Ryan Whitney, Stephan Jenkins From Third Eyed Blind, Week 17 Picks And Preview + Someone Slept In Again

31:32not like historically how the award's gone i think if you look at like players who are most like the most valuable players to their teams i think he's he might he might be the most valuable player because if you don't have justin herbert the chargers are like a four or five win team yeah yeah by that metric i would say justin herbert and uh josh allen probably the two front runners yeah yeah Harbaugh said he's uh MVP caliber he's doing things game after game that are reserved for only the best that are in the game and have ever played the game he also said you were the best ball club that he's ever coached do you know what the definition of a ball club is I think it's pretty self-explanatory I agree yep yeah good you got it you got it don't overthink this one Chargers have won seven of last eight yeah I think if you walked around and asked people Well, if that's the truth, they would be like, I feel like they mixed in a couple losses.

32:26No, they've been really, really good. Yeah, fully bolted. Fully bolted. Fully bolted. Bolted, boys. Do you feel good about this game? The only problem with this game is your offensive line versus the Texans defensive line is a significant mismatch. No, it's going to be. I actually wouldn't put it. I wouldn't judge Jim Harbaugh. He's like, hey, we're actually going to sit Justin Herbert for this game. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, we really want to win in the playoffs. playoffs and we feel like we can beat anyone but we have to keep them healthy and this is not going to be a fun game also the texans win that felt like a loss against the raiders but that's that's not good for the chargers no they're coming off a loss they're coming off a loss win yeah and then like last year's playoff game they had like a pressure rate of like 65 70 and that was with joe alt and rashaun slater that's right so two digit numbers just a herbert might get murdered yeah like I'm not confident at all going in this game okay well your defense playing really well Shane do you think that that Justin Herbert should take Madison beers last name if they get married I think maybe hyphenate Herbert beer yeah yeah I like that I do too okay thank you thank you Shane appreciate it

33:42let's go I like the text no I think I like the Chargers in that game one and a half not getting enough respect here's a game Saturday night that again we thought was going to be a consequential game but I don't know where the Ravens are at mentally Ravens plus two and a half at the Packers over under 40 and a half I think the Ravens are on big time quit watch yeah uh lamar jackson said we're gonna do a little mri on monday oh a little one so he's gonna yeah just stop by the imaging office real quick for a standing meeting that he has on mondays he's got an appointment that he has now it's a little mri like my kids have you know i get them different toys and one of them is like the doctor's set and i think there actually is a little thing that says mri on it no it's actually the board game operation okay and he's gonna put that down a little tiny MRI and then try to fix his funny bone.

34:33I have a theory about Lamar. He's dealt with some stomach issues, as we know. He's always kind of banged up. Do you think Lamar Jackson has radiation poisoning from all the MRIs? Too many MRIs. And all the x-rays? You should only get so many per year. Yeah. That would mess with your insides. It might be like Chernobyl. He has a lot of MRIs. Three Mile Island. But he's also getting a little MRI. This time it's because he's probably not supposed to get the full MRI anymore. Doesn't it feel like the Ravens are in quit watch? Yes, it does. And the decision for John Harbaugh not to run Derrick Henry in the last 1250.

35:12So he scored a touchdown to go up 2413 on the Patriots. And then he never touched the ball again. That one made no sense. I agree. And I've seen some of the feedback from our show on Monday. Ravens fans are very much in the camp. It's time to move on. Yeah. Yeah, and Harbaugh even admitted that it wasn't like a performance thing with Henry. It was just a mistake that he made. Yeah. He said he should have been in there. Yeah. That's on you, and I thought that we got through this, John. I thought that it was like you get Derrick Henry because he's the biggest guy on the sidelines, so you can't forget about him, and you can't forget to run the ball, and he did it again.

35:50But yeah, I think Ravens fans are receptive to Memes' offer. Yeah, but it's more Harbaugh. I think Harbaugh is going to be gone. Yeah. I don't think that you can have both of them back. When you have a superstar quarterback that is your franchise and you have a long-tenured head coach and they seem to not be seeing eye to eye, that's going to mess everything up inside that locker room. I think one's got to go. There are now a couple teams where you could point to and say, did they screw this up by letting this guy walk out the door? The big one would be the Bucs letting Liam Cohn walk out the door, just fire Todd Bowles and make him head coach.

36:28But there's a sneaky one in John Harbaugh and Mike McDonald. Yeah. Because Mike McDonald's been a very good coach, and that might have been the move. So the Ravens, I can't remember the last time this late in the season that the Ravens had a losing record. Yeah. What was the year when Stu Puntley came in? I mean, Lamar's been hurt a lot, and they're just always so weird. Yeah. I don't really understand it. I don't understand it. I think the Packers are going to win this game. I really do. because I just think the Ravens, like, they don't. That was a last gasp. We've been waiting all year for the Ravens to show up, and I just think maybe they're not that good of a team.

37:07Is that fair to say? They seem broken. Yeah. All year we'll be like, watch out for the Ravens. Watch out for the Ravens. Maybe we're good. It was 2021. They went 8-9, and they finished last in the AFC North that year. Yeah. At 8-9. Yeah. Okay, Sunday. Do we have games? So just looking at Sunday, there's a couple games that are going to be good throughout the course of the day. There's also some games that are really nothing. But the big game, well, actually, let's do early sleep first. Is there any games you guys want to talk about early sleep besides Tyler Shuck being Tyler Shuck? Jags-Colts.

37:44Jags-Colts, although if the Colts lose. Doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean anything. Jags, though, trying to break the, I think it's teams are 0-7 after playing a mile high. So they have to try to win that. The Jags are playing for a lot. They're playing for everything. And Trevor Lawrence right now is maybe in the MVP conversation if they get the one seed. He's playing that good. He's playing as good as any quarterback in the NFL right now. Yeah. The big games, though, I would say are, because this is the only one that self-grabs, the Bucks Dolphins and the Seahawks Panthers. So if the Panthers beat the Seahawks, they're in.

38:23The Bucks need to. Oh, wait. No, I think it's actually just if the Bucks win. As long as the Bucks win, they're still playing in Week 18. The Seahawks obviously are playing heavily for the one seed. Do you guys want to talk about Patriots yet? 60 to nothing, you think? That's a meme, son. 60 to nothing memes? Yeah. So then that's a good bet to take the Patriots minus 12 and a half. I would never bet against the Jets, but... Also a good over. Six-y to nothing. Six-y to nothing. Do we know the weather? Snow? I don't think it's good. It's going to be warmish, coldish with snow and clear skies. I wish Tyrod was playing, mucking up a little.

39:09I agree. If you had to pick one of these games, which one would be the more devastating one to lose, the Jets or the Dolphins? if you lose to the jets yeah the jets i've said a lot of things i forget what i said about if we lost the jets this year but i've said a lot of things about the jets i feel like you've been respectful enough of the dolphins just going back to the days when the dolphins would always steal one we lose we've lost the dolphins week 18 like 10 times in my life somehow so that wouldn't be that would be less surprising the jets would be more devastating yeah memes but week 18 if it's Brady Cook.

39:46The Chargers win on Saturday and then somehow beat the Broncos week 18 and we lose to the Dolphins. That would be a dagger. That would be devastating. But the Dolphins are also a way better team. Than the Jets? Yeah. Yeah. Memes, are you going to get an interception? The Jets don't have a... Get one, Memes. They don't have an interception this year. We got to get one. That'd be as good as a win. Okay. One pick. One pick. Okay. We were watching the game in the studio, and I was just cheering for an interception the entire game. You got to get a pick this year. I kind of also like inventing new ways, new stats for sucking.

40:27That's true. That is kind of a fun one to when people hopefully someday when the Jets are good. And you have to explain to someone like imagine the Jets are just a dynasty in 20 years from now. and you have to explain to people, hey, this is how bad it was, it would be nice to have the we went an entire season without an interception stat. Or like we went two seasons without an interception. Oh, you're thinking next year too. Yeah, there's no end inside. Have it carry over so that way you can start saying how many days it's been since your last interception. The 49ers just set this record and we just broke it.

41:05Yeah. It's this current 49ers team. You're locked in on two separate first overall picks. Yeah. In the draft and in the football season. Yeah. You can do it, Memes. You can do it. Did you come close last weekend? No. We got shucked. We got shucked up. I mean, I would say that if the Jets get a pick against Drake May, it's like, yeah, that's a win for the Jets. Yeah. Drake May bust. Yeah. Can I say something about Tyler Shuck? Yeah. Please. he should win rookie of the year. I agree. Right now he's second in odds on DK at plus 370. Ted McMillan is minus 250. If Tyler Shuck ends the year on this winning streak, it has to be Tyler Shuck.

41:54Yeah, if he ends the year 6-3 as a starter, that's insane. He plays the Saints this week. The Titans. He plays the Titans. He's on the Saints. He plays the Titans this week and then the Falcons next week. he could easily finish 6-3, in which case he has to be the rookie of the year. I agree with you. I agree. Has to be. Has to be. You've got to root against the Panthers. If the Panthers make the playoffs, we'll probably give it to Ted. All right. That's a good point. Yeah. Ted kind of disappeared for a little bit, but he might be back. That was a great game. Yeah. You know what, Max? You need – it's all going to come down to if the Bucs and Panthers play Sunday Night Football Week 18.

42:35that I would want the Bucs to win. Yeah, and you need Ted not to have any big plays. Because if he scores a big touchdown week 18 in front of the country, that's it. You know how these awards work. Yeah, but this is one of those games that he could get some nice fat stats. If we had a vote, it would be for Tyler Shuck. For Shuck, yeah. Big time. Offensive rookie of the year is kind of one of those ones you forget. Remember Ibuka? I do. That was crazy. What a hot start. If we're still kind of talking about the Pats and the Jets, Hank, I was so happy for you last night when Drake May broke the barrier.

43:13I was happy for you. That was a sharp bet. Thank you. I did reach out to your coach, Mike Vrabel, and I said, Hank had a big day today. Congrats on the win. He was very excited about Drake May having 300 yards passing. Do you have any words for Hank? And Vrabel got back to me. He said, Hank, do you believe? fuck yes yeah he does do you believe yes fuck yes fuck yes what do you believe and say fuck yes parentheses i love you coach and should i tell him about the sleeping in i wouldn't i wouldn't bring it up that's not really your show or your business i wouldn't bring it up no naps i wouldn't bring that up also wasn't a nap you're you're this is your new thing this is this is my show and i was on time for this show but no well no you weren't i was no we were going to record right after the meeting yeah you're about 30 minutes late it's fine i'm not mad about it i've been late for the meeting ran early it was scheduled it was scheduled for 30 minutes we did have a company meeting this morning where dave addressed barstool sports and it lasted three minutes 36 seconds yeah yeah did you call in for it yeah the best line from the meeting was i appreciate everyone who worked hard this year and if you didn't work hard i don't appreciate you so hank it was scheduled for 30 minutes he says fuck yes i believe yeah anything else and no way did i nap no no i should i i should tell him about that i don't want to hide anything from him this is accountability open locker room say all right p.s i might have napped but that's gonna be gone in 2026 okay that's when the playoffs are even though it wasn't a nap you were up for two hours though

45:01I think that hits nap territory I don't know did you ever turn on a light besides the bathroom no I think if you turn on a light then it becomes a nap turn on a light if you took a shower that sort of thing okay the afternoon games We have two afternoon games, and they're actually both very important for different reasons. The first one is very important. Giants at Raiders. This is the number one pick bowl. This is a toilet bowl. This is going to decide where these teams draft. It's weird, too, because if the Giants get the number one pick, there's no world that they don't. They keep Jackson Dart, right?

45:48Yes. Right? Yes. Are you sure? Yes. But Unless it's a new GM That's what I'm saying If you have the number one pick and you're a new GM that gets hired Is there a chance you pick your own guy I don't think so because I think one of the things They'll ask anybody that wants to be the GM What do you think about Jackson Dart And they're going to be looking for somebody that Is attracted to the position because of Jackson Dart Not because they want to change it Also the person can just lie and say I love Jackson Dart That is true I would keep Jackson Dart I'm just wondering because it does take a little of the luster out.

46:23It would be a lot more fun if this game was Giants-Raiders. Both teams are looking to draft a quarterback. We can look back in 10 years and be like, that game was actually the most important game for butterfly effect. Future of the NFL. Well, what might happen is the Giants might beat the Raiders. They get the first overall pick. They don't want to take a quarterback. And then they make the Raiders trade them something to move up to the first overall pick. Wait, no, it would be the other way around. Raiders beat the Giants. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Raiders beat the Giants, and then the Giants have first overall pick.

46:55And then they make the Raiders give them another draft pick to move up. Or Max Crosby. And make that defensive line insane. They should just do a chop. Isn't that a poker thing where they just agree before the game? Hey, let's just tie this game. No, wait. No, that would actually keep the Giants. No, they need to do a chop where the Giants say, hey, whatever happens, we're not going to take a quarterback. Yeah, a tie is as good as a loss for the Giants in a good way. And the Raiders can say, hey, whatever happens, we're not going to take. We're going to take a quarterback. I also kind of like the idea of going into a draft season where you don't know who the number one pick is going to be.

47:33Yeah, like the New York Giants are open for business. Yeah. And then the other one. Eagles at Bills. Max, how are you feeling? On paper, this game should be super exciting, but there's just like not that much to play for. There's so. Yeah, I kind of agree. because I was actually going through the feeling of I was getting all hyped up for the 49ers, and then once the Bears officially clinched, yes, obviously the one seed still would be awesome, but it definitely takes a little pressure off. You're like, hey, the important games are coming up. And I know that you want to get the two seed, but it's not like I need to get the two.

48:15It would be nice, but it's not something that I'm going to really strengthen. about. So why would you guys play Lane Johnson and Jalen Carter? I think I do like the idea of getting them back into the mix, and I think they want to play people this week and then rest next week. So in case something does happen, you have a little bit more breathing room to get healthy for the playoffs, so I get that. Max, how did you feel at the start of the season about picking up Jordan Davis' fifth year? I was leaning towards we should probably do it. He got a lot more expensive this year, and you gotta bring him back.

48:52He's been so fucking good. Yeah. Fucking Howie. Howie. Fucking Howie did it again. Yeah. I think you gotta want to win this game. You gotta really try. This is a great measuring stick. It could be a snow game too. Yeah. Which would be awesome. That would be fun. Bring back Shady. It is weird we only have two games in the afternoon on Sunday. Schedule makers do that. That's crazy. Crazy, right? That's... Yeah. we're going to need to find some obscure sports. Yeah. And then Bears 49ers Sunday Night Football. I'm excited for the game, but it does feel a little different now that the Bears are in because I had been playing for the last month a doomsday scenario of the Bears winning 11 games and not getting in, but they are officially in.

49:35PFT, I know you asked this on Sunday, but I found out the answer for you. Luther Burden was the one who dubbed Caleb Williams the Iceman. Okay. All right. So it was given in the locker room. I like that. I like that as well. Because it's a good nickname. I didn't want to hate it, but I needed to find out. Because if Caleb had started calling himself the Iceman, I would have had some questions about that. But that's great that it came from his teammate. Now, the last bear to be named the Iceman, because there was one previously, was Red Grange. But it was because he literally delivered ice as his job.

50:09It was just so perfect. He was the Wheaton Iceman. Also, the Galloping Ghost, which is what he's known more for. he would deliver 75 pound blocks of ice to every home working every summer during his high school and college years. So that was why he was the Iceman. I love that. That's a perfect old NFL story. Yeah. What did you do? I drove an ice truck. How did you get the name Iceman? Well, I literally delivered ice. Joey Bosa would like to drive an ice truck too, I think. Yeah. He would. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know about this game because we haven't seen the Niners play in Monday Night Football yet, But they need to figure out a way to get after the quarterback.

50:51Maybe Monday night cured them of that. Maybe they finally get some sacks in on Phillip Rivers and were able to tune that defense up. That would be my take on the Bears-Niners game. I kind of like the over because I don't know if either team can get to the quarterback. Yeah. Because the Bears struggle with it as well. Although, I've been impressed watching Montez sweat. Yeah, and Grady Jarrett's been playing very well, which like he was, you know, there was a time where it was like, oh, why did we sign him? He's washed. He's been picking it up. I know people won't believe me, but I've really enjoyed watching this Bears team.

51:25They're fun. They are. They're fun to play football. I find myself rooting for them. The city is so much more fun when the Bears are good. It's buzzing right now. Everybody's in a great mood. The city is 100 % buzzing. It makes winter not feel as bad. Yeah. Yeah. So that will be Sunday Night Football. We will be streaming. we're going to stream Sunday and we will stream Sunday Night Football I guess we can also see if there's a change in any of the like playoffs and everything if things get a little clearer and the game is even less consequential maybe we won't I don't know we'll let everyone know but that was our weekend preview week 17 we're at the tail end this is right when I'm just like just fast forward to the playoffs yeah because there's really not a lot I'm really glad that we don't have to record anything on Christmas.

52:13Yeah. Because we talked about doing that if it was going to be the Cowboys and the Commanders and both teams were good at the start of the year. When the schedule came out, our plan was like, we got to record something because this might be in the playoffs kind of game. Yeah. Thankfully, nobody gives a shit about this game. No, it's actually a really good point. I remember having that conversation doing an update of those Christmas games. Yeah. It would have been something. Okay. Let's do our best bet. Best bets Do we have Jerry's fantasy minute? Did he send it? I don't think he did I fucked that up No naps I fucked that up Come on Jerry No I didn't text him to Come on Jerry I didn't text him to Figure it out Jerry 1 o 'clock last night That's tough man Asking him That's tough And so that was all my fault Wake up Jerry There's a good chance we get it by the time we edit the show Yes I'm gonna call him real quick but then we'll put it in We'll put it in We'll put it in hey big cat hey you're live on the air right now so don't say anything fucked up like you did last time well i never said anything uh messed up hey let me uh let me call you from my uh landline okay what okay i have a wired i have a wired phone this is like my wi-fi phone how old what why you sound fine let me just call you i'll call you in a second wait but you know i was gonna say you You can send the fantasy minute just as long as Max gets it by tomorrow morning.

53:43Yeah, I was sort of sitting down and working on it. Any ideas like what I should do? I was thinking of doing maybe like a Christmas Carol or something. Is it going to air? Oh, yeah. Christmas Carol would be great. I love that. Sorry, you're cutting out. I told you. I have a landline. I'm going to call you right back. Hold on one second. Who has a landline? I didn't know they still existed. What does he pay, like$60 a month for a landline? I actually didn't know you could get one. That's insane. I would love to hear what his answering machine is. Yeah. Probably a sing-along for that. Oh, we should just randomly prank call his house.

54:21Yeah. All right, I'm getting it. Hey. Yeah, do you hear the sound quality? No, it's actually worse. No, that's not possible. It's got to be better. Are you in a walkie-talkie? You sound like you're in a submarine. Really? Yes. Oh, I have a landline just in case I have to do media stuff on the phone or stuff. Well, you can use your phone for that. Yeah, but then I have to go to a park area where there's better Wi-Fi. I just don't get Wi-Fi at my house. I don't have 5G at my house. Okay. All right, yeah, so A Christmas Carol will be great. Yeah, I'm going to try to come up with something. How are the vibes there?

54:59Everybody on Cloud9? Everyone's good. I can't get over how much worse this audience is. It's so much worse. It's so much worse. It's so much worse. That is crazy. All right. That's crazy. Are we going to make this fantasy finals? Guys, we need some points out of Juwan Jennings. You know, it's so funny. I didn't want to say anything. I'm so – it's just – it's occupying my everything, guys. It's occupying my soul everywhere I walk. My wife, I've been like – yesterday we got into a fight, and I was upset with her. And she was like, what's going on? Are you not going to make this stupid part of my fantasy finals?

55:41And she was right. I was on edge yesterday because this is occupying every fiber of my being. We need a night out of Juwan tonight. Jerry, do you remember what happened last year in our semifinals? I think it came down to Monday Night Football, didn't it? It came down to Monday Night Football and it came down to them not, remember we needed one, less than a point, and we needed the extra point, and they went for two? Yeah. Yeah. Green Bay? Yeah. We can't have that again. All right. So just sending out good vibes to Juwan. How do you say it? Is it Juwan? Yeah, Juwan. It's nuts that this phone sucks so bad.

56:23It is kind of crazy. Really? Are you sure? Yes. You'll hear it back in the play in the show. All right, Jerry, we love you. Thank you. All right. And we'll see you later, okay? All right. Congrats to everyone except PFT. Thanks, Jerry. That was a hang up. Yeah. Have yourself a Jerry Little Christmas. Yeah. I don't need the music, memes. I don't need the music. Just start the clock. Hanky to the world, the pats have come. Let the eggs out of that fucking blue tent. May finally hit 300. It's a stat that no one cares about. It's all in your head like Tiffany Gomas. It's all in your head like Tiffany Gomas.

57:01It's all in your head like the hanky toy and Tiffany Gomas. Maxie, Maxie, you have no O-line. Your team does whatever AJ wants. And you'll always be dysfunctional. Big cat's thinking soupy. Big cat's thinking soupy. You should have never won that game. I need to bring you down to reality. Now that Netflix is paying you, maybe you can finally afford to get Electric Avenue back. Sleep in Hanky peace. Happy holidays, AWLs. Love you. That was a terrible phone. It was awful. The fact that he has a landline is just so funny. Only Jerry. Okay, let's do our best bets. As an adult, have you ever had a landline?

57:56No. I think I had one. Absolutely not. I think I might have had one in my college apartment. Nope. My first one. Nope. That's also not real adult. Yeah. Yeah, no, there's no way I've had a lot. Good point. As a real adult, as a real boy, I've only had cell phones. Should we get landlines? It's kind of... Nope. Kind of prestigious. Maybe one for the studio. Would be sick. I think a red one. We would never use it. But what if we gave just certain people the number? but you can call at any time yeah the hotline if you have a red phone it does add an element of mystery to it I also am thinking about when my kids get to the cell phone age and trying to resist that like giving them a landline being like you can still talk to your friends they'll love that they'll definitely be so pumped about that where are the apps they'll be upset DraftKings the most wonderful time of the year DraftKings make it even better Yep, it's Same Game Parlay Xmas, baby.

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1:00:17Okay, boys, do we have our best bets? Who's up first? So right now, it's tight. We just have never come up with a punishment. Yeah, I've pretty much resigned to the fact that I'm going to lose, and then we're going to pick the punishment after it's obvious I'm going to lose. It's going to be really bad. And that's all right. That's just how it goes. It's tight at the bottom. No, here's what I'm going to say is I think we should all agree right now that we need to extend the competition through the divisional round. So that way we've bought ourselves some more time to pick a punishment. And we're just going to not do it.

1:00:53Yeah, but that's officially through divisional round. So it's not going to end in two weeks. My favorite weekend of the year. Not a lot of games. You've got to pick one. One or two? No, you've got to pick two. Over or under, there's eight. There's eight different. Yeah, there's more than enough. What if we extended it to you have to pick two. One has to be either an over under or a spread, and the other can be a prop that's priced at about minus one. But we have enough. We have enough games. We have enough games. Yeah. Okay. There's four. You're going to end up picking something you don't. Yeah.

1:01:28If you go last. That would be tough. Yeah. We can also just, you know, what we can do is for the playoffs, too, if there's any PFT or sorry, Max and I could be ahead of every, Like, to the point where we're safe, and then we'll just stay out of the competition. Well, we've always done second place and last place, right? Except last year. Except last year. So what did we do last year? What did we decide on that? Just a bachelor party. Oh. Oh, that was a great punishment. So this is just going to end up being, how do we find a way that Max is the only one that gets fucked every year? No, second place and last.

1:02:02We've always done that. Yeah, I've gotten second place. I got last. He's right. It was only last, and then I'm going to get second again this year. He is right. See, I didn't even know that when I brought it up. I think that Max, I think. We can't just make this the Max rule of like. Whoever finishes second place and whoever finishes in last. I think that's fair. But we didn't do that last year when I came in last. And now that I'm going to get second, we're going to bring it back. That's right. We only had five people last year. So what? Good point. Six makes it. Last place. We're going to find a good punishment.

1:02:35We'll make it Super Bowl week related. I got sent. I got sent a good one. Oh, sleep at Alcatraz? You fly to the Super Bowl. The opposite way. Oh, no. So, like, you'll be in London for X amount of hours. You can't leave the airport. Yeah, I don't like that. Oh, no. I don't like that. Although, if you get first class, it probably wouldn't be that bad. You just sleep the whole time. Well, you do second place, first class, last place, last seat in the plane. Coach. That's a bad one. Okay, we've done a bad job. Sorry, guys. We've done a bad job this year. Picks, who's up? PFT's up first. Okay. I am going to take...

1:03:19It's a game. It's a football game You want me to go? No, I'm going to take Packers, 2.5. Okay. Love that. I will take the Denver Broncos. I'm going to fade Ola Dukin. Denver Broncos minus 12.5. I will take... I'm going with my heart. Probably not smart. Hopefully they don't fart on themselves. I'm going to take a ball club. Yeah. I'm going to take a ball club. Yeah, you will. San Diego Chargers minus 2.5. Wow. Wow. San Diego, baby. That's a ball club. Okay, memes. It should be Sandy. That's so fucked up. It is. Memesy. I don't want to say mine. Say it. I don't want to say it. Say it. Take the Jets.

1:04:13No. Say it. He's going to take the Patriots. No, you can't take the Patriots. I can't. Let's just go Cardinals-Bangles over 53 and a half. Okay. That's good. I like that one. I like that one, too. Yeah, I like that one. I'm riding the hot hand. I'm going with the Shuckster minus 2.5. Love that. Love that. I would like to do over in the Texans-Chargers game at 39.5. Okay. And then you get another pick. And then I would also like to take the Jaguars minus 7. Okay. All right. Max, coming back to you. I am going to take over 42.5 in Seahawks-Panthers. Hank? Memes. Memes?

1:05:0549ers minus 2.5. Ooh, okay. I will take the under in the Bills-Eagles, 44.5. I like that. Might be Snow. Yeah, I like that one. I think the over in the Bears, 49ers, 50 and a half. I fucked up. I think I'm going to bet the Raiders big. Just to feel something during that game. I am going to take the over in Saints-Titans, because I also believe in the Shuckster. That's 39 and a half. I like that pick. Yep. It's a good pick. I should have doubled up. Should have doubled up in the Shuck. You don't really believe in Shuck that much. All right, Booth. What do you got for us? So this is for Thursday's games?

1:05:48No, Sundays. Oh, fuck. I told him that. I'm going Theo Johnson. Zach, you go. Okay. Tight end score against the Raiders. Okay. I'm going to go with Jackson Dart. Wait. Jackson Dart? I told Zach to pick one of the other games. All Giants. That's not good I told him I was going to Johnson pick another game I don't hate it I do That's fine though We can't do two touchdowns No you can't We never do that I'm gonna go Dallas Goddard Why'd you get fucked Do a bear Do a bear Colson Loveland Yup We'll go with Colson Loveland Okay. You like that? You got another bear? Do we think Caleb gets in? You like the...

1:06:46Iceman? Zach, is that your pick? Good plus. You got to say your pick. Yeah, say what you want in your pick. Okay, I'm going to go Caleb Williams. All right. That was actually really good. That was growth from you, Zach. Thank you, sir. You stood up for yourself. You made your pick. This one's going to be juicy. This one's going to be a bomb. This one's going to be a bomb. This is going to be a bomb. All right, real quick. Hot seat, cool throne. Hank? Yeah. Yeah, my hot seat is Ed Cooley. Yeah, we forgot to talk about that. That was crazy. He threw a water bottle at a kid. Yeah, yes. He threw a water bottle at a kid.

1:07:23What is kid? What? Child? It's child. Underage. Or because kid could not be a college kid. He threw a water bottle at a kid. He was mad at the end of the game, and he chucked the water bottle directly into the stands, and it hit like a kid and a mom in the second row. How is he not? Is he in trouble? He should be. Oh, it like slipped out of his hand. It's a funny video. It's not like. I don't know that that slipped out of his hand. No, it did. Because look, he was trying to throw it up. He was suspended one game. And it went down. That accidentally hit a child. Yeah, that's insane. If a player did that, they would be in a lot of trouble.

1:08:03Also, it's a toddler. It is a toddler. It's a baby. It's a baby. He hit a baby with a waterfall. It's a kid in his mom's lap. Ed Cooley hit a kid. It's about as bad as it can look. Like, direct shot to it. He hucked that thing. That's definitely like the friends and family behind the bench, too. Like, I feel like. Do you see what I'm saying, though? That he looked up like he was throwing it high, and it slipped low. But still, he hit a child. And the little double take he does right after, he's like, oh, shit. Oh, fuck. I hit a kid. I hit a baby. I agree. You got to throw that. You got to put some altitude on that throw.

1:08:44Feels like it's not going well for Ed Cooley at Georgetown. Providence fans got to love that. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I might have been wrong about Ed Cooley at Georgetown. I thought it was going to work. Yeah, it has not. And then your cool throne? My cool throne is, I guess, LeBron, YouTube, and Internet Invitational.

1:09:07More LeBron. He is trolling at this point. like he's he's turning golf into his whole personality it's kind of gross honestly yeah you would never uh he was asked about like a player or something in a trade transaction in a postgame press conference and he just said i don't know man i just watch youtube golf now he's locked in which i was fully ready i was i was at the patriots lost i was going to be my my take so thank you lebron for that that that quote what are the chances that we get lebron in next year's internet invitation. Well, that PFT was a question asked to Dave Portnoy by Rory McIlroy.

1:09:42When? At the Jake Paul fight. He said that? Yeah. And what Dave said? I didn't see the full, I didn't see Dave's explanation for it, but I hope not. I mean, I think it's better if it's players, people that don't have millions of dollars, but... You hope it's not LeBron? It's just going to turn into a celebrity event? No, I don't want it to do that. You're right about that because I think it's better if you have a lot of the YouTube golf personalities that, you know, you know them if you're in that community, but they're not like independently billionaires. And a million dollars is a big deal. But Hank, I would.

1:10:18What if you got paired up? What if you played against LeBron? Well, Hank's not. I'm not in. He's not in. Dave, I'm sure there'll be like a valet person who is like a scratch golfer that will get in for it. Yeah, well, if either he or her, who's to say which one it would be that Dave would select, can't play in Hank. I said I would do the Rudy thing. If they ask me back, I'm putting my jersey. I don't want that, though. People want you. You should be in. I'm putting my jersey on the table for Hank. Regardless. Now, if Dave says, like, oh, don't do that, I'll be like, okay, Dave, yeah, I'll play.

1:10:52Thank you. But imagine you beating LeBron. Yeah, that would be cool. But I just don't think, I don't know. it feels like that's a slippery slope beating LeBron getting LeBron and other you should have maybe one or two spots for athletes that want to play I guess J.R. Smith was in this past one so I take it all back it's not the athlete they have to be down to fuck around Blake Griffin would be great he's a perfect example He's entertaining. Also. But if it gets down to it, the pressure, like that's what made the last one. Like the. You're right. Yeah. If he gets to the finals, it's like. You're right.

1:11:38I don't care about it. You're right. 250 grand. By the way, also hot seat LeBron, because I don't know if this is exactly the sequence of events, but did you see Pene Sewell was like, I really don't want to be playing on Christmas. I want to be with my family. And then he. So he basically came out. He's like, yeah, it's kind of bullshit that we have to play on Christmas and Thanksgiving. LeBron then did it. like a day later. LeBron's been playing on Christmas for 20 years. Like, what are you talking about? Now you're upset? Yeah. 20 years. Yeah, you can do Christmas Eve. Your kids are grown. Christmas Day unders.

1:12:13I mean, you can have Christmas with your family in the locker room. Should Christmas Day unders for NFL? I should. Christmas Day unders are ruined now because they don't play defense in the league. Good reminder, Hank. You grabbed me a water sack? Good reminder. Remember last year, Christmas? The lesson that we learned from all those games? It was that you fade the home team because they're doing all the family stuff, eating big meals on Christmas Eve. The road team has the advantage on Christmas Day. Yeah. I think that was true for all the guys. They're with their family. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. So what does that mean?

1:12:52What does that mean for the... Thanks, Zach. So you would fade the commanders. You would fade the Vikings. you would fade the Chiefs, which I think we're planning on doing regardless. Definitely the Chiefs part. Yeah. Okay, I'm looking right now. The Steelers lost 29-10, and the Texans lost 31-2. Yeah. And those are the home teams, Steelers and the Texans. Yeah. Okay. All right. Load it up. Remember that. Also, Hank, bonus cool throwing. You mentioned Blake Griffin. I think he's nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame. That's awesome. Shout out to our guy. Congrats, Blake. Love that. I assume he's going to want us there.

1:13:32Yeah. What's your cool throne? Oh, no, I was your cool throne. P.F.T.? My hot seat is Uber drivers. We missed this story last week, but Ryan Clark went through a traumatic experience in Uber that I thought we could give some visibility to. Oh, yeah. I'm tired of being musically profiled in Ubers. Don't get me wrong. I love Pac 50 Cent. Drake, Kendrick Lamar, but I don't need them blaring on Sunday morning. What about some gospel? Ever heard of Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams? Why can't I like John Mayer or Maroon 5? Do I not seem like a Sam Hunt, Chris Young, or Luke Cohn's man? I'm over it. Please, just ask what I want to hear.

1:14:15He was joking about it. He was trying to have a lighthearted moment, which I'll forgive you if you don't understand when Ryan Clark is being, like, super serious to the point of tears and also joking around. He doesn't get the right to do lighthearted moments. Yeah, the lighthearted, it's tough. It's tough with him. You don't know. When you spend every single day being like, this person has done this bad, and this is why this society has a problem, you just can't. It's a similar, it's a reverse for us. We can't get, like, serious. We fuck around all the time. We have to go, do, do, do. Yeah. We have to make the Pornhub noise.

1:14:45I don't like when guys who are serious all the time try to be like, dude, I was joking. How the fuck would we know? Sometimes I like to have a little fun. Yeah. It's me, Ryan Clark. I do kind of agree with him, though. I get profiled. I do music off. Do you? You can select that? Yeah, you can select your air, everything. Yeah, I do get in the car and the guy starts playing cartoons. I like to just sit in complete silence. Yeah. I know that sounds a little crazy, but it's kind of a nice break from my brain. Yeah. Also on the hot seat, Sharon Moore. Some more information has come out about Sharon Moore.

1:15:22He likes to be social media. Apparently, he's pretty active on Instagram. But PFT, in his defense, he didn't tell his team to quit all social media before the season started, right? No, he did. Oh, no. He actually did. He told them all to log off. More for me. Do you think he said that to himself? Yeah. He's like, more for me. I got these guys off Instagram. More for me. There were probably some notorious Michigan superfans that might have been attractive that he was like, you guys don't get on social media, and then meanwhile I'm going to send all the flame emojis. It does feel like he was maybe swimming in the same pools as some of his players in terms of Instagram fishing.

1:16:03Possibly. Possibly. It's possible that he was doing that. But yeah, read the report. He was allegedly very active on Instagram. A cool throne is UNC. Bobby Petrino is going to be their new offensive coordinator for next season. And I think that's a great hire. This is fun. That Bobby Petrino, a man of character, can get in, clean up that locker room, and really change it from being a circus into a run-of-the-mill, workman-like professional football organization. Do we think there's a chance that maybe they put in a clause that he can't bring his motorcycle. I think you have to let the... He's not going to be the same Bobby Petrino if he doesn't have the motorcycle.

1:16:50But still, that feels like... Keep your eyes peeled, Bill. Don't let Bobby Petrino... He likes to take his hog out. He does. My other cool throne, I mentioned earlier, the Lomand Trophy. Yes. So I have the nominees. All the voters have been polled. Shout out to all the fullbacks and members of college football media that have responded, that submitted their nominees. We've got a great, great list on the committee of people that watch a lot of football, know the position of fullback. We're talking football fullback Hall of Famers, Mike Allstott, Lorenzo Neal, John Kuhn. The list goes on. All members of the committee, they've submitted their nominees.

1:17:36Right off the bat, we have another Michigan man, Max Bredesen from Michigan. Great season for Max. We've got Truman Wehrmeyer from North Dakota State. Okay. There's always a fullback from one of the Dakotas in there. Love that. Rusty Van Wetzinger. Winner. Excuse me. Rusty Van Wetzinger IV. Winner. From Central Michigan. Our guy. Drinkle. Drinkle. Love Coach Drinkle. A fullback respecter, and that is the most fullback name on the list this year. Then we've got two guys from Navy that both got multiple nominations. Alex Teska from Navy. Okay. And a name that you might remember from last year, Eli Heidenreich, whose last name translates to Argentina, also from Navy.

1:18:18Eli Heidenreich is a bit of a controversial nominee. I thought he was deserving of it because if you play any position at Navy, I think that you could technically be a fullback. He was listed as a wide receiver this year. He ran the ball a bunch. He's a great blocker. If you watched him last year and this year, you know that he's definitely in the fullback community. So, again, those names are Max Bredesen, Truman Wehrmeyer, Rusty Van Wetsing of the Fourth, Alex Tezka, and Eli Heidenreich are the five nominees, the five finalists for the Loman Trophy presented by Chevy in the Chevy Silverado. Love it.

1:18:52And we love recognizing college fullbacks on the show. Okay. So we're going to announce that sometime in the next week or two. Well, I think during the bowl game. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll figure out the details. We'll let everyone know. My hot seat was also going to be Sharon Moore. So that's him. Yeah. I need all the stories on it. There will be more. There will be more. My cool turn is the NBA. Christmas Day NBA. We talked about the NFL. Yes, we're going to watch NFL. Sneaky kind of an awesome slate. Spurs Thunder. Love it. Starts with Cavs Knicks. Spurs Thunder. Mavs Warriors. So you get to watch Steph Curry.

1:19:30Rockets Lakers would be good. And then Wolves Nuggets to end the night. Good job. That's a very good slate. Yeah. Like you might have gotten Christmas back. I need to see how the Jokic's get dressed up on Christmas. I hope that the brothers are elves. Yeah. That'd be great. That'd be a good look. Yeah. So yeah. Good job, NBA. You're back. Zach? My hot seat today is going to be the rest of the world because Team USA is just full of absolute heaters when it comes to baseball. Oh, okay. Absolutely. We got the roster out? They got the roster out. Yes, sir. Let's go. Let's hear it. because Japan probably would probably be good too, right?

1:20:06That should have been some of the terms from Shohei's investigation. The Department of Justice should have been like, you have to become an American citizen and play for us. Good Team USA. Yeah. I don't hate that move. Top of the batting order, Cal Raleigh. How do you feel about that? Love it. Big dumper. Second up, Will Smith. How do you feel about that? Love it. All he does is win. If your name's Will Smith, you win. Bobby Witt. Yep. Third. Gunnar Henderson. Bang. That's our guy. Come on. We love Gunnar. Let's go. Pitchers. Hear me out. Wait, what? We just stopped. Oh, you want the whole order?

1:20:37I didn't know if you want the whole order. I'll go hold it right now. Keep going. All right. How do we feel about Bryce Terrain? Great. Bang. How do we feel about Aaron Judge? Yeah. Yeah, very good. How do we feel about Corbin Carroll? Yeah. PCA. Yeah. Kyle Schwarber. Bang. Yeah. Love it. Love it. You were just going to not say Kyle Schwarber? Or PCA? You know how this podcast feels about Schwarber? Let's get Schwarbed. We're the number one Schwarber podcast. Guys make mistakes. PCA, by the way. Guys do make mistakes. Guys do make mistakes. PCA what? PCA needs to go to every Bears game. I think he's been in the last two.

1:21:09Good luck, Charm. He's got to stay now. Yeah, he's got to stay. All right. Scooble. Yeah. Stud. Haas. Paul Skeens. Yeah. Joe Ryan. Yeah. Logan Webb. Yeah. Nolan McLean. Yep. Clay Holmes. Yep. David Bender. Yep. Mason Miller. Nice. Is the world finished? Can I say it? Can I say it? That's a ball club. Yeah, that's a ball club. That's a hell of a ball club right there. That's a ball club, boys. That's a ball club. That club makes me proud to be an American. That's a ball club. This must win. Have to win. We've only won one World Baseball Classic. How many have there been? Six or seven. Oh. You okay, Hank?

1:21:48What was that? That's crazy. He said six or seven. Oh. I think Mike Tirico might have killed it. I think he might have killed six, seven. When you got Italian Mike dropping it on you. Yeah, it's how Mike does change the course of it a little bit. A little bit. They're projecting Paul Skeens versus Brazil. Hey. Fuck him up. This is the sixth one, and we've only won one. Japan's won three out of six. We're going to fuck him up. Three out of five. That's got to stop. Remember the Olympics? That's coming up. We're actually going to talk about it with Whitney. That's happening. It's crazy. I'm excited about hockey.

1:22:26Lindsay Vaughn's active. What? Oh, yeah. Lindsey Vonn won a thing. Oh, yeah. She's back. I thought she was retired. I thought she was gone. Yeah. She broke every bone in her body, I feel like. Crazy. Good for her. Cool Throne? Cool Throne today is yesterday. My Cool Throne is a booth. Yesterday, we were talking about scheduling. It seems that we got a three-man back here that flights might be leaving similar times. We're thinking maybe three-man the airport Chili's today. Oh. That sounds silly, but it could be a great time. You guys can get silly at Chili? I think it may be. Zach, I saw people giving you shit last on over Thanksgiving for going to Chili's before your flight.

1:23:04Oh, Hank, I got ratio bad. That's insane. That was insane. I got got. What are you supposed to go after? People are saying it's not fair to eat a full meal before a flight. I don't really understand. I didn't understand. Don't put the restaurant there. Don't put Chili's there. What were people saying? This one dude was just like, I hope this is the airport you landed at. And it did like 11 million. That's crazy. year just absolutely ratioed me on holiday trust tree talk real quick have you guys ever uh eaten food when you landed yes at your destination yeah at a chili's i've done it at a chili's so yeah that feels like shit yeah you feel like a real asshole now i i'm in a city that i can go eat and i'm gonna i'm gonna just no i'm gonna do the airport i've had to like rush rush to get on a flight so you don't have time to eat before and then it's like a four-hour flight that's a good point you gotta eat you gotta eat dude's gotta eat and stanford's 9.1 million views that's crazy none of those are from me they're all from the guy who hit the ratio stanford steve is right that the ben's chili bowl in the reagan airport isn't it that is an insane move to eat that before you get onto a flight that should it should be box cutters and ben's chili bowl the two things that you can't bring on a flight.

1:24:18This quote tweet got 94 ,000 likes. Oh, my God. This better be the airport you landed in. Wolfgang Fuckface is a great name, though. 7.3 million views, 94 ,000 likes. I understand the take because that's a lot of food, Zach. You've got the appetizer sample. It's actually not. It's like two bites of each category. It's actually not at all. What's on the plate for the audio? Two mozzarella sticks, two egg rolls that have been cut in half in like a fun diagonal way. Very fun. And five boneless wings. Okay. That's not that much. So not really like and half a beer. That's what we got right there. Well, you drank the full beer.

1:24:57Yes. That's fair. But in the picture, yeah, it's half full. Yeah, that's on me. I think people who don't realize the fun diagonal way are going to hate. But it was. That is a fun diagonal way. Kind of fun. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's get to our interviews. We got Ryan Whitney and Stephen Jenkins from Third Eye Blind. Great, great interviews. And then we'll finish up with guys on chicks. Ryan Whitney's going to be brought to you by Twisted Tea. It's the perfect beverage to keep the good times going this holiday season. We've got our Christmas twee right behind us here. It looks delicious. The most delicious tree I think I've ever seen.

1:25:29Great job decorating it, Zach. It's beautiful. Wonderful job. Thank you so much, PFT. Of course. I know you like it. I do love it. They call me PF Twisted Tea around this time of year because I'm always slamming the twee's. They're delicious. You love them. I love them. The half and half is my favorite. Also, Hank, what's your favorite? I like the OG. You like the diesel. You like the tea diesel. Make sure to look for these yellow cans whenever you buy beer, wherever you buy beer, and give yourself the gift of twisted tea this holiday season. Grab a refreshing twisted tea today. Ryan Whitney is also brought to you by our great friends over at Experian, your big financial friend, Experian.

1:26:10And some listeners might be looking for a travel credit card so you can maximize rewards on your trip to London for the inevitable Super Bowl that they will be playing in Europe. Others might be looking for a cash back card to help pay doctor bills because their toe and ankle will never heal. No matter what type of card you're looking for, Experian can show you personalized credit card offers based on your credit profile. Even better, cards labeled no ding decline won't hurt your credit scores if you're not approved, so you can apply with confidence. Did you guys know that if you apply for a card and you're declined, it could hurt your credit score?

1:26:41That's why we need Experian. It's like having a financial coordinator in your pocket minus the headset. Take control of your finances with your big financial friend, Experian, and find a card that's matched to you today. Download the Experian app now. And now here's our dear close personal friend, the number one recurring guest in the history of part of my take, Ryan Whitney. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest. Number one guest by appearances in Pardon My Take History. It is Ryan Whitney. He's number one. Number one. Did you talk to our ghostwriter? I was going to mention I had a long, I would say, 35-minute call with the ghostwriter.

1:27:24Great guy. and if you don't think that I was bringing up how big it is for me to be the number one most appeared guest on this show then you're crazy because actually when I started thinking about it and I said it like that's pretty legit these assholes have a book being written about them and like I've been on the show more than anyone else that's crazy 10 years of being the number one sports podcast and you're the number one guest and then we talked about sorry dad we talked about my NBA rant was that my first I think it was my first appearance yeah we gave you uh we gave you minute to just trash the NBA and also to be fair when you say that we're having a book written about it we're writing a book about ourselves oh yeah fair enough I forgot I forgot it was just a ghostwriter he's he's fake but but uh yeah you had the NBA minute do you actually want to do it so we're gonna run this uh next week we're we're taping this on Tuesday the week before because we have a crazy Christmas schedule and everything but we are taping this right before the NBA cup do you have any thoughts about it?

1:28:24I think it's an absolute disgrace, the entire league. And I almost want to say read the book because we went into that for a long time. I think 29 of the 35 minutes was NBA discussion and how you guys are letting down NHL fans and you guys could actually be the leaders, the biggest podcast in sports and truly get people away from the NBA and more into the NHL. ESPN won't do it. Nobody else will do it. You guys could do it, and you refuse to do it. Wait, that's why we're having... But you're the number one guest! Yeah, you're number one. We don't even talk hockey that much on this thing. We're having our NHL preview, I think, earlier in the offseason than we've ever done.

1:29:06Usually, it's like March. We've never done it before Christmas. No, no, that's usually like January 15th. We're a month early. We're a month early. Okay, we're a month early. By the way, before we get into the NHL preview, how are we? Because I've I've gone back and forth between muting and unmuting you depending on how Caleb Williams is playing. I think you're unmuted right now. You were muted after the Packers game. You know what? That was rude of me. I shouldn't talk about my guy. How's Connor McDavid doing? He's on an epic tear right now. I think in his last six games he has 17 points. They play the Penguins tonight, so he's playing against Crosby.

1:29:42He was definitely one of his idols growing up. So this is Tuesday. I'm sorry, December 16th. I know this is next week, but I can't wait to see what he does tonight. The team has been up and down. We never start well. And listen, I went into this in the book as well. I hate both of you. I hate your teams. I'm so happy that PFT's team sucks so much. I never root for injuries, but I still really didn't care. I'm waiting now, Dan, for the most epic failure of all time in the playoffs. I texted Hank last night because I – so we made a – I made a rink in my backyard, and it's very relaxing. I get out there.

1:30:14I flood it at night. I start a fire. And I listened to Monday's show. And you were just giving it to Hank after that Bill's loss. And I was fuming. Enough to the point where I texted him. And I was as mad at Hank as I've ever been, too. Let me read this. I said, this was at 10.04 p.m. I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm just listening now. Fuck these two. And then he never responded. So at 7.30 this morning, I wrote, fuck you and them now. It's me versus the world today. Wait. So you're sitting there. You got your beautiful ring. Fuming. You got a fire, and you're just angry. Angry listening, like pausing it.

1:30:53And because you guys are such jokes. And PFT, you're the biggest joke of them all. Because Dan actually took the jacket off. Those two jackets you guys had on. And he took it off. And PFT never took it off. And karma got him. I took it off. No, you didn't. It's hanging up on the wall right now. No, but in that recording, you left it on the entire time. Well, yeah, it was a nice job. That was karma. And you both suck. And what's happened to the commanders and what will happen to the Bears and what we have seen in New England, forget that game against Buffalo. We weren't going to beat those guys twice this year.

1:31:30Nobody even thought we'd beat them once. I love where we're at. I love where Hank's at. I couldn't believe how you guys treated him. And you call him a troll. You guys are the meanest, most annoying motherfuckers of all time. And you're just jealous of him and jealous of us. What about Max? I can't help but love Max. I can't wait till Philly loses. But I also can't stand Max because he talks like he's a fan of a team who's never even been to the Super Bowl, let alone won one. And they won one last year. So at least PFT called him out. It was a couple episodes ago like, Max, shut the fuck up. I think you were yelling, shut the fuck up.

1:32:08You won the Super Bowl last year. I have no problem when Max gets upset and when he acts like the sky is falling with his team when they look like shit. That's a good sports fan. That's calling it like it is. If your offense sucks, I appreciate what Philly does. But then when Max is like, oh, it'd be better if I never won anything at all. I still stand by it. Not one, if anything. At that point, I'm like, fuck you, Max. A lot of people would love to win a Super Bowl. You won it this calendar year. Good for you. Enjoy it. But wait. Listen, I was trying to gas you up last year. Oh, buddy. You're a sportsman and we're dead together.

1:32:42I got a coatmate for you. I should get at least a little bit of credit because, Whit, you know the inside dealings. I was ready to go to game seven. I had that ready to go. I was a man of my word. Yes. Yes. I was. Yes. I was. But, Dan, you were going to go and be in Roger's place rooting against the Oilers. No. Yes, you were. No. I'll tell you exactly what I was going to do. No, what I was going to do was I was going to bet a probably unreasonable amount, responsible gambling, unreasonable amount on the Oilers, and if they lost, I would have just, like, I would have dogged you the whole way home.

1:33:21I would have just been, like, I can't believe you did this to me. I would have flown commercial. I lost so much money. I would have flown commercial. I wouldn't even have gone home with you. But just to see what Hank and I's teams turned into. And then you got poor memes back there. You guys haven't won a playoff game yet. You guys haven't won a playoff game yet. Here's the thing, PFT. Look who we've turned into. No, no. PFT, I agree. I agree with you. But if we go to the playoffs and we lose the first game, very disappointing. It's more about what we have the next 10 years. And this is way early.

1:33:56This is way in advance of what we thought. And just the fact that we're going to be in the running for a bye and in the running and possibly winning the division, It's like, dude, getting to the playoffs and losing would absolutely suck. But you know that next training camp and that next season and the season after and the season after and the season after we will be competing. And you know it, too. Max has a question. I have a question. Go ahead, Max. Do you think that PFT was also thinking this around this time last year? Oh, good question. Yes. But the fact of the matter is a quarterback who's that mobile and runs and relies on his speed that often never lasts.

1:34:32And we have a guy who can run, but he only does when he has to. And his arm is a golden cannon. And I'll tell you right now, our coach is way better. Our defense is way better. And our organization compared to the Washington shitbag commanders is on a different planet right now. And you all know it's sitting there. Fair response. I just had to ask the question. I would say I was even higher than Witt last year. Because we made the NFC Championship game. You guys looked great. And now you have a mobile QB. whose knee's probably done. Sometimes his knees are fine. Okay, it was his elbow or whatever.

1:35:08His arm is backwards. He's got an upper body injury, as you would say. And he tried to play through it, so he's hockey-topping. Yeah, okay. But, okay, wait, this is all fair, because we did put the whammy. You started all this. I would have been, like, rooting. I would have been, like, oh, that's cool. Like, those guys are my buddies. Their teams are finally good. They've sucked forever. And, no, no, you want to trump the greatest hockey player to ever live and ruin my springtime playoff run. I'm going to try to ruin your guys' football season. Is there any coming back, though? Because the worst part is, like, we have put ourselves in this spot, and I'm not, you know, we've done this.

1:35:44But I've told you, both on and off air, watching Connor McDavid play is so fucking awesome. Yeah, and that's what's crazy about this spot. And that's what's insane to me that, like I just mentioned, you get Caleb Williams, who big-time improvement. Jane Danz looks awesome. I would have been genuinely happy and rooting for you until the Super Bowl. And even if the Pats weren't in, I would have been rooting for you. And then because I was rooting for McDavid, you were laughing and laughing and laughing at us losing in the Cup Finals two years in a row. And then that jacket, those jackets were the end.

1:36:18That was complete the end of any relationship we had. Can I say something? The jackets were my idea. Big Cat almost backed out. I did that after we started. Because he thought it would be too mean. I thought it was karma, too. If you got to hate, you can focus that on me. It sounds like you're doing that a little bit anyways, which is fine. You can put that on me. I wrote Big Cat into it. Leave him alone. I'm just a gambling jinx guy. And I was like, if I put this jacket on, bad things are going to happen. You ever heard the saying, you are who you hang out with? Yep. So Hank, too. Big Cat robs a bank with you, and it was your idea.

1:36:55He's going to prison, too. It's true. That's true. And look what happened to us. My team fell apart. The Oilers are in first place in their division. And Hanky boys sitting on that coach laughing at you guys. Wait, are they? No, they're in fourth place. The Oilers are in first place? They're in fourth place. I spoke to you. No, they're in the playoffs right now. But it hasn't been a great start. It has not been a great start. But they never start good. What's the deal with McDavid? He signed a new deal, correct? Huge hometown discount. In how many years? Two-year extension this summer. So he has this year left on his current deal and then took the exact same number for two more years, which here's the problem.

1:37:33He's he's gone. So win or lose. We have three seasons left with Connor McDavid. That's my opinion. You don't think there's any chance that they would ever trade him if he asked. Oh, if he if he says trade me, he's gone. So and maybe they wouldn't want it. He's like, no, I'll stay here. Leon has eight more years. This is the first of eight, and maybe he would stay. But in my mind, it's like, hey, after three years, so three more playoffs, I think that would have been 13 years for McDavid. It's like if there's an Oilers fan that dislikes him, if he does leave in three years, win or lose, they're idiots.

1:38:08Because he gave you – look at what he's giving you. Right. So do you think in those three years he's going to win a cup? Yes. Okay. Yes. That's going to suck for us. you're going to be you will have an open invite you could literally i'm hosting the show that day yeah you could demand when you want to be on you that is a hundred percent you're right and uh that will suck for us we'll make the first ever pmt gold card and issue it to ryan whitney yeah and you can just come on the show whenever you want yeah you can just bomb in on the show yeah guys this is this is a legit thing like now we know this yes because i will hop on a plane to Chicago some random Sunday night and just as you guys are exhausted recapping the late night game I'm gonna come bombing in I'm gonna knock over the computers I'm gonna make you start all over again he's gonna wait till like the uh the commanders play in England and then Big Cat has an early game and we both lose yeah he's gonna get on a private jet and he's gonna fly to Chicago to do that that it'll be a great show it'll be a great show I'm gonna come in like the Hawaiian punch guy through the wall I was I was looking at the schedule for this year um What are you going to do when it's time for the Olympics?

1:39:17Are you going to root against Connor McDavid? Yes, I did that last year in February for Four Nations, and he broke my heart. He scored the game-winning goal in overtime. I believe you guys were dogging that tournament, I'm pretty sure. Once the U.S. lost, I believe you guys were just calling it an exhibition. Well, it was an all-star game. Yeah. You agree? No, I'm going to take that loss like a man. We always win. Not us. We always beat them. And you guys are Americans. we always beat them in the game that doesn't really matter and i was a part of a 2010 olympic team that we won the round robin and i wasn't playing a big role i was actually a real issue in the gold medal game in which i was on the ice for one of canada's goals but we've won the round robin game lost gold medal we won the round robin in montreal lost the four nations title game in boston so we have to get them this year we have to get a gold medal well here's a spin zone if we don't get a gold medal who cares about the olympics i i yeah see i'm i'm a man i respect it i just i i'm not gonna be somebody who's like i didn't even care anyways this doesn't matter like that's you guys that's your guys troll angle of being funny podcast host um no we did care we we did a whole watch party for it we that's where oldie was born we absolutely cared but we can't we can't let canada off that easy we can't be like oh fuck we really remember when pedro Martinez said the Yankees are my daddy.

1:40:36He didn't sit there and say it doesn't matter. You've got to own up to it, and then it makes it that much more special when it does happen. Maybe 2030 for us, if we can't do it. You are right. Alright, so Canada's our daddy right now. Canada's our daddy. Canada's our daddy. I actually agree with that. When it finally happens, we can be like, yeah, fuck it. Like the Packers are your daddy. Yeah, they are. Well, we're taping this after. We don't know. Saturday night. I think what happened in the Four Nations, that was that was our exit the entire time was to say it was an exhibition in case we lost and we said we're only focused on the olympics so we've said we're focused now it counts now okay so you guys aren't going to be like olympics don't matter no no no it's also kind of interesting that mcdavid's only championship was without whitney rooting for him yeah very true or it had something to do with playing with crosby and mckinnon and mccarr and marshawn and sam reinhardt and a bunch of superstars and you just made up half and I'll tell you right now like we were right there went to overtime we actually had like three or four great chances that Bennington saved an OT it's even right now can is our daddy but it's it's right there boys we're right there right there right there all right let's talk NHL who's good is there is a I know the Panthers obviously are going for three people they've struggled out of the gate is that just they have to get healthy Who has shocked you through the first couple months?

1:41:59Shocking me. That's a good question. I mean, I'm never shocked at the Oilers' bad start. They always start bad, but I thought it would be – I didn't think it would be this bad, but they've started getting it going a little bit, last six, seven games. Florida's start is not shocking because Kachuk's out and Barkov tore his ACL in training camp, and they've just battled a ton of injuries. And now, as of December 16th, they're going. They're rolling. They're figuring it out. So they're petrifying again. They will be in the mix once the playoffs come. Chuck comes back pretty soon. Colorado is the wagon, guys.

1:42:31Colorado is the one that you're scared of, you're worried about if you're not an Avs fan. And there's a part of me that sees them running through the entire league and then winning the Stanley Cup with ease. Now, saying that, they right now are on pace to break the Bruins record for most points in the regular season. The Bruins, that year they did it, lost in the first round. ironically to the Panthers, who went on to the cup final and lost to the Vegas Golden Knights. The team that the Bruins broke the record of was Tampa Bay Lightning, a couple of years before that. They lost in the first round.

1:43:04So the last two times we've had this dominance in the regular season by a team, they've lost first round. Colorado, it doesn't seem like that would happen, but if somehow Edmonton ends up as a wildcard team and they get Colorado, you got McDavid and Leon. That's not something that would be that shocking. Now, the problem for Colorado also is their second-round matchup. This is if they go on to win the Central Division. Of the four top teams in hockey right now, three of them are in the Central. You got Colorado, you got Dallas, and you got Minnesota. I don't know if you guys know who Quinn Hughes is.

1:43:39Yep. Quinn Hughes is the second-best defenseman in the world. I've been seeing a lot of Minnesota talk. He just got traded to the Wild from Vancouver. Yes. Talking trade. So now you've got those three teams and one of them is going to be out in the first round and another one of them is going to be out in the second round. That's the problem with the current setup in the playoff format is you have if you get a division with unreal teams, and this is even crazier than other years of those three. It's kind of like, man, if you've got three of the four top teams in the league and two of them are gone before the conference final, some people want to maybe look at going one through eight again in the playoffs instead of the division way they're doing it now.

1:44:20Yeah. Yeah, I am. I think Biz kind of leans towards the way it is now because he likes the rivalry aspect of the first and second round and having the second round always be two division foes battling it out to get to the conference final. But what's happened in the East is the Atlantic division, which has been Florida, Tampa, Boston, Toronto, they end up battling and killing each other. One of them gets to the conference final, and then you got Carolina waiting there, and they just smack Carolina. Carolina's like an auto trip to the conference final because the Metro division isn't strong, and they walk through the first two rounds, and then they get worked in the Eastern Conference final.

1:45:00And it's almost like I think if Florida, Toronto last year had played in the conference final instead of the second round, it would have been a lot more entertaining than Florida just dusting up on the Hurricanes again. Yeah, are the Hurricanes still playing that same brand of hockey? Have they switched anything up this year? They grabbed Nikolai Ehlers from the Winnipeg Jets. He's very good. They actually have this crazy story right now in goal. This kid, Brandon Bussey, who was signed by Florida, put on waivers in training camp. Carolina picked him up, and he's 11-1. And these are his first 12 starts ever in the NHL.

1:45:32So kind of crazy as they've had their normal goalies go down. He's been one of the stories of the season. Carolina is a great team. They come at you in waves. They're like an incredibly hardworking team. They have skill. I've always said they don't have a superstar to get them over the top. Hurricanes fans get furious at me, but the proof is there that every year in the Easter Carpet Final they lose. So you said the Avalanche are a wagon right now. Who's the biggest disappointment of the season so far? Toronto is up there. Biz and the Toronto Maple Leafs are truly a disgrace. And they lost Mitch Marner.

1:46:10That was an ugly situation where, you know, Biz isn't going to like this. He was one of the guys that really ran him out of town. And you have him on, and he'll argue that point. But they ran him out of town for his playoff performance. And he's in Vegas. He hasn't had the best start. He's been good. But I think he only has like five or six goals. But Matthews without Marner is a problem. And a lot of talk about Matthews possibly being injured. But the past few years, since he's gotten to the league, it's like, who's the best player in the league? You got McDavid, you got McKinnon, you got Matthews.

1:46:42Matthews is not at all even in that discussion anymore. It's kind of, I don't know if you guys know who Macklin Celebrini is. He's a new guy. He's incredible. He's the new, like, Sidney Crosby, superstar grinder. That's the way I'd kind of describe him. Physical, doesn't cheat the game, incredibly skilled. He turned 19 in like July, and it's his second season, and I think he's third in the league in scoring or fourth. So the Matthews problem in Toronto and that entire team, they look slow, they look old, their D aren't good. They've had an injury to their best defenseman, Tanev, or one of their best defensemen.

1:47:14But Ben's shocking in Toronto. It's not pretty right now. Macklin Celebrini, was that the video of like the old lady going up to them in New York and being like, hey, you guys are good-looking guys. They're like, yeah, we got a game tonight. It's like, that's one of the best, like up and coming guys in the entire NHL. Like going to be incredible for two decades. And it's like, he's just sitting, having a coffee on the side of the street in New York. And he's with Will Smith, who was the fourth pick. He played at Boston college for one year and turned pro. So I think they're one year apart in age and they're both awesome.

1:47:48Celebrini is a different level above, but Will Smith, he could end up being a 90, 95 point guy for, for 10, 15 years. So, excuse me, they're building something special there. They're in a playoff spot. I don't have the standings in front of me right now. Yesterday they were in a playoff spot, which is kind of crazy. It also doesn't matter because we're going to be. Yep, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting. No, that's okay. I keep forgetting. That's okay. The Sharks are in a playoff spot. Yeah, so the Sharks, like, last year they were on my no watch list. You know, I have teams that, like, if they're on, I'm watching them.

1:48:22I have teams. I can watch them. I can't. And then I have teams that if they're on, like, doesn't matter if they're playing in my backyard rink, I'm not watching. And the Sharks were one of them. Even, I'm sorry, two years ago. And then Celebrini came. It's like, all right, this is different. And then this year he's reached another level. And do you guys know about his dad, who his dad is? Yeah. The Warriors trainer. So he's like tight with Draymond and stuff. I don't know if that's a guy you want to necessarily have be your role model in terms of his on-court antics. Sick league. but you know he's a leader I guess yeah yeah can you imagine having a guy on court all he does is fight what a disgusting sport well fighting's allowed in hockey if you're gonna fight all the time in a sport it's not allowed you're breaking the rules that's true they should be your teammates too they should be allowed to fight uh who are the other like young up-and-comers that we should be watching well Bedard's been incredible it sucks but that injury yeah injury sucks a fluke injury just like off a face-off I've read today there was a report that it was a separated shoulder now and there was like eight there was like there was like a second left too oh yeah 0.8 seconds i know oh and and if that causes him not to make team canada i feel that i just feel gutted for the kid um we'll see what happens there if they take him knowing he'll be healthy by the time the tournament starts in milan so there's a guy in uh in montreal and um you guys definitely don't know about him i don't think his name's ivan demidov he's a russian i think you could tell based on Ivan Demidov being his name.

1:49:51I call him. Yeah, I thought he was from like New Jersey. Yeah, he's from Secaucus. His I call him Demigod. He is world class skill, like some of the sickest hands and moves and fakes and like his edge work on his skating. He is a treat to watch. He's incredible. I think he's going to be a superstar. It's his rookie year. He came over last year when his KHL season finished and like looked unreal right out of the gate, played in the playoffs, had some wild moments. And right now, I think he's second in rookie scoring, maybe a couple back from this kid, Bennett Seneca. He's on Anaheim. Anaheim is a team, guys.

1:50:26Heads up. They have a wagon of, like, young stars coming. One of them, Leo Carlson. He was the second or third. He was the third pick, I believe. No, second pick. The Bedard draft. He's about 6 '4". Monster Swedish center who's lighting it up. They have this kid, Kutter Gauthier, that played at Boston College. He's got about 18, 19 goals already. A bunch of young defensemen. Anaheim is now looking. Like, I'll guarantee. A Ryan Whitney guarantee. Ooh. Anaheim wins a Stanley Cup in the next eight years. I know eight years is kind of whatever, Whit. But Anaheim's going to get a cup. And you know their coach.

1:51:04You know their coach, Dan. Who's their coach? Joel Quenville. Oh, it's Joel Quenville. Yeah. Yeah. He's, I bet, because I bet coach of the year, because I don't think they're going to give it to him. Do you think the writers will give it to him? I don't think that. Because he deserves it, right? Well, he's in the mix right now, but there's a bunch of people. Yeah, he's definitely in the mix, but the writers won't give it to him. He's a hell of a fucking coach. Hell of a coach. Playoff Q just finds the answers as a series goes along. Can I go back to Bedard real quick? Did you see enough from him this year?

1:51:40Because the talk, obviously, in the national media and in the local media was like the first two years of Bedard, you saw the flashes, but there was maybe a little something missing. It feels like this year he was having that leap where everything was coming together. He was playing hard on both ends. He was doing the right things. I know Biz has been a little critical of him at times. Did you see that? It was like, okay, this is exactly what he was advertised. It might have taken a couple years, but he's finally here. A hundred percent. and biz has been very open about what he said last year and i think it was pretty fair like what he was bringing up in terms of like kind of not playing the right way like you have all the skill in the world you have one of the best shots i've ever seen body language wise like stuff that honestly happens in the nba the whining and the complaining and the yelling at teammates and the body language there was some of that in bedard we're not talking nba levels here but enough as a young guy where it's like this isn't how the game is played like this is stuff crosby his first year maybe had some whining a little bit but he grew up quick and everything biz brought up it was one tnt chicago broadcast that biz went on a rant and it went pretty crazy the story yeah and um and biz has been open this year of like every single thing i brought up has completely changed and we had jeff blashel on the coach of the blackhawks and he just said we i think they met They hung out for four or five hours when he got the job this summer, and he said he was beyond impressed with the kid and his approach and realizing, like, what I need to change and what I need to do, and he'd done it all.

1:53:15He was competing. He was way more physical, like back-checking the board. If he did turn one over, he's not kind of shrugging his shoulders or slamming his stick off the boards. He's flying back. Looked like an incredible teammate. The guys obviously love him. I mean, his skill is so fun to watch. Like, you want to enjoy watching this guy play. and this year I didn't know he had I knew he had this in him I I thought he had this in him but I didn't know it'd be this quick based on last year and yeah he was one of the best players in the league before he went down I hope it's just a couple weeks and he's he's 20 that's the thing that people forget like you he's 20 years old his first two years he's like you know yeah it wasn't perfect and I think the hype obviously of him coming in the draft was like he's going to be instantly incredible but this year has been awesome yeah if he doesn't I agree do you think he'll get on team Canada if he's healthy it's so loaded crazy is even before the injury they're saying like like people who are kind of in the know or like it's 50 50 and some people are like I don't think he he will it's if they have they have so much kind of loyalty to the guys who have won before like last year that's a big deal another thing is Bedard didn't go to the world championships so they have the world championships every every season if you're playing in the playoffs you're you're out obviously but like he had the chance to go and he chose like to get healthy been battling some injuries they could sometimes hold that against you whether that's right or wrong like i don't know like as i said they're our daddy who am i to judge how team canada does things but bedard said it himself they could throw two teams in and like the second team's competing like that's a medal they're that good they're that deep but the other part of bedard for me is uh there hasn't been a player that's come in with the expectations like bedard since social media has become like the monster it is so when mcdavid came in it was uh i think it was 2016 or 15 it wasn't like it is now like it's changed that much where like clips and constant uh scouting and reports on every single game and like the noise around bedard for the past three years back going back to junior even no the past five years it was so ridiculous and breaking records in the whl and the crosby mcdavid uh comparisons that were coming so he was the one kid who had these ridiculous expectations and had to deal with the social media aspect of the entire world knowing about him and expecting a crosby rookie year with 100 points and that's just not it's it's not realistic like it's not fair to him because you just said it best he's 20 he's in his third season he's 20 years old like there's college freshmen who are 23 it's like right it's not and i'm talking college hockey and how old it is and how difficult it is to play at a high level you go to high school you go to three years of junior and then you're a freshman it's just he is so good he's so young he added speed too like something about his training this summer where they're now tracking the speed burst and and how fast you're going on the ice like he's getting a mile or two faster than he did at any point last year which may not sound like much but it's the difference in you know getting that one quick shot off or that lane that wasn't open the year before yeah that's that's way faster if you're able to to constantly get like one to two miles an hour faster over the course of a year yeah it is crazy that as a 20 year old you're not done growing he's playing as 18 and 19 right like you can show up and you can be like wimby Wimby grew in the offseason.

1:56:41It's pretty crazy. By the way, have you watched Wimby? PFT, that guy, Leo Carlson, I was talking about, who in a few years, like hockey fans now know, but we're looking at a Matt Sundin, future superstar type player. His rookie year, his agent I'm friendly with was like, they've realized he's not done growing. They did all these scans. All his growth plates aren't done. So they actually sat him out. They would play him. He would sit a game or two. He'd be working out lifting. They'd play him. They had, I hate to say it, a load management. But it wasn't because he was lazy and didn't want to show the fans that paid hard-earned money that they weren't going to play that night.

1:57:16It was more for his body because he was still growing being that young. What is the NHL equivalent of LeBron James' 10-point-a-game streak? Yeah, that's one where like I wanted to dog it because 10 points is like 10 points but it's more about doing it that that one I was kind of impressed at regular season by the way it would have been a lot cooler if it was 15 points for some reason the 10 and the 15 it's a big difference to me I don't know getting 10 points is like not I could get 10 points I mean I might be able to people don't know if I'm a righty or lefty when I shoot baskets that's how bad it is.

1:58:00Ten points and ten points. That's the state of defense. Yeah. But he's also like, when he was making sure he got his ten points in that one game they're getting blown out when he kept it alive right before it ended. And don't even get me started with him. His son's in the NBA. His son's horrible. His son's brutal. What are we doing? Do you think that there is a hockey player in the world that would even, if he even could do it, do you think he'd put his son in the NHL if he didn't deserve it? No. Never. No way. I don't think so. That's a joke. That is nepotism at its finest. And I got no problem someday maybe helping my son start a podcast.

1:58:35Heaven for God forbid he ever wants to do this. I don't hate all nepotism. But to take an NBA spot and give it to your son just because you're LeBron James is a disgrace to the sport. Yeah. Yeah, agreed. Good rant. It's interesting that you brought up the right-handed, left-handed thing because I did a little research on you, Whit. I found out that you, you know, obviously when you play hockey, you're lefty but when you play golf you're righty yeah that and that when you started you start playing golf your grandfather had a set of right-handed clubs no and he said just swing it like this so he he screwed me god bless paul whitney he screwed me though um apparently back in the day you like couldn't get lefty clubs okay they they were very rare they weren't made as often as righty clubs.

1:59:26And I, so I'm a weirdo. I pitched growing up. I was a lefty. When I played football, I played quarterback one year. I was a righty. I threw a football righty. I pitched lefty. What? Baseball lefty, hockey lefty. So I grab a golf club and I just naturally in the backyard down Cape Cod started swinging it. And he, he said, no, no, no, no. You can't be a lefty. The sport's not made for lefties. They don't have clubs. And he took me to his golf course, Woods Hole Country Club. Beautiful place, right on the water. And I went to the range for the first time I've ever touched a club with righty clubs.

2:00:02And I just hit balls for like four hours with them. And now I'm a righty. And I know, I know in my heart of hearts, I'd be a better player lefty. And I've thought about switching. Yeah, I'm following Hank's thing. You should do a video series. You should do a video series switching to lefty. Listen, I got pretty good. I'm not very good anymore. But I got pretty good. And now as I've gotten worse, I've thought about it enough to the point where I bought a lefty club. And I was like, I can't even think about trying this. Now, the guy sitting to your left, he has no kids. He has just amazing team, NFL team he roots for.

2:00:38And he's got a good basketball team. The baseball team was good this year. And the hockey team is surprising people. But he's got nothing to do besides golf. And he can go and try to do this. And I know a guy by the last name Driscoll who got down to a scratch or a one handicap as a righty and then switched to lefty and then also became a scratch. So, Hank, keep going. Although, boys, the reason he didn't respond to me last night when he finally texted me back this morning was, sorry, I was in the lab banging balls. Yeah, that's all he got. This lefty thing, he found a way to just be like, I have to golf even more.

2:01:14And I understand it because his mindset is like where your mindset is, where you wake up every day thinking about how good you could have been at golf if you had started left-handed. And Hank doesn't want to allow himself to get to that point in life. I agree with you, Hank. I honestly agree with you that you're not, no offense, good enough righty to be like, I can't switch back. Right. Yeah. I got to see it through. It's like when an idea kind of consumes your brain, it's like the only thing you can do is just see it through itself. Were you a lefty in baseball? I pitched I'm kind of like you I pitched lefty so I have like a lot of experience like loading up on the back leg I but I swung a baseball bat righty so when I started golfing same thing though my dad just had an old set of ready clubs and I was like oh I swing a baseball bat ready I must swing a golf club but if you if you just grabbed a golf club naturally first time you ever held one would you have swung it lefty I don't think so just because I was like oh I swung you know swing a baseball so I don't know if I can get down with your switch now I took one swing lefty and I saw it like that was that was what that's what started is like I took a swing lefty I was like oh it's it's there maybe I'm a left more than it is right he looks like a he looks like a lefty golfer country club kid with the frosted tips in that shirt on right now though yeah and lefty golfers just oh it looks a lefty swing is just beautiful it is yeah no he's Hank's getting some shit online from the what are we calling him the the right the right side the online right so Hank is the he's the Joe Rogan of the left this is what he's gonna do he's gonna He's going to dominate.

2:02:41Actually, I hate righty Hank, and I always beat righty Hank. I own righty Hank. With strokes. I'm terrified. I beat you straight up last time. I'm terrified that lefty. As a Hank guy, that video was heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking. And Hank was – I could tell Hank things were moving a million miles an hour out there, man. It was not good. And I've been there. I mean, Riggs dusted me at the Ryder Cup. And like, yeah, it's just a brutal feeling. I was I was in your soul for that one, buddy. Yeah, we had a great time at the Internet Invitational this summer. I enjoyed being a part of your team for a brief period of time.

2:03:22Unfortunately, we had to go home after after 18 holes total. What what were your your thoughts and feelings like watching that, watching how you came across in that? Because I watched it. I was like, I'm so glad that it was there. So I turned into the most hated man in YouTube golf like I've never and I felt hate before. online like i'm talking like minus three every game in edmonton getting yelled at while i'm eating a steak um you know after games like i felt hate the hate i was getting from the youtube golf committee was unlike anything i've ever imagined and i still stand by the fact that the guy slept in treated you like shit and didn't give a flying fuck so i don't really care i i would do this exact same thing again i also if i saw luke quality what's up buddy like fuck no hard feelings you cut you fucked us over but it is what it is but he has either an enormous fan base online or youtube golf community are the biggest pussies to ever exist because i was basically like bane from batman movie and and the biggest bully mean guy scumbag piece of shit in the world for calling a guy out and in which if you've done that in a hockey locker room you're getting called out Yeah No you didn't do anything wrong I was sitting right next to you when you called him out It was Here's what happened guys Dan here's what happened Is Gruden gave that speech I know And the minute that speech ended I said I'm not gonna look great when this thing comes out I'm not That is a unifying speech That is everyone accountable That is no one blames others We're a team And I was the exact opposite Yeah he was getting a lot of hate right when it happened And then I think the hate got so much on him that it swung the other way.

2:05:06That's like, hey, let's back off Luquan. What do you really do here? But no, Whitney was 100 % right. It needed to be said if you're in a team environment. Whitney's an accountability guy. That's why I want you on bag if I ever play him again. Yeah, I got to send you the clip, Whitney. Luquan's crew that he golfs with, a couple of them are Korean golfers he grew up with. and they do a Ryan Whitney impression in their videos. That's so fucking funny. This guy, it's great. I haven't seen that. They bust his balls too for it. And it's like they also just, in their videos, will just insert the clip of Whitney being like, this guy's a joke.

2:05:45I'll send you the clip. They're fucking, the guy's named Sam Min. It's so funny. My main anger, it was so brutal to get knocked out. and like granted like maybe maybe if he showed up and you guys dusted them which you would have pft like maybe we still lose but it's like just knowing that that point was gone and then like going into the final round and and then like everyone's like you didn't do anything i'm like well i won one match i mean i don't know like i then played roger steel and page it was like fucking playing tiger woods and phil mickelson in their prime like i was like we got no chance like i don't i'm not that good my partner we neither one of us played that good and they were incredible but i won the first match and we were done and i just wanted to keep playing yeah it was a fun event when you turn you turn get some lunch into a chirp yeah that was beautiful get some lunch yeah yeah get some lunch get some lunch i got i got no hard i got no hard feelings towards the guy i mean i hope he comes back i hope he does it again it'll be great redemption if he came back and he's awesome again dude i i would be i would be round of applause buddy you're I'd respect it.

2:06:51Yeah, yeah. You're that much of a clown that I love you now. I mean, he was in Switzerland like two weeks before. That's a head. He would have woken up early. We've been through that. He's got triplets. All right, yeah, that was the best. Yandle, just getting all the confusion going. Like, he just had triplets. People are like, he would kill you in golf. It's like, dude, no shit. You want to do a stick handling competition, Luke? Yeah. All right, I got one last question. Rowback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com. Promo code TAKE. 20 % off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts.

2:07:23Roback.com. Promo code TAKE. Two-part question. First part. Give us the Stanley Cup final and the winner. Okay.

2:07:34You got to go Oilers. Yeah, it's Edmonton. I'm thinking about the East. I think it might be Edmonton, Florida again. Okay. I think it might be Edmonton, Florida again. And people are going to be like, you are an absolute moron. We got one team not in the playoffs and one team in a wild card spot. And the Central Division is so tough with Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota. I got Edmonton. And in the way Florida looks the past six, seven games, and knowing guys are coming back, I think they might do it again. That would be four straight cup finals for them. If they don't get there, I believe in Tampa.

2:08:06Okay. Tampa. And then my last, last question is, are you going to the Frozen Four this year? Wisconsin's number two in the country. They're awesome. They got a guy coaching them now. Now, he coached one of the world junior teams I played on, which is a big international tournament over Christmas time for U-20 players. Great guy. He spent a lot of time in the USHL and I believe Mankato or another another college. But he's legit. And here's the problem right now with college sports everywhere, but particularly with hockey. This NIL money for the Big Ten schools is like there's so many hockey programs that just don't have that football money.

2:08:42And granted, like Western Michigan won it last year. They're great. They don't have big football money. And there's other teams that are real solid without football money. But I think over the course of the next few years, you're going to see budgets for these Big Ten schools that no one else can compete with. So I'm worried for my team, BU. We don't even have a football team, let alone a football budget. And I don't know. I was told that the Big Ten network, each school gets twenty two million dollars a year from in that deal. and that like 12 of it goes to the football program and the other 11 goes within basketball and hockey.

2:09:16If that's... It's stupid money. And then there's also, I mean, there's a deal with Fox. There's a deal with NBC. There's a deal with CBS. The TV money is crazy. But no, Wisconsin's a program I want to be good. It's a blue blood. They've had some incredible teams over the years. Their last national title, Joe Pavelski, who's from Wisconsin. I was there. Yeah, you were there then. In Milwaukee, yeah. It's in Vegas, which I'm not a huge fan of Vegas. and that's always right around our putt-putt tournament. All right, so maybe we got to hop on a flight. If the Badgers are in it, we got to go. Okay, so it's always our mini golf.

2:09:51It's always Masters week, and we do the mini golf on Thursday. So I always go. I've gone to the Frozen Four, the two games of Thursday, National Championship Saturday. So if we go to putt-putt and Wisconsin's there, we'll hop on a bird out to Vegas. Love it. And then in two years, it's going to be in Chicago. Yeah, and we're going to be just – I'm just going to be whoever Wisconsin's playing. I'll paint my face the color of the other team.

2:10:18That's going to be great. All right, Whit, you're the best, man. Everyone tune in to Spittin' Chicklets. Love you, guys. See you later. We'll see you a bunch of times before the end of the season. And, yeah, Merry Christmas and love having you on. Go Oilers, go Packers, and fuck the Commanders. See you later, guys. Bye, Hank. Bye, Max. Bye, memes. Zach, good talk. same to you wait

2:10:44Ryan Whitney was brought to you by our great friends at Chevy football seasons here whether you're grinding through the week or gearing up for football if there's one ride that's always game ready that is the Chevy Silverado the Silverado is a long time partner of part of my take it's our favorite truck it's all about grit from job site to tailgate Silverado lets you show up strong and tackle any task it's built for the hustle ready for the game Silverado is America's most dependable full-size truck. For J.D. Power 2025 award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards. Head to chevy.com. Learn more.

2:11:15Build your own Chevy Silverado. Check out Chevy. It's the best truck in the world. It's a truck that's got grit. It is the full back of trucks. We love Chevy. Been a great sponsor, a great friend of the program. We drive a Chevy Silverado all the time on the road. Check one out today. Go to your local dealership and get behind the wheel of a Chevy Silverado. And now here is Stephen Jenkins from Third Eye Blind. Quick about our show, just so you know, we've been doing this for, we're actually coming up on 10 years right now. We're number one sports podcast, but part of our success that we've had, we've had the joy of being able to interview people that we find interesting.

2:11:55So we do sports, but we do everything. Well, I'm really happy to be here. And I'm absolutely mystified as to why you've invited me on your show. Because I know you invited me on before the pandemic. Yeah, all right. So let's start. Are we good to go? All right, here we go. We are going. Yeah, we are going. This is fucking going. That was the cold opening. That's me going. We can include that. The voice you hear right now is a very, very, very, very, very, very special guest. It is Stephen Jenkins from Dirt Eye Blind. And that was our cold opening. Ice cold. We did. Yeah. So the story behind this is we were, I think we were ready to interview you during the pandemic.

2:12:36Something fell through. And we're, so we've been doing this. The pandemic fell through. The pandemic fell through. We've been doing this for 10 years. We're writing a book about the show for the last 10 years. So we're in the process of that. And in the process of that, I think the conversation started, we have a segment we do on the show where listeners write in questions. and one of the questions was like, what's an interview that kind of got away? And we mentioned that we, Steven Jenkins from Third Eye Blind is one of those ones where like, damn, we were so close to interviewing him. And our booker was like, hey, I just looked up.

2:13:09He's going to be here in Chicago in December. Do you want me to reach out? And I was like, yes, we would love to have him on. So now we're here. You're sitting on this couch. I still can't believe it because I told you before, your guys' self-titled album is one of my, I actually looked it up because I put out my top ten album. Top five album of all time. Personal. Personal top five album. It's incredible. Yeah, no skips. Yeah, four. I'm just saying the first one. You want all four in the top five? That's a little selfish. I want to be on the podium. You want to control all of that? No, I'm really happy to hear that.

2:13:43Because I was thinking, am I about to scintillate everyone with my incredible sports knowledge? No, I am not. I do want to talk about your Warriors fandom because that would be fun. Well, so I'm in town today because I'm playing a show at the Argonne Ballroom, which I think is a gem in Chicago. Have you guys been there? I think I saw you there. It's a great place. Ten years ago, I want to say. Twelve years ago. I saw you guys perform. We played there back in the day. We're doing it again for Q101 radio show. I actually think I saw you at the Vic. Their Christmas show. Yeah. Those guys have, so the guys at Q101 in Chicago started playing my first record in 1997, and we've never been out of rotation at their radio show.

2:14:39That's awesome. I mean, on their station, ever. Rightfully so. Which is a really, so when they asked us to come play the radio show, we're delighted. Yeah. And then I just really wanted to find out, why do you want me on a sports show? I know why I want to be on, because I like to do the Warriors pre-show. And there's no reason for them to let me on again, because I really don't know even that much about the Warriors. But I'm a big fan, and it's really fun. So now that they know that I'm on this, they're going to be like, we've got to get them back. That's my theory. Listen, being a Warriors fan would be incredible.

2:15:19Even if you're not a massive sports fan, if you're not a huge basketball fan in general, just going to that atmosphere, watching Steph Curry play. He is an artist. He's changed how the sport's been played. And it must be just a joy to watch him live. It is. And then you get used to it. And then you're like, what is Steve Kerr doing with Kaminga's talent? I don't know. I like that, yeah. And I'd like to understand that. So, you know, it's not like everybody there is just like, you know, all the time. Thanks for Steph Curry. I mean, we are because we definitely feel like we're witness to a moment and we want to make that moment last.

2:16:03But you still get into all the nuts and bolts and nitty gritty and everybody's a critic, including me. Yeah. And it's like having a starting pods again. Really? Yeah. Really? Well, I would assume it's kind of like being a rock star. I'm going to call you a rock star. I don't know if you like being called a rock star, but being a rock star or being guys like us who have a dream job, you can't really complain about it because everyone looks at you and you're like, that's the best job ever. But there's always parts of any work that you're like, oh, that's not the best. That's not the most fun thing.

2:16:37Just like the Warriors winning all the time and stuff. But you're like, oh, I don't agree with the rotation. You find complaints in everything. Yeah. I mean, I think developing young talent is the thing that I'm. Have you seen Richards, this guard? Yeah. So I really hope he gets developed. And like Quentin Post. Quentin Post is a really good, really good center. And he's beginning to show it. I hope he's showing it enough that we don't just put him out for a trade. Because I feel like that's the thing that's coming up here. Yeah, trading for a vet. Yeah. Yeah, well, everybody's going to try and get Giannis, and we're not going to get Giannis, but we could get Sabonis.

2:17:17There you go. Yeah. And Sabonis would be a nasty piece of business because I hate watching that guy play basketball. I can't stand it. He's always just poking and picking at people. I want him poking and picking on our team. Next to Draymond. I was going to say, you can't complain about poking and picking if you root for Draymond Green. Well, I would give this to Steve Kerr. I would have traded him after he punched Jordan Poole in the face. Yeah, to me that's like, first of all, Draymond, he's the guy I would hang out with. I actually have. We ended up in a poker game together. He's a lovely guy.

2:18:02I like his restaurant. He's my favorite basketball player. because I think he is seeing things in a different way. I think he's the most intelligent guy playing basketball, and they're all actually really smart motherfuckers, those guys. So he's on another level. However, he's a powerful man. And if you look at that punch, he turned his hips. He could have broken his jaw. Yeah. He could have broken Jordan Poole's jaw. I was wrong. Steve Kerr was right Keeping him on the team He is the glue of that team And he said sorry Yeah, sorry for punching you in the face I mean being in bands and having these types of relationships It's not always hugs and kisses all the time There's some infighting that goes on It can be sometimes good for the creative process To have a little bit of chaos Controlled chaos around you, right?

2:18:57That's a big jump between A little bit of controlled chaos And somebody who's 6 '6 and incredibly athletically gifted, putting their hips and then their shoulders into a right cross into your face. There's distance between that. Yeah. I think tension, every good record that I can think of was made, was unpleasant to make. They all sort of hate each other. Yeah, Fleetwood Mac. That was my number one, the rumors. Fleetwood Mac. The White Stripes, Jack couldn't get Meg to do anything, and they're just over there in this kind of struggle. There isn't enough food. There's not enough time. It's all kind of this kind of – there are these pressures, these real pressures on it that create – if they're real, they create a kind of intensity and pressure.

2:19:55Did you have that when making Self-Titled, your first album? Did you feel that pressure? Or did you feel that, you know, creative tension or, or was it, because I always have a theory and you can tell me this is the dumbest thing ever, but the first record versus second for any musical act, it's like the most raw what they are. And then they have to evolve. And then it's not saying that there can't be better records or different records, but the first one or two is like, that's what, that's their essence before they're famous, before they have, you know, big shows, that's what they are. And it's, there's something about it.

2:20:30you could tell me I'm wrong. I don't think you're wrong. I think that, I think that I'm just trying to think about how I felt in that moment. I felt like, uh, even though it was my first chance, it was my absolute last chance. Oh, really? It was only one chance. And so there was that kind of desperation, but also I felt like I finally get to do what I want to do. because they put in the contract, they wanted us to get a producer, and I said, well, I'm going to produce the record. And probably had to take less money in order to do that. But I get to have the team of people that I wanted to work with.

2:21:17So Eric Valentine had not blown up yet, and I had him as co-producer and engineer the record. And we got to do what we wanted to do. and that was so it was an actual real state of freedom mixed with desperation both of those things are true and I don't know I don't think it's my best record I think my last record is my best record however that first dopamine hit that you get to have on people that only comes once so it doesn't matter if the record's your next record is better. You only get one first one. Yeah. I read that you guys signed the largest ever first record contract. Is that true with Elektra?

2:22:11For a first-time signee, they gave you the most money without having ever produced an album? They still wanted to put us in a van. They still wanted to put us in a fucking van. Right, right. Was that a lot of pressure, though? It's your debut album, and you're being touted. I don't know if there's competition to sign you guys or how that ended up being such a big offer for you. But was there any additional pressure being like, hey, there's a lot of expectations on you because it's your first album and people are throwing money at you. They're going to want something big. No, I was happy to spend their money and I didn't care one bit about that.

2:22:42I never factored in like, let's be frugal with the corporation's money. Yeah, right. Actually, that wasn't really a thing. Yeah. And we went from, I went from sleeping on packing foam, six roommates, one bathroom, happy to have that, no bank account, to heading off and making a record. And then I was on tour for a year and a half. And I was home for cumulatively maybe five weeks. and it went from we had gotten repeated looks I'd gotten made demo tape after demo tape and kept getting better as a producer actually making music in a studio to really kind of getting my very last chance and that was opening for Oasis cool that's pretty cool and we had been a band that was playing in San Francisco go for if we're lucky to get a gig and lucky if i was lucky to keep a band together long enough uh 75 people and then um david massey who was there uh was oasis's tour manager said come on out um and so i'm sitting in his office in new york and by this time i'd seen so many people i was so over it and he's talking and i go so what can i do for you i just interrupted him because it's like, let's just get on with it.

2:24:22And he said, finally, you can sign to Epic Records. Finally, somebody actually, you know, I've been working forever on trying to just get to that moment. When can I see you? And I said, well, you can have us open for Oasis.

2:24:43And next week we're opening for Oasis and Epic Records doesn't sign us. but um it made everybody else uh jump in and um that started sort of uh a bidding war yeah i don't think it was a maybe it was a record for them i even forgot that that was a big record deal it didn't do anything for me it's not like i nothing really changed in my life it all kind of went into the record and went into touring and and uh you know the bus yeah it's like we're not getting in a van we're not driving across this country to van do you kind of miss the van a little bit we sometimes miss the van we we got a van uh our second year as a podcast we took it on road trips and it was a lot of fun it's it stinks it still stinks to this day kind of like you know we would smoke cigarettes in there and fart and burp and just be you know you know but but and then you you evolve and you you know the show gets bigger at least in our terms and you know we stay in hotel rooms sometimes there's an rv that takes us around but you kind of miss the van and do you miss the van there's kind of like a uh quick-footedness with the van with the van now means that we're going to stay in a hotel so when i'm in a van i came over here in a van afterwards i'm going back to um the athletic as is airing today no probably next week okay yeah the athletic uh what's it called the athletic club or something yeah it's great yeah so i'm happy to stay there so that's kind of what the van means now but uh falling asleep in that you know those bench seats yeah i don't really miss that that much yeah but there is something i i would imagine that like the the that making it the climb to make it there's a little bit of nostalgia for it i mean i feel it sometimes with you know just what we've done and like you you look back you're like oh man that was the energy that you had in that moment where you're trying to make it it just it something that you can't really replicate once you've accomplished some things i was i had uh i think i had undiagnosed lyme disease oh geez and um i was feeling um just kind of sick most of the time so you had the opposite of the energy so many stresses on us and i would get up and fake it And, um, uh, night before last we were in Tulsa playing another one of these Christmas radio shows and we were playing at the world famous Canes, uh, dance hall, you know, and this is one of these square dance, um, made in the twenties, but, you know, stayed open during the dust bowl, um, just place where it has all of this huge history in it.

2:27:32And everybody goes and plays there. I was looking at the walls like the police played in their first record there. Somehow, it's a thousand person capacity. So it's a small, small club for us and for so many of these other people. But it's got an enormous vibe. And these are the days right now. These are the days where I feel like I'm better as a musician. I have a more direct exchange with my audience. um i really don't look back at all yeah i really feel i really feel excited about going and playing uh in chicago tonight and i have a sense of freedom with that i i feel like i'm comprehended um and um um energized as fuck yeah so no i feel like this is the moment who who were your like Who are your bands that you listen to and shaped your style as a musician and your records?

2:28:35Well, they're still being shaped. So I don't just come from one place. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver said he doesn't think he's going to make another record. I hope that's not the case because everything he does kind of lifts me up and influences me. I love Joy Division. I love that whole post-punk thing. I really liked a lot of New Order as well after that. There were things when I was just a little kid, these first times that I heard music, I heard Led Zeppelin walking by from a dark window from this girl's house in the fourth grade that I liked, and it was scary. It frightened me. I wanted to move along.

2:29:24I'm like like that you know and I I loved I loved the clash and I loved early Prince but I listen to music I'm always kind of dying to get freaked so I don't I love that quote I don't I'm dying to get freaked yeah I'm always looking to hear you know they've got so much hype but I I listened to geese and it just felt like I was about to fall apart and just come like the whole thing was kind of reckless the way that they were hucking it out there. And you know, that, that gets me going. So I'm Eka Vandal. She, I, I just, I just heard her singing. I was like this one chord song and she's just kind of yelling at me.

2:30:14And I'm like, I like it when you yell at me over one quarter. I'm, I'm, I might get a tattoo of I'm dying to get free. Yeah. That's a hell of a – you're looking to get freaked at all times. You can have it. I'm having a great time on your podcast, by the way. And I really was driving over here going, what is this going to be like? Are we going to talk about – because right off at the beginning here, I just said everything that I know about the Warriors. I just got that done. Yeah, we got it. We don't have to pretend to talk about sports. It's actually fascinating talking to you. I've thought this about you for a long time, and I hope you take this as a compliment, but you are always very intentional and very meticulous about the different layers that you record when you're putting out an album the different layers of sound that you put out there it feels like you're you're being very specific you know what you want and you're very experimental sometimes with some of the sounds so this might vary from album to album but typically over the course of one album how many different combinations of guitars and amplifiers do you use there's a room full of them and uh it's always about starting over again you know i love acdc they just straight jack for those of you don't know straight jacking is you take your cord and you put it into the amplifier and there's nothing in between yeah and if you want it to be more distorted you turn your guitar up from the actual volume level on the guitar or you turn it down no pedals no wash Shoegaze comes from, there's so many pedals that people are playing through that some British reporter said, all they do is stare at their shoes.

2:31:54So my bloody Valentine and everything that followed, it was called shoegaze.

2:32:02I always start over and go, there's a sound in my head and I want to try to find it. And so there's this search for it. And sometimes I get closer and sometimes I mess it up and I go back and think, well, you know what? We should do an unplugged record or a live record so we can fix the shitty job that I just did. Yeah. I mean, the one that maybe our listeners might be most familiar with, the Semi-Charmed Life, the guitar in the first verse. Yeah. It's such a unique sound of an instrument that I don't think I've ever heard on any other album before it's always it's always made me wonder what did you use to record that because it's got like an almost acoustic type feel to it but it's it's on an electric so yeah what was that uh that was recorded so long ago but somehow i remember this and i remember the smell of the the guitar in the case it's got this funky old musty smell that was a gretch country gentleman and the country gentleman uh has this mute thing this this mute lever and you pull it over and it gives you that clunk clunk this kind of shortened sound and we were mucking around with trying to get the guitars small because the chorus and the verse are the same three chords so how do you get this to how do you get this to move how do you get the the track to um hold pressure and breathe and uh i love this guitar we had to rent it i really wanted to buy it it wouldn't sell it to me it's i'm sure that thing's priceless now it's this green um uh late 50s country gentleman it's a semi hollow body Gretsch guitar it's it's big it's heavy and you put that thing on and you get the you get this like real small ticky thing yeah it's a good question yeah the mute switch so it's not entirely muted yeah it just makes it kind of um thuddy and and and duddy so that when the guitar actually opens up when you take it off um it it sounds crisp right and now you're in now you've sort of change moods you've come into like the the clouds moved out of the way or something you you have some different view on the on the on the oral space if you will you've always used guitars as at times almost a uh almost a percussion instrument i think you also use the vocal line as a percussion sometimes am i way off on that no you're way on on that yeah way on way on well People we've established that they know more about music than I do about sports.

2:34:53So I'm a drummer by trade. All I ever wanted to do was be the drummer. I always feel like the drummer is in control. And I think I started music because my life as a eight-year-old boy where my parents are getting divorced and I can't focus in school and there's all this sort of uncertainty. And I feel like my life is coming apart. But one can't say that. You're just drawn towards something that puts it together. And when you play drums, you have to have all of the parts of your body working together and putting it all into a rhythm. And rhythm is the bringing of different things together. That's what rhythm is.

2:35:50So I would just do that four hours a day. And then getting into bands, we couldn't find a singer. and so I would fill in for the singer until we found said singer because somehow doing it from behind the drums you couldn't couldn't see them and but I was always sort of drawn in and key to the drums so it sort of sing to the drums and then I needed to do something so i started playing guitar and uh i did not know how to play guitar so i sort of played it like a drum set i still don't really know how to play guitar but i can play the fuck out of drums on the guitar yeah so so you so there's like a sliding door moment if you find a singer you're just a drummer for life because you it almost not not a reluctant front of stage happily yeah yeah okay yeah yeah like that's that's something you're the drums were your passion and then it's like, well, we've got to find someone.

2:36:50Yeah. And then basically I graduated high school and there just wasn't room to put them anyplace else. And so I never practiced every day again. I still play drums on my records and I play drums on some other people's records.

2:37:12But it's not the same thing. Yeah. Where would you say the state of the recording industry is right now? in terms of like how it's evolved from you know back when you first started yeah there was a lot of you know the major label had control over everything and and they were seen as like the enemy that one day will be vanquished and then the internet came along and then we thought maybe this is going to be good for the artists but then you know other companies started to take over that distribution too but it's evolving so where do you think where do you see it as being at right now as opposed to like, is it a better place?

2:37:44Is it a worse place? Well, I'm aware of how fortunate I am to be able to say I don't really know because I'm not moving through that set of gatekeepers' portholes. Before, when I was coming up, the record deal was all elusive. It was all important. And you did everything to get a record deal because studio time was so astronomically expensive and the year was so expensive and you couldn't go. The Streets is one of my favorite records of all time. And that kid made that in a London public housing flat with like a Dell and a handheld mic. that's not anywhere close to as good as these SM7s that we're talking through.

2:38:45And to me, it's one of the best records of all time. And then Put It Out, that is a liberating kind of thing. There's so many artists. Billie Eilish is mucking around with her brother and putting stuff out on SoundCloud. So they were never really at the back of Jimmy Iovine and Tommy Mottola and some guy who got knighted from some record whose name I can't remember anymore. But boy, could you remember back in the day because it was so important. And I think that that is got to be liberating. However, I think there are enormous problems in artists being able to get paid now that is a struggle unto its own.

2:39:48And, you know, we go and we build these huge things like Spotify and they become incredibly valuable and artists don't share in that value. And I think that that is that's regrettable. And I think probably is ultimately is going to change. I hope with I hope with AI scraping everybody's stuff and you know that you two are going to be recreated. right yeah yeah well the beauty of our podcast is we're so stupid yeah we're wrong i don't think that anyone's going to program an ai to be as wrong as we are the computer can't be as wrong as we are so yeah like how are they going to replicate that it'd be like a computer give them a chance it'd be like a computer playing out of tune all the time yeah yeah i don't think that they can do that i heard a uh i heard uh an ai uh motown version of never let you go and it was I'd like to hear that.

2:40:47Moving. It was like I felt something in that second verse, and that freaked me out. Yeah. Yeah. And then after, were you angry at yourself? Were you like, I can't believe I enjoyed that? It was a computer that did it. Well, what I'm saying is that I hope that we will be able to have a sort of a digital copyright of ourselves, and that instead of just being scraped, that going forward into a blissful future, that as what you do matriculates out, somehow that will come back in some kind of royalty. I think that that's possible. It hasn't happened yet. Yeah, I mean, that would be ideal. But knowing how these things tend to work, I'm not so sure that that's like, someone's going to make sure to get all the clearances to go back and pay somebody that wrote a song that influenced the sliding doors.

2:41:44I do like that you have an optimistic spin on AI because it's sometimes hard to really grasp it and not get a little bummed out. Oh, I'm bummed out as fuck. Okay. Yeah. My whole team... No, I find it to be incredibly reckless and that there's eight guys that are going to own it. um i have a lot of problem with it's basically like having a hundred million nobel prize winning um workers come in and but all of all of um their income goes to eight people i have a problem with that yeah the the my it's us against them yeah my optimistic spin on ai and And the music industry is definitely part of it is that I'm hoping we reach a point or it will be ugly to get to this point.

2:42:40But because everything will be fake or computerized that like human interaction one on one becomes gold. Yeah. And, you know, kind of as just going back to what we were saying before about Spotify. Third Eye Blind is bigger than it's ever been. And more people listen to it and more people go to our shows and they are young. They are finding something in it that they value and they're finding it from each other. And that is, I acknowledge, is a product of file sharing and file sharing apps that I'm grateful for, actually. When the Napsters of the world came out, the Morpheus's of the world back in, when was that?

2:43:40Probably like around 2000, they started to really make a dent? That's when the two Sean's. Yeah. Yeah. Were you resistant to that at first? I met, I think it was Sean Parker walking through some arena or something in Las Vegas. And we met and I said, hey, you owe me a million dollars. That's what he did. He had a little nervous. No, seriously, a million dollars. Yeah. And anyway. Did he respond? That was kind of a joke. Yeah. But also a little serious. I know this is going to, you know, technology is going to happen. You know, we're not going to stop the replacing of the horses with the trolley buses.

2:44:38but what we do with it and how how um it redounds uh to people is is an open question yeah what's your uh do you have a specific venue that is like near and dear to your heart the your favorite venue you've ever played i love the aragon i'm in chicago yeah and that's why i i i got to come you guys uh um i i think that's an incredible place to play and then um there's a place uh it's it's it's a little it's like 5 000 which is we play a bigger venues when we play in chicago when we do uh bigger tours uh but there's also a place out on the water i think chicago has some of the best public spaces in the world yeah northerly island northerly island yeah that's the spot incredible it's great it always rains it always rains every every time we play there it there's some point where the clouds open up but people seem to really enjoy it and uh i do too yeah uh so that's that's a really great place um and um i like playing japan oh really yeah that the fans there are amazing.

2:45:53Playing in Tokyo is just incredible. I like playing. There's a little club in Berlin I love to play, and the whole place just jumps off and goes bat shit out there. And then in New York, it's not the Garden. It's Barclays, Fillmore? No. See, like arenas, it's great for your ego to play an arena. That's an incredible thing. But when there are people up in seats, you really want them to, you want them. The goal, I think, of live music and it's my life's work is to get that moment where people feel like they've come up out of themselves. And they're not self-aware. even though they're all together and they're in some collective state of feeling.

2:46:54That's hard with seats. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it is. Is there a, a least favorite place to play?

2:47:06Some people really love Las Vegas. They just love it. I have friends who love it. Go get it. Vegas guys. Yeah. That's not me. like getting across the lobby to get to the elevator where i stay during the show and then and then you go back uh through all the kitchens what about the sphere the gig that'd be sick yeah but see the sphere so people say that they like the sphere but everybody says the same thing which is um there's a tiny little person in this great big thing so it's spectacle over what you guys were talking what you were talking about which is uh that human interaction yeah and um i don't really see it i mean they had the wizard of oz playing there and that was kind of my favorite movie of all time uh i'd like to see that yeah no it is you're right i've gone to the sphere a couple times and you don't feel like you're at a concert you feel like you're at a show that's like bigger than a concert what did you see i saw dead and company six times there but that'd be kind of good because you're not really being asked by them to so so one thing i think is that when i play um i'm trying to be um genuinely honestly authentically in the in some emotional connection, in the emotional landscape somehow, some corollary of it, of what I'm playing.

2:48:51And you should be able to see what the temperature of the show is on my face. Yeah. That's the discipline to me. Yeah. And then really feel it in what I'm playing. So I'm not just like just, you know, anybody can play the chords. It's like it's like do you have something behind it, something ineffable that behind those chords. And so. So if you so if you see me, hopefully you're going to that's you're going to be sort of infused with that with that sense of feeling.

2:49:33I think for them That's not so much Visual So They're sort of into Fully Just sort of the The musical aspect of what they're Of what they're doing And so you can have I think they'd be conducive to a big light show I mean, it was great. It was awesome. But it definitely feels different than being at a more intimate ballroom. By the way, I looked it up. I saw you in 2009 at the Aragon. It was a great show. Ate mushrooms. I think one of my friends freaked out and left because he ate too many mushrooms. But I had a great time. We sound good on mushrooms. The right amount. Yeah. I had a great, great time.

2:50:19I just remember being like, this is awesome. Thanks for coming. Dude. Wow. Why wouldn't I? I'm flattered. Thank you for coming here. this is you know oh yeah that was 16 years ago yeah why did these guys yeah why the hell are these guys no yeah yeah did you did you get like uh because we've mentioned you a couple times i know that we mentioned during covid that we you know missed out on you did you have anyone reach out being like hey these guys talked about you or was it just i didn't know that you talked about me i knew that that uh you wanted uh uh me to be on your podcast during covid and i wanted to do it because we wanted to reach out and find some way of connecting with people.

2:51:04So I was into doing it then. Well, it has been awesome. I have one last question for you. 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. Back to Semi Charm Life, were you shocked that that was the song that popped? or was there any part of you that's like hey that's that's that's kind of crazy that that song specifically became the big song that obviously brings in a huge amount of audience that can then listen to the whole album yeah i was like there's no way that's getting played on the radio yeah this is a filthy dirty dirty song yeah did you yeah i mean it is a third dirty song and it's i feel like people just don't realize that was but there was there a song bless their hearts that you thought was going to be the song and then it became you know it was like oh i i didn't think that uh that that's not what i was thinking at all i was um there were bands like uh camper van beethoven i loved and um their big record sold 300 000 copies and my ambition was that we made a record that could sell 300 000 copies and i remember talking about that that's what i was thinking at the time and then i was driving over the bay bridge and um from uh from berkeley to san francisco and i heard it on the radio i heard it on live 105 which was the the local alternative station that i had grown up listening to and it was it was one of the most effusive moments it's like i can't believe they're playing this thing on the radio yeah and uh and then how how many albums did you sell you wanted to sell 300 ,000 I don't know um which I I don't know seven million that's a lot of albums it's a lot of it's a lot of records yeah I bought it twice um because I this is my cd scratched um back in cd days but you know but but I play uh um I really I'm supposed to be making this this new record now and um I feel so many distractions, but I want to get into that mind frame to make this record.

2:53:21And there isn't really the real estate on the radio because I still have songs that were from my first two records, maybe three records that play. And I can't bump that off. I can't get new stuff played. The Chili Peppers have the same problem. The Strokes have the same problem. It's great company to be in. But people get to hear that. And that becomes the energizing force of my band right now. And that makes me very excited about making records. Because I can make it however I want to. Are you intentional about when you sit down to write a song or do the songs just like you get struck by something that you see, something that you do, and you're like, I have to go work on this right now?

2:54:30Or is there like a scheduled time that you're like, OK, I have to, you know, Monday through Friday, I'm going to be in the lab from nine to four. We're going to be working on songs like how does do you force inspiration upon yourself by being there or do you let it come to you and then you just go? when it just kind of comes down fully formed like you're downloading a radio like you're hearing some radio from heaven in your head Billy Corgan said it's like it's almost like being a mystic which is the kind of thing Billy would say yeah let's say it and it is true that is working off inspiration is the best thing and it's probably some of the least effective.

2:55:17But actually just sitting down and going, account for yourself in this moment, whatever that is, and sit with it and sit with the difficulty of it is really essential and required. This is what happened. This is what happened actually during the pandemic. I was all distracted and, you know, fucking around on my screens. same as everybody else and um you know refreshing trying to find stuff out and and then uh a certain point i went i gotta go out in my little room with a guitar and a notepad and um go to work i was not inspired to do that and that's how um the songs on out of the vein were written and i think that that's my best record in a really long time and that is not out of inspiration per se it's really out of sit and um do your work that is an interesting concept though that you get you just get this uh download of information you're like i've got the song in my head i better i better get it down now before i screw it up i better transcribe all of this oh yeah right like it's like you against the clock oh yeah i hope i get this one right thank you for chasing a dream for sending it to me it's exactly like yeah it's exactly like chasing a dream yeah and uh and sometimes i'll wake up in the middle of the night and this melody will pop into my head and I try to sing the bass line so I know kind of what key I'm in and then I try to sing the melody that I'm hearing because I know I'm going to forget it.

2:56:50It's going to float away. It's going to evaporate like a dream and then I'll wake up the next day and I'll listen back to it and I have no idea what the thing was. It's useless. You dream songs. Sometimes, yeah. Do you have a song, like something that might be a hit or something you've become very proud of? Like what's your best song that you've just gotten in a dream? I don't really have much prediction on hits nor the, I'm not like that, like Max Martin or somebody who's, who's got a theory and a, and a plan. And, you know, I've never tried to remake a song. There's, there's, there's no, there's no, how's it going to be too.

2:57:32Yeah. Well, you have AI for that. Got AF by that. Yeah. So, So I don't have some roadmap method of doing things. It's just try to get yourself in the space. And also be, I think it's really important to be permeable, to be vulnerable to the world and to take things in. Open to the universe. Yeah. That our friend tells us. Like there are similarities with what you do. It's like...

2:58:09Anybody can sit around and talk about sports except me. And you have to be awake and alive to this moment so that what people want to hear is what happens in your mind as you interact with these things happening. and for that you have to you have to take things in and you have to be um you have to be sort of tuning it in i think it's all the same yeah well this has been so much fun we really appreciate i think so yeah and anytime you're in chicago come by i'd like that yeah you know my band out my band um um brad only likes british soccer but he doesn't like he doesn't like premier league soccer but he's also not doing um he's not doing um um you know wrexham he's somewhere although i i watch their i watch i watch their show yeah um and i'm welsh um somewhere back there jenkins you know everybody's named jenkins in their show that's me uh so uh but he watches he watches soccer and calling my keyboard player um watches the rams and that's what he cares about and um and Alex, my bass player, only cares about the Kings.

2:59:42The Sacramento Kings or the LA Kings? The LA Kings. Okay. It's all a puck flying around all the time. So you guys all together have a full sports fan? Together, there's somebody who's like kind of regularly in sports. Yeah. But we all have our niche. Yeah, right. I like that. And they've learned nothing from me about basketball, and I still don't know where the puck is. And with that, boys. Thank you so much, man. Hey, thanks for having me. Thanks, sir. Steven Jenkins is brought to you by Proper 12 Irish Whiskey. It's PFT here. Making my Irish entrance with Proper 12 Irish Whiskey. How do you make an Irish entrance, you ask?

3:00:21Well, it starts with a shot of Proper 12 Irish Whiskey because real friends don't let friends Irish exit a party without a story to tell. original proper number 12 is a rich smooth blend of golden grain and single malt aged four years in bourbon barrels you can mix up with some ginger ale for a classic refreshing proper ginger and if you're in the mood for something smooth but a little sweeter try proper irish apple it's a delicious blend of proper's award-winning irish whiskey with crisp fresh notes of apple so get out there make your irish entrance anything else just wouldn't be proper make your irish entrance with proper number 12 irish whiskey okay let's wrap up send everyone on their way just another reminder because i know we get questions all the time when there's not going to be a show on friday where's the show monday wednesday this week uh next week monday friday so no show wednesday no show on new year's eve monday friday next week guys on chicks what up pmt boys what up what up the majority of my family attended michigan state my fiance say is concerned with the amount of shit talking about Sharon coming his way during the holidays.

3:01:30Oh, is he allowed to fire back? Even if it's my dad. And if so, any suggestions as to what he should say? I mean, if you want to get serious, serious, there's stuff you could fire back with. Yeah. But I don't know if you want to do that. Well, so I wasn't thinking Larry Nassar. I think where it comes from Michigan State, obviously the little brother thing complex. But more than that, Mel Tucker, similar firing. And there was a lot of joking about that. So Michigan State deserves and is allowed to just go after Michigan right now. I actually think you should fire back. Don't hit the Larry Nassar button.

3:02:10No, that's a bummer to bring up at Christmas. And also way, way, way worse. Not even in the same stratosphere of what we're talking about. That's like a really horrific thing. so it's not like a hey we're just busting balls i think you just hit him back with mel tucker you go sharon more mel tucker because that looks like you can hang yeah and also not do the larry nasser i also feel like if mel tucker if that happened at michigan we would know way more details about that but the fact that it happened at michigan state yeah people dug into it a little bit but it wasn't as as huge as this ron more thing was warning tuck coming still is just the funniest hashtag it is in retrospect i'm a dude but my girlfriend is wanting to go to the browns bangles at the end of the season instead of a seven-year-old's birthday party at a roller rink am i beta for wanting to go skip the football game to go to the roller skating browns bangles that's a hair on your chest game like you are you that that that's a fun experience it's like hey we're just gonna go in this embrace this suck why does she want to go well she doesn't No, she does.

3:03:20Oh, she does. Yeah. The dude doesn't. He said, am I a beta for not wanting to go? Oh, yeah. You are a beta. Yeah. It sounds like you don't love football. That's okay if you don't love football. Some guys don't love football. It sounds like you might be a guy that doesn't love football. I would say he's 100 % a guy who doesn't love football. I would ask him, are you a guy that loves football? If he says yes, then you're dating a liar. You have two options here, buddy. You either love football or you love little kids. You pick. Or roller skating. With little kids. No, Big Cat's right. He specified roller skating.

3:03:51Big Cat's right. Would you rather watch sports or go look at little kids? Mm-hmm. Those are your options. We've laid them out. I know where I stand. You can make your decision. I'll be watching football. Football. All right, last one. My boyfriend has recently started using hair gel because he finally has enough hair to use it. Was a buzz cut guy, grew his hair out. While I do think he looks good with it, he's gone a little overboard. He will shower at night and put it in before bed. because he always wants his hair to look perfect. I'm glad he likes it, but I'm getting kind of annoyed by it. What should I do?

3:04:25What were you going to say, Zach? That's insane. Insane. That's a wild move. In the sheets? Yeah. You're just gelling up? I think this guy might have a little bit of American psycho in him. Like he's staring at himself in the mirror with his new hair, wearing it to bed. Oh speaking of which Throwing out a Throwing out a recommendation for Christmas break Not because of our affiliation Or anything Beast and Me really good I liked it I did not like the last Like two or three episodes Oh I loved episode seven but before that It was good it's a very good show American Psycho-esque yes Yeah Matthew Rhys is Incredible in it what Matthew Rhys is I could deal with a little less of the Claire Danes hyperventilating you don't love The chin the hyperventilating quivering chin it's it's good to break out once a series it makes me laugh every time every episode that chin won't stop it's you're you're basically asking steph curry not to take three i am i can't do that but you can't say hey claire danes do this emotional show and don't quiver your chin much like clear much like steph curry i fear that claire danes has inspired a new generation of actresses to just be chin only quinn chin quiver yeah um i can't remember the chin day rag oh yeah This guy's weird.

3:05:41Weirdo. All right, memes. What a Christmas gift this would be to send you off. You ready? Number three. Come on, memes. Come on. That was generous of you all. 100. 25 for Christmas. I go 85. 95. 8. 8 for Hanukkah. Amari Hanukkah. I'm all over that What'd you guess, sir? 22

3:06:1793 That was a fade You want one more? Sure Yeah, it's a double show We are at 29 now 29 You're getting close, memes I haven't updated this You kind of got to get it before Super Bowl memes Because that's going to be a lot of people New York Jets Like Super Bowl week A lot of people coming up to you Zero picks No you don't care about getting it No people are coming up Oh 52 I thought that was 25 I did too Patrick Willis Love you guys Merry Christmas

3:07:10Thank you.

3:07:39Thank you.

3:08:09Thank you.

3:08:45Thank you.