFT Commenter]

He just finished off the complete game. So he went nine innings pitched, 111 pitches, gave up three hits. He gave up a. Pretty much the meanest way you can beat a team. He gave up a home run in the first inning to Jackson. Cheerio. And you're like, oh, shit. He might not have it tonight. This could be, you know, this could be something here. And then just gave up two hits the rest of the game and completely shoved. And the Dodgers also hit. I say it's not fair in, like the most. I'm just jealous of it mode. You know what I mean? It's not like I'm like, oh, this is not fair. I don't this, like, baseball's ruined. I'm saying it's not fair. Like, I want that. I want an owner who's just like, oh, yeah, we. We already have a ton of dudes that are awesome. Let's just pay another dude a hundred, two hundred million dollars just to get even more awesome. Oh, all our guys are injured during the year. It doesn't matter. As long as they're healthy for the playoffs will be fine. And that's just what the Dodgers are doing. It's like, they're just. I, I. The brewers are a good team. They're a really good team. The Dodgers are just squashing them.

[Big Cat]

The. The Dodgers are. There's no doubt about it. They're a great team. They're an awesome team. But I like watching good games. And, and we haven't gotten too many of those from the Dodgers. I mean, well, granted, Game one, it was. It got good. There was some chaos that happened in game one.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I still think that that Bryce tank should have stayed in and just took one for the team. You got to wear that one. Right?

[PFT Commenter]

So. Okay, so. And I, Max, I want to hear your take on it, because you played. No big deal. In college. I. I was thinking about it because, yes, sitting on the couch, we all, in the moment, were like, how do you not take that one? I think that's just muscle reflexes where it's like, he's not. You're just trained to not, you know, to get out of the way of a pitch, and he's not even thinking in that moment of, like, oh, if I get hit, you know, you walk. He just. It was just total muscle memory. Dodge the ball.

[Big Cat]

Of course. Yeah, that's exactly. I think the only way that you wear that pitch is if you, like, immediately identify a curveball and you, you know that it's going to hit you, and then you can. You can tell yourself, okay, just don't move on this one. But if it's coming in at any rate of speed whatsoever, you probably do move out of the way. But that's where I'm saying a guy like me or you would actually be an asset, because our reaction time wouldn't be good enough. We would just. We would get drilled by that.

[PFT Commenter]

Not only that, but we would go in and hug the plate and just be like, please hit us, Max. Is that a fair take or is it. Is it. Is it wrong? It depends on the player. I'm wearing that all day. But that was. That was the sort of guy I was actually.

[Big Cat]

No, I got hit By a pitch so much I never moved.

[PFT Commenter]

I, I, I granted, I wasn't seeing a hundred, but I was. I. I saw pretty fast pitching, and I never.

[Big Cat]

Like, there's.

[PFT Commenter]

There's players out there that are wearing that pitch, and he just isn't one of them. But that's that, right? That's. That's what I'm saying. It's his memory.

[Big Cat]

No one's gonna fault that guy, but.

[PFT Commenter]

He'S just not that guy. Right. Right.

[Big Cat]

That guy. Matt, how much did you put on before you stepped up to that? Did you have, like, the. The arm protector? Did you have, like, the shin guard? I had.

[PFT Commenter]

I had both.

[Big Cat]

I had a shingard. Because those are the only two things that, like, can actually, other than, you know, helmet, but, like, those are the only two parts of your body that if you get hit, it can actually, like, you. You up.

[PFT Commenter]

And as someone who loved getting hit like that, if I have those two.

[Big Cat]

Things, why would I get out of the way?

[PFT Commenter]

The. So, so when you were. When you would walk in. In college ball, you were like, remember when Barry Bonds would walk and it would take him, like, 20 seconds to undress? He would just stand there and slowly take everything off and throw it back. Like, the elbow guard, the shin pad. Like, it was so funny when you. It would just be this long process of like, yeah, you just walked me. Now you gotta watch me undress in front of you.

[Big Cat]

You'd have to have, like, two kids run out there to grab all this stuff and take it back to the dugout.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Bonds covered, like, his whole arm, so it was like.

[PFT Commenter]

Right.

[Big Cat]

It was like the top part and the bottom part.

[PFT Commenter]

I, like, just had, like, the little.

[Big Cat]

Elbow thing right here.

[PFT Commenter]

So just a one strap. See you later.

[Big Cat]

And then the. My leg thing was a two strapper, so it took. It took, like. It took a couple seconds.

[PFT Commenter]

We're. I like that we're unironically just doing the. Yeah. If it was me, I would take. Yeah. What the. Is this problem? NLCS game one. You gotta take that.

[Big Cat]

Dude, I'm built for fall. That's what it's about. You got.

[Hank]

That's.

[Big Cat]

That's your moment. You just got to just take it. You got to be in severe pain.

[PFT Commenter]

I would.

[Big Cat]

Honestly, I would probably get stretchered off the field and taken in the hospital afterwards. I'd be in severe pain. I need a pinch runner. But if I could do one thing, it's get hit by a pitch. I know that I could do that.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. All right. So, yeah, the brewers are in trouble. And then the Blue, the Blue Jays. The Toronto Blue Jays, sorry, Are in trouble because the Mariners went into Toronto and won game two. We talked about game one on Sunday night. They won game two. They just mashed and it's just like I, they just, I mean that's, that's crazy that they walked in like after that type of series they had with the, with the, with the Tigers having to go all the way to Toronto, play after a 15 inning game, win game one, which I thought was a throwaway game, then just pummel, like pummel the Blue Jays in game two. Series over.

[Big Cat]

Series over. Yeah. Yeah. Mariners up, up two nil.

[PFT Commenter]

So we're going to go west coast, Mariners, Dodgers, World Series.

[Big Cat]

I think it's, I think it's series over. I, we'll get into it with Jeff Passon in a little bit. But I, I do feel team of destiny vibes from the Mariners. Now their destiny might be to just get waxed by the Dodgers in the World Series, but I do think that, that Seattle's going to get there.

[PFT Commenter]

That will be an all time graphic of like everyone who's rooting for the Mariners and everyone who's rooting for the Dodgers. Because you, how can you not root for the Mariners in that situation?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it actually might be all 50 states.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Because in California. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There's a lot of people in California. The Angels Die hards, all like 40 of them. They're going to be, they're gonna be rooting for the Mariners as well. I feel like this might be a clean sweep for America and then everyone in America loses when the Dodgers win.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. They might have to add Japan to the map.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Just to even Japan probably. Also the Mariners.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, Each room. He's a pretty big deal right now in Japan.

[Big Cat]

He is. Yeah. That would actually be close. So, yeah, we should get them involved. But yeah, I do feel like this might be, this might be series of great vibes for the Mariners. Seattle is our good friend. Spencer Hawes keeps sending me updates about the M's. Everybody out there is just so excited for the Mariners. It feels like this might be their year. I hope it's their year.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I mean even getting to the World Series is never done. So. Yeah, we are going to talk more baseball. Extended baseball talk with Jeff Passon. I had two other things real quick before we send it back to ourselves in studio and talk football. One, did you see Coach Cal today at SEC media day and he said he is going to retire if things get too Transactional.

[Big Cat]

Oh, good, good. We don't want that in sports. We don't want transactions in college basketball. That's a bridge too far for Coach Calipari.

[PFT Commenter]

Here's this. Here's his quote. The only way you. I want to help 25 to 30 more families, Cal Polari said during SEC media day, basically saying he's going to coach for like, you know, whatever it is, four or five more years. The only way you do that is to be transformational as a coach. If you're not, you're transactional. If I become transactional, I'm to pay you to do this and that, then I don't want to do this anymore. I don't need to.

[Big Cat]

I mean, here's the thing. Coach Cal has been great at being transactional. I'm not saying that he didn't, like, care about the families. I'm not saying that he didn't do great things for his players in terms of setting them up for life in the NBA and getting them insane amounts of money. He did a great job of that. But a lot of that was entirely transactional. It's like, correct. Come play at Kentucky for a year and then you're going to make a ton of money. We might not always win the most games, but I'm going to get you drafted and I'm going to market you even after you're gone. And then, yeah, that. I don't think that he should be complaining about that. I guess other guys have gotten better at being transactional. So he doesn't want to, like, compete in terms of being transactional.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I don't know. It's just like coming from him, it was very bizarre. But who knows? Maybe he's going a little senile. No transactions. It's all transactions. No transactions, though.

[Big Cat]

There's some other great coach news out there today. Yeah. In the NBA.

[PFT Commenter]

What is it?

[Big Cat]

Do you see what the Celtics did? I fucking love.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Missoula is the best. They usually have a media versus media basketball game before the season starts where all the Celtics media plays against each other. And at the last minute, Coach Missoula was like, hey, we're switch up the format just a little bit. Today it's going to be the media against the Boston Celtics coaching staff. And they just dunked on them. They beat him 57 to 4.

[PFT Commenter]

I love it.

[Big Cat]

I love, I love that. Just like setting the tone. Like, hey, when there's a power dynamic.

[Hank]

For all the press conferences for the rest of the season. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

To be like, hey, I saw, I saw you dribble it off your foot like, I know you suck at this. Don't ask me that question.

[Big Cat]

When you start asking me about my, about my lineup rotations, just remember I, I dunked on you five times. Right?

[PFT Commenter]

I love that. I love that. Okay. Last thing I had was this is more serious thing. Our good friend Nick Mangold, who, he's, he's been on pmt. We've, we've. He's done a case ratios on the Yak. He's a great guy. He's been a friend of ours for a long time. He needs a kidney. So he posted this today. I was talking to him about a month and a half ago. So, you know, he, he was telling me all this stuff. He, he has a rare kidney disease disorder that he's had a genetic defect since 2006. And so he kind of always knew this day was going to come. He's been doing dialysis and he needs a kidney transplant. So he is, he. He posted about it today because no one in his family has the same blood type. So he's going out to see if anyone potentially has a kidney. So we wanted to say it on this show because he is our friend of ours and he's a great, great dude. Shirt off the back type of dude. So if you do, if you are able to, or you don't even know, but you want to find out, you can go to columbiasurgery.org kidney transplant to find out if you can be a donor for Nick is what he's looking for. Yeah. And so he, he, he posted this. So he posted it to his. The jets community and I. That in the last few hours. I don't know if you guys saw this. Our Stephen Shea has also opened it up to the Bucks community. So if you're a Jets or Bucks fan, you could potentially give. You know what? I'm going to open up to the Bears community right now. So that means there's at least three teams because I would imagine there were some Bucks fans who saw Nick Mangold's post and they're like, man, I'd love to give him a kidney, but unfortunately I'm not a Jets fan Now. Stephen Chase opened it up to the Bucks community as well.

[Big Cat]

Like, that's great. We're getting a lot of NFC love. The Washington Commanders community has also been exposed to this. So we're opening it up to all across the nfc. I, it would be very powerful if maybe one of the jets biggest rivals would also open it up to their community. Hank.

[PFT Commenter]

Hank would you like to open it up. Oh, my God, Hank. It's an easy yes.

[Hank]

Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know that that's some things. I guess, as the saying's true, some things really are bigger than sports.

[Big Cat]

So, yes, the.

[Hank]

The New England Patriots community will open it up. Okay, Nick Mangle.

[Big Cat]

All right, so Drake May, if you're listening right now, check it out. Give up your kidney.

[PFT Commenter]

Drake.

[Big Cat]

Shout out to Stephen.

[Hank]

That was. I don't know that I would have had the courage to do that. If it's crazy kind of started it like, that was. That was tough to do, but because Stephen Che did it for the Bucks.

[PFT Commenter]

He opened it up for. Yeah, yeah, because I. I know. I know how this works. There was 100% a guy sitting in Tampa who saw Nick Mangold, like, maybe even an Ohio State fan in Tampa, and he saw the Post. He's like, I have typo blood. I want to give a kidney. But it clearly says Jets. And then Stephen Chase swoops in and he's like, hey, guys, we're going to be open for business now. Bucks community. And now we're off and running, so let's open up to all 32 teams.

[Big Cat]

Zach, be honest. If you were. When you were. When you saw that news, were you like, what. How is he opening up to the Bucks community? Did it seem like it was Steven's place to do that?

[PFT Commenter]

I think if anybody across all 32.

[Matt Leinart]

Teams is down to off slide him a kidney, that would be sick.

[PFT Commenter]

And you should. If you want to do it, you.

[Matt Leinart]

Should definitely, if you're typo Link. Lincoln build.

[PFT Commenter]

Get him a kidney. Yeah, that'd be good.

[Big Cat]

Lincoln build.

[Hank]

Link.

[PFT Commenter]

I also. I should have said that I privately. When I. When I first talked to him about this a couple months ago, I did privately offer up the entire barstool office. I was like, I'll find you a kidney. We got guys who will give a kidney. So that also is still on the table. We might have to get everyone tested blood wise and just figure out someone in the office who. You know what? Except Mincy Magic. We're like, we got you a kidney. It's Mincy's.

[Big Cat]

Nick, I don't.

[Jeff Passan]

Thank you.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I don't. I don't know about that one. But yeah, if. If we can get a representative from every third, like all 32 NFL teams to say, like, yeah, we're opening it up to our fan bases, I think that'd be a good thing for us to do. So let's shoot for that tomorrow.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah. And he's, he is the best dude, you know, trying to keep good spirits. He'll. He got a crack out of Stephen Chase. I sent it directly to him. I was just like, dude. And he's like, wow, that's so huge. So he, he thought it was funny. So he's keeping good spirits. But yeah, I, I wanted to mention that. And hopefully we can find him a Kidney.

[Big Cat]

All right, PR101. This, this could solve everything. Mark Sanchez, if you're listening right now, your boy Nick Mangold needs a kid. Go get yourself tested. Everyone will forget what just happened to you if you just get your blood tested and you sacrifice one of your kidneys for your boy. Right as America. We'll move on. Yep. Facts. I will drop all charges. I'll get in touch with. With Indianapolis. We'll drop all charges.

[PFT Commenter]

I love that. Okay, let's kick it to ourselves. Back in studio. Talking Monday Night Football. All right, before we get to the rest of the show, DraftKings NFL fans, what's your favorite touchdown? There's over a hundred years of touchdowns to pick from. For me, it's the next one. Because with DraftKings Sports are an official sports betting partner of the NFL, every touchdown could bring you closer to cashing in. DraftKings Sportsbook delivers the unmatched intensity of the NFL right to your fingertips. From first touchdown score to anytime, TD props or the thrill of live in game betting, every snap is loaded with opportunity. Listen, two weeks in a row, a Monroe St. Brown. We're gonna have to figure out our Monroe St. Brown problem. We might have to. He's actually got Monday night games, so maybe we just. I kind of want to triple down.

[Big Cat]

But that, that turned around in record time right there. What you being like, we gotta. We got a problem. I think we have to actually let's.

[PFT Commenter]

No, I said that. I said that on Sunday. I was like, I said to Max, like, I think we gotta go again.

[Hank]

We put ourselves in a spot where we.

[PFT Commenter]

We have to.

[Big Cat]

What about this? About this? It's worse that he was the only person that didn't hit twice. I'm in Ross St. Brown.

[PFT Commenter]

Maybe we do that. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

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[Matt Leinart]

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[Jeff Passan]

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[Jeff Passan]

Which expire in seven days.

[Matt Leinart]

Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources. See DKNG Co Audio limited time offer.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, Monday Night Football.

[Big Cat]

Falcons, Bills.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, you want to talk that game first?

[Big Cat]

What a crazy, crazy game that was.

[PFT Commenter]

Listening, Bijan Bajan. Incredible, awesome game from Bijan and I. Are we worried about the Bills?

[Big Cat]

Well, they said there is. Some people have said that Josh Allen has had a little bit of a swoon right now. Yeah, I think that's fair to say. I think the Falcons might have figured something out against them. They just, they just blitzed the fuck out of Josh.

[PFT Commenter]

And there's a lot of Bills fans, rightfully so, being like, why is James Cook not getting more carries? The bills are 0 and 2 and James Cook goes under a hundred yards. He had 52% snap count, which was the second lowest of the season. On Monday night, I. First of all, let's. The Falcons are good.

[Big Cat]

I was joking, by the way. We can talk about the Bears commanders.

[PFT Commenter]

We can do the Bills first. It's fine.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

And we have two games chronological. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

The Falcons are good. Michael Penix, that first half, he was awesome. And Bijan is electric. And like, if you're a Falcons fan, you have to be so pumped. That one, that drive, I think to take it to 14 7, where it was like Michael Penix to Drake, London, bijan for 22 yards, bijan for another 10. Drake, London, touchdown. It's like, that's it. That's it right there. That's what you're. That's. That's the whole thing. That's why you draft these guys high and you have everything kind of putting together in the right time.

[Big Cat]

When the Falcons have an offense that, that uses their weapons, you realize how. How dangerous they can be.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And Bijan might be the best running back of the NFL right now. Yeah, just get him the ball. Like it's one of those offenses where to an extent like an 8 year old could game plan and, and put, put something in place that could be pretty competitive where it's just like, I really like Bijan Robinson. Let him run the ball.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Find him in space. Throw the ball to Kyle Pitts, throw the ball to Drake London. And these are all correct answers for that offense.

[PFT Commenter]

And the Falcons have a defense that can match it now. Like they, they have had very good defensive performances. That Vikings game they played against the Bills on Monday night. Bills are obviously a very good offense. The first half on Monday night, Bijan had 152 yards, Drake London had 147 yards and the Buffalo Bills had 131 yards.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And it could have easily been 28 to 7 if it wasn't for that last second. Drake London stepping out like six inches from the end zone as time expired. That's how crazy that first half was and how good the Falcons played. And they did just enough to hold on in the end. And yeah, the Falcons are a good team and I'm excited. This goes again to my theory that there are just a lot of like really good teams in the NFC and everyone's competitive and there's no easy wins on, on in the nfc.

[Big Cat]

You see that Drake London touchdown that he had where he was at like the two yard line and then he just extended his arm?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

It's like the last thing that you tell players to do is like extend the ball there. But his arm is an exception to that rule.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

These guys are so long. They've got so much size on offense. Michael Pennock said after the game, the Falcons are really legit.

[PFT Commenter]

Are they?

[Big Cat]

Are, are they really legit?

[PFT Commenter]

I think they might be really legit.

[Big Cat]

I would put them in the legit category. Yeah, I think they're legit.

[PFT Commenter]

You know, they had two interceptions, four sacks, like they were all over the place. Held. Held the bills to 2 for 9 from third down like they were. They're. I think they're really legit.

[Big Cat]

Some people are saying that the Patriots broke the Bills.

[PFT Commenter]

So let's talk about the Bills because the Bills might have been broken and then the Patriots like finish breaking them. But because if you look at what the Bills have done this year, they started four. No, the Ravens game was incredible. Incredible comeback. But obviously when you're down 15, you know, with whatever it was, four minutes left, that's not sustainable. They killed the Jets. They kind of struggled a little bit with the Dolphins. Didn't beat the Dolphins like we expected. And then same with the Saints where they, you know, end up winning by margin. But that game was close. In the fourth, lose to the Patriots, lose the Falcons. Are the Bills okay? I don't know if they are.

[Big Cat]

I don't think their defense is okay.

[PFT Commenter]

I have a blind resume for you. Ready for this?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Team 1 Record the last two weeks, 02 points per game, 17 yards per play, 5.7. Team 2 Record last two weeks, 02 points per Game, 17 yards per play, 5Point7.

[Hank]

Jets. Bills.

[PFT Commenter]

It's the Buffalo Bills and the Philadelphia Eagles. They are both in the are they okay? Category.

[Big Cat]

I think the. I think the Bills will be okay. Right now. They're not okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's a long season, but right now I'd say they're not okay. They have not been playing great football. Feels like really haven't been playing great, great football. And what we expect from them all season.

[Hank]

You have a tough November, too. They got.

[PFT Commenter]

So Hank is in. Hank is. Is speaking from the AFC east, top spot right now.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Hey, Hank is going to bed every night looking at that schedule. Just cuddling in with his schedule. You have a great schedule.

[Hank]

Listen, you play who's in front of you. There's nothing. You know. You know how it goes.

[Big Cat]

I know. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You play.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You got to play. Play. You are what your schedule says.

[Hank]

They have a buy the Panthers. And then in November, they have the Chiefs, Bucks, Texans, Steelers, and then they have the Dolphins, too. But.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, you. Yeah, you skipped over the Dolphins.

[Big Cat]

You did.

[Hank]

So I'm saying that's four. That's four. It is four not easy games in the Dolphins.

[PFT Commenter]

And it's especially a tough schedule if you just don't mention the Panthers and the Dolphins.

[Hank]

Well, the Panthers. The Panthers in October.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

I said they have a tough November.

[Big Cat]

Late October.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

So they have a tough November.

[PFT Commenter]

They play the Bengals right after that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that's in December.

[PFT Commenter]

And the Browns as well, and the Jets.

[Hank]

I feel like you guys didn't hear me when I said they have a tough night November.

[PFT Commenter]

If you take out the Dolphins game.

[Big Cat]

Three out of four games.

[Hank]

Well, I mean, the Dolphins, five games in November.

[PFT Commenter]

Four are hard.

[Big Cat]

The Dolphins played tough pretty competitively against the Bills when they played on Thursday Night Football.

[PFT Commenter]

We don't know what the Dolphins are going to look like at that point.

[Big Cat]

I. I've got a pretty good idea what the Dolphins are going to look like.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, I meant more like, will they have a coach?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, well, maybe. Schefter said yesterday, like, I don't see anything happening. Soon.

[PFT Commenter]

Was this after Brian Callahan got fired?

[Big Cat]

This was before Brian Callahan got fired.

[PFT Commenter]

Was he speaking specifically about the Dolphins or the league in general?

[Big Cat]

I believe he was speaking about the league in general, but emphasizing the Dolphins.

[PFT Commenter]

Got it. Got it. Yeah. Brian Callahan did get fired. That does hurt your revenge game a little bit. It really also gives the interim head coach bump. Who is the interim head coach in Tennessee?

[Big Cat]

Mike McCoy. So he was the Chargers head coach. Fun fact. He was the last San Diego charger.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Mike McCoy is one of the most forgettable NFL coaches and the Titans have had a few of those.

[PFT Commenter]

Who's the. Who's the Texans coach for a year? No, the Cardinals coach for years. Steve Wilkes. Wilkes.

[Big Cat]

Steve Wilkes. And are you thinking of Cully? Yeah, Cully coached the Texas. But if you look at the Titans history of coaches, I mean, we can just pull it up. But off the top of my head, Mike Malarkey. Mike Munchak. Yeah, right. Mike McCoy. They love mics there, don't they?

[PFT Commenter]

Love. That's weird.

[Big Cat]

Ken Whizzen Hunt. They've had some real.

[PFT Commenter]

Jeff Fisher.

[Big Cat]

Jeff Fisher sometimes stands out.

[PFT Commenter]

Sometimes you got to go back to move forward.

[Big Cat]

They would kill for 8 and 8 right now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. But yeah, that, that, that. It's. It's tough to get fired before even Halloween. It feels like, oh, man, it was really. There always is one whenever it happens. Like, yeah, that probably is right.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that. But it was. I think it was a mercy kill.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

He probably. He was. He had that first inkling of, damn it, I'm getting fired. And then he thought about it for a second when he was driving away and he's like, I'm kind of relieved right now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I don't have to do this anymore. Like, we were ass.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Cam Ward was right. We were big time ass.

[Big Cat]

Big booty cheeks.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Did you see also shout out the. The ticket rep for the Titans all time.

[Big Cat]

Move.

[PFT Commenter]

He texted. He texted this. Paul Kerharski tweeted out he had. Or a friend got this from. From Paul, but it said it was just a reply saying, I don't have this number saved in my phone, so I'm not sure who this is. And in the reply is, it's Dan from the new stadium team. You told me I'm in if Brian Callahan is fired on September 23, 2025 at 3:08pm so he was texting everyone who gave that response being like, hey, now you're ready for tickets, so shout out that guy.

[Big Cat]

You gotta hustle.

[PFT Commenter]

That's a Big time hustle.

[Big Cat]

That's. That's great. Follow up. Excellent use of Salesforce by that guy.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. All right. The other Monday night game, Bears commanders, Bears win Jake Moody. Shout out Jake Moody. He was cut from the Niners. Goes into a full storm. Cairo Santos gets hurt, hits four field goals, the game winner. Where do you want to go with this?

[Big Cat]

First of all, I mean, credit to Jake Moody. Jim Harbaugh said death taxes Moody. Yeah, he loved Jake Moody and he had a tough start to his career in San Francisco. I think he was kind of on Kyle Shanahan's shit list from that game against the Browns. I forget that was early on in that. That first season for Moody, but after that it felt like he. He was just scared.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

The entire time. And last night he. He not only made those field goals, he drilled. They were all like dead center. Yep. No doubters. So, yeah, credit to him and credit to the Bears. The Bears. This shouldn't not have been a close game. I went back last night. Obviously, when you have a tough loss, you have to sit in it for a while. You have to like, look at everything. I went back, I watched a lot of the game. The refs were terrible.

[PFT Commenter]

It was horrendous.

[Big Cat]

They were really, really bad. Like this was a game that if the Commanders had won and to be. To be a. A good team or a great team, you have to take advantage of. Of games that kind of fall into your lap. Like this one did for the Commanders. Yeah, the refs. You could make the argument that they took 14 points away from the Bears and that they gave the opportunity to score seven points. I don't want to say they gave the Commanders a touchdown, but they certainly extended a drive for the Commanders that.

[PFT Commenter]

Led to a touchdown on the nation right face mask. Or was that something else that I.

[Big Cat]

I actually think that the. I think it was the nation right face mask. But there was contact with a face mask, but it was ticky tack.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it was small. And it was also the Montez sweat, which I get you call. There's hand on any quarterback. That one was always was kind of a 50, 50 call. But the Theo Benedict call was terrible, which was a Roma Dunes a touchdown. And the Colson Loveland call, which. Which kind of ended that drive was a terrible call. Those refs, by the way, they are the worst refs in the league. They are number one in penalties called. Going into the night, they had called 95 penalties in five games and 22 penalties that were declined. They're a first year crew. They're so bad. I was just happy that the Bears were able to overcome those type of situations where they could have easily folded. That was a game that the Bears don't win and they've now got two of those with the Raiders game and the Commanders game where the Bears just don't usually win those games. And that's coaching like Ben Johnson in the by the bye week. We talked about it on Sunday. It was clear that the running game was a focus because he, he. He got that thing fixed. And DeAndre Swift was an absolute monster. And Theo Benedict making his first start was really, really good. And it was one of those games like, hey, the Bears usually like they usually this up and they weren't the team that it up. The Commanders were the team that it up.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I mean that was. It was a winnable game and it was not the best game. Like our. Our run defense was pretty bad. Our Russian game was not good. Especially going up against. We thought that the Bears. I mean by the numbers going to this game, the Bears were last in rush defense run and the Commanders were first overall with our ground game, so did not take advantage of that. Bill didn't have a great night. Bill fumbled. Didn't have any really like super explosive plays in the running game. There was a lot to like. Like. Jaden made some. Some great throws. Cliff, I thought called a pretty good game on offense. He had. He schemed up a few big plays like the touchdown to Luke. Went back and watched that again. That was a great play design by Cliff where he had him like pretend to block on a screen to Debo and then take off after starting the route off slow. That was a great play. I do. I should address the fumble at the end.

[PFT Commenter]

He's the best handle.

[Big Cat]

If I could take it back, I would. I wish that I had not proclaimed Jaden Daniels to be the best quarterback at handoffs in the league. I think we can say he's not. He's not the best. I shouldn't have said that.

[Hank]

You have made mixtapes exclusively of Jane Daniels handoffs. Will there be one from last night?

[PFT Commenter]

No.

[Big Cat]

I'm gonna leave that up to the people. If. If you got. Listen, I gotta sit in this. I. I've watched the. The botched handoff several times. He up. He knows he up. Am I out on Jaden because he dropped a ball when he was trying to hand it off? No, I mean he. He still made some great plays. The interception was bad, but he made some great throws last night. I. I'm still like I'm very confident in Jaden moving forward. I think he's a great quarterback. I like watching him play. I'm not, I'm not wavering on my jaded stance.

[Hank]

You pause there for a second. You were complimenting Cliff's play calling on that fumble. Play call who. Do you think there's any blame on him for calling a shotgun on when you need one yard?

[Big Cat]

Yes, because in general, I don't think that I, I don't like running the ball out of shotgun. I don't. But it has worked for us. And when you have Jaden back there that's doing like a read option, historically we've been able to convert those plays, so it's worked in the past. I don't love the shotgun. Just, I don't, I don't love running out of shotgun in general, but in terms of like snapping the ball to shotgun when it's raining outside. Jaden, just up. Yeah, Jane fucked up. If you can't catch a ball and then hand it off to your running back, if it's rainy outside, then you, that's, that's on you as a quarterback. That's not the play caller.

[PFT Commenter]

Was the fumble worse or like the fact that you, you thought, you thought in your heart of hearts you guys were going to beat the Bears?

[Big Cat]

I thought.

[PFT Commenter]

Or the game?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, No, I thought, Wait, what's the question?

[PFT Commenter]

Like what's worse, the fumble happening or the fact that like the whole thing, like, you, you, you thought you were going to beat them. You thought the Bears probably weren't good and you were going to win this game?

[Big Cat]

I thought that we were going to win the game.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I mean, at home on a Monday night, I like our chances. It was a close game. The fumble was tough. I mean that if you don't fumble that ball, you probably win a game that you shouldn't have won. And I don't think the Commanders were the better team last night. I think the Bears were the better team last night. I think the Commanders are a very average team right now. Our defense is big time suspect and we, we lack a lot of explosiveness on offense right now. So I, I, I still think when all is said and done, because it's a long season, we do have a very hard schedule from here on out. I still think that we're going to make the playoffs at 3 and 3. I think that that's definitely a possibility, but I don't think that we're a very good team. We're just not, I don't think Anybody. Did anybody watch that game last night and think to themselves, damn, I'm scared of the commanders?

[PFT Commenter]

No. Nope.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, you shouldn't because it wasn't, it wasn't that good.

[Hank]

If the refs, if they, if they get the, you know, the calls they were getting, that's scary. But.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that's true. That is actually a really good point. If you can bring that crew with you.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Then they would be very scary.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I mean, it was a, it was a, it was a bad game. Bad, bad fumble at the end. Bad fumble by Bill, Bad interception by Jaden. But there's still. You can look at the game and be like, yeah, there's some stuff on offense that was, that was really good last night. Yeah, be happy with that.

[PFT Commenter]

The Bears are, I mean, the gateway game. I, the gateway's wide open. I said to you, if they beat the Cowboys, there's a chance they could be sitting there at 6 and 3. They got to win their. You got to win the games you're supposed to win. Especially like against the Saints next week at home. The best way I'd put how I feel about the Bears right now, I am not ready to say they're, they are a good football team because there's a lot of stuff that still needs to be cleaned up. The defense is. Secondary, is banged up and they are big time ball hawks where it's like got to take away the ball and if they, if they don't, we can get gashed. Caleb played okay. Not great. He was, he was. Had moments that were good, moments that were bad. But I would say the Bears are not a good football team, but they are unequivocally no longer a bad football team. And that is a very important distinction to make in the progression of a team.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I mean, the running game looked awesome last night. They said the Bears found something against the commander's defense, which was exploit the outside, run the ball to the outside. And it worked really, really well.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. And Ben Johnson's awesome coach because that's, he's, you know, again, these are. It's not a coincidence that we have now won two games that the Bears normally never, ever win because Ben Johnson is a coach and the culture has shifted. So I'm very excited. I'm staying 6 out of 10 excited, but I'm very excited because again, no longer a bad football team. We've graduated from that class.

[Big Cat]

Is Ben Johnson a 25 to 24 merchant?

[PFT Commenter]

He is. Those are the games that we win that we never supposed to win. And I We know that. We know that people didn't think the Bears were going to win that game because if you were, thank you for everyone who was watching on the stream. I think we had about like 13 to 15,000 people watching for the majority of the game. And then as the Bears went to line up for that kick, it went to like 26,000. Those are the sickos and perverts.

[Hank]

After the fumble, it's just. There was just people who's sick at their house showed up and then they just.

[PFT Commenter]

I thought he was going to miss a kick. Cause I was like, I've seen him miss 38 yard kicks. But I was very excited. I'm, I'm, I'm excited about the Bears like they are again. I'm not getting ahead of myself where I'm like, oh man, this team is awesome. I'm thinking about thinking about playoffs. So I'm not thinking about playoffs yet. But not being a bad team feels really good. It feels good to no longer be a bad football team.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Now we got to be a good football team. And that starts with beating the Saints, who you should beat at home.

[Big Cat]

So I said 25 to 24 merchants. That's back to back games for the Bears winning. 25 to 24. Exactly. That's the first time since 1926 that an NFL team has won consecutive games by one point with the exact same final score. Hank, you have any idea who the previous team to do it was?

[Hank]

I don't.

[PFT Commenter]

1926.

[Big Cat]

It was the Frankfurt Yellow Jackets and they beat the Detroit Panthers twice. They beat them seven to six and then they beat the Bears seven to six. Pretty crazy.

[Hank]

Wild.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Pretty crazy. Yeah. Shout out to Dan Quinn though. Maybe the challenge of the year. He. He's a complete psycho. He challenged a one yard completion. I did not know what he was doing at the time. I don't think any coach in NFL history has ever charged or has challenged a non first down, one yard reception. He got the child, he got the call overturned on the field and then it ended up actually making a big difference because we held them to nine yards.

[PFT Commenter]

I knew exactly. I said it in the on the stream. I was like, the Bears are going to get stopped at 4th and 1 and then they got stopped at 4th and 1.

[Big Cat]

Yep. Congratulations to Hank. Also hit the hater parlay.

[PFT Commenter]

Thank you. What was in the hater parlay?

[Hank]

It was Jane Daniels to throw an interception. Jane Daniels under passing yards. Bill under rushing yards and Bears money line.

[PFT Commenter]

Wow, that is a hater problem.

[Big Cat]

It is a hater but it hit and it was. It was.

[Matt Leinart]

They.

[Hank]

Jane Daniels needed like 30 yards in the fourth quarter and Bill needed like 10 rushing yards in the fourth quarter. And the only. And they got the ball twice and the only yards they gained were basically penalties in the third and 13. And that was it.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I. I think Mick Nichols might have had a good run sprinkled in there somewhere. But, yeah, I, I saw the sidelines and Bill did not look. He did not look happy with himself. It's two games in a row of the fumble. And yeah, not. It wasn't a great night for the commander's offense. It wasn't. But there, like I said, there were some good things that you can take away that you can look at and be like, okay, they did this well. They did that well. I'm not going to say this guy's falling. It's Monday Night Football. It's under a microscope. It's a bad loss, some bad mistakes. But I'm not. I'm not like, the season's over.

[Hank]

Last year, after the Bears and Commanders played, the season was over for the team that lost.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Does that play a factor into anything? Are you slightly worried about that, that.

[Big Cat]

That the result of this question just impacts the other team? Like, I'll be.

[Hank]

I'm just going based off history.

[PFT Commenter]

Good question.

[Big Cat]

Like that. It was lucky as that the Commanders beat the Bears last year. That was. I mean, it was a great throw. It was. You. You have to set up the Hail Mary correctly. That was a good drive at the end. But, like, to win on a Hail Mary, that's deflected. A lot of things have to go your way. That was a lucky win. This was. This was just. We weren't the better team. So I don't. I'm not. No, I'm not saying that the season is going to fall apart because we lost to the Bears. I think that what you're seeing right now is a team that in this iteration, if they don't improve, they're going to end up like eight, nine. Nine and eight, max.

[PFT Commenter]

You just looked up the NFC east standings. Did you think the Commanders were lower than you? You thought they were going to be lower?

[Big Cat]

No.

[PFT Commenter]

What were you looking up for? I would.

[Jeff Passan]

The NFC east could just.

[Big Cat]

Could just not be very good this year.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

That's the thing, is. Yeah. We're. We're what, one game behind the birds? Just one game. And then. Well, here. Here's what I'll say this week. Cowboys, that's gonna. There's gonna be like 60 points in that game.

[PFT Commenter]

You must win or can't lose.

[Big Cat]

I feel like it's gonna be. How would I describe this game?

[PFT Commenter]

Because you. You do have what the Lions and Chiefs after that.

[Big Cat]

This is a can't lose. Yeah, it's a cat. You can't lose this game. You need to get the offense looking right against that defense, and you need to. You need to see some signs of improvement. Now. If we lose to the Cowboys, will.

[PFT Commenter]

The sky be falling?

[Big Cat]

The sky might be falling. I think the sky's going to fall. This guy might be falling. If you dip below.500 with the chief.

[PFT Commenter]

Seahawks and Lions on deck.

[Big Cat]

On deck. Yeah. And then for the rest of the sea, I mean, we. We have a hard schedule. If you look at it right now, the. The one game that you would point at and say, this is probably one that we should win would be the Dolphins, but that's in Madrid, so who knows what's going to happen over in Spain?

[PFT Commenter]

And you lost one that you looked at before the season, thinking you'd win with the Bears.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Bears at home. I definitely thought that that would probably be a win, and it was not really. I mean, it's 25, 24. And we should have won the game, but we didn't deserve. But we didn't deserve to win the game.

[PFT Commenter]

The Bears won the game.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Any thoughts on a tattoo?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I mean, I thought maybe I just get Zach's tattoo.

[PFT Commenter]

That'd be sick.

[Big Cat]

Get the eagle. The giant eagle on there. We would tattoo twins, Maybe a tramp stamp eagle.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know.

[Big Cat]

I'm open to suggestions about the. About the tattoo. I want to get it done soon.

[Hank]

Plaid sleeve.

[Big Cat]

Plaid half sleeve. I'm going to get that at some point.

[Hank]

Why? What better time than now?

[PFT Commenter]

What better time than now you talked about?

[Big Cat]

Probably take a while. Probably. I don't know if that. I don't know. How long do they let you stream for?

[PFT Commenter]

You don't have to stream it. We should do a pmtv.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Get it in pieces.

[Hank]

Time lapse.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, easy time.

[Big Cat]

I'm gonna get a plaid sleeve at some point.

[Hank]

Yeah, sounds like you're not.

[Big Cat]

No, no, I've been. Listen, I've been playing this out for years. I can only see there's only one example of a plaid tattoo that I've ever seen, and it looks pretty sweet. It's like you're in constant flannel.

[PFT Commenter]

By the way, one last thing about the game. Trachman just hates Caleb Williams. It's fine. Just say it well, let us know.

[Big Cat]

So we were watching with the sound was really low, so I didn't get to hear what he was saying.

[PFT Commenter]

He just. Every throw, he was like. Like, that was a bad throw. He's got it. Like the one that Zacchaeus dropped.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, which. That was a drop. I don't know what else. And I don't think. I'm not here saying Caleb played incredible. He played. The way I describe is he played fine. He played. There were some good, there were some bad. He's wins or wins and like stacking those wins. It was this throw. He's just like, oh, he threw it in the wrong place. Like, okay, but you. That's a catch. Everyone should catch that.

[Hank]

He fumbled a snap, and it was a pretty bad snap, right? Definitely. And he was like, that's all Caleb Williams. It's like, yeah, it is. Obviously catch the ball, but it was not a good. It's not like he'd fumbled a good snap. It was a. It was a subpar snap.

[PFT Commenter]

It was crazy. That was also a mistake that Ben Johnson would make. Snapping the ball with when you could take it to the fourth quarter was crazy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Those are the little things you got.

[Big Cat]

To clean up after the game. I did. I found myself in a dark place last night when I went home. I just laid down on the couch before I went to bed, and I was just watching as much of this game as I could and then re. Watching the fumble and then watching the fumble again and then watching it again. And it took me. It took me to a website that I'm not proud that I visited last night.

[PFT Commenter]

Browsers.

[Big Cat]

No, that would be pound my chest.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I went to. No, not to brag. I got a password. Tankathon. No, no.

[PFT Commenter]

Question, Max.

[Big Cat]

There's. I. I was looking up Jaden's hand size, which I found out was completely normal, regular hands. It took me to a website called qb grip.com. okay, these. These perverts over at qb grip.com have an archive of every quarterback's grip on the ball in NFL history. Like a zoomed in close up of how they grip a football. And I spent like 10 minutes just looking. Yeah, look, they got. And they got stories about the grips. These people are just obsessed with. With quarterbacks hands.

[PFT Commenter]

How is his grip?

[Big Cat]

It's a fine grip. It's a. It's a good grip, but it's only hands. It's crazy.

[PFT Commenter]

That is nuts.

[Big Cat]

But I love. I love the fact that there's a guy out there that is so dedicated to quarterbacks hands that he made an entire website with everybody that's ever played.

[PFT Commenter]

That's cool. Yeah, Tony Romo's got a little pudgy hand.

[Big Cat]

Gino, scroll up to Gino. That was the one that stood out to me a little bit.

[PFT Commenter]

He.

[Big Cat]

He really extends that pinky. Yeah, he's like trying to make his hand bigger than it is. Yeah, that might be some of the weird fumbles, interceptions. Yeah, I would fix that grip.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. So, yeah, that was. That was Monday night. Thanks for everyone who tuned into the stream. PFD is gonna get a tattoo. Also, speaking of footballs, we were playing for Shane's football. I have returned the football to Shane, so it's now Shane's football again. I thought it was the rightful thing to do because Shane loves that football. For people who don't know Shane, one of our graphics guys has a football he absolutely loves where he doesn't let anyone touch it. Plays with it all the time. Pft won it from him and then pft fake fucked it. And it. I think it bothers Shane a lot.

[Big Cat]

It really did bother.

[PFT Commenter]

And I. I couldn't see him be in that much pain. So I. As soon as we won, I gave him the football. And he now has a football.

[Big Cat]

There. There is something about that football, though. Like after I had custody of it for a week, like, I. It's like the ring in Lord of the Ring. It turns you into Gollum. Like it turned Shane into Gollum. Now, I. I missed that football.

[PFT Commenter]

I just knew that that guy loved that football more than I'll ever love that football. So I had to give him the football back. He needs the football.

[Big Cat]

You can do whatever you want with a football.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Now. Now when the Chargers play, do they play the Eagles?

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know, but they do. They do play the Eagles.

[Big Cat]

Do you want that football? Do you want that football? Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna have to. We're gonna have to put that football back up.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, Shane. She doesn't have to if he doesn't want to.

[Hank]

No, he does.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. No, he does.

[PFT Commenter]

No, he doesn't.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he does.

[PFT Commenter]

No, he loves that football.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Now he's a ring guy. All right, should we talk. Let's talk a little brief college football and then we're gonna have more with Matt Leinert. I got some, some big, big ideas I want to throw out there. The first is America. Be ready and maybe have a sit down and have a conversation with your children, with your loved ones about 12, 0 Indiana, because Indiana is so fucking good. And they went into Oregon and I know that that score was only a 10 point game but they handled Oregon which was shocking in the way I, you know, I was like oh yeah, Indiana could win this game but the way they handled it, this team is for real, for real. They're not what last year was where it was like hey if they play a good team they're going to get smushed. That was, I mean Fernando Mendoza's awesome the way he bounced back from the pick six. Indiana is really good. Indiana is going to go 12 and oh get prepared. We'll see what happens when they're in the Big Ten championship game. But this team can hang with anyone.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, like last year Indiana, the knock against them was that they're not an elite team and I, I, in retrospect that wasn't really that much of a knock against Indiana because Indiana has sucked for it feels like generations. Obviously Michael Penix played pretty well when he was there but like they have not been good at football and then.

[PFT Commenter]

Last year they have the most losses in, in football history. Yeah college football history.

[Big Cat]

They were in the conversation amongst being you know, with the great teams. They weren't a great team. They were a very good team last year but it was year one of what Signetti was doing. Now this year I don't think you could watch that Oregon game and think anything besides the fact that yeah Indiana just outplayed them in just about every facet of the game. It was not a fluke. They dominated Oregon.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

I guess you could say like was Oregon's win over Penn State that great? You could look at that.

[PFT Commenter]

I still think Oregon's good, Indiana's better and it's just, it's now a two horse race. It's Ohio State and Indiana in the Big Ten.

[Big Cat]

Indiana is, yeah they are a legit threat. I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens this postseason with Indiana because I, I, I do believe in them now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Big time. And then we had so the other big, there's a lot of big games but Bama I, I'm, I love Ty Simpson. He is so good. He, I don't know if he's going to end up winning the Heisman. He probably should. I, we, the Heisman is, was very difficult this year because it was all over the place. Ty Simpson is awesome. He is just like every time you need a big play. And Alabama did what they didn't do last year where they were. You remember they beat Georgia and then they lost to Vandy this Year. They beat Georgia. Then you have two. Two games. You know, Missouri's good, so it's not like a letdown game in that respect. They have a number next to their name, but they got up for the big Georgia game, and then they beat Vandy. They beat Mizzou, Alabama. It's Alabama and Texas A and M in the sec. In terms of right now, like, who's going to be. You know, the race to see who gets to go to Georgia.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I mean, they do trust Ty Simpson a lot. They're like, fourth down. Yeah. Ty's got it. I'm not. I'm not even concerned about that. I do in the sec. I do feel bad for Auburn, though. I feel bad. Auburn just keeps getting screwed week in, week out.

[PFT Commenter]

They should have been up 17, nothing. I know everyone's talking about the Kirby Smart timeout, fake timeout, clap gate. It really is more about the fact that Auburn should have been up 17, nothing in that game.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And that fumble was ridiculous. Us.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And that kept Georgia in the game.

[Big Cat]

It was. I. I do feel bad. Who knows what exactly happened with Kirby Smart? Because he was saying that he. That the safety on Auburn was clapping, and that's what he was telling the refs about. And when you watch the replay. Yes, the Auburn safety was clapping and he was probably. Kirby was probably telling the refs about that. But then my question is, why did. Why did they not burn a timeout there? Why did they just say that timeout doesn't count?

[PFT Commenter]

Right.

[Big Cat]

Like that. That part doesn't make sense for the refs.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And I. Did they issue a statement? I think they said a. I think.

[PFT Commenter]

They might have said sorry so that.

[Big Cat]

Now they've been apologized. Auburn leads the league in being apologized to.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Which is something that you can take some solace in.

[PFT Commenter]

They actually should make the apologies like an official count as a win when. When judge who gets in the playoffs, you can turn it in.

[Big Cat]

I think it should be a tiebreaker.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

For sure.

[PFT Commenter]

Hey, we collected six apologies. Yeah. We only have seven wins on the season, but check out these six apologies. Yeah. You're in.

[Big Cat]

As. As me and Big Cat publicly said Ole Miss was in trouble against Washington State.

[PFT Commenter]

We know, Ball.

[Big Cat]

A lot of people were saying, what are you guys talking about? Big Cat pointed out like, hey, I feel like this is a letdown spot when Ole Miss has. They got Georgia. Georgia next week.

[PFT Commenter]

Georgia on deck this week.

[Big Cat]

Big time letdown spot for Ole Miss. I didn't think that the boys were going to follow the coach's Instructions and be hydrated. Yeah. On Friday night, 11:45, kickoff. Like, that's an early, early game for the boys down in Oxford.

[PFT Commenter]

So student section sucked.

[Big Cat]

Me and big Cat. No ball.

[PFT Commenter]

We know ball. Other. Other big games. Ohio State's defense is so nasty. I don't really know what else to say about that. Like, I'm. Wisconsin plays them on Saturday. I think Luke Fickle is fired, by the way, soon. And maybe McIntosh, the ad. I think they're rightfully not sending someone to be the interim head coach with Ohio State and Oregon on deck.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Which actually is a correct move because you don't want to have, like, a new guy just be like, hey, here you go. The two toughest. Wisconsin's a dumpster fire. Maybe worst program right now in Power 4. But Ohio State is awesome. Their defense is awesome. The Illinois scored a touchdown in the red zone, and it was like, the most shocking thing ever.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, holy shit. They actually did it. Every time you get in the red zone against Ohio State, they just. They just absolutely smush other teams.

[Big Cat]

This would be a. Ohio State is. Is so good. You're right. They are better than last year. They are better than they were last year. I. I don't see anybody beating Ohio State. I don't. It'd be a huge disappointment. Huge for the Buckeyes if they lost a game. What about Red River? Red river, the shootout.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm gonna say it. I don't think John Matiere should have come back that quickly.

[Big Cat]

You know what? Around me of. Remember when Russ Wilson was like, yeah, I got a. This broken finger, and it usually takes guys five weeks to come back from it. I'm gonna come back in two weeks because I'm built different. That's. I think that had something to do with what John Matiere was going through. I feel like, yes. Credit to Dr. Shin. Dr. Shin for getting him out there, but maybe there's a reason why it should take a little bit longer than that to come back.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I would say so. He had a really bad game. Arch played okay. The defense, the Texas defense was awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Arch had that nice, like, backyard football touchdown. It was. I. I'm not a big Brent Venables. I mean, he's. The guy can only think through defense. I think I saw a press conference where they asked him, like, hey, what's wrong with your running game? He's like, well, it's our defense. It's like, all right, dude. There's two sides to the ball here.

[Big Cat]

It was very funny that there Were articles coming out about Arch being like, is he the first bust in the history of college football? Yeah, I know there have been a few. There have been a few other guys that haven't performed up to their expectations.

[PFT Commenter]

I'd say so, yeah.

[Big Cat]

One would be like, there was a guy named Jimmy Clawson that committed to Notre Dame at the College Football hall of Fame.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

He did his yes, I'm going to Notre Dame there. Didn't really work out that well for him, but, yeah, like, give Archer a little bit of time before being like, yeah, this guy sucks. He's going to be out of the. He's going to be out of college football.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, we're kicking him out of college football. We're not even talking about the NFL anymore. We're just kicking him out of college football.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he's. He's young. And then LSU held serve at home. There's nothing worse than. Than flying out of Baton Rouge on game day, by the way.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that's brutal.

[Big Cat]

It is. It's the most FOMO that you'll ever get is. You're the only that's driving to the airport in Baton Rouge on a Saturday for a Saturday night game in Death Valley. And then you just see all the tents set up. People been cooking Gumbo since like 8pm the night before. Everyone's hammered at 9am yeah, I've done.

[PFT Commenter]

That a few times where we've, like, even done the college football show back in the day where it's like you the. You do the show and then you get to the airport and no one's in the airport.

[Big Cat]

Y.

[PFT Commenter]

Everyone's at the game and having a great time.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I ran into Paul Skeens and his girlfriend on Friday night and he says hello.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, nice.

[Big Cat]

And he, He. He is a listener of the show. It's the first time that he'd seen me without my sunglasses on. He was like, I. I didn't know you had such beautiful eyes. And that's a man that knows beautiful eyes. Wow. Yeah, I like Paul schemes.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he's the man.

[Big Cat]

Good guy.

[PFT Commenter]

Great routine. Yeah, we've run into him twice. Remember? Ran into him at the UFC fight.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. Should we do some hot seat, Cool throne, and then we'll get to our interviews or talk some more college football with Matt Leinert. We also have Jeff passing on to talk some more baseball. It's just so many sports right now. It's awesome.

[Big Cat]

It's a lot.

[Hank]

There's just college football tonight, too. I was, like, woke up today. I was like, damn, no football. And then I forgot.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, we're in like a 40 day stretch of every day has a football game. It's awesome. Okay, before we get to hot seat cool throne, it is brought to you by, by our friends at Body Armor and the Flash iv. This segment is brought to you by body armor Flash IV. Flash IV delivers faster, longer lasting hydration with over 2000 milligrams of electrolytes and no artificial dyes, flavors, or sweeteners like those other drinks. So whether you're training, traveling, or just feeling the heat, work hard, hydrate hard with body armor flash IV and grab yours today at your local 711 convenience store. It's delicious. Rehydrate with body armor flash IV. Okay. Hank, my hot seat is cookies.

[Big Cat]

Oh, why?

[Hank]

I'm sick of them.

[PFT Commenter]

What?

[Big Cat]

I had three Oreos for breakfast.

[PFT Commenter]

What is this? What are you doing? What are you doing?

[Hank]

I don't know what, what law passed or whatever happened, but, but the. Every time you go on a website, there's just, there's just so much, so much like the full screen cookies. Like, I know there's cookies. I don't even know what cookies are.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

I wish there was a feature to just accept all cookies, but I don't know if you guys have noticed this or if it's just me, but there's seems like there's been a phenomenon in the last like six months where you can't go on any website without just getting a massive, massive, like, script about the cookies. And you just have to click accept cookies. I don't know what cookies are. I always accept them.

[PFT Commenter]

Who?

[Hank]

I don't know anyone that would ever reject cookies.

[Big Cat]

Well, yeah, that's, that's the big trick that they pulled was calling them cookies, right? If they called them what they are, like devious little tracking devices, Poison pills. Hey, do you want these spies?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

On your computer you're like, no, get these spies. But they call, hey, you want some cookies?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah.

[Big Cat]

You would still probably.

[Hank]

It's like you want to read the article. You're. You've already committed to clicking something.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

You're accepting them?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I reject all.

[Hank]

And you can still read. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah. I just reject all every time.

[Big Cat]

Sometimes I just say it and accept.

[Hank]

I accept them all.

[PFT Commenter]

No, you can reject all.

[Big Cat]

It's been like that in Europe for a while. Like, if you ever went to Europe for the last like 10 years, they made you like opt in to every website. And now it's over here in the States and it's Everywhere.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Checked all.

[Hank]

It's annoying. Minor complaint, but it. It bothers me.

[PFT Commenter]

That's fair.

[Hank]

My cool throw.

[PFT Commenter]

Real cookies are fine.

[Hank]

Real cookies are fine.

[PFT Commenter]

Rank your top three.

[Hank]

Top three. Chocolate chip snickerdoodle.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

You know, ball oatmeal raisin.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, okay.

[Big Cat]

White chocolate macadamia.

[Hank]

Oh, I don't like white chocolate.

[Big Cat]

Oh, white chocolate macadamia.

[Hank]

I like chocolate chocolate.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I like chocolate chocolate.

[Big Cat]

It's a good combo.

[PFT Commenter]

Just get chocolate, bro.

[Big Cat]

Really good combo. How do you feel about peanut butter cookies?

[PFT Commenter]

Delicious.

[Big Cat]

Also really good.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Sometimes a little too dry.

[Big Cat]

That's my problem with them. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

They do get like.

[Hank]

There's a lot I love the best.

[Big Cat]

Are the ones with the Hershey Kissing peanut butter.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. What do you think about the cookies that have cookies inside of them? In the cookies that have like an Oreo inside.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Or the Reese's that we have with the cookie inside.

[Hank]

Those are good.

[PFT Commenter]

So good.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So good.

[Hank]

I just like regular cookies. I mean, you can't, you can't. Can't beat a nice warm chocolate chip cookie.

[Jeff Passan]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Standard sugar cookies.

[PFT Commenter]

Also pretty good.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

You don't. You dunk cookies. Yeah.

[Hank]

What are your thoughts on the not usually cookies? I dunk my Oreos.

[Big Cat]

You wash your Oreos?

[Hank]

Wash my orders.

[Big Cat]

Do you still do that?

[Hank]

No.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I, I brought the Reese's Oreo hybrid home for my kids being like, oh, special treat. And there's four of them. So my three kids and then my wife had one and I was like, I'm fine. I don't need one. And then I got correctly called out for having like eight of them at work that day. And I was like, yes, that's why I can. That's why I'm going to pass because I had eight.

[Big Cat]

Have you guys, have you guys had a single stuff Oreo recently?

[PFT Commenter]

No, they, they've, they've, they've changed them all.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the double stuff is now the single stuff.

[PFT Commenter]

Right, right.

[Big Cat]

There used to be more cream in the. In the double stuff, and now if you get a single. I looked at a single stuff Oreo the other day and I was like, that is some. That's. That's a cookie. Yeah, that's a Oreo.

[PFT Commenter]

So cookies. We're in. We're pro cookie podcast, pro and anti. Well, you can reject them all, but you.

[Hank]

Yeah, but you don't want to reject all cookies.

[PFT Commenter]

No, but I'm saying, like, dude, the online cookies reject all the real life cookies. Eat them all.

[Hank]

Right, so pro and anti or anti and pro.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Hank]

Yeah, My cool throne. I got a couple. First one is just the NFL. NFL rigged. There was a study. UTEP did a study.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I had this.

[Hank]

That it's, you know, statistically proven that the Chiefs, who are the highest draw in the NFL since I think it's like 2015-2023 in the playoffs, which is obviously the highest rating sign for the NFL, have gotten way more favorable calls in that time frame. And they did the research that. That did not happen with other dynasties in the past, you know, couple decades, AKA the Patriots. So it's just the Chiefs. If you felt like the NFL is rigged, it is. Jared Goff also, that just. It crushed me. Absolutely crushed me. Wait, his press conference. After he did a press conference.

[PFT Commenter]

Wait, can we talk about the Chiefs? Yeah, you. That was a genius move by utep, I believe. Yeah. To have that headline because everyone saw it and only read the headline. And then if you clicked on the article, which I did, it said evidence that the NFL officiating subtly favored the Kansas City. Subtly. Feels like that's probably doing a lot of work there.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it was subtly and it was.

[PFT Commenter]

So minor that you can almost see it. But you really can't put the headline that headline hit in the article.

[Hank]

It says the study shows that during the playoffs the research team identified NFL's most commercially valuable period penalties against the opposing defenses of Chiefs offense were significantly more likely to result in first downs, cover more yardage and fall into subjective categories.

[PFT Commenter]

That's just. That's just Mahomes scrambles.

[Big Cat]

It was my home scramble and pass interference. It was the subjective stuff that's like not so cut and dry, unchallengeable stuff where they. A referee might throw a flag, might not throw a flag. The Chiefs get more of those than any other team.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Which is true. But also the Chiefs put themselves in position to capitalize on a flag that goes in their favor better than any other team, too.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

You got a cat when. When the. When the game is rigged for you, you got to capitalize.

[Big Cat]

You do.

[PFT Commenter]

You do.

[Big Cat]

That's the thing about the NFL. They can only do so much.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Jared did a press conference and he was like, yeah, I cannot understand how that was illegal. I wasn't under center. He did, you know, he was stopped before and then went in motion. So that just hurt. That was just insult to injury.

[PFT Commenter]

What was the reaction from the Awls?

[Hank]

They enjoyed it.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah, I did too.

[Hank]

That's fine. Yeah, I mean, that's. That's fair.

[PFT Commenter]

It was just happening in real time. It Was just. Couldn't have worked out better.

[Hank]

Yeah, it was the highest of highs, lowest of lows. And then my other cool throne is, is Cape Verde. Second smallest country to ever qualify for a World Cup.

[PFT Commenter]

And I heard you, I overheard you saying we gotta bet on them. Do we? I would have to bet on them.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Hank's got a hometown connect.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Well, I mean one of my best friends, Cape Verde and I, I grew up going to his house a lot. So a little bit, you know, that's, it's just, it's cool.

[Big Cat]

You may seem like there's a lot of people from Cape Verde that there are situated.

[Hank]

There's, there's a big Cape Verdean community in situate.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that's cool.

[Hank]

It's cool.

[Big Cat]

They're probably going to beat the United States.

[Hank]

That'd be.

[PFT Commenter]

Are we in their group?

[Big Cat]

We don't know yet. That's. You want to talk about the ultimate rigged sport?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh yeah.

[Big Cat]

Let's wait to see what that draw looks like. That's going to be an interesting listen.

[PFT Commenter]

What do you mean?

[Big Cat]

Well, when, whenever they do the groups for the World cup, if the host country is playing friendly with FIFA, the host country always gets in a sick ass group.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, no, we are because easy, we're in the, we're in the eight. We're automatically as host country in like the top tier. So we're not gonna have another top tier country.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

We already got it rigged.

[Big Cat]

But, but sometimes they give those teams like the bottom of the second tier.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And then the bottom of the third tier.

[PFT Commenter]

Because we're not a tier one team.

[Big Cat]

We're not a tier one team. But it, what's happened in the past is you get the team that should be. They would not be in tier one and then they play against by far the last place team in tier two.

[PFT Commenter]

Give it to us.

[Big Cat]

That's what, hey, that's what, that's what Trump's here for. Right. If, if anyone can pull it off.

[Hank]

Trump doesn't care about soccer.

[Big Cat]

Oh, he does. He, he's, he took the ball from FIFA. He's been, he's been bragging to everybody about how broke up. Yeah, yeah. Make that happen, buddy.

[Hank]

Iceland is the smallest country to qualify for the World Cup.

[PFT Commenter]

Thanks. I was talking soccer. Oh.

[Big Cat]

My hot seat is Tua, because after the game, Tua gave that, that press conference conference where he said that guys haven't been showing up to players only meetings, have been late to players only meetings.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And then Mike McDaniel seemed like he had his back when he talked after the game. But then he addressed the media again on Monday and he said, I think you guys caught me before I heard his comments. Regardless of his intent and what was on to his mind after loss as a franchise quarterback, that's not the forum to displace that. I think he knows that now. I do honestly believe there was no ill intention. But you're talking about, I think, a misguided representation of player orchestrated film sessions that's as, that's as tough on a player as Mike McDaniel will ever be.

[PFT Commenter]

And we said it on Sunday. But like tua, you're the franchise quarterback going up to a podium and saying, hey, we don't have guys showing up to players only meetings. Look in the mirror. You're the guy who has to make sure that everyone's showing up to players only meeting.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. He said it starts with leadership.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I think two is probably a leader on that team. This is a. It's a problem with Mike McDaniel though, where he. It's easier to become less of a hard ass than it is to become more of a hard ass.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

So like when he started out being like, hey, I'm not like the other coaches. I'm the cool coach. And now he's got to like say something that criticizes tool publicly. I don't know if it's going to sit well. But to talking about the players only meetings, like, they happen all. I think they might be having way too many players only meetings.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And I think that a players only meeting is like, probably not. It's good to have once in a while because you get like kind of toxic with it and people yell at each other and you get it in the open. But if you've got a regularly scheduled meeting where everyone on the team is screaming at each other, I could see why guys would maybe start to think about missing that occasionally.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah. The calling out the. Someone not showing up for players only meetings. If that happens from like an offensive lineman, you're like, okay, that makes sense. He's like, he's not the leader of the team. He's calling out the rest of the guys. But yeah, the quarterback, like, you can't. It's like a boss getting in front of him. Like, how did we fuck this up? Yeah, no, dude, you're the boss.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. If you, if you hear guys talk about players only meeting, you like, yeah, a lot of things got said. We need more accountability. Imagine doing that twice a week. Yeah, that would get. That would get. You know what I Think I'm hitting the players only meeting. I'm hitting the button for the commanders. I want that this week.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

Now's the time.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

My cool. Before a buy.

[PFT Commenter]

No, they have a game playing. Cowboys game of the week.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Do you disagree with the timing?

[Hank]

No, that makes sense. You got to get ready for the game of the week.

[Big Cat]

I think this is a good. Yeah. Good time. My cool throne is Breeze hall because he posted on Instagram hashtag free20. So I think Bruce hall is actively now looking for a trade. Has he. Has he requested a trade? Memes? He hasn't requested a trade.

[PFT Commenter]

People have been calling. Yeah. Maybe he's doing one of those subathons that Zach was talking about. Free 20. Just giving out money. Is he? No, no.

[Big Cat]

Is he? I got.

[PFT Commenter]

I got my finger on this.

[Matt Leinart]

On the.

[PFT Commenter]

On the giveaway post. What about the. Do you have his finger on his polls?

[Big Cat]

I think he wants to be traded. Yeah.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I. I think he's a dude.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Does this could be a giveaway?

[Big Cat]

Does this qualify as a. As a trade request if you. If you post free 20?

[PFT Commenter]

No.

[Big Cat]

Why not?

[PFT Commenter]

I think he just wants a ball more. All running backs want the ball more. That's true.

[Big Cat]

Okay, so it could be just like, unleash me free 20.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Instead of just walking up to the.

[Big Cat]

Offensive coordinator, you just have to post it on Instagram.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Okay. All right. My hot seat. I have two. The first is Sean Moore because he had a press conference where he got in front of the media and was asked about the loss to usc, where they got absolutely smoked, and he has his blue collar jacket on. And he basically was like, hey, I'm back to work. He said, the message is pretty simple. We got to go back to work. That's why I have the blue collar jacket on. I'm going to say worked for Jim Harbaugh because Jim Harbaugh had won at Stanford. He changed the culture there. He'd wanted the 49ers changed the culture there. Came to Michigan, changed culture there. This feels like a cheap knockoff, and it's not going to work. Work.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it worked for Harbaugh because he. He meant that.

[PFT Commenter]

And Sean Moore is just doing what Harbaugh did.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Jim Harbaugh, like, actually believed during that week that he worked in the garage somewhere.

[PFT Commenter]

Correct.

[Big Cat]

And that he was going to bring his lunch pail. He probably did bring a lunch pail.

[PFT Commenter]

Correct.

[Big Cat]

I would like to see, you know what, If Shiron Moore is actually bringing his own lunch inside of either a pail or Some sort of thermos this week and eating out of that, then I'll kind of believe it.

[Hank]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

But I think he's just wearing. He's wearing the blue collar costume to a press conference.

[Hank]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

He's appropriating working man culture.

[PFT Commenter]

Early Halloween.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

My other hot seat is New York sports because we've been 5, 000 days since new York has won a championship. Wow. It's not true. Oh, New York. Atlas. PLL. Okay.

[Big Cat]

Liberty.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. WNBA. What are we talking about? 5, 000 days since a major four sports team from New York has won a championship. And they have a lot of them.

[Hank]

That should be like 10,000 because they have two teams in like every sport.

[PFT Commenter]

I. When you say don't look it up. How many days. How many years is 5,000 days? Because I can't ever conceptualize these things.

[Hank]

Six. No.

[PFT Commenter]

This is good.

[Big Cat]

That's 11.

[PFT Commenter]

15.

[Big Cat]

Ish. 14.

[PFT Commenter]

13. Okay, 13 years. That was a lot of years.

[Big Cat]

13 years.

[PFT Commenter]

Wait, so who was the last one?

[Big Cat]

Was it the. Not the Yankees?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, maybe. Maybe it's more than that.

[Big Cat]

Yankees.

[PFT Commenter]

One of the Yankees win.

[Big Cat]

It was like 2009.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, it was the Giants. Giants. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. That's crazy. That it was. It was the Giants against the Patriots.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

It's the last time that New York won 5,000 days.

[Hank]

A freshman in college.

[PFT Commenter]

That's 5,000 days is nuts. But it's not true. Because of Liberty. Because of the Liberty. Which brings me my cool throne. We're a little late to this. Mark Davis won another. Another title. He's an awesome owner.

[Big Cat]

Let's go.

[PFT Commenter]

Cool throw. Mark Davis. The Aces won the WNBA title.

[Big Cat]

Let's go, Ace.

[PFT Commenter]

We just got the newspaper about it happened last Thursday.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I mean, the WNBA news doesn't hit as hard if you're not arguing about Caitlin Clark. Mm.

[PFT Commenter]

I think it was Thursday, so. Yeah. Friday. Friday.

[Big Cat]

Friday.

[PFT Commenter]

We're right there.

[Big Cat]

There we go.

[PFT Commenter]

We got it. Last Friday.

[Big Cat]

Congrats to the Aces and grass. The Aces, their mvp? Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

Asia Wilson.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

Is that right? She's the goat. She's actually my goat.

[Big Cat]

Would that be back to back MVPs for her?

[PFT Commenter]

I think so. She also. Was she the one who scored over married a game winner over a married couple? You see that picture?

[Big Cat]

No.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it was sick. She scored a game winner over a married couple. Couple.

[Big Cat]

That's two defenders in the finals.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that happened.

[Big Cat]

Should you get their rings?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah. They should have this divorce.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Zach, your hot seat. Cool throne. My hot seat.

[Matt Leinart]

For the week.

[PFT Commenter]

This week is political commentator and Twitch streamer Hassan Piker.

[Matt Leinart]

More footage came out about him possibly.

[PFT Commenter]

Using a shock collar to keep his dog in frame. Bad guy move. Can I. Can someone explain this story to me? Because I. I gotta. I'm not really on. Oh, yeah, there is Asia Wilson with the greatest of all time and a game winner in the WNBA finals over a married couple. Is insane. That's pretty crazy. Yeah. All right, so I. This is a double. I'm not paying attention to this story because I don't really go on political Twitter, so I don't fully know who Hasan Piker is. And two, if you tell me there's a story about a dog getting hurt, I immediately click the button. Not interested in this post.

[Big Cat]

That's smart.

[PFT Commenter]

So I have no idea. Can someone explain this?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, so Hasan, he goes live on Twitch every day. He does, like, reaction videos to other videos. He got into this one debate against this other guy about Israel about, like, three months ago, where by the end of the debate, they just had, like, seven windows of each other arguing built into the one window. Okay, so it looked like a mosaic from hell.

[PFT Commenter]

He.

[Big Cat]

He was accused of using a shot collar on his giant dog that sits behind him on the live stream.

[Hank]

And then dog like, yelps, like, there's a video clip. Whereas, like, dogs behind him don't like Yelp. He walks away from its bed. And it, like, it was just, you know, the worst sound. And then dog like, yelping.

[Big Cat]

And then Hassan claimed to show the collar and was like, this is a vibration collar. And then people looked at it online, they're like, yeah, I think that's a vibration color. But then some people said that it had, like, a mode tape over.

[Hank]

He had saw the outlet, the out. What Backlash came back. The next stream, it was like, look, it's a vibration collar. But then people zoomed in and you could see that there was tape, like, black tape over where the actual, like, shock collar part is.

[Big Cat]

So it's like, allegedly it's like a dual mode collar. And he says that it was on vibration mode. And then people say that it was on shock mode. So that's where we're at.

[PFT Commenter]

And then.

[Hank]

But then there's people digging up old clips that, like, it looks pretty.

[Big Cat]

Pretty.

[Hank]

The evidence suggested it was a shot collar.

[PFT Commenter]

And what. What's the new stuff? There's just another compilation of him using it to keep the dog in frame during the live. Oh, that's terrible. So, like, the dog sit, like, I guess, allegedly dogs being Used as, like, a prop in the background to show, like, hey, look at this beautifully behaved dog.

[Big Cat]

Oh, fuck. It is a great dog.

[PFT Commenter]

Fuck, yeah. But that's brutal. You can't. You're just not letting the dog walk around because you want it for a prop for your fucking livestream. That's shitty. God damn it. I, I, I try because, like, I think there's differing opinions on the shock collar on dogs. I don't know where people land. I just know that I once tried it on Stella to. When she was, like, a puppy, and she yelped so loud that I apologized to her for, like, three weeks straight and never use it again.

[Big Cat]

You have tried it on Jerry, though, Jerry.

[PFT Commenter]

That's totally fair, Jerry. We do do that, because otherwise, he's not gonna. He's just gonna be singing chestnuts.

[Big Cat]

Jerry needs it.

[PFT Commenter]

But, yeah, I, I, it's not for me. Like, I, I was like, oh, I'll give it a try because we need to try to train her. Wasn't for me. I can't stand the sound of a dog yelping in pain.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, shot collars are. It would, like. It would break my heart if I shocked Blake and he, like, yelled in pain and then looked at me like, why did you do that? Why is this happening?

[PFT Commenter]

That's what happened. I bought, like, the lowest version of it that was like, this one's the most safe for dogs. And even that, I was like, I can't do this. Yeah. Okay, so he's a shithead. Cool throw.

[Matt Leinart]

My Coolthorne this week is former Ten.

[PFT Commenter]

Bay Buccaneer Shiloh Sanders. He went to the previous Brown Steelers game in Pittsburgh and pretended to be Shador, and it worked on many. Oh, that's awesome.

[Matt Leinart]

He did the jersey with the.

[PFT Commenter]

Shador has the brand. The legendary brand. He went to legendary chain, the Shador jersey, and he was even, like, roaming the stadium during the game, and people were like, oh, my goodness, great to see you. But he's, like, out by the concessions. It's like, I don't know how you.

[Matt Leinart]

Would think that he would be here right now, but fool quite a lot.

[PFT Commenter]

Of people, Browns and Steelers fans included. Yeah, that's cool.

[Big Cat]

It would not be the most shocking thing in the world if Shador was standing, like, walking on the concourse. Yeah, I can think like, yeah, be weird, but I'd be like, okay, yeah, I guess Chidor's up to it again also.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, is it kind of cheating, like, yeah, no dough. You look like your brother.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but. But Shiloh's way Smaller, right? Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes. Otherwise he'd be in the league.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

All right. Good hot sea, cool throne. Everyone, let's get to our interviews. We got Jeff Passon talking baseball, then Matt Leiner talking a little more college football. Okay. Before we get to Jeff Pass in twisted tea. Twisted tea is refreshing hard iced tea made with real Brewed tea and 5% alcohol. Twisted tea is the perfect alcohol slash beverage to keep the good times going all season long. Whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar, or just seeing where the days take you, Twisted T is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. We love twisted tea. We were drinking some on Monday night while we were watching the Bears versus Commanders. I was drinking some on Saturday going to the Cubs game. It is the best drink and you got to keep it twisted. Grab a tea, it's game time. Stock up on ice cold twisted tea today. I like the original. The original twisted tea. They perfected the with it. They have great flavors. I like peach as well. The original the OG that is my personal favorite. Go grab a tea today. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Pft.

[Big Cat]

I like the half and half a lot. I, I had two of the half and halfs last night. So that's a hole in hole and it was delicious.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes, yes. So grab a tea. It's game time. Stock up on ice cold twisted tea today. Okay, here he is, Jeff Passon. Okay. We now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest. It is Jeff Passon from espn. He is MLB Insider. He knows everything about Major League Baseball. It is the playoffs. We've been trying to do this for a couple weeks now. The schedule doesn't always work out. So we are taping this on Tuesday morning before Game 2 of the Dodgers brewers, which we will talk about. But we are in an off day of the ALCs. So let's talk about that series first. I, for one, I, maybe I shouldn't be shocked. I'm shocked. The mariners are up two. Oh. Because I assumed they were going to lose game one after a 15 inning game on Friday. How, how, how have the manors Mariners done this? Like, can you explain to us the Mariners team building philosophy? How are they here where they're now two games away from the World Series, first ever in franchise history and they have three games at home.

[Jeff Passan]

I think the reason that you didn't believe the Mariners could do it is because they have spent 49 years sucking.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Jeff Passan]

Like they have been nothing But a disappointment for a half century for their fans. And you just said it right there, they're the only team in Major League Baseball right Now of the 30 teams to have never even made a World Series. And yet they've had Ken Griffey Jr. And Randy Johnson and Edgar Martinez and Ichiro Suzuki. And like luminaries, hall of Famers go through that city and still they haven't reached the point that this team seems like it's going to. And look, we've seen series in the past, guys, where a team loses the first two games at home and then goes on and eventually wins. It is very rare. The and it's especially daunting for the Blue Jays because this is a good Mariners team and it's been built a couple of ways. It really foundationally started off with their starting pitching and they drafted and developed Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, first round picks. They took Brian Wu, who hasn't pitched this postseason but has been their best pitcher this year, a little bit later in the draft and brought him along. Luis Castillo. They traded for Bryce Miller, again drafted and developed. And that's a lot of what this Mariners organization is. And the scary part for other teams in baseball right now, Seattle might have the best farm system of any team. So they have, they have this staff of pitchers that is really, really good in an era where most teams don't have enough starting pitching. They have two foundational players at Cal, Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez who play up the middle at catcher in center field and are signed to extensions that go for the next half decade plus. And at the trade deadline this year, they were aggressive and they went out and Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez from the Arizona Diamondbacks and took a lineup that was decent and really lengthened it and deepened it. And that's the thing. They have been hitting, they have been pitching. And in September, after they went through this jag where they lost 13 of 18 games, they went 17 and four over their last 21. They looked like, if not the best team in baseball, then certainly the best team in the American League. And they've been playing like it since the playoffs started.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah, it's an awesome story.

[Big Cat]

They're a fun team to root for. And you just put out an article. I'll give you a plug for your article. Jorge Polanco, he's a huge top gun guy. Sounds like he's bringing good vibes to that locker room. What's, what's going on with Jorge Polanco and his love for Maverick.

[Jeff Passan]

Every time, like just A peek behind the curtain here. My job is, I have to go down into a clubhouse and find out something interesting. And toward the end of the clubhouse time, after game two, I didn't have a whole lot on Jorge Polanco. And whenever in doubt, go to catchers. Like, catchers are like backup quarterbacks. They always have the stories. They always have the pulse of the room. And I talked with Mitch Garver, who played with Jorge Blanco in Minnesota. And as Cal Raleigh comes walking up, Mitch Garver is like, did you know that Polo has the Top Gun anthem as his ringtone? And I was like, it's like, really? And he's like, yeah. And he doesn't like silent mode on his phone. So they'll just be like sitting there at the clubhouse and all of a sudden it'll just go blasting. Like it'll just be like that. And they're like, polo, what the. What the band? And he says, I like Maverick and Iceman. And I mean, who among us doesn't? And so I hear all this information and my editor at espn, her dad was a fighter pilot. Like he was in the Top Gun program. And so now I know, like, I'm going back up. I have total wheelhouse for my editor. Even if I write it extraordinarily poorly, she will love it anyway. And yeah, Polanco has been awesome this post. He's had three consecutive game winning hits in the fifth inning or later of playoff games. He won that 15 inning game and then he had a game winning single. And then in game two, three run home run to put the Mariners ahead. And he, he's been awesome. And this, this is what World Series runs guys take. It takes a middle infielder who nobody thinks is going to be the hero just going and having like the we week or two of his life. And then you just hope alongside that your pitching works and you know, superstar shows up and Julio Rodriguez hitting a three run homer in the first. Cal Raleigh's been awesome all playoffs. Like there's a formula here and the Mariners are following it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, when it comes to teams of destiny this playoffs, I do feel like the Mariners are fitting that bill perfectly. They've had a lot of stuff that's happened that's made you stop and be like something, something is going on in Seattle right now. We should pay attention to it. But obviously Cal Raleigh season has been incredible. The home run that he hit to the guy wearing the car, the Cal Raleigh shirt like right into his lap, that's a team of destiny thing.

[PFT Commenter]

Big time. Guys crying. Yeah. In the stands.

[Big Cat]

Dudes crying in the stands. Humpy the Salmon winning his first race. That. That spurs the crowd on to victory in the 15th inning.

[PFT Commenter]

It.

[Big Cat]

This.

[Jeff Passan]

It feels like guy behind the plate.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

That one confused me though, because was that guy rooting against Cal Raleigh and he's like, we're going to stop up the dumper with this butt plug or was this a pro big dumper butt plug shirt? I don't know.

[Jeff Passan]

I just think he's pro butt plug.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, that's fine.

[Big Cat]

We can agree on that. But would you. Would you agree that right now if we're looking at teams of destiny, it's like the stars are aligning for Seattle.

[Jeff Passan]

Right now for sure. And I think it's beyond team of destiny. I think they're just better than the Blue Jays at this point, frankly. But, you know, the Toronto fans, I think before games wanted to would have argued that, hey, this is our team of destiny. We haven't been to the World Series since we won back to back in 1992 and 93. We signed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. To this $500 million contract in the off season and we went and beat the Yankees. And like this, this is now. This is our time and hell over in the National League, like the Milwaukee brewers, another team that's never won a World Series before that had the most wins in all of baseball this season.

[Hank]

They.

[Jeff Passan]

Everyone wants to be the team of destiny, do they not?

[PFT Commenter]

And.

[Jeff Passan]

And there's like one. Like the Dodgers just can't. They are exempt from ever being the team of destiny. So it almost feels like anybody at this point who beats the Dodgers fits that bill.

[PFT Commenter]

That's absolutely true. So I want to link the two series here. And this is just a thought I had that might be. You might be like, you're so stupid. This makes no sense. But you obviously talk to these guys. You're in the clubhouse. Is there anything to be said? The Blue Jays beat the Yankees, their rival. Their. You know, you could see the energy that Vlad had in that series. You could see how much they hated the Yankees. Kind of like the brewers beating the Cubs, where it's like they're. They're putting up the L flag after. Is there anything to be said when these teams beat their division rivals and you can't have a letdown in the playoffs. But there does feel like the Blue Jays came out a little bit flat against the Mariners when they should have had the advantage, especially in game one, because they put so much energy into beating this team that they hate so much.

[Jeff Passan]

I would love to say, like, yes, that's precisely what happened.

[PFT Commenter]

Right.

[Jeff Passan]

I'm such a nerd though. Like, if I can't measure it, I have a hard time quantify because ultimately, like, these are professionals. The Mariners, perfect example. Like, the Mariners had that 15 inning marathon. It should have sapped all of their energy. The next day they get back to the stadium at 10 o' clock and they're supposed to go on their flight to Toronto and their plane has mechanical difficulties and they have to fly a plane up from la, so it's another four hours. They get into Toronto way later than they thought they were going to. And you know, it's not like real adversity. Like, can we acknowledge that professional sports adversity and coaches who are talking about adversity is never actual adversity?

[Big Cat]

No. James Franklin, when he had to take that flight, he had to drive to the other airport. That screwed up their whole season. Yeah, this, this stuff does matter.

[PFT Commenter]

Absolutely. You can't let it. We have to talk about this stuff because otherwise we, we're not, we don't have the analytical nerd side of our brain. So like, we have to talk about. Yeah, hey, actually, yeah, the Blue Jays drank too much after they beat the Yankees. That's why they're losing to the Mariners.

[Jeff Passan]

The Blue Jays did drink a lot after they beat the Yankees. I was, I was in the middle of that and it was, it was a good party. Like, well, can I ask you guys a question? Do baseball players celebrate too much?

[Big Cat]

Okay, so my, my take on it is that every team should be allowed to celebrate except for the Yankees is beneath the Yankees tradition and honor. And it's undignified for the Yankees to celebrate like a wild card series win. But everybody else, I don't really care. I think that when you're looking at professional athletes who are somewhere between the age of like 20 and 35, they probably don't get the two day hangover that a guy like me might get. If I get, I go out there and get hammered. So I think by the time the next series starts, it's pretty much out of their system.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm a big believer and celebrate everything. I know people get upset about it, but it's like the baseball season is so long, you have to celebrate the ride. You don't know where your next celebration is going to be. What I wish, like, yeah, I mean, like it happened to the Cubs and like, I think they might have drank too much on that Thursday after they beat the Padres. Then they had to play Saturday at 1 o'. Clock. So I, I celebrate everything. Maybe sometimes sneak in a couple like non alcoholic beers and just, you know, just, just be like, hey guys, let's pour the champagne. Let's not drink the champagne. But I'm a celebrate everything guy.

[Jeff Passan]

I do celebrate everything.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Jeff Passan]

And it's, it's, it's, it's fun being in there just to see people at like their most primal level of idiocy.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Jeff Passan]

Like under no other circumstance. No, under certain other circumstances, is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Just going to go, nah, Yankees lose. Like, you got to, got to be a little fucked up to do that in the fact that, that baseball celebrations bring that out of guys. I am all for it.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. All right. Going to plug another article by you, Jeff, because you're great at writing. You had an article on Monday where you basically have set the stage. The Brewers Dodgers series, which again we're taping this Tuesday morning. So we don't know, maybe the brewers have tied it 1, 1. You have set the stage that this is not just the brewers versus the Dodgers. This is the future of baseball as we know it in a proxy war. Because whoever ends up winning this series, the other side will use this when the MLB goes to a lockout and fights for a salary cap. And they'll either say, well, yeah, you can build a championship roster with no money. Like the brewers or the Dodgers are unfair and they essentially spend so much money no one can compete. I read the article and I was like, I read the premise. I was like, there's no way this is true. And then you may, you laid out the facts. You're like, it might not be right, but this is what's going to happen. So are like, did people respond to you from MLB being like, you're right, like, we're gonna, we're gonna use this. Like we're watching this closely.

[Jeff Passan]

Everybody pushed back on the premise, actually saying that it was too simple, which made me think, actually it's kind of spot on. And here's the thing. The, the, I think the important part of this is to separate what happens privately with what happens publicly and, and to figure out where ultimately they intersect. So happening privately in any collective bargaining negotiation is that the sides, it's very simple. They trade ideas, right? So we're going to offer you this. You're going to say yes or no, you're going to come back and offer, and then we're going to wind up meeting somewhere in the middle. But it's all the stuff that happens publicly. I think that informs their positions on that? What I mean by that is you guys are in Chicago, so it's a big market, you know, in Los Angeles, the Dodgers fans, or in New York Yankees and Mets fans, like, big markets, they have it pretty good. They have a lot of money. Even if the Cubs aren't spending what you think they should, it's better than most. But it's the people in Pittsburgh and people in Cleveland and people in Kansas City, where I live, and people, you know, in those smaller markets that look at the state of Major League Baseball right now and ask themselves, can, can our guys compete? Like, even if they are extraordinarily good at what they do, like the Milwaukee brewers front offices, can they compete in a sport where the Los Angeles Dodgers right now have a $500 million payroll and the brewers are having 120, $125 million? Like, is it, is it fair? Is it right to have one team that has four times as big a salary salary as others? Or does the sport need a salary cap? Now, now, I'll sit here and tell you the players will not accept a salary cap. So if there's any flaw, like the premise that my story has here, it's that we're starting from a point where this is not going to happen. So anything Major League Baseball does to try and cajole the players into taking it is going to be met with anger. And yet Major League Baseball, if the Dodgers go and win again this year, they have a credibility problem with a large swath of their fan base that wonders, is this sport fair? And it's. It's tough. It's tough for the league to deal with right now. Now, I don't think that the answer is necessarily a salary cap. I don't think that going and limiting what players can make, what players have earned, what players can get out on an open market is some sort of like a panacea to the problem we've seen in other leagues. Salary caps be implemented. And the Chiefs have won three Super Bowls in the last six years. The Patriots won seven Super Bowls. There was a dynasty, the warriors and the Heat in the NBA, in the NHL, You've seen the Panthers win back to back. You've seen the Lightning go and win. And it all depends, really, I think, on what you want out of your sport. If you want your team to have as fair of a shot as possible, what is the right economic system to project that forward. I think there's an answer somewhere in between that doesn't include a salary cap. But but if the brewers go and win this year, can't you, if you're the Players association, make the argument that if you can win on $125 million, then you're doing something right and it's something that can be replicated. Right. There is a way to do this without Armageddon. And baseball, you know, I fear, is headed toward that right now because the sides are so entrenched in their position and there's really a difficult way to find like that middle, that happy medium, that compromise that I was talking about earlier that would allow them to play. Yeah, I'm sorry, that was very long winded. But this is, this is so complicated. It's going to be the defining story of baseball next year. So hopefully people understand that this is going to be a big deal.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it is very interesting. And then I've heard the, the idea of the salary cap floor thrown out there a few times. I don't know if that's something that the, the owners have said, like, hey, yeah, if you accept the, the, the cap, then maybe we can do a floor. Or if any player is like open to that sort of negotiation or is just the idea of the salary cap, that's a, that's a non starter off the table.

[Jeff Passan]

Apps and floors come in tandem. You cannot have a floor unless you have a cap. And a floor, frankly, would solve a lot of the problems I think right now would force the Pittsburgh Pirates to go out and spend money and put a fucking team around Paul Skeens that doesn't exist right now.

[PFT Commenter]

Right.

[Jeff Passan]

You know, the Pirates. The Pirates. The Pirates are a few bats away from being a contender. And I'm just not sure I have faith in Bob Nutting that he's going to go out and spend the money. And so the problem with the floor is that it always comes with the cap. And because players are just fundamentally opposed to the cap, then the floor can't get put into place. But it's interesting, there are some big league players who are tired of all of the fighting with labor and think that a cap would solve a lot of things and that they would get a larger share of the money that's out there. But as we have seen in all of the other leagues, here's the way a salary cap works. You are given what's essentially a special introductory rate, like it's a credit card. Like, hey, at the beginning we are going to give you 55% of sport related revenue. After that, every negotiation is essentially a negotiation against that number. Right. So the next time, maybe it's 53. And the next time it's 51, and you have no other way to go because it's never going up. So you know that that first time through is going to be the best that you get.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. All right. So as for the actual series, the Dodgers and Brewers. Can the Dodgers. Can the brewers win this series? That I also. I don't know. You obviously probably were watching that. Sal Freelick. The brewers lost game one. The Sal Free, like, double play was one of the wildest plays I've ever seen. And it happened in a high stakes moment in the playoffs. Do you remember a play like that? I mean, it was insane.

[Jeff Passan]

No, no. Nothing at all like that. It was a fly ball hit 400 plus feet to center field that wound up with a double play. But Salvatore goes up, tries to catch it, comes down, bounces off the wall, throws it into the shortstop, shortstop relays home, and there's a force out. Yeah, we were all watching it in the. In the Mariners clubhouse. Cal Raleigh was looking up at the screen. He's like, I've never seen that before.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Jeff Passan]

And it's true. Like, none of us ever had a totally ridiculous play. To answer your first question, though, yes, I think the brewers can beat the Dodgers. I think we saw in game one, it was one nothing for the majority of the game. They're facing Blake Snell, who's been the best pitcher in baseball in the postseason this year. And then it's two nothing in the ninth inning, and the brewers just fight. They are so scrappy and just so good at putting the ball in play and making the defense do things. And they scratch a run across and Blake Trine comes in and Bryce Strang chases the fastball high avid zone. That happens. But it was a really good, really competitive baseball game between two really good teams. It's just, the Dodgers have been there, they've done this. They're unbelievably talented, and, you know, they are. They are the new Yankees. Like, they are the new evil empire. And they spend more money than everyone else and they have the best player that we've ever seen. And at the end of the day, like, chances are they're. They're favored to win the World Series this year for a reason.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I think the Dodgers, to me, like, I don't.

[Hank]

I don't.

[PFT Commenter]

I. It's not like I hate them, but there's been moments in these playoffs where I've been like, you kind of hate them. I do kind of hate them, but it's like, yeah, you do, but it's. But it's more like, well, I'm jealous of them, let me say, put it that way, because I.

[Jeff Passan]

That's.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Passan]

It's like, it's the worst kind of hatred.

[PFT Commenter]

Right, Right. It's like, I want an owner who will spend like them. So it's not a hate. Like, I can't believe you're doing this. This is. It's more like, I really want this. This. I really, really want an owner to spend this type of money. But there was a moment, I think it was last series against the Phillies. Glass now came out of the bullpen one game, and then he started like three games later. And it's like, this guy is, you know, he's obviously been injury riddled, but, like, he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. And the Dodgers are being like, yeah, we'll put you in the bullpen, have you throw, you know, 100 out of the bull, but. And then we'll have you start and go six scoreless. I'm like, this is bullshit. This is bullshit.

[Jeff Passan]

Yeah. You have every right to be jealous of the Dodgers. They have built the team that every fan wants to root for, and they've done it within the confines of what the rules are. And I think that's why fans are so pissed off, because these rules have allowed them to go do that. I think the Dodgers have recognized, like, okay, it's. It's just money, and we're bringing in goo gobs of it already through OHTANI and through 50,000 seats that we're every game. And as long as the rules don't constrain us from going out and spending, if you want to tax us for spending, all right, we'll just have a better team than you do. And that's a hard thing for other fans to wrap their heads around because nobody else has owners like that. I mean, it really is like a George Steinbrenner way of doing business. Like, we're going to build something that is undeniable. And the consequences of that may be that you hate us, but we'll just show you our jewelry and. And walk away smiling, cackling, that we won.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I mean, it is. It is the exact type of ownership that everybody else should want running their team. But also watching them, it would be. It would be very satisfying to see them get beat by the team with the. The last payroll. That. That would be a lot of fun. Like, I want to see them absolutely, like, have one of their most expensive guys go out there and choke at the end of a series, and then we can laugh at them, but then secretly be like, that's exactly how I want my team to be run. I'm just mad that it's not me. And when it comes to The brewers, they were 60 against the Dodgers this season in the regular season, so I don't think they're afraid of the Dodgers at all. What's interesting in this series, and I've seen this more across baseball this year, the idea of an opener, sending out an opener to pitch the first inning, and after I thought about it more and looked into the analytics behind why you would use an opener, it makes all the sense in the world to me. Why don't more teams use an opener? It's the only time in the game where you can control which batters your best pitchers are going to be pitching against. And it's, you know, 1, 2, 3, top their best batters and you get top of the order, you get to match it up perfectly. Why don't more teams use openers?

[Jeff Passan]

I think the, the idea behind an opener is great, but you also, if you have, like a really good arm, you want to save him for a more high leverage situation. You know, in the early innings, when it's a 00 game, I understand every out, there are always going to 27 of them, and every out is equal in the grand scheme. But some outs have more meaning later in the game or even in the middle innings. Like, if it's a one nothing game and you have runners on first and second with no outs, that's when you want to bring in, like, those high leverage arms. And teams have become much more adept at using bullpen guys in different innings. It used to be much more like, hey, this is your inning. We're going to keep you there because this is where you're comfortable. But now they know, like, if I'm good, if I have the ability strike guys out, I might be pitching in the first, I might be pitching in the fifth, I might be pitching in the ninth. It's about flexibility. And, you know, it's especially like pft if we're, if we're looking at when the right time to use an opener is. Every baseball team has like these matchup charts where on one side you've got their hitters and, like, up top you've got your pitchers and it like, rates each matchup. And so if you have a matchup or a guy who matches up well with the top three hitters, using him as an opener makes a Ton of sense. You know, you prevent them from scoring with their big boppers earlier in the game and then when you bring your starter so to speak or like bulk innings guy in, he's facing those players for the first time except it's the second time through the order. And the reason that that's a big deal is because it's been shown throughout the years that the more times a hitter sees you the likelier he is to succeed against you. So that's why you see so many starting pitchers these days getting pulled after two times going through the order because there's that penalty for going through the third time. So this is what I love about baseball, man. Like there's so much strategy to it and there's so much thought to be put into it. And here's the thing, you could put an opener in and he can get his teeth kick like it's no guarantee for success by any means. Sometimes you're, you're too smart for your own good.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. All right, real quick about the teams that got eliminated in the division series. Which team that got eliminated in the division series is maybe in the most trouble going into next year or like hey that was a shot that they missed that they're going to look back and be like damn, that was. The window is closing so to speak.

[Jeff Passan]

I mean the Cubs, if they lose Kyle Tucker it's going to be really interesting to see.

[PFT Commenter]

He's not resigning. Yeah, he's not resigning. That's a did that quote was the most I'm not resigning quote of all time. So I've already mentally moved on to Kyle Tucker's not resigning. Go find, go get another Kyle and Kyle Schwaber.

[Jeff Passan]

You want Schwarber to come back?

[Matt Leinart]

You want the reunion?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

[Big Cat]

Every team, every team should want.

[PFT Commenter]

He's my guy. Yeah, absolutely.

[Jeff Passan]

He, he, he is the best.

[PFT Commenter]

The best.

[Jeff Passan]

Like genuinely like the best. Yeah, it's. You know I, I'm so curious to see who's in on Schwarber this winter. Like actually in. Because I, I think because of his age he's not going to command like the 7, 8, 9 year, 10 year deal where worth 300 plus million dollars. Right. This is a, this is the kind of deal on a three or four or even maybe five year term that even some of those mid market teams can do. Like you want to bring in someone who's going to hit you bombs, take walks and be like the viest guy in the clubhouse and just a good mentor for everybody. Kyle Schwarber works absolutely Anywhere. And I think the answer to that original question for you is the Philly Phillies. The Phillies, like, could be in a very transitional phase at this point because this current incarnation of them guys just has failed. Like, they have not been able to win a championship. They've gone backward or been stagnant every year. And at some point, you just got to change the mix in the room.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah. By the way, I don't like what you just did, because I know what you did. That was essentially saying, the Cincinnati Reds are going to sign Kyle Schwaber because he's from Cincinnati. He's talked about playing for the Reds. You just were like, yeah, maybe mid. You know, mid market team could sign him. So that's. That stinks. That just raised a lot to come.

[Jeff Passan]

To Kansas City now. That's all I want.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, the Phillies are. Feel like that was the end of an era. What about the Yankees? Because it feels like the Yankees. And I don't know what it is, but they just. They're the same team every year, and they're. It seems like they're, you know, very close to burning. The golden age of. One of the best hitters we've ever seen in Aaron Judge is Hal Steinbrenner. Like, he just. He's just fine with. It's almost like they run it like a corporation now. And it's not what George Steinbrenner was. It was like, we want to win every year.

[Jeff Passan]

That's. It's. It's such an interesting thing to see because George Steinbrenner created this ideal of the Yankees. Like, the Yankees, because of the championships they had, the history, they had, the pedigree. But George Steinbrenner branded it. He made, like, winning in the Yankees synonymous in the same way that Jerry Jones tries or tried to do with the Cowboys. And I think there are a lot of parallels, actually, with the Cowboys and the Yankees, organizations that have gotten so enormously big and set such unrealistic expectations that now you have a transition in ownership from George Steinbrenner to house to time runner. And he does run it like a business. He does run it like a Fortune 500 company. And you have your P. Ls, and none of it has to do with going out and doing absolutely everything you can to win. He still has a. Like, a very healthy payroll. Like, the Yankees are not the little sisters of the poor by any means. They go out and they spend every year and they spend among the top five teams every year. But is that enough? Not when it's been a decade and a half since you've won a championship. And for other organizations and other franchise, that would be like, okay, yeah, you know, 15 years drought, whatever. For the Yankees, it's like they are. They are like addicts who are fiending so bad right now and just bad. You know, like, as a fan of the Yankees right now, there has to be some cognitive dissonance because you root for this team that all they've done is win, and now suddenly they're. Not only are they not winning, but they're not the biggest, baddest team in town anymore. That's the Dodgers. They're not even the biggest, baddest team in their city when it comes to financially. Like, the Mets are in a far better position right now than the Yankees are, just in terms of willingness to spend. So I can understand the frustration from Yankees fans when you've been taught in condition to think that championships are the only thing that matters. And then you have ownership that goes out there and doesn't fulfill that compact that you as a fan thought you had with the organization. It's a shock to the system. And they're still trying to figure out how. How do we take this team that has stagnated for so long and take it over the top?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, like a victim of their own success. And with the. With the Mets across town, obviously didn't make the postseason this year, where would you put this on the Mount Rushmore of Mets collapses?

[Jeff Passan]

I mean, it's, It's. They have such great history of just awful things happening, like that entire franchise. It's like growing up in Cleveland, you. You fundamentally understand what it feels like to witness sports failure. And so it's like I. I'm looking at the Mets from afar, and I was like. Like, I know that. Like, I've seen that before. And, and with the Mets, they. Yeah, this is right up there. I mean, they had the best record in baseball at one point and not an insignificant amount of time into the season either. This was like 70 games into the season. They had the best record in baseball, and then they don't even make the playoffs. It was a monumental collapse. And the, the way that it went down at the end at the hands of the Miami Marlins, like, that is just so incredibly Mets of them. And it's going to be interesting to see how they pivot away from that. Because, look, Juan Soto is still there. Francisco Lindor is still there. They still have talent on that team, and they have a really good farm system. Actually, this was a for all the things that have gone wrong with the Mets this year, like, they have a lot of good young players now, and the farm system really took a leap forward this year. So you're going to see some more good young players coming up. But this year, I think it was year five of Steve Cohen's ownership, and he had said, I want to win a World Series by the time, you know, by my fifth season, and they didn't even make the playoffs.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a question, one more question about the lockout. And I don't know how I'm going to. Well, you just explained to me because I don't fully understand it. So teams in free agency this off season, I expect my owner, Tom Ricketts, to basically be like, I'm not spending because I'm worried about the lockout. I assume there's going to be a lot of owners that are going to do the same thing. How does it work? Like, are they just. What are they nervous about that we lock out and that there is a salary cap? Like, are they nervous about. I would assume they don't have to pay them if they lock them out. So what is when they give us, when they feed us this bullshit, what are they trying to skirt around.

[Jeff Passan]

Around the reality that they might be shutting down their businesses for the 2027 season? So MLB owners particularly want a salary cap. And why do they want a salary cap? It's under the guise of competitive balance, right? If everyone can, you know, has the same ceiling, then it's just fair at that point. Like, let's go skill versus skill. You know, let's see how good your front office is. Let's see how good your team builds. Building is. But the reality is competitive balance doesn't come from a fixed amount of money that can be spent. The real reason that they want a salary cap in place is because when you look at the franchise values in other sports, they have been rocketing up in recent years, and Major League Baseball's franchise values have been relatively stagnant. And that's an area where if you have. Have a fixed amount of payroll, then you understand what your budget is and you understand what's going in and out. And at the end, because of that, that, like security, because of that knowledge, people are going to be willing to pay more for the franchises. They know that they're not going to have to necessarily go out and compete with Steve Cohen giving Juan Soto $765 million. So there's that. And this is a time where the league thinks that the players are vulnerable and they're willing to get into this fight where when the collective bargaining agreement expires, if there is no new deal in place, owners essentially lock players out. Say, you cannot report to work, and then it just becomes a staring contest. And if it goes on for too long and they cannot find any place where they come together on an agreement, then games start getting canceled. And once games start getting canceled, money stops coming in. You don't have ticket sales, you don't have television revenue, you don't have any of that stuff. And so you need to have a stockpile of cash to withstand that. And the staring contest at that point becomes who is worse off for not playing games and not having this enormous $13 billion economy every year. Chernobyl. Are the players going to fold first and say, I'm in the prime of my career, I only have a finite number of earning years, I'm going to go back because I feel like it's right for me right now? Or is it the owners who blank by saying, we have these businesses that have been doing extraordinarily well. What the hell are we doing shutting them down in pursuit of something that they were never going to agree to in the first place?

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Jeff Passan]

And that to me is like the most frustrating part of this whole thing. We know the answer from the players is going to be no. We just know that. And when that knowledge is in place, if you're the owner saying, we're going to say this is what we're doing anyway, do you really believe that you're in that strong of a position where you can take this group of 1200 people who are so thick headed and so devoted to what they do that they became professional athletes? Like, beyond all of the physical talent that they have. Guys, do you know how hard it is mentally to be a professional athlete and how inherently stubborn you have to be? Okay. And so, okay, let's go against these 1200 incredibly stubborn men and tell them this is what you're going to have. Good luck. Like, that is not going to work out great. And ultimately, I think, I think beyond the owners, beyond the players, the fans are the ones who suffer. Yeah, baseball's good right now. Like, I'm really happy as somebody who loves the sport, the place that baseball is in right now. I think the pitch clock has been incredible for the game. I think that like, like the best. And I think that when there are automated balls and strikes next year and you can get rid of these shitty calls by the umpires, that's going to be great too. I think you've got interesting teams and interesting players in Stars and in the Dodgers, you now have a villain. There's this whole universe in baseball right now and it's a good story and it's good entertainment. And to throw that away because you want your franchise values to be a little bit higher. To throw that away because you want to try and brute force players to do something that for a half century they have resisted. Maybe there is a time where the salary cap will be right for baseball. I don't think that that's right now. And if they want to make that fight, then it's going to be awfully interesting to see how it turns out.

[Big Cat]

This might be a really dumb question, but in the event of a lockout, is there anything in the players contracts that would prevent them from playing? Like if foreign investment fund hypothetically wanted to do like a world Baseball Classic type thing thing, buy a, pay a bunch of players to, to play exhibition matches against each other and broadcast those. Is there anything that would prevent the players from doing that?

[Jeff Passan]

Free agents would be able to do that because they're not under contract with the team. But I, I do not believe that we could have like an alternative league starting up. As much fun as that would be. I do wonder like if a bunch of free agents just went over to Japan and played that there. Like you start an expansion franchise, just call them the ugly Americans. Just go over there and let them.

[Big Cat]

Let them wreck shop or banana ball. Have them, have them all play banana ball for a year.

[PFT Commenter]

We just become bananas.

[Jeff Passan]

Are you guys, are you guys in on the bananas?

[PFT Commenter]

My, my, my. I took my 6 year old when they were here. So yes, I am in on the bananas.

[Big Cat]

They're fun.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they're. They're not like it's one of those things that as a 40 year old man, I don't think it's meant for me. But I'm like anything that grows the game of baseball and has kids excited about watching a sport, about being outside. Like you can't, you can't hate on that. So I like, what are you going to do? Like, that's what like kids are excited about that. Kids want to play baseball because they see that that's a net positive to me. Like in society.

[Jeff Passan]

Dan, kids are also morons.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that too. That's true. That's absolutely true. They're very dumb.

[Big Cat]

But as an adult, imagine catching a foul ball to end the game.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they're so dumb. Oh man. My son, when I took him there he ate it. He ate a banana in front of the banana mascot. And the banana mascot was like, how could you do that? And it was like he was hooked from that moment on. It's like, how could you eat a banana in front of the banana? Jeff, I got one last question for you. This has been awesome. We love having you on. So rollback question. R, H, O, B A C K.com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. Q, zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code take. So I started this interview and I said we've been trying to do this for a couple weeks, but your schedule, our schedule, the MLB schedule has been so crazy. You've been traveling around. What is the Jeff passing like, what do you do after a game? Are you going to bars? Are you going to hang out? Out? Because it's, it's a long time on the road. I have to imagine you're going to go visit some. I mean, Toronto's an incredible city. Seattle's an incredible. So what have you been doing?

[Jeff Passan]

So last night's a 5 o' clock start, which is like the ideal time, you know, because it's quick, quick games now. So go down to the clubhouse, write my story. I get a text from my buddy Jake Mintz, who works at Yahoo Sports, and he says, we're going to the Imperial Pub. I have no idea what the Imperial Pub is. And he's like, it's closing down November 15th. He had just found it. Like he was searching on Google Maps for a bar that was open until 3 o' clock in the morning. And so I roll into this bar and the first thing I see when I walk in is carpet. And I'm like, fuck yeah. Like this place has a chance to be really good. And we go up, we sit down, talk to the, talk to the bartender. His name is Jacob Newman and the bar has been in his family for 81 years. It was started by his great grandfather and they are closing down after 81 years because a university in the area essentially has like bought and annexed the block and is building condos there. So the Blue Jays, yeah, it's, you know, gentrification has its prices and one of those is this incredible bar because I sit down, I think I got there at like 1 o', clock, sit down and for the next two hours had with him and Cameron, who's the other bartender, the most enjoyable patron bartender conversation I've had in my entire life. Like, the guys were funny. Jacob wanted me to, to record a Video talking shit on all of his fantasy league friends who he had gone and beaten. Like, you guys get asked to do that too, right?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, all the time.

[Jeff Passan]

It is one of my favorite things about this job when someone comes up to me and says, hey, can you be an asshole to my friends? And I was like, yeah, absolutely, sure, absolutely. And so we're just, we're sitting there and we're drinking and we're having a great time and Jorge Castillo, my teammate, is there. Danny Wexelman, Disha Thozar. You know those nights when you just. It's a group of people that you've never been out with, just like the group of you together and it's like the best time. And you sit around and you're like, I'm so happy I'm with these people in this moment, at this place. But it dawned on me like, like, this is the last time I'm probably ever going to drink in the bar unless the Toronto Blue Jays make a miraculous comeback. And that is why I am urging everybody in Toronto right now. I'm wearing this, the Imperial Pub. I'm going to stand up so you can see the address right here. I don't know if I can read backward. Is that 54 Dundas Street East? Two blocks east of Yon. Fill that place up for game three. For game four. Whatever it is, they have the staff ready for that. And a great bar deserves a great send off. And I feel like if the Blue Jays can come back in this series and this bar, listen, it's not going to be saved, it's not going to be salvaged, but all you want out of a good bar is memorable nights. And they gave me one last night. And hopefully the people of Toronto can go and give them some as they, as they go to the end.

[Big Cat]

There's nothing like one of those nights where it, everything just clicks.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

You know, it. Everything feels good. And it's like, this is. This was a good idea to go out and drink beer tonight. I'm happy I did it.

[PFT Commenter]

And you get to that bar where you're like, you know, someone might throw out, like, hey, should we go somewhere else? You're like, nah, we got it right here. Like, this is. You're not, you're not going to go chase something. It's like, what we have right here is perfect. Let's just be here.

[Jeff Passan]

It was, it was one of those magical nights that I will always remember. And it's just, you know, yeah, you live for those. Like, I'm 45 now. And I have. I have learned over time that don't just, like, cherish those nights afterward. Just make sure that in the moment, you appreciate all the cool things that you have. And last night was one of those very cool things.

[Big Cat]

You're 45.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. And you. You.

[Big Cat]

You look great.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, you look great. Just.

[Big Cat]

You look really good.

[PFT Commenter]

That type of. That type of introspection. You sound like a guy who almost died by a tree. Tree. Yeah. Hey, that's the other tip. Everyone almost die by a tree. And you will. You will cherish those moments. Yeah.

[Jeff Passan]

Or just stay away from trees.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Stay away from trees.

[Jeff Passan]

It's like a very simple rule of.

[Matt Leinart]

Like, stay away from falling trees.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it's a great idea. All right, Jeff, you're the best. We appreciate it. Maybe we'll try to do this again before the World Series. Playoffs have been incredible. Thank you so much, everyone. Go read those articles, too, because they're really good and.

[Big Cat]

Okay, can you talk shit real quick to Stephen Che? You're saying, like, talking shit to a person you're in a fantasy league with. Stephen Che lost our Dingers only league this year, and he has to pitch. So can you just talk shit to him real quick? Be like, hey, Steven, fuck you.

[Jeff Passan]

Stephen, why do you suck? Your mom does not like you, and you have an ugly face.

[PFT Commenter]

By the way, that's a off season. Off season. If you have a. If you do get a lockout out, an off season story you can write. Stephen Shea is the commissioner of the fantasy league. The famous Tommy fam. Jock Peterson. Famous fantasy league, Fantasy football league. I'm in it. And Stephen Chase, the commissioner, Stephen Che knew nothing about baseball, like, two, three years ago, and he now is like, like, enacting rules on, like, Manny Machado and Mike Trout and, like, dropping the hammer on these guys. So maybe that's an off season. If there's a lockout, you can. You can do like a. I'm just.

[Matt Leinart]

Hold on.

[Jeff Passan]

I'm more of like. You're in the slap league.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I'm in the slap league. Dave was in it. So they. They got. They kicked Tommy Fam out. Dave was in it for a year. Dave hated doing it, and so I took his place. So I'm in the slap league. But the craziest part is that Stephen Shea, this nerd who's literally didn't even know what baseball was six months ago, is basically telling, like, hey, Mike Trout, you can't do that. Waiver pickup. So it's a wild leak. It's a wild text message. Thread.

[Jeff Passan]

Is Mike Trout good at fantasy football?

[PFT Commenter]

He's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's a football. He is a football guy. He's go. Yeah. Through and through. All right, Jeff. You're the best. Thank you so much.

[Jeff Passan]

Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate you having me.

[Big Cat]

Jeff Passon was brought to you by our great friends over at Chevy. Football season is here, and whether you're grinding through the week or gearing up for kickoff, there's one ride that's always game ready. The Chevy Silverado. The Silverado is a longtime partner of Pardon my take. It's our favorite truck and it's all about grit. From job site to tailgate, Silverado lets you show up strong and tackle any task. Built for the hustle, ready for the game. Silverado is America's most dependable full size traffic truck. For J.D. power 2025 award information, visit jdpower.com awards head to chevy.com learn more build your own Chevy Silverado today. Jeff Passon was also brought to you by Morgan and Morgan. If you've ever stood at the top of a towering water slide, heart pounding, and ask yourself, what's the worst that could happen? One visitor found out the hard way. What was supposed to be a thrilling day at a popular Florida water attraction ended in a life altering ended injury. While riding one of the park's fastest slides. He was violently thrown from his tube, landing hard and suffering injuries that still affect him nearly four years later. That's when he turned to a law firm known for standing up to the biggest names in the business. The suit claims the slide's design, coupled with a lack of clear safety communication oversight, created a hazardous environment, especially for guests outside certain body specifications. Now this guest is living with permanent pain, scarring and a drastically diminished quality of life, all from what was supposed to be a routine thrill ride. Because when safety isn't the top priority, fun can turn into something else entirely. Morgan. Morgan is America's injury law firm. They're the largest injury law firm with over $25 billion recovered. They've been fighting for the people for over 35 years, helping over 500,000 clients get the compensation they deserve. Hiring the wrong firm can be disastrous. Hiring the right firm firm could substantially increase your settlement. With Morgan and Morgan, it's easy to get started. Their fee is free unless they win. Visit for the people.com pmt or dial pound law. £529 that's for the people.com pmt or dial pound law £529. This is a paid advertisement.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest. Recurring guest, Heisman winner. It is Matt Leinert and he's our coworker, Matt Liner at Fox Big Noon Kickoff going to Provo for the holy war this week. So tune in on Saturday morning. Matt, we want to come on have you come on, talk a little ball. Also, it is Notre Dame, USC week, so let's start there. Is USC back? Cause I know we always talk about Texas and Notre Dame, but USC is one of those sneaky teams where you guys have been down for a little bit and this might be feel like the first year where it's like, oh, they could be a college playoff team.

[Matt Leinart]

Well, why don't you just, why don't you tell them what you guys were telling me a couple weeks ago, how we're just so soft on the west coast and you can't beat anybody. And then, I mean, look what they did last week against Michigan.

[PFT Commenter]

Hand up, by the way, I want to just say I did not realize that the entire USC team had food poisoning before Illinois.

[Matt Leinart]

I mean, look, yeah, they did. They lost their best defensive player like three hours before the game, but who's counting? Look, I think, I think, I mean, in all honesty, the last week's win was, it was as big of a win, if I can remember from that program since like the Pete Carroll days. And it's just because of the perception and the narrative which you guys know and like you talked about, like, like, can they win the tough games? Can they be physical? Can they do it week in and week out? Can they beat the teams they're so supposed to beat? Losing a game like Illinois, which I don't think they should have lost that game, they lost, they got pushed around the second half and then, and I don't know how good Michigan is. I know they can't throw the football very well, but that's still a team that's invested heavily in the line of scrimmage. That's where they win games. And they completely dominated them on both sides of the ball. So I think at the very least, it's a, it's a, it's a confidence booster. It's a program changer, knowing that now they can do it. But then you look at this game, guys, and like, Notre Dame's really good and they're, the difference is they could throw the ball. CJ Cars is a stud. I think that this dude's going to be a top five pick in the next couple years. So if you do take away the run now, you got to Deal with the pass. That's something they didn't have to do last week. So I love the game because it's important for both teams. It's a playoff elimination game. It means a lot more than it's had. Notre Dame has. Has owned this the last decade. They just have. But we. We got a fighting chance, dude. I mean, that last game. Game, our offense is legit, and last game, I think create a lot of confidence for the boys.

[Big Cat]

So. Yeah, man, I'm looking at your background right now. You have your Heisman Trophy behind you.

[Matt Leinart]

I do. Right there.

[Big Cat]

Is that on top of just a box jump box?

[Matt Leinart]

It is, yeah. I like to. I like to do box jumps while. Yeah, yeah. Look at.

[Big Cat]

Wait, you don't have, like, a shelf for the Heisman Trophy? You don't have a case for it.

[Jeff Passan]

Look at, bro.

[Matt Leinart]

There we go.

[PFT Commenter]

Dude, that's pretty cool.

[Matt Leinart]

That's about £30, you know. Well, so I got some weight. So listen, in my house, you know, we got. We got nice house here in South. South Bay. You know, we got. I got four kids and the office goes to my wife. So I have been. I am in my garage in the corner. I would show you. I'm in the corner. So the Heisman was on the floor of my closet for about a decade, and I finally realized, well, dude, I'm doing a pod now. I'm doing all this stuff. Stuff. I might as well throw it in the back. I might as well throw it next to Kobe and. And some of the other stuff.

[PFT Commenter]

It's a nice flat.

[Big Cat]

That's a great location.

[Matt Leinart]

Thank you, guys. Yeah, it's just little thing here.

[Big Cat]

Did. Did Reggie ever go over to your place and it was just like, in your closet on the ground. He's like, come on, man.

[Matt Leinart]

Come on.

[Big Cat]

Come on, man. Like, I, I.

[Matt Leinart]

No, but you know who did. You know who did is urban. And urban. When urban first joined. Big news. What it was like, six years ago, he came over and, you know, we're like, having drinks in the backyard, just getting to know each other and stuff. And he goes, where's your Heisman? I said, coach, I was like, come on. Up we go in my bedroom. And he's like, are you kidding me, dude? It's on. It's literally was under my wife's dresses, like, literally on the ground. I was just like, well, like, what? I was like, coach, what am I gonna do, dude? Like, what? Throw? Like, put it out where, like, everyone can see on the shelf. Like, I don't care that much, dude. I Don't even know where half my trophies are there. I think they're in storage somewhere.

[PFT Commenter]

That's a pretty. We'll take. Hey, if you find like just kind of a nothing trophy you don't care about, we will put it into play it in our studio. That would be sick if we're like, dude, I got.

[Matt Leinart]

I got some. I got some for you guys. Wait real quick before I know we talk about this game. So I got my jersey here. Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Matt Leinart]

Because this is what Dave is going to wear this week on the show.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh.

[Matt Leinart]

Even though we technically didn't bet. So I wanted to ask you guys this and what your thoughts. And I know you're going to side with Dave and I get it, but.

[PFT Commenter]

No, that's not true. That's not necessarily true.

[Matt Leinart]

So let me just paint the picture for you. So last week in our meeting and. And Big Cat, you've been in the meeting. So we're in the meeting and we're just kind of going over the show and I'm like, dude, what do you want to do for the game?

[Big Cat]

Like.

[Matt Leinart]

Like, I'll wear. You wear my jersey on Dave's rant. Like, you do your rant. You wear my jersey. You wear a helmet, whatever. We'll keep it cool. Cool. Have a little fun. He's like, great, that's cool. So then we're at dinner that night, and he goes. He goes, if Michigan wins, you basically have to talk shit about Lincoln Riley and apologize to all the Oklahoma fans, how he left and all that stuff. And I was like. I was like, listen, man, I'll do pretty much anything. But, like, you know, I'm in a different position. I'm not gonna. I can't. This my alma mater and all these kind of things. And I was like, but I'll do whatever. Just come up with something. He's like, all right, I'll come up with something. He never did did. So we never technically shook on it. And then he's texting me the first fumble that our tight end has. He's telling you guys are soft surfer boys this and that. And then what happened? For the three and a half quarters I laid into this, he basically. He shut me off. He put me, like, on unread. He wouldn't read my text messages. So then he goes on Wake Up, Barstool and says, we don't have a bet because we never formally agreed to something. What do you guys think? I think it's.

[PFT Commenter]

I think he has to wear it.

[Matt Leinart]

Yes, I think so, too. That sounds like A Michigan would have won. I would have. If Michigan would have won, I would have won his Portnoy jersey.

[Hank]

I would.

[Matt Leinart]

I was like. I was like, listen, I'm not going to do that. And I get it. You can call me a coward. I'm not going to do that. But I will do whatever else you want to do. He never came up with something anyway. That's a jersey.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I think it comes down like a dress. It comes down to simply, if Michigan had won, would he have come and said, hey, you have to do something for me?

[Matt Leinart]

Yes, exactly.

[PFT Commenter]

So.

[Matt Leinart]

And you guys know him better than me. I guarantee he would have done that.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Matt Leinart]

This jersey would look good back there. I give you guys a jersey.

[PFT Commenter]

Maybe. If you want. I want a random trophy. Like, if you have, like, just give.

[Matt Leinart]

You, like, a Johnny. Johnny Unit is Golden Arm trophy.

[PFT Commenter]

You know, the minute you want it back, you can have it back. But we will display it so that.

[Matt Leinart]

People are like, I'll ship something out to you.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

We're just like, what is that? It's like, oh, that's Matt Lanner's trophy.

[Big Cat]

I also like the idea of your wife being, like, annoyed that your Heisman Trophy is taking up room in the house. She's like, what are you gonna give, by the way?

[Matt Leinart]

Super noise. Like, I got so much random throughout that. She's like, like, my golf clubs are right here in front of me on the ground. She's like, can you move your golf clubs? Like, what are we doing? I was like. I was like, dude, I can't win, man. Like, what do you want me to do? I'm in the corner of my garage. It's also. It's also raining today. That's why I got a sweatshirt on. It's like, it's actually cold today.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, I'm so sorry. That's brutal. The three times it rains in Southern.

[Matt Leinart]

California, it rains three times. You're absolutely right.

[PFT Commenter]

I got one last, last question about usc, Notre Dame, because I. Yeah, you know, Notre Dame is taken. What's the line?

[Matt Leinart]

Actually, I think it's seven and a half.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know.

[Matt Leinart]

Maybe that's a tough one. Yeah, I, I, I probably. I don't even know what the over.

[PFT Commenter]

Is, but, yeah, a lot of tough.

[Matt Leinart]

One, man, for the boys. I ain't gonna lie.

[PFT Commenter]

So Notre Dame is one of those schools that they have rivalry games with pretty much everyone on their schedule. Like, in terms of the USC side, like, is Notre Dame a big game? When you were playing, was it like, this is your rival and did reciprocated with Notre Dame. Or was it like, they don't care, they got so many rivals.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah, it definitely, it definitely was our biggest rival in the sense that UCLA was terrible when we played them. And I, I can't explain it. I don't know who. Who's like Wisconsin's. What is it Purdue? Is it Purdue rival Minnesota? It's like UCLA was the crosstown rivalry. Right. It's a battle of la. You knew a lot of the dudes that went there from high school. And like, I actually was a UCLA fan growing up, the Cade McNown era. So it didn't mean as much to me beating them. And the games were never close. So really, like, we always were like, oh, this like, they suck. Okay. Notre Dame, we lost my freshman year, my redshirt year, Carson's year, I think we lost at Notre Dame. So I experienced that there as a loss. That game just meant more. And it also, like, there was just so much more meaning. Like, it won Carson Palmer the Heisman Trophy. It essentially won me the Heisman Trophy. That game my junior year, playing against them in November, November. And then the Bush push game my senior year and how we won that game, like, it just always meant more and it felt different. And Pete always did a great job of that game, really respecting the history of the game.

[Jeff Passan]

Right.

[Matt Leinart]

And respecting Notre Dame, Montana and all of the great players that played there. So, yeah, like, to answer your question, it meant more to. I'd say, like, it wasn't like, oh, we circled Notre Dame every year. Like, we could care less, but when it was game week, like, it meant a lot for. For sure. And it was also like the second to last game or like lateness. I think it was in October my senior year. But it always was like, we always had a couple more games left in order to like, get to a national championship. Right. That was kind of our thought. So.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. And this does. I mean, I love that this is an elimination game.

[Matt Leinart]

Like, it's a huge one.

[PFT Commenter]

Dude game. Will. Will most likely be a playoff team. And that makes it awesome.

[Matt Leinart]

Notre Dame is. If Notre Dame wins, they'll win. They're going to coast to 10 and 2 because their schedule is terrible. They don't. This, this is the toughest game left on the schedule by far. And I believe 10 and 2, we all. I mean, they're. They're in the playoff if they win.

[Big Cat]

I would think so.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah. USC can lose and win out and be in. I just don't see them lose. I. I don't like at Nebraska is challenging. At Oregon is a tough one. And again, like I said, like, USC just hasn't proven they can win these games back to back. So this is a de facto playoff game. It's elimination game.

[PFT Commenter]

It. It's.

[Matt Leinart]

It's huge. I don't remember the last time this game. Game met this much because Notre Dame has dominated us. I mean, they really have. So this is a big one, man.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So setting aside the, the personal beef with Dave and the bet because of the Michigan game, how have you found fitting into the Big Ten? Like, do you. Have you. Have you found yourself developing animosity towards other schools, like, feeling a natural rivalry, like, coming into place?

[Matt Leinart]

Not yet. Not yet. I. It's. It's. It's so interesting, man. It's all. It's still bittersweet for me to see the package pack 12 I was a part of the PAC 10 just dissolve. It's just literally not there anymore. And, you know, we had a great run there and it meant a lot to me. I love the Big Ten. I mean, obviously we cover it, you know, at Fox predominantly, and it does remind of the old, like, Rose bowl games and the Big Ten, Pac 10. Those games were awesome. You know, we played Michigan in the Rose bowl one year and that seed Penn State game and all that. I, I don't think. I don't think there's a rivalry yet, but you can feel it a little bit because I don't think a lot of people. I don't think like. I mean, for like just the whole usc, the whole west coast soft thing, like, I don't think a lot of people like Lincoln, Riley and USC and like that style of play. And even Shroom Moore last week was talking about, you know, the fans coming in and they're only sold out because of Michigan. And like, we're physical. Like, they just got their butts kicked by that team that they were just calling out, you know, So I think, I think naturally when you start to play these teams over a period of time, you start to start to game, but we're, but we're not, like. I mean, I don't, like, we're not good enough to have rivalries yet. We've been there two years and we haven't done anything. Like last year we lost five or six games, you know, so, you know, we're still trying to find our place in the Big Ten, I think.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the whole California soft team thing, I, I know, me and.

[Matt Leinart]

Which I don't get.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, I mean, it's just fun to say.

[Big Cat]

It's fun to say. Me and Big Head have talked about it. We do think it might be harder to get fat in California. It might be harder to have like big lineman.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it's, it's.

[Matt Leinart]

Well, I mean, dude, but that. This is the thing. I was a part of an era when we had. I mean, we were dominant. Like, we had dominant linemen. Like, they're, they're here. Yeah. I mean, I, I guess we're known for quarterback skills. You get the sexy guy, right? The guy that looks good in the T shirt and shorts. Sports, there's been a lot of great linemen here. I mean, modern day Bosco, all these guys. But the problem is they all left, you know, because USC has been so down for the last two years. UCLA is not good. Oregon gets a lot of those dudes with Dan Lanning. Dan Lanning's built his team like an SEC team with a lot of big bodies, but yeah, a lot of avocados and salads out here, bro. My six year old, all he eats is salad. I was like, what the hell? What. What the hell's going on, dude? And he's big, though.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. That same kid is eating nothing but chicken nuggets and mot sticks in Wisconsin, by the way.

[Matt Leinart]

My four year old, all he eats is Mac and ch. Cheese. So you guys would love for a Big Ten team. Oh, he could play. Yeah, he. He would line up. He would line up at right guard for Wisconsin.

[PFT Commenter]

Dude.

[Big Cat]

Are we sure that UCLA is bad, though?

[Matt Leinart]

Oh, I agree with you, buddy. I. There's a world with. I mean, they could. Like, I was actually think. I was looking at USC sketch. I'm like, God damn. Like, usc, UCLA might be actually a really good game at the end of the year.

[Big Cat]

We don't, we don't know. Crazy.

[Matt Leinart]

Is it the cra. Like the biggest fall? Like, I, like, I kind of ties in with Penn State, but like, is that the biggest fall from like college football in the history of the sport? Like, what's happened with them in three weeks? They were one play away from beating Oregon, who I still think is really good to literally losing to UCLA and then Northwestern at home. Like, I just, like, it's, it's. I. And I think UCLA might be pretty good. Like, I don't know. Like, I don't want to make excuses for them. Like, I just. I don't know. Like, it's, it's, it's crazy.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. The Penn State fall, like, it's so. It just happened so fast and we Were always kind of teetering on it with James Franklin. Can't win the big, of course, but it was like when he can't win the small one too. It's crazy. Who do you think, do you have any idea, any intel or ideas of like, who would be good for that job? Because it's a great job. It's also a tough job because it's.

[Matt Leinart]

A great job though.

[PFT Commenter]

But they expect, expect the. Penn State's kind of raised the bar where they expect national titles now, and that's hard to do.

[Matt Leinart]

It's. It's. I'm telling you, it's the same two names that you have heard and that we're going to hear in, in Signetti and Coach Rule. It's going to be those, those two, I think, you know, the big. I like Signetti, man. Like, I like to win at Indiana and to do it now two years in a row. And like, I think they're going to win out. Like, I think they're going to play Ohio State in the Big Ten title game. And the way he's done that so quickly, I think that's why Penn State's like, well, gosh, if he can do it, like we can, you know, we, we should be able to do it at Penn State. I think he's the big swing, obviously. I think they're going to be playing deep into in December and January, so that's going to be interesting to see the patience that Penn State has. And then Rule is just the obvious one. I mean, these are the two obvious ones. Like, like, Rule went there, he's close with the ad. His quotes were a little interesting this week about like, like, you know, obviously talking about that job. And then I'll. Joel Clapp mentioned this on our call, so I'll, I'll definitely give him the credit. Brian Hartline was. It was a name that he threw out there from Ohio State who's calling plays and hasn't been a head coach. So maybe you go that route of a young guy who hasn't had. Had that experience but can recruit his ass off and what he's done at Ohio State. So I don't see like a crazy name coming out of nowhere for this job. Like, I think they have their, their sights set on a couple guys and ultimately can Indiana throw enough at Signetti to keep them there? And you know, Matt Rule, I mean, Rule, that's the interesting one to me. If he can, if Nebraska can make a run at this thing and maybe they're a playoff team, like, does he Stay like, because Nebraska's got resources too, so it'll be interesting though.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Is there a team that's, that's really impressed you in college football that maybe at the start of the year you were a little lukewarm on, but as the going on you've started to say like, hey, we need to be paying more attention to them.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah, well, Indiana's one for sure. And I was the same as everybody. Like, do we really, like, do we really think they're good? And again, that kind of goes with just like it's Indiana, that win last week I played at Oregon, man. It's a tough spot, dude. It's, it's, it's tough to play. That was good. I think Alabama, man, like, I, I, I really like this team. They lost to Florida State, who's not that good given what we know now. And you know, I work with Mark and Big Cat. You've been around Mark and like just Bama, where they were with Saban and then just last year and already the pressure of DeBoer and all this and like, they're like, they're legit, dude. They're playing really good football. Like, they're one of the best teams in the country right now. So that's a team that I didn't have high expectations for coming in. It's like Bama, they're going to be pretty good. They got good players, but like, they've exceeded that in this little stretch of games and obviously they have a lot more tough games coming up. Who else? I mean, Texas Tech. Yeah, Texas Tech is legit, dude. Like, they're legit. I mean, money could buy a team. Clearly, like that, that team is really good. Like, I, I don't see them, I don't see them losing in the Big 12 either. Typically that, that conference is wide open. We saw them at Utah firsthand. I mean, they're good. They're really good.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah. Ty Simpson for Alabama. I'm so impressed with him. He's.

[Matt Leinart]

Guys, Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson are your Heisman TR Trophy favorites and Mendoza deserves it.

[PFT Commenter]

Like Mendoza, I thought the key to that game, Indiana beating Oregon, was actually the pick six. And like that moment where you're Indiana, you obviously had a great year last year, but you don't have the history, the, you know, whatever. It's, it's that moment where you're looking around, you're like, we just threw a pick six tie ball game, Austin Stadium. This is where you crumble. And he goes on a 75 yard drive.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Unflappable. It's like, that's a dude, right, right there.

[Matt Leinart]

That's a dude. And those are the moments. Like, those are Heisman moments, but those are team moments, man. Those are like, when a team can do that. That's why I was like, all right, Indiana is for real because we've seen a lot of really good football teams crumble in the fourth or they just. Like, Penn State's kind of one of them, right? Like, when the game is on the line, who do you trust? Like, it's Penn State. Never got over that hump. Mendoza's the real deal. Like, he, he's a good player. Signetti's quarterback history, like, even what he did last year with those guys, like, like, like he. Indiana is really good. They've been really impressive.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah, they have. Are you ready to join us in saying that Ohio State is better this year than last year?

[Matt Leinart]

Oh, absolutely.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. We were, we were first to it and people were saying that we're stupid.

[Matt Leinart]

That team. The defense is. The defense is the most dominant defense by far. I was just, I was just saying this to someone earlier. Julian Sane and Fernando Mendoza for the Heisman Trophy in the Big Ten championship game. Yeah, I think that's what's going to happen. Sane's odds are a little lower right now, but he's got, he's going to rise, obviously, when they continue to win. Sane's a dude. I've watched West Coast Buddy, San Diego kid. I've been watching that kid since high school. He's unflappable. The only thing that their run game isn't great, that's the one thing that it's like, man, if they have an off day throwing the football and they can't run, like, like maybe they run, run. It's. Honestly, it's probably going to be Indiana in the Big Ten championship game. It's the only time I can see maybe them stumbling. But they're, they're, they're loaded, dude. They're so good. Like, they're just, they're nasty and they've been there and they had the, you know, they had the championship kind of pedigree.

[Big Cat]

So if it does come down to those two, I, I would have a hard time thinking that anybody else would win the Heisman, but we. Right now, Carson Beck is the favorite to win the Heisman out of my. Yeah, yeah. So he's at plus 360. Ty Simpson's 380. Mendoza's 475. Are you just.

[Matt Leinart]

Are you looking down Hammer him. I'd hammer him. And Doza at that. Like, I think he's got a shot because I think Indiana can beat Ohio State. Like, I, I do think that they're. With the way their defense played against Oregon. Yeah. I don't know. It's wide open.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Who do you like out of the SEC right now? Who's. Who do you think is the best team in the sec? I mean, A and M, like Alabama, I was thinking.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah, I would say I think Bama and A M. I, I think Bama just kind of what I said. They're. There's. That they're flawed. Like, they're, they're big time flawed. But like that QB you just talked about. Mendoza, big cat, like, just the moment, right. He continues to, to. To seize the moment. DeBoer has won everywhere he's been, so he knows how to win A M with Marcel Reed, he's a dark horse Heisman guy too, because if they went out like, that kid's got a shot to win it. They're. They're tough with Elko. Like, the way, like, they're good. I think those are the two best teams right now. And Georgia's just like. Georgia just hangs around, man. They're just, they're, they're, they're just good. Like the culture there, as much as I love Lane, Ole Miss to me is a little bit of like, I just don't trust them. You know, that guy. They could have lost last week to Washington State, but I would go Bama. I think Bama's number one right now in A. A and M is number two. I think those two teams have proven they're the best.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Now, as a quarterback, watching Arch, I know that Arch has had a rough go of it this year. There are a lot of people like, trash him after every single game. He hasn't looked sharp, to be fair. Was there anything out of last week's game against Oklahoma that you saw and you're like, you know, this Arch, he might be pretty good.

[Matt Leinart]

It just like. And I was guilty of it too. Like, just jumping on the bandwagon so fast and like, like it wasn't his fault. I feel bad because the expect. I mean, again, at the end of the day, it's. You play quarterback, he's making millions of dollars there. It is what it is, right? He hasn't played a lot of football coming into this year. So, like, I think some of us forgot, like, hey, this kid didn't play at a high level in high school. As far as the competition. We've seen those videos. And now he's going to play in the sec. And by the way, week one's Ohio State, which is the best defense in the country. Kind of, kind of a tough challenge. Before I get to Arch. Like, I do look like the receivers haven't been great. The right, like there's, there's a lot of pieces in this that you need to help a young quarterback. Look at Julian saying, you got two great receivers. You got a, you got an offensive corner, you got heart line, you got these guys. Yeah, I liked what I saw last week. It's just going to take time. Like, this is a kid that's going to get better week in and week out. I don't think he's had a ton of help around him. I still believe Sark is one of the best I, I've played for him. He's one of the best quarterback teachers and developers in our game. And I think Sark, I think, I think Arch will be back next year better than ever. I really believe that. Like, I think that there's still a lot in front of them too, in this game, whether they're four and two, right. They have one one loss in conference play and they still got a lot in front of them. So I think he's getting better. I, I, I wonder if he's hurt at all dealing with anything. I think that's the speculation. It, it didn't look right a couple weeks in a row there. But again, you know, I don't know what's going on in that locker room, but the kid's gonna be fine. He's good.

[Big Cat]

Those are the taking a poop faces that Sark brought up. Did Sark ever mention that to you? He's like, hey, you're doing a poop. You're taking a poop face right now.

[PFT Commenter]

Are you hurt?

[Big Cat]

Are you okay?

[Matt Leinart]

I had Sar, I had Sark when he was like 24 years old. Can you imagine? Sark and Lane Kiffin it. They were literally, oh, God. They were literally like, like freaking frat man. They were both like 25 years old. Just young, arrogant coaches who I love, by the way. I love them both. And they were phenomenal. But they were like, I mean, the f. That was their first big coaching gigs. Coaching with those guys my senior year, guy. They were both my OCs. My senior year, my fifth year was freaking awesome. But never poop. Never poop conversations, dude.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I like to explain what I took from that was, is like, he's got Arch's back He's just like, emptying the chamber right now with. With things that you can say he's going to def.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah. Which I love. He's defending. Yeah, exactly. He's defending his qb, so. Yeah, but they'll be fine over there, man. There, there, there. There's more than just arch as a problem at Texas right now.

[PFT Commenter]

I know you've probably thought about it, but how much do you think you would have made in nil if they had nil when you were like, play Matt Leiner's career exactly the same at usc, Heisman National Championship, all this. What do you actually think you would have taken home with nil?

[Matt Leinart]

Got at least probably 4 or 5.

[PFT Commenter]

Mil a year or overall. I think it might have been more.

[Matt Leinart]

Well, my first year. My first year, and then going into my. My first year coming back, I would have definitely made a little bit of money. Money.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Matt Leinart]

I mean, dude, winning after winning the Heisman. Yeah. It would have been probably four or five. Four or five then, Right. Because that's what a couple of these guys are making now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Matt Leinart]

To come back for my senior year. Hell yeah, dude. Hell yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

How many. How many stars did you have coming out of high school?

[Matt Leinart]

Four.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Matt Leinart]

I was. I was. I wasn't like, super highly recruited. I mean, I had. I had offers like Ohio State, Georgia. Georgia Tech was a weird one. Michigan. I almost went to Michigan. Oklahoma. The year they won the title with hypo in 01. That was the year I came out. I think I was like 15th or something like that. And. And my class was Kyle Orton, Old Chicago Bear buddy. Old Chicago Bear. Kyle Orton. Derek Anderson, DJ Shockley. I don't know if you guys remember him from Georgia. Brody Croyle was number one. The Alabama kid. He was the number one player there. Who else? Those were. Those were kind of the big names like Shockley and Croy. Over the big names. Kellen Clemens, who. Shit, Kellen Clemens. Ended up playing like 10, 12 years, went to Oregon. So that was the class. But I wasn't, like, I wasn't highly recruited. How does Pete's first class.

[PFT Commenter]

How does it. Because you went through it as you went through it back then and now your son is, you know, on the precipice of playing college ball. How does it work with the star system? And is it like. Is it kind of bullshit? I always assume it's, I think, a little bit bullshit.

[Matt Leinart]

It's all bullshit, dude. It's all bullshit. A lot of these guys, like, it's interesting because the way it's like Kind of like club basketball, right? So like a you basketball and all this stuff. And now you're seeing a lot of that in football where you have these seven on seven tournaments. My son's played in them, some of them. And you get stars like, like based on offers sometimes or you get stars based on like, like playing in some of these. Turn. It's, it's on. It's just, I, I can't even keep up. But I had a conversation with. Who was it with? Lincoln and Chip Kelly. Lincoln and Chip Kelly were at modern days practice when my son was there as a freshman. And I was talking to them about this. Like, hey, do you guys, like getting advice? Like, hey, do you think my son should play like seven on seven? All this? And they said, dude, we don't recruit one kid from seven on seven circuits. Like, we could care less. And now maybe other. Whatever. So I think to ask your question, like, stars, stars mean absolutely nothing like that. I think Cole's a three star. Like, which by the way, I mean, that's fine. Like, he's got smu, he's going there next year. But how they, how they pick stars and who's this and that. I've seen a lot of five stars up close and personal who are terrible. I mean, I just have. So, yeah, I don't, I don't get the system. I don't know how they do it per se. And it doesn't mean anything because we've seen some of the biggest, best three, four star kids end up being some of the best football players ever. You know, some of the five stars. Not so.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah. So it's like almost you have to pay to play if you do some of the seven on seven circuits, like, to get, to get more notoriety.

[Matt Leinart]

Seven on seven is all about it. This is the craziness of our world, man. It's all about social media, dude. It's all about like, and, and it is part of it. Like, I, I, I, I do think it is part of like, branding yourself because so much is consumed, consumed on these sites. Like, whether it's like, under the radar is one and like, you have on three now who's doing all these evaluations, which literally, I have no idea where they're even getting the numbers from. So it's all about like, hey, come do the 707. We'll do, we'll do a highlight film for you. By the way. It's 150 bucks.

[PFT Commenter]

Literally.

[Matt Leinart]

I'm like, I'm like, come on, bro. Like, it's just A money grab. Now, like, you get like a pretty cool one minute highlight tape that you can post on your Instagram and like, coaches do see that stuff. But like, I mean, is that how you're evaluating players? Like, no. I don't know, man. It's just, it's all. I think there's some like, competitive value to it because you are playing. It's like a you basketball, which again, my son played that too, like at a high level. There is some of that where you're playing good competition. You're just getting reps and experience. But I think it's all bs, to be honest with you.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. What do you think about. About Missouri? Would you say that Missouri is. Is completely out of it? Kind of switching gears here? That's a major shift.

[Matt Leinart]

I mean, are you a Missouri? Do you like Missouri? Is that why you're asking?

[Big Cat]

I was thinking about Missouri this morning. Whether or not. Whether or not they're like completely out of it or. Or would you think that they're good enough to have a shot? I know they're disappointed with what happened with Alabama.

[PFT Commenter]

What are.

[Matt Leinart]

They got one loss, right? They just lost.

[PFT Commenter]

They didn't really play anyone up until. Yeah, that game, you know, like the Kansas game. They obviously Kansas is, is decent. They beat Kansas, but that.

[Matt Leinart]

I'm looking at their schedule.

[PFT Commenter]

That game was closer than the box score because I had Kansas in that game and it was a cover by.

[Matt Leinart]

Missouri, so they got to go to Vanderbilt and two. Oh, they're at Auburn. Auburn, Vanderbilt, Texas A and M. Mississippi State's bad. Oklahoma, Arkansas. I mean, they're not gonna. I mean, they're not a playoff team. Yeah, I like, I like their coach too, man. I like him. I like the running backs of stuff.

[Big Cat]

Stud.

[Matt Leinart]

They're just, they're just one of those teams that like, you just can't. I just don't trust them. Like I, I don't like they haven't done it enough. You know what I mean?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I was trying to find a team that. That's on the outside looking in that nobody's thinking about that might be able to sneak in. And they were the first one they came on.

[Matt Leinart]

Brady Quinn talked about it last week. Virginia. Yeah, Virginia is. Virginia guys is like Brady Quinn, Greta Dan, like they. They might make the college football play playoff. Dude.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Awesome.

[Matt Leinart]

It's. Dude, they're gonna. They're Washington State, North Carolina, Cal, Wake Forest, Duke. Duke. Duke is the toughest game on their schedule at Duke. At the end of the year, they'll be 11 and 1 and if they lose to Miami and ACC, like 11 or 10 and 2, whatever it is that it's like, it's like what SMU was able to do last year. Like they might be. That's the one team, dude, I think that's the one team that no.1 1 is talking about that's got a real shot to get in.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they're plus 650 to make the playoff. That might be the pick.

[Big Cat]

I like that.

[Matt Leinart]

That might be. That might be the pick.

[PFT Commenter]

That might be the pick.

[Matt Leinart]

Georgia Tech too.

[Jeff Passan]

Georgia Tech.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Georgia Tech's. Yeah. One of those two is going to make.

[Matt Leinart]

One of those two will make it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Matt, I got one last question for you. It's the Roback question. R, H O b a c k.com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. Q, zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code take. You mentioned it earlier, but the meetings for big noon on Friday. So I was, I filled in for Dave in Evanston. It was a lot of fun. Got to hang out with everyone, got to go to the meeting. There was one thing though that's been bugging me about the meeting. There was a full spread for lunch and I was terrible. Got a, it wasn't great, but I see a full spread and I eat the full spread and I got a couple comments being like, whoa, you're really going in the spread. Do we not eat in that meal? Eating, like what's going on?

[Matt Leinart]

Who said that? What do you mean who said that?

[PFT Commenter]

I can't remember. It might have been like the third.

[Matt Leinart]

Time you went back. That was like the third time.

[PFT Commenter]

I went back a couple times but I just was like, hey guys, we like there's food out. Are we not eating?

[Matt Leinart]

Do we not eat free food?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. And I was the only one eating.

[Matt Leinart]

Well, I don't remember that. I think, I think, I think the boys were just giving you a hard time because it was like your first big noon meeting. You know, it's just like, it's like, I don't know if Portnoy told you this. The first meeting we came game. This was funny. Brady was like, dave, so what's your story, man? Get up in front of the group and just tell us your story. And Dave's like, what like the you talking about. Dave stood up and gave us like a three minute story on like his whole life. He's like, we don't want to know about barstool. We don't know like what's your story, bro.

[PFT Commenter]

And Dave.

[Matt Leinart]

Dave was a good sport. He's been awesome, obviously. And like, you, you've been in that meeting. It would have been like, us just saying, like, hey, Dan, just get up and tell us, like, hey, what's your story, bro? Like, tell us where you're from. I couldn't.

[PFT Commenter]

I couldn't do that because I was eating the whole time.

[Matt Leinart]

I mean, you and Bear, bro. Bear. I mean, bear just eats like a bear. You're a free food, by the way. But our spread. We had a good spread last week.

[Jeff Passan]

We've had.

[Matt Leinart]

We've had a couple games. We've had a couple weeks that have been a little disappointing. I mean, it was. It was Northwestern, dude. It wasn't like, you know, what is like, it wasn't a great game. And you're out there just, like, slumming in the rain, dude. You're just taking one for the team meme, bro.

[PFT Commenter]

It was fun. I just. I just remember walking out of that meme being like, do they. Do they just not eat during this meeting? Like, did I know. Is that a faux pas that I just get after? Like, I had, like, multiple brownies and everything? It was crazy. All right, Matt, you're the man. We'll see you soon.

[Matt Leinart]

Good to see you boys.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, Appreciate it, man.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah. All right, boys. Take care, man.

[PFT Commenter]

Send us a trophy.

[Matt Leinart]

I'm gonna go into storage and go see which one I'm gonna send you guys.

[PFT Commenter]

That's the most random one you get got. That's what we want.

[Matt Leinart]

All right, later.

[Big Cat]

All right, see you, man. Matt Liner was brought to you by vinmo, where you can kick off college sports season with a college branded Venmo debit and unlock 40% off a Big Ten plus subscription, a free year of Perplexity Pro and cash back from some favorite brands, all while you show school spirit with custom card designs that feature select college teams. The Venmo debit card works hand in hand, and with the Venmo app, you already know and love got paid back for dinner. Well, immediately access money in your Venmo balance and choose to spend it on what you want. From game day tickets to tailgating snacks, Add your card to your mobile wallet as soon as you sign up. Pay online and in store right from your phone. Score more with the Venmo debit card and access fan rewards from Big Ten plus and Perplexity Pro. Sign up today for no monthly fee, no minimum balance, max cash back, varies terms apply. The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the bank Account court. Na.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, let's wrap up. We got guys on chicks. Henry.

[Hank]

Sup, boys? What a win last night. Dubairs, any advice on the first trimester of pregnancy? My husband and I are pregnant with our first kid and I have been struggling with morning sickness. My husband's the best and has been waiting on me hand and foot because of how nauseous I am. For reference, I'm throwing up at least twice a day.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh.

[Hank]

Normally I would offer BJ's as thank you, but I can't keep anything down and cannot stand being touched at the moment.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh.

[Hank]

Any ideas on how to show him I appreciate all he's doing for me and my baby? Also, Hank, as the resident objin, any tips to help with morning sickness?

[PFT Commenter]

So morning sickness is basically like a hangover. I would say just eat a cheeseburger and jerk off.

[Hank]

Smoke a little weed. No.

[Big Cat]

That is messed up that. That Pregnant women can't do anything like that, dude.

[PFT Commenter]

They can't even have, like, deli meat.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's. You can't. You can't have tuna.

[PFT Commenter]

Nope. Sushi? Nope. Yeah, all I got is, yeah, smoke weed, jerk off, cheeseburger. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I don't know how to get rid of. Of being nauseous. There's really nothing that you can do. I don't think that you should have to, like, give them head all the time. Time. That seems like it's nice of you to think that, but you don't have thought. Yeah, just be like, hey, get him a pocket. Yeah, Be like, hey, normally I'd give you a blowjob right now, but, you know, I'm pregnant. And he'll be like, okay, I understand.

[Hank]

Hey, guys. Huge fan of the pod. I'm writing in for suggestions on how to get my husband to be more into football. I'm from Buffalo born and raised, so obviously Bill's culture runs deep. He's not from the area and will actually root for both teams when we watch the games. It drives me nuts.

[PFT Commenter]

He's been the over.

[Hank]

We're going to a game in November, so I'm hoping the tailgating atmosphere will change that. Any other ideas is much appreciated. Thanks.

[Big Cat]

I think tailgate, that's going to help.

[PFT Commenter]

I would say also, like, marry a dude next time.

[Big Cat]

I don't know.

[PFT Commenter]

You sound.

[Big Cat]

Where's this guy from?

[PFT Commenter]

Mars.

[Big Cat]

A place where there's no football is.

[Hank]

Not from the area.

[Big Cat]

Maybe Canada might be, but they got. Oh, Happy Thanksgiving, Canada, by the way.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Today, let us be the last to wish you. I think it was maybe Sunday oh, whoops. Yeah, I think take him to a tailgate, let him enjoy it. Let him get caught up in it.

[PFT Commenter]

It's kind of hard, too, because if you're trying to get him to be a Bills fan, like, there'll be a moment this year where it's like, why? Why'd we do this?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. He's like, can you do this every year? Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You kind of need the Bills to win the super bowl for it to sink in for him. Tailgate, though. Yeah. Would. Would definitely help. Tailgate would make it. Would hopefully get him captured. How? I don't know. I'm like, I'm struggling to understand this concept that he. He watches the games, but he doesn't. He doesn't care about the football.

[Big Cat]

Is he playing fantasy football, like, rooting for both teams?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, maybe get him in a fantasy fantasy football. That's actually a good call.

[Big Cat]

Then you learn some players. Yeah, but this.

[PFT Commenter]

This is very foreign to me.

[Big Cat]

Then, yeah, he'll learn some players, and then whatever guy does the best for him, he'll naturally start to like that team. Yeah, but you got to carefully monitor his draft. You got to make sure that he's not picking up any, like, division rivals or anybody on the Chiefs, because that. That's going to cause a problem in your relationship.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Hi. Female Awl here who loves the show. You have helped me get into football, which my husband loves.

[PFT Commenter]

Loves.

[Hank]

One question. Do you guys have a consolation show that you watch with your wife, girlfriend in exchange for them watching football all day Sunday Monday Thursday night, and college football Saturdays? I feel like I have earned the right to have my husband watch Bravo or trash reality TV competition show. So I want to hear your take.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I mean, I. I used to watch Real Housewives. I haven't watched since. They did, like, they changed the cast in New York kind of sucked. I like to hate watch the countdown this. But, yeah, it was. It was a lot of Real Housewives.

[Big Cat]

I don't know.

[PFT Commenter]

There's usually like, is there a good show out right now? I feel like there's been a good show out that I'm missing. Is there a good one?

[Big Cat]

A good new show? Yeah, there. There was a show that somebody kept telling me to watch over the weekend, and I kept ask. Yeah, yeah, I kept nodding my head, but I was thinking about football the whole time. It's. It's.

[PFT Commenter]

It's like. It's. It's based in Delco.

[Big Cat]

It's. That's why. Oh, yeah, it's the mayor of East Town. It's the mayor of East Town, people.

[Jeff Passan]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

I don't really know how to explain it. It's not, it's not a whodunit, but it's like a.

[PFT Commenter]

You're really, you're showing, you're showing, like, the head of the police. Also the head of.

[Matt Leinart]

I'm in, like, a bad guy, but you, like, feel for the bad guy.

[PFT Commenter]

How many episodes?

[Hank]

Sounds like the Delco Wire.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

All right.

[Big Cat]

I'm in the water.

[PFT Commenter]

I've only watched two episodes because we've.

[Big Cat]

Been so busy, but I, I, the.

[PFT Commenter]

Two episodes have been phenomenal. Yeah. This is a tough time of year where it's like, there's just not a lot of time for Wednesday shows.

[Big Cat]

I've also noticed that the, the documentaries on Netflix have been getting worse and worse and worse.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, it's just total brain.

[Big Cat]

It's really bad now. Like, there's, there's documentaries that are done. The one that was, like, about reverse catfishing people.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. The mom.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah, that one was total. I had to turn that one off because I was like, why am I watching a random person and Michigan be catfished and harassed by their mom? Yeah. I do not care.

[Hank]

Some of the worst, like, the, Obviously they're like high school kids, but they were, the, the interviews they were doing were so bad. It was like they were reading off a script.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And then after you find out who the catfisher was, there's still like an hour left in the documentary to just like, watch, Watch her destroy her life.

[PFT Commenter]

Total brain rot.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Any other good shows that I, I, I just. You know what I do? I go back back. If there's no sports on, I find myself just rewatching stuff. So, like, I'm about due for rewatch of the Wire. I just rewatched the Sopranos. I recommend that. And I'm rewatching Breaking Bad too. They're still good. Still good shows.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I, I'm, I'm did. I'm in on the rewatch stuff. Yeah, I like to rewatch stuff as well because you also just know it's like I can make a commitment and I also can. If I. Something pops up, up, I can just walk away from it. Chad Powers, also good. Oh, nice.

[Hank]

Hey, big cat and Chris's dad. My boyfriend and I were watching the Lions Chiefs game when St. Brown dropped a catchable pass. My boyfriend said, I could have caught that. When I laughed and said, no way. He pulled up his high school huddle highlight tape and they were 20 seconds long. I know this was from about 10 years ago. But should I still be embarrassed?

[Big Cat]

No, you should be proud.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. He could have caught that.

[Big Cat]

He could have caught that.

[PFT Commenter]

Sounds like you, you, you were dating like a stud.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it sounds like he probably could have made it to the NFL, but, but coach hated him.

[PFT Commenter]

He, I mean he's got, he's got a huddle tape.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

I mean, yeah. Probably believes if you can touch, you can catch it.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, absolutely. And that's a fact.

[Big Cat]

It is true.

[PFT Commenter]

It's a correct belief.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Ah, okay. Is that the last one?

[Hank]

Last one. Can you give me your top five most attractive NFL players based solely on hotness and not how good they are? Also shout out Zach. I think I could turn him into an intercourse guy.

[Big Cat]

Oh, how about that? Let's go, Zach. I would say number one. Sam Harmon.

[Hank]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

Jimmy G. Yep. Braxton Barrios.

[Big Cat]

He is good looking guy.

[PFT Commenter]

Can we throw a coach on there?

[Big Cat]

Andy Reid to me. Go Ryan and Tomiko.

[PFT Commenter]

Ryan is very attractive.

[Big Cat]

It pains me to say it. Jalen Hurts go looking guy.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

J.

[Big Cat]

Hurts is a good, very good looking guy.

[PFT Commenter]

Very good.

[Big Cat]

Sometimes he dresses kind of like a, a weirdo. But I, I shouldn't really say anything about that.

[PFT Commenter]

I actually like how he, I, I feel like he's just, he's cool. He's basically just doing like 90s like Martin dressing.

[Big Cat]

Wait, was that you? To me? I don't know.

[PFT Commenter]

Maybe. Yeah. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

No, Yes. I, I, I admitted I shouldn't say anything.

[PFT Commenter]

Are you a little upset that the Eagles have lost two in a row? Because otherwise you could rub it in in PFT's face a little bit more.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I can't say shit right.

[PFT Commenter]

You've been neutered. The Bills losing last night felt, felt good. I love Bills. I love Bills fans and I like the Bills, but it's good to see someone else going, Going through what?

[Big Cat]

I am not alone.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yes. Yeah. That.

[Matt Leinart]

It's like four.

[PFT Commenter]

No, you're feeling good and then two.

[Big Cat]

Games where you just look bad. Yeah. Did the Bills have anybody retire? We don't have to talk about that.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh yeah. You had a guy retire.

[Big Cat]

I thought we were going to get through this. Yeah. Why'd he retire? No idea. Didn't he say just like, I'm so ready?

[PFT Commenter]

No, it was like three weeks ago.

[Big Cat]

It was like, I gotta, I love playing this game. I got a lot more football left to play. And then three weeks later retire. Pug think, Pug thinks he got, he got hit hard and that he doesn't.

[PFT Commenter]

Want to get hit anymore. And I Like that.

[Big Cat]

That take from Pug. That's as good a reason as any. Like, hey, actually, this sucks.

[Jeff Passan]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I just. I just realized, like, I've been getting hit for 12 years.

[PFT Commenter]

Years.

[Big Cat]

It doesn't feel good. Yeah. In the off season, you're like, oh, football's so fun. Then you get hit once and you're like, ah, maybe. Maybe I'm. Yes.

[Matt Leinart]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Not good. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you think that will ever happen to us where it's like, we do.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like a week one. No, fastest two.

[Big Cat]

There is no off season.

[PFT Commenter]

No. But I'm saying, like, we do a week one, fastest two minutes. You're like, oh, man, that hurt.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't really want to do this.

[Big Cat]

I think it's going to be more like, you have a heartbreaking loss, and then you're like, why. Why am I doing. Why am I doing Max?

[PFT Commenter]

Definitely thought about that.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Jeff Passan]

Absolutely.

[PFT Commenter]

On Thursday, we're like, I should get a new job.

[Big Cat]

It crossed my mind.

[PFT Commenter]

Every Sunday. Every Sunday for memes.

[Big Cat]

I didn't. I didn't necessarily think about that yesterday, but on the way to work for the Stream, I almost got just jacked up by a car going, like, 40 miles an hour, making a turn across my lane. Lane. And then I'd slam on the brakes. It went in front of me. And then on my way home, I thought to myself, like, what if that car just hit? Not, like, killed me.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

But maybe, like, I had to go to the hospital. I didn't have to watch that game.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And then that. That might be a little bit better of a feeling.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

But then I quickly said, okay, no, not yet. That's not that bad. You could always be Max. Now stick it out. You're an inspiration for me, Max.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep. Numbers three.

[Hank]

Max.

[PFT Commenter]

Might have been Max. Sounded like Max. I'll give it to you, Hank. Oh, I love that.

[Hank]

Okay, I'll take it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

What? That'd be me. Pug. Make the rule.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. Wait, did you. Wait, did Hanks.

[Hank]

I didn't say it. I didn't say it means.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, I thought you said it means. What would be your backup number?

[Big Cat]

That's fine.

[PFT Commenter]

My backup number? Yeah. 29 for dumpy. I'm gonna do 29.

[Jeff Passan]

I'll do 33.

[Hank]

I'll do 22.

[PFT Commenter]

61.

[Big Cat]

22.

[PFT Commenter]

No, Jack. No, no, no. Pick a new one.

[Big Cat]

45. 76.

[PFT Commenter]

He doesn't have headphones in. I do think you're just taking his number every time now.

[Hank]

I've been taking 22 since the summer.

[PFT Commenter]

That'S just not true.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it is.

[PFT Commenter]

Every single game, every single time.

[Hank]

Most of the time, unless I get three.

[Big Cat]

I like calling these games 99 Pokemon. By the way, big game tonight.

[PFT Commenter]

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[Jeff Passan]

Opt in for $5 in non withdrawable.

[Matt Leinart]

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[Big Cat]

All right, I'm gonna go 15.

[PFT Commenter]

I got 29.

[Big Cat]

What happens first? You think New York gets another championship or memes gets the lottery?

[PFT Commenter]

New York.

[Big Cat]

The team would be.

[PFT Commenter]

Yankees 76.

[Big Cat]

Shane. Shane. Yes. Let's go. Shane.

[PFT Commenter]

Shane. Shane. Let's go.

[Big Cat]

What a day for Shane. Oh, man.

[PFT Commenter]

Shane. Postgame press conference. Shane, how did you do it? The rings. The rings. You want to know what the rings on? Show the rings to the king camera. There it is. Post game press conference. Memes. How did you not do it? I can say what I was actually thinking. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I just gotta get rings.

[PFT Commenter]

Are you mad at Shane now? No.

[Big Cat]

No, not. Not a little bit.

[PFT Commenter]

No.

[Big Cat]

You just gotta get rings.

[PFT Commenter]

Jealous now this. This machine means nothing. I don't know about that. How's the pressure feeling in the memes household? None.

[Big Cat]

Really? You know what's crazy is that Shane has done five. Let's see how many. How many? You've.

[PFT Commenter]

No.

[Big Cat]

You've got three wins.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. This is my fourth.

[Big Cat]

Now four. So you've won the lotto ball four times.

[Hank]

Dynasty.

[Big Cat]

That's crazy. Nothing on Pogue. And you just. You won back in August. Yeah.

[Hank]

Damn light work.

[PFT Commenter]

You're awesome, dude.

[Big Cat]

Only a 50 day drought for Shane Memes. I'm the only one who hasn't got it. Yeah, you know, it's great, the lottery ball. It's been hot the last two months. We've had three winners.

[PFT Commenter]

It's actually. We're in the. We're in the live ball era where everyone's getting it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

It's the easiest it's ever been.

[Big Cat]

It's true. I bet you the lottery ball machine would have made that hand off. That doesn't. That doesn't make sense. Would have delivered it right to him. That doesn't make any sense.

[PFT Commenter]

Makes sense to me. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

All right. All right.

[PFT Commenter]

Made sense to me. Good one, Memes.

[Big Cat]

Thank you. They don't have hands. They have balls.

[Hank]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they do. That's facts. All right, let's see everyone on Friday.

[Big Cat]

Love you guys.

[PFT Commenter]

Sam, Sa.