Takes

Prospects are defined by how they handle the biggest adversity they've faced

The best thing... is, hey, what's the biggest adversity you faced and how did you bounce back from it? I'm such a big believer just based on the course of things that have occurred... that even though the most challenging moments, they felt like the worst thing when you're in 'em, you look back on 'em and you're saying, I don't know where I would be without what those lessons and those tough times taught me.

Going 5-12 in 2022 was the best thing that ever happened to me professionally

The best thing in these eight years that's happened to me, it was going five and 12 in 2022. Like it really was because of what that force. Like I had to get my ass broken down and really exposed on a public level where you're really saying like, all right, some of these insecurities you have now, you can't hide from 'em and you're either gonna handle it the way that you would want to advise your son or you're gonna run away from it.

Binging a TV show is much better than watching it week-by-week

This is my big, i I like binging shows. I like just diving right into 'em. I don't know how people can watch a show like I gave up on House of Dragon. Yeah. Because I watched the first season and then it was four years and I was like, I don't remember fucking shit. I'm out.

LeBron James is potentially a better father than he is a basketball player

I think you could actually make the case that LeBron James, he is top two basketball player of all time. He might be a better dad than basketball player... The fact that he got his son [Bronny] drafted. He might actually be one of the best dads that it's like him and God.

Paying an elite running back is a better investment than paying a mediocre quarterback

It is better to pay [Saquon Barkley] that much money than it is to pay a quarterback who's not very good a lot of money. Correct. A Daniel Jones, if you would.

Travis Hunter playing both ways is more impressive than Shohei Ohtani pitching and hitting

Travis Hunter at the combine said that him playing offense defense, it's harder than Shohei playing offense defense... Being a professional cornerback and a professional wide receiver at the same time playing in the same game... I think there's a better chance of another Shohei coming around than another Travis Hunter.

Pete Rose should be reinstated to MLB and the Hall of Fame because his 'lifetime' ban is technically over

It was a lifetime ban. Right. The operative word being life. Right. He's no longer alive. Right. He's dead. So the ban should have already been lifted.

An NFL offense must go for it on 4th and goal from the 8 when trailing by 8 late against a top QB

Gotta go for it. Yeah, you gotta go for it... You're down there, you're that close. We all know how hard it is to score in the red zone in this league. So when you're down there, you gotta have your opportunity. I think you gotta be aggressive there.

Liam Coen is the biggest snake in football for leaving the Buccaneers for the Jaguars

New Jaguar's head coach Liam Coen is the biggest snake in football today... My feelings were hurt when you left... I was a card carrying member. I was a Coenhead.

I can definitely beat up my brother Matthew Tkachuk in a fight

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. [Big Cat: You could beat the fuck out of him?] I'll say and he'll see it and be like, yeah, he can. Oh, he knows. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You must win a championship to be considered the face of the NBA

When has there ever been a face of a league that didn't win? Right. You have to win when it matters. You have to win a championship to be considered a face of this league. Agreed. It's not. And obviously if you win, that doesn't automatically mean you're the face of the league.

The Celtics' loss to the Cavaliers was a 'statement loss' that will motivate them for the playoffs

A fully healthy Celtics team is not loose to the Cavs. It was an absolute ref show, but it was, it was. I mean it's good. It's, it's a, Mazzulla loves those games. He loves having things that he can use to motivate the team and and losing to a team that's gonna have a better record than them going into the playoffs like that. That's good. That was a good statement loss.

Bill Belichick's Hard Knocks at UNC will be a massive recruiting commercial for the Tar Heels

I'm actually excited to watch this. Yeah. I wanna see it is gonna be a giant commercial for UNC. That's the reason why he's doing it. Obviously. Smart. It's smart. It's very smart. You get a lot of publicity. Guys wanna come play for you.

Saquon Barkley is a better football player than he is a human being, simply because he is a top-10 player in the world

[Saquon] is an unbelievable person... top 1% human worldwide. [Big Cat: He's a better football player.] There's more people in the world than there is human beings. He's a top-10 football player. I'd say the top like thousand human beings... He's a better football player than human being. You just admitted it.

Howie Roseman is the best General Manager in the world

Howie does a great job of that. Yeah. So it, it, it's, it's making my life easier and easier. Every move that he makes, it's awesome. I love it. Yeah. I love it. I love It's the best. It's the best. Yeah. It's, it's the absolute best. He's the, he's the best GM in the world. I have no doubt in my mind.

The Jets are disgusted with Aaron Rodgers and want him to cut back on the Pat McAfee Show distractions

The Jets disgusted with Aaron Rodgers... How are we gonna do this Pat McAfee thing? We would really like you to cut back on a lot of this stuff, the distractions so we could all be one, keep it all out. New chapter, new New York Jets.

Miles Garrett wants to leave Cleveland because he doesn't believe in the Browns' plan

Miles wants to get paid... but he really wants to win. Like he's got this attitude like, it's not happening here in Cleveland. Like, I don't like your plan and I think we could all agree that the plan's not great.

The NFL should never hold a Super Bowl abroad because it belongs to America

The NFL can't do a Super Bowl abroad. Can you make sure that doesn't happen? It sucks. It's our game. It would suck ass. Don't do that. No, it's our game. It's America's game. You can't give the game to another country.

The Matthew Stafford and Tom Brady ski trip was definitely not a coincidence

Jordan Schultz had [the report] that Matt Stafford and Tom Brady went on a nice little cozy ski vacation together... Ian Rapoport came over the top and said I'm told that this was just a coincidence... Can you imagine the coincidence level though of like, you and I happen to run into each other on vacation? I'm just not buying it.

NFL owners are cheap if they have bad locker rooms or bad food

I don't understand how anyone owns a team and gets anything worse than like a B on any of these things. If I had that much money and I owned a team, I'd be tricking out everything... I can't conceptualize an owner of a football team being like, 'Our players don't get to eat on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.'

NFL fans should have a weighted column to vote on the annual team report cards

Win games. That's the other thing... they actually should do a column here for fans. Fans should get a say in this... just overall vibes.

Pat Riley is a bad guy for taking LeBron James's cookies on the team plane

LeBron stops playing cards when he finds out his cookies were taken... I would rather someone come and pat me on the head like patronizing words to take someone to take another man's cookies. You're basically saying they're a 4-year-old that didn't eat their vegetables... Pat Riley, bad guy. Real bad guy.

LeBron James' cookies were probably healthy almond-flour trash that tasted shitty

I think they're probably shitty cookies. His chef making his dinner... because he only eats specific healthy shit. So he's probably getting like almond flour cookies and stuff.

Every game Kentucky wins for the rest of the season should be framed as 'a game Cal would've lost'

I'm addicted to anytime Kentucky wins a game. Just saying 'that's a game Cal would've lost.' It doesn't have to make sense. Cal won a lot of games, but every game that Kentucky wins, we just gotta be like, 'that's a game Cal would've lost.'

The NFL should keep the 70-year-old men in the chain gang instead of moving to Hawkeye technology

They're gonna start using Hawkeye technology for First Downs next year... I don't want to turn NFL into a computer simulation. I like having the guys run out on the field with the chain. There's something nice about seeing a 70-year-old man trot out there very slowly and then they measure it... I like that part of the game.

Fouling when up three points at the end of a game should be banned

I think we should ban fouling up three. I don't know how they could do it... I like the idea of maybe if you foul up three, they get three shots. There's nothing worse than in a game where a team is up three and it just becomes a foul fest.

I will be the governing owner of Jerry O'Connell's fantasy football team in name only

Governing owner in name only? That sounds fair to me... Blame me [if he is fired]. Everybody else does.

Jaden Daniels is a special player who will cover up the Commanders' organizational flaws

Jaden Daniels... gets it big time. He gets it. Like that guy is on it... This quarterback covers up a lot of the sins of the organization. Not everybody's at his level... the quarterback is exceptional.

The Packers are being "salty bitches" by trying to ban the tush push

The Green Bay Packers are being salty bitches about it [the tush push]. There's, you could stop the tush bush. You could try to stop it. You could also stop them on first, second or third down.

Banning the tush push is a loser mentality

Loser mentality. They're all a bunch of pussies. The eagles are the best at it. They work on it a lot. They practice it a lot. They have the right guys to do it. I don't know why you would punish a team for just being better at one play than the rest of the league.

Timothy Chalamet will be one of the greatest actors ever

He won a SAG award and then I, I just liked, I liked his speech... He kind of was just like, yeah, I wanna be one of the greats. I'm going hard.

Ryan Reynolds looks "scummy" and is the biggest loser in the Blake Lively movie drama

I think Ryan Reynolds is the biggest loser outta the whole thing... he's kind of looking a little scummy this whole thing. I haven't changed my opinion on him. I didn't have an opinion.

I aspire to be remembered as an Andy Reid or Bill Belichick level head coach

I wanna be a damn good football coach. I wanna be remembered as Andy Reid or Belichick esque. That's what I aspire to be.

Caleb Williams' best NFL trait is his ability to improvise when plays break down

I would say what stands out, which is different than where I came from, would be the ability to improvise the, the creation when things break down, extend plays, throw out, throw on the move outside of the pocket. He's a dynamic athlete. He's got, he's got all the intangibles.

It is better to run trick plays as soon as they are ready rather than saving them for later

If you're gonna invest the time and the energy to install it [a trick play] and practice it on the field, then why wait? What could be another four weeks before you get actually get a chance to run it? You might as well capitalize on that opportunity right now.

The running back position is vital to elite offenses as they set the tone and break lulls

The best offenses I've been a part of, the best teams I've been on, that running back position's really been vital in terms of getting the game going when things are going in a lull... get in his hands and he'll pick us back up again.

I can currently squat 405 pounds

I probably could get 405 [squat] right now. Peak squat was probably like 455. [I still have] the thick lowers.

I don't like the Green Bay Packers

I don't like the Packers. Hate's a strong word. No, I don't. I don't know [Matt LaFleur] like that. No.

You cannot get mad at your partner for what appears in their Instagram algorithm

You can't get mad at technology. Right. Max, what is yours? ... I curate it like if I see if I pass by tits because you gotta click on it that way you get more tits... It's technology. The phones are smarter than we are.

The Rams could have won the Super Bowl last year if a few things had broken differently

I went away from the playoffs being like the Rams were right there. If a couple things break differently, they could have feasibly won the Super Bowl.

The Yankees changed their facial hair policy specifically for Juan Soto

This might have been part of Juan Soto's contract. What's the free agent class coming up? Maybe there's something there.

Purdue is not a top 10 or top 12 team without Zach Edey

Purdue fans [got on me] for not having them in the top 10... they just lost [to] Indiana. Like they're back to the twenties this week. They're not a top 10 team. They're not a top 12 team. They're just not.

Putting beans in chili is 'woke'

I think I agree with him that beans and chili are woke... it is like Texas chili is just meat... This is like nerfing chili. It's not letting dudes fart. Dudes can't even fart anymore because we're taking the beans out of chili.

Removing human umpires from baseball takes away 50% of the reason to watch

I do worry as always that when you take away umps, you, you take away like 50% of the conversations guys can have with each other. And that goes for refs and, and everything in sports. If you can't complain about the calls, what are we gonna talk about? It'd basically be like putting a ban on no discussion about the weather.

Baseball is the worst of the four major North American sports

I'm not a ball guy. Slow game. Bottom, bottom of the four major sports for sure. Hockey, football, then to throw the NBA. And then we gotta drop to MLB.

Players today want to be coached hard, but you can only be tough on them collectively, not individually in front of the team

Today you can be tough on the team but you can't be tough on 'em individually in front of the team. If you wanna be tough individually, you call 'em in your office, you go one-on-one and you tell 'em the way you feel... collectively as a team you can get after them and they'll be very receptive.

You cannot win big in college basketball with high school kids anymore

I I don't think you can win and win big with high school kids. Huh? I don't, I really don't believe it. I wish it was true now. Good recruiting. I I think New York is more attractive away from New York than in New York. I agree that as somebody who used to live in New York.

The NCAA 20-hour rule for practice is 'absurd' in the NIL era

The ncaa, I've always said this about them, they are never proactive. They're always reactive. The fact that we have a 20 hour rule right now is, is absurd. Now, we don't spend 20 hours now this part of the season because we don't want to get injured. But in the beginning, in the summertime, they give you five hours a week. That's crazy.

Indiana should immediately hire Chris Beard without interviewing anyone else

If I was the ad at Indiana, I would immediately not even interview anybody else and hire one of the premier coaches in all of college basketball. And that's Chris Beard from Ole Miss. I wouldn't even think about another person. He's perfect for that job. He's a tough, hard-nosed coach. He's a superstar top three coach in my estimation.

Switching from the Iowa punt-first culture to Nick Sirianni's aggressive 4th-down strategy was a massive culture shock

Being used to just playing field position and having our defense keep their offense pinned back... it was a little different for me. Especially those first few weeks when we're around our own 50 yard line and we're just going for it on fourth and three. At Iowa, that'd be a no brainer. Like, punt.