Pettycast: Draymond Green , Tom Brady and Drama on the golf course

Summary

Payne & Pendergast “Pettycast”: Draymond Green, Tom Brady, and Drama on the Golf Course

Episode Date: July 21, 2026
Podcast Hosts: Seth Payne & Sean (Sean Pendergast)
Platform: Audacy / SportsRadio 610

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Episode Overview

This episode of the Payne & Pendergast “Pettycast” dives into the latest big-name sports drama, spotlighting Tom Brady’s curious post-retirement career choices (including a potential WWE arc), Draymond Green’s spicy NBA podcast beef, simmering pettiness on the golf course with Bryson DeChambeau, Astros’ sign-stealing fallout, and speculation on major changes to the college football landscape, especially SEC’s potential breakaway. As always, the hosts blend sharp takes, on-the-ground Houston insight, and their signature playful, at times irreverent, “petty” banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tom Brady’s “WWE Heel Turn” and the Legacy Debate

• Main theme: The rising rumors of Tom Brady joining WWE, perhaps as a heel alongside Logan Paul, and what this means for his legacy.
• Hosts’ View:
  • They riff on whether the rumored Brady vs. Logan Paul match is played for fun or part of a bigger, orchestrated “heel” (villain) turn for Brady, highlighting how carefully athletes craft their images post-retirement.
  • Dave Portnoy’s Critique: (03:01–04:24) Barstool’s Dave Portnoy is cited calling Brady “cringy,” accusing him of “lameifying” his legacy:

    "[Brady] is acting post-retirement... a legacy that is being lameified... it's a guy who—very few athletes—Michael Jordan, Messi, Beckham, Gretzky—seem so above the fray that you don't want to see him mixed up in stupid lowbrow stuff... Everything about him is cringy right now to me. And it's highlighted with this wrestling stuff."

  • There’s talk about whether Brady’s distancing from the Patriots is part of a longer, deliberate heel turn.
  • Sean’s take: (05:09) “This is really intricate storytelling.”
  • Debate on media and fans taking wrestling “storylines” as reality:

    "Listen, sports dudes, you gotta separate these two. ... I don't think he's one bit upset with Logan Paul. This is all part of an act." (06:09)

Notable Quotes

• "Minus a thousand, Logan Paul. Plus Logan Paul, considered a baby face or a heel?" (02:26)
• "What if Tom Brady saying he didn't have a dog in the fight with the Super Bowl was part of this heel turn, like a long heel turn...?" (04:34)

Timestamps

• [03:01] Dave Portnoy’s critique of Brady
• [05:09] Speculation over Brady’s “heel turn”
• [06:48] Discussion on real vs. performative wrestling beef

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2. Petty Mount Rushmore: Tom Brady Forgets the Rules

• Brady on the Hot Seat: Tom Brady is asked for his 'Mount Rushmore of GOATS' and famously lists 11 names, not four, including Michael Jordan, Kobe, Tiger, Shohei Ohtani, Michael Phelps, and even Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese (07:18–07:46).
• Hosts’ Reaction:
  • They joke about AI generating “an 11-face Mount Rushmore”—“That's not how you Mount Rushmore!” (08:30)
  • Echo the idea that the real "heel move" would have been Brady putting himself on it.

    "If he wants to be a real heel. He thinks my Mount Rushmore of goats is me. Of course. That's a good heel move." (08:36)

Timestamps

• [07:18] Tom Brady lists his Mount Rushmore
• [08:30] Hosts react to Brady's excessive list

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3. Draymond Green Strikes Back: NBA Petty Wars

• Background: Draymond Green joins Gilbert Arenas’ podcast to defend teammate Nick Young after prior criticism. He lays out “tiers” of NBA playoff players and claps back at Kenyon Martin for failing to “swing a series” when it mattered. (09:52–10:41)
• Draymond’s Breakdown:

  “You have your guys who have to deliver… then you have… what I like to call them is swing players… your job is to swing one series. … Nick Young swung the series for us. … What the New Jersey Nets needed Kenyon Martin to do... he couldn't swing the series. So y'all lost. Got smacked.” (09:52–10:41)

• Hosts’ Banter:
  • Enjoy the evolving “petty” feuds among retired NBA players.
  • Reflect on how quickly NBA retirees morph into “grumpy old men” critiquing the next generation (11:34).

Notable Quotes

• "Draymond kind of laid out that there's tiers of players..." (10:42)
• “Retired NBA players… turn very rapidly into grumpy old men.” (11:34)

Timestamps

• [09:52] Draymond Green’s "swing player" and Kenyon Martin comments
• [11:34] Hosts discuss NBA retirees’ pettiness

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4. Golf Drama: Bryson DeChambeau’s British Open Meltdown

• Incident: Bryson DeChambeau is penalized for “improving his lie” at the British Open; threatens to withdraw (12:28–12:49). Rory McIlroy criticizes his behavior, suggesting much of it is “performative.”
• Rory’s Take:

  "Whether it was careless or intentional, I don't think it matters… the two shot penalty was justified for sure... I'm not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention... I didn't feel like it was a great look." (13:20–14:15)

• Hosts’ Reaction:
  • Joke about the reserved nature of “golf shade”: “Did you hear Rory McIlroy? He said he skewered him. What did he say? ‘I'm not too fond of him.’” (14:35)
  • They also discuss off-field gossip involving Phil Mickelson and other golf drama (15:11+).

Notable Quotes

• Rory McIlroy: “I'm not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it's performative.” (14:15)
• “Golfers… there’s a whole lot of, it’s like the adults know what’s going on, but they don’t talk about it.” (15:21)

Timestamps

• [12:28] Bryson DeChambeau incident explained
• [13:20] Rory McIlroy’s reaction
• [14:35] Hosts lampoon “golf feuds”

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5. Astros Cheating Fallout: Carlos Beltrán Speaks

• Hall of Fame Angle: Carlos Beltrán discusses his role in the Astros sign-stealing scandal ahead of his Hall of Fame induction. Hosts ponder if his acceptance means stars like Jose Altuve will be forgiven in the future. (21:01–23:11)
• Beltrán’s Perspective:

  "This was not like one player's idea. This was a team being together from top to bottom to do something… We felt that our system was better than any other system in baseball." (26:04)

• Hosts’ Analysis:
  • Skepticism over Beltrán’s “top to bottom” language, noting some Astros didn't buy in, and management sought plausible deniability (27:13–29:22).
  • Compare Astros’ “bang on a trash can” methods to more subtle, technological cheating elsewhere (30:09).

Notable Quotes

• “We felt that our system was better than any other system in baseball.” – Carlos Beltrán (26:34)
• “There was an element to AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow that—they tried to distance themselves from it.” (29:22)

Timestamps

• [21:01] Beltrán’s Hall of Fame candidacy post-scandal
• [26:04] Beltrán on team-wide nature of scandal
• [30:09] Comparing Astros’ methods to others

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6. College Football: SEC Breakaway and the Super League Future?

• Big Rumor: The SEC is openly exploring the idea of breaking away to create a solo, super-conference, as confirmed by Commissioner Greg Sankey (33:59).
• Hosts’ Take:
  • Discuss the impacts on rivalries and whether fans would view an SEC-only championship as “real.”
  • Argue that, while drastic changes tend to increase CFB’s popularity, this could be the tipping point that damages its identity—if only temporarily, before “inevitably” leading to mega-conferences (40:35–41:18).
• Futurecasting:
  • Both agree that continuous realignment will eventually push CFB to a 64-team “super league,” with traditional NCAA structures falling by the wayside (44:41).

Notable Quotes

• "This might be the detour on the way to the 64 Team Super Conference that everybody talks about being inevitable." (41:18)
• “The whole thing's like an amoeba, just keeps changing shapes—geographically, functionally, everything else.” (43:10)

Timestamps

• [33:59] SEC breakaway rumors addressed by Greg Sankey
• [41:18] Hosts predict the “Super League” era

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “I had ChatGPT create an 11-face Mount Rushmore… This is the Mount Rushmore Tom Brady was taught about in elementary school.” (08:01)
• “Retired NBA players… very underrated source of petty content. …They turn very rapidly into grumpy old men.” (11:34)
• “We felt that our system was better than any other system in baseball. They were better at it.” —Carlos Beltrán (26:34)
• “This might be the detour on the way to the 64 Team Super Conference…” (41:18)
• “The whole thing's like an amoeba just keeps like changing shapes.” (43:10)

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Summary Table of Major Segments

| Segment Topic | Main Discussion / Quote | Timestamps | |-----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------| | Brady’s WWE move | “He’s lameifying his legacy…” —Portnoy; debate on “heel turn” & sports storylines | 03:01–06:50 | | Brady’s 11-GOAT Rushmore | “That’s not how you Mount Rushmore!”; how many faces can you have? | 07:18–08:30 | | Draymond Green vs. Kenyon Martin | “Your job is to swing one series… you couldn’t swing the series.” | 09:52–11:34 | | DeChambeau golf drama | Rory: “I think a lot of it’s performative”; hosts lampoon golf’s measured “pettiness” | 12:28–15:11 | | Astros/Beltrán revisit| “Not one player's idea... our system was better…”; parsing “top to bottom” involvement | 21:01–30:09 | | SEC Breakaway Rumor | “This might be the detour on the way to the 64 Team Super Conference…” | 33:59–43:10 |

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Tone & Host Style

The episode balances irreverent banter and deep sports analysis, with the hosts’ Houston focus often branching into national storylines. It’s rich with sarcasm, playful amateur psychology (especially regarding “pettiness” and athlete egos), and plenty of inside jokes and references for Houston sports fans.

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For New Listeners:

If you missed the podcast, this episode delivers a tour of petty sports feuds (from the ring, the court, the green, and the front office), Houston sports news, and the future shape of major American leagues––all through the mischievous, analytical, and occasionally conspiratorial lens Payne & Pendergast fans love.

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Dan Hanzas]

Are you looking for a podcast about pro football that doesn't put you to sleep with an avalanche of analytics or insult your fandom with brainless hot takes?

[Podcast Host (possibly a female co-host)]

Well, hi.

[Dan Hanzas]

I'm Dan Hanzas.

[Mark Sesler]

And I'm Mark Sesler.

[Dan Hanzas]

Oh, hi, Mark. And we're the hosts of Heed the Call, the NFL podcast you've been waiting your whole life for. Heed the Call covers every game, every

[Mark Sesler]

storyline, everything that matters. And we do it all with a touch of mirth.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Football is fun.

[Dan Hanzas]

Why shouldn't your football podcast be the same?

[Mark Sesler]

Follow and listen to heed the Call NFL podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

[Caller or Guest]

Here.

[Mark Sesler]

Sports Radio 610 presents Pain and pender gas. All right, Pain and pender gas. We've got the Tuesday Petty cast here. Byron, you ready to go with all this? Audit's a lot of audio here. All right, we're ready to go. Oh, by the way, should have mentioned this earlier. We have a big announcement coming up tomorrow during the toss at 10am 10am Big, big station announcement.

[Dan Hanzas]

Who are we going to let make the announcement? Should it be Lopez or should it be you?

[Mark Sesler]

I don't know. I'm. I'm cool with whatever.

[Dan Hanzas]

Okay.

[Mark Sesler]

I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna.

[Dan Hanzas]

I think you and Lopez should wrestle for it.

[Mark Sesler]

Or we should do a. Like a barbershop quartet and have all four of us do it together and sing the big announcement.

[Dan Hanzas]

We'll botch that.

[Mark Sesler]

I know. It'd be hilarious. All right, so big. Yeah. So circle it. Big, big announcement. Tomorrow during the toss at 10am Pedicast, 8am Tuesday. Petty cast. All right, so we just got done. Seth, in the previous segment talking about Tom Brady. It all signs point to him doing something with Logan Paul in wwe.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

In the coming months.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah, yeah. He's going to be a promoter or a wrestler or something.

[Mark Sesler]

There's actually odds out on if they have a match.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Not surprisingly, Brady is minus a thousand to win the match. Scripted.

[Dan Hanzas]

No, I would. I would go with him to win it, like through Dirty tactics. Yeah, we just showed that. We read the quote of him saying that he thinks he could be a heel.

[Mark Sesler]

I think he could too.

[Dan Hanzas]

You know, he could be a bad guy. Yeah. And I think he's playing into that. Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Minus a thousand. Logan Paul.

[Dan Hanzas]

Plus Logan Paul, considered a baby face or a heel.

[Mark Sesler]

He's not. He's heelish. You know, the lines are more blurred these days.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

But he definitely. Yes. Because he's got a manager who's. Paul Heyman's his manager. That's a heel. He's more of a heel. But this is how you get a heel to turn to being a good guy.

[Dan Hanzas]

When people hate Brady.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that. So that'll be. You know, Logan Paul may have some sympathy. Who knows? So anyways, there's a lot of people kind of worked up about this. Why is Brady doing this? This is beneath him. Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool, noted Patriots honk.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

He is none too happy with Brady. He calls this whole thing cringy.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Tom Brady chopping it up with Logan Paul.

Yeah.

And they're doing there at the fanatics thing. He hits them with a chair. Not good. They're at the World cup game. He gives them the bird. Logan Paul, this to me is one of the great downfalls of. Of an icon with Tom Brady and the way he is acting post retirement, it's a legacy that is being lameified. I use that word people like. What does that mean? It means he's becoming very lame. And it's a guy who very few athletes. Michael Jordan, Messi, Beckham, Gretzky, like, these are like superstars that seem so above the fray that you don't want to see him mixed up in. In all sorts of low brow, tick tock, flag football leagues in Saudi Arabia or whatever it is. The rest. Everything about him is cringy right now to me. And it's highlighted with this wrestling stuff. And I don't want to say it, but I'll say it. It all started when he started hating on the Patriots.

[Mark Sesler]

That's what I was gonna ask you,

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Dave, when he became me defending him.

[Mark Sesler]

If he had no. Seemingly turned.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Oh, yes. Back on the page. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And it would.

[Podcast Host (possibly a female co-host)]

It would be.

[Draymond Green (clip)]

I'd be.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

I'd be in such a dark place if I had to defend this nonsense, this garbage. But thankfully he. It coincided with him being like, I don't care about the Patriots.

[Dan Hanzas]

So. Okay, so that part of it, that's the part that got me thinking, man. And now. And this would actually make me agree with Portnoy. Portnoy didn't go here. And I don't think this is what he was intending to say. But what if. What if Tom Brady saying he didn't have a dog in the fight with the super bowl was part of this heel turn, like a long heel turn to where he ends up. He ends up just being. Now that if he were to go into WWE to that extent where he's like consciously and intentionally distancing himself from. From Patriots fans, I would feel then that, like, okay, this has gotten a little ridiculous.

[Mark Sesler]

Oh, really? See, I would be like, this is really intricate storytelling.

[Dan Hanzas]

You care way more about that. Taking some like. I mean, I, I say real world, it's all sports, which is kind of a fantasy world, but that's taking like the real world thing. The very thing that he's. That got him his pain and everything and just flat out turning on it for. For, for part of a shtick.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, that was.

[Dan Hanzas]

And yet the timeline would make sense.

[Mark Sesler]

The timeline makes sense.

[Dan Hanzas]

He said, he said that he would want. He wants to be a bad guy.

[Mark Sesler]

Now him distancing himself from the Patriots necessarily make him a bad guy with the rest of society. I think it's just in society hates the Patriots.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah. But the rest of football fans still, like, there's. They remember hating. It's been. You know, once somebody retires, it softens a little bit. The hatred will come back.

[Mark Sesler]

I understand your point about the interview he did where he said that he doesn't have a dog in the fight. That whole thing. Yeah, my spidey sense as a wrestling fan. I don't think that was part of this whole thing. I think that was his legitimate distance. I think that was his legitimate. How he's conducting himself as an analyst.

[Dan Hanzas]

I found some article earlier that I can't find it or I read an article earlier. They were basically, the writer of the article was talking about Tom Brady going to potentially doing something wwe. But then he, he framed one of the things that happened as if it's like, like it was real emotion where like. No, listen, listen, sports dudes, you gotta, you gotta separate these two. He said something about like, he's. It said something like in a paragraph where he's been upset with Jake Paul since yada, yada, yada. I'm like, wait, wait a second. You're a reporter. Like, you gotta, you gotta set. You gotta put some level of skepticism into this that we don't. I don't think he's one bit upset with Logan Paul. This is all part of an act.

[Mark Sesler]

It's a storyline. Yeah, it's a storyline.

[Dan Hanzas]

They're both. They have a comment high in Michael Rubin, where it's like it's clearly being set up now.

[Mark Sesler]

I am zero petty myself, obviously. Zero petty about Brady doing this stuff. I just think he's having fun. I am petty about this with Brady. He was on a podcast and he was asked for his Mount Rushmore. You know, Brady's considered a goat, right? A greatest of all time.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

What is his Mount Rushmore of goats? Across the sporting landscape. Mount Rushmore. Four faces, right?

[Dan Hanzas]

Okay.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Okay, here we go.

[Anna Garcia]

Who is your Mount Rushmore of goats?

[Caller or Guest]

Michael Jordan. He was my childhood idol. He was unbelievable. Obviously. I loved Kobe Bryant. I still love Kobe Bryant. Tiger. His competitiveness. What Roy McElroy's done, I love that. Shohei Ohtani. What he's done as been unbelievable. Barry Bonds. He went to my high school. The biggest fan of him growing up. Michael Phelps. Love him. Michael Johnson. Asia Wilson from my Las Vegas Aces. I love her. She's amazing. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. This little thing they got going, I love that. It's been really exciting.

[Dan Hanzas]

Was 11.

[Mark Sesler]

11. 11, 11.

[Dan Hanzas]

This is how you spend the taxpayers money.

[Mark Sesler]

That is. That is Tom Brady's Mount Rushmore.

[Dan Hanzas]

Showed me a picture.

[Mark Sesler]

I had chat GPT create an 11 face. Mount Rushmore.

[Dan Hanzas]

Oh, but with the actual president.

[Mark Sesler]

With actual presidents. Yeah. I said, this is the Mount Rushmore Tom Brady was taught about in elementary school.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Eleven. I said, Chachi, PT, give me a Mount Rushmore with seven more faces of presidents before 1940.

[Dan Hanzas]

Okay.

[Mark Sesler]

No current.

[Dan Hanzas]

You know, keep it. Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Trying to. Trying to keep my timeline. Now, the smart thing to do would be to have, like, put the last seven presidents on there.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

That would have got a lot of interaction.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

You know, but yeah, Brady. I'm petty about the fact that Brady gets asked about a Mount Rushmore and he gets 11 names.

[Dan Hanzas]

11. That's not how you. That's not how you. Like. You're supposed to be going into WWE before rising. Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Yes. Yeah. You. It's four and that's it. Yeah. And then put himself on it if he wants to be a real heel. He thinks my Mount Rushmore of goats is me. Of course. That's a good heel move.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah. So that's. So I'm petty about that. All right, let's skip down to Draymond here. Byron. This is Draymond on the podcast that Gilbert Arenas and Kenyon Martin do. Apparently they were Destroying Nick Young, who's a former teammate of Draymond Green's on that 2018 warriors team that beat the Rockets in the postseason that year. The Chris Paul Hamstring series.

[Anna Garcia]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

And they were killing Nick Young on that podcast. Well, Draymond comes on as a guest on this podcast following that.

[Dan Hanzas]

Azalea's former husband, Right, Nick.

[Mark Sesler]

Nick, yeah.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Nick Young.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, I believe so. Yeah. Good job, Seth.

[Dan Hanzas]

We interviewed her once while she was going out with Nick Young.

[Mark Sesler]

Oh, really?

[Dan Hanzas]

We had instructions not to ask about Nick Young.

[Mark Sesler]

Okay.

[Dan Hanzas]

We asked about Nick Young. Yes.

[Mark Sesler]

Type of country.

[Dan Hanzas]

Only reason we were interviewing her, controversy

[Mark Sesler]

that we do here on Sports Radio 610. Right, exactly. Why else will we talk to Iggy Azalea on a sports show? So Kenyon Martin. Draymond Green comes on after they had killed Nick Young, his former teammate.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

And he went after Kenyon Martin.

[Draymond Green (clip)]

I know you guys don't understand what it means to win an NBA championship. So in an NBA championship, you have your guys. Who has to deliver. Me, Steph and Klay. We had to deliver. And then you have all your guys who like players. What I like to call them is swing players, as opposed to role players. I like to call them swing players. Your job is to swing one series. And so when you go look at our championship run that Nick Young was a part of. Nick Young was the swing player in the Houston series, Game 6 or 7. Nick Young was one of the primary defenders on James Harden. Nick Young hit big threes. He swung the series for us. Guess what job done when you talk about winning a championship? He swung the series. What the New Jersey Nets needed Kenya Martin to do. They needed you to swing the series, but you couldn't swing the series. So y' all lost.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Okay.

[Draymond Green (clip)]

Got smacked.

[Mark Sesler]

Okay. So. So Draymond goes after Kenyon Martin at the very end there in two ways. One, he. He basically said you failed at swinging a playoff series back in the day. Kenyon Martin. And two, Draymond kind of laid out that there's tiers of players.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

There's the core guys like me, Steph and Clay.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

And there's guys who swing a series like Nick Young. He basically said you're not even. It was Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson and whoever else. You were a swing guy, and you couldn't even do that.

[Podcast Host (possibly a female co-host)]

Right.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah. That's good. Martin. Were they. So were they having fun with each other or did it get heated?

[Mark Sesler]

I only saw the clip.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

I didn't watch the whole thing. On both sides of It.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

But I thought it was a pretty good insult by Draymond Green. Yeah. Sticking up for his guy.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Nick Young. I enjoy these. The. The old. The retired NBA players have been a very underrated source of petty content.

[Dan Hanzas]

No, the retired NBA players, they don't Draymond after it. And it is. They turn very rapidly into grumpy old men. Because base basketball changes once every decade in terms of style of play and everything. So by the time you guys retire, it's like things are different. Yeah, we get a lot of.

[Mark Sesler]

Back in my day.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

All right.

[Mark Sesler]

I want to make sure we get this one in because this was big news over the week and we don't talk a ton of golf on the show. But the big story from the British Open or the Open Championship, as they call it now, there were two big stories from that this weekend. One was Ryan Fox winning it. Who's the guy? As we talked in the toss yesterday with Reggie and John just. Just got his PGA card two years ago, guys, winning the British Open. Now that was story number one. Story number two is this Bryson DeChambeau kerfuffle back on. I think it was on Friday where Bryson DeChambeau has a ball that's buried deep in that British rough with all the tall, you know, grass and everything else.

[Dan Hanzas]

Rough.

[Mark Sesler]

I mean, it's rough rough. Yeah. And Bryson DeChambeau. Bryson DeChambeau was stepping on some of the rough behind his ball, acting like he's just trying to get an angle on.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

You know, what direction he needs to hit it in. Which by the rules at least as interpreted in this tournament was he was improving his live. He was giving himself a better backswing.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

So his backswing wouldn't go through a bunch of, you know, basically like, looks like wheat, you know, so he got penalized two strokes. He was none too happy with that to the point where he was threatening to pull out of the tournament. And he was threatening to pull out of the tournament till like almost 11 o' clock at night. That night they had to wait to put the pairings together. Based on Bryson DeChambeau's decision, he ultimately stays in the tournament. But Rory McElroy gives his opinion on this and also gives his take just on Bryson DeChambeau in general.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don't think it matters. Hopefully it was careless. But I think the two shot penalty was justified for sure.

[Mark Sesler]

What do you think the scenes after, Obviously you guys were delayed getting your tee times as well because of it all going on Late night for everyone.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Yeah. I won't pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I'm not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention and. Yeah. You know, to hold the tournament hostage like that and have all of us volunteers, players, everyone waiting on him to depart. I didn't feel like it was a great look.

[Dan Hanzas]

Do you think you get what he was doing

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

look? He's going to say, like, again, I don't. I'm not in his mind. I'm not in his.

[Draymond Green (clip)]

It.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

But it didn't look good. Okay.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah. I'm not particularly fond of.

[Mark Sesler]

Not fond of him.

[Dan Hanzas]

Kind of like a. The things had softened in recent years with Desambo and like, everybody else, hadn't it? It hadn't been as. Yeah, like. But I think it was one of those things.

[Mark Sesler]

Rory's the most popular guy either. You know, this is a little bit of a Logan, Paul, Tom Brady thing. Two heels.

[Dan Hanzas]

It's interesting that, like, this was. This was big stuff over the weekend and everything. And yet comes down to it, it is still golf. And it's like, oh, did you hear Rory McElroy? He said he skewered him. What did he say? I'm not too fond of him. I'm not too fond of the laugh.

[Mark Sesler]

Oh, my God.

[Dan Hanzas]

Whoa, whoa. He said he's not too fond of the laugh.

[Mark Sesler]

Gen Z, Ireland. Oh, yeah, yeah. I saw a lot of people kind of take it. Take it up for DeChambeau, given who the messenger was in this whole thing, like, hey, settle down, Rory.

[Dan Hanzas]

Right, right.

[Mark Sesler]

I'll talk about Rory's marital habits and things like that.

[Dan Hanzas]

What are his marital habits?

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, I think he stepped outside.

[Dan Hanzas]

I can't keep all these things straight with the golfers.

[Mark Sesler]

Stepped outside.

[Dan Hanzas]

I always feel like the golfers, there's a whole lot of. It's like the adults know what's going on, but they don't talk about.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, yeah. There was a Mickelson story recently, like a long form story.

[Dan Hanzas]

Had some weird ones. Mickelson's. Mickelson stories are so weird that I don't bother, like, trying to figure out what the hell's going on.

[Mark Sesler]

One where he had Pat Perez and his wife. Pat's wife.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Stay at his flat at one of the tournaments. Like, Mickelson's rich enough where he's got big places. He got places at.

[Dan Hanzas]

Places he goes once a year.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's like, well, Pat, why don't you and your Wife, come stay with me. Pat Perez and everybody corroborated the story, including Mickelson himself. He didn't deny it. Pat Perez goes to, like, go to the bathroom, and Mickelson's, like, going to Ashley Perez, Pat Perez's wife. I'm like, hey, I'll leave the door open tonight when Pat goes to sleep. Just come on down the hall.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah, like some, like, stories, kind of like with Cal Ripken Jr type stuff.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

Jr being the victim.

[Mark Sesler]

He was on the wrong end of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to besmirch the good name of one Cal Ripken Jr. You

[Dan Hanzas]

don't want to be smirks in the name of the guy that once gave you a nipple twister.

[Mark Sesler]

Oh, yeah. The other end of that story. Yeah, yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

How would that guy ever breach the boundaries of good behavior? The guy who actually gave you a purple nurse.

[Mark Sesler]

Kevin Costner is what we're talking about.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

All right.

[Mark Sesler]

That was our petty cast. There's stuff we didn't even get to. But we'll mix it in as the show rolls on here. Let's circle back to the Astros. They got back on a winning track last night. We like seeing that big article in the Athletic. The one player who was made truly made the face of the cheating scandal. Not Jose Altuve. The one that the report made the face of the cheating scandal speaks. He's going into the hall of Fame this weekend. That's coming up. We'll tell you what he said.

[Dan Hanzas]

Presents live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln of Sugar Land Studios.

[Mark Sesler]

Here's Pain and Pendergast. I painted Pendergast with you on a. On a Tuesday. Good to be with you. Astros win last night. Thank you. Astros win last night, eight to five. Jeremy Pena, grand slam. Yordan Alvarez, two home runs. Okay, Seth, you tell me. We'll get to Carlos Beltran here in just a second. He spoke to the Athletic.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

The.

[Mark Sesler]

He's in the Mets front office right now. He was manager of the Mets, but never managed a game because the being better than everybody else scandal was discovered and punishments were doled out. The Mets fired him. We'll get to that in a second. Real quick question. Does it make me a bad fan that last night when Jeremy Pena came up with the bases loaded? I was hoping that he would get out so that Yordan would then come up with the.

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[Mark Sesler]

ready, bases loaded and get a chance for a grand slam so he could pad his lead in rbi.

[Dan Hanzas]

Oh, okay.

[Mark Sesler]

So the triple crown.

[Dan Hanzas]

You're upset with Pena for hitting that home run.

[Mark Sesler]

I was upset with Pena for hitting the grand slam. Why are you hogging all the RBIs when your teammate who then hit a home run.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

The very next at bat. It's pretty selfish, man.

[Dan Hanzas]

Hit a single that scores a run

[Mark Sesler]

and we still keep the ball in the park. If you hit a fly ball.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Make me a bad fan.

[Dan Hanzas]

No, no, I think that Jordan can handle himself.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

He doesn't need to pat his.

[Mark Sesler]

And Jordan was hugging Pena and whatnot. Probably performatively.

[Dan Hanzas]

To be clear, Jordan wasn't your was fine with it.

[Mark Sesler]

It was me that.

[Dan Hanzas]

I know a lot of people are wondering if Jordan was upset about the grand slam. He was cool.

[Mark Sesler]

He seemed cool with it, at least. No, I don't know Jordan, thespian that he is.

[Dan Hanzas]

Well, it was. No, but it ended up being. Boy, the drama would have been awesome though, too, because it was. Jordan's home run was on an O2 count. The first one was right.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

He's.

[Mark Sesler]

He's the best hitter with two strikes in all of baseball.

[Dan Hanzas]

In all of baseball.

[Mark Sesler]

You know my theory on this? I think sometimes Jordan gets down oh two just so he'll actually see a good. See a pitch. Yeah, that's my theory. I think Yordon, if he were to, you know, if he were to get up, if Jordan gets up to two. Oh, with the count he's walking.

[Dan Hanzas]

It's kind of like waiting to start your term paper until the night before it's due. Because you do your best, you operate pressure and everything. Yeah, yeah, I guess it's a little bit different, but yeah, he doesn't get pitched to and it's got to get boring out there.

[Mark Sesler]

Unless there's two strikes he doesn't get pitched to. I can see where just swinging things

[Dan Hanzas]

out of the zone just to get my favorite Yordon. Intentional walks are when, like they try to kind of pitch around him for a couple pitches and they're like, ah, screw it. That's what I'm saying.

[Mark Sesler]

He gets up, too. Oh, it's a walk. Yeah, yeah, he gets up too. It's a walk. So this Carlos Beltran interview that he did with the Athletic Carlos Beltran is getting ready to go into the hall of Fame this weekend, which proves that if you were somehow involved with the Astro sign stealing scandal, it is possible for you to get into the hall of Fame someday. For those that are worried that Jose Altuve is never going to get in, he's going to get in someday. Don't worry. He's working. He's. This, this part was interesting to me. He's working for the Mets in a special role in the front office right now. But apparently a lot of the chatter around the Mets because they fired Carlos Mendoza earlier this year.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Is why not give Carlos Beltran his shot at managing now? It's been seven years or whatever it is.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah. AJ Hinch is managing. AJ Hinches has been for several years.

[Mark Sesler]

The thing that gets me thinking about with the Astros, if they make changes here, I do think the one change that, that would excite Astros fans, I think firing Espada and firing Dana Brown in a vacuum would. Would be a lot of Astros fans would feel okay. That's the right move. I think if they brought Jeff Luno back, I think that would get people legitimately excited. And I think the fact that guys from the sign stealing skin faces of the sign stealing scandal, in this case Carlos Beltran would be hired back by the team that fired him.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Feels like, I feel like the door's already open, but it feels like that would further open the door for, for Luno to come back here as the GI.

[Dan Hanzas]

The thing is, though, that Luna owns like 18 soccer teams and he's just doing. I don't think he's. He's probably not interested.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

I don't know.

[Mark Sesler]

I'm saying I'd like to have him back.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

I was.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yes. No, I think I'd love to have him back. That'd be cool. You know what? You know what Luno could do? Convince Crane to just hit the reset button. There'd be a level of. Usually what happens when teams tank is or hit the reset button is that it's with a new GM and nobody really believes that it's gonna work. Where with Luno, people would be like, okay, cool. We're doing this again. All right, here we go.

[Mark Sesler]

This.

[Dan Hanzas]

That wouldn't be as bad as they were in 2013.

[Podcast Host (possibly a female co-host)]

No.

[Mark Sesler]

But. Well, yeah. And boy.

[Dan Hanzas]

But if it were minor reset, if

[Mark Sesler]

it were the equivalent of that reset, they'd be trade Jordan Alvarez. I mean, they traded Hunter Pence. They traded all the fit. They traded Lance Berkman, Roy Oswald. Now, they did those things before Ludo took the job.

[Dan Hanzas]

You're right. And Wade did all those, and they cleared the deck. I don't think it would be as much of a hardcore reset. The Astros were kind of one of the last of the era of where a true tanking made sense.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

Like, it doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't work out as well anymore because, like, more teams are keen to.

[Mark Sesler]

That would be fascinating if he did, though.

[Draymond Green (clip)]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Like, Luno trading away some of the very guys he drafted back in the day or traded for to rebuild. And that. Boy, the content you could do of comparing the stages of the rebuild they would be undergoing with Luno compared to the first rebuild.

[Dan Hanzas]

Look, Luno. Sean, I don't know if, you know, this is a pretty bright guy, I think. Look, Luno. Luno understood probably better than anybody, man. There's a difference between building a team and then sustaining that success. They're two completely different challenges.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

And that they were going to have to figure some things out about how to sustain. Sustain it. It might just work out by happenstance that he got to. He got to forego that whole part of it.

[Draymond Green (clip)]

Right.

[Mark Sesler]

Right.

[Dan Hanzas]

James Click and Dana Brown, you know, go through that misery of trying to sustain it and then just come back in and do what you're good at.

[Mark Sesler]

He was in the CIA for six years.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

And now he's back. I don't know what he was. I don't know why he left or why. Why he was gone. He just left.

[Dan Hanzas]

Mysterious person.

[Mark Sesler]

And now he's back. Yeah. This article about Beltran is very Interesting. A couple things. One, he is clearly upset about being singled out.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah. That was like the inventor of, et cetera, of the.

[Mark Sesler]

He's the only player mentioned in the report that Major League Baseball did. Yeah, they didn't.

[Dan Hanzas]

Because.

[Mark Sesler]

All because of the immunity that was granted to current players at the time.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

When they were doing interviews. By the time they were interviewing players about this whole thing, Beltran had retired. So he didn't have the union to kind of back him. And what it like he was sort of this man without a country. So he feels like as a result of all the players getting immunity and telling their story, that kept them out of the report ultimately. And he was made to be a bit of a. Maybe a scapegoat or at least maybe over representative of what the. What the.

[Dan Hanzas]

I mean, the scandal was. Story goes that when he got to Houston and he looked at whatever methods they were using for stealing signs that it was. It was way behind what some other teams were doing. That was. What was that? Yeah, that. In that. So people kind of look at him as like, oh, wow, he's the guy who got the ball rolling then. You remember that? Yeah. It also involved a whole bunch of people from the analytics side and everything else to make it all happen. So it wasn't. It wasn't like it was a one man show. It wasn't like Beltran was out there setting up cameras in the outfield or something. Now this, as far as we know.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

This

[Mark Sesler]

as far as we know. Yeah, this. This is a quote I knew you would like, because I believe it's you and Brandy collectively that coined the phrase the being better than everybody else.

[Dan Hanzas]

Being better than everybody.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

A lot of. A lot of teams doing it. The Astros are just better at it. So Lance Armstrong and doping, like. Oh, sorry. He was better at it than everybody else.

[Mark Sesler]

Okay, so you ready? This is. This is confirmation of the nickname being spot on.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

This is Carlos Beltran in this article. I know that as a team we got together to do what we did, but I've got to tell you that this was not like one player's idea. This was a team being together from top to bottom to do something that we felt was going to help us win. And we also felt that other organizations, they have their system and people could say whatever, but the game of baseball has been played for 100 years. How you decipher your opposing team to take advantage. We felt that our system was better than any other system in baseball. They were better at it.

[Dan Hanzas]

Dang it.

[Mark Sesler]

I love that. That confirmed the nickname.

[Dan Hanzas]

The only. The thing about this is that, like, whenever anybody gets caught cheating, like the. The go to is like, well, everybody else was doing it. And I kind of tongue in cheek say that. I mean, realistically, it seems like there were maybe a third of the teams in the league, at least, that were using some form of electronic sign stealing. And that's not everybody. So I think there's a broad spectrum of teams and players that should have acted disgruntled versus others that should have kept their mouth shut. Cody Ballinger and the. So there's a gray area there, I think, that I also disagree with. I. Do you believe Beltran when he says from top to bottom?

[Mark Sesler]

No, because that would. That would include Altuve.

[Dan Hanzas]

Right. Or there were guys who didn't use, like Brian McKinn. Can. Didn't like it. Reportedly, there are a few players that just flat out did not like it. But you're kind of. You're going along to get along. I mean, AJ Hinch didn't reportedly like it. Smash.

[Mark Sesler]

So that's that. That to me, the bringing up AJ Hinch and I'll bring up Jeff Luno also, because I think. I still think there's people out there that. That thought that Luno may have Southern belled the whole thing a little bit when it came to the service.

[Dan Hanzas]

What have these boys been up to?

[Mark Sesler]

I don't exactly.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

I just.

[Dan Hanzas]

This chicanery. I've just been doing my business and I come home and find my houses in turmoil.

[Mark Sesler]

Yes. I think there's people that think that about Luno. When. When Beltran, and we're kind of parsing out what he's saying here when he says this was a team being together from top to bottom, he. That may be him implicating management in this thing.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah, that.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah. The people above the players at least knew it was going on. Maybe they weren't down there saying, okay, we're going to put the monitor here and here's your bat to bang on the trash can. But they had awareness of it, I can tell you.

[Dan Hanzas]

I know, like back when steroids were rampant in football, there was a lot of, you know, willful ignorance on the part of people in management and whatever. Well, and in baseball, there's kind of like, all right, I don't know, guys are doing something and I've heard stories, but I'm not going to look into it too deep. Yeah. And we're just going to go along. The results are good. Let's just. And you just kind of. It's an Intentional. Oh, what's the old word from the Harrison Ford movie? The. The deniability.

[Mark Sesler]

Plausible deniability.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah, I know there's. I'm aware of something that's going on, but I'm not going to look into it because then I'm going to know what's going on.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, that's it. Boy, you're thinking that you. I mean, you pointing that out, that top to bottom being in there, that if I were. If I were doing that interview and I got that quote and I don't know who wrote the article, I'd have to go look.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

My follow up to that would have been. What do you mean by top to bottom? Yeah, because it can mean the whole roster. It can mean the entire organization. And I think those things are relevant because there. There was an element to AJ Hinch and Jeff Luno that. That they. You could tell they tried to distance themselves from it.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

You know, Hinch in the moment trying to distance himself by not stopping it and by smashing a monitor with a bat, whatever. I guess trying to send a message that he wanted it stopped. And then Luno by literally distancing himself.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah, there were. You know, and some former Astros players have talked about the fact that Altuve and a guys just didn't want any part of it. The other teams were doing it. All of that. The top to bottom. I feel like. I don't think you can say that about any organization ever in sports or otherwise where there's top to bottom agreement. There's always disagreement about something. And we've got reports of some teams and. Or managers that didn't like it.

[Mark Sesler]

The funniest part.

[Dan Hanzas]

Players and managers.

[Mark Sesler]

The funniest part about all this is that when Beltran says it was better than any other system in baseball. And the fact that the Astros are getting punished the most.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Of. Or got punished the most by anybody would indicate that maybe baseball feels that way too. Is that the other teams that were doing some form of sign stealing were using like advanced technology to do it. Like Apple watches and things like that. The Astros best system was them like cavemen.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Banging on.

[Dan Hanzas]

That's why. That's why I got so disgusted with

[Mark Sesler]

me have this bang on camera.

[Dan Hanzas]

Sias and never didn't want to act like the Yankees ever did anything wrong at all with electronic signs. Stealing or didn't even participate. But he would. He would point that out. He's all, well, it's the technology. It's a technology. That's what it is. And then it turns into, you Find out like, oh, wow, the Red Sox and Yankees and other teams were using technology. It's the trash cans. That's what's different. It's not the technology, it's the trash cans. Oh, you mean that thing that the other team could clearly hear. Right. Might put two and two together and figure it out.

[Mark Sesler]

Took so long.

[Dan Hanzas]

They did well and teams did start figuring it out and that's why it became less effective. Yeah. And by the time it got to the World Series, remember, there was broad paranoia around baseball. I mean, we had Lance McCullers in studio. Lance was one of the guys who was saying that there needs to be some type of system. It would eventually become pitchcom because remember in the World Series, all the crossed up catchers and everything, like it was everybody. They were changing their calls every inning long.

[Mark Sesler]

The games were both.

[Dan Hanzas]

Those teams were so paranoid about what the other team was doing.

[Mark Sesler]

The games were like five hours long because there's eight. Jilly. That's why they had to make a limit on the trips to the mound, too.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Because of that World Series. All right, Pain and Pender gas with you. All right, coming up next. I know over the last few decades there have been things with college football where we've said, this is going to kill college football. Could this be the thing that actually kills? Popularity of college football is being discussed at SEC media days yesterday. We'll tell you what it is coming up next.

[Dan Hanzas]

Listen, I don't know if I can

[Mark Sesler]

speak of Sugar Land Studios. Here's Pain and Pendergast. All right. There was big news in college football yesterday. At least. Rumors and speculation and innuendo. SEC media days are going on. I think media days around college football, very underrated. Time of the year on the calendar because as we know, college coaches and college basketball coaches have been the one that in the past couple of years have really popped up on the Pain and Pendergast radar as, wow, these are some very petty, egotistical people. These coaches.

[Dan Hanzas]

Let it go, man.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

NFL coaches are annoyingly boring.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

Always very diplomatic about every little thing. Thing. They very rare that they take a shot now that Rex Ryan is gone. Especially not a lot of shots taken. But college, they just let they go for it.

[Mark Sesler]

Ain't scared, man.

[Dan Hanzas]

All right.

[Mark Sesler]

But there's big doings yesterday. SEC media day.

[Dan Hanzas]

Seth, do we want Kiffin basically acting like it's 1967.

[Mark Sesler]

But the conferences, you know, the College Football playoff has really started to create the potential for a riff.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Between conferences here.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

To where certain conferences think the playoffs should look this way. Certain conferences think the playoffs should look that way.

[Dan Hanzas]

They all get disgruntled about every single one of them things. One more team from their conference should have been invited.

[Podcast Host (possibly a female co-host)]

Right.

[Draymond Green (clip)]

Right.

[Dan Hanzas]

The playoffs. Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

And in the end, here's the thing. Business is good. Even without how they may feel the playoff is flawed. Or we think we disagree with what the Big Ten thinks the playoffs should look like. Like fans are scooping it up, man. Fans are lapping it up right now.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah. Even if they hate it. Even if they hate all the discombobulation and the joining of conferences and everything, they're still watching in droves, at least on the aggregate.

[Mark Sesler]

They are. Yeah. For sure. So do we want to set the mood for this story right here?

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah, this is. Let's, let's play a little Kelly Clarkson breakaway.

[Mark Sesler]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

Because the SEC's hinting that they might be open to breaking away, starting their own deal.

[Mark Sesler]

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey reiterated. That's a good tune, man. Reiterated Monday the talk of the conference breaking away is, quote, real and not a leverage play. The idea of an SEC breakaway has been simmering within the conference for a while. We've heard them talking about it. Then became a talking point at the spring meetings back in May. Sankey didn't directly address the possibility during his opening comments on Monday yesterday at the start of SEC media days. But the first question out of the shoot when the Q and A part started was about break, about breaking away. And he did not downplay it.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah, that it's a possibility. How We Made youe Mother is a rewatch podcast that looks back episode by episode at the hit TV show How I Met yout Mother. It's hosted by me, Josh Radner, along with series co creator Craig Thomas.

[Mark Sesler]

In seasons one and two, we were joined by Neil Patrick Harris, Kobe Smulders, Bryan Cranston, Ashley Williams, Wayne Brady, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey, Joe Manganiello and my brilliant co creator Carter Bayes. And now we are diving into season three.

[Dan Hanzas]

So whether it's your 50th rewatch or your first time through, follow how we made your mother. Wherever you get your podcasts, your whole

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[Dan Hanzas]

get your podcasts and they've discussed it. It sounds like there might be a few schools or presidents or whomever that are more into it than others are.

[Mark Sesler]

Yeah, I'm just.

[Dan Hanzas]

This is the kind of thing where I don't know anymore. What I have a really hard time predicting that anything in college football is going to be a disaster because every single time I think that or the consensus is that it's going to be a disaster, it actually ends up increasing the popularity this sport.

[Mark Sesler]

Yes.

[Dan Hanzas]

Nil transfer portal combining of conferences, the all of these things that just it hasn't hurt the product. You know what, you could argue that it's hurt the product in virtue of like the actual play on the field and having every coach has to basically create a new team every single year.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Yeah.

[Advertiser/Announcer]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

But in terms of the popularity of the sport, it hasn't really dealt it any kind of a death blow. It's been the opposite.

[Mark Sesler]

No, no. I, to me, of all the things that have happened and I have a mind that this, this is the thing that could potentially really damage the sport.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

I don't think anything's going to kill it dead, but really damage it. I'll explain why in a second. The biggest thing I thought of all the things that have come up in the last, say, 15 to 20 years, the one for me that does still affect my enjoyment of college football is all the realignment that's just destroyed all the rivalries that used to exist.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Teams not playing rivals, they used to play either because A, they're not in the same conference anymore, B, they're in different conferences, but one of them's not willing to play that whole Texas, Texas, Texas A and M Dynamic for years till they both got back in the same conference. And see now with the playoff teams are very. With the 12 team playoff teams are nervous about over scheduling. Maybe. Yeah, they feel like, hey, maybe we'd be better off. I mean that was the, that was the battle cry for. I forget which team it was last year. Oh, it's Texas. Like if we just didn't play Ohio State and we played Sam. Yeah, I think they played Sam. But if they played Stephen F. Austin in week one instead of Ohio State, we'd have been 10 and two and in the playoffs. Yeah, that's bad for the sport. It hasn't killed the sport. The reason why, I think, and again, the talk of the SEC is talking about breaking away and basically conducting their own season unto themselves would be.

[Dan Hanzas]

There would be no competing for the national championship. It would be the SEC championship, which. Go ahead.

[Mark Sesler]

Well, just so. So that's where I'm kind of going with this.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Is that if they break off altogether, what, what is the care level of the average fan for an S. Aside from those schools for an SEC championship that they're treating like it's the national championship. Especially when the SEC has come back to the pack a little bit here. These last. The nil and the transfer portal have brought the SEC back to the pack a little bit. They haven't won a national championship as a conference in a few years now. That's the irony in the whole thing. You're creating your own national championship and the Big Tens won the last few of these.

[Dan Hanzas]

Looks a little bit soft, imo.

[Mark Sesler]

Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana, these. These are the team.

[Dan Hanzas]

Right.

[Mark Sesler]

So. So I think if, if you have the SEC over here creating their own championship and almost declaring it a national championship of some sort, then you've got the rest of the schools where the average fan is going to go, well, the SEC is not part of this. That's not a real championship. I think as opposed to having one real champion, having two kind of fugazi champions. I think I'm gonna say it. I think that would damage the sport.

[Dan Hanzas]

I think that. I don't know if it would because what you, you know what happens immediately is for one, the SEC would start expanding to the point where it almost just becomes

[Mark Sesler]

probably the next step.

[Dan Hanzas]

It starts expanding and then you're going to end up with the same debates and arguments about like, well, wait a second, how many teams need to be in the SEC championship playoffs? And at some point, hey, you know what, you know, we should do 20 years from now, hey, you Guys, ever think, what if we had the champion of the SEC play the champion of the Big Ten, which now comprises 40 teams?

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Yeah.

[Dan Hanzas]

And you end up with a national championship that way? I don't know if it's ever going to end or stop. I don't know what. I don't know what that. I don't know there's ever going to be a point of stability anymore where it feels like, oh, okay, college. College football is what it is and this is the way it works.

[Mark Sesler]

Okay, so I will stand by this then. I think, as constructed, the way you and I just described it and the way it would look initially, I think that damages the sport, which then forces everybody to come back to the table or the SEC to do what you're talking about, just, all right, if this is going to be a national champion, if our entity that we've created is going to be a championship that's viewed by college football fans as a real national champion, then we. We can't just be 16 teams in the southwest southeast quadrant of the United States. We've got to be more of a national thing. And that's what gets everybody back to the table. This might be the detour on the way to the 64 Team Super Conference that everybody talks about being inevitable.

[Dan Hanzas]

Right. This just boils down to flat out that the, that if the ncaa, because the NCAA has become antiquated in so many ways and it's like, it's easy to bag on the ncaa, but man, they're trying to. They're trying to, you know, wrangle a tornado here and operating as this gigantic organization that had a certain set of rules forever, and now all of a sudden it's been blown out of the water.

[Mark Sesler]

Well.

[Dan Hanzas]

And they might just not be capable of. Of containing and managing all of this. Where smaller organizations might feel that they are.

[Mark Sesler]

They've shown they're not capable.

[Dan Hanzas]

Right, right.

[Mark Sesler]

You know, they've shown that they tried to create that clearinghouse for all the nil stuff, and that's been kind of a mess. Yeah, yeah. It's.

[Dan Hanzas]

I think there's. If you go back to, like, let's see, baseball, when baseball was America's pastime, and I know you can never go back and do everything in the exact same way. I mean, it would like. It used to be that you had two separate leagues and they were separate

[Mark Sesler]

and met in the World Series. Right.

[Dan Hanzas]

They met in the World Series and kids, there wasn't even a playoffs back in the day. It was the only time. The only time that you Would you'd have the best team from the AL and the best team from the NL in the. Then they would meet in the World Series and that was it. No playoffs. Anything else like that. Like, I'm not saying that that's. That was the best way to do it or anything, but baseball was very popular then. So I don't know. I don't know if there's a. If all of a sudden it went back to like the SEC is its own conference, the Big Ten is its own conference. They only play within each other.

[Caller or Guest]

I don't.

[Dan Hanzas]

I think it would be very short lived. I think at some point then they get. You get right back into okay, you know what, oh, let's have the. We got two or three super conferences. Let's have those teams play each other at the end of the year.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

Right.

[Dan Hanzas]

And then you know what happens. Yeah. You know what? Four teams really isn't enough, I think. What if we go. I, so I, you just have a. With a different governing body than the ncaa.

[Mark Sesler]

The whole things like an amoeba just like keeps like changing shapes.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Mark Sesler]

Geographically, functionally and everything else.

[Dan Hanzas]

The difference would be that it would be. Whoever was the governing body would maybe be more adept at handling everything and because I would imagine at some point I would. I'm about to say the nil and everything will settle down.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

I don't.

[Dan Hanzas]

Boy, if teams are splitting off, it's going to be different in each conference in. At some point they're like for it to settle down, there'd have to be some kind of a salary cap. And I just don't know how you put all of this back into the.

[Mark Sesler]

I was one of those traditional college football fans that for years was just in denial about things like unionization of the players, 60, 14 Super League, things like that. I've flipped. I know. I think it's going to be a while. Do I see it in my lifetime? Yeah, probably, you know, depending on, you know, if I keep walking four miles a day and whatever. I, But I feel like this, like I feel strongly that student athletes as employees, at least football players and maybe basketball players as employees of the school is coming. And I feel like if this, if the SEC especially were to break off, that to me isn't permanent. Where it's the SEC over here and everybody else. That's the first salvo of kind of trimming the fat off of the 130 teams that there are. And it would suck for those 60 or 70 schools that get trimmed off into some separate tier between D1 and D1A double A, you know, but this is where the money is leading.

[Dan Hanzas]

There's like an FCS and a mid fc. The fcs tears of the fcs.

[Mark Sesler]

And then people care about those championships and things like that.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

I don't know.

[Mark Sesler]

I, I don't like, I like the way it was, but I, But I'm not dumb enough to.

[Dan Hanzas]

Well, what's the likelihood that this actually happens?

[Mark Sesler]

The SEC breaking off.

[Dan Hanzas]

Yeah. Anytime soon or any of the other conferences breaking off?

[Mark Sesler]

Not zero, but I think it's. It's the underdog. Yeah, I think it's the underdog.

[Dan Hanzas]

I think there's, I mean, I think

[Mark Sesler]

ultimately they all look and say, okay, we got to work together.

[Dan Hanzas]

I don't know how, like, I don't know the finances of it or anything, but the fact that all of these teams in the Big Ten have to travel so far for all the other sports as well, it's like there's got to, there's got to be people there that are saying, like, look like we can make this work, but we could make it work a lot better if we didn't have to take. If our cross country team didn't have to fly across the country five times.

[Mark Sesler]

That's exactly right. All right. NFL top 100. I think we finally got the stamp that C.J. stroud is not making it. Another quarterback made it yesterday that. I'm actually a little angry about this. I don't normally get worked up about the NFL top 100. I'm a little worked up about this one. We'll tell you who life can feel overwhelming, but on my podcast, from the Heart with Rachel Bra, we're in it together.

[Dan Hanzas]

Every Friday, a new episode brings you

[Mark Sesler]

a new story with topics on motherhood, wellness, self love, and more. Listen to from the Heart with Rachel Braethon. Wherever you get your podcasts, your whole

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[Mark Sesler]

Hey, y'. All. I'm Maddie. And I'm Poodle. And together we host the podcast Reality Gays. We are two ridiculous homosexuals who love nothing more than talking about reality television and tearing in a new one. So whether it's naughty Day, Fiance Love Is Blind Love after lockup, or any other trash TV show about lonely hearts

[Dan Hanzas]

looking for love, your gay bestie's got you covered, y'.

[Sports Commentator/Analyst]

All.

[Mark Sesler]

New shows every week following Listen to

[Podcast Host (possibly a female co-host)]

Reality Gays wherever you get your podcast.