C (2:54)

Yeah, we'll talk about that. I think you might put Green Bay there as well. If Green Bay beats.

B (2:58)

Yes, Green Bay.

C (2:59)

And you'd be forced. Yes. Okay. So. No, they are not. I don't think of them as the best team in football. I think of them as the most surprising team in football. More surprising even than the Colts, who have begun to fade. A little more surprising even than Carolina because Carolina has seven wins and New England has 11. And more surprising than your Bears, who are very surprising. But as you said, New England's wins are built often against bad to mediocre teams. Right. I mean, that's what they played. They had the gift of a fourth place schedule. Their schedule is ranked as the easiest schedule in the NFL so far. They've only beaten three teams that right now have a winning record. I think it's Carolina, Tampa Bay and Buffalo to this point. And the composite record of the other teams they beat. You have to hear this. It's 32 and 89. Come. Come on. It's 32 and 89, you know, so. And they don't have a schedule nearly as hard as Kansas City or Philadelphia. So we're gonna, we're gonna do a wait and see. But I will tell you, they have, if you want me to make the case for them as the best team, they have the two most important positions covered. Two most important. In New England they got a coach and they got a quarterback. That's what matters.

B (4:10)

In New England they got that covered. And those guys might get some hardware, particularly if the Patriots keep winning. Let's move to the Giants rookie quarterback Jackson Dart who got launched on a first quarter second down scamper because he refused to go out of bounds. Dart missed the last two games of the concussion already and has been counseled by other players to save his body. But he said post game quote, I played this way my whole entire life. We're not playing soccer out here. You're going to get hit. It's just part of the game. Close quote. Tony is dart right that hits are just a part of the game.

C (4:52)

He's 100% right. That hits and even big hits are a part of the game. This is a violent sport by design. You can't watch a game in the NFL and not see somebody at some point get carted off. Right? This is the allure of football for over 100 years. I wrote down five names. Mike, tell me if I left anybody out. Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, Dick Butkus, Ray Lewis, Chuck Bednarik. I don't think I left anybody out. That's the group, you know, that's the group right there. Jackson has to understand something, okay? That's. He's got to understand something. You gotta, you know, you cannot walk that tightrope. You have to go out of bounds or you have to slide. I understand you're a tough guy. I understand you want that extra yard. But you know what? A quarterback is more important to his team but by playing the entire game than by getting that particular extra yard. You know, there's no great glory, Mike, in having a three year NFL career because you don't slide and you don't go out of bounds. He was hit so hard, he could have literally ended up in the stands. He was hit that hard.

B (5:55)

Get out of bounds, Tony. I think the place where he's going to have to mature very quickly unless he's going to wind up in that tent, the blue tent, every week. Is that just because you did it on Friday and Saturday doesn't mean it works on Sunday. Friday night guys, 99.9% of them, they don't play Sunday. Even the great Saturday guys in the SEC, 80% of them, they don't make it to Sunday. The guys you were playing on Sunday and then that group of guys you circled, they'll knock you out of the game. That's right, they will end your career. And Tony, look, I know in basketball there are times where players say to young high flyers, they did this to Derrick Rose and you know how much I love D. Rose. They said to him as he was going to the basket and flying, son, you can't do this all the time. You're going to get hurt. And Tony, that's right, it's not a threat, it's a promise. He and Jackson Darden better learn that and he better learn quickly.

C (7:01)

Somebody on the Giants or everybody on the Giants has to explain the way the NFL works. The NFL, as Jerry Glanville said, is not for long if you play like that. Can't do that. Let's move to the Hot Stove league and specifically American League back to back Cy Young winner Tarek Scubal. The Detroit Tigers do not want to trade school. They want him to pitch for them this year in what is the last year of his contract. But multiple reports say the Tigers were are willing to listen to offers knowing that Scott Borris is Scubal's agent. John Heyman reports the gap between what Scuba wants and what the Tigers have offered is, hello, $250 million. The Gap. Wilbon, should the Tigers even be listening to offers for Scubal at the upcoming winter meetings?

B (7:44)

Yeah, yeah, Tony, they almost have to. You mentioned Scott Boris and you mentioned $250 million. We covered enough baseball long enough ago to even with Scott Boris was, was, was, was relatively new to the game. It's not a threat with Scott Boris. You know, it's not an empty threat. And so you gotta take this seriously. I don't know what his specific relationship is with the Tigers brass, but they know, they know whether or not they have any kind of realistic shot at holding on to school. And if you think seriously, he's gonna walk and you can get something for him, you've got to listen. Whether you do this right now, whether you kick the can down the road a little bit and find out if the price goes up. But yeah, Tone, the Tigers have to listen. He's too valuable. He's too good. He could fetch a lot from somebody.

C (8:40)

I would love to disagree with you, but you're 100% right. And Scott Boris has a lot to do. This, who may or may not be the devil. I watched this happen in Washington with Juan Soto. The Nats made an offer of over $300 million. Scott Boras paid no attention to it. And the next thing you know, Juan Soto is being traded. You have to listen. Look, there's some stuff with Skubal. He's already. He's not an everyday player. He's a pitcher, okay? He's had Tommy John surgery. He's had another surgery on his elbow. He's had two fantastic seasons, Mike. But the Tigers have to think in the back of their minds, what if the clock is ticking on this guy? What if we can get a starter and a reliever? What if we can get an all star position player? You have to consider it. Because Scott Boris almost always takes his players into free agency. He almost never signs them, you know, extends a contract. So, yeah, you know what? It stinks for the Tigers. It does. But you have to listen. The only thing that might help them, and it might, if there's a work stoppage in a year and a half or in two years, whatever that is, 20, 27, I guess maybe another team doesn't want him because why are you giving them A if he can't play because there's a work stoppage, let's take a break. Coming up, in our attempt to find the NFL's best team, we will ask Jeff Saturday which O line impresses him the most right now.

B (10:00)

We'll also ask him whether age has caught up with Aaron Rodgers.

C (10:06)

The thing is, with Scubal, this is his last year. You wait too long and he walks. You get nothing. Right? You get nothing.

B (10:14)

Yeah. Yeah.

D (10:16)

Pardon the Interruption is presented by Grey Goose. Make time wait. Please enjoy responsibly. Part of Happy hour.

A (10:24)

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D (11:38)

You are watching Pardon the Interruption presented by Grey Goose. Part of Happy hour.

C (11:52)

Let's dig back into the NFL trenches with our great friend ESPN NFL analyst Jeff Saturday. Jeff Wilbon and I are having trouble deciding which teams are really good. Every week you think a team is good and then a team loses. Often the strength of a team is an offensive line. You played on the offensive line. That's a good indicator as you look across the league, which offensive line or lines stand out to you. And I have to add, you know, injuries have to count on this. If there's a great player and he's out there, he's not on the line anymore. So who do you got? No, no.

D (12:27)

Yeah, I'll start. I would say the Broncos have a good offensive line. I think the packers have a good offensive line. I think the Bears have a very good offensive line. Rams got, Colts got one. I mean, you can kind of go that way Right. As you're looking at teams that have been successful and are kind of up in that push. Phillies got a good offensive line even without Lane Johnson, who we know is an absolute stud. They're even better when they're in. So those would be the groups that you look at. But I'm the same way as you, Tony. In all honesty, this has been one of the craziest years in the NFL I've ever witnessed.

A (12:59)

You.

D (13:00)

You really don't know what you're going to get. There's nobody who's just run away with this thing. Everybody seems beatable. Everybody kind of has warts that you can see and that can be magnified. And then, you know, you have, like, I talked about love a few weeks ago about that he wasn't the guy and that he was struggling. He goes out and those 4Ts and looks like an MVP the other day. But it's the ebbs and flows of the season, so I don't think anybody's clearly running away, but those are the lines that I like the most so far.

B (13:30)

Love gives us a nice transition, Jeff, to Mr. Aaron Rodgers. Ian O' Connor of the Athletic compared the sight of Aaron Rodgers with that busted nose to the classic shot of W title in his prime. You know, on one knee and bleeding. How much can Aaron Rodgers, at this age, Jeff, have left? You played until you were 37 years old, and you know Aaron Rodgers, he's going to get a gold jacket minutes after he calls it quits. But at this point, does he have anything left?

D (14:04)

Man, I tell you what, not. Not the way. Not the way he's getting hit. I mean, you think broken wrist. I mean, fake, basically, face broken. I mean, when he hit the ground, y', all, I'm not even going to lie. When he hit the ground, he was getting up. I mean, he hit the ground. And I was like, oh. Because there's certain ways in football, right, you watch it long enough and you're like, oh, it's. It's. You know, it looks bad, but the way they fall, way he fell, told me everything. And then he got up and went about it. And I'll say this. Part of the issue for Wilbond is, is that this should never be the issue. Shouldn't be offense. When you're talking about Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, the Bills ran the ball, just run plays alone. 51 run plays, 51. Like, offenses when you play, you want to get like 50 total, like, run, run past positive plays. The bills had 50 and ran for 250. You're just like the defense has got to help. You got to get more. You got to get more strikes at this thing. You got to get more, you know, opportunities. They're just not getting enough. And I know, I know they haven't played well on offense, but man, the blame's got to go on the defense when that's where you hang your hat.

B (15:15)

There's a guy on the Jaguars who's probably fairly anonymous, but I know you know him. 335 pound nose tackle Devon Hamilton of the Jaguars. He had to step in as a long snapper because of injury. This seems like you're asking the impossible. You know how hard that task is? Give us an idea.

D (15:37)

Oh, let me just tell you. The nerves, right? I, I can't even imagine the nerves that he felt when you slide over. Now, now think about this. Every week, the, the long snapper, the holder and the kickers, punters and field goal kickers go off by themselves, right? They have like one period of practice a day. Other than that, they're usually on a whole separate field and they're doing their own thing. They go in and work out. They got their own little world, right, that they all live in. And that's all that guy, that's all the long snapper is doing, right, is snap after snap after snap. Just getting accustomed to it. Timing, everything feels good. Which side are you going to put it on for the holder and for the punter and forget everything is golden. When you got to step in and you hadn't been sn, you snap it like twice a week to this guy, the nerves that he had to have felt before he put his hands on that ball to rip that thing back and listen that much off changes the game, y'.

C (16:30)

All.

D (16:30)

I mean, this is, this is like, this is a game changing play and all eyes are on you. I cannot imagine mad respect because when you step in and do that, you got, you got some, you, you got some guts about you. So a ton of respect that he went and stepped in and did what he did.

C (16:46)

We will get you out of here on this. Mike and I are always praising offensive linemen for how smart they are. I mean, I made a living talking to the Hogs when I was covering the Washington team. They're always smart in baseball, catchers always become managers. Why are there so few, if any, offensive linemen who are head coaches in the league?

D (17:13)

I love that one. We don't want the attention. We. You get talked to way too much, get asked a lot of silly questions. You got to protect a lot of people's feelings. That ain't fun, offensive lineman. We don't, we don't do too well in doing that. I'm a great example of that. And then, and then two, we, you know, we've been defending the quarterback our whole life and now we got to defend him again. You know what I mean? It's like, that's all. We're going to prop up the QBs forever. But in all seriousness, I love Olam. I think linemen as a whole, man, we love the game, we love the players of the game. I just think we're so focused on team play, the five guys, the unit, all that kind of stuff. It's, it's much more designed for quarterbacks and, and you know, the way that the game has kind of gone into that offensive schemes and that kind of thing. But listen, there's never, never a doubt O line separate winners and losers. But I think, I think the game is kind of past the just the O line run game. It's more the passing stuff nowadays.

C (18:12)

It's a pleasure as always, Jeff. Thank you for being on.

B (18:15)

Thank you, sir.

D (18:16)

Love you fellas. Great seeing you.

C (18:19)

Let's take one last break. Still to come, Dylan Brooks explains why he enjoyed irritating LeBron again last night.

B (18:26)

That's what he does. That's his thing. And could Serena Williams be coming out of retirement? What? What? What? Wasn't Andy Reid an offensive lineman?

C (18:36)

I think, wasn't he? I think he was offensive lineman. There's a guy with, I don't think.

A (18:43)

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D (20:51)

Pardon the Interruption is presented by Great Goose Make Time Wait. Please enjoy responsibly Part of Happy Hour.

C (21:01)

Happy time people. Happy 50th birthday. Mark Kotzek, the athletics manager brought his team home 76 and 86 this past season, a better record than many predicted. The Athletics play their home games in a minor league stadium in Sacramento as they await the building of a new stadium in Las Vegas. Managing the Athletics, now out of Oakland and in this minor league ballpark, limbo. Maybe the least attractive MLB managerial job. Katse has managed the Athletics for four seasons, dramatically improving their win total since their 50 win season in 2023. Katsay played 17 seasons in the majors as an outfielder, batting.276 with seven different teams. He was promoted to manager from third base coach when Bob Melvin left for San Diego in 2021.

B (21:48)

It was funny seeing that T shirt in that clip. I'd rather be at Oakland Coliseum. What a lie. Nobody would rather be at Oakland Coliseum, which is why they bailed. You can walk in there during a game and count the number of heads in attendance, sometimes fewer than 500. Stop it.

C (22:06)

Happy anniversary Archie Griffin on this day 50 years ago, the great Ohio State running back became the only player ever to win two high school trophies. Griffin won back to back in 1974 and 1975. Griffin did not make much of a dent in the NFL in his seven seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, but he is remembered as one of the greatest college football players of all time and was enshrined in the College Football hall of Fame in 1986. Griffin won four Big Ten titles with the Buckeyes in the days when the Big Ten actually had 10 teams he was the first player to ever start four consecutive rose by games in the days when the Rose bowl mattered. Ohio State retired Griffin's number 45, Tony.

B (22:47)

He's the best player in Big Ten history. To me, the best player, period. Forget position. But by the way, Herschel Walker could have won three Heismans. He should have won his freshman year. All due respect to George Rogers and Marcus Allen, who won those other times? Herschel Walker. But going back, Archie Griffin, best player in the history of the Big Ten.

C (23:11)

Happy trails to last night's games for both LA teams. The Clippers got smoked by the Heat in Miami, at one point giving up a 32 run. The clips have now lost 14 of 16. They're a disaster. By contrast, the Lakers had been on a seven game win streak, but they fell at home to the Suns as Luka turned the ball over nine times. Wilbon, favored by Dylan Brooks, scored 33 for the surprising 139 sons. At one point in the second quarter, Brooks dunked and then mocked LeBron with an imitation shoulder shrug, explaining afterwards quote he likes people who bow down. I don't bow down. Quote It's a great quote. It's a great quote.

B (23:49)

Dillon Brooks is so annoying, but he is so good as a villain for basketball. If he's playing on a team that matters and the Suns seem to want to matter right now, let him go at LeBron and LeBron come right back at him. That's what sports should be about, that kind of rivalry.

C (24:07)

Let's go to the big finish. College hoops tonight. Number 15, Florida at number four, Duke. Are you excited?

B (24:14)

Actually, yes. I'm starting to warm up the college basketball as we get toward Christmas. Kentucky is hiring Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein as head coach and Houston ucla. Get this. Tone is going with James Madison's Bob Chesney. The bigger deal is.

C (24:33)

Well, I would just point out that the last JMU coach to be hired was Kurt Signetti. How's that working out for Indiana? Pretty good, huh? Serena Williams re entered the anti doping test pool, a requirement before any return to professional tennis. Are you intrigued?

B (24:47)

I would be getting all excited, but Serena says stop it. Slow your roll. Not happening. Tiger woods says he just started chipping and putting last week, doesn't know when he'll return to professional golf. Your thoughts?

C (25:01)

This is an endless loop for us 50 times a year. When will he return to professional golf? He just started tripping.

D (25:07)

Stop.

C (25:08)

Please stop. Last one. The 21 Thunder go through their 13th win in a row at the Warriors. Do you like their chances?

B (25:15)

No. Stiff. No chances. No, no. They might not have a chance. Much of one with Steph, but not without him. Sorry, guys, we are out of time.

C (25:26)

We will try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

B (25:29)

And I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads. And now, your Sports center pti.

A (25:39)

As you know, managing maintenance, repair and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-granger. Click granger.com or just stop by.