Takes

I will do 10 more years of Pardon My Take followed by another 10 after that

Here's to 10 more and then probably 10 more after that. Because what the... am I gonna do, this is the best thing in the world. We're going to ride it until we are the biggest old losers that everyone makes fun of.

Winter Olympic viewership would skyrocket if downhill skiing was head-to-head instead of a time trial

The Winter Olympics suck because the, there are very few head-to-head sports. Everything is a time trial... If you had downhill skiing with eight people lined up, it would be one of the top events. Similarly, if you had sprinting or swimming in the summer as time trials instead of head-to-head, no one would watch.

Tom Brady's claim that he had no dog in the fight was just a setup for a Super Bowl commercial hoax.

I think this is just a Super Bowl commercial. I think Tom's getting in the news and then you're gonna see him dressed up like in all Pat gear in a commercial on Sunday... I was trying to convince [Hank] that the whole Tom Brady thing... was just Super Bowl hoax commercial season.

Tony Romo is the worst broadcaster in football

He's been the worst, you guys. ... We've never been more right about anything. ... People are calling us haters. ... He's so bad.

This has to be Al Michaels' last year

I do think this has to be Al Michaels' last year. Next year has to be. I would appreciate if Al Michaels would do a retirement tour. If he was like, this is it, I would not complain about him at all because he is a legend of the game.

NFL games should be free for everyone to watch

Sports should be free. That's my take. When I'm elected president free sports for everybody... It keeps people happy. It's also just the right thing to do.

ESPN and Disney are screwing over sports fans in their feud with YouTube TV

ESPN is fucking everyone because ESPN's got a new app... they're screwing over everyone who has cut the cord... and it's just fucked up. It's fucked up. They're just screwing over the consumer. The people who just wanna watch sports. ... stop with this bullshit where everyone is trying to squeeze each other out for an extra dollar.

I am done with acting in Hollywood movies and will focus only on stand-up and podcasting

I'm out dude. I have no business in the business. I'm out. Stand up and podcasting. I'm 42 in a month and I've had a great, I love doing Dave... but the business has changed and I have more fun doing stand-up and podcasting by far than I ever did doing that other stuff.

Corner camping is a legitimate and awesome strategy in Call of Duty

I think that's awesome. Yeah, it's great. You find a good spot where you kill... corner camping. I ended up winning. It was great.

Max is never going to complete or edit the 'Dingers Only' video

Max is never gonna do the dingers only band. Never. It's fucking crazy... He's never gonna edit it... Awls should be pissed.

The NBA's plan to push West Coast games to 11 PM Eastern is a bad move compared to MLB's regional focus

The NBA is actually doing the reverse. You see that they're doing a like, coast to coast where they're gonna push back the West Coast games to 11:00 PM Eastern time... I don't know and maybe the Mets and Yankees would be in the same division [in MLB], which that, that would, I feel like that would be a mistake.

Battlefield 6 is bringing realism back to first-person shooters

The Battlefield six beta has brought realism back into first person shooter games. They peaked with 520,000 concurrent players only on Steam. Battlefield six, none of [the skins]. We're riding tanks. We're blowing up buildings.

The NFL owning a 10% stake in ESPN will make it much harder for other media companies to interview players

I'm glad that florio's all over this, but I, I don't know what differences we're gonna see, but I do think that the NFL is going to make it way less likely for other media companies to conduct interviews with NFL players.

ESPN will eventually ruin NFL RedZone by adding commercials

There's a decent chance that ESPN fucks us up. ... They won't fuck it up right away because they know people will be upset but they'll eventually fuck it up and they'll slip in some things. ... I don't think they're gonna have commercials right away, but I think that they're gonna have like very intrusive onscreen commercials during the actual play. And I think they're gonna eventually get to commercials.

Inside the NBA at ESPN will struggle to maintain its magic if they cut it for SportsCenter

The number one time on our show is after the game. You get like 4 to 5 minutes to shoot the shit. That's the magic. But me and Ernie have talked about it... Are they gonna say 'No guys, y'all got 15 minutes. We gotta go to SportsCenter'?

Darren Rovell makes every celebrity death about himself

I do think our eSports correspondent Darren Rovell is starting to maybe learn from his mistakes because Hulk Hogan passed and he actually had a couple funny, fun tidbits on his Twitter. Unlike when Ozzy Osborne passed... everyone was like, so you just made his death about you. I think he deleted it. Hulk Hogan... you know, he has a lot of Hulk Hogan memorabilia.

It is crazy that Time Magazine left Joe Rogan off their list of the 100 most influential podcasts

Joe Rogan not on the List, kind of crazy. Like Joe Rogan is the biggest podcast in the world. And he's like, he's in the news all the time... think about how many careers he started. It's fucking nuts.

Our 10th anniversary book will be the dumbest book ever created

It's gonna be the dumbest book ever created. And it's not gonna be... like, I don't wanna, we're not gonna write like a a tell all that's like super serious. It's gonna be stupid. ... We want it to be dumb. We wanna be stupid.

Removing referees and umpires from sports would eliminate 50% of the conversations fans have with each other

If you took away all refs and umps from all sports, you're basically eliminating like 50% of conversations guys can have with each other. Like if your team loses, you have to be able to blame a human being.

We have reached the point where AI-generated videos are officially indistinguishable from reality.

AI is back. 'cause I think half the pod, not just Hank this time, got got fooled with a fake man on the street video that's done using all AI. And we've reached the point where now we can't tell we, we officially can't. Sometimes we should be able to tell, but now I feel like it's just, it's, we're we're fucked.

The ESPN announcing booth of Richard Jefferson and Doris Burke lacks aura and does not suit big playoff games

The booth, the Richard Jefferson, Doris Burke that there's not a lot of Aura. I'm sorry. ... I'm smashing the Aura button on everything now but I'm smashing it there. It don't, we like RJ, I like Doris Burke as a team. It just doesn't feel big game ish. It just, I don't know. It's like, but let Mike Breen just do it himself. It just didn't feel something was off.

Ryan Clark is a psycho for his social media attack on Robert Griffin III

Ryan Clark is kind of a psycho and just went like nuclear on a take about a foul in the WNBA. ... It basically comes down to RG3 had a misdemeanor of being corny online and, and Ryan Clark put him in front of a firing squad.

Remote sports broadcasting for playoff games should be abolished

Abolishing in studio broadcasters. Celtics had it tonight. The two guys were not in the garden... It sounded like a dead arena... that just needs to not be a thing. I dunno how much money it saves. It's good for golf. It's bad for real sports.

Pardon My Take will end in 21 years.

I'm gonna retire in 20 years. 20. You have 20 years of Pardon? My Take left... I kinda like walking away in 21 years... 30 total.

I will retire from the podcast in 10 years.

I got 10 more years... I can see myself doing it until your guys age.

Skip Bayless is the biggest loser of the LeBron interview on Pat McAfee

All this to say Skip Bayless was not mentioned once and all Skip Bayless wants to do is get mentioned by LeBron. He's the big loser in all of this.

Shohei Ohtani's two-way dominance is more impressive than Travis Hunter's

Shohei Ohtani [is more impressive] because he has done it at the big league level... Ohtani being elite at both levels at the highest level of baseball. If Travis Hunter can be an all pro cornerback and an all pro wide receiver in the same season, get back to me.

The HBO show 'Hard Knocks' canceled its North Carolina season because fans were calling it 'Tar Knocks'

Do we think that the hit show 'Tar Knocks'—the naming of it—has maybe ended Hard Knocks at UNC?... Somebody from HBO listened to the show and was like, everyone's gonna be calling it Tar Knocks. We can't have this.

The NHL's Four Nations tournament completely outclassed the NBA All-Star weekend

The NHL absolutely bodied the NBA in terms of getting it right and what they did, what they've done with the Four Nations Tournament instead of the All-Star game versus everything that's been going on for the NBA All-Star game. It's not even close.

The NFL cued the NBA during All-Star week by holding the Super Bowl immediately before it

The NBA cued the NFL during Super Bowl week and the NHL cued the NBA during Allstar week. NHL is king.

The new Fox score bug for Super Bowl 59 was a war crime and shouldn't have been introduced during the championship game.

Fox bringing out that new score bug for the Super Bowl was a war crime. It was disgusting. It was just insane. Why do networks do that for the Super Bowl? This is something that you need like at least a full year to workshop... I don't know who came up with that, but that guy should be—I don't wanna say fired, but he should be because that was so bad.

Scott Hanson and NFL Red Zone are on the Hot Seat for airing commercials on a 'commercial-free' broadcast

My Hot Seat is Scott Hanson and NFL Red Zone... Their entire tagline for years since the beginning of Red Zone... Get ready for seven hours of commercial-free football. And on Sunday they ran commercials. They were like 30 seconds of commercial... you just completely rug pulled them.

The Meta Quest 3 is significantly better than the Apple Vision Pro

I got the Apple Vision Pro like seven months ago. What a waste of fucking money that was. That was probably the the biggest waste of money I've ever had in my entire life... picked up the Meta Quest 3. That thing rocks... this kicks the shit out of the Apple Vision Pro.

Opting out of the lottery ball should be grounds for losing your job

If you Opt outta a lottery ball, you're opting outta the booth. Is that what you're doing? And then you might be opting outta your job. I don't understand this. Hank is the very definition of grace. You could complain, you could bitch... You can't Opt out.

The Dodgers-Yankees World Series will average 14 million viewers.

Last year, 9.08 million average. I'm predicting 14 million average. Whoa. Average for this one. Whoa. That's, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about ratings.

Stephen A. Smith has the greatest gift of gab in the history of television

He has the greatest gift of gab in the history of television in my view. You just knew right away he's going to let me say that to him. [Stephen A. Smith] is the perfect foil for me.

Bob Costas is horrible at broadcasting baseball and should stop

Bob Costas... He just sounded, he's broadcasting the Yankees-Royals series and he sounds horrible... He has all the money. He doesn't need to do it. I don't get why he chooses to do it.

Adam Schefter will become the Ultimate Insider covering both NFL and NBA

Adam Schefter could be a candidate to replace Woj... In this scenario, Schefter would cover both the NFL and NBA as what a source called the Ultimate Insider... there's nothing you can do when someone says, Hey, you wanna be the ultimate insider?

The ESPN NBA halftime show is terrible compared to TNT's Inside the NBA

I don't wanna watch [Stephen A. Smith's] halftime show. It's awful. When they go from TNT to him, I'm like, this is the biggest turnaround [downgrade] I've ever seen. ... It's just not good TV to me.

Kevin Warren's chair selection scene on Hard Knocks was riveting television

The scene where [Kevin Warren] was talking about the different chairs... that was riveting television. They're designing suites for their stadium that doesn't exist. And Kevin Warren's making executive choices about whether or not you want a high top chair with a back... these are the decisions that a president has to make.

Connor Stallions would be a massive weapon as a scout for a gambling company

I honestly think that this guy could be a weapon in the gambling space. Have him do one pick a week, go out, scout whatever you want to scout. Unlimited budget. He's a one-man CIA.

John Oliver's monologues are only convincing to people who don't actually know anything about the topic he is discussing

John Oliver's monologues are probably the best in the business. They're unbelievably convincing until he does the one on the topic that you know. ... If he did an NBA one... I'd go 'you're fucked.' ... It's the accent and a great setup on HBO. I can't hang with that.

The leak that Stephen A. Smith might pursue acting is a transparent and unbelievable contract leverage move

There was an article recently about Stephen A.'s new contract and it was like, if they can't figure it out, he may go to politics, he may go late night, or he could get into acting. ... But acting? Because he was on General Hospital a couple episodes? Come on. ... Acting? Come on.

Skip Bayless genuinely believes his own contrarian opinions about LeBron James and Tim Tebow

The one person in the history of the world that thinks that LeBron sucks and Tim Tebow is great... he truly believes that. ... I appreciate how crazy he is. ... what an insane person to have on TV.

Noah Lyles is the Hater of the Year for his comments on the NBA

Noah Lyles... might have to do that as a Takey Hater of the Year. Because he was the one who before the Olympics said, you don't win a world championship if you win the NBA championship. That's not the world... He definitely got cut playing basketball. He's got some very deep seated anger for any ball sport.

Sports leagues are pricing out fans by fragmenting media rights across too many streaming platforms

This is what the leagues are doing. They're just chopping it up and they're cutting it and they're selling a bunch of NBA to us that we have to buy individually. I feel like that's the real inflation in the United States right now. It's becoming expensive to be a sports fan. They're pricing a lot of people out of watching sports. And that shouldn't be right.

The New York media is unethical and prioritizes control

The media in general is scared of people that they can't control. Because they built this brand that can't be controlled. I would say the majority of them too are so unethical. The practices now is just a fucking joke.

The Washington State dynasty has already peaked under Coach Doug

Congratulations. Thank you. On the best season Wazoo is gonna have under you, coach Doug. I'm realistic. And I'm wanting to root for you. But when but when you're missing reps. If you won that game, sky's the limit.

Stephen A. Smith officially won the Skip Bayless divorce

Stephen A. Smith has won the Skip Bayless-Stephen A. Smith divorce. It took a few years to get there... Skip is out at Fox Sports I believe at the end of the summer... he goes off, does his own podcast, gets 5 trillion views on it. Works for ESPN, seems to be having a good time.

The Sonos app is terrible and needs to be completely fixed

I got something to say about Sonos. Figure it out guys. Ooh, what's up with this app? Why do I need the app to, to play the, the music? I agree. And if you're gonna require me to have the app to play music, at least make the app good. You know? Yes. I gotta be able to go on my Spotify and just click a speaker. Yep. You can do it with everything else.