Takes

A Manning will be on every American television screen for the next 40 years

Eli and [Peyton] are doing that thing on ESPN, the simulcast for Monday Night Football. I also think Cooper is going to get involved at some point. You're not going to be able to turn on a television in America and not have a Manning staring at you.

Trying to cancel Joe Rogan only promotes his show

It is the dumbest thing ever that they try to cancel Joe Rogan every other month. And then a bunch of people just tweet out Joe Rogan clips that probably just make new Joe Rogan fans. They're just doing his promotion for him.

I am officially opting out of all Simone Biles discourse

I'm opting out of all discussion about Simone Biles simply because there's like, it's one of those discussions where it is either all the way on this side or all the way on that side and there's literally no nuance or actual discussion being had. As soon as you see it happen and people start screaming at each other, no one's actually having a conversation. So I've opted out of all Simone Biles discussion because no one is actually trying to change each other's minds.

The growth of legalized sports gambling is the best thing that will happen to sports broadcasting

I actually think that the growth of gambling and accessibility is going to be the best thing that happens to our business because nothing's going to be meaningless. There is no meaningless. It doesn't matter what the score is. It also doesn't matter what the game is. It matters what the handle is, where the juice is, where the action is.

Lacrosse should use the term 'power play' rather than 'man-up'

People keep coming at me being like, hey, dude, it's man-up. It's like, dude, they say power play. It's a fucking power play... because what you have then on the women's game is they're saying woman up. And it's become a gender thing... Nope. It's a power play. They're on the power.

I am retiring from professional lacrosse very soon

how long how much longer are you gonna play for real? Not much longer. Really? Yeah. I'm 35... I get checked now, and I have bruises that last for weeks. So it's actually going to... My hips crack in the morning, my knees crack.

Jay Williams' 'hacked' excuse is an all-time idiot move

Jay Williams, all time idiot, like dumb tweet. And then on top of all that, he deletes it and waits like three hours and says... I did not post that. And my passcode has now been changed. So just like every hacker usually sets up, they spend years at hacking school so that they can one day tweet from Jay Williams' account that the Celtics hired the first black head coach.

I will be doing the play-by-play for the PLL doubleheader on July 31st

It is happening. July 31st, a doubleheader. I'm Peacock. I will be doing the play-by-play. It would not be possible without all of you guys in here... July 31st, doubleheader.

Robert Griffin III has found his future career as an analyst

So ESPN and Fox are in a bidding war for him as an analyst. Whoa. So it looks like he found his future career. ... The executives were, quote, blown away by his audition.

The media will soon claim that sports were better without fans in the building

I'm going to level it up. I'm going to say by the time you're hearing my voice, if it's in the afternoon tomorrow... somebody will have already written the take that sports were better when there were no fans in the building.

Podcast rankings are misleading; people should check episode rankings for true listener stats

How come some podcasts randomly go higher than you guys in the podcast ranking sometimes? Does that mean they get more listeners? No, it does not. So if you start a new podcast, your podcast is always going to be... It just goes to number one. That's just how it works. The way to realize the success of shows is episodes. So if you go to the episode page, you can see where shows are ranked. Just look at the episodes, bitch.

Drew Brees will not be a good broadcaster

I got a hot take. I don't think Drew Brees is going to be that good in the booth... There's going to be a wave of people being like, and as much shit as we give Tony Romo, he's objectively good... I don't think Drew Brees has a personality. I would sell all my stock on Drew Brees being good in the booth.

The return of the EA Sports College Football game is a monumental and universally loved day

The best day I haven't seen the Internet universally love something more than this game returning. It is so fucking great. It is going to take like two or three years, which who cares? ... This was a monumental day. This is a great day.

In-person interviews will likely return after the Fourth of July

Would you guys say over, under, Fourth of July? [for having people back in-person] Over, probably, if I'm being realistic, yeah. I really hope that it does [happen].

The PLL and MLL merger is a monumental moment in lacrosse history

I think that this is actually probably like a huge moment in the lacrosse history. This is like when the NFL and AFL merged.

Camo Crocs are sick and making a comeback

Camo Crocs are sick. Crocs might be making a comeback.

Gen Z's lack of cable is the primary reason for declining sports TV ratings

Our biggest fan base comes from gen Z and younger Millennials... consume more basketball and NBA than any sport online but they don't have cable. They don't have satellite and so they couldn't even get ESPN and TNT. So that's a real problem for us... it's not about making excuses, the reality is this is just a different year.

Sports will never return to a state where players don't use their leverage for political activism

I don't think it's ever going to go back to players not using their leverage in terms of getting into political arguments or political discussions or activism or that sort of thing. So at this point it's like you can either stop watching sports entirely or you can just kind of accept that this is going to be the new normal. You're putting your head in the sand if you think that it's ever going to go back to more of the way it was when these two things didn't interact as much.

Thom Brennaman will lose his job for his hot mic slur

So if you're living under a rock he... had a hot mic situation where he used a homophobic slur and probably is going to lose his job.

Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler on Monday Night Football will be phenomenal

One positive. Let's finish this with one positive Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler on Monday Night Football will be phenomenal. They're a great Monday Night Football both they and they're going to call Monday night.

Jay Glazer 'held the world hostage' with a dud scoop about a player getting COVID

Jay Glazer held the world hostage for 24 hours thinking he was going to break the biggest news ever and then just told us a guy [Brian Allen] got coronavirus. But he was fine. Hundreds of thousands of, I think millions, yeah, millions of people have had coronavirus and he was like, big news coming tomorrow.

Joe Rogan is officially uncancellable

Twitter decided to go like they went full send and I'm going to tip my cap to The cancel Brigade because they went for the final boss Joe Rogan and failed... he is uncancelled because he would actually let's say that Twitter was able to get his contract with Spotify canceled, right? He would just take that ride that wave of publicity. Go back to what he was doing before and still make a shitload of money.

Tearing twins apart at birth causes permanent psychological separation anxiety

I think the reason they didn't open up the study is that they realize that by tearing twins apart actually made them crazy. Remember when they said they had separation anxiety? I think that's what they found out... you tear apart two twins they get fucked up from it.

Lance Armstrong is exactly like Pete Rose in how he only admits to what he's already been caught for

[Lance] actually reminds me a lot of Pete Rose in the way that he deals with things where he wants he's like caught red-handed he'll admit something and maybe he'll give you like a little bit past what you already know about right but then you ask them well what about all this other stuff and then he'll put up like one blocker but like no I never did that.

Fake crowd noise in sports broadcasts is a good idea with no downside

I'm totally down with the fake crowd noise. They had it for the Bundesliga. I thought it was awesome. It really does make it seem like a real game... I don't see any downside. I know the opposition to that is we want to hear the players talk, but as soon as players know that they're on a live mic, they're not going to talk the same way.

The camera angles for Washington Huskies football and basketball games are the weirdest in sports

The camera angles, both for football and basketball, are the weirdest camera angles ever. The basketball camera angle when you're watching a Washington Huskies game is insane. I don't understand how – I'm a degenerate gambler, so these are the weird things that I notice.

I'm surprised there has never been a Call of Duty branded movie

I'm surprised there's never been a Call of Duty movie, to be perfectly honest. ... I know [there are war movies], but there's not like a Call of Duty branded [one].

I almost killed off Vinnie Chase in the series finale

I thought about killing Vince to end the show. ... Mark [Wahlberg] sat me down and goes, we're going to make a movie. We're going to make a Broadway show. We're going to make an animated show. You can't fucking kill Vince. So that ultimately was probably the right decision.

The Undertaker would walk slower to the ring if he knew the match was going to be bad

A lot of times that would just depend on my opponent. If I was working with somebody that that was pretty limited... I was like man I got to get I'm gonna get my money's worth out of this entrance. So yeah there there were times that I would take a little bit of extra time because I knew the match is going to be horrible.

Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals will forever be the most-watched NBA game of all time

That game six of the 98 finals with the shot and MJ finishing his career with the Bulls, that will forever be the most watched NBA game of all time. 35.89 million people were watching that game concurrently... It's going to keep getting more and more fractured. That will be the most watched NBA game of all time.

The NFL's Christmas Day game is a direct shot at the NBA

The NFL is now saying, fuck you, NBA. We're not giving you this day for free. They're fighting back, and they will have an NFL game on Christmas Day.

Leroy is retiring from the scoop game

I'd like to pivot [Leroy] out of the breaking news game, put him out to stud, put him out to retire... and then use the account to grade the scoops of actual insiders. Leroy serves as the judge.

NCAA athletes have a basic human right to monetize their name, image, and likeness

I just want listen the whole idea that everyone's going to get a salary... is probably not accurate, but I do think just the basic human right of being able to monetize your image likeness and name it something that is attainable for athletes. And that that is the thing I think is most realistic and I want to focus on.

Mike Francesa is making his content less accessible to the few people still listening

My friend says it was like hey, you know, what's a good idea to make sure that my content is even less accessible to the people? ... It's the MLB model. Yes. If he was smart, he would just start his own Twitter account for his own show. But I guess he's sunk a lot of production costs into doing the mics on app.

NBA ratings are only down on TV because younger fans are cord-cutters

NBA ratings have taken a little bit of a dip totally different right... cord cutters, right? If your shows on television a nobody watch it... our numbers are down primarily on TNT which doesn't have as much carriage and as much linked to younger audiences... our streaming numbers the really really good.

Booger McFarland is the new Jason Witten for NFL fan criticism

Jason Witten is on my cool throne because the internet has finally come for Booger McFarland. I think Booger had that nice spot where he came in after Jason Witten, so it was like no one was paying attention for a little bit, and now people are starting to listen to what he says... he's getting roasted. The internet is coming for him.

The word 'Boomer' has jumped the shark

Boomer just the word Boomer has invaded like meme and American culture to a point where like I'm sick of it. It's kind of jumped the shark a little bit. But now it's at one of those things where it's like so mainstream it's like harambee after like two months where I was funny in the beginning.

NBA players and coaches should admit they only care about China's money

I would prefer if they just said: our money is paid in large part by China and all these people buying league pass. And it's a big fucking country. And we're trying to sell a shitload of Kobe jerseys. So therefore, we are going to remove ourselves from this discussion.

Max Kellerman did not create the term 'BOAT'

Max Kellerman keeps talking about how he created the BOAT, and it's pissing me off... I think someone in the Barstool World slash Blake [Bortles] created it, and it's been around for five years now, and the fact that Max Kellerman thinks he just made it up on the spot yesterday is driving me insane.

The secret to the Stone Cold Stunner is doing it in a ring because the concrete has no give

The secret to the stunner is do it in a ring because you got a little bit of give. I hit my damn tailbone [on concrete] and every vertebrae in my back said, fuck you, don't ever do that again. So yeah, it works best inside a ring with a little bit of give.

Pepsi was the sixth largest military power in the world in 1989

In 1989, the cash strapped Soviet Union paid Pepsi with 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate and a destroyer in exchange for three billion dollars worth of Pepsi, causing Pepsi to become the sixth largest military power, at least Navy wise, in the world.

AEW's existence will force Vince McMahon to improve the WWE product

It's also going to stick a boot up Vince's ass. You know, you're not just, if you're running a race and no one's behind you, you slow down, you stop, have a drink, whatever. If there's someone right on your heels and you're about ready to lose the race, you're going to run as fast as you can.

RJ Hampton's brand will be fine because we will be the number one RJ Hampton podcast on planet Earth

Guess what, Jeff Goodman? His brand is going to be fine because we're going to be the number one RJ Hampton podcast on planet Earth.

Skip Bayless won by getting the Virginia Cavaliers to talk about him after the title game

Anytime a championship team talks about an analyst, a troll analyst, they won. Mission accomplished. No matter who it is, no matter what it is that's giving Stephen A. Smith attention, Stephen A. is basking in it.

The 'I Hate Christian Laettner' title was a smart marketing move

The title bothered me until I called my mother... She says, well, they don't want only the Duke lovers and the Laettner lovers to watch this show. They want everyone across the board to watch it... Carolina fans, Kentucky fans... Everyone's going to want to watch it and see what's up.

Peyton Manning's low eyes-to-forehead ratio would make him great in the booth

I actually think [Peyton Manning] would be very, very good in the booth. You talk about a guy with low eyes. He sets the record for lowest eyes to forehead ratio.

The NBA purposefully tried to cuck the NFL during Super Bowl week

I saw somebody tweet something out like, I've scored the first four days of Super Bowl week as 10-8, 10-9, 10-8, 10-9 in favor of the NBA... This is our week, NBA. You sons of bitches, NBA. You did it again.

It is bad luck to say 'good luck' to an actor before a performance.

One thing I will say, because you'll see actors kind of wince if you say it, you're not supposed to say good luck before a performance. That is bad luck to say good luck when you're talking to an actor.

Darren Rovell is suspended from Pardon My Take for six months

Darren Rovell, you cannot invite yourself like this on Pardon My Take. We are now hereby suspending you from appearing on this podcast for how long? I say six months, at least.

Jason Witten is clearly over his head and won't have a job at ESPN by the end of the year

I officially, officially feel bad for Jason Witten. He is so clearly over his head... And now I just feel bad because it feels like he's not going to have a job at the end of the year. And this is painful.