Bill Belichick, Grit Week 2026, Cavs Win Game 7, Aaron Rai Takes The PGA + Who’s Back Of The Week

16:30PFT Commenter:Get him out. Get him out of here. Kick him out. It was so soft by Rory. But yeah, it's crazy. What are you guys talking about memes? What did you find? Joe Embiid. One. Joe. What? Joe Embiid USA. That's true. Joe Embiid is USA. Yeah. USA MVP.

16:47Big Cat:And also, we're going to win the Stanley Cup again. It was. Yeah. Which that's like year, what, 15? How long has it been? 1994, 93?

16:55PFT Commenter:Yeah.

16:56Big Cat:Yeah.

16:56PFT Commenter:We've been dominant at that. I think the official guy who was born in America was 2018, James Harden. Okay. Yeah. So that was the last one. It went James Harden, Giannis twice, Jokic twice, and Bede, Jokic, SGA twice.

17:10Big Cat:And then it's going to be Wemby for the next 10 years. Yeah.

17:12PFT Commenter:It's going to be Wemby forever. The Canadians. Yeah. Oh. The Canadians.

17:16Big Cat:By the way, Max, I will get dual national. I will renounce American citizenship and become French if the Canadians win the Stanley Cup this year.

17:25PFT Commenter:Game seven coming up. Max, are you? What? He just said it. It won't happen. You just love saying stupid shit. That wasn't stupid.

17:34Big Cat:The Canadians are mad.

17:35PFT Commenter:That wasn't stupid. They're not going to win. What did you say? I said the shit. No, no. What did you say? What did you say before that? You're going to renounce your citizenship? I don't know.

17:46Big Cat:Sometimes I just say things out loud. You're going to be generous? I was going to just become French if the Canadians. But you're not going to renounce. How do you acquire? You're going to marry someone from. How do you acquire? I have croissants. I'm pretty sure that France has taken everyone they can get. You're going to have to move there for like half a year or whatever. Yeah, it's fine. No, that's not fine. Oh, no, Hank. It's not fine. Hank, I'll probably need somebody to come and hang out with me. And yeah. No. You don't want to go to France? Not for half a year. Dude, the south of France is nice Of the places I'd like to go How about this?

18:18Big Cat:Not on the short list

18:21PFT Commenter:That's a bad take There's a lot of places South of France It's really nice If the Canadians win the Stanley Cup You have to eat a croissant every single day Until an American team has the Stanley Cup back That sounds awesome I'll do that You would get a little sick of it after like imagine if the oilers won after that he had to do two years you know what big cat

18:46Big Cat:croissant every single day i'll do the croissant i'll also because i'm so confident that we're not gonna we're not gonna lose the stanley cup i'll also eat french fries every day oh no yeah it's

18:56PFT Commenter:gonna get real bad croissant you would get sick of a croissant i don't know like a croissant and coffee in the morning that sounds like that sounds like a sustainable breakfast that's every day a lot of carbs so then he's gotta eat two two would be a lot two then two two would get heavy Two croissants every day until we get the cup back.

19:13Big Cat:We. Yes. You agree? Yeah, I'll do it. All right. It's not going to. Listen, it's going to be the Colorado Avalanche. We already said they're winning the Stanley Cup.

19:20PFT Commenter:Okay. So back to Aaron Rye. Sorry, dude. That was we were throwing praise on you for winning a major. And then we just got sidetracked by a million different things. By Europe. Oh, Max. Are you doing your draft? He's in his draft right now. He's got a live draft. I may not have. Max said that he had a live draft. I was like, do it on the show. He's like, why would I do that? Because why not? He's got a fantasy football draft. Well, I have a co-owner. Yeah, yeah, no. We went with Fernando Mendoza. What day is it? It's a great week, bro. What month is it? It's a dynasty rookie draft. It's a dynasty rookie draft.

19:57PFT Commenter:This would be too early. Oh, okay. We went with Fernando Mendoza with our second pick,

20:00Big Cat:and then Jordan Tyson with our fourth pick, which we're going to the Saints.

20:03PFT Commenter:Okay. So then who's, and then when's your, let us know when your next pick comes up. I think that's it.

20:07Big Cat:I think that's all we got. Oh, that's it.

20:08PFT Commenter:Oh, good draft.

20:09Big Cat:Because I think we traded all of our other picks to get up to the first round pick. So, yeah, that's it. You mortgage the future? Huh? Mortgage the future? Mortgage the future for what? You said you trade all your picks to move up. Yeah. I can't really tell you. Okay, great. Good draft. Super flex. Super flex dynasty. So that's why we went with Mendoza.

20:30PFT Commenter:All right, Aaron Wright. I love when you're watching a golf tournament and you don't really know who the guy is who's about to win and they start pouring on the stories and my initial reaction because you know we all root for different guys and have different bets I'm like fucking a get this guy out of here we need someone else and then they start giving us the stories and I'm like this guy might be the coolest guy ever the stories about him wearing two gloves because he grew up in England and he golfed in the cold and he didn't have a lot growing up and his dad used to clean his irons after every single practice round so that's why he has covers on his irons i'm an aaron rye fan like you can't they for you know how they always will throw on some stories that make you feel sentimental like they were really hitting us with it and every single one i was like yeah you know what that's awesome he's and he's on the record being like yeah i know it's goofy but i'm never gonna forget where i came from i'm never gonna forget the fact that you know having a pair a set of clubs when i was a kid was a big deal and taking care of them is a big deal and so i show that gratitude cool

21:35Big Cat:for aaron rye yeah he said that when he was a kid his dad bought him those clubs and they they were like way way way beyond what his dad could afford to pay for a set so since it was such a nice set they would take great care of it and he's like yeah actually like golf clubs are really expensive and it's pretty cool that i get sent free clubs now but i'm still going to take care of them just the way that i would have when i was a kid that was very cool i'm wondering if we're going to see more golfers now wearing two gloves. Why don't we wear two gloves now? Couldn't tell you. What's the reason?

22:05Big Cat:It's not even two gloves. It's two gloves and they're black. And they're black. And I would say between this and the Michael Jackson movie that's out right now, the right-hand glove has had the best week since the OJ trial.

22:16PFT Commenter:Yeah.

22:16Big Cat:It's like every kid across America is going to be like, I got to go out and get a right-handed glove too. Big Ben might make a comeback. Yeah.

22:24PFT Commenter:He might be like, oh, shit. It's two-glove season. This is my era.

22:27Big Cat:We're the two glove era. So, yeah, I might. I don't know. Hank, have you ever tried golfing with two gloves at once? No, I've tried golfing with the wrong glove on. Yeah, I remember that. Why? A couple of times. We don't even know which side you golf for. Well, it was an accident. I asked for like a right handed glove and they gave me a right glove for my right hand. But it's very confusing. Like, I get that. That's actually it's a mind fuck when you ask somebody for a right handed glove.

22:50PFT Commenter:Yeah. Shout out, by the way, the guy after the third round who he was mocked for it. He had Aaron Rye sign his baby. And did you see that going viral on Saturday night? Everyone's like, who in the world would ever have Aaron Rye sign your baby? That baby's worth a lot right now. You could sell that. Yeah. I'm never. I was probably going to pray. He's going to he's probably going to PSA grade that baby tonight.

23:12Big Cat:That guy's like, I'm never washing my son again.

23:15PFT Commenter:My son's worth so much mint condition. He probably is like, shit, I probably should have had him sign something else. Yeah. Maybe my hat.

23:22Big Cat:Yeah, this is it is like just a ton of wholesome Aaron Rifex coming out. So when he when he was a kid, when he was 15 years old, he broke the world record for consecutive putts hold from 10 feet away. He made 207 in a row from 10 feet away.

23:38PFT Commenter:Wow.

23:39Big Cat:Yeah, pretty cool.

23:41PFT Commenter:207. I think you should you should test that. Oh, maybe it sounds like a pressure after dark after dark stream with mulligans.

23:50Big Cat:Yeah, with mulligans. And you also get to drink like two beers and then hit 100 putts and then four beers and 100 putts. Yeah. And we'll test you. And don't forget. Don't forget.

23:59PFT Commenter:Other people do it. Don't forget hot chip.

24:01Big Cat:And then hot chip. Hot chip and limonite. Shot collar. We'll do limonite. Yeah.

24:05PFT Commenter:You get shot collared. But yeah, it's cool. Awesome. Hank, you're a golf nut. Do you think that this were you satisfied with this tournament?

24:16Big Cat:It was a great tournament. It was exciting going into the day. Sunday bunched up leaderboard. There was like 30 people within four shots. All a lot of big names. Aaron Rye. Nice guy. Great story. Okay. Boring as hell. Boring winner. The Justin Thomas going off and like getting into the clubhouse with like five, you know, five under all time blue ball. All these all these guys like Rory, John Rom, Cam Smith, all in the hunt. It was so exciting and it's like, oh, we could have a playoff. We could have like an all time moment. It was pretty boring down the stretch, honestly. Like the only thing that happened was that that ride putt for the win.

24:59Big Cat:But even if he doesn't hit that, he probably still wins by two strokes. It was kind of a blue ball Sunday where it was like it was really exciting going into Sunday. I was like, look at this fucking leaderboard. Like, oh, my God, like everyone's within everyone. Everyone's within four shots. Nothing happened Sunday. Great, great crowd. Great, great venue. Great fans, great leaderboard going into Sunday. Disappointing finish.

25:24PFT Commenter:Okay, what if we say 10 years from now, Aaron Rye has won nine majors? Don't care still. No, that's the thing about golfers.

25:35Big Cat:Retroactively, it would be like, yeah, that was actually the coolest. Yeah, that was awesome. We saw it. Because golf fans, when they watch their sport on TV, if he comes out and he's like, I like Barca sports advisors, yes. Scotty was the same way. Scotty was bullering.

25:50PFT Commenter:And then it's like, all right, he's cool.

25:52Big Cat:They're like, I want exciting guys to win. But in golf, really, what you mean by the exciting guys is just guys that you've seen win before.

25:58PFT Commenter:Yeah. Big names. And also your bets. Yeah. Let's just really distill it down to you. You had a few lines in the water, and none of them got bites.

26:09Big Cat:Yeah, John Rahm and Cam Smith, I was preying on. But still, it was, I don't know. It was a hard course. They set the course up hard.

26:21PFT Commenter:And because of that, there just wasn't like a ton of really birdies or anything. Like nothing really all that exciting happened. I'm still laughing. The best part of the tournament for me personally was we were all sitting in a hotel suite together watching the tournament. Zach got us pub subs, which we'll talk about in a second. Great job, Zach. And he was rooting his ass off for Cam Smith. and Cam Smith went up to take a putt from, I don't know, like 20 feet for a birdie and PFT just goes brick. He bricked it. Hank was just like, no, you said it before he putted it. Hank was just like, why would you do that?

26:58PFT Commenter:Because I wanted a brick. The PFT was like, I got Shoffley. He was like, it was like 20.

27:05Big Cat:No, Shoffley, he finished 10th. Shoffley was in and around. I added Shoffley and Reed to finish in the top 10. Reed, Patrick Reed, let me tell you. I think he might be the first Pog golfer. like P-A-W-G. Yeah, yeah. He is, he's thick as hell, man. Oh, yeah. Like, he was filling out. And he also wears. Now, back in the day, it was Pog City. Yeah. But he also. Free Tiger was just Pogville. But now he looks like, he looks like early era Meghan Trainor. He does.

27:30PFT Commenter:And he also, he does like, like, like fat guys usually wear, you know, dark shirts. Patrick Reed's like, I'm going to wear the most ridiculous, like striped, like diagonally striped, but very large shirts that make him look fatter. And then he wears the tight pants. He's got like yoga pants on when he plays.

27:48Big Cat:He bends over. He's like, oops.

27:50PFT Commenter:Yeah, he's got some shit going on. He's thicker than a bowl of oatmeal. He is. Patrick Reed. I love it. The Patrick Reed story. That'd be great if that was the documentary. It comes out thicker than a bowl of oatmeal.

28:01Big Cat:I hate to watch him go, but I love to watch him read.

28:04PFT Commenter:Yeah, I like the tournament just because I thought, I like the tournaments when they're really hard. I think they're cool. when it's like Scotty after Friday was like, this is the hardest pin placement I've ever played. There's something about golfers complaining that just, it makes me laugh every time. It's like, it's your job.

28:22Big Cat:I also enjoy the fans yelling at like just EA Eagles at Scotty's shop. Yeah. That was just funny. And like go birds after every tee shot. It was very Philly. It was very Philly. There was another story about Rye. Again, it's just like wholesome fact overload about Rye. Great guy. Memes, you'll love this. His story is pretty much Happy Gilmore. So he hurt himself playing hockey when he was a kid. Aaron Rye? Yeah, he had a hockey stick. He had a hockey stick.

28:49PFT Commenter:Oh, he just had a hockey stick.

28:51Big Cat:And his mom said, that's M-U-M, his mom said, that's not safe. Let me get you some plastic golf clubs instead. That's a much safer sport that you can enjoy. So he wanted to be a hockey player. He was like, thanks, mom. And he was like, thank you, mommy. Yeah. I was trying to be hard to set the hockey. Being a hockey player in England?

29:08PFT Commenter:That's quite something.

29:09Big Cat:Two minutes for boarding money.

29:11PFT Commenter:So did he get hurt or his mom was just like, I don't want to drive you to practice in the morning?

29:14Big Cat:I think his mom was like, that looks quite dangerous. So he didn't get hurt.

29:20PFT Commenter:No, but he just wanted to be a hockey player. His mom was probably like, we don't have ice rinks in England. So you're not playing hockey. Yeah, Mumsy was like, those skates sound quite expensive. Yeah, Mumsy handed him a soccer ball. He was like, try this. Okay, great. So I like the tournament. I enjoyed the tournament. I understand what you're saying, Hank. You did want like a Jon Rahm Scheffler. I wanted a playoff.

29:43Big Cat:I got that. That's what I wanted. I wanted a playoff and I wanted some fireworks on the back nine. Well, the way that the playoff would have worked, you're going to hate it once you find out about it because you're going to be like, I wish that that had happened. No matter how many people had tied for the number one spot after they were all done with 18, they would have all played in the same group for the playoff, like just all teed off at the same time. If it was like five of them, six of them, they would all play together, playing the playoffs. Scramble? That would have been awesome.

30:11PFT Commenter:Internet Invitational, which is 3v3 scramble. A scramble would have been. Get it down to three. A scramble would have been awesome. Okay, other news. We got the Spurs won game six convincingly against the Timberwolves. We now have Spurs OKC in the Western Conference Final starting Monday night. Going to be awesome. And then we also had the fallout of the Timberwolves. Timberwolves are one of those teams they are every single playoffs you said this every single playoffs they are heard from they they've the last three years they've upset someone they've made a mark on the playoffs and then when they go out we had Anthony Edwards dapping up everyone on the spurs with eight minutes left in the game and then uh was it Nas Reed I believe Nas Reed afterwards said essentially like we don't like we don't play as a team yeah and uh that's why we lose and not exactly a great quote that you want to hear his exact quote here it is uh asking what they need to do to be able to catch the teams like okay see in the spurs he said probably just the moodiness you look at both those teams and they're playing for one another they're excited to be on the floor with one another another their team where they're selfless i think we have more than enough talent but just being less moody i think that that's just the name of the of the for us just being less moody and more selfless.

31:33PFT Commenter:I feel like he could have just said Julius Randle.

31:36Big Cat:Yeah, I mean, Randle, he had his struggles. I think it's just, you know, he was playing Ole defense a lot. Yes.

31:41PFT Commenter:Game six.

31:42Big Cat:They lost. They're upset. They don't know what in reality. The answer is like they need somebody to counteract Wimby, which they don't have. Now, in the last game of the closeout game, the Spurs guards all played incredible. Castle was insane. It was a great night for the three of those guys. and but I mean in reality if you want to catch the Spurs Wimby is going to be a puzzle that you have to figure out how to solve I don't know if it's just like sending Rudy Gobert out there every night and just be like piss this guy off and get him kicked out like I think it's just you got under his skin

32:14PFT Commenter:you got to find an even taller French guy

32:16Big Cat:yeah good luck yeah but they do feel like they're a team I mean I think that they're a good team that is now getting frustrated not being able to get over that hump correct correct

32:27PFT Commenter:and they would have lost this series if Anthony Edwards was 100 % healthy I believe but it would have been maybe more competitive because when you see like they won game one which is a little bit of a shocker then they won the game that Wemby got ejected from game six the other games were blowouts game six especially where it was like I mean did you guys have a problem with Anthony Edwards going up to the bench with eight minutes left I have no problem with it I thought it was a little weird I don't have like a big oh, Anthony Edwards can't win with that guy, but it was a little unorthodox.

33:00Big Cat:I mean, they actually couldn't win this series. They were just completely outmatched. So yeah, you would like your superstar to not do that. If you had like an A or B choice, which option do you want? Then again, I don't know what happened in the huddle, but if Chris Finch was like, hey, you're not going back in,

33:19PFT Commenter:then the coach is basically telling you, hey, we're done. We're done here. So if he's not going back in, it's like, all right, yeah, Might as well go say congrats.

33:27Big Cat:Can you imagine hockey players lining up to shake each other's hands after a game? They would never do it. Like these guys take the game so seriously, especially in the playoffs. That's like that's the difference between the NHL and the NBA. That's facts.

33:38PFT Commenter:Okay. Any other sports stories that we had from this weekend that we wanted to talk about? It was Roger. Yeah, that was me. My who's back. We'll talk about him. No, Aaron Rodgers is back. Aaron Rodgers is back. Five million. I feel bad for Steelers fans Because that is just He's not He's not the same quarterback No Is he better than what you have right now? Probably Although you don't know what you have with Will Hart Oh, I thought you were going to say Drew Aller Because Drew Aller has just been

34:15Big Cat:I think you know what you have with Drew Aller That's old Drew Aller You thought that you knew But they're doing a complete factory reinstall of the software You see that quote? Yeah. They're uninstalling everything he's ever learned. Correct. And they're doing brand new programs.

34:28PFT Commenter:I mean, listen, Mike McCarthy's a good coach, the quarterback. So I would guess that would be the silver lining is that Rogers and McCarthy together. Maybe you can recapture a little of the magic, but it does feel like the Steelers just put a finite floor and ceiling on their season. Yeah. Right. And it's somewhere between seven and 10 wins. That's what we're thinking.

34:49Big Cat:What was the relationship like with them at the end of their time? Not great. What do you think it was like at the end with Aaron Rodgers? It's usually not great. Yeah, it doesn't go well.

34:57PFT Commenter:I thought that was like why they split up. It was part of it. I mean, it wasn't great, but it was also Aaron Rodgers with the Packers overall. And then, I mean, McCarthy left before, obviously, Aaron Rodgers because he had LaFleur. But yeah, I mean, I think Rodgers also has had, I mean, even when he was with the Jets, you could see it in some of his comments where he's just like, I kind of maybe shouldn't have left the Packers because they know how to run an organization, which they do. So maybe he's like, hey, this will maybe work out again. They did have good times together, and Rodgers was at his peak with him.

35:31PFT Commenter:Although I think his last MVP was with LeFour.

35:34Big Cat:You know what? I think that this is the year that the Steelers win a playoff game. Okay. There you go. Yeah. No, I think it's the best option that they had right now

35:47PFT Commenter:without a doubt but again it's like what are you building like what do you what's the long-term i guess it doesn't matter because mike mccarthy's first year it's like hey just try this once and

35:57Big Cat:then and then figure it out it's the best option for this year but they're gonna again isn't next

36:02PFT Commenter:year's quarterback draft great i mean we don't know but it could potentially be great they're

36:07Big Cat:probably going to play themselves into the 16th spot where they can't get a quarterback yeah that part would piss me off i were a steelers fan yeah hank do you have a review of your uh ronda

36:17PFT Commenter:Rousey Gina Carano fight.

36:22PFT Commenter:And it was horrible. That was horrible. It was horrible. Yeah, it was.

36:28Big Cat:It was really bad. Those fights are a joke.

36:31PFT Commenter:Did you watch the Nate? Nate is. Nate is. He can fight anytime. He'll put on a show.

36:36Big Cat:So that was one of the most difficult things like I've ever watched on a television.

36:41PFT Commenter:More difficult than the drive we have tomorrow.

36:45Big Cat:We're not talking. That's a different category. So you were uncomfortable. Max. Yes, I was. So I'm asking. What are the most difficult things to watch on the television that you've ever watched on the television? Other than Eagle or Philly sports losses like that was up there. He was bleeding from like a really bad tragedy. You don't like see them on the like live on the television.

37:08PFT Commenter:There's one that we could you saw. He was like eight. Yeah. Yeah.

37:15Big Cat:Well, yeah, I was five years old. Okay. Challenger. Yeah. The challenge. We weren't alive. That was tough. What is the channel? I don't even know what that is. Google O-rings.

37:26PFT Commenter:O-rings. They got cold in Florida. O-rings. Yeah. They tried to launch a spaceship before

37:31Big Cat:it got hot out.

37:32PFT Commenter:Rocket goes boom. There's a teacher on there. And then every school

37:38Big Cat:in America wheeled the TV in to watch it live because there was a teacher on there.

37:43PFT Commenter:Yeah, On the Challenger? Yep. No survivors. No. It's bad. Survivor? No survivors. No. Oh, no survivors. The thing blew up on live television in front of America's children.

37:55Big Cat:But yeah, I guess the Ronda Rousey fight was bad, too.

37:57PFT Commenter:Yeah, whatever. Yeah, that arm bar was vicious. I'm sure that was tough. That wasn't an arm bar. What was it? Ronda Rousey was an arm bar. Yeah, no, I said Ronda Rousey's arm bar. I mean, Nate Diaz, he was just... That's what he does. He just doesn't care. He's just a fucking warrior. Zach, you watched it.

38:12Big Cat:Nate Diaz is a healthy reminder There's levels to being a man

38:15PFT Commenter:He is an absolute savage Every time Nate Diaz fights you're like Oh my god You think he's going to die for the first three rounds

38:23Big Cat:You think he's a dead man He just eats punches and it makes no sense It's the most sobering reminder of like I might be bitch made His face was a faucet of blood The amount The stream of blood That was coming out of The pores of his face were Very graphic We might have a new MMA correspondent. With Max? Max is doing a good job.

38:46PFT Commenter:I like that. You are doing a good job. Hank, you've been replaced. I'm not ready to take that. You've been replaced, Hank. Fuck. And then the Canadian Sabres going game seven. That's going to be awesome. Good for hockey. You know that the series is getting serious because we've got a lot of fan discourse, what it means to be a good fan, because Canadian fans were leaving early when they were down eight to three, which I understand. Yeah. But previously they had been like, we don't leave. We don't leave early for these games. Wait, Canadians, they won.

39:19Big Cat:They lost eight to three.

39:21PFT Commenter:Before earlier in the series, they're like, look at Sabres fans leaving. Okay. This is bullshit.

39:25Big Cat:They were talking shit about the Sabres.

39:27PFT Commenter:Yeah. And then I didn't see. I guess I didn't see too much of that discourse. Yeah. I mean, listen, Canada, it's a hockey country, except for the gold medal and the Stanley Cups. Other than that, the number one hockey country. Okay. Should we do who's back of the week? Oh, also we had rivalry week in baseball, which I feel like they don't really pump that up. Because we had Yankees, Mets, Cubs, White Sox, Phillies, Pirates. Cubs need pitching.

39:54Big Cat:Natsos.

39:55PFT Commenter:We're in trouble. Yeah, Wheeler Skeens. Wheeler. PFT dropped a Nats fact on us that we're like, he's like, did you guys know? Did you?

40:03Big Cat:Let me do the fact. Let me do the fact. Because it's a good fact. Did you know that until Saturday, the Nats had lost 15 straight games when they were trying to get back to 500? Yeah. When they were one game below 500. And Hank and I both are like, nope. Yeah. Well, that all changed. That all changed. They're 500? They were 500 and they lost today. Ah. But we got a pup. We got a dog. Which there's a strong correlation between getting like a 13-week-old puppy and your season getting completely turned around. So shout out Natty, the Nationals pup. looks like a very good boy i just hope that he's got a couple innings out of the bullpen in him

40:41PFT Commenter:because our pitching staff stinks yeah cubs need pitching white socks are good they're actually like this is finally like it's kind of they're not a joke they've got some sluggers big time some sluggers dude they're not they're i don't know what the price is for them doing the al central

40:56Big Cat:but they they they are not a bad team yeah i have a question big cat um why does pca hate women uh

41:03PFT Commenter:He actually talked about it afterwards. What happened? There was a woman in the outfield in center field who was talking shit to him. And he said, I just talked some shit back. I like that. I think it was her engagement party or something. Maybe. And then right as they go, they show the clip of him talking shit to her. And then it's like children's day at the park. And it was perfect. So, yeah, I have no problem with that. PCA is a guy who can start. People get mad about PCA if he's not. If you don't root for the Cubs, people get mad about him. If you root for the Cubs, you're going to defend him.

41:37PFT Commenter:He's a lightning rod guy. He's good for rivalries. He is. And Schwarber's also just, he just hits. I mean, that was insane.

41:45Big Cat:He hasn't hit any homers in the past two days, and I'm getting antsy. You're like, this guy stinks now? No, not this guy stinks. It's just, I'm just used to Schwarber homers every single day. I know. So now that I've had two days without them, it's been tough. Although Harper has hit homers in both of those days. So at least one of them is.

42:05PFT Commenter:Phil's all the way back?

42:05Big Cat:Oh, yeah. Above 500. There you go.

42:08PFT Commenter:Mets. Are the Mets back? A season-defining win this weekend on Sunday?

42:16PFT Commenter:Not back, but they've moved up a level from dead to scrappy. Oh, that's an important step.

42:22Big Cat:Yeah, there's still six games below 500, but they won five out of the last six. It's a long season. Tyrone Taylor, big home run today. It's a long season.

42:31PFT Commenter:Okay, Twisted Tea. Who's Back the Week is brought to you by Twisted Tea. Summer is right around the corner, and Twisted Tea is coming in clutch to turn our day drinking up a notch. Their new summer party pack has a brand new Twisted Tea lemonade, and I want to go on the record saying this will be the drink of the summer. It's got a refreshing taste. With a little kick and no carbonation, Grit Week is the official kickoff of preseason football that we've all been waiting for, and we know that Twisted T is a staple during football season. So what are you most excited about in the upcoming weeks and how can you bring Twisted T along for the ride?

43:04PFT Commenter:Well, go grab a refreshing Twisted T today. Get in on it. Twisted T all summer long. We're excited. We got Max doing drafts. We're talking to coaches. I'm working on a trade right now to get back in. Let's go. This is what we're talking about. You know, mini camps, OTAs. Like, football's going to be back. Tell me about this trade, Max. Get the trade going. Go get a Twisted T. Grab a refreshing Twisted T today. We're pretty thin at tight ends.

43:36Big Cat:I don't think there's a trade noise. No, for the draft there is. That's when the pick is in.

43:42PFT Commenter:Yeah, they don't do it. I think trade just goes. All right, do the trade.

43:47Big Cat:I mean, it's nowhere close to confirmed.

43:51PFT Commenter:What are the initial talks?

43:54Big Cat:We're in talks with Keon Coleman for the tight end. He's in your league? Keon Coleman, yeah. He's on my team. Oh.

44:03PFT Commenter:You said you were in talks with Keon Coleman. I thought he was the owner team. Oh, no.

44:05Big Cat:We're in talks with having Keon Coleman, trading Keon Coleman so that we could draft. We're looking at Max Clare, the new Rams tight end. Oh, hell yeah. Just because we're thin at tight end.

44:18PFT Commenter:and a Rams tight end will be heard from. He'll be heard from.

44:25Big Cat:I'd like you to actually reach out to Keon Coleman and seek his permission to be traded. Can you tweet at him, Max? Let him know. Sure, I'll do that right now. Who's back of the week? Hank. Who's back of the week? I should probably just let Max take it

44:39PFT Commenter:based off our earlier discussion. Interesting. Oh, okay. Go ahead, Max. it's now that you're the guy UFC guy oh UFC uh Conor McGregor yeah Conor McGregor Dana Dana White is back right as Francis Nagano is is walking out for his fight and MVP I think it's called um Dana White just drops Conor McGregor back versus Max Holloway crazy crazy July 14th Yeah.

45:13Big Cat:Okay. I think that's right. Great work. Yeah. I think that's close enough. Can Conor McGregor still fight at all? I'll watch. Yeah, I'll watch. People are going to watch. I think he's a heavy underdog. No, I don't. Right at this moment.

45:27PFT Commenter:I would imagine it's the old you don't do road work in silk pajamas. Once he got very, very rich, it's probably harder to be like, hey, I want to go get my face bashed in.

45:36Big Cat:He should have actually gone to prison if you wanted to get better at fighting.

45:39PFT Commenter:He had many chances.

45:41Big Cat:I know. He should have told his lawyer, like, hey, I'm not going to fight. Let this one through. July 11th. I got to get in jail. July 11th. I was wrong with July 14th. June 14th is the White House fight, and that's where I got. It's like getting. You'll be there again. I will not be there.

45:57PFT Commenter:For Conor McGregor, like getting head from your wife on your mega yacht versus going and training to get your face mashed in. Yeah.

46:04Big Cat:Tough one. Tough to choice. It's tough to get a blow job on a mega yacht and say, you know, I need to work harder for my life to get better.

46:12PFT Commenter:Yes, exactly. Exactly. So he's back. So, Hank, that's your who's back. That was my who's back. Also, Shams spoiling. Yes. Being a piece of shit. Yeah. So he just Amazon was ready to have a big ceremony night. And NBA had waited.

46:27Big Cat:They're going to wait till the playoffs get going. Shams going to piss me off. Yeah. No, it's just a dick move. Yeah. It's a dick move. Why did he say? He tweeted out this morning that Shea was the MVP. And then it came out that like Amazon had been Amazon and the NBA had been intentionally like waiting, delaying, planning on doing this whole ceremony before game seven. And they just what an asshole. They just tweeted it out. What is it? Tweeted out. I worked on this story for years. He just tweeted it all out. Yeah. Yeah. Dick, like what's Shum's deal, dude? I don't know, but I'm out on Amazon games.

47:05Big Cat:Why? They are harder to find at bars. Oh, I know. Because I brought this up the other week, and you were like, well, all these bars, they have to have Amazon packages. No, the caulk is kind of the same. It's not the same. So I was in Virginia on Friday night, and I was just trying to watch the game out, so I didn't have to stay in my hotel room. We're not in the booth. We're not in the booth, guys. You got to share with the class. It was a funny Blake Griffin quote.

47:29PFT Commenter:Memes? What do you say?

47:31Big Cat:This is regarding the Shams situation. He just said it. He said, it's Sunday, Shams. Go to brunch, you nerd. Yes. I love that. I love it. So that's the only good part about Amazon. I like Blake Griffin. Yes. But yeah, I'm over Amazon NBA. I'm over it. You got to just watch at home. But if you're in a hotel, you don't get Amazon on the TV. I was reduced to watching on my phone the entire time. I had to watch a game on your phone for and it was two games. I had to watch about six hours of NBA nonstop on my phone sideways. That's that's a very hard thing to do. I feel like I should get a medal for that.

48:08PFT Commenter:On Friday night, I think everyone had plans. Although Hank was going to maybe stop over, but I had Rossello over because he was still in town to watch the games. And notepad. He brought the notepad. It was legit. He's taking notes. We're sitting outside. What? That's performing. It is not. I watched him take notes. I'm sorry, Rossello. I watched him take notes. You have a notes app on your phone. Nah, it's something about that yellow legal pad. It's easier plus. You remember it more.

48:37Big Cat:A guy like Rosillo, the blue light, he's trying to cut down on that.

48:40PFT Commenter:Yeah, that's true. He's addicted to the blue light is bad. I use yellow. Did he have it in the go yard? What? Did he pull it out of like, did he bring the go yard and then pull the yellow? No, he just had it in his hand. We were sitting up on my rooftop and he was just taking notes throughout the whole game. Roof on or off? Roof was closed. Roof was closed. The perugola is the word I found out is a word that people use that I didn't know existed. Pergola? Pergola. Pergola or perugola? Perugola sounds like something I want to eat. You're combining arugula.

49:12Big Cat:Perugola is a cheese, right? No, that's a vegetable. A vegetable. It's a vegetable that rabbits hate, and you're also mixing it up with the bills. Oh, yeah. Arugula, perugola, pergola. And pergola. And pergola, that's purgatory.

49:27PFT Commenter:Boperbula. Boperbula. You're thinking pergola. Pergola is the thing. It's the thing over my head. I have a remote, and it just goes. Roof closed It's a little windy

49:39Big Cat:I didn't want his yellow legal pad to blow in the wind You might have an awning Now that you mention it

49:45PFT Commenter:This might be an awning I really do It's a power parugula It's got like the It's got like slits that just go like that So if I want the sun to come in Oh so almost like a car air vent You go open up Yeah there's a bunch of ones And they just go like that Appreciate it. Yeah. I actually haven't never opened it up, so I don't know if it opens now that I'm saying this out loud. I just assume because they're slits, they open.

50:14Big Cat:I thought that was the whole genesis of this thing was you being like, I took the roof off.

50:19PFT Commenter:That was taking the stuff off the couch. I was just taking the winter covers off the couch and the winter cover off the TV. That was me opening it. And then everyone's like, oh, do you have a roof, an actual roof that you open? And I was like, wait, I actually do, but I've never opened it. It's the Perugola. That was maybe the worst two minutes of podcasting ever. Go ahead, PFT. You're who's back.

50:43Big Cat:My who's back of the week is El Nino because we have a potential super El Nino coming in. I don't know if you've seen the computer models, the projections of what this looks like. Just looks like a big vagina on the globe. Yep. According to the model that I've seen. But then I did some research into it, and it seems like this might be the biggest El Nino that we've had. since like the 1800s yeah since and it it was like a big thing in the world with that el nino there are droughts and floods it's gonna be awesome for us yeah there are famines so the

51:15PFT Commenter:midwest is uh drier warmer winter i love that oh in the winter okay so it only el nino only really uh affects things in the winter anyway okay i watched a video about it last night wetter Volatility in California And southern United States It basically pushes all storms like south Dryer warmer In the Midwest and East Coast

51:42Big Cat:What about like the Chilean fishermen that we were very concerned for The last time I'll need you Remember that

51:46PFT Commenter:That didn't get touched on the video The video looked like it was a broadcaster out of LA So he was like yeah And then the woman It was a meteorologist He told the whole thing and the woman was like So I don't have to buy a boat yet He's like not yet I love that. That's very much. You might.

52:03Big Cat:Yeah. I just remember the one on one. The last time there was like a super El Nino coming. Everyone just kept talking about Chilean fishermen. And then the other topic I remember is that 10 billion crabs died off the coast of Alaska last time, which sounds like a fake number to me. Yeah. Like, I don't want to get on. How are they counting? I don't want to get all Nick Fuentes, but like 10 billion. Did everyone count every single snow crab?

52:28PFT Commenter:I mean, that's a lot of crap.

52:30Big Cat:It seems like a lot of snow crabs.

52:31PFT Commenter:That's a lot of crabs. Okay. My who's back of the week is football because we have Bill Belichick coming up. And it's an awesome, awesome interview. Got an hour and 40. It was. We also have a vlog dropping. When's a vlog dropping? The vlog is dropping Tuesday. Okay. So this is where PFT got his injury. Yeah. We had a great time, though, at UNC. So we went out. Shout out, by the way. We did see some AWLs out in Chapel Hill. I feel like people were pretty cool about not spoiling it. We did play a game where anytime anyone asked us who we were interviewing, we had to say someone from UNC, but we couldn't repeat.

53:10PFT Commenter:So I think one guy came up to us and he's like, who are you guys here for? I was like, James Worthy. And he was like, what? I'm like, yeah, we're interviewing James Worthy. Isn't that crazy?

53:17Big Cat:The guy came up. I was like, yeah, we got an interview with Eric Montross in this situation. He was like, oh, that's awesome.

53:22PFT Commenter:Yeah. But it was cool because we got to watch practice. Hank and I got to call some defensive plays at the end of practice very end of practice spring ball they let us you know I think they they made it pretty easy for us because there was only like three options it was one of the coolest it was so cool it was one of the coolest things I've ever done because we we had a moment where we had like we got like two stops in a row and Bill Belichick looked back at us it was like good job guys and Steve Belichick and Jamie Collins was like one of the defensive assistants

53:57Big Cat:like you guys are on their fucking ass

53:58PFT Commenter:it was awesome it was unbelievable shout out my guy Brandon who I've known for a long time who was able to you know it's been a long time trying to get this interview done and I'm sure there'll be a few people who will be like hey how did you not ask about Jordan they didn't tell us we couldn't ask anything we were like hey we want to have a good football interview with the best football coach of all time we're not going to ask about his girlfriend and potentially ruin it.

54:25Big Cat:Yeah, I think. And I'll take that.

54:26PFT Commenter:I'll do that every single time to get the good interview.

54:29Big Cat:I think if that had happened, the interview probably would have been over at that point. And I did not want, like, we talked to Bill Belichick. They didn't tell us. We talked to him for about an hour, 40 minutes. And we probably could have talked to him for about three hours.

54:40PFT Commenter:We, I, there were so many, there was a moment you'll hear it in the interview where it's like 20 minutes left where in my head, I was like, wait, we haven't asked a single question about Tom Brady.

54:48Big Cat:I was like, hey, Tom Brady, pretty good, right? And there is a moment in this interview coming up where in the last three months of this podcast, I've cried from laughing too hard. The first was with Jerry O 'Connell when he was doing his Geno Smith impression. Was it seven Sundays? Seven Sunday heroes. Yeah. And then the second was when Zach was asking Bill Belichick his question this time. And Belichick was trying to figure out like what the issue was and how to actually help Zach out. It was so funny. I hope you guys like it. But again, yeah, they didn't ask us to not bring anything up. But I do think that if we had, it would just been like interview over.

55:26Big Cat:So if some people are mad, I get it. Well, I still want to interview Jordan. Yeah, yeah. I want to keep that open. But yeah, I get it. I get it. If you wish that we had asked that. But also at the same time, it's like we were never going.

55:37PFT Commenter:I don't get it because you want like if we have a chance to interview Bill Belichick, who knows more about football than pretty much anyone on earth. I'm going to ask an hour and 45 minutes of football questions.

55:47Big Cat:I agree with that. I agree with the fact that when we started the podcast, there was a short list. There was a short list of five people who like dream interviews like he was top of the list.

55:56PFT Commenter:And I've been working to try to get this interview done for a long time. And it finally came together. So I wasn't going to be like, oh, you know what? We're going to hit him with the Jordan question two minutes in. You guys did talk a lot about Jordan last year. But I understand. I understand why. I understand. I understand. I understand. No, no, no, no.

56:15Big Cat:But like it's not like whatever. it's understandable why you didn't we were the only pro jordan voices we are to have we want

56:24PFT Commenter:based on how much you guys brought her up in the last year well she was in the news we want her on the show yeah so i think we we did and we want i mean we've been doing this for 10 years now our rule is always when we have a guest on we want them to come on again uh maybe not dac prescott but i think we did a good enough job that we'll have him on again i really do i think bill belichick come back on the show. I would love to talk to him again.

56:46Big Cat:And yeah, I couldn't talk about the injury over the last three weeks. Hamstring just snapped clean off. Just watch the vlog. I don't need surgery. There was a moment where the doctor told me he thought that I needed surgery on it. Thank God I don't. And it's way better now. But yeah, I think you can hear it in the video too when it snaps off. I will not ever make fun of somebody else for having a hamstring injury in my life. That's why I told PFT that I wanted to kick him in his leg after he got surgery when he made fun of Joel Embiid.

57:19PFT Commenter:Chad thought you were being so funny that time.

57:21Big Cat:No, I was just giving context.

57:23PFT Commenter:No, I was just giving a you did an inside joke when you said that, that only the room knew. Correct. Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it. But yes, that is, you are going to kick PFT at some point in the back of his leg. No, well, he's not going to get surgery. Don't need surgery.

57:37Big Cat:Yeah. Healthy as a horse. I'm still retired from running, but I'm healthy as a horse. Starting yoga. I'm developing an obsession What did the MRI say? This week. Clean off? No, no. The MRI just said torn hamstring, slight tear to the tendon. Don't have to get surgery on the. The worry was that the hamstring tendon had snapped because you couldn't feel it in the back of my leg because there was a bunch of swelling and shit from where the muscle itself had rolled. Yeah, we're old. I'm old. So that's why I'm retired from running and I'm going to go full time into yoga. Yeah.

58:08PFT Commenter:But enjoy the interview because I really do think it was a great interview. And I was like, it was one of those interviews where we were, you know, I think we agreed on like 45 minutes and it just kept going and it was awesome. And we got in a groove and it was like, I don't want this to end. Zach, you're who's back. My who's back of the week is going to be a professional call of duty because generally we had the third major of the year today.

58:30Big Cat:Bush in the challengers division of the CDL or in the challengers division of call of duty. The Bush did take home the pride. They shout out the book on the trophy. Big win for the Bush. That's a Abe Kami capsule pro loop.

58:41PFT Commenter:Big win from the losers bracket, which is tough to do.

58:45Big Cat:Yeah. Knock down a loser bracket and seven game run to go grab the trophy. That's real hardware.

58:49PFT Commenter:Congrats to Mook, Jerry and Sass and the boys. Bush. Definitely.

58:53Big Cat:And then you got a nature PFT. LA Thieves won the CDL. So they beat out optic for as well. That's my guy. Nadeshot. They got it done. Also, any other who's backs?

59:06PFT Commenter:No, you know, we have some Zach stuff at the end of the show. So we got some good Zach stuff, both the Publix run and your solo trip to the club. I am glad everybody enjoyed the subs. Yeah, we'll get into it. All right, let's get to the Bill Belichick interview. It is brought to you by our friends at Chevy. It is Grit Week. Chevy is a proud sponsor. Pardon my take. This is a truck that is the definition of grit. Long days, dirty work, and showing up day after day, no matter the conditions. Strong, dependable, and built for the grind. Because grit isn't about being flashy. It's about being ready when it's time to go.

59:42PFT Commenter:That's Silverado. All grit. No quit. Check out the current offers and build your Silverado at Chevy.com. Go right now. Check out the current offers. Build your Silverado at Chevy.com. We have a Chevy Silverado that we're traveling with from Jacksonville to New Orleans. We love it. We're also in Vanny Woodhead, but it was just also a Chevy. so go check out the current offers and build your silverado at chevy.com today that's silverado all grit no quit okay here he is coach bill belichick okay we now welcome on a very very very very very very special guest it is coach bill belichick unc head football coach it is the first uh interview for grit week this first question is brought to you by reese's coach thank you so much by the way this has been an incredible day but we got to start it how we start every grit week interview and ask you what does grit mean to you yeah i'm not a big great guy so okay you know definitely don't like grits for breakfast that's not one of my things either so um well like toughness competitiveness um so that's grit that's tough that's what i like i like toughness competitive is that's a good answer i also so i was uh i purchased your book as a little little preview for for this interview because i wanted to you know get in the mind a bit about belichick and i noticed something right away uh you've coached some unbelievable football teams you've won eight super bowls six as a head coach two with the giants uh you say though that the 1963 navy football team is the best football team of all time what is it about them well i think they had the most impact on me.

1:01:25I don't know if it was the best team of all time, but it was a hell of a team. It was a great group of players, but it was a great group of people. And so I learned so much from them about leadership, teamwork, being a good teammate, sacrifice, and, you know, Staubach, Tom Lynch, you know, Skip Orr, Jim Campbell, Johnny Cy. I mean, those guys are, you know, I've been kind of adopted by that team. You know, I was 10 years old, but I just hung around and those guys are such great people, great leaders. And it's such a great team. Like the chemistry on that team is amazing.

1:01:56Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah. So a little bit about us. We're we're big fullback guys. We love fullbacks. We created an award for the nation's top collegiate fullback. It's called the low man trophy. So we put it out every single year. One of the favorite things that we do. And I'm curious from your perspective, because you've coached a lot of fullbacks, you've seen the game change over the years. What's your philosophy on using fullbacks and also how to teach fullbacks? Well, like anything else, if you can gain an advantage, you do it. And so when we felt like we could gain an advantage with a two-back set of the fullback, depending on who our fullback was, then we would try to use that.

1:02:34And so certainly in goal-line, short-yard situations, format, things like that. But we've had some really good fullbacks. And James Devlin, Mark Edwards, And, you know, Yach was, you know, did a nice job for us. And, you know, going back to, you know, Cleveland and Baltimore when I first came into the league, there were some, you know, good fullbacks. Nobody liked Jim Brown, all right, but he was the best of all time. But, you know, it just gives you a chance to build another gap in the running game as opposed to having two tight ends and 12 personnel up on the line. When you have a fullback, you can go to either side and create that extra gap, and it gives you more flexibility in your blocking schemes.

1:03:15You know, Coach Parcells is big on that, you know, with Maurice Carthon and, you know, fullbacks that he had. And so I certainly learned a lot from, you know, the way he employed him as well.

1:03:24Big Cat:When you're looking at a fullback, are you looking at a guy and saying, okay, this guy is very good at running directly into people? Or is there an art to blocking the shit out of people, I guess is what I'm asking. You know, it's interesting. The fullback is really the running back. He's the eyes for the running back. So he has to see the same hole that the running back sees. If he doesn't, then you just got a mess on your hands. So that fullback needs to see where the running back would enter in, and that's where he needs to go. And then the backs follows him. If the fullback makes bad decisions, then the tailback's kind of stuck with a bad picture and there's nowhere to run.

1:04:04So he actually has to be a very instinctive guy to be able to, you know, when can I go around? When can I go through? When do I have to take the guy? You know, it's not my guy, but he's more dangerous than me getting to my guy. And all those decisions, it gets dirty in front of you. And making those decisions, having enough toughness, and especially when you get guys that are coming up in the line of scrimmage, you know, guys like Ray Lewis and, you know, Earl Acker and guys like that that are really coming to attack those fullbacks. You know, you need somebody that's strong, powerful, and tough, ready to go head-to-head.

1:04:37You know, we had Landon Roberts at middle linebacker and James Devlin at fullback. You know, after about four plays in training camp, we just said, that's it. No more lead plays. With you two guys, you're just going to kill each other. So we know you're tough. We know you can block. We know you're going to take on the lead blocker. All right, let's try to stay healthy for the rest of camp. Yeah. Those are some train wrecks.

1:05:01PFT Commenter:Yeah. So I was able to – we were able to go watch practice. It was incredible to see it. I don't know what – people outside might be like, oh, well, Coach Belichick, he's not – you were in there. You were in there every single down. You guys were playing last practice of spring, offense, defense. What is it like – how much have you had to change your style coaching college kids now versus pros? Is it – are you looking for a specific type of guy that's different than what you're looking for in the pros, or is it just football's football? Well, I try to do whatever I can to help improve the players and the team.

1:05:37So whatever that consists of, it's giving them coaching points on the field, off the field, watching film, you know, talking about fundamentals. You know, however I can help them, you know, reach their goals, play better and help our team reach its goals. That's what I do. It's fun. It's a lot more opportunity to coach really at this level than than in the NFL. And I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoy, you know, coaching all the groups in practice. You know, I can go yell at anybody. It's a fair game. So, head coach, you can take out on anybody you want. Yeah. And it's actually a lot of fun.

1:06:09PFT Commenter:Yeah. I would imagine, like, being able to watch because, you know, once you're a pro, you're a pro. And, yeah, obviously the coaching is very important. But in terms of, like, watching a freshman and the leaps and bounds they can make, it's probably pretty cool to see guys come back, you know, your second year and be like, oh, wow, they put on muscle. and they've figured out the game a little bit more and being able to see that growth probably at a more rapid rate than what happens in the pros. Absolutely. There's no question about that. They improve a lot. They improve very fast and really in a very short amount of time, sometimes three to six to nine months, it's almost like watching a different player.

1:06:43So that's very gratifying to see that type of improvement. They don't improve that fast in the NFL. They improve, but not at that rate. Yeah. And so it's, you know, if the kid is open-minded, willing, we'll listen, and then we'll really work at the skills that he needs to work on. Again, they can improve very quickly, both physically and from a fundamental technique standpoint.

1:07:05PFT Commenter:Yeah, and I might have read this situation incorrectly, but Hank and I were calling some plays on defense with your son, and you looked back at us at one point, and I think the look was like, damn, you guys are calling some good defense. Yeah. Was that true? Was that a fair look? Yeah, you made a couple good calls. It really stopped the offense there. You stopped in cold. It felt good. Then we lost. But for a brief second there, I think Hank and I both were like, I think we might just be on the UNC staff now. Like this might just be our future. Yeah, you guys were on a roll for sure. You had about four or five calls on a row that just stopped the offense.

1:07:42Like you were in the huddle. You heard the play.

1:07:43Big Cat:Yeah. Chess match, yeah. When you talk about yelling at the different position groups, Do you have to change how you yell at a kicker as opposed to how you yell at a linebacker, how you yell at a safety? I don't yell. I just emphasize. You emphasize. I just emphasize points. Yeah, I don't yell. Which position group is the most fun to emphasize points to? Honestly, I enjoy all of them. I really do. I enjoy all of them. I love to get on the quarterbacks and the receivers, the skilled players, but certainly the defensive players because I like that defensive play style, special teams. Same thing.

1:08:18Offensive linemen, you know, those guys need to be some of the toughest players on the team. And, you know, it's good to get after them, see them respond to tight ends and offensive lines. So, honestly, I enjoy all of it.

1:08:27PFT Commenter:Yeah. I do. I enjoy coaching every position. They're all challenging. They're all different. That's the great thing about coaching special teams. You know, I started off as a special teams coach. And other than the quarterbacks, you coach every position on the field. And so it's, you know, the mentality of a defensive back compared to an offensive lineman or a linebacker compared to a receiver is so different. The personalities are different. Regardless, each personality is different. Every player, I get that. But as positions, they're very, very different, and it's a great learning experience to understand how to handle different players that kind of look at the game differently.

1:09:03Toughness is an interesting thing in football. You see guys on defense that are tough. They'll go run in there. They'll make these tough tackles. and then you look at a receiver who's going to go over the middle and catch a pass, and he's going to get cleaned out. He's going to get clobbered, and he still hangs on and makes a catch. It's a different kind of toughness. It's a different kind of mental toughness, like a Julian Edelman toughness compared to a Lawrence Taylor toughness. They're both tough players, but in different ways, and so it's kind of interesting.

1:09:32Big Cat:Yeah, yeah. So speaking of special teams, you're getting the opportunity to coach everybody. One of my favorite calls that you ever made was the drop kick, the Doug Flutie drop kick. Well, that was a Chris Berman call. Okay, I was going to ask you about that. I got to give Chris Berman credit on that one. He's the one who told me, hey, you know, Flutie could dropkick. And I'm like, no, not really. And he said, yeah, he absolutely – I saw him do it up in Canada. And he could dropkick. What do you think about doing it? I said, all right, let's see here. And so I go to Flutie and said, can you dropkick?

1:10:03He goes, yeah, sure, no problem. So he dropkicks a couple. And I said, all right, well, it was the last game of the year. we put in the drop kick so it was a different formation right because there's no you know he's back there kicking and we had an extra guy we actually split him out they had that somebody go out there and cover him so we there's like four minutes left to go in the game and uh five minutes left to go in the game something like that and uh we're we're moving the ball we got the ball down like maybe around 20 yard line or so and i look over to doug and i said doug um are you're ready to go on the drop kick.

1:10:36And he's like, well, I haven't warmed up. I mean, I haven't, I'm like, look, Doug, if you want to do it, then don't do it. Okay. But what do you want me to do? We're about to score a touchdown. You go in there and kick it or we'll kick the extra point. I mean, what do you want to do? I'm ready, coach. I'm ready. I'm ready.

1:10:51PFT Commenter:Good answer. Exactly. Right. I mean, what do you want?

1:10:54Big Cat:You're giving him the opportunity of a lifetime. I mean, this isn't like baseball where you got, you know, Hey, we'll just warm up in the bullpen. We'll bring in two or three more batters. I mean, we're, if we score kick it. Yeah. So we sent him in. So we scored. We sent him in there. And he kicked it. And it was the first one since 1940, 30-something. I forget what it was now. But it was like 75 years or something. It was crazy. It was a great kick. Shout out to Schwamm. And I was going to ask you about that because I thought, stupidly, I'll raise my hand. I got this one wrong. I thought maybe the Schwamm had embellished that story to us that he told you to call it.

1:11:28Big Cat:But credit to him. He knows ball. He did. Yeah, he turned me on to it. And I said, I mean, you know, I'm a football historian. I mean, you got a chance to drop kick it. You get an extra guy in protection, right? Yeah. So you don't have to worry about, you know, one more guy to block. And, you know, Doug just popped it through.

1:11:45PFT Commenter:Yeah. That's incredible. I love it. I saw, so I have a coffee company and I saw a quote that broke my heart, but also was probably the coolest football guy quote of all time. You said, I don't drink coffee. I get all my energy from football. is it do you actually not drink coffee i can't stand coffee okay and you get all your energy i can't stand to look at coffee can't stand i'm gonna cut all this i can't stand the smell of coffee i can't even eat coffee ice cream and i can eat anything that's sugar yeah the coffee ice cream it just i it's terrible i hate it to me so yeah so so when they say yeah can you make coffee no i can't make coffee in the world i want coffee you want it you make it yourself i'm not making coffee i don't even know how to make it so if you if you were like a shot of espresso which you might not even know because you don't drink any coffee like that's you know that's a lot of extra caffeine what's the shot of espresso of football where you're like i need some extra i need an extra kick of football do you put on film of something specific where like this is where my energy yeah if you see something that looks good you feel like man that's gonna be a good player Or, you know, if we do this, we can make a play on this.

1:12:56Or, you know, something that can stop something that they're doing. Yeah, that's an energizer for sure.

1:13:01PFT Commenter:So, like, you could be, like, dragging ass in the afternoon. You're like, just give me a piece of tape. Let me watch it real quick. All right, I'm ready to go. I mean, look, if I wanted energy, I'd go to my cinnamon tea. Okay. And, you know, I'd hit that. But I wouldn't drink coffee if there was nothing else to drink. This is heartbreaking.

1:13:20Big Cat:Are you anti-caffeine in general? No. Oh, hell no.

1:13:23PFT Commenter:It's just coffee. Just coffee. Energy drinks, that's fine.

1:13:26Big Cat:Yeah, you're good with like an energy drink or any kind of tea? No, I drink tea. I drink soda, Cokes, whatever, but coffee, not a chance.

1:13:37PFT Commenter:Okay, all right, so pick one. I don't care how much milk you put in. I don't care how much sugar you put in. I don't care how much whipped cream. You can't bury that taste. It still finds a way to go through. and you really hate coffee no that's fascinating let me test you right now gun to your head coffee or the New York Jets I'd go to the Jets oh wow that's a man who hates coffee remember undefeated unscored on head coach of the New York Jets twice never lost a game never gave up a point

1:14:15Big Cat:that's a great point did you ever think maybe I should have grabbed an envelope or a half-torn sheet of paper to write my resignation letter on? Yeah, in retrospect, I don't think that was the greatest choice. I don't know. It got the message across. It certainly did. Yeah, it did. In a very...

1:14:40I don't know. It wasn't the classiest thing I've ever done. I'll say that.

1:14:47PFT Commenter:But I mean... I wasn't in a mood. I was in a mood at that time. Yeah. Yeah.

1:14:52Big Cat:I'd say it probably worked out for you though.

1:14:58Well, I mean, I had worked for Modell and the two trains that were coming down the tracks were Dolan and Woody Johnson. And I just felt like I don't feel comfortable working for whichever one of those guys ends up with the team. Nothing personal. I just you know I had a bad experience and I was either I'm going to work for a good owner or an owner that I felt comfortable with it was shared a vision with or I'm not working for that yeah so

1:15:29PFT Commenter:you know was that was that last season in Cleveland the toughest year of your coaching career because you know knowing the team's moving everyone's like basically out the fans are going after you guys and you have to coach a football team oh yeah it was unprecedented yeah I mean, you've never seen anything like it. The stadium was literally empty. There wasn't one sign, one billboard sign for anything. It was as barren as it could be. And then, of course, in the last game against Cincinnati, we had to turn around three times because we couldn't get close enough to the dog pound because they were throwing pelts at us and they were taking those big seats, the steel seats, and they were unscrewing them and tossing them over the upper deck.

1:16:11I mean, there was some violence there. Yeah. Yeah, it was terrible because the Cleveland fans had lost their team, and we were still there. Modell was gone. Of course, he never came back. And, you know, you're just kind of stuck there, and everybody was – they weren't really upset at us because we didn't make the decision to move, but we represented what the Browns were. And, you know, I mean, that team, that town loves football. I mean, Northeast Ohio, you know, Western Pennsylvania. I mean, Canton, that's as football as it gets. They know football. They love football. And, of course, they were devastated.

1:16:50And so, you know, we were the ones left to, you know, kind of feel their wrath. But honestly, we weren't happy about it either.

1:16:57Big Cat:Yeah. Yeah. No, that was a bad position for you guys to be in. And we've noticed that, too, over the years. Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Youngstown. There's something about that area that produces fantastic coaches, too. in your experience, have you noticed that? There's a lot of guys that come out of that small area that end up becoming really, really successful football coaches. Right. Well, I mean, of course, my dad was from Struthers, which is a suburb of Youngstown. So he was five miles outside of Youngstown. There were several coaches there, Ron Lynn, Jerry Angelo, guys like that who he knew.

1:17:33He was a little older than they were, but they also came out of Struthers. So, yeah, I mean, it's football. I mean, that's as football as it gets. Yeah, it is. Yeah.

1:17:43PFT Commenter:I got a question about your dad because did he have a photographic memory? You explaining what his job was seems impossible that scouting, advanced scouting a team with no tape, no replay. You just have to go and watch the one play and then you have to figure out exactly how they're blocking it, what they're running it, what their tendencies are. That's an insane task to do and he was able to do it exceptionally well. Did he have a photographic memory or was it just meticulous in knowing the game through and through? Well, I think what I saw was preparation. So he knew what he was looking for.

1:18:19Here are the plays they run. When this guy comes in the game, be ready for this. This guy comes in the game, be ready for that. Now, of course, that was back when most players went both ways, right? Before they had even substitution. But regardless, and when he would see certain formations, he could anticipate plays. But he trained his eyes well. You know, as soon as the lineman set for pass and put his eyes downfield, he saw the pattern. He saw the coverage, the line run block, then he'd pick up the run blocking, not worry too much about who the receivers were blocking. Although that might come into, you know, the periphery later at the end of the play.

1:18:51But you got one look at it. You got one look at the kickoff return. You got one look at the kickoff coverage. You got one look at the punt return. And, you know, he would write fast. And, you know, then when there was a timeout or at the end of the game, you know, he'd go back and, you know, kind of clean up some of the notes and everything. but I mean, he, he, you know, he didn't miss a play. I mean, it didn't matter whether it was kickoff return or blitzes or play action passes or whatever, like he could identify the play. And then when the film came in, which was usually late Sunday night for the Saturday college games.

1:19:22So usually he wouldn't get the film until late Sunday night. Then to try to get that done for the coaching staff on Monday, then as I got older, he would let me help him with it. So I would go through and, and, you know, he'd maybe take half of it. I'd take the other half of it and I'd draw the formation, draw the play, you know, draw what I saw him do. Then he would go back, look at it, double check it. But it was a lot faster because a lot of the, you know, the legwork had been done, you know, tight splits or that was 83, 85, whatever. And so that's how, kind of how I learned it. And then he would, you know, correct me like, you know, this isn't really what happened.

1:20:00He was supposed to block him, but he, you know, he screwed it up. And so, you know, this is what should have happened on the play type of thing. Yeah. And so, you know, putting the game into the film that came in was, you know, incredibly, you know, helpful. But he was also there. I mean, you know, he was an hour or whatever, an hour and 10 minutes before the game, timing the snappers, timing the punters, hang times, you know, seeing who handled the punt, who were the punt returners, who were the kickoff returners, who was a long snapper, you know, charting all the punters, punts and everything, even in pregame warmups.

1:20:31So, I mean, it was a full evaluation of that team. He wasn't a personnel scout. He wasn't there to scout players like, oh, this guy's a good center. This guy's a good tight end. Like, that's not what he really was doing. He was looking at what the team's plays and strategies were and other things that you can, you know, pick up as well based on, you know, sometimes things on the sideline. You know, you see the head coach talking to, you know, maybe somebody on – and it's a fake pump or, you know, stuff like that. I mean, there's a lot of little nuances that, you know, he really had an eye for that I learned along the way.

1:21:09PFT Commenter:How old were you when you first – was there a moment in your childhood where it started to click where you're like, okay, this is what I want to do? Like this is it. Well, my dad was going every weekend. Right. He never stayed at the Navy game, so he was going every weekend. And so if Navy was playing, you know, Penn State next week, then he would go to State College or or whoever they were playing. Maybe they were playing, you know, B.C., whoever it was, he would go to that game. So, you know, if I was good and, you know, I did my homework and, you know, then I could go on a trip with him. And so we went to various trips, you know, to Penn State, to Army, to William and Mary, to Maryland, to Pittsburgh, to Virginia, you know, driving distance type things.

1:21:55And so when I would go, you know, with him, then I would sit next to him in the press box and watch him do it, you know. But it was great because I, you know, spent all the time with your dad. And again, whether you're going to West Point or State College or Charlottesville or Williamsburg or wherever it was, you know, that was part of the trip, too. you know and we would look for um you know he'd go to used bookstores you know and pick up some of the you know used books that he collected or you know stuff like that so and then you know ride back with him talk about the game and stuff so you know i'm seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen forty five you know and then eventually you know i went uh even when i was in college after our season was over i went with him to west point and that's when i first met coach

1:22:45PFT Commenter:barcells oh wow so wait so that was when you were in college you met coach barcells yes and then and then from there so coach barcells was at vanderbilt yeah and they were playing army my dad had known coach barcells when coach barcells was at army right with with coach cahill in like 67 8 9 somewhere in there um but then when bill came back as a vanderbilt coach with coach sloan and they played Army. My dad was their scouting Army. And, you know, and then that was my first introduction to Bill. You know, we both kind of remember that, like, that's how we met was, you know, through my dad. So I went to coach Marcia Broda with the Colts and who I knew a couple of people on his staff.

1:23:29Pete McCauley was the receiver coach. George Bousels was a special teams coach. Frank Lauterberg, who's another Ohio guy that my dad knew who was formerly a head coach at Iowa. It was four or five people on his staff. And Hawaii develops the offensive line coach who worked in my dad's football camp. And so, you know, I said, why don't you go talk to them and see, you know, what they have. Well, Coach Marjorie Broda had come over from the Redskins with Coach Allen. And Coach Allen had like 23 assistant coaches, right? I mean, he had like, you know, a battalion. And at the Colts, they were incredibly cheap.

1:24:08So they only had eight coaches and that was it. There was nobody else. And so when I went to Coach March of Rota, he said, well, yeah, we'd love to have you, but I mean, we can't pay you anything. We can't, you know, like we can't do anything for you. But if you want to come here and work, we got stuff for you that you could do. I'm like, yeah, that's all I want. I don't care about anything. Like, can I stay in the dorm? And he said, yeah, you know, and I said, you know, after the, after we broke training camp, he got me a room with the howard johnsons by friendship at that time friendship airport was bwi because that's where he was staying because he came over from washington kept his house in false church and so he was staying there and so ted whitey deville george mousselis and i all stayed in the howard johnsons right next to um right next to the airport and so every morning we would get up have your coffee they would and ted was very disciplined honestly for i don't know four or five months he had the same thing for breakfast every single day i mean that's a you know that's what anyway i was it i was like two eggs over medium bacon you know just same thing yeah same thing yeah yeah i mean they didn't even ask for his order yeah so every morning i would drive them the other three coaches, Whitey, George, and Ted, to the office.

1:25:32And so that was like a little mini staff meeting. And then at the end of the night, I drove them home. So it was like another mini staff meeting. Ted and Whitey would talk about their game plan on offense and ask George about the kicking game. What are we going to do about, you know, punt return, whatever. And so it was – and I was working on defense with Maxie Vaughn. So it was an incredible experience. And because Ted was so understaffed, every time he needed something done, it was, Billy, can you do this? Billy, can you do that? Give me these stats on this. Can you look up this? Can you do that?

1:26:05Yeah, sure. I mean, whatever you want. So I actually got to do a lot, even though I wasn't qualified to do anything.

1:26:14Big Cat:Yeah. Just because I was available. And you need somebody to do it. You get the experience, yeah. Yeah, every time you need somebody to do something. Um, so about halfway through training camp, um, Joe Thomas comes over and says, you know, like Ted says, you've really been doing a good job. I see you working pretty hard out here on the field. You know, we're going to start paying you$25 a week. I'm like, great. That's more than I was making. So, so 22 something after taxes a week. That's what it was. But honestly, it's probably about all it's worth. Yeah. So it's interesting. You've seen so much football.

1:26:52Big Cat:You've been around so much football. So after that, so now the season, like the Colts, okay, so the Colts were 2-12 the year before. Bird Jones comes as his quarterback. We're 1-4. We win the next nine games. We're 10-4. We win the AFC East, and we lose to Pittsburgh in the playoff game. And kind of a heartbreaker. We're down by like four or five points, and we're driving, and we're on the like 10-yard line. and Hammond or subs pass runs back 90 yards for a touchdown. So we got beat. So now the season's over, and so general manager Joe Thomas, you know, comes to Ted and says, you know, Ted's like, well, I'd like to keep this guy.

1:27:30And I said, well, look, I mean, Ted, like I don't have a place to stay. I don't have a car. So, you know, can we do something there? And Joe said, well, no, we, you know, why don't you come back for training camp next year? I was like, well, you know, it's six months away. I mean, I really – and Ted's like, look, we got a lot of work to do. We're going to break down film and this and that and everything else. And Joe was like, there's no way. Like, you know, we're not paying him. They're paying me$25 a week. So, okay. So then Coach Verzano offered me a position in Detroit. And then Coach Holtz became the head coach of the Jets.

1:28:05And that was – I had already gone to Detroit. Then when Coach Holtz got the Jet job, I probably could have gone there with him, but I had already gone to Detroit. And so, I mean, I could end up with Coach Holtz didn't even stay for a full year with the Jets.

1:28:22Big Cat:The stuff that you're talking about with your dad, the things that he would log for each game and the things that he would pay attention to, technology has changed so much about the game. The game itself has changed a lot too. But out of what he taught you and what he actually did for his job, how much of that is still relevant to what you do in terms of coaching and advanced scouting today? well it's relevant i mean look advanced scouting you get a film of the game you know five minutes after the game's over so it's not that but what is relevant is coaching right so like when you walk out there on the field and you watch the play i mean you know there's no scoreboard there's no out here in practice right i mean there's no replays there's no like you get one chance to look at the play and tell the guy what he did wrong or you know and coach and so how you see the play and how you're able to coach, you know, I would say multiple players.

1:29:16Like I think I can see, you know, enough, and again, depending on what the play is, it's a pass. A lot of times, you know, I'll go downfield and, you know, see the route, the coverage, see that part of the play or so forth. But that's real football. And even though now, especially in college where you can, you know, look at the iPad and run the plays back and all that, it wasn't always like that, you know. And there was days in the NFL when you just had the Polaroid shots, which I would say one Polaroid shot could give you some information, but not a ton, you know. And so you still had to see the game.

1:29:52And that was really what became valuable to me was, yeah, the scouting, that all got, as you said, out technology. But in the end, what was valuable was when you actually watch the game that you're coaching in, right, or practice that you're coaching to be able to see what you need to see to be able to help your team.

1:30:13Big Cat:Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

1:30:15PFT Commenter:Yeah. Is there one or maybe two specific game plans that you look back on? You're like, that's like when I think about what coaching and getting a team prepared for, like, I really just did my job. Maybe it was the Rams Super Bowl. Maybe it was the second Rams Super Bowl, which, by the way, I bet the over in that game. Thanks a lot for that. Yeah, you're about 20 points short on that one, right? Try 50 points. 50 points. You had them in hell. But is there one that you look back on? You're like, that game plan, everything I did there, I just was so dialed in and I had the team ready to go. Well, one of the – I mean, first of all, game plans don't really win a lot of games.

1:30:57players win them. And when you're at the Giants, you're coaching Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson, Pepper Johnson and Carl Banks and Leonard Marshall and all that. You're coaching some really good players. One of the most interesting games for me was when I got to Baltimore, the first project that Maxie Bond made me do was to go back and look at the Rams who beat the Redskins in 1974 in the playoffs. And the Rams came out within a two tight end offense and 12 personnel, and they put the tight ends on either side. And Washington's defense was all based on two backs in the backfield, right? So strong side, weak side.

1:31:43So four on three, three on two. There's a lot of different combinations, but that's George Allen's defense, four on three, three on two. Well, when you put two tight ends in the game and the back can go either way, well, either side is the four-on-three side or either side is the three-on-two side. And so if you're now three-on-three and four-on-two, you got problems. Yeah. And the Rams killed them. They killed them. So Maxie said, I want you to break down that game because I know we're going to see this again because it killed the Redskins. So I broke it down. I go through, I watch the whole game.

1:32:25We never saw 12 personnel, not one play. Not one play. But then we get to Detroit, and I'm coaching the tight ends. And we coached Charlie Sanders, who's obviously a Hall of Fame, awesome player, and we draft David Hill. David Hill was a hell of a tight end. A great player in his own right out of Texas A &I. So we're sitting there with two tight ends. We're one and four. Ken Shipp's the offensive coordinator. we're sitting there we're one and four and um and we're playing the patriots and the patriots have like beat the beat the raiders like 40 to 10 they beat somebody else in miami like 39 to seven i mean they had just steamrolled three teams in a row really good teams and and so and we were we're one and like i said one and four i think it was and so i said to ken i said ship what do you think about david hill charlie sanders and and he immediately caught on i was like oh yeah if they rotate this way we go that way if they rotate that way we go this way so we're being like 35 to 14 i mean we killed them well from that point on that formation has always been Detroit in the New England verbiage so Fritz Schirmer Ron Earhart Bill Parcells who went there in 1980 it's always been Detroit Detroit formation and we didn't end up having a great year but that particular game and the way that that unfolded It kind of was, you know, kind of a – I got it from the Rams.

1:34:11Right. Okay, but it was kind of a front runner of the 12 personnel that has become pretty popular in the league, even, you know, when Joe Gibbs was running and Don Correale and those guys are running all their one-back stuff out in San Diego. They were doing it a little bit differently, but it was kind of the same idea.

1:34:27PFT Commenter:Yeah. And to be able to come out where the strong side is either side and defensively if you declare what your strong side is, then, you know, you've got problems on the backside. Yeah. And so Charlie Sanders and David Hill, I mean, like, I mean, they're running, you know, seam routes and flag routes and wheels and everything on linebackers. And, you know, I mean, they just couldn't cover them.

1:34:51Big Cat:Yeah. I mean, that's a great game plan. You've had some great games as a coach. Can I give you maybe my – maybe your worst game plan of all time? Ooh. Well, there's plenty of those. You might not have thought of this one for a while. The Pro Bowl. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're down 42-7 with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter. Yeah, you really fucked that one up. I mean, it's impossible to give up the 42 points in 20 minutes. How did that happen? We got strip sacked. We fumbled. Welker fumbled and got stripped and ran it back for a touchdown. I think they returned an interception and a fumble and maybe it might have been a kick return in there somewhere.

1:35:32Yeah. And we scored like 14 points. I mean, it wasn't like 42 to nothing. Maybe it's 42 to 7, 42 to 14, something like that. But I'm looking up there, and it's 42 points, and we're not even halfway through the second quarter. I'm thinking to myself, all right, three times 42. These guys can score 120 points at three. We're going.

1:35:52Big Cat:Yeah. I mean, I don't want to say poor coaching, but, I mean, you look at the film, and you can't help but notice that. That was bad. It was bad. Yeah. So then we get into that. We're going at halftime. And, you know, in a pro bowl, like, nobody says anything right. But, I mean, I was pissed off. Like I said, I swear. And we're walking back out, and like four or five players are like, you know, Coach, I've never heard anybody swear at a Pro Bowl again. I said, well, the way you assholes are playing, like, honestly, like, you deserve it. And he goes, yeah, I know. We definitely deserve it. But, like, you know, I've just never heard a coach get upset about a Pro Bowl.

1:36:29That was a bad, bad day. I mean. It's impressive. It was like 42 points in 20 minutes. It was unbelievable. You couldn't score 42 points against air. Like if there was no defense out there, you couldn't. I mean, it would take you more time than that to score.

1:36:47Big Cat:Right. And then you guys got desperate and you tried running a fake punt directly into Sean Taylor's face. What was that play call about? Well, Mormon, who was really fast, right? Yeah. Mormon ran like about a 4 or 5. and so he fake punted us at buffalo right and it was like fourth and eight or whatever and he ran and he got like 10 yards and so that pissed me off and pissed off seeley too the special teams coach and so we're like well this guy's really fast the pro bowl you know i don't really expect us to fake the pun so like you know let's go and put it in you know you good with it mormon yeah yeah Yeah, sure, he's good with it.

1:37:26We call it. And I've never seen anybody get hit as hard as Sean Taylor hit him. I was just telling Jackie yesterday, his daughter who goes to school here, we were talking about that play. And that was a total yard sale. His helmet, his ear pads, his chin strap, his mouthpiece. I mean, he's over there by the team doctors. He's like 10 yards out of bounds underneath the team doctors and a dentist and over everybody there. And I've never seen anybody get a hit so hard. Yeah. And I'm like, Brad, I mean, really. He's like, coach. He finished the game. Yeah. He finished the game. He popped back up after that.

1:38:09He didn't pop back up, but he finished the game. He finished the game. That is one of the hardest hits I have ever seen. Yeah. That was a, oh, my God.

1:38:19Big Cat:Yeah. Probably my favorite player, Sean Taylor. I grew up a Redskins fan, so loved watching him play. Yeah. But you had a great game plan that year against the Reds. I think you guys scored like 56 points or something like that. That was a big one. But Sean Taylor, he did take your punter out that one time. So we'll call it even. In the Pro Bowl. Oh, my God. I mean, if you go to the top 10 hits all the time, top 10 hits, that's got to be like – I mean, that's as hard a hit as you can find. And it all goes back to – And he saw him coming too. You know, it's one thing like when a guy's coming over the middle, catch a pass and he can't see you know and the guy just annihilates him yeah but mormon saw him coming yeah and man he should have that pun against you yeah yeah that put the seed in your

1:39:07PFT Commenter:head like yeah that you you're learning so i i also you talk about that like always learning and just constantly learning and football is something that you just always learn i also heard you say that randy moss taught you what real speed is no absolutely it was it that different than everything else you had because you had coached a lot of football before Randy Moss went to the Patriots never anybody like that never anybody like that what it what exactly I mean we had Michael Jackson Roger Carr and uh the Colt but but Randy Randy is such a smart player and look I've never been fast okay so I don't know what it's like to if I'm running they're going to catch me and if i'm chasing them i'm not going to catch them yeah okay so i don't know what it's like to be faster than everybody else i don't know what it's like to be able to be even with somebody and be able to outrun them by five yards with 20 or more yards to go and so randy you know he explained to me like how do you how he would use his speed and how he didn't feel like he was really able to do that at minnesota and in oakland you know that it was like well you got to run a go route well they're rolled into me and the safety's over the top i'm like yeah we're not going to throw you the ball and he said exactly you know they get pissed off because i'm not running as fast as i can but honestly there's nowhere for me to go and if they throw me the ball it's going to get intercepted so i'll tie up both guys but i mean i can't you know and so i said well look what if we do this what and he goes yes that's what we need to do we need to run at the free safety we need to run it to have field safety if they roll outside on me then we got to go inside i can't just you know the guy's 25 yards on top of me i can't run past them there's no way i said yeah i wouldn't expect you to so half of his touchdowns in 2007 came when he was in the slot or he was the outside receiver but he motioned or lined up in a in a position that would have been where the slot receiver lined up so if there was a middle of field safety he would run right at the middle field safety and if the guy overplayed him he'd break back to the outside and if the guy played him high then he'd cross his face and go to the far pylon first quarter of the jets game that he ran that pistol route touchdown against the jets and you know just took off from there and if it was a half field safety he'd run right at the half field safety and those guys are scared to death a lot of times they were like 30 yards deep and so he could just go wherever he wanted to go they were so deep it was like trying to cover Tyreek Hill some of the same issues we had with Hill where you line up so far on top of them that you give up so much space in front of them that when he catches it now you can't even tackle the damn guy right so Randy 23 touchdowns but he explained to me how you know how to use his speed like here's how I can use my speed can I what about on this route can I do this and like explain that to him and he goes well if i see him there i'm gonna go here i'm like yeah sure and brady okay who could process it and embrace it and understand it you know made it work and so they weren't it wasn't like he was making up routes it was like i'm gonna go here and if there's space i'm going into that space and if there's no space then i'm going into this space right okay makes sense and he could do it yeah and and there wasn't a deal where tom was like oh i thought he was gonna go here and went there i thought it was a go there and went here like when randy made the decision he always made the right decision yeah yeah and so like hearing that story though the i would imagine when you traded for randy moss you didn't expect to line him up inside you know and have half his touchdowns come from there no but as we started talking about it and and and randy's look randy's i love randy randy's like you know and at west virgin 20 look coach i'm lying inside i can go deep but i didn't run a two-yard crossing route over the middle yeah you throw that to somebody else like yeah okay all right i got it no problem but yeah you know when i traded for randy you know i talked to coach davis for like two months.

1:43:26And Mike Lombardi was there too. Mike was at the Raiders. I talked to Mike. Trying to trade for Randy. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And it took two months. I mean, it was like a glacier moving. And finally, it was a two-day draft. And Mr. Davis calls me up and says, all right, look, do you want to do this trade or not? And I said, well, yeah. I mean, trying to do it for two months. Like, yeah, I'm not on cold feet now. He goes, all right, we want your pick in the fourth round from Moss and that's it. And we had like the sixth pickings in the fourth round. It's a two-day draft.

1:44:01So, okay. So I said, well, look, he's making$11 million a year. I got to get a hold of Randy. We got to bring him in for a physical and we got to fix his contract because we don't have $11 million for the cap space to make the trade. He goes, look, Belichick, that's your problem if you want them you figure it out like all right so it's like midnight so i call up randy get his number randy it's coach belichick what who is this slams the phone down

1:44:40randy who is this don't play no tricks on me who is this who is this who's calling i said This is Coach Belichick from Randy.

1:44:53Please don't hang up. Don't hang up. Listen to me. Listen to me. This is Coach Belichick from the Patriots. Please listen to me. Seriously? What? Why would you call me? So we just traded for you. Was it to New England? I said, yeah. I know. Look, here's what we got to do. Like, you got to come to New England. You got to take a physical. We got to redo your contract. Maybe this, that. It was by when? so the draft starts at noon tomorrow. This is like 1 a.m. He goes, I'm at a club in Houston.

1:45:21Big Cat:I said, well, what do you want me to do? This is what we need to do to make this trade happen. Randy goes, I'll be there. I'll be there. All right. Hangs up the phone. Next morning, he comes into Gillette Stadium at like 7.30 a.m. I don't, you know, got his plane, got his guy, got a car, whatever. He shows up there, 7.30. All right, we're going to go take the physical, take the physical contract. What are we going to do about this contract? He goes, I don't care. I said, well, look, you're making$11 million, and we can't afford to pay you that. He goes, well, what do you want it to be? I said, well, how about three, and we'll do incentives to nine?

1:46:10He goes, fine. Call bus. Bus cook. Call bus. Get it done. this guy just took an eight million dollar pay cut yeah bus cook probably like that okay so signed the contract now he earned all nine million yeah i mean no doubt about that so but that's how willing he was yeah and so we got that done it's noon call back mr davis deal's done we got it okay boom so they take our fourth round pick we got randy so now it's like you know 12 30 one o 'clock we're in the middle of the draft and randy's like all right where's my playbook like look randy well like we're trying to do this draft say he goes i want that playbook because this is now april and we'd already started offseason program now granted we weren't like you know all out balls to the wall but we're doing our pro you know we're in the offseason program randy says look i need that playbook because when i go out there with tom brady and the rest of the offense i'm not go out there and make a bunch of mental layers like i gotta have this offense down cold so you give me that playbook right now and i want to have it down by monday morning when i go out there with the team what a godsend yeah so i'm like i said josh do we have a playbook and he goes well you know we haven't really brought him off yet i said look reyna wants playbook josh said got it boom so go give him a playbook he goes out there monday he goes i need to know all the signals i can't have tom brady signaling and my dumb ass misses signal or I run the wrong route.

1:47:41He goes, I'm not doing that. I want this and I'll have it down cold. And he did. He goes out there on, you know, he goes out there with Welker and, you know, we traded for Welker too, right, that same year. And he goes out there and, I mean, never missed anything. And then, like I said, really helped coach me to understand how to use his speed.

1:48:01Big Cat:Yeah. Fourth round pick. Always learning. Not bad. Not a bad trade. Yeah. Randy was incredible. Yeah. He was incredible. Yeah. I got kind of a weird question for you about your attire. I know people talk about the sleeves a lot. I've always seen the sleeves as there's definitely some sort of utility behind the three-quarter sleeve cutoff that I just don't know. There's got to be a purpose for it, a reason why you would cut those sleeves off. Short arms. If I don't cut them off, then they hang over my wrist and they're in the way. And so I've got short arms, so I just cut them off. You and Ruben Bain.

1:48:36PFT Commenter:yeah it's i feel like oh you know that that was fucked up with him i'm sorry about that you shouldn't have said that why why no he just gave a look like you're gonna compare me to ruben bay

1:48:47Big Cat:no well yeah i i always assumed that there was like some sort of pocket access that i wasn't seeing like because there's a reason for everything that you do on the side no honestly i mean i did it in high school i'm you know like junior high high school college like i mean i've always cut them off and it's just my arms are short and if i get you know they're just they're too long they hang over my wrists and my hands and i try to roll them up and they fall down again so

1:49:10PFT Commenter:so just cut them off yeah yeah it's smart yeah um can i do the my weird question yeah yeah i got we i got also a weird question um you're obviously you know best head coach of all time should be in the hall of fame we don't have to get into that it's crazy uh we thought it was crazy at the time It still is crazy. You're prepared better than anyone. You've won all these Super Bowls. But we have a theory, and you could tell me if this is way off. The one time that you are seen flustered or not prepared is, and maybe it's only happened a few times in your career, the challenge flag when you know there's really nothing to challenge and you're not going to win it, but you're just frustrated and you want time to pause for a second.

1:49:54Yeah. I mean, like, that was the Manningham catch in the Giants Super Bowl. It was right in front of me. I saw his feet in.

1:50:04I'm like, well, you know what? I mean, it's a big play. Let me in. F*** it.

1:50:12Just, you know, and then you watch the replay and it's like, there it is.

1:50:16PFT Commenter:Yeah, so we were right. That there is every now and then it's like, I just, I don't like what has just transpired. Let me just pause for a second. Well, I mean, again, I was, I mean, like, again, taking a shot at it. I hope that maybe I didn't see something that was there. The worst one was the Super Bowl against the Rams. And so, you know, we're playing in Mercedes-Benz, right? And so they have the big scoreboard over top of us, right? And so I tell the players all week, like, look, keep your eyes on the field. I don't want to be looking to send you into the game. and you're up there watching a game and you know you're watching a replay and whatever i said you keep your eyes on the field so we're in the second quarter and we're i mean they haven't got maybe a first down and i'm much yep happy over i know and they throw a sideline route over in front of their bench and you know it's a close play but it's on the other side of the field and so i'm and then And then they kind of start to come to the ball, right?

1:51:24And so, you know, I'm watching and like, all right, well, so they're going to, you know, officials call it a completion. So they're coming to the ball and it's like, all right, what are we going to call here? Like, you know, what are they doing? They're going fast. So, look, when a team goes fast, that's actually a good thing because you can see the formation they're in. Right? You don't have to guess. It's a three-by-one. It's a two-by-two. You know, you kind of look out there and say, all right, there's the formation. Let's go and make the call. and the players beside me are saying like, he's out, he's out.

1:51:53He only got one foot in. He only got one foot in. But I'm not going to look up at the screen because I've told these guys for like six days straight, do not sit there and watch the screen. Keep your eyes on the field because that's where the action is. The screen is for the fans. And they're like, coach, coach, he only got one foot in. He only got one foot in.

1:52:24So just as the ball is about to be snapped, I think it was a brand of ball. He grabs me. I look up, and I see he's got one foot in. And I'm like, oh, Christ. And now the ball's snapped. Yeah. And it's too late. And they look at me like, great job, coach. but i had you know i said don't do this and i was too disciplined to not do it and then it and everybody in the stadium saw that right except for my you were just like i'm not looking at this screen i gotta do it yeah we'll get back to belichick in a second he's brought to you by

1:53:02Big Cat:our great friends over reese's some fans believe in turn in teams of destiny but i believe that everything happens for Reese's. Just think about it. Let me get one of those Reese's over there. Let me get some of that product. I was having one on the flight. You were. I actually thought about asking you for Reese's. It was that game. I think you were eating all of them. These are delicious.

1:53:20PFT Commenter:I only had two of the four.

1:53:22Big Cat:I love the smell of Reese's, that chocolate peanut butter smell. Nothing like it. What's the one thing every team or athlete wants? It's a championship because half of them are called cups. Stanley, World, Ryder, just like Reese's. luckily scoring a Reese's cup is way easier than winning a championship it's almost like you're destined to get one right now because everything happens for a Reese's pick one up today Reese's the official candy partner barstool sports everything happens for Reese's get yours at hersheyland.com slash Reese's coach Belichick's also brought to you by our great friends over at NASCAR Memorial Day weekend is here so is one of NASCAR's crown jewel events the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, happening Sunday, May 24th at 6 p.m.

1:54:07Big Cat:Eastern, streaming live on Prime. This track is fast, demanding. It's built for drama. And when it's 600 miles under the lights, you're in for a marathon of nonstop strategy and speed. But it's more than just a race. It's a moment. The Coca-Cola 600 is part of NASCAR Salutes 250 Together with Coca-Cola, an annual tribute honoring the brave men and women who serve our country, taken to the next level as we celebrate America's 250th birthday. Will Ross Chastain repeat? Will 2311 continue their dominance in 2026? There's only one way to find out. Grab your snacks and drinks and don't miss this Memorial Day weekend tradition.

1:54:44Big Cat:The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sunday, May 24th, 6 p.m. Eastern, only on Prime. And now here's more Coach Bill Belichick. So we have our producer over here, Hank. Hank is a massive Patriots fan. Part of the Brady Four. He actually went to jail for Tom Brady. Yeah. He locked himself, handcuffed himself in the league office and spent a night in prison. Do it again. Yeah. So did that cross your desk when the Brady Four got locked up? Did somebody come and tell you, like, hey, just so you know, sir, there's four Patriots fans that have handcuffed themselves to Roger Goodell's desk?

1:55:24So was that when Portnoy got dragged up? Yeah, he was with them. He was in jail.

1:55:27PFT Commenter:Oh, no, Dave got dragged out of the Super Bowl. Super Bowl, yeah. But before that, he and Dave and Gaz and Feidelberg went to the league office and were protesting, and they went to jail for a night. Right, right. I mean, I do remember that, but, I mean, it wasn't, you know. Kind of like Portnoy getting dragged out. I was like, you know, because the video, that's hysterical. Oh, yeah. Skinny jeans. He videoed the whole thing, right? I mean, that's hysterical.

1:55:55Big Cat:The dead legs. dead legs skinny jeans but um but i mean i didn't really get to engage or follow up on i mean i'm sorry but i do appreciate the support yeah of course and then you know when matt patricia wore the t-shirt with goodell that was another one that's like i don't know if this is really gonna like ingratiate us it's a good t-shirt we sold a lot of them i'm sure it did yeah there's No doubt.

1:56:25PFT Commenter:All right, Hank, you had a question?

1:56:27Big Cat:Yeah, I mean, obviously I grew up in situate from 96 to 2016. You made me and like an entire generation of kids feel like winners because of your team. So thank you, first of all. I appreciate that. I really do. I really appreciate that. And those comments or stories from people who say, you know, I went to the game with my dad or our family always watched the game And those are some of the best memories of my childhood or my relationship with my whoever, son, father, whatever. Like, those are such meaningful stories. I mean, I just want to tell you, like, seriously, that those hit home. Because when you're a coach, you don't like, you don't know.

1:57:12You're just trying to make a first down or stop one. And then you find out, like, you had such an impact on somebody's life or relationship. you know like wow you know it's really i'm you know i actually did something good i wasn't trying to do it but i actually did something good beyond good yeah i mean it drives these guys nuts because

1:57:33Big Cat:it's like you're like you're so cocky you're so cocky and it's like yeah growing up rooting for a team that was just always like we would joke it's like you know wake me up when the playoff start because we know we're going to be there and that's all that's why i'm going to say like maybe it's not always a good thing you're a guy like that say you you spend your entire year like play to play focusing like next play hank's like yeah i don't really care it's not the process of

1:57:55PFT Commenter:yeah building you i think you preach it a lot like you don't you don't go to the mountaintop in 15 minutes hank did yeah you taught you actually taught hank to skip the process

1:58:06Big Cat:but yes thank you from the bottom of my heart my question though i was watching an interview with uh matt light on julian edelman's podcast and he was talking about you know practical jokes that he's played over the years and I was wondering if there was one there was one in particular that like might have pissed you off in the moment but like when you get back to your office and you know doors close you're like all right that was that was that was a good one that's pretty funny there was plenty of piss me off in the moment um the worst one for me was light had this remote control mouse and so I'm standing up there talking to the team, kind of doing my rant or whatever.

1:58:47And I catch this out of the corner of my eye and I see something move. And, of course, they see me, but I don't know, right? And so I'm trying not to get distracted and I'm going on and I kind of catch it again. And now I'm distracted, right? but you know trying to stay with it trying to be you know and then he runs the thing like right underneath my feet all right whoa you know so then of course like they all go crazy and i'm like like like i know you asshole what what what i wow what happened what did some is there something wrong you know and they're i I mean, they're howling. Like, he killed me.

1:59:43But I got even with these two guys. Maybe not even. So it's like 0-4 maybe. And so Light goes out to Hawaii for the Players Association meetings. I'm like Matt if you guys want to really get something done for the Players Association why don't you go to Buffalo you guys are going to go out to Hawaii sit around drink Mai Tais and call it business so he goes out there and he says to the media you know all season programs are the most important time of the year for us it's where you bond with your teammates it's where you you know you work hard together you sweat in a weight room you push each other and and if you have new guys on the team you kind of get to know them and and this is so important so matt comes back i'm like matt like those comments are so they're so bad you're the only one who's not here and you're talking about how important this is and i said like we got a problem here well simultaneously well not simultaneously but at the same general time we're in our off-season program right and so we're working on pass rushing and so i got rosie rosie colvin and so we're working on this pass rush game and like i'm the offensive lineman and so rosie he like slaps me and like this slap uppercut move and i'm like god damn he breaks my rib so i'm like for two days i you know i can't breathe it's like it's painful as hell but i'm to suck it up.

2:01:54I'm not going to get in there and do this past thing anymore. So now I'm like, alright. Colvin and Light went together at Purdue. They were at Purdue together. Everybody's got their own locker and they got their picture of their wife and their kids and all that bullshit. And so I said, look, I'm going to put you two assholes together in the same locker. they don't like each other and now they got rosie's wife with lights kids in the everybody else got their own locker the rookies everybody but these two guys are in the same locker and i'm like you can't do that so we don't do that so every week they come to me and they're like now they i mean they hate this like they they don't want to be that close to each other and i at how much long is this going to last.

2:02:52I said, I'll tell you how much longer it's going to last. It's going to last until my rib feels better. And that's a long way off. So they're there for like six weeks in the same – and the rest of the team loved it. Like they loved it. You know, they're like, hey, Matt, you're what? Oh, that's Rosie's wife. Oh, look, those kids are so cute, Rosie. Oh, those are Matt's kids. Oh, I'm sorry. and um so like we had our back and forth yeah i would say light got more in than i did although you know i could like say my stuff in the team meetings and all that and piss them off but you know like practical jokes he killed me yeah he would kill dante too he got dante worse than he got me because it was the same type of thing you know he got some technology thing dante would you know we had the the little mouse thing right and he'd go to the mouse and it would shock him like it was like a little shock he's just obsessed with mouse pranks well no it was the there was

2:03:58Big Cat:the computer one and the yes and the yeah but he had a little attachment he put on it where it gave you like a little shock yeah and you know dante's and he picks the thing up he turns around he throws it right at light because he knows he knows what it is you know we've all been like Like, but, you know, Light would just, Light would just think of this stuff. Like, I swear to God, he stayed up at night doing this. But I'm telling you, the best one he ever got, the best one he ever got on Dante. So Dante, you could not get to the stadium before Dante. It was impossible. I could get there at like 4.30 in the morning.

2:04:35His truck's already parked there. But you could not beat him there. so needless to say Dante's truck was always in the parking lot so we're at Gillette Stadium which is like you know not a dump but like it's borderline. Middle of nowhere and so Light takes like three bags of garbage and kind of like cuts them open and throws them in the back of Dante's truck at like 7am all the seagulls and all they come in and so light goes out there at lunch and he looks out there's like 50 seagulls and he's like oh boy this is working right and so now Dante comes out at like 10 o 'clock at night right at the end of night and here's all this shit in the back of his truck you know seagull shit everywhere like the biggest mess you have ever seen and we leave you know before Dante He'd go out there and like, oh, boy, I don't want to be here when Dante sees this one.

2:05:39This is going to be bad. That was actually one of those. I mean, but that's light.

2:05:44Big Cat:Yeah. I mean, he thinks up stuff like that. Oh, man. And, I mean, it just destroyed Dante's truck. Just totally destroyed it. And he didn't do a damn thing. He just sat inside and let the seagulls do the work. Made your ticket scores. Thank you, coach. Yeah, yeah. All right. Good job, Hank. There's one other guy I wanted to ask you about in particular. So he's a close friend of ours, Danny Woodhead. Woody. Yeah, Woody. We named our van after him. We did, Vanny Woodhead. We got a 1987 Gladiator. So Woody, like I was this close, this close, the caddying for him in the U.S. Open. Right. Right. He's trying to qualify again this week.

2:06:27Okay. But he was like, I don't know. Real close. Whatever it was. He was really close. Yeah. And he said, hey, if I qualify, would you caddy for me? Like, the U.S. Open? Yeah, sure. I mean, yeah. No problem. And so, you know, he lost the match, like, I don't know, one up or something like that. Whatever it was. He didn't qualify.

2:06:48Big Cat:Yeah. But I was set to caddy for him in the U.S. Open if, you know. We got to have that. Not that I could have helped him. There's no chance I could have helped him, like, read a putt or anything. There's going to be the one in Boston, too. Yeah. I think that's the year that he came really close. It was going to be the Boston U.S. Open. Oh, was it a country club? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. That makes sense. Yeah. So we were actually talking. He was looking for sponsors. We were going to put our podcast logo on his hat. But having you on his bag would have been incredible. And it does speak to like people always say what a scrappy, really hard worker Danny is.

2:07:24Big Cat:I'm sure that's all very, very true. They sleep on how freakishly athletic of a guy Danny Woodhead was as well. And I was curious because when you first picked him up, I think a lot of people thought it was more of gamesmanship to the Jets. Like, OK, he's he was just on their training camp roster. He's got some insight that he can give us to how they like to run their offense. But I'm curious to know, like, who who decided to bring him in? And then why did you decide to keep the crazy thing about Woody is I want to say we opened with the Jets that year or. I want to say we opened with them. Maybe it was the second game of the year.

2:08:04But, you know, when you open with a team in the NFL, you watch every preseason game. You watch the first one, which nobody watches. But if you open with that team, you watch it. Like, okay, let's see, what are the first plays they put in? You know, and who is this guy who's like their second string or third string tackle, but he ends up making their team. And, yeah, if we got to play against this guy, you know, here's the deal on him. so we watched literally every play of the Jets offense and Woody's playing receiver he's playing receiver he's their slot receiver and we're like you know this guy's not really a receiver but he's good with the ball in his hands he's tough he's not really that fluid as a receiver but you know maybe as a sub running back and so we claimed him thinking that he might be able to return kicks and and we i forget what happened to run back we we need to run back and we need a kind of a third down back i think that was like we had maroney and some of those guys anyway we end up getting them and then he you know you play him and then you find out he's actually pretty good you know when you're watching practice you're like yeah it's not that fast you know and he's little but he ducks under tacklers and he's quick and he's just got a way to make yards and so we put him in the game he starts making yards and you know tom's like well let's get this guy in there like we'll give him the ball like he'll make some yards but he was actually played receiver i think he played running back in college where'd he go to college chadron state i think yeah okay so i think he played running back there the jets played him at slot receiver and then we moved him back to running back but all the film we watched of him he was he was i I think played receiver.

2:09:52Big Cat:Did he ever get into your doghouse? Do you have a doghouse? I mean, not for very long. Yeah, I'm sure he did at some point. He must have fumbled or missed a blitz pickup or something. But, yeah, I mean, look, you love guys like that because he's super competitive. He's a great kid. He's a team guy all the way. Do whatever you would ask him to do. I mean, you can't get pissed off at those guys for very long. No. And he's still trying to qualify. I think it's this week. Wow. He's playing in the sexual. So, yeah, if he does make the U.S. Open, is that – did he tell you, like, that offer's on the table as long as he keeps trying?

2:10:26You know, we really haven't talked, I don't think, since that came up. Yeah. I mean, not out of, like, any hard feelings or anything. It just – I don't know. He's in your doghouse because he didn't make the U.S. Open? No, that's not true. That's not true.

2:10:39Big Cat:I'll let him know. I'll text him right now and say, hey. That is not true. Okay, I'll say coach really wants a cat for you. Yeah, Woody was, you know, he was one of those many guys that we had that a lot of people look at and say, you know, this guy's really not that good. And, you know, Chris Hogan, you know, all these guys. And then all of a sudden, you know, they just keep making plays and producing. And it's like, you know, you know what? He can actually play.

2:11:08PFT Commenter:Yeah, yeah. I want to bring it back to UNC real quick. So this year is your first year where you get a full recruiting class. You get a full transfer portal where you've been here. What are you most proud of in terms of the guys you've brought in and what you expect from them this year?

2:11:28Well, what I expect is for for us and them to get better every day, you know, to get stronger, to get faster, to be more explosive, to be better. fundamentally to be you know better technique football players that's what i expect from them and then you know as a team but you know they're we have a good group of kids they work hard they are you know they're pretty smart i mean they you know go to class they do well academically um they you know they try to do what we ask them to do and the group yesterday last year i mean i wouldn't say they were like disrespectful that's not the right word but it was just different it was like they were recruited by somebody else they came here for somebody else you know i was new they were leaving and you know it wasn't i mean it wasn't a bad relationship but it wasn't a great one it didn't have as much i would say um you know there wasn't the same kind of adhesion that there is to guys that you bring in that come there because of you because they want to be with you

2:12:31PFT Commenter:and then you know you grow together and i would imagine like the player development side of it is is probably a very strong selling, you know, point to a lot of these players that you're recruiting. Like, Hey, I, I will, I will make you a better football player. Like I've, I've read some stuff where you're like, Hey, I'm not a rah, rah guy. I'm not going to whoop it up. I'm not going to give you some speech. It's going to have you run through a brick wall. I'm going to tell you how to get better day by day. Absolutely. And we'll deliver on that. You know, our strength program's good. Our nutrition, our chef is good, like good food, good rest, good recovery, very good training.

2:13:05Physically, they'll be much better, and they already are much better. And then from a football standpoint, like our fundamentals and the techniques that we've used and coached the greatest players from the Tom Brady's, the Randy Mosses, the Donta Hightower's, the Stephon Gilmore's, Tlaib, Ty Law, Seymour. I mean, guys that are in the Hall of Fame, guys are some of the greatest players ever. This is how we taught them. This is how they did it. and these are the plays that we're running it we're running the same plays that they ran and watch them do it yeah and so um and they and they're very receptive to that you know they're like they're receptive and i'd say appreciative of like okay you know i'm learning from somebody who is really really good at this skill whether it's a guard a tight end of you know quarterback whatever that you know we have great players literally at every position that can exemplify

2:13:58Big Cat:how to do certain skills yeah you've got some good tight ends by the way we saw yeah 45 in the

2:14:04PFT Commenter:practices it's a good number for a tight end yes yeah he's a beast yeah i also saw your mantra tough smart dependable how so great mantra how do you like teach that day by day because i need help because at barstool sports i don't think we check any of those no we're tough it's like you know We're weak, we're dumb, and we're flaky. That's what we got on our wall. So how, like, you know, when it comes to, like, actually enacting that and telling people this is not just – these aren't just words. These are what we actually need to do. How the hell do I do it? Like, you're talking to a guy like Nicky Smokes, an absolute moron.

2:14:41PFT Commenter:You know, one of those guys that are a mincy. I got morons that I got to teach them how to be tough, smart, and dependable. I can't do it. well i think tough starts with um you know being physically tough and being mentally tough it's not it's not going to be easy it's not easy to win a football game nobody's giving those away those aren't door prizes you know you got to go out and earn it so there's a toughness that that's going to be uh necessary for you to win and from mental toughness standpoint like something's always going to go wrong i mean you know kid comes here he goes to the nfl you know there's gonna be an injury or he's going to have a professor who doesn't like him or he's going to break up with his girlfriend.

2:15:20It's going to be something. And what's your mental toughness? How do you work through that? Whatever it is. So that's kind of the tough part. Smart, it really starts with don't beat yourself. Don't go out there and make mistakes that we control on a number of levels, right? Whether it's taking an illegal substance, whether it's academically being ineligible, whether it's, you know, doing something that causes you a problem on the football field that you control, pre-snap penalties, post-whistle penalties, all those things. Like, we have to control those. And then dependable is consistency. It's earned it every day.

2:16:01And so we have to earn each other's trust daily. Yeah. And that's how you trust and, you know, be a good teammate is, you know, you're there every day. You're consistent. and now we get into a tough situation and I can count on you and you can count on me because we've done it for each other on a regular basis. Practice is harder than the games. So our thing is if you can do it in practice and do it consistently in practice, we're going to make it harder than the game. Instead of a 40-second clock, we have a 35-second clock. Instead of a dry ball, we have a wet ball. Instead of no crowd noise, we have a lot of crowd noise, so you can't hear anything and so forth.

2:16:40And we try to make it harder than what it's going to be in the game. So when the game comes, there's not – and what your volume is in practice, right? So if you run, you know, 4 ,000 yards in a game, then maybe you're running 45 to 5 ,000 yards in practice.

2:16:58PFT Commenter:Yeah. So we don't want to get into a game situation and feel like, close to really hard, I don't know if I could do this. No, we do it every day. Yeah, I'm sure – That's why at New England, the sign we had on the door about what we try to do every day, and it's the same here because we're in the stadium, it doesn't matter whether you're in preseason camp, training camp, a preseason game, a regular season game in October, or the AFC championship. Our goal for the day is the same. Yeah. work hard pay attention to details put the team first right like those team those are our that's our mantra and we do it every day yeah and so we get into a big game we get no champion whatever what's the same it's what we've been doing we're not asking you to do you know to do something i've done before this is what we do yeah i feel like that that works on recruits too because it's like Like there's a lot of probably some recruiting that's, you know, tells you what you want to hear and you're telling them, Hey, no, it's going to be tough, but we're going to make you better.

2:18:10PFT Commenter:Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. We're not on the hype. You know, we're not going to have like the dancing elephants and a trapeze act and everybody, you know, drive a Maserati around the block. And, you know, we just don't do that. Like we, we tell our recruits, here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to deliver. And if that's what you want, we have it. But if you're looking for something else, then this is probably not the right place for you.

2:18:35Big Cat:I'm going to push back a little bit on the not a rah-rah guy because you gave a great speech one time that I saw. It was at the Patriots Super Bowl victory parade. And there was a massive crowd in front of you. And you got everybody started with a no days off chant. And I think it was like on a Tuesday. So everyone that was at that rally, they were taking a day off. But you're such a good coach that they all started chanting, yeah, he's right, no days off, as they're taking a day off work. That was incredible. Just a great job of motivation on your part. Well, it's funny because the no days off, honestly, like most people don't really understand what that means or what it meant to us, I should say, what it meant to us.

2:19:17What it meant to us was when you come to work, you go to work. You don't come to work and dilly-dally around. and like I was here, I broke a sweat, I showed up and go home. That's a day off. When we said no days off, we meant you come to work, you're ready to work, you're prepared, you put in a good day's work. Okay, maybe tomorrow's an off day. That's okay for a recovery day. That's fine. We're not saying like don't take a day off. We're saying don't come to the stadium and take a day off.

2:19:49PFT Commenter:Yeah. And so the no days off was when you come in here, man, And we expect your best and we expect you to work at it. When we're done, we're done. And, you know, you're with your family or you're, you know, whatever you're doing. Sure, there's days off, but don't take them here.

2:20:07Big Cat:Yeah, makes sense. I mean, that's, you know, Brady and Edelman and Hightower and those David Andrews and those guys are like, don't come in here and screw around. Like, we're not here to screw around. We're here to win. Yeah. And if that's what, and if you don't put enough into it, then we're, you know, we're pissed off at you. Like, we're not going to accept that. Yeah. And that's really the no days off. Yeah. And, and, and so if a guy was kind of, you know, if he would like jump off side or do something, you know, dumb, then they will kind of get on him and be like, just come in here and fool around and take a day off.

2:20:46Like, just don't even come here then. Like, if you don't care enough, then just don't show up because we can't trust you.

2:20:54PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah. And that was kind of the connotation. But of course, you know, in the hype train of the Patriots, you know, I'm sure it sold towels and some, you know, beer mugs or whatever. And it was used in a different context.

2:21:12Big Cat:My no days off beer mug. Those people were cheering their hardest.

2:21:16PFT Commenter:So they were not taking a day off. That's true. They were doing everything. It's important concepts. Yeah. That's not what it was. But if that's what they want it to be, that's fine. It was a funny moment. But it was kind of a marketing thing where it's like, do your job, no days off, stuff like that. Turned into marketing hype. Yeah. More than it was. Getting away from the meaning of the core. Yeah. It wasn't really what it was intended. And we kind of laughed about it. It was like, they don't really know what it means. But if they want to talk about no days off or do your job or whatever, that's fine.

2:21:46Yeah. I'm having fun with it.

2:21:47Big Cat:I was going to ask you about coaching here at UNC and connecting with much younger players than you've been used to connecting with over the course of your career as a coach. And curious to know, are you aware of the fact that you're Bill Belichick, right? And so you're coming into a place like UNC and a lot of the kids that are playing football for you, they look at you as being like a legend of the game. Is there anything that you've done to try to like make yourself more approachable? Because I could see myself. I mean, obviously, I can't see myself being like an 18-year-old five-star football recruit because I'm five foot eight and I suck.

2:22:27Big Cat:But if I was, even if I was good, I could see myself being like a little intimidated to go talk to you about something if it's an issue I'm having or like, hey, I think we could be doing even something better. Is that something that you think about? Like, hey, these kids might have like a block in communicating with me at times and I need to be proactive in overcoming that. Yeah. You know, I think it varies from kid to kid. I mean, again, you know, it's really about building relationships and building trust. I think if they think you're helping them, then they're going to be receptive. If they don't think you're helping them, my experience has been, you know, they're probably going to turn you off.

2:23:06So I try to, you know, help everybody. you know sometimes it's maybe not in the most comforting way but if they're actually committed toward reaching their goals and dreams of playing professional football being a really good player then that's what i'm that's the spirit that i'm saying it in it's not personal it's just you know if you want to be good here's what you need to do you can keep doing it this way it's not going to work it's no good don't take my word for it you watch a bunch of other people do it this way it's not going to work for them either if you here's the way you need to do it and so why don't you commit to doing it that way if in the end they don't want to do that then i mean you know i've done kind of all i can do yeah but that's not it's rare most of them they really they really do want to now some don't have enough staying power and they like well they do and then they kind of drift off and then they come back again um the guys who are more but we had those guys the nfl too i mean trust me everybody in the nfl is not you know tom brady and julian edelman not the hightower and deb mccourty like that's far from it yeah maybe we had more than most but

2:24:14Big Cat:they're not all like that yeah oh i root for the redskins so yeah there's i know what you're

2:24:18PFT Commenter:talking about yeah was there was there a moment i and this has been so much fun honestly we could do this for the next five hours i don't want to take all your time so i really really we really appreciate this there's so much football history we just love football um so we'll wrap it up very soon was there a moment though uh early in tom brady's career where you're like okay this is different this is this is different than what i expect like he is going he's on a trajectory to something different than what i might have expected when we drafted him again if you if you spend time around tom you you understand how totally committed he is and how he just day by day takes incredibly small steps that eventually but never backwards that eventually lead to a very high performance.

2:25:22And, I mean, really, he was our fourth-string quarterback. You can't name another fourth-string quarterback, I would say, in any level of football, college or pro. I mean, there isn't one. Very few. So that's how far down he was. I mean, you couldn't get any further on the bench than he was. He was a fourth-string. Never even played. Never even dressed. and then I brought in Damon Hewitt because I didn't think he was good enough to be the backup and he beat Hewitt out and then Bledsoe got hurt and then he didn't lose games he didn't win many but he didn't lose them and we won him on defense we won him in the kicking game with Troy Brown's punt return the block field goals and so forth and then he kept and by 2003 2004 we won games because of tom brady and from 2004 on not only did we win games because of tom brady but every week he was the focal point of our opponents because we got to stop tom brady and what's our game plan to stop tom brady and that's the real greatness is when they're doing something to stop you every single week and there's a target on your back and you're still producing at ILO.

2:26:44PFT Commenter:Yeah. But I always say, Tom wasn't great. Wasn't even really good. But he became great. Gronkowski, same thing. Rob wasn't great. He wasn't even really good. But he became great. Julian Edelman, I mean, for five years. I mean, he didn't do anything. He returned punts. He was a very good punter returner. But he wasn't great. He wasn't even good. He didn't even play. and then he became great and so that process of day by day by day by day after a month after a year after a year okay now you finally and it's very gradual but it's consistent it doesn't you know jerk up and down it just hey it's things he couldn't do now he's starting to do them now oh, he's starting to do them pretty good.

2:27:40Now he's actually starting to do some things at a level that, you know what, he wasn't able to do before. And that's what makes Tom Brady great. The biggest thing about Tom, and, you know, I told him this all the time, and he took it to heart. I'm like, Tom, we can't gain any yards until you give the ball to somebody else. You're not gaining them. you've got to get the ball to somebody else for us to gain yards. Hand it to them, throw it to them, pitch it to them. But as long as you have the ball, we ain't going anywhere. He's like, you don't tell me that. So get the ball. And so that's what he did.

2:28:22How do I get the ball to Julian Edelman so he can run with it? How do I get the ball to Rob where he can catch it, where the guy who's even with guys are draped all over him, Rob can catch it and the other guy can't? how do I get Danny Woodhead productive? How do I make Kevin Falk productive? How do I make James White productive? How do I make, and he's kind of like a point guard, like he could distribute the ball with great accuracy and decision-making. And through all those years with Brady, we were the least penalized team. We had the fewest negative runs. We had the fewest sacks. We had the fewest turnovers.

2:28:59he never killed the team with those plays we didn't go backwards he'd throw a quick pass out for our yard and it's second and nine but at least it wasn't second and 13 and if we you know he got rid of the ball so quickly that he didn't get sacked and we didn't have dumb false start penalties and shit like that because of sloppy play like he would make sure that you know the play was run right or we were set or we you know two guys are in motion ho stop whoa okay now you go in motion things like that i mean there's such little things but when you listen to him broadcast the game you'll hear him say over and over they're going backwards too much this team's they need to go they're losing too many yards and that was it we didn't lose yards and he didn't ever put the team in a bad situation every play wasn't an 80 yard touchdown but he didn't put the team in a bad situation and he got rid of the ball so that somebody else could gain yards because god knows

2:30:05PFT Commenter:he wasn't gaining them that's by the way you're you're not even good to good to great that's that's the recruiting pitch that you know anyone who's coming to unc like that's that's it right there Like, hey, you might not be very good right now, but we can day by day get you to great. 100%. But that's the way it was in New England. These guys will come into New England and they look at Tom Brady and like, oh, my God. Look at Devin McCordy. Oh, my God. Look at Edelman. Oh, my God. Gronkowski. Oh, my God. I'm thinking to myself, you don't know that these guys weren't any good. They're just like you.

2:30:43Like, you're no good either. but you can become great but you know this is what you're gonna have to do and it's gonna be a process it's not gonna happen overnight it didn't happen overnight for rob didn't happen for julian brady democorty played corner and then he ended up playing his whole career at safety and you know 12 time captain i mean i'm you know i'm just steven neal never even played football you know three super bowls started for eight years never even played football so he was no good talk about no good he was terrible but he became you know a really good player so people don't understand the process and they think that rob gronkowski was always great far from it it was to the point where brady and i sat him down and said rob like we can't put you in a game.

2:31:38You're too undependable. You run the wrong route. You fumble the ball. You make too many mistakes. We can't play you. Okay. What do I need to do? Okay. And then he became great where he was as dependable as any player we had. Never fumbled. Always did the right thing. Was a great teammate. Was a good blocker. Understood by blocking. It created play action opportunities for him that wouldn't have been there if he didn't block and so forth. I mean, but, you know, it was such a process. And those guys all bought into it. And they deserve the credit for it. And that's what we're selling with our guys.

2:32:15Absolutely, we're selling the same thing with our guys.

2:32:17PFT Commenter:Yeah, yeah. But people think that when you look at Brady, you think, you know, in 2016, 17, 18, the rookies come on the team and they're like, oh, my God, this guy's so great. yes but he wasn't he was where you're actually further ahead than he was at the start that's how bad he was but they don't realize that you know they're like oh man i'll never be that good well you could be if you do what mccourty and chung and guys like that that even players like that nobody wanted like jc jackson and malcolm butler rob ninkovich rob ninkovich was a backup snapper we signed him because we needed a backup snapper because our snapper got hurt we had no intention of keeping him as a snapper because once our guy was healthy we don't need rob and rob comes in there and you know first day of practice it's like he knew light it's like hey do you mind if I do a couple pass rushes like a long snapper that's Matt Lighter starting up to have it yeah go ahead take one walks right by him Dante goes crazy Light it's a long snapper you can't block this long snapper get back in here boom goes like by him again and then of course Light I mean, you talk about taking some heat now, like getting run by a long snap.

2:33:51Yeah. But Ninkovich had played against him at Purdue with him, not against him, with him at Purdue. And, you know, he kind of like, hey, I know how to rush this guy.

2:34:01PFT Commenter:Yeah. And then all of a sudden it's like, wow. Now, Rob wasn't a great player either, but he had 10 sacks a year for five years in a row. Yeah. By just doing things right and, you know, being disciplined and like all the things that he did. I mean, it's just like, he's no Lawrence Taylor. I'm just telling you. But 10 sacks a year for five years, I mean, you know, it's pretty damn good.

2:34:26Big Cat:Yeah. Do you think maybe Light let him beat him a couple times? No. No? He's like, hey, man, I really need this job. No. No. Yeah. No, Light, I mean, Matt is so competitive. Matt's such a tough kid. Would you say that Rob is the most improved player that you've coached? No, Steve Neal.

2:34:52PFT Commenter:Steve Neal never played football. Steve Neal didn't even know where the huddle was. Steve Neal didn't know where to go at the end of the play. Like, what do I do now? Steve, go back here with these guys. They'll tell you what to do. Oh, all right. Yeah.

2:35:10Big Cat:You probably had to be really patient with him then. Like you saw something in him. Steve. Yeah. He's six, five. He's 295 pounds. He's a championship wrestler. And he ran four, nine. All right. And he's tough. I mean, this guy is all day tough. Like a lot of wrestlers are all day tough. You could not wear Steve kneel down. He was all day tough. Tough as they come.

2:35:37PFT Commenter:Yeah. All right. Well, this has been awesome. I have one last question. We'll finish with something a little lighter because this has been so much fun. Rowback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Promo code TAKE. 20 % off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rowback.com. Promo code TAKE. So, yeah, I'm honest. Hopefully we can do this again because we could honestly. I got to maybe 10 % of my questions. But I thought we'd end with something light because you are such a great coach. and we you know in doing this podcast for the last 10 years we have guys that we we don't coach them but they become part of the program and maybe they slip up and we got to figure out how to motivate them so what would you do for someone who maybe sleeps in a couple times every couple months and misses some things zach why don't you come over here come talk to coach zach yeah come talk come talk to coach tell him maybe what the issue is and then and then we can maybe get to

2:36:34Big Cat:the bottom of it and figure this out so yeah to put this in nfl terms like what would zach would

2:36:38PFT Commenter:be like our first round pick zach is zach would be the definitions he's been with us for a year now and when he we got him he wasn't he wasn't good he was bad he was bad but he's become great okay but he's got an issue with sleeping in so zach you want to explain to him and zach is great now how are we doing today coach how are you i'm great i'm awesome i i'd love to hear that and i Congratulations on your ascension to greatness.

2:37:05Big Cat:I just appreciate being a part of the program, Coach. Thank you for your time today. There has been some instances where we had scheduled things to take care of, and I wasn't there. And I should have been there, and I wasn't there, and I overslept. And I've been working on it. I've been trying to work on it. And I'm doing my best to make sure it doesn't happen again. I guess if you have any advice for somebody about overcoming objections of time and when you're asleep.

2:37:38PFT Commenter:Good question, Zach. Right.

2:37:44Can I answer frankly? Certainly, yes, sir.

2:37:51Well, do you care?

2:37:53Big Cat:Yes, sir. Yes. So you care? Yes, sir. okay do you have an alarm clock I do yes sir well I would get two more okay will do I can do that I mean you set one alarm for 655 one for seven one for 705 and if you don't hear the first one the second one goes off the third one like I would invest in an alarm alarm clock or watch or whatever and get a backup so So you don't oversleep? Zach, how many do you have? I do currently have three. And you still sleep through them? Yes. I have, yes. I've been trying. I really. It's pathetic, I know. But I haven't been making a.

2:38:40PFT Commenter:He has one that's called the bomb alarm. That's how loud the alarm is.

2:38:44Big Cat:Coach, he's probably going to get evicted because his alarm is too loud. His neighbors call noise complaints on. Okay. Well, I mean, okay. So we need to find another solution.

2:38:54PFT Commenter:Yeah. Okay. Well, I'd say talk to somebody who knows more about sleep than I do and see if there's – I mean, look, obviously you're a hard sleeper. I mean, the earthquake could come through and you'd sleep through it. Yes, sir. Yeah, we've all had those days. So do you have a sleep apnea or a sleep issue?

2:39:19Big Cat:I don't believe so. Maybe I do that. Maybe I check out with a sleep doctor. That might be great. Fantastic advice, coach. I appreciate that very much. Look, there's got to be a solution to it. I mean, the other thing I would say is, do you live with anybody or is there somebody that is on a similar schedule that you are on? Not currently solo in the apartment. Yeah, but so if somebody called you, would that wake you up? Phone call? I've been doing that with my – I'm so sorry for starting up my words. You're a better vocalization out of me. It won't happen again. And I do want to apologize for that.

2:39:55Big Cat:Yes, I've implicated a phone call setup. Phone calls have been working out. It's a good way. I've been catching up with my family earlier than the morning. My dad's been calling me. So that was a great call. That's another option is to get somebody else to assist you with, you know, if that wakes you up. Thank you for the advice, Coach.

2:40:11PFT Commenter:That was great. That was great. Coach, thank you. We can't thank you enough. This was an interview we wanted to do for a very long time. We love football. We love being here. We saw, you know, the practice was awesome seeing you in the mix and incredible things you got going on here at North Carolina. So thank you very, very much and best of luck this year. And hopefully we can do it again because, like I said, I think I have like 90 % of my question sheet is still there. So we threw it out after the first 15 points. All right. Appreciate you guys being here. Appreciate you calling some good defenses for us today.

2:40:46PFT Commenter:Yep. All right. That was awesome. And it was a lot of fun sitting there and chopping it up with you. So thank you.

2:40:51Big Cat:All right. Thanks, Coach. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Melichick was brought to you by Twisted Tea. Summer's right around the corner. Twisted Tea is coming in clutch. It'll turn our day drinking up a notch. The new Summer Party Pack has a brand new Twisted Lemonade, and I want to go on record saying this will be the drink of the summer. I'm on record. Drink of the summer. Twisted Lemonade. It's delicious. It's got a refreshing taste. A little kick, no carbonation. Grit Week is the official kickoff of preseason football that we've all been waiting for, And we know that Twisted Tea is a staple during football season.

2:41:24Big Cat:So what are you most excited about these upcoming weeks? How can you bring Twisted Tea along for the ride? I know. I think that if you're doing a fantasy dynasty draft, you're drafting your rookies, you should be drinking a Twisted Tea while you do it. Agreed. Kick that season off. Kick that league off correctly. If you're not holding a Twisted Tea in your hand while you're drafting that league, then you're not a man. I'm just going to say it. You aren't. Max. Grab a refreshing twisted tea today Okay

2:41:53PFT Commenter:Wrap up the show Zach You're a star Great job with the Bill Belichick interview The ending was very PFT said it but I was crying as well So funny You also had a couple moments this week The pub sub We're in your home state, Florida Yes sir You gave us a questionnaire I said I don't want to tell you my order I want you to decide what pub sub matches us. So you gave us like a BuzzFeed questionnaire and then got us pub subs. You crushed it. What is it about Florida that everyone likes to get their subs from a grocery store?

2:42:31Big Cat:So part of it may be accessibility just because it's close, it's familiar. But also it's so friendly when you go online to Publix Big Cat. Everybody's smiling, having a great time. They don't rush you through the options. There's some sub change that kind of push you through. They let you take your time with the Publix. Yeah. Yeah. So I got the questions that you sent us. So maybe you can walk us through some of these. How much range of motion do you typically like to have after a meal? I think I get. I understand that one. But you relied on that one pretty heavily, I think. Yeah. I thought that was important just to understand like how heavy of a sandwich you wanted to.

2:43:03PFT Commenter:That really was. Was that. Tell me if I'm wrong. That question was essentially, do you want the chicken tender sub or not? That's what that question was. If we're going to just.

2:43:12Big Cat:Yes.

2:43:12PFT Commenter:Yeah. Because the chicken tender sub was incredible. It's good, but it's heavy. It's very heavy.

2:43:16Big Cat:In hindsight, how many good subs do they have there? I think they have a really strong top five. So it seems like you knew the top five, and then you were backtracking the questions.

2:43:29PFT Commenter:Yes, Max.

2:43:31Big Cat:I really like this. I think we do it again tomorrow on the drive. What if you do...

2:43:40PFT Commenter:Oh, so we're stopping? Whoa, whoa, Max. That's a stop, dude. what if you do Wawa hoagies for everyone for the next stop

2:43:49Big Cat:we're not in Philadelphia Max they have Wawa's all throughout the drive from here to our next stop I feel like that we're a long way well I was looking for Wawa's we're a long way from home Max

2:44:02PFT Commenter:okay Zach also is a frequent flyer of Wawa

2:44:06Big Cat:the Wawa sandwiches are good but we just said the bar so high Publix is so good It's like I don't like to order seafood if I'm in Kansas. Grocery store is one thing. A fucking gas station. We're a long way from a Philadelphia gas station restaurant.

2:44:19PFT Commenter:Well, here's the thing. Zach, don't let them talk about Wawa like this. Hold on. Here's the thing, Max. The beauty of this drive tomorrow, it's so long, we're going to have to have two different meals. So we could do both. We could do a Publix and a Wawa.

2:44:31Big Cat:Whoa.

2:44:32PFT Commenter:We already did Publix. What about Waffle House?

2:44:34Big Cat:I think it's Waffle House and Wawa. Yeah.

2:44:36PFT Commenter:But then we got to sit down. Now we're really stopping. Now we're not going to get there. But not for very long. with the Waffle House. Their service is so fast.

2:44:43Big Cat:Taco Bell.

2:44:44PFT Commenter:Okay, we'll think about it. Either way, the pump subs were good. Cool. Did you get 10? Well, Hank, here's the problem with Taco Bell. I love Taco Bell. You love Taco Bell. Every time we get Taco Bell, 10 minutes after we get Taco Bell, you're like, I need an emergency bathroom stop. Yeah. Or a nap. Okay, so that's... Yeah, or a nap. Right, so we could do it. No, I'm napping either way. We can do it, but I... Like... We know. We can do it. I've been thinking, like, what if we should we do? I think we should bring enough water bottles that, like, no stops, no stops until the gases. So we need to get gas.

2:45:19PFT Commenter:No piss. There's the thing about Wawa is you can do both. That's true. No piss stops. I'm down.

2:45:25Big Cat:I'm down to piss. No piss stops.

2:45:26PFT Commenter:I mean, because the van doesn't go that fast. We forgot about that part, too.

2:45:31Big Cat:Zach, this was another good question that you had on the list, which is when shopping.

2:45:39Big Cat:in your everyday life, do you find yourself in more yellow or white cheese situations? So you admit that cheese is yellow. So that was more so there's, I know there's an argument on which color cheese could be, but if when it comes to your everyday life, I would, the question is more so asking like which one you encounter the most like in your meals. I was thinking like, what do you see while you're eating? Just to kind of get an idea of what, visually, what do you usually see on your sandwich? I like that, that Zach, instead of saying like, what do you like better he's like which one do you find yourself around more yeah like what do you because i couldn't ask like sandwich specific questions yeah questionnaire so i was trying to go off eyeball test from your meal it's a good question zach actually apologized to me uh the other day about he said max i'm i i would like to make an apology to you sir and i was like about what he goes i had a meal last night with five different cheeses they were all white they were yeah the pizza the jalapeno popper filling the motz sticks what what was his meal it was just uh the pizza's pot it's a lot of motts wait how many months what'd you eat just uh a pizza which has the white cheese motz sticks have the white cheese and the jalapeno poppers had the white cheese and it's kind of a bell went off and i was like i owe max what else did you have at least five white cheeses i may have oh well uh that was a that was three but it was across every item so it was like i owe him an apology cheese cake that's a great one great point that's definitely

2:47:00PFT Commenter:white cheese max makes a lot of good points all right so we'll do i would like to get another pub sub i like the chicken tender sub it was very good and you can do it i'm a pub sub guy you can

2:47:10Big Cat:do them hot and cold you know it's versatile yeah it's like i got another question about these questions that you sent us yes sir this one says in in the early 2000s movie holes starring shia labeouf spelled s-h-i-l-a first name and then last name b-u-f-f shia labeouf tricky name i definitely didn't go birth certificate correct on the spelling, but we knew kind of who we were talking about. Did you know who he was talking about? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's not my question. No, I know. Let me finish my question. It's a little insulting. I was reading it. I was reading it for accuracy. It's understandable.

2:47:42Big Cat:I was reading it for accuracy. This whole couch. Okay. It's phonetics. I get it. I get it. We're hooked on phonetics. Never got hooked on phonics. Yeah. Well, I can't believe that you just corrected Hank. Everyone knew what he was talking about when he said hooked on phonetics, and then you had to correct him like that, Zach. Oh no I thought it was two different programs It was Phonetics was different than Hooked on Phonics That's wild But Zach's question was were the jars of sploosh appetizing As a man who has not seen the movie Holes Yeah that's right With Shia LaBeouf I hadn't either I don't know if the jars of sploosh Is it?

2:48:16Big Cat:Were appetizing But what was the reason for that question Like what sub would have been indicated by Yes I find it appetizing So initially off memory I thought the jars of sploosh in holes were onion based but I was corrected by Shane. They were peaches based. That question was to determine if you wanted onions on your sandwich. But I had the wrong food group in that original question. But also Shane is notoriously anti-onion. So he might have fed you some propaganda. But he is well versed on movies. So there's a crossroads there. Movies and corndogs. He sleeps with an onion. It's basically like do foods that

2:48:51PFT Commenter:reverse a generational curse intrigue you? Got it. Your palate. It was a great job, Zach. I want another pub. So do they have them in Louisiana Publix? I don't know. I don't believe so. They may have one like on the fringe. So we got to get one before we cross the state border. May have to.

2:49:09Big Cat:Yes, we got to go just gas station food in Louisiana. There's good gas station. Yeah, that's true.

2:49:13PFT Commenter:And then the last thing, Zach, you. So we love you, Zach. This is a loving place because I admire you. We've been trying to get you a little bit out of your comfort zone. out in the public. You're a sociable guy. You're a great guy to be around. You're an awesome hang. When we went to the Cubs game, I was like, Zach is such a fun hang to be around. And then our guy Dante tweeted a video on Friday night. He has a club in the West Loop in Chicago called Goodnight John Boy, which is kind of like a dance party club. And it was what time? 3 a.m.? 2 a.m.?

2:49:49Big Cat:It was closing, so I think it was probably around 2. 2 a.m.

2:49:52PFT Commenter:And Dante was like, Zach is just here. There was a whole entire a table of barstool people but you went to the club by yourself and just danced your ass off for

2:50:01Big Cat:a few hours by yourself so last last summer spring you guys kept telling me to go outside and i kind of took it for granted i was like i won't need there won't be a uh a five six month stretch where it's just way too cold you have to you have to stay inside never experienced that so i took the spring and summer for granted so i've been trying to tell myself i think it's important to like you know get out there a little bit and take your guys advice uh so yeah i just i uh went to the bar had a couple of beers and then went to the dance club i don't dance very well but it's

2:50:28PFT Commenter:it's fun to bust a movie yeah not poorly yourself that's awesome that's like a that's a move i i

2:50:36Big Cat:don't think i have the balls to do that it was incredibly uncomfortable but it was like it felt good to like just you know get out there a little bit and did you meet any women uh at the dance club it was more i was more so dancing solo uh i did met i did meet someone at the bar we talked a little bit watching a movie at the bar it was fun oh what movie uh uh x files okay okay did you

2:50:55PFT Commenter:get any numbers uh no no just uh did anyone offer you a number some good convo uh yeah there was

2:51:01Big Cat:like an attempted uh like exchange on the way out but my uber was coming so like it was just bad

2:51:06PFT Commenter:timing if she was offering you her number yeah she was like we can uh we can hang out sometime

2:51:11Big Cat:and i was like but she had also previously said that she's always at the bar so i was like oh well we'll just see each other like at the bar again all right so zach having a good uber rating is important you don't want to take this is why the bestest girl is basically asking zach

2:51:27PFT Commenter:out on a day he's like i'll just come back here and see you if i want to see you back she was

2:51:32Big Cat:adamant that she was there quite often i was like i'm not here very often so that'll probably sync up so zach you were you were you were on your way out yes like i was leaving to go bus a moon You stood up and you were walking out. It was like two minutes, one minute. But then it's a one-way. So we'll just loop back. Time was of the essence to get in the car. Was your phone vibrating saying it's nearby? I was like this.

2:51:57PFT Commenter:And she was like, hey, let me throw my digits in your phone real quick.

2:51:59Big Cat:I fumbled a little bit. And I was like, yeah, we'll see you next time. But it was fun. It was a good time. Zach, do you want to see her again? That's a tense situation. If you're with someone else, then they can go get the Uber and you can grab the number. But it's like if you're by yourself, you got to go. Let's allow Zach some room for the fact that maybe Zach wasn't into her. Like, were you into her? I had a good time at the bar. I don't know if I would seek out additional conversation outside of the X-Files watch party. There you go. But it was fun. There you go. I do feel bad. Shout out to the AWL.

2:52:31Big Cat:AWL saw at the bar. Nice guy. I feel like I may have ruined his date because we talked for too long. I could see his date was getting His date was getting physically upset that we were Chopping it up But that's not the same girl that asked you For the number I felt like an invert cock block for that guy We just started talking like we were friends How long were you at the club by yourself? Probably like two hours I'm a bad dancer But it's fun Did you meet up with any of the other people from Barcelona? No I heard that they might have had a table at the bar But the table situation you don't get to dance as much It's like hanging out drinking Which is fun It's like Studio 54 shit He went to dance What's your go to dance move Right when you hit the dance floor There's a lot of shoulder My feet don't get into it as much White guy dancing It's too much hands I'm not opposed to lawnmower Maybe you get in the pot a little bit Do you do a sprinkler?

2:53:30Big Cat:You stir the pot? A little seasoning Maybe a little over medium egg No good moves, but some moves. I love it. You're doing a little of this? Too much of that, yeah. Do you have any idea how many steps you got in with the dancing? I don't know. I'll check that out. You should stop tracking, though.

2:53:48PFT Commenter:Good for you, Zach. Good for you. Maybe we have a boys dance night one time. That could be fun. But we all should go solo.

2:53:55Big Cat:Oh, eight or nine different spots and then report back.

2:53:58PFT Commenter:Yeah, then meet up and be like, how'd you guys dance tonight?

2:54:01Big Cat:That could be fun. This is how girls plan their hangouts together. They're just like, let's just go dance. Yeah. They might be up to something.

2:54:08PFT Commenter:You want to just go dance, Zach? Good job. It's free in PFT.

2:54:10Big Cat:Yeah.

2:54:11PFT Commenter:All right. Good show, boys. Grit Week. Get excited. We got a lot going on. We're on the road. We're going to do this. We're going to do this trip, Max. You got this trip. We got this. I'm confident.

2:54:26Big Cat:Max is being a big baby. And let me just say for the record, Max would not have lasted a second on this show in 2016 on Grit Week. I'm just trying to keep us organized It was way harder Max Max you're a capable guy You can handle this You can do all things Yep agreed Don't be a baby

2:54:46PFT Commenter:You got this Alright numbers I got the part of my balls 15 So this doesn't count 26 Jonah 18 18. It is. It is such a cool site that he made. 66. 66. Any birthdays at any point? Because Max Homo's birthday is in November.

2:55:15Big Cat:Maybe I was just. Maybe it was early. Are we sure it's in November? Yeah. One of the websites had it as May 14th. You're stalling right now because you don't have it. No, you want to bet? I got birthdays right now. You want me to start? I'll start. Happy birthday, Travis Hunter. Happy birthday. Hank's mom. Happy birthday to Hank's mom. Happy birthday to Vince Young. Happy birthday to Mr. October, Reggie Jackson. Got fooled by an AI video the other day. Then on Tuesday, happy birthday to, I believe, your dog, Stella. Stella's on Tuesday. 15. Your dog just got birthday cucked. That's my mom's birthday.

2:55:48Big Cat:Oh, happy birthday to Big Cat's dog and to Hank's mom. Also, happy birthday to Archie Manning, Kevin Garnett, London Fletcher Baker, Mario Chalmers Jojo Siwa, Sam Smith, Andre the Giant Malcolm X, shout out Malcolm X Happy birthday on Tuesday, is he still alive? Shout out Malcolm X And then also today as we're Doing this podcast, it's Matt Ryan's birthday So shout out to Austin Eckler I made a list I made a list that somebody also helps me with

2:56:16PFT Commenter:Is someone sending you all of these?

2:56:19Big Cat:I have a list I'm not, I don't want I don't want to talk about who sent me the list because then I just went like this. Someone's just sending them all of them. Max Homo might have been on the list from last week, so I don't want to throw this guy under the bus.

2:56:31PFT Commenter:This guy, whoever you are. Do the right thing. Do the right thing and keep doing it. Now I got to find a new guy. Yeah. Now I got to find a new guy. Keep doing it. Throw some random ones in there.

2:56:40Big Cat:So that's a lot of birthdays.

2:56:41PFT Commenter:Memes, you miss that? What? Oh, no.

2:56:47Big Cat:I had the wrong day pulled up. I thought he missed Jane Daniels' birthday, but that's December 18th. Oh, okay.

2:56:51PFT Commenter:Well, he'll probably say it next week by accident.

2:56:54Big Cat:Happy birthday Tina Fey Shout out Tina Fey You gotta think for Tina Fey You guys look like you could be brother and sister Alright

2:57:05PFT Commenter:See everyone on Wednesday Love you guys

2:57:24Thank you.

2:57:57Thank you.

2:58:25Thank you.

2:58:54Thank you.