Rick Reilly, Open Championship With Riggs & Kirk Minihane, Mt Rushmore Of Running Backs + Jimbos
2023-07-19 02:34:53
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Hey, Part of my Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On today's part in My Take, we have a twofer for the people, we have Rick Riley on the show.
He's got a new book out, we're talking golf with him and then we have our good friends Briggs and Kirk Minahan. Uh, talking some open, some open championship picks, and also who's deserving to win. Uh, very funny. With those two guys. We're gonna do the Mount Rushmore of running backs, because running backs are kind of under a microscope right now.
All the running backs came to each other's defense on Monday. Uh, so we figured let's give them some shine. Mount Rushmore of running backs. And then we're going to finish with Jimbo's great show for you, part of my take.
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Oh, we gonna rock down to Electric Avenue and then we'll take it higher.
Oh, we gonna rock down to electric. It's part of my take, even about martial sports.
Welcome to part of my take. Today is Wednesday, July 19th, and PFT running backs are being scrutinized, running backs are being judged, running backs are on the hot seat, uh, in the entire NFL.
Saquon Barkley doesn't reach a deal with the Giants. Neither does Tony Pollard. Uh, Saquon Barkley tweets. It is what it is. And then every running back in the world comes to their their, his defense. Uh, what are we going to do about running backs?
P.ft.
Well, you said, scrutinized. I think you can drop the eyes. They're getting screwed, he's running back, getting screwed left and right. They are an endangered species.
When it comes to getting paid, they need to go on strike. It sounds like this is the beginning of of a running back unionization. They need to band together, like the Ravens have been doing it for years when it comes to their wide receivers. Just don't have, like, what are you going to do?
Play a game without running backs, I'd like to see you try, or you can just teach all your running backs. Here's what I would do. If you're a young running back, a youngster out there playing the position of running back, learning how to play, coming up through the ranks, also learn how to pass, because then you can just be a dual threat quarterback, how about that?
Yeah, learn to pass. But it does seem like what happened to fullbacks about 10, 12 years ago, with that started. Like the whole trend of not using a fullback anymore, not paying a fullback. When they were a big part of the running game, um, that's now. First, they came for the fullbacks and I said nothing because I was on a fullback, next they came for the running backs and there was nobody left to block.
For me, it's tough, it's tough, I uh.
It's one of those situations where I get what the running backs are saying. But it also we have learned through time that, like a guy like Saquon Barkley, who's very good, uh, you can probably pay someone 20 of the salary for 80 of the production. And running back, See, my my big idea is that running backs should not be eligible to be drafted, make them let them be free agents. Cause it's like, I have no problem with how GMs are operating in terms of drafting running back. Like using them and then franchise tagging them, then moving on. Because it's just a matter of fact that running backs, they they wear down faster, that's just that's just the nature of the position. It sucks for them, but it's true.
So the big problem is that running backs don't get to free agency until they're kind of on the other side of the hill. Why don't we let running backs?
Just be free agents right away. Or, I mean, I know what you're saying. It might not work to just be like, Okay, one position gets to do this, but it would. It would probably be a little bit easier if there was just no franchise tag for running back. Yeah, yeah.
On that position, you can use it on anybody else. If you've got a great holder shirt, use your tag on that, but if there's a running back, you can't tag them. So they play their first contract, then there'll be an actual bidding war for their services out there for their second deal.
And then they can make some money. Probably not get a third contract out of any of it, but that that second contract is what they're all working towards. And they're not getting there in the current model. And yeah, if you're a GM, why would you? why would you ever commit big amount of money to a running back? It doesn't make any sense at all, except I actually think with with Saquon, there's a better angle that you can take on him, that he is better for Daniel Jones than Daniel Jones is for Saquon Barkley.
Yeah, no, I mean, Saquon's a very good running back. Like Christian McCaffrey chiming in, I. Christian McCaffrey is a special running back. He catches the ball like a wide receiver. It's just if you're talking about the average running back, it's. I don't really blame GMS for making far smart financial decisions when it comes to paying running backs like I. It sucks.
It'd be funny if they did go on strike. If all the running backs got together. Because Derek Henry did say, I'm with every running back that's fighting to get what they deserve. If just they all stopped playing, we might sneaky like football more, like if there was no running game, it wouldn't be football anymore. But I think, I mean, that's what the league is going towards anyways.
It's just like an all passing game, right? Like, that's what brings in the money. That's what all the rule changes are in favor. What if there, if there was a week without running, would we be happy watching those games?
I think me and you would not, because we appreciate the beauty of the running attack, establish the run. Yeah, establish the run. How would you play?
Action wouldn't work, right if you were, if you were just like taking a poll nationwide of every football fan. Do you think that more people will be like, Yo, this game's all passing now, that's kind of.
Sweet, Yeah, it's basically Warren Sharpe's wet dream is what would happen, yeah.
It's just pass on first down every time. The you know what running backs need to do is they need to be cut. They like tight ends. They need a camp where they all get together. And I think what running backs need to do more than anything is highlight their blocking.
Cause they can be like, Look, we understand running the football, it's a passing league now, but what about blocking because they pay offensive linemen a lot of money, right?
So just basically every single week. Instead of being like, look at this 20 yard run by Saquon Barkley, how about look at this blitz that he picked up and save this quarterback's life? We just need to shift the argument, yeah.
Yeah, I love watching running backs throw down a big block, it's one of my best. It's like Maurice Jones Drew, laying out Sean Merriman what this would actually lead.
It would lead towards teams drafting just really fat big running backs to just be full-time blockers in.
The backfield Brandon Jacobs makes a comeback. But it really is. It like, it's, it's the part of the game that's not sexy, that people don't really have their eye on. But a running back who's able to be good in the in the past protection game is an invaluable asset to your team and to your quarterback. Not getting killed.
So that's what we need to be talking about with.
Running backs Yeah, it's also a position that is, it is expendable. You can find another running back in the draft, there's not that much difference.
As we've seen throughout the last 10 years of the N.FL, taking a running back in the seventh round usually works out for you just as well as taking.
Running back in the second round and that's the part that sucks for him too, because running backs do. When they're 25 26, the league kind of use them as, Oh, they got a lot of miles. So why would we pay a 26 27 year old running back a ton of money? And they never really got a chance to make that big second contract. You always hear about it.
It's the second contract that guys are after because the first one's locked into a certain amount of money. And if you're not like a top first round pick, it's not going to be money for the rest of your life. And you got to earn that second contract. I did, like, there was a lot of confusing arguments online. Uh, one of my favorite ones was the meme, Uh. That said, running backs average salary is $1.81 million, and kickers.
Average salary is $2.
26 million. And how everything is wrong because of that. Um, just leaving out the fact that most rosters have like three or four running backs and they all have one kicker.
But still, you know, it feels a little personal towards kickers.
Also, Babe Ruth made like $30,000 in the course of his career. Isn't that fucked up?
Yeah, true salaries nowadays. The running backs I also loved, uh, Maurice, Drones. Drew came to the defense. He said. Let me say this.
If you don't have Patrick Homes on your team, you're going to need a top-notch running back to win a ship, and that's a promise. Uh, then, uh, a Twitter username, little tax slayer, uh, at flavor, blasted one replied. Leading rushers for Superbowl teams No without Patrick Homes 2022. U.H. Acres, 21 yards, 2021 for net, 89 yards, one TD 2019 Michelle, 94 yards, 2018 Legarrette Blunt, 90 yards, 2017 Legarrette Blunt, 31 yards, 2016 Anderson, 90 yards, 2015 Legarrette Blunt, 40 yards. And he said, Uh, really, the only thing improves is that you statistically need Legarrette Blunt on your.
Team Yeah, or or just getting to a Superbowl? It's good to have a bunch of guys that can run the football, yeah.
Leading Russia doesn't matter. This is actually the patriotization of the N.F.L. bill. Belichick was way ahead of the curve on this because he was doing like running by committee going back to 2012 2013, where it didn't matter. If Gray got him four touchdowns one week, he was going to play Legarrette, blunt and a cold weather game. He would just like go back and forth, back and forth, depending on who he felt was the best matchup in that game. Yeah.
Having a bunch of good running backs is almost better than having one awesome running back. Because then you have to force feed that guy and if he's having a bad game, your whole offense goes to shit. Yeah, yeah, it is funny when you put it. Like, when you think of running backs and you talk about. If I were to say, like, a running back is 28 years old, you'd be like, EW.
Yeah, gross, yeah, we. We look at running backs like Leonardo DiCaprio, looks at girlfriends.
Yeah, 26. There's a lot of, a lot of tread on, not so much tread left on those tires.
Time for a new one, Let's get a young. Yeah, so I do feel bad for running backs. But I also don't really know the solution. Other than taking away the franchise tag or figuring out a way that their rookie contracts, maybe if you draft a running back, their rookie contract.
Is three years, not five. I don't know. I still think they should unionize, I think that'd be fun.
That would be fun. Someone also has, there's whiffs of unionization going around, yeah. Someone else also had the idea that running back should be like car leases, that if you go over the miles, over the carries, you have to pay a penalty to the running back. I don't think that would really work because then teams would just be even more running back by committee. And they would be like, Oh, we can't, we can't run saquon here on the goal line.
Cause we don't want to pay the penalty.
Yeah, my my old colleague from KSK, Johnny Sugar, tweeted this out a couple of months ago. It made me laugh. He said that the NFL analytics community, which is a bunch, for the most part a bunch of nerdy, liberal leaning white guys got together. And somehow figured out that running backs should not be paid as much as they are getting paid. And it ended up taking away millions and millions and millions of dollars of earning potential.
From young Black men, it is the truth. Yeah, it's the analytics of football of, uh.
Fuck. I love the running back position, I love. When this happened, I felt bad for running backs everywhere, I tweeted out, like running backs.
If you're reading this, just know that I value you.
Yeah, I was like, I still, I still think running backs are cool. If I were a GM, I already proposed this. I would make sure that all the running backs on my roster get paid enough that they're happy and as little that I'm happy. Easy job.
Yeah, develop a rescue franchise for unwanted running backs.
Yes, we need, I mean, we. Yeah, we need maybe a team to just only run the football kind of acts. Ravens. Yeah, ravens, I mean the 49ers.
Almost, they tried to win an FC championship.
Game just running the football, that's true. It turns out it doesn't. You might need it, you might need a quarterback too, along with your running backs, to win a championship.
Reese Jones was just like, a little bit off. It also is like, when you actually say the numbers, it is ridiculous. Someone was like, How is Daniel Jones getting 35 million? and say, can't get 12? You're like, you know what you're right?
Saquon is better at football than Daniel Jones. It's unfortunate that Daniel Jones plays quarterback the most.
The most important position in all sports. Just if I were the Giants, I would have probably tagged Daniel Jones and then paid Saquon. Yeah, that is what fuck Saquon is.
As soon as Daniel.
Jones did his deal. Yeah, they had the franchise tied for Saquon, but he's like a rare case.
I think Saquon is good enough that you could make the case that you could pay him a little bit of money on that second deal and still be fine in the longterm. Cause he does make your quarterback so much better, he makes your offensive line so much better. But yeah, for the most part, it's just basic churn and burn. Get a guy that it's like the Denver Broncos used to always do.
They'd have one guy you'd be like, Damn, that guy's going to be the future of the NFL. He's going to be the Russian king for the next five seasons, and then usually the next.
Season, or the season after, they'd move on from them. Yeah, yeah, the Shanahan system, just plug and play. A running back, uh, okay.
What else do we got going on? It was, it was, um, we. We are in the depths of July. Where I feel like all day was was just, uh, running back conversations. I saw people ranking uh, seasons so like the actual seasons of the year.
And I realized, Oh fuck, we need some sports back, like, thank God, teams start reporting this week. Uh, because when we start ranking the four seasons, that usually is a sign that we all need to watch some football really badly. Uh, when you said rank the four seasons, I was just gonna say football season, yeah.
I mean, well, that's all. Is it number one?
You're crazy. Yeah, I love the summer. I still love the summer, man, you can't get the summer out of this blood.
Hank, don't don't look like you don't love the summer either.
I love the summer. No, we've, I mean, we've had this debate, I think probably like 10 times, but uh, yeah, this is what we do in July. You guys both pick fall first. I'm the only real summer head on this pod. I only. I only scoff because you say that, but you don't mean it.
I do mean it, what are you talking about? Summer, fall? one's got to go, summer's gone, yeah.
So.
Don't, don't say that won't, even, won't, won't even miss you. It's close, so it's it's, you know what? I'm leaning more towards becoming a fall guy as I get older.
Also as you got a kid.
Summer's one. No, no, no, you have to spend all your time with your kid. Yeah, you're, you're way off when you are a kid.
No, I'm saying, when you are a kid, most people don't get summers.
Off, unless you're a teacher or hank. No, when you're a kid, summer's by far the best. Yes, yes.
You are correct, when you're a kid, yes, but when you have kids, summer goes down again. Or if you don't have an office, or if you don't have an office, but you have a tough realization.
After you graduate from college, you get into the real world and you realize, Wait, I don't. I don't get to stay home and go on vacation every July and August. Yeah, that's fucked up.
Yeah, summer really, really gets knocked down a peg. It basically becomes like four like four weekends in the summer is what is what you remember it by? yeah.
Yeah, they're also the.
Open Championship, which we'll get into in a little bit, but that's been, it's been discussed. They fuck Brooks over with his pairing. Yep, he's in a group of can't lay, just trying to get under his skin. The Brits don't want to see our boy Brooks win.
But Brooks has already figured out he's just going to walk slow, he's going to just he's.
Going to slow walk the fuck out of the course. Yeah, yeah, but that he was doing that so he didn't have to worry about people.
Like, it's gotta be a different beast when you have to watch, can't lay the whole time. Like he can say it's not going to bother him, but it has to.
Well, he has two options. He could either, which would be very funny if he starts just walking in circles behind, can't lay as he does his whole thing. Brooks is going to have to start stroking guys, which he will. He will stroke a guy if he has. it would also be funny if Brooks.
Intentionally didn't play driver just so that he would always be away from the pin on his second shot if those extra yards were so meaningless to him. He's like, Yeah, you know what? I'll hit a four iron off the tee that way I can go up and hit my shot immediately. Yeah.
Can't Lee fuck?
You can't, Lee, I'm going to be, I'm going to be watching with a clock on Kelly I've got.
We've got the Uh, the uh Barstool sports book, The Fleetwood Mac Bet, Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy Top 10.
I like both those guys, yeah, I like those guys this week a lot.
I like that name a lot. I wish I wasn't an, you know, outwardly saying Rory's going to miss the.
Cut But that name is great, it's a good name, a good name, a good name for anything will overcome.
Any mental obstacle? Yes, yes, yes. Um, the other thing I had was Shohei Otani.
Trade season is coming. Uh, he had an unreal bat flip against the Yankees at like, you know, midnight on the East Coast, uh, and just the Yankees stink. Ever since they took away, they put the logo on their pin.
Stripes He's terrible. Organization show is turning into Barry Bonds, where people are like.
You had. Why didn't they intentionally walk up? It's like, Yeah, yeah, he's. So I read an article, uh, top destinations for Shohei Otani. Basically judging who has the farm system to trade for him for the next, you know, two months, two and a half months. And I love it because I want to ask what you think the top three teams are?
And it makes it so much fun, cause if he goes to any three.
It would be fucking incredible. Okay, so I would say the Nationals, because the Nationals just upgraded their farm system by trading way one soda last year. That's never going to happen.
Convinced of that? Uh, Seattle nope, Chicago nope.
Cubs are going to be sellers, for sure. Uh, the top three are the Tampa Bay Race number three, and there's obviously just a list on CBS, The Baltimore Orioles, which would be awesome. They have a loaded farm system.
I don't think they'll ever pull the trigger on that. And then the Texas Rangers. So if he goes to any three of those, cause, you know, everyone's, yeah, well, the razor, it's not fun.
Well, the race could be fun if they were the throwbacks, yeah, yeah, the the like, uh, the double Rayon, yeah.
The neon logo that they've been wearing, those are fun. Yeah, I just don't think that the Tampa Bay rays.
Are a fun organization, if I want to. If you have a superstar like Shohei Otani, you want to see them in a premium market. Like an exciting team. Baltimore would also be fun, though, but remember.
This is a rental, so I'm saying it would be fun because it's a rental. Like, he's going to sign somewhere else after the season for a ton, a ton of money in, probably in New York or L.A. for the Dodgers. Like, So I'm saying, fun. You get to watch Shohei Otani for two and a half months on a team that you wouldn't expect him to be on, maybe compete for a world series.
Those would be, I mean, the Orioles would be awesome, and the Reds were number five Reds would be awesome.
So I don't, I don't know if Peter Angelos would do that, though he's not a. He's not a big trade for another superstar. He's like the entire worldview that Peter Angelos has. As the owner of the Orioles is. You want to develop a superstar and then trade him away at the deadline? His business model is exactly what the Angels are doing right now.
Yeah, he, he, you build the tree.
And then you sell it away for a bunch of seeds, yeah, and you're like, you'll get another tree.
May I'm going to get a tree soon, and then I'm going to get more seeds and never getting fruit.
Yes, yes, so I, I don't know. I hope he, I hope he gets traded to not the Yankees or the Dodgers. That's my only hope because it feels like he will sign with the Yankees or the Dodgers once he becomes a free agent.
So I'm hoping that we get to see Shohei in a different, in a different uniform for two and a half months, maybe going deep into October. I'd like to see him on on the Giants.
Or the Mariners, I think those would be fun teams, the Giants would be cool, yeah.
That would be cool, Reds would be. What about trout we get? Is trout going anywhere? Well, he's injured, right, yeah.
Trout's out for the next six weeks. Otani has also said that he likes playing on the West Coast and he wants to stay on the West Coast. So he's going to get traded to the Dodgers, so I think the Dodgers are the betting favorites for him. Or the Padres, who I don't know how, they have any talent or money, yeah.
But they have everybody on their current roster, the roster is awesome. If you look at it on paper, you look at the Padres, you're like, Yeah, that's a contender. Also. That was a bad.
Bad flip. You didn't like it. He looked awkward. What are you talking about? It looked like an awkward bad flip.
Everyone was freaking out about it. I thought he looked awkward, It was smooth as hell. No, no, it looked like he was cranking a motorcycle.
He looked at it and then he was like, Oh shit, I should bad flip. a bad flip should be like, like a Jose. But although that was the exact same thing of what I just described, it didn't look natural. It looked like he forced that bad flip. Okay, I'm watching it again.
You are so wrong. No, I'll stand by this. I didn't think it was a good bad flip, I didn't think it was not to mention that, it wasn't like, it wasn't a no doubt or home run.
Yet which makes it a little, which makes it worse, no, which makes it cool. That he was like, actually, this is going to be a home run. When the when everyone watching was like, Ooh, maybe it's not okay, so Matt.
We're not, we're not going to take any advice from Max on how to celebrate after you win something.
Maybe if he had decided to bat flip before he swung the bat, that's Max's speed.
Before the pitch even came, it was an awkward bad it was. There was nothing about it. I'm watching it on loop right now. It was smooth as hell. No, it was just staring at the ball and just went.
Boom, Max, are you this guy? No, I love a bad flip. I just didn't think that was a good one, okay?
I don't think this take is a good one. No, that's fine, it's actually a terrible.
That's fine. It's awful, awful, awful take. Also considering this to Aaron Boone was on one of my hot seats. But we're talking about it now.
Could have walked them.
Could have walked him, yeah, could have walked, yeah, yeah.
So that's tough, probably should.
Have walked, I got. I got a nice little taste of central time zone last night watching this game because on the on the East Coast it was over so late. Yeah, complaining about it. I wasn't even in bed yet.
I was just chilling on my couch, I was on my downstairs couch, hadn't even gone upstairs yet. Oh, hadn't even done the move, hadn't even done the move yet.
Nope, sometimes I'll catch the end of the game on a TV in my bedroom. No, I was. Not only was I downstairs big cat, I hadn't even made the move from the basement to the main room to the upstairs.
Yet that can get tricky, though, sometimes, because I'll get stuck. Just like, so lazy that I won't make the move, even though I should have made the move. Yeah, you know, especially if you have a good couch, yeah.
You're like, What, why have I not made the move? I'm not even watching anything.
You're like, Nah, I'm just staying on this couch. I did get a new couch delivered last week and I think I may have made a mistake. Oh, I got. It's like, so comfortable that I was laying on the other night and I thought, why don't I just live here on my couch? why don't I even move to bed, dude?
They've made couches so awesome. Yeah, it is one of the best, like, I don't know. Top five engineering changes that they've made in the last 10, 15 years, where couches are just basically beds.
It rules. I could, I could sleep on my couch all day, all night, I could live on my couch entirely, eat there, I could do the podcast from there.
Everything you should hurt your back again, and.
Just lay on the couch. I'm thinking about it, Yeah, Hank, you don't like this? No, I was going.
To save it for fire Fest. But, uh, as you can see, behind me, I've had, you know, room for a couch that I ordered in May. And I've just been at war with customer service and I've pretty much just given up on it showing up. So just hearing you guys talk about how great couches are is making me.
A little, a little sad, Hank, you got to check out my couch if you ever want to see couch.
Come over to my place, cause I don't think, I don't think I'm ever going to have one.
Well, thanks, thanks. Living in the real life meme of, uh, the guy's apartment, that's just.
A folding chair, a TV, yeah, what more do you need? Hank, you're, you don't need a couch, you're, you're. Your house is the golf course.
True, Yeah, so you're good? Um, all right. Should we do hot seat, cool throne?
Let's do hot seat, cool throne, and then we'll get to Rick Riley, Mount, Rushmore of running backs, and uh, Kirk and rates, uh, Hank.
Your hot seat, cool throne. my hot seat is Christopher Nolan. Ooh, okay, go on.
My favorite, you know, my favorite director, my favorite, my favorite filmmaker. You guys know, I'm an absolute, you know, cinephile. Uh, I love movies. The other day, I watched like, a five minute tick talk. That was explaining the decision that he made to shoot Oppenheimer in this crazy imax 70 millimeter film. And that, you know, to really appreciate it, you got to go see it in imax 70 millimeter.
And I watched the whole thing. I was like, Damn, he really went to great lengths to do this. It must be worth the experience.
There's 19 movie theaters in the country that can do it. What? And that's it. So, like other IMAXs, there's only 19 that are the 70 millimeter IMAXs.
The other iMaxs are basically like slightly distorted or like reformatted versions, and I'm sure you probably wouldn't be able to see the difference. But after I watched this video, I was like, Oh, I got a, I got I. You know, I love Christopher Nolan, I respect his craft. I'm going to do what he wants the people to do. The way he watched the movie, the way he intended it to be watched.
You're a sip, and there's literally the closest one to me is in, like, Detroit.
Okay, got to go, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a cinefile. you're not a cinefile fan. It's tough.
So I'm, I'm upset, I'm upset, I assumed, I assumed, honestly, I assumed. It was like, you know, every major city probably has one. But like, maybe some, you know, some of the flyover states and stuff like, they're kind of screwed. So, and I wasn't worried about it, but then I was.
Like, when I saw this list, I was furious, okay, so I. I did some different math when it came to this movie because I saw what you're talking about, Hank, how he's like, very specific. In particular, I shot it in this format to be viewed in this format. All I needed to see, why would you do that?
If there's 19, right? All I need to see was it's a three hour long movie. I don't care what the size of the screen and the film canister in the back looks like. I'm going to watch this fucking thing on the most comfortable chair I can find.
If I'm going to be there for three hours, you better believe I'm not sitting in like a standard normal movie theater seat. I'm going, I'm going full. Lazy boy. I need something that reclines.
I took every movie theater in the world. Now I have a question, No, it's not you gotta?
You gotta find the ones that aren't just the plush ones, the ones that kick back a little bit.
I have a question, Um, what exactly does it like define an IMAX theater? Because I just googled it and it says there's over 300 iMAX theaters in the U S. And I just googled it. And there's a top 10 best iMAx theaters in Chicago. But those it's not, it's a different, it's slightly different format, it's like, uh, there's digital iMax and then 70 m m iMax. I don't know what, necessarily what the difference is, but that is the difference.
So you can see it in iMax.
But not the way he wanted it to be seen. Well, then that's a Christopher Nolan fault.
Which is why he's on the hot seat, okay? But also, Hank can't claim to be a Christopher Nolan fan. If he's not going to follow his particular instructions and go to Detroit to watch this movie, yes, your cinephile has been revoked.
Got your card? Also, iMax would be a great name for.
Like a biopic about Max, Yeah, so we made a robot, Max that just slips on bananas and shit.
Yeah, IMAX Um, speaking of that, honestly, great segue PFT. My cool throne is the city of Philadelphia. Never winning anything ever.
Okay, something. Oh okay. City of Philadelphia. Uh, Joel Embiid, our prince, our MVP, uh. He made comments the other day that he wants to win a championship in Philadelphia or anywhere else. Which again, you got, you know, your MVP, you got. James Harden James Harden's out of town could care less about playing in Philadelphia.
And then you have your current MVP best player, cornerstone of the franchise, saying he just wants to win. And if it seems like if he doesn't win this year in Philly, he's probably out.
Have you done any, uh, follow-up research to this? I have better believe he has hank.
Tell me about all the follow-up research you've done to this quote? Well, the follow-up, I think.
He got a lot of heat. And then Joel embiid like he was being genuine, and then he realized that he was being too honest. In the city of Philadelphia was turning on him. I think, what was your exact? Let me pull up? I only pull up Max's quote about this.
No, yeah, I have takes about this, but it doesn't have to do with Embiid.
Well, Max, hold on, all right, I got it. This is from at Philly Maze. Can't believe this fan base is going to run embiid out of town.
Oh, that was before, that was before Embiid. I don't see any.
Follow-up from you? So that was before. Embiid followed up himself and said that he was just trolling and that he is the troll God. But that didn't seem like a troll. No, but he, he said, it was a troll. Oh, okay.
So it's just a prank, he, he said. It was a prank. He said. It was a troll. And that he wants to stay in Philadelphia and finish his career. He just said, Check my middle.
Name that doesn't his middle name actually isn't troll, so if you do, check his middle name, Max.
Which I know middle name, middle name. In his twit, You're this semantics, you're playing a semantics battle, Hans.
Oh, you're playing a semantics Hans. Great middle name, great middle name. check my middle name, and I did.
And it's Hans, his middle name on Twitter is troll. It's not true. Okay, so that's not his middle name.
Everyone ever, I'm sick of everyone here. Um, wait. He also said that he lost his place as the best troll here, and that is now Daryl Mori.
So he was just talking about trolling, He's okay, he was not. his middle name is Hans, and his middle name on Twitter is troll. I think you hang when they when they asked him that question.
Yeah, I want to win a championship, whether that's here or somewhere else, that's my goal.
I think he has no loyalty to our city. Max Factor Yes, he does, he has plenty of loyalty.
Until everything I'm seeing on Twitter right now is just bashing MB I, that's so fucked up. They can't, they just can't. He's the MVP of the league.
And no matter what happened, has happened in the playoffs the past couple of years. Yes, he hasn't played as well as he can. He's still an undeniable top 10 player in the league and 90 of teams across the N.B.A. would do anything to have him factor fiction. Would you like, Joel and be to be on the Chicago?
No, I want the Bulls to win a title. That's a lie. That's what you just said is fiction. Someday win a title again. And and Drone B does not get you closer to.
Factor fiction. To win a title, you need to make a deep playoff run.
Correct, You need to get to the third round, he's going to the third round, he's young. how young? young? Adjacent? If he is an old running back, he's probably an old running back, but that's fine.
Okay, so big men and running with Zach Levine. Give us Zach Levine for John B. No, no, no, not for 29 years old, and his middle name is Hans. He'll be 30 by the time they play the playoffs next year.
Oh, young, adjacent.
That's he'll be fine, he'll be fine. He's got a long career ahead of him in Philadelphia. We're going to maybe not this year.
Maybe not this year, but next year we're going to put pieces in front of. We're already giving up on. So 31 31 now, wait a minute, although Pat Bev is here and Pat Bev is going to change everything about the Sixers.
That's true, so you've already wasted in beads prime? Yeah, we're already going to net next year, not even this year.
No, wait, this year's back on, this year's back on, I rewind, rewind. You want him in fat James Harden, who actually is? Yeah, no, but fat James Harden only wants.
To go to the clip, you want Pat Bev to be your starting point guard. Yeah, okay, yes.
Give me Pat Bev, starting point guard, we figure out harden for Levine. Sure, wait, what I don't want?
We're going to get hardened. No, no, well, we're going to do like a little three-team trade. Okay, give you some assets.
Yeah, you get some assets, we get, I'll take some assets, yeah, how many assets?
We're going to work, we're going to work assets.
They just read trade, they try to offload their unwanted players and they just they put them on other teams. Like, Yeah, no, I don't want hard. Harden's not going to go to the.
Bulls Harden's going to go to the Clippers and then maybe a fourth team. Assets to the.
Bulls, we get Zach Levine.
Why don't you just want to keep James Harden?
Uh, cause he's not he could, he wants to leave, he could, he could, he definitely wants to leave.
And he could. How much blame? Do you have a good team that people want to play for?
On the fans, Max, because you did say they're going to run them out of town.
I mean, the Twitter timeline was insane yesterday, saying, just talking about how Joel Embiid is worthless. Get them on. If Joel Embiid wasn't on the Sixers, we wouldn't even like make the playoffs for the next 10 years. Damn correct.
Like Joel Embiid, like all of a sudden, especially Sixers fans, they're. They have the worst recency bias of all time. And they immediately think that, like, after one bad series, you just said, Next year's out, Max. We got to as far as like winning a title. But I'm just going back to the times where it was like, barely making the playoffs or like, the process, yeah, but the but like, going back to the times of like the eight seed. You don't deserve to have them.
Yeah, yeah, but that was sick. No, no, no, he's not happy with you.
No, I still love him, I still love him.
You're running him out of town by saying Next year is a complete wash. He still loves him.
No, no, we're going to figure out, we're going to get hardened out. We're going to bring Levine in assets to the Bulls. You're not getting Zach Levine, shut the fuck up.
I think you guys should start tanking for some draft picks. No, no more, no more tanking. Trust the process, trust the process, all right.
Uh, your hot sequel thrown Pft. He was not trolling, by the way.
I'm sorry, going off the rails. My hot seat is, um, our relationship with Kirk Cousins. Because the Uh, the the Netflix show quarterback came out, and I'm coming out of the closet. As a Kirk Cousins fan. I can. I've been. It's been buried deep inside me for a long time, and it's it's like, I'm a self hating Kirk Cousins fan.
So I've buried it so deep that I overcompensated for loving Kirk Cousins by hating him so much these last few years. I, I love him. I love Kirk cousins. I'm not. I'm not ashamed to admit it for the first time in maybe my entire life.
I'm coming out to you guys, I love Kirk Cousins as a person, one of the greatest dudes, hard not to root for. The only thing that you can knock him for is that he gets paid too much because he actually played the game the right way when it came to the contracts and the, uh, the franchise tag situations. Got himself into a situation where he's probably going to make $300 million over the course of his career or close to it. Which you hear that figure and you think to yourself. That's a lot of money for Kirk Cousins. Because he's not like a top three, top five quarterback, but he's impossible to not like. He really is he. I will never love him.
Because he does play for the Vikings and it is NFC North and and I'm hoping the Bears will be competing the top of the NFC North. But I like him, I like him now. Uh, watching him. What solidified it for me was actually his wife talking about his wardrobe.
And she was like, Yeah, people say online like, Oh, what does he shop at Target or Coles? and she was like, Yeah, actually, we do. I was like, Yeah, you know what? Like, he's just a regular guy.
Like, he's just a.
Regular guy, he was in Barnes and Noble buying books and they're like, Oh, we got actually a half price on this table. He's like, Oh, that's my lucky day, and then he goes over and buys some more books. He's just a good. I was saying the other day, Kirk cousins would probably be the.
Best neighbor in the world to have? Yeah, he's a good guy. He's a very good guy. It's going to be hard to, uh, root against him, but I will have to.
But, uh, yeah, he's a very good guy. It was, he was the big winner of that, of that show. Yes, my home's won a Super Bowl.
Yes, and my other hot seat is Vietnam, because U.S. women's national team opens up the World Cup against Vietnam on Thursday night. So we're going back to finish the job. I'm going to have a full, full clip. Ready to go Vietnam War.
Let's go, let's get after it. But um, yeah, we. I like watching the Women's World Cup, it's fun. Do you see that commercial that they had in France?
Yes, that was a it was a pretty good commercial for the Women's World Cup, the the Billy's and Andrew.
Tate's of the World have no idea what to do with that commercial, absolutely no idea they took.
You can't put me in like that.
You're Andrew Tate aspiring? Yeah, no, you're top g. I'm not.
I'm not, you're not a top g. I actually I love. I like women's soccer more than men's soccer. I play harder. Named five of your favorite players Megan Rapinoe, Uh, uh, Alex Morgan.
MM That was good that you came out hot out of the game. We've had some on the show that was.
Fucking good you, you are two for two. Boom.
Oh.
But yeah, the the clip for people who didn't.
See me, I am. They use the she's former, but I want to hear Billy say at least one more current.
Player Uh, not current name, the one that's been on the podcast, Billy, he doesn't listen to the.
Show No, you were, you were. I was away. No, you were part of the show. Billy's probably like, he was not. I was an intern. That actually is when he should be listening more, though.
Cause?
He said that he listened more of that. Yeah, no, I listened more before my first internship. Oh.
Okay, but Billy, did you see the commercial that we're talking about? Nope, the French women's soccer commercial, it's.
It's a it's a compilation of all these great plays from the French men's national team. And it's talking about how amped up they get watching it. And then halfway through, they stop it. And they're like, Actually, the doctor was a woman the whole time. And they show behind the scenes CGI.
They just turned all the women into men for the video to make you think you were watching men's soccer. Cause when I was watching, I was like, I think that the French men's national team flops a little bit more than this, yeah.
Cause it grows.
That's why I like women's soccer better. They go hard, they're not bitches, they're not. no, they are.
They're alphas, no, they're not, they're, um, they're bad-ass.
They're girl bosses. Yeah, yeah, I love that, and everybody's talked about how much you like a woman in power.
You have to use the word bad-ass about her. Yeah, girl, boss, they should.
Have there should be a World Cup? Or, I mean, I'm happy the world, the women's World Cup is here. But summer really needs to do, like Olympics every two years, both World Cups every two years, so.
It's just every other year, get one of the I agree, I agree, it's gonna be fun to watch. I've got, I've got a nice little future and investment on the U s women, nice.
Um, okay, you have another cool throne? Yeah, my cool throne is, um, my cool throne is my, my cold heart. Because I have decided to adopt a new dog, so I've begun that that process.
And, uh, I'm just falling in love with every dog that I see, just every dog I'm going through, all these different websites, emailing people. I almost want to do a Bachelor style competition to see who my next dog's going to be.
But I can't, I can't wait. You can't do that, cause then the losers you're like, what, what?
People would think about it and what would happen would be I would have the first introduction on Night One. I'd be like, Okay, this is my dog. Yeah, cause the day that I decided to leave my house and I've already bought a leash and a collar, the first dog that I see, I'm going to take home.
Yes, um, so I'm. I'm very excited, I'm ready to get back in the dog game. It's been way, way, way too long, so very, very pumped about that new addition to my life that will be coming probably.
In the next couple of weeks. Love it, love it. Um, all right, my hot seat is Bill Belichick, literally.
So there's a report out hank, this is not as a report from who? TOM CURRAN Okay, is that fair, fair? He went on rich eyes in Uh, today, and he said, You talk about avoiding the hot seat rich.
He's on the hot seat and he's been there at different levels of warmth since 2019.
Look at it this way. In 2019, Tom Brady wanted a two year, 50 million guaranteed contract, just like Drew Breeze. He presumed he was going to get that in training camp. It was still not forthcoming.
And he was like, You know what if I don't get this thing? I'm walking out. It was explained to Belichick that that was the case they got something done. It was not a two year guaranteed contract.
It was two years with a team option. And, uh, then. According to Uh, Tom Curran, the Patriots never had a plan for Brady leaving and he is now. Belichick is now on the hot seat. Now I'll say, if they fire Belichick, that's the dumbest move ever.
He is the greatest coach of all time, right? So why would they do that? But Hank is not me reporting, this is someone else reporting.
The Bill Belichick is on the hot seat. It's very interesting, Max, and it wasn't Mike Florio, Yeah.
I mean, that's surprising.
Florio would definitely run with that for the next six months. I don't know, I like Tom Curran, he's probably just, you know a little, it's, it's, it's summer for him too. He needs clicks.
He needs views, he's got to get some stories out there that get some buzz. It's easy to say that, you know, the seat's warm, but there's no way that it is.
Do you think there's any lingering resentment between Craft and Belichick over what happened with the Jimmy G situation? No, I don't think there's any resentment.
If you're Robert Crafts after everything he's done for you, no, no, no, no, I'm saying, like.
Craft essentially got rid of Jimmy Garoppolo because he was the replacement plan for Brady.
Yeah, but we won two Super Bowls. I, I, I think I don't think there's like, not going to play.
Again, I think it's any successful sports franchise that wins multiple championships. There's just like a credit pie that everyone wants a piece, so so I don't think there's any resentment. But would you? If you hit Robert Craft with True Serum? Do you think he would be like, Yeah, I kind of want a little more credit for putting this whole thing together.
No, probably no, you don't think any. I think he gets, I think he gets, I think he gets a lot of credit. He's like one of the best owners in the history of sports. That's a normal thing to.
To expect that a owner would want, you know, I mean, I just, I think about the.
Like The Last dance and how bad, uh, was the Jerry Reinsdorf.
Yeah, like, that's not Robert Krause, that's not Robert Craft. Okay, okay.
It says he's officially on the hot seat. Yeah, I don't know, say the quote again.
Uh, that he's on the hot seat. No, you talk about avoiding the hot seat, he's on the hot seat, he.
Said He has, uh, been, Yeah, you talk about avoiding the hot seat rich. He's on the hot seat, and he's been there at different levels of warmth in 2019, he is on the hot seat.
What would Bill like? What could Bill Belichick do to get fired? Nothing.
Not make the playoffs. I don't know, I hank. I agree with you I. It would be the dumbest move to fire a guy like that. But you know how, owners who are maybe getting up there at age.
Think if you're Tom Kern, you're going on the you know, that show. You got to come with something and he did. We're talking about it right now. Good job, Tom.
Let's look at the post, let's look at the post Brady era in New England playoffs.
Okay, Bill's in Buffalo in the cold. Wait, wait. That wasn't the playoffs, I know, but like that, I said, that playoffs was first comma. Didn't they get smoked?
Like?
Wasn't that one of the all-time blowouts in the history of the NFL?
Yeah, he's talking about a different game, though.
But before that, there was a season, series was basically.
With the touchdown into the turf, the season series was pretty much even.
And we had a Mac. Jones was basically a rookie, if I remember correctly. Here's.
Here's the point. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So Hank, I just want you to do this thought experiment. Okay, just take the post Brady era and you look at what Belichick's done.
You got Mac Jones in there. You hired your son to be the defensive coordinator. Then you hired two guys that were cast off coaches, one of which did not coach offense, to come in and split the offensive coordinator duty. Royally, fuck that up.
Going into this year, would you not say that that coach would be on the hot seat?
The only mistake of what you just said is the Patricia, and like, that was a mistake and he knows that.
Okay, Hank, here's here's how. In defense of Bill Belichick If you played a hypothetical Bill Belichick gets fired, how many teams currently would fire their coach to hire Bill Belichick? Is it everyone? I would love to cheat? It was, would it be everyone? But maybe the chiefs in the 49ers.
Who else would, who else wouldn't make that swap right away, right? Maybe Baltimore, maybe Baltimore, maybe Broncos, just cause they hired Sean Payton, but it's it can't be more than like five teams total. They wouldn't fire their current coach, maybe the Steelers, Tomlin, but like, that's why you don't fire Bill Belichick.
He would get a job instantly and teams would fire their coach to get it. That would destroy me.
BELICHICK Going to the Browns and winning a Super Bowl for the Browns, that would be all time.
He would love that he would never go to the Ravens because of the way things ended in Cleveland, correct? He would go back to the Browns. To be like, Hey prodigal son, we're back, let's run it back again.
Yeah, yeah, what would be the?
What would be the crazier story? Go to the Browns or the Jets, or the Bills. He was like, I'll bring them, I'll bring a Super Bowl to Buffalo. They'd fire McDermott for Bill.
I think they would, I think they would, and I like Sean McDermott a lot, but I mean, you're talking about Bill Belichick, that's just different. Uh, okay.
My cool throne. I have two, one is Charles Barkley, who, uh, I don't know what he was doing the other day, but he was giving a speech. And he said, I ain't worried about getting canceled. Because let me tell you something, if you all fire me and give me all that money, I'm going to be playing golf every fucking day. So listen, as I said last night, if you're gay, God bless you.
If you're trans, God bless you. If you have a problem with them, fuck you just great. Like, he's like, I cannot be canceled.
Lost all sense of the term canceled because he's complaining now about like or not complaining, but he's saying it's a possibility that people would cancel me. From the other side of cancel culture, yeah, what I've learned about cancel culture is that everybody loves cancel culture. Oh yeah, there's a bunch of people out there that say, like, I abhor cancel culture, cancel culture. But you have to play by the same rules as you guys make us play by.
Everyone loves to cancel.
Somebody that they personally don't agree with, Yeah, they, it's. It's. I don't like cancel culture when it's coming after someone that I like, and then the minute I have a chance to cancel someone I don't like, I'm all in.
Yes, that's cancel culture is basically summarized. And then my other cool throw is Aaron Donald, seven straight time, he's a 99 overall.
In Madden, this is also we talked about the the signs that football's back, the rankings coming out. Love it, love it, I don't even play Madden.
Yeah, but I'm in, uh, okay, Billy.
My hot seat is Tupac Shakur's killer. Oh so today. A press release was given by the Las Vegas Police Department that confirmed a search warrant was served in Henderson, Nevada. UH, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation. Whoa, so, uh? 30 years later, they busted down someone's door in relation to the investigation.
Not much outside of that press release. But, uh, if you're out there, they're, they're onto you. Who you got, Billy?
Uh, Suge Knight, I think it was Elvis, Elvis or JFK, Uh, junior, he's not actually dead.
Well, no, he was dead, he died after. Wasn't was sugar night, not in the car when it got shot up. I have no idea. Okay, good, you might be the one person in the world with with a rock solid alibi.
He was in Cuba. Okay, uh, and then my cool throne is using the horns.
Down because, according to John McDade, the SEC's coordinator of officials on penalizing for horns, down signal in 24, unsportsman Unsportsmanlike conduct needs to fit one of three categories. Is it taunting an opponent opponent, is it making a travesty of the game? is it otherwise compromising our ability to manage the game? And he said that you can use horns down against Texas.
Oh, so, you can, it's back, it's back. Nice, cool thrown.
It's back, you get horns down.
You should, they should never, it should never have been banned. It like, if you could do something, you can get it done to you, that's how it works. That was also like the Big 12s.
Dying attempt to get Texas to stick around for a long time. Yeah, for you. Yeah, we won't.
We won't, we won't bully you anymore, you can stay. And, uh, the same applies to the gator.
Chomp and land shark signals. So it's all for grabs, all right, nice, like, like it.
All right, Jake, Uh, my hot seats, the New York Jets, uh, Adam. Chefs are reported today that they will not be giving NFL films and HBO Uh as much access to hard knocks this year. Yeah, they're not going to show guys getting cut, I'm not going to show guys getting caught. So it might be a more like.
PG version. So it's going to be different. Yeah, it's always awkward watching those scenes. I'm not, yeah.
I understand why they put it in there. Because if you're making a TV show, you have to have highs and lows. You have to show drama. You have to show people sad at different, bad parts of their life. But at the same time, it felt like a very, very personal moment that everybody was.
Involved with Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Kind of pussy by the jets. No, very smart, okay, they.
Don't want their team getting turned into a circus, which is what they're going to try to do. Nice, just, uh, I just if I was Aaron Rogers or Zach Wilson, I would just, uh.
Try not to involve yourself. It also fits perfectly with, uh, how we've been watching hard knocks the last few years. Like episode one and two we get very excited for, and then we kind of forget that it keeps going, so that's perfect. I wasn't going to watch that episode anyway. There's always one episode that's like, comes out after college football starts.
You're.
Like, real football's on, I'm good, yeah, if there's a suspension for like peds, though, I want to see.
That moment, yeah, yeah, we'll see, so we'll get popped.
Uh, okay.
My cool throne is Publix.
A few years ago, Messy was shopping at Publix with his family. It was a big deal. Yes, pretty crazy. Front of High Noon, too, yeah.
In front of high noon, so shout out public pub subs.
Pub subs Yeah, messy, uh. I thought that he was going to be a little more anonymous, but like, cause at first I was like, Oh, this is perfect for him.
He kind of could live his life. He was getting hounded at Publix, which makes sense because he is messy.
Yeah, I mean, it's as close as you can get to having a normal shopping trip. For Messy. It'd be way worse if it was overseas. Somewhere I had a messy, uh, a Leo.
LEONEL Messy moments, Uh. The other day, I took my son to his friend's birthday party. And there was like, older kids there and they were getting their sports takes off. And one of them was like, Messy sucks. And I like, I was like the Arthur meme, I was like, Don't you say that?
And then I realized I was reprimanding a seven year old that was not mine. So, uh, the kid also was like, LeBron James, the Goat, maybe Kobe, too, like, what the fuck it's getting terrible takes, yeah.
But you got to respect the take. Yeah, right, better than Max, but you also got to respect the take, like the take game. Just that he's out there spitting them.
I respected it.
I would actually love to see that kid debate, skip Bayless. Yeah, skip debating a seven year old.
Yeah, why not? Why he might end up being that for for his show? Uh, okay, let's get to our interviews.
We've got Rick Riley and then we're gonna do Mount Rushmore in between Mount Rushmore of running backs. And then we will, uh, have Kirk and Rigs with some pets and finish up with Jimbo's.
Coors Light presents to chill or not to chill when your friend skips your favorite song on the playlist and the friendship, or choose chill because that song lives. Rent free in your head anyway. And you planned ahead by bringing Coors light to the party, and the sound of that ice cold can cracking open was music to your ears already, Coors light?
Choose Chill, Celebrate Responsibly 2024 Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado. And now here's Rick Riley.
Okay, we now welcome on recurring guest author, columnist, sportsman, Uh, Rick Riley, hero, uh, Rick Riley. uh, recurring guests. He's got a new book out that is called.
So help me golf all true stories. Uh, he's never told about people in the game. And, uh, we're here, it's right in front of the the Open Championship. Rick, First of all, we haven't seen you in a few years.
It's great to have you back on. Um, I. My first question was, what, what are you doing other than writing a book? Because you, I think, have figured out a life hack to, like, have the greatest?
Semi-retirement of all time in sports media. Yeah, well, we live in Italy a couple of months a year, and we bought a house in Sedona, Arizona. We live down there. And, uh, you know, it's. It's kind of a great place when you have an occasional magic mushroom. And then we live live at the beach in L.A.
And, uh, so I work occasionally once a month for the writer's strike. So I, I got, I got a streamer about to go, and suddenly now it's not going anywhere. But, uh, I write movies and I'm writing a novel, and I'm writing my next book. Yeah, I mean.
Rick, I think we talked about this last time you were on the show, but, uh, especially your, your columns at the end of sports illustrated. That was like that, that was our childhood. Growing up, I read, I read that column every day. I think I told you last time that probably more more people have used the bathroom while reading your columns than any other piece of writing in the history of the world. It was like the perfect, the link was a perfect amount of time to go in, take a quick dump, read Rick Riley, and then leave. So I basically bought sports illustrated.
Just for you, for years, you're not lying. I can't tell you how many people would come to me and go I. I take my Friday morning dump reading you and they'll have his hand out. I'm like, great.
But I'm not shaking that hand, I'm sorry, I'm not saying, Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it really was like a big part of our childhood. We're in that perfect age range when, uh, the sports like kind of the the end of sports columnist being celebrities in a way where it's like, Oh, you remember reading them? So back to your retirement, you are semi-retirement.
That sounds phenomenal, you have, you have figured it all out. I think we might've discussed this when we saw you in person last time. You're on, but do you look back and and realize, like, Man, I really? I crushed this landing. Because there was a moment where I think you would probably even say, like you, you were in a weird role at ESPN. On Air didn't really work out that well.
Like, Hey, is Rick Riley going to become like someone we laugh at, or is he going to be able to figure this out? And you sounds like you completely figured it out and have the best life I've ever.
Heard Well, I was like, the last guy, you know, before Disneyland burned down. I think I got a great deal and then and then, when that deal was over, they were starting to fire everybody. And I think it's same with SI, I mean, I got out of SI at the perfect time.
And and uh, people, now you see Si, and it's like a pamphlet comes out, I don't even know when it comes out. Now. Magazines are dead. I mean, when I was at the L.A. Times, I think they had, we had 60 writers and editors.
They're down to seven. So the whole world of print media is not what it used to be, and you're right, it's it's a whole different world. When anybody can have a column and anybody can have an opinion. That's got a couch and A and an internet and a computer, then you're not that special anymore.
So that's why I think I got out at a pretty good time. Have you ever thought?
Though, about bringing back the one column a week, because I I feel like there would still be a for Rick Riley's takes on a Friday morning. If you just re, if you just redid that column.
But on the internet, you can just tweet it, the long tweet, but how? But you understand, I don't want to work. Yeah, that's a good point. That's offered a million podcasts.
And could I do a radio show? And I'm like, Look, kind of sounds like work well, yeah, it would be. work well. I don't want to work. I like to write two hours a day.
That's all I do. And then the rest of the time we're either in Vietnam or or Italy. We just got back from golf in Ireland, that we go to Turkey a lot. I mean, it's too good, I mean, it's why work if.
You don't have to worry, that's a great point. Yeah, I was, I was thinking selfishly, like I would like to read Rick Riley's column still, but then I do. I do occasional funny one, and.
Then Washington Post. But I don't know if you subscribe to that. Okay, okay, so you have a love affair with golf? You hated golf when you were a kid, correct?
And then you, what?
What was the moment you fell in love with golf, right? Well, my dad was a drunk golfer and he'd come home abusive. And it was, you know, you, you, you hid. When my dad came home from golf. You hit, Uh, except, you know, you were worried about your mom. And you know, I was the youngest, by far, by five years.
So it was scary, it was terrifying. And when you'd hear those, those, he forget to take off his cleats, you know? And you'd hear that click, click, click on the sidewalk. And God, that sound still gives me the chills. And you would, you would be scared.
And and uh, you know, he broke my mom's nose once, and it was just I just blamed golf. I thought golf was where guys, dads went to get drunk and and ruin home life, you know? And so when my dad gave my brother, my older brother, his old clubs, he goes, Come on, we're going. I was 11, I think we're going to the range.
I'm not going to the golf course ever. A dad might be there. B I hate golf. He goes, No, you're going to love it. And I went there with him and just watched him hit these soaring drives.
And I'm like, Wow, other dads aren't really drunk and this is really cool, and you're outside. And it was really fun and you got to bet Dr. Peppers.
And so I kind of developed this sick obsessiveness with golf and it became this thing that I couldn't get enough of. And so that's what I wrote about in this book. These 45 years worth of stories about real things that have happened in golf that are either funny or amazing or emotional. And during Covid?
I finally had time to write them. Yeah, yeah, so it sounds interesting. I actually have a golf story for you.
I don't know if you know this, but it coincides with your, your two biggest, I guess, interests in writing about recently President Trump and golf. Yes, so I got a DM that was sent to me a couple of years ago about going for a round of golf with. There was a guy that was playing with Papa John and with Trump at the same time. And, uh, throughout the round, Papa John started busting Trump's balls for cheating and started calling them out on some of this stuff, right?
And real battle of the titans going at it. And by the end of the round, they get to the clubhouse. And Trump has had told his guys to order pizza hut pizzas for everybody that was in the clubhouse. So, like, dozens and dozens of Pizza Hut pizzas were waiting in the clubhouse. And he handed one to Papa John when they when they got in at the end of it, just to be like, Fuck you, you don't get to call me out for cheating, I'm going to order a pizza hut for.
Everybody okay, so I wrote this book. I think you can see it in the background. It's called Commander and Cheat, because I'm in Italy and he's running for president.
And he goes, he goes, Uh, I'm the best. I'm a champion, I beat, I beat, I've won 18 club championships and that's against the guys, the young guys. No strokes. I'm like, you liar, cause?
He'd already told me when I played with him for Who's your Caddy? that he. The way he wins club championships is when he buys a new course, he plays the first round by himself and he calls that the club Championship. I love that and he won 12 that way.
And I'm like, Wait a minute. So I started looking into the other six, and then her guy says, Well, yeah, uh. One time he won a year, but he was. It was in New Jersey at Bedminster. But he was in Philly. And he called him and said, Hey, man, I shot what? won the what won Bedminster today in the Club Championship? And the guy goes 73, he goes. I shot 71 here.
And then he just kept doing it, like one year he won in North Korea, he wasn't even in Florida. And he said, Uh, he came back and played, the guy nine holes said, he beat him, and so then he was a club championship of that.
And how about the other day? He wins a club championship? Two days, I think it was at Bedminster, but he only played one of them. Because because his tweets and his social media showed that he was in North Carolina at some funeral on the first day. He's like, Well, I would have beat those guys.
Yeah, I kind of liked the fact that he just takes claim of all.
These wins. Like, if I were, if I had a ton of fuck you money, I think I would pay people to, like, stand in the woods and just drop my ball in the drive in the fairway. So, like, I didn't know that I, I, you know, was out of bounds. But I could just basically shoot a great score all the time and have people do that for me. You know, Mr. Burns and Smithers?
Yeah, right, the caddies.
At wing foot, call him Pele, cause he kicks the ball so much when I play with him. He took seven gimme's, he took a gimme chip in.
I never heard of a gimme chip, and he said, Why would we make that? I'm like, just like Edward Scissorhands, did you see that video, like a week ago? Clearly shanked it at L.A.
And so, so, since the book came out and it was eye popping stuff, the more I researched it, the more ridiculous it got. But since the book come out, I've gotten all these calls. And I get a call from the Caddy Master and the bedminster and he goes, you don't get it. We have to buy him. 500 bags of 500 count bags of long green teas, four inches high. And I'm, like, perfectly legal.
He goes, No, it's for the caddies to tee him up in the rough.
Wow, that would. That would make you a three handicap pretty quick.
I mean, you saw, you saw the press release, though. When he, when he shot that hole in one, he was playing with Ernie else, and it was. It was the most grandiose press release that I've ever seen in my life. There's no way that he, he made that entire story up, he was playing with with a force of talented golfers that co-signed it.
Into a stiff wind.
Stiff wind. Very exciting, everyone's talking about it.
Ernie's not going to lie, but you know, there is a hole in one. He made a Bronx ferry, a plaque, he made it on the first day, and I've now had three people tell me after the book. Of course, he didn't make a hole in one there, he just wanted a plaque.
No, he's a nice golfer, he's a nine, he's a 10, Tiger says. He's like an 11. I think most people think he's now like a 12 or 13, but he says he's a three.
He says he's a 2.
8, which I said in the book that if he's a 2.
8. Then Queen Elizabeth is a pole vaulter because I've played with the guy.
Rick, where are you at with Tiger these days? Cause I feel like you had a a interesting history with him. Is he your goat? Or is it, uh, you guys? What was the last time you guys spoke?
Well, uh, Tiger, Uh shut down me in 1997.
He said, I'm not giving you any more one-on-ones, and I said, why? he says, Cause you're always asking questions like, Yeah, that's the job.
But the thing is, I was a Phil guy. I loved Phil. Phil, I thought, was the best guy for me out there. He was always telling stories. He tipped people 500 bucks.
He comes to my club in L.A. and he'll play and I'll tip the guy 700 bucks. The caddy, and the caddy doesn't have to carry the clubs. Phil carries the clubs just for workout, so I always loved Phil until he sold his soul to the devil. Went to the Live, which I hope everybody in live dies in a fiery boat accident.
I hate live, I hate the whole idea of it. Imagine you guys, if they took half the NFL and said, Hey, half the teams are going to move to Saudi Arabia. We're going to pay them five times what they're worth. They're only going to play three quarters, and you're going to, you're going to not ever see these.
You'll never get to see these week after week playing each other. That's what happened to my sport. And so, yeah, now we've got this Baloney deal with the PGA Tour, who I understand they were going to lose. Because money always wins, but it's still, you understand, the Saudis kill protesters, they behead protesters.
They put gays in jail, they killed Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post. They might've funded a lot of the Nine 11, so everyone says, never forget Nine 11. Well, don't forget it.
Don't forget it, Jimmy, done you were, you were in the your company was in the World Trade Center, and now you're in bed with the Saudis. I mean, it's and you have any, you have any? Sorry to rant, but do you have any golf courses? Saudi Arabia has full 18 hole nine with grass.
They got nine, they don't care about golf, they're trying to sports, watch their image. And a bunch of these guys took the money so they could get new jets, and Phil was one of them, but Tiger didn't. And so I'd love longer for that.
Right, kind of. My position on on the live tour, and it's evolved over the course of the last year, is that I don't blame the players at all. The players were offered life-changing money and the ones that stuck around were sold a bill of goods by the PGA. Saying, Hey, you can't go to these guys, like all the stuff you just said, right? They basically said all that to their players and said, you don't want to be in bed with these same guys. That killed journalists.
They might've funded Nine 11 all this stuff. And then the PGA just goes and does an about phase and welcomes the live merger. I don't blame the players. If you're offered life-changing money, if you're offered a hundred billion dollars to do anything, do it. Do it because you're not going to get that money over here to the United States. And it looks like the guys that ended up taking the money, they came out looking better than we all thought at the start. Because it was their own people at the PGA Tour that were kind of suppressing the, uh, the earning ability of their own players at the end. Until it became an opportunity for them to make money off of it.
Well, no one thought they were suppressing the earning ability until the Saudis came along and just gave away stupid monopoly money. But I want to comment on what you're saying is Phil couldn't have made that in the U S. He could, he was always in the top 10 athletes. You've made about 40 million a year and endorsements lost. All those he had found, those job gift wrapped for him at CBS.
He was going to make about 14 to 15 a year in that. It was just a dumb, selfish move and what he said was, I'm not doing it. He admitted that the Saudis are, he admitted it, but he said, I'm trying to teach the PGA a lesson.
So, like, it'd be like, a guy going, Hey, yeah, I slept with my secretary. Cause I want to teach you my wife a better, you know, a lesson on how to treat me. It doesn't work that way, you don't get to do that.
So I mean, I see what you mean for a Pat Perez or a, uh, you know, player like that at Taylor Gooch.
They're going to like Bubba Watson, whose son was always asking about the aces doing this weekend.
And also counterpoint with Phil He, I mean, he. He had to pay his gambling debts, so, um, if he was a better gambler, maybe history looks different.
Well, Billy Walter's book comes out next month, and that is going to be wild because I know Billy and I, I kind of know about the book. It doesn't come out till, I think August 25th, but apparently there's a chapter in there about Phil is going to blow people out of the water. Okay, I'm excited.
So let's go back to your book, Um, so what, what? I mean, you, you, you told the story. I didn't know the story about your dad and how you didn't like golf growing up, so you've fallen in love with the game? Uh, what's your favorite favorite like story from the book, or maybe favorite course you've played? Uh, cause this podcast has actually gotten into golf a little too much.
Our producer, Hank, is obsessed. That's all he does. Um, but I'm trying to be supportive and be like, Go ahead, you know, don't work anymore, go play golf.
Okay, did you guys know?
There was a guy on tour in 1977, guy named Ricky Meisner who, uh, was a tour. Rabbit. Means you had to qualify on Monday if you, if you were one of the 10 guys that got through on Monday out of a hundred, then you got to play Thursday. Well, he was doing badly.
He was down to where he was sleeping in his car. Uh, he was eating at campsites on his apache, and he was going to have to go home. I didn't want to go home, so he started robbing banks. This guy, Ricky Meisner, robbed 19 banks on tour in 1977. And he would change the plates on his car, put on a fake mustache and a wig.
He had a vinyl briefcase and a gun, but he didn't have any bullets. He would go and give me all your money, but he was very polite. And this bandit became known as the gentleman Bandit that year. Who was, you know, tellers would cry and he would comfort them, and then still take the money. And um, then and then he got to Memphis, he got to, uh, Tallahassee, summer of 1977. And he gets through, he finally breaks through, and he's starting on Thursday.
This is a guy at that point had robbed 18 banks. He breaks through, he leads the Tallahassee Open in 1977. He's a head of Trevino, Hubie Green, Weisskopf, he's on top, and the press are like, Where are you been?
And he's like, Oh, you know, I've really, been, really been working on my game. What they don't get is that every Tuesday, when he missed the cut, he was robbing banks and so anyway, he shoots. The 66 leads the Tallahassee Open next Day 76, next Day 78, next day 80 finishes dead last. And he's so pissed that the next morning, as he's leaving Tallahassee, he goes to rob a bank, but he forgets to change the license plates robs.
It gets any five grand or something. He's leaving town, cars right there, he gets busted, he goes, uh, he gets 25 years in jail.
Uh, but if you google him, he did lead the tour in money.
That year, wow, wow, that's crazy, like Chiefs of Holick kind of wrote about the Chiefs of Holick.
For the post, Did you ever did you follow these guys tweets? Yeah, yeah, we did so, we actually.
We sent our best man, Billy Football, to go try to track him down down in Kansas City, went looking for him. We were thinking that this year the perfect crime would have been if he cause he was out on, uh, I guess he. He skipped bail, and then he was Mia. He should have gone to different games, different chiefs games every year, but are every week. But dressed up as super fans from the opposing team, and nobody would have ever found it. It's so good, it's like that movie.
With Bill Murray. Um, I was just praying that this guy wore the wolf costume to rob the bank. Yeah, yeah, he wore a paintball mask and all he had was a paintball gun.
I don't know if people realize that, like, why would you give this guy money if you're just going to get shot up with blue and purple? But. But then the fact that he was on the lam for two months was wonderful.
Yeah, it was an incredible story, crazy story. So Rick, it is. It is the week of the Open. Um, you actually had a front row seat to history at the Open Championship.
You were there on 18 when Vanderbilt melted down, right? Yes, what was that like? In person? Just watch, cause I still remember watching on TV.
If you, if you haven't seen it, go back and watch this guy just completely blow it on. On the 18th hole of the final round, he ends up taking his shoes off to try to hit a shot out of the water. But what was it like for you? Being front and center, he's got a three shot lead.
18th hole Carnoustie, which they call it Carnasty. Cause it's so hard, especially those last three holes and there's all these water and canals and it's. It's kind of an ugly course and it's nothing but trouble. But he's got a three shot lead. He's this French guy, he's got this French little caddy with a goatee, and we'd always talk to this caddy afterwards.
And, uh, so he's pulling out driver, and we're standing there, like, What is he doing? Driver? No, no, you can hit a five iron wedge wedge on.
When the thing by two shots pulls out, driver blocks it way. Right now, he's in deep gunch, he's got grandstands in the way and we're like, well, clearly now he's going to wedge on nine iron, wedge onto the fairway, nine iron on and win by two shots. No, he takes two iron out of the gunch and he hits it bad, hits the stands, goes back, gets worse, hits it again, knocks that into the water.
And then he finally gets into the water with his socks and shoes off, like, he's going to hit it. It's gotta be six inches deep in the water. And he stood there. I'll never forget.
He stood there with his arms on his hips, like, I am the king of the world. I'm going to pull this off and we're like, Oh, no. And he finally takes the drop, knocks it up. Makes like a 12 footer even to make the playoff and loses in the playoff to Justin Leonard.
So we go find the caddy, we find the French caddy, and we're like, Christophe, why did you? why did you have him hit? Driver? He's so good with his driver. Well, why didn't you just wedge out of that lie behind the stands? Oh, ze lie.
It was parfait.
You blew it, you should have broken every club but the wedge and you'd be the champion. It's very, very sad. Was that was that hard to watch up close? I mean, it was unbelievable.
It was like, surreal, yeah, and it's ruined his life. His wife divorced him, not because he lost, but he just became depressed. And he's a really nice guy. But I mean, he really didn't crack an egg after that.
Yeah, it was, I mean, it's an all time.
All time video. For people who haven't seen it, that image of him in the water is just, What are you doing? what are you doing? Uh, so, in terms of much history, I mean.
I had a long, long career. I mean, I'll never forget Tiger coming to this course starting Thursday and hit one driver, one driver in 72 holes. Um, I saw Nick Faldo win the Open at St. Andrews. Never three putt. I mean, I was there when Nicholas came from five shots down with nine to play it at Augusta in 86. And women were climbing trees in dresses.
It was nuts that people, the guys that were supposed to be running the hotdog stand and the ice cream stand just ran. Everything was chaos because Jack Nichols, at 46, who hadn't done anything in four years, was going to win the Open. He could barely see the ball land. He had his caddy, his son is his caddy.
And he'd be like, Where is it? cause he didn't know. Remember, he putted with that long hoover attachment putter? and it's funny in the book, I said, You know, where's? where is that putter?
That was at his house. And he goes, I don't know where that putter is, and I'm like, you don't know where the putter is. That won the 86 Masters. No. Cause he's got this grass tennis court outside his his office window.
He said Tennis players come all the time to get ready for Wimbledon. On my court, and I met a tennis player took it. I never got it back, and so I finally found it. This guy named, he died.
His name was Stockton, and his wife had it, his wife had it in the garage, so she sent it to a Nicholas Museum.
Incredible, incredible, I mean, the history of golf and all the stories, especially because it feels like golf. I know the live stuff has been weird this past year or two years, but it does feel like golf is getting bigger and bigger with new audiences. Who's your favorite golfer right now?
Or who's the guy maybe you're rooting for this weekend that you're like, this is? This is a guy I could see writing a book about in 20 years.
Okay, he's our guy. Yeah, yeah, I love it. When people send him swings and they want and they want feedback. And he'll be like, take the club back farther and then throw it in the garage and never play again.
Yeah, or he'll go, he'll go, really. There's no hope for you. He's so, he's such, he's so good on Twitter.
He's so smart, I'd love to see him win this. I don't care, though, I just don't want anybody from Live and I'm afraid Can Smith's going to win it because he's hot, as can be Rory.
You know, I stopped betting on Rory years ago. I think John Rahm could win it. He's just unstoppable. I try to, I'm trying to make my backswing as short as him. So I think it's going to be a terrific Open, but I just, I just don't want any live players.
I would accept Brooks, except Brooks. I would love to see Brooks win. yeah, Brooks, yeah.
Brooks, our guy, we're, we're big fans of Brooks, he's become a friend and all he does is. You have to at least respect the fact that he just shows up for the biggest events. And he's gotta be. You tell me if I'm wrong, but Brooks has to be, he's not. He's not in the same conversation as Tiger. But in terms of showing up for majors and when the pressure's on, like playing his best golf, he's the. He is the closest to that right now.
Yeah, that's the only time he seems.
To care, he doesn't give a rat's ass about every Buick Open that comes along, he doesn't care, he just wants to lift and screw around. And then the thing is that why I don't claim Brooks or Dustin Johnson about the Saudi thing.
I don't think they know where Saudi Arabia is.
I don't know. It's like when Rodman went to Korea and didn't know there were two Koreas. I guarantee you, Dustin Johnson didn't know where Saudi Arabia was or what they meant. I mean, one time I wrote this line about Dustin, I said, Dustin Johnson is so dense, light bends around him.
And and I asked his. I asked his agent the next day, was he mad about that line? and his agent goes, He had no idea what you meant. Yeah, he doesn't get the money, I mean, I, but. But Phil knew, Phil understood.
Yeah, yeah, with Brooks, it's like, it's hard to ask. And demand of all of our athletes to be like the most geopolitically aware people in the world. You know, these are conversations that should be happening at at higher levels. And there is some truth to the fact that if you, if you hate the Public Investment Fund, if you hate Saudi Arabia, well, guess what?
You probably give them money nine times every day and you don't even know about it. If you, you know, ride in an Uber or you go to Chipotle, guess what? Some of that money going back to MBS? Hey, I've covered athletes, my.
Whole life, and you're totally right. I asked. Too much of them, they make their money with their bodies, not their brains. I mean, have you ever heard the story about Marvin Barnes played for Providence? No, Tell us?
Marvin Barnes was this guy who played for Providence and he was had a terrific college career. And then he went pro and he was into all kinds of trouble and he flunked out of the league in two years. Living above, he's living above a liquor store in Providence, and he's down on his luck. He's got a gun, puts on a ski mask by the way, he's seven foot tall, puts on a ski mask, goes down and robs the liquor store underneath his apartment. And he says, Give me all your money. And the, and the, uh, the cashier's like, Marvin, what are you doing? and Marvin goes, It ain't me.
And so you're right there. I should just I should just be happy with what they can do with their bodies, and not what they can do with their brains. And I should back off, but I just can't help it.
It's also, it's also, you know, there are serious, uh discussions about, uh, everything that goes on with Live and everything behind it. But one of the re, one of the things that I think has been worked are in our favor for this show. As we've always realized that sports are an escape for a lot of people and they're supposed to be fun. And, uh, I just want to see the best players play against each other. That was my, you know? One of the bigger parts of Live is like not having Brooks for that brief period of time. Where it's like, Oh, he's not going to get to play in the majors. They're going to ban them from stuff.
I want to see the best compete against the best, I want to see great golf. I want to see like moments that make me, you know, have memories for for years and years and years, and that's really what I want from sports.
You don't give a damn what they do in their off time. Guy beats his wife killed.
No, that's obviously, there's obviously, you know, you're not gonna. I'm not gonna root for people who are, uh, committing crimes. But I do think that it gets a little murky because people do want to just watch, sit down and watch sports. Yeah, you're right, and that's that's one reason.
I'd never liked. I didn't like to root for Tiger, cause he was terrible with fans. He didn't tip people. He gets up from dinner tables and doesn't leave any money. Uh, you know, he's, he's not a not a nice guy.
I don't think, I don't think he's ever been a people person. He's very insular. He still just hangs out with his high school and college buddies, which is fine. But I mean, I think you, you, just the world deserves more from you than that, and that's why I didn't like him.
But then he stood up against Live and now I just, I just love him for that. So, I mean, I guess you're right, I expect too much. I think too much is my problem.
Yeah, you gotta be dumb like us, that's actually the real that is no, seriously, no, no, no, no, no, I'm taking that as a compliment.
Um, I, I've always thought I have the perfect amount of intelligence where I'm not smart enough to understand, uh, complex issues, but I'm also a little bit smarter, uh, than the dumbest. So that's exactly where you want to be in life.
So you're somewhere right, somewhere right in the middle, where you can understand, like.
Oh, that might be a bad thing, and you can also say, Hey, that's a dumb thing. But you're, you never could really explain either side, right? You're not, you're not plagued by the.
Geopolitical cycle and in climate troubles of the world. No, that shit. no, I don't lose any sleep on that shit. no sleep, yeah.
I start with the bourbon at six o'clock and I stopped.
Worrying about it, too.
Uh, Rick, where are we at with the Broncos? I know that you, you hated Nathaniel Hackett. We we got to meet Nathaniel Hackett training camp last year and he is. He's the nicest guy in the world. You would actually love Nathaniel Hackett as a person.
I didn't hate Nathaniel Hackett, you know, just to set it. I've been a Bronco fan since they became a team. Um, but he, he said, Hey, after he's fucked up the timeouts, he goes, I'm gonna let someone else handle the timeouts. Then he completely screwed the play calling when he wanted a 63 yard field goal instead of going for it on fourth and five. The guys, the guy had never kicked anyone, he kicked us.
It was a to tie, it was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. And so he goes, You know what? I'm not very good at play calling, I'm like, I'm gonna let someone else call the play.
Well, what are you good at? What do you do? Fold the towels. Yeah, we can't have you around.
So I love this. I love the Sean Payton fit and I think that maybe he'll make Russell Wilson be a normal person. And also Sean Payton is a baller because he belongs to my club in L.A. And somebody found his wallet on the course and had 15 grand of hundreds in it. I love it.
Grand. And, uh, they give it back to him, and, uh, he's like, Oh, thanks, like he didn't really care. I love this guy.
So you think he can fix Russell?
No, I kind of, I kind of think Russell's spent. I do too, I do too, unfortunately, but yeah, and also could you not take yourself so seriously?
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