Sports Moments We Never Forget

Setting The Draft And Rules

SPEAKER_00 0:13

It's missing the point. All four of us are here. Fun times, everybody. I really enjoy when we can get the whole band together. What's a band without its percussion section? What's a band without its bass section? It's just the two most talented ones left after that. And like, you can't have that. Um, as everybody thinks about which section they are, I'm gonna move right along into the rest of the intro. I want you to know that it is the dog days of summer. It is difficult to find and talk about sports content in August, but we did it somehow. We're tonight gonna, I guess, draft, but more just talk about our personal top three all-time to ourselves professional sports moments. The things that made us fall in love with watching pro sports, watching uh Mike, obviously, wrestling's included in this, if you had that somewhere on the list, um, solo sports, team sports, just the thing that made us fall in love with competition, um, the thing that made us want to come back for the romance of the sport, for the for the the that that bottleable feeling, hopefully, that you guys all are gonna tell us about as you experienced it throughout your life. And honestly, I as I was thinking about this, I was thinking some of it's gonna be from when I'm a kid, but I have some recent ones. All right. So, in that spirit, we've randomized the order. Zach's going first, then Matt, then myself, and then Mike. Zach, please kick it off. Lead us off with the the thrill, the romance, the shock, the philosophy that got you into sports in the first place, or just the one that hits but doesn't hit as quite as as much as the other two? What is it?

Red Sox Yankees 2004 Walk Off

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Uh I'm gonna say this is pretty obvious, I you know, Boston-based sports uh podcast and all that. So uh July 24th, 2004, Fenway Park. Uh, probably the game that was the pivotal moment in the Red Sox uh season to eventually capture the first title in 86 years. Um Bill Miller's walk-off to run Homer off of uh Mario Nivera, 11-10 comeback victory. Of course, people remember that game the most for uh A-Rod getting hit by uh Bronson Arroyo, and then a whole fight breaking up between A-Rod and Veritec, uh right in the middle of the rival, like the big rivalry between the Sox and Yankees from the late 90s to that point, really. Uh, and kind of carried over a few years after, but was kind of died after the 07 championship. But I mean, this was really the height of baseball in Boston, uh, especially between New York and Boston. Um, and this game alone was electric. This was worthy of being a playoff game, and if it wasn't for the ALCS, uh I mean this game would have been the game of the year, uh, but instead you got a fantastic ALCS against the Yankees again. Uh so uh the but this game really just kind of stands out as for me personally, you don't really remember a lot of regular season games, I think. I think if you have a memorable regular season game, it has to be really, really good. Um and the fact that this still stands out to this day, uh, I had to put it up there.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

That's a great choice. Is it on either of your lists?

SPEAKER_03 3:40

No, that is an absolutely fantastic choice because you can always talk about them winning that year or the the ALCS, but that game, like I think that was the height of the rivalry. It's it has never been as big as it was then. Uh like he mentioned it died after that, but that isn't that isn't that the game that Pedro threw, Don Zimmer too?

SPEAKER_02 4:02

No, that was 2003. Um yeah, I was kind of mixing up my my brawls as well. Uh but that that kind of goes to show how big it was between these two teams and franchises and fan base is that yeah, they were literally willing to fight it out uh any given game, even a regular season game.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

I think that um the true oldest, most toxic rival, well, the true great rivalries are always a little toxic, right? Like there's always a little actual toxicity because and it's always it's always regional. You need that that extra thing in there where it's like, yeah, like people from Boston and people from New York are like similar, but we're not the fucking same, right? And there's like the fan base is um I I've never been in a more toxic environment. I like fucking English hooligan football, and I've never been in a more toxic environment than a Red Sox Yankees game. The the fact that you guys let your your fans in co-intermingle is fucking insane to me. Like, I feel like you need to like do a pump, like get some reps in, you might get in a fight going to one of these games. And I just think that like I all that creating more atmosphere can only be good for the sport, right? Um, would do you guys you guys remember this game pretty clearly, also? Do you guys remember where you were and like what what impact it had on you?

SPEAKER_04 5:20

In my living room, sitting next to my dad and my brother. I remember it clear as day. Cam was asleep to the left of me. My dad was complaining about sports forever. And I I'll never forget that.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

I love it. Honestly, it's um it's a great kickoff to the to the discussion I really wanted to have because it's like I don't think it matters the stakes. I mean, yeah, there's things on my list where there's championships involved and or or Jason. I don't think it really matters whether whether it's regular season or playoffs. I think it matters how it made you feel at the time when you got the prompt for this show, what jumped out at you. So great first choice. Love that that's kicked us off. I knew there was going to be at least one, if not, I was thinking there would be three to four perhaps Red Sox uh memories thrown in here. So that's cool. Um, there was only one Boston-based one that I was I was worried about getting or not getting, but that's great. Matt, you're up next.

Istanbul 2005 And Miracle Comebacks

SPEAKER_04 6:08

Well, I thought about it long and hard, and obviously that game came to my mind. And there were a few that came to my mind of this guy that played quarterback for the Patriots for a minute. Obviously, there were some a few Bruins moments, um, not many Celtics moments that I lived through, but one event stood out to me more than any. And I want to bring you back to 2005. Istanbul.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

I was not actually on my list. So really not on your list.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

You were so excited when that happened that that was.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

That was one of my honorable mentions. And I think you were just doing this to be a dick, but that's I was, I wanted to steal it from you.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

I think it was on your list, and I think you're just trying to steal it back from before that. But in all seriousness, the Champions League final, AC Milan versus Liverpool, uh watching your excitement, watching your family's excitement that day, uh, watching them go down 3-0 and laughing and be like, huh, that's gotta be over, right? And then the the change of events that occurred uh with uh Gerard and and uh Alonzo, it was the that was the craziest thing I've ever seen uh to that point in sports. It had nothing to do with my sports teams, and today Liverpool became my sports team. So for those of you that don't know, they overcame a uh three zip deficit in the first half, came back, scored abroad the penalties, took it home, uh probably set up Liverpool at that point for the next uh two decades of excellence that they had and are still having, in my opinion. But yeah, it was the coolest thing I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Yeah, it was pretty crazy, and I do appreciate you giving me a chance to talk about it because I wasn't gonna actually pick it. Um maybe it's a recency bias thing, the way I was uh thinking about things, but essentially, like that Liverpool team, I don't know if you guys have any equivalent. Um, maybe the Red Sox, like maybe one of the years, like has this, but that Liverpool team had no business being in the final. Like they kind of through pluck and and you know, chipperness sort of uh got their way in. There was a goal that maybe was or maybe wasn't a goal against Chelsea in the semifinal. And when you watched that Milan team come out, if you were a soccer fan at the time, it was like watching the fucking monsters watch out walk out on the field. Like Maldini, maybe the greatest defender of all time, was the captain uh Crespo, Nesta, Purlo, Kaka, uh Yap Stam, Gatuso, Cafu, like these are all guys that are known some on their club teams and some on their in their countries as the best player to ever play their positions. And that honestly fed into the narrative because what ended up happening was they came out and they just dropped three right on us right away. Everybody, yeah, immediately. And everybody in Liverpool and the surrounding Liverpool fan bases were like, all right, well, we had a good run. Uh that was uh that was that was a that was a beautiful run. We really had no business being here. Um, you know, when Harry Kules your right winger and he's like trying to run at fucking Cafu, it's not really like an ideal situation. He's like he was like the second best player in Australia at the time, so it's like that there's a you know, there's there's levels to this, but um we did have we did have a couple of things go our way at halftime. One being we had this like mad scientist coach who just started changing up the tactics and he put our best player right back and it worked weirdly, uh and Steven Gerrard, and then uh the AC Milan locker room by all accounts started celebrating. Like they started kind of it reminds me the best example I can think of is you remember that game six against the Wizards in the um in in the uh Isaiah Thomas era where the Wizards beat us and John Wall jumped up on the scorers table and it was like, oh buddy, job not finished, job finished, jobs not finished. And uh I I remember thinking that at the time, and I remember, you know, like seeing it firsthand in this in this Champions League final. Um it was it was pretty great because then the uh son that's traditionally sung at the beginning and and end of games got sung by the fans that had traveled all the way to Turkey to see the game, and they started singing at halftime, and the players heard it apparently, and they came out and Steven Jarrard just fucking Steven Jarrard it over all over everybody, and uh yeah, they took it to to to extra time. Jersey DDack made a bunch of crazy saves, and then we went and it was awesome, yeah. There was a real romance to it. Um, I was 15 months, so I was just like mainlining that shit at the time. So, but I I think my stuff's more recent, the stuff I've picked because I need um I need it more now.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

I watched you go through the five stages of grief in 15 minutes watching that game and then give up and then be like, Yeah, it's over, you know, they're they're dead, it's over. And watching them come back, it was like it you know what it was, it was a realization for me that the people, uh specifically you Irish folk, are like us too. Like, oh my god, it happens to other people where their their nothing teams come back and take it all. Because I just watched uh the Red Sox do it. I was like, Well, this isn't like a real sport, is it? And I've you know, no, I love soccer, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Um I guess it's my turn now.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Sorry, I've talked for a long time about your I'm just very thankful I played a lot of FIFA in college to like know half those names. I'm like, oh yeah, Steven Gerard, that guy's a stud. That was always funny to hear a commentator say.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Love that. Yeah, yeah. Kaka. Uh-huh. Um cool. I'm glad you I'm glad you recognized the names because it was quite an that was the team that 05 uh AC Milan team was like the team it would have been unfair to pick online if everybody uh played online at the time, but it was a little soon for that. But it would have been like really, dude, you're fucking picking them, you're picking the 96 Bulls, like that's a little much, and like the fact that we came back against them is pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Looking for a comparison? It was the 07 Patriots.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Yeah, it was pretty nuts. We just we just weren't as good as them. Yeah, that was um that was a crazy thing. Mike, anything on that on that game? Any anyway? Absolutely nothing. No, okay, gotcha. Um, well, there you go. I mean, the the eclectic interests are really what uh makes this podcast special. So I'm gonna go

Bears Packers Comeback And New Hope

SPEAKER_00 11:43

now. My third pick, I thought about this long and hard, and I thought, is this recency bias? But I thought, no, I'm gonna love this forever, and I think I'm gonna love it even more when I go on to see this team reach higher heights, hopefully, as the years go on. But I'm picking um the 31-27 comeback victory by the Chicago Bears against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC wildcard playoffs. They were down 21-3 at halftime, and I had a really specific feeling where I had I had finally let myself, I mean, Mike, of everyone here, you know, we were doing weekly football podcasts, and you've you've seen me sort of like decide the Bears are gonna actually be able to do something a couple times and and come catastrophically crashing down to to earth. And that season, I was the whole time, I was like, nope. I was like, I'm not doing it to myself this year. I've I've seen it too many times, I'm not gonna believe it, whatever. And uh they had pulled off that crazy comeback victory already against the Packers in the regular season, and I was like, you know, maybe there is something to this team. And I remember my brother, not a huge like NFL guy, and my nephew was trying to get into the sport, and he was like, Well, who's your team? And I was real fucking hesitant, man, to like have him walk this path, you know. I I really was like, bro, I I've since I was your age experienced almost exclusively pain, like almost exclusively pain and misery, combined with the fact that I got into the Bears living in Chicago, moved to New England, and then just watched you fucks just run fucking rings around every other team for the next two decades. As and and my friends are also insufferable on their own. So to just like have that be in combination in tandem with like you know, watching Brian Greasy play quarterback for my team is just like it's it was just not a great, it was not a great thing. I if I had maybe gotten into football a few years later, I would have been able to watch a lot more success. But um my nephew was like, Come on, like who's your team? And I was like, I like the Bears, and he was like, Alright, let's do it. I'm riding with you. And I was looking at him when we were down 21-3 at the half, and I was like, What have I done? What have I done? Like, I um I felt like crying. I was like, should I try to talk him out of this? Like, maybe he could be like, he's lives in LA, you know, like maybe he can be a Rams fan, like they're historically pretty good, they're still good. Maybe he can be, I don't know, it's whatever. And to watch them come back, especially, and obviously this goes without saying, but I'm gonna say it because it feels good to say it against the fucking Packers was absolute cinema, absolute fucking cinema. Um, and to be sort of topped off with the fact that uh there is now like a a Caleb Williams jump man pose that I have like a sticker of on the back of my laptop, um, just because he just made some some of the most outrageous throws ever and cemented to me that he's my guy for until the foreseeable. Um, and I'm riding with him till the end, and that Ben Johnson's a football psycho. And yeah, we didn't go on to win the Super Bowl that year, but winning that game put us way ahead of schedule. And um because of just the the context, the kid being there, seeing, seeing sports through his eyes, you know, all the pain and suffering I'd gone through with this team and the fact that it was the Packers, uh, really just it's it's gonna cement itself as hopefully the beginning of an era and and a game I remember that sort of kicked off the the Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams era. I'm hoping. Um, but even if not, it was just fucking great to watch because like fuck the Packers always.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

My favorite my favorite part about you you uh talking about this game is you are like you preface it by saying it's recent, but the way that you're talking about it, it's like it lives in Bears' lure and it's from like eight years ago. So it's from like eight months, it's from like eight months ago, you know, not even it's from like six months ago. That's how little it is. But every everything you said about it is true. Um, I had to like coach you through the season because I was telling you like we did our our our prediction. I'm like, the Bears are gonna win like 10 games, and you're like, I don't think that it's there. I don't, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I'm like, they're gonna do it, and then they fucking did it, and they're gonna be there, they're the team to beat in the north for a while.

SPEAKER_04 15:55

Like, I was literally doing the same thing to him the entire season. He I think he just needs that.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Specifically, I think I feel like you want me to get to a place so that the high is a farther fall, you know.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

I bought a bear's hat.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

It's fair.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

I bought a bear's hat.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Yeah, that's crazy work. You're a Patriots fan. That's like that's sacrilegious, bro. You can't be doing that.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

I can't buy West Coast girl.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

I've always sort of felt like because like I mean, this is before we were born, but like the the Bears and the Pats met in like a memorable Super Bowl in '85. And I do feel like in an AF, maybe it's just because I like love the Bears and grew up in New England, but it's like I there've always been sort of intertwined for me. Like, I just on some DNA level, I sort of know I'm gonna see a Bears Patriots Super Bowl in my lifetime.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

And like I was hoping for last year, that would have been so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Could have happened. Um, that would have been great. It wouldn't have been the two best teams in the Super Bowl. That's always a lot of fun. Um, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm really looking forward to the next few years in in in Bears football. I'm really looking forward to talking football with you guys with the with the revamped roster and everybody's sort of uh perspective on it, you know, refreshed and uh yeah, getting to know how everybody like really thinks and talks about football because if we're being honest, football is our bread and butter here at missing the point. And uh thank you guys for signing up and joining the pod, but you joined when it's at its most difficult. So the only way is up from this point forward. Um, but no, I've been having a great time. Uh yeah, that's it. Anyone have anything to say about that? Uh like Zach, do you want to tell me I'm completely getting my hopes up for no reason?

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Uh maybe, but I will say there is, I mean, there is something from an outsider's perspective in terms of like not having a rooting interest in either team, like watching the underdog come back, or you know, finally, you know, uh David finally taking down Goliath. There is something to that that is entertaining. Um while at the same time, there is there was some form of entertainment and always seeing Aaron Rodgers just make the Bears his bitch. Like fuck that guy. Yes, I mean fuck that guy, yes. But like there is something entertaining to that. The same way I would I wouldn't blame you know uh national baseball fans for thinking the same way how the Yankees own the Sox for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

It's just funny, it's funny to see went on to win championships. Aaron Rodgers is like, I always beat the Bears, and then that's it, you know, like he won one fucking Super Bowl, and people talk about him like he's fucking Joe Montana. I don't really get it.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Yeah, I think that aspect of it is fair, sure. But there's still some, you know, because they always put Bears Packers on national television, and every single time it was just the Packers wiping the floor. Yes, and that and that's another part of it is it's fun to see the underdog finally come on top, but now we're gonna see Packers-Bears games actually be competitive, entertaining from a week to space, and even more nationally broadcast games because they're gonna be close.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Yeah, yeah. Also, I just I really have had even before Caleb Williams came on the scene, I've really had a Jordan Love as a fraud um take, like buried uh deep in my subconscious, and also at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

I don't think you need to bury that.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Yeah, no, I haven't. Uh I've I I've buried it there and I've let it come out of my mouth uh like a lot. And um, it's not just because he's the Packers QB, it's a lot of it is because he's the Packers QB, and I might be doing this regardless, but um, I don't think he's that good. I really don't. And I think we even uh Ray and Mike and I got into a whole thing about it, and I was like, I bet I can name 14 quarterbacks that are better than him, and like I kind of could.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

So no, no, no, no, no, he kind of couldn't. He named 11. He named 11. And then I got there.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

No, you were you had like three that you could you were like disputing, and I was like, but like anytime anyone brings up Dak Prescott as in any in any sort of list, you're like, no, no, fucking fuck him, no. And I'm like, he's still like better than Jordan Love, like surely, but whatever. No, you don't think Jack Prescott's better than Jordan? I'm not doing this right now. We'll do this and this was see, this is why football is the best. Um uh all right, cool, Mike. Round us off and do too.

Patriots First Super Bowl And Grief

SPEAKER_03 20:00

Yeah, so February 3rd, 2002, uh Patriots beat the Rams 20 to 17. Uh, they win their first Super Bowl. Uh and I would just say, yes, uh, I don't I don't I don't want to be the only person that's choosing a championship as their first moment, but I I just remember this this is the the thing that kicked off Boston Sports Dynasty in the 2000s, right? And if you were a Patriots fan of my age, like you didn't really have to suffer that much because Drew was drafted in '93, they made the Super Bowl in '96. Like they were a formidable team. But being in 2001, I mean, I think it was a crazy year for everybody. It was a crazy year for me personally. Uh, but to see uh like a major event happen that year? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, for the the the cr the country, yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Shit. They told me to never forget and I forgot. God damn it. Every time I was to read the bumper sticker.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

And to bring to to bring to bring you back down, Dave, that's that's the year that I lost my dad. And so it's it's to it's to in 9-11? Nope, not 9-11. That would have been cooler. You can forget about it. Um so it was to see to see something that no that that that your grandparents hadn't seen, your dad hadn't seen, and like now, like that, that football team was a champion. I remember like I was in my uh my aunt and uncle's living room, like most of the family was there, and it was just a wild experience, and that really just kicked off everything. We were uh double-digit underdogs, nobody gave us a fucking shot. But if you remember, back in November, we almost beat the Rams in Foxboro, and that's when like the momentum started building. Even Bill was like, we could beat this team. They are beatable. Uh, then he may have had to record a few practices. I don't know if that happened, but I just I don't know if they were doing that. My my favorite part of that uh of that victory, not just like obviously Adam Venateri kicking the the game winning kick, but if you ever listen to remember when they did uh America's game and they would do. Each uh each year. Bledsoe, when Charlie Weiss was saying, like, you should just make sure that you manage the ball, manage the field, and Bledsoe just goes, No, fuck that. Go out there and fucking sling it. I I loved that. Um, so that's my moment.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

That's a great moment.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Did you guys think you had a shot? I'm I've always been curious about that. Where would you do you remember your mentality going into it? Because I remember I was in Chicago still, and I was like, I want the Patriots to win just because they're the underdog, but coming out of the last time I ever said that.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

Coming out of Pittsburgh, I didn't think if Drew started that it was that we were gonna win. Um, because remember, Tom got hurt and Drew had to finish that game against the Steelers. But again, that that November game when they came into Foxboro and they barely beat us. It was like, okay, well, they're not they're not unbeatable. Uh, I didn't think we were gonna get blown out like everybody else did, but I would be lying if I said that I thought we were gonna win.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

I mean, you just had no idea what was to come, too. You know, like the the amount of success that was around the corner. I mean, even down to Vinateri makes that kick, and in a vacuum, you're like, that's that's great, that's a clutch kick, like, good job. But then he goes on to basically become the most clutch fucking kicker of all time, and you're just like, and that's part of the resume, and that really kicks it off, no pun intended. But it's like, I yeah, I mean, just all the context that comes after it really sort of pales in comparison to the feeling, it must fit pale in comparison to the feeling of the first time you watch your team win a championship because I remember sort of watching, I don't want to call it cynicism, but like a natural armor, a natural protection against like the times you guys went to the Super Bowl and didn't win because you had a lot to fall back on when that by the time that happened, right? When it's when the stakes are that high, it's hard for me to not think. And and you guys tell me, Zach, you tell me, is that the best one because it was the first one of your lifetime, or is it made like maybe there were better games, maybe there was different contexts in your life, or or what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 23:55

No, I mean there's yeah, I mean there's definitely better ones. Uh I would argue 49 against the Seahawks was probably the most important one. Well, for Brady at least.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Um there's but that wasn't you guys, they threw that game away.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Like literally. I mean, sure. But uh But like to but to see Brady like emerge on the scene and like and and I mean like Brady Brady had gone to two Super Bowls and lost, and if he had lost that one, he was gonna be three and three in Super Bowls, and that's true, you know, hadn't won since Spygate and all that other crap.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Had he not won the first one, he would have not been three and three in Super Bowls because they probably would have blown up the team. Right. And like I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

I mean, I guess there's a lot more there's a lot of context and weight that goes behind each one. Like the first one's obviously special and magical, and you're like, oh my god, they've did it for the first time. This is great, and like there is something to that, but there's also you know, once you get to a certain point, then you're you're not just witnessing that something that's cool. Like, look at the the 2016 uh Chicago Cubs, like that was a great magical year, and like it's it's memorable, but like does that become anything? No, not really. Like the San Francisco Giants of that era were a much better team who won three out of five. Uh, so it's just like an anomaly, really, for the Cubs. But then you look at the Patriots and it's like you're watching greatness develop in front of you the same way that like you grew up hearing about these other great franchises, these other great teams, like you're witnessing it in real time, and at that point, like it just becomes more and more special.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

There is something about being surrounded by people who have been watching for far longer than you, and you get to see something that they've been waiting their entire lives to see, or like you are you, you know, you get to see something that uh the people that you love never got the chance to see that were big that were big fans. Like, I don't I don't know really quite how to describe that feeling, but like that's why it's always and I'm I'm not the biggest baseball guy anymore, but it's always oh one Patriots oh four sucks because that feeling was just generations of people never saw that, and we and we were crazy that you say that too, because it I was just thinking about the context in in football, but I mean it was also the catalyst and the kickoff to an incredible run in Boston sports over the next 25 years, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

I mean, it's like everybody got on that train, and I wonder, I mean, it obviously one doesn't affect the other, but in the sort of butterfly effect chaos theory world, I just wonder, you know, I wonder if it really did kick off success in that town because there are towns that breed failure, right? Like there are there are is a reason it's really hard to build build a good Bengals team, right? Like it's you're just sort of like, oh god. But it's like, or you know, the Browns or whatever. It's it's uh mostly Ohio-based, I guess. But the the the idea that that you success begets success, success breeds success. These guys are all in the same rooms, you know what I mean? Like these get these owners are all talking to each other. The these these cultures are all informed by the same city. I just wonder how much of an impact it it really had, like in the in the sort of butterfly effect down the line thing. But um, was it the best one for you, Matt, or just just up there?

SPEAKER_04 27:02

It it was it was in my top three. Uh, it wasn't the best one of that run for me of Tom's, but uh that was just personal context in my butt save it because I think I'm gonna get to use it.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

All right. Um, my turn again. Isn't it? Don't I go twice? Oh, did you then have the second one? Oh, okay, yeah, go ahead. Sorry, we just talked about it for a while.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Yeah, just just long went into my bad. Um second one is the David Tyree catch.

David Tyree Catch And Sports Trauma

SPEAKER_03 27:29

Uh, because I remember exactly where I was when that happened. I remember who I was with. I remember the feeling of going into that game thinking we're we are again, this team is going to provide us with something that no other team has seen. No one's ever gone 19-0. And when I thought Seymour had him, I thought Manning was down. That catch was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen for all the wrong reasons. Rodney and two years ago or two years earlier would have batted the shit out of that ball. But that obviously that wasn't the the catch that won the game, and that was Plexigo Burst, who was on Alice Hobbs, who was eight, you know, eight-inch differential in height. But that uh this game proved to me that like my my true love for sports, because as just as the highest of highs with the Patriots in 01, this was the lowest of lows in terms of a team that you thought could win. Everybody hated like 07 was year that everyone everyone decided that the Patriots were America's worst team. We we all fucking hate you. And it started the thing of now, like, yeah, you won six Super Bowls, but you should have had eight, you know, because you should have beat those Giants. You should have at least had seven. Uh no one says that. Giants fans do.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Giants fans can't say that.

SPEAKER_03 28:49

You can't look at six total and look they look, they look me dead in the eye and they and they say, Yeah, you would have had eight if it wasn't for Eli. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:57

I mean for real.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 28:59

You know what they'd say they say, yeah. You know what Goliath killed a lot of people, but he didn't kill David. Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

I don't know. You guys have six fucking chips in my lifetime. I've like, I don't really know.

SPEAKER_04 29:10

Yeah, but talking to a Bears fan, that's I get it. Like, it's not fair.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

I mean, to me, it should be five. I really think that you just give it to the best running back in football and it's it's over.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

But uh, okay, so hold on though. A kid, you know, a rich kid, Macaulay Culkin, when he was a kid, you're not excited to watch him get a Nintendo. You wouldn't be devastated if you didn't get a Nintendo. I would give me my Nintendo back.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

That was just that's the most it sounds so weird to say, but uh uh that was like we were we were in college. I think you were you were not on the show yet, Dave, when we were doing the radio show. Uh it's the most traumatized I've ever been from a sporting event. Ever. Ever because Dean had a lot of people. No, but Dean had so many giant fans that I didn't know about until the very next day when I was they all became giant fans overnight.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

It was fucking awful.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

It was awful. I I I don't think this would be on anyone's list because I I think everyone kind of did positive ones, but it's funny you say that's the most traumatizing one for me was uh 2003 Aaron Boone. That that to me was like that was the first time I ever cried after a sporting event. Like that I was like, what the fuck? Like that was traumatizing to me. Uh 07 really sucked for sure. Having the three championships before helped, but yeah, 03 was horrible.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

O three was so bad I can't actually place where I was. I my brain blocks O3 out of my head. I'll never forget O7.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Well, you're you were like 14, so you couldn't have been far.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

I didn't go to school the next day. I know that it was a problem, it was a real problem. I was a big, big Red Sox fan. Man, I can do it.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

I can I can just see Wakefield throwing that ball still and just like oh that's gone.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

Fucking knew it. Lord fucking boom.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

But you know what's weird is like I think of that like in the moment that game sucked, and like that was traumatizing, but I didn't feel the same way about the 07 Patriots, but I still to this day think about that 07 Patriots team. Like, mmm, like I still like I still think about that one. And I would trade I'd trade three of three of the other Super Bowls for that one. How many would how many would you trade? Uh none. I know that I you wouldn't trade it any a single or or two, three, four for one. I'd trade three of them for it. Yeah, I guess I would trade.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

You can trade the Panthers one. Not the Panthers. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

No, the Panthers one was was wild because it was like the highest scoring second half of all time to that point. I would trade the Eagles one. Um I don't care about the Eagles one. Yep. But then you lose two to the Eagles. That's that's fine. It's fine. You're not you're 19 to know it. But what's so wild, and I know that I've framed it as David Tyree, that that's really just in case we ever start clipping these things again and we can we can send it out. But the thing about that dude is I'm still so mad at Bill for putting Ellis Hobbs, who was five foot nine, on Plexigo Burris one-on-one for a slant in the end zone. Well, Plexo was 6'5. This is before he'd shot himself. Uh, and like he was just an an all-timer. And I don't I don't understand how you would say, you know what, just go one-on-one. It's gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

So so the other thing with that though is uh I I think I read, I forget if it was a sports illustrated article or what it was, but uh Rodney had so much respect for junior Seo, uh, that I think Junior Seo was the mic, and he Rodney saw what they were uh how they were set up on offense and was saying to them, hey, like we need to call off this blitz, and junior stayed with it. So Rodney knew that they shouldn't have gone with a blitz, that one-on-one coverage with Ellis Hobbs was not a good idea, and because he respected Junior Sayo so much, he didn't want to override him on that call. I'm not taking the bait, so I'm I'm just I'm no it's no bait. I'm just telling you what Rodney said. It's like the same thing. Yeah, I mean it's yes, like do you still put Ellis Hobbs on plexical bursts? No, you don't do that.

SPEAKER_04 33:17

But at the same time, like the guys are on the field and they can make the adjustments there, they can call it the audibles, and uh Rodney deferred to junior sayo, and you know you know, even while we're talking about this right now, I'm getting like nauseous, like it makes me like sick to my stomach to think about it. That was the worst. That was bad. I give up LA, I give up Philly. I I give up four. I'd give four for that one. Sure, give up the Seahawks. I would give you a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Um, the uh the next pick is me. Um, I'm

Celtics 2008 Title And Lakers Hate

SPEAKER_00 33:50

gonna take the 2008 Boston Celtics, uh, beating the Los Angeles Lakers in six games uh in the finals um behind a stellar performance by what was known then as the the big three. Obviously, that um title has been given to a few different uh few different iterations since. But uh, you know, Kevin Garnett, looking every inch, Kevin Garnett still um obviously the the Paul Pierce needs to take a shit, so he fakes a knee injury thing. Uh I I will absolutely dine out on how much that frustrates Lakers fans to this day. It seems to annoy them so much still, and it kind of was the reason we rallied in that game and and and won won the game. So I was really enjoying that. Obviously, game two, we come out and uh we we have to hold on a little bit in the last two minutes, but um Pierce does like a 30 and 10 classic Paul Pierce performance. Um they respond when we go back at home. Uh Kobe Bryant goes off for like 36, and that's that was like sort of naturally gonna happen, and that's where you're in that great seven-game series period where you're you're really reassuring yourself because you're like, it's fine, they were always gonna respond at home. It's the Lakers. This was never gonna be a walk in the park. Turns out it kind of was. Uh behind um the game four comeback, one of the largest in uh NBA Finals history, 24-point first half deficit. Doc Rivers, just play defense, your shots will fall. Play defense, your shots will fall. Mike, I know you're every opinions on Doc Rivers, but just talking about him and this team in a vacuum right now, um, and even this series in a vacuum, because I actually know you have opinions on his performance throughout the entirety of those playoffs, but which is all fine and all valid. And you know, you've cited your sources, but right now I'm just thinking about then going on. Uh I think it was Matt, where we at Mike O'Keikas' house, um, there was like a very, very large party was thrown, and everybody was it was basically everyone that we went to high school with, and everybody was pretty sure we were gonna win this game. And I remember like, I remember feeling when it was like definite, and we, you know, the ball was getting thrown up in the air, and I remember being like, wow, yeah, I watched the Pats in 01 when I was in Chicago. Yeah, I saw the the Red Sox in 04, but for the first time in my life, I felt truly connected to the success of Boston sports because I really, really was and I am a Celtics fan, and I really wanted to see them succeed. And I really was into at that point the sort of history and tradition of the team, the fact that this was the team that sort of carried Boston through any level of success over the course of uh of Boston Sports existing for so long, and how bad, you know, Mike, to your point about like being around people who had not seen this in their lifetimes, uh, people who had slogged through the 90s with this team and and everything everyone had been through, and really feeling like a part of that, literally surrounded by ever all my friends, and just feeling like my eyes fucking rattle in my head because I'm screaming so fucking loud, and thinking mistakenly it turns out that we were gonna be at least a two championship, if not three championship team with that roster. And I do firmly believe we would be if Garnett's knee doesn't explode um before that magic series, because that magic team was nothing to write home about, and I really think we were the best roster in the NBA over the course of that three years, and I think we could have won three titles. Um, but we we dismantled them 131-92 in in the in game six, and it was a fucking great way to win because there's teams that you want to have great games against, and then there's the Los Angeles Lakers, and you just want to watch your guys go out there and fucking put belt to ass when when that happens, it feels really fucking great. Obviously, they come back and and they beat us in 2010. I I really I hold on to the Kendry Perkins thing. I am one of those Boston, Boston sports fans that that really holds on to the Kendry Perkins thing. If he doesn't, if he doesn't, if he plays in game seven, I think we win because nobody could rebound on either side of the uh of the ball. And dumb idiots, and that was still post-KG knee injury, so I just think it feeds into the fact that like we were better than them and and a freak occurrence uh makes it not so. But reigniting that rivalry is awesome. Uh, I hope to see another iteration of it in a in a real way in the future. Um, it was a big part of the reason I didn't warm to Jason Tatum very quickly because he wouldn't shut the fuck up about Kobe Bryant and like still kind of won't. And I'm like, Jason, please uh we can't be doing that. He was like, what was it? He was wearing like purple and gold something at some point and whatever. And I was like, bro, like, did you not read the fucking handbook when you got here? I don't understand. Like they they must hand you some don't do this shit fucking pamphlet or something, but whatever, it doesn't matter. Um, all that being said, like that was peak basketball for me. It was just really amazing. It cemented itself as the kind of basketball that I still like. Uh, you know, great postgames, turnaround jump shots, uh, electric fucking defense, shit talking, great players shit talking to each other and not being fucking best friends that all like get on Twitch after they're like done playing NBA games. Like, I don't I can't with that shit, honestly. And I know I'm kids these days in right now, but basketball games.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

You like basketball games that end in 85, 70, and I fucking do. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

And I'm honestly I'm tired of fucking pretending like I don't. I find basketball games that end 127 to 116 fucking ridiculous. I I I it's like, yeah, I I like the defensive part of a basketball game. Yes, I absolutely do.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

You hear this thing called the home run? This thing's fucking ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah. But I am I'm also an advocate for the four-point shot. I think if you shoot it from behind the uh the halfway line, you should get four.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

Okay, I all right, yes, yes, I've thought of that too.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

Yes, called the game line. Yeah, yeah. I think if you do it, because it's like teams, it's like it's gonna become the new three-point line. It's like uh there's gonna be like a fucking Stan Van Gundy magic that's like you live by the four, you die by the four. They're just gonna be the logo every time, and it's gonna be a lot of fun. But yeah, I mean, honestly, like I do sort of wish we could set screens the way Kevin Garnett used to set screens against motherfuckers, you know what I mean? Where it's like, oh, he moved that hip. Let me ask you dance in the samba in that situation, you know.

SPEAKER_03 39:51

Dave, would you trade another 10-year drought of the Bears winning Super Bowl for the Celtics going three in a row from 08 to 11? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Yeah, you are you would trade another traveling. Yes, I would. You're giving up a lot there. That's a hard question. Um uh I the Bears are my first love. They're my first love in sports. Um, there's something about when they succeed and when they do well. If I was to have built this list in the way that you did, uh, Mike, I would have, and I and thought about it as impact also negative. I would have definitely put the Bears losing an 06 against the Colts after watching Devin Hester run the fucking opening kickoff back for a touchdown um and thinking we got this. I can't believe they kicked him the ball. Um, but you know, I I was too naive to to have the mantra in my head like Rex Grossman is your quarterback and Peyton Manning is theirs, and just like we were not gonna win that game. Like if we played it a hundred times. Great defense, but um, no, I I I I am hurting. I'm hurting. I I I've seen the Celtics win two championships in my lifetime. I need to see the Bears win. I have to. It's the thing I need right now in my life.

SPEAKER_04 40:58

Yeah, but Dave, that's just bad gamblers' logic because there's a chance the Bears are gonna go 10 years without winning win anyways, so like I'd make that bet. Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

It's not a bet. He's giving me the three titles, so then it's not as fun, right? Because I know it's coming. Well, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

If we're really gonna overextend the metaphor, not a great monkeys part there, but all I said, all I said was that you it'd be a guaranteed Bears 10 year strike. I didn't say they were going to win in in 11 years, but they're not gonna win for the next 10 and kill it in case that my my hype level is like too fucking high right now for the Ben Johnson Bears.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

Uh, it's I've I'm literally watching fucking. I was I started with OTAs. I watched the training camp today.

SPEAKER_03 41:35

Like, I'm not, it's it's not, it's not a you guys you guys weren't here for when he had he had me thinking that uh he was talking Matt Everflus's beard up. He's like, dude, the beard game is he's getting better, like that hard knocks. It made Dave hates hard knocks, hates it, shits on every team, uh every fans uh of teams that are on it because it always makes you believe. I I I said the same thing three episodes in, and Dave was like, I think they might have something here.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

And they did, they just needed a new head coach.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

That propaganda just pumping you up. It's so good.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

It worked, I mean it worked, but a lot of a lot of the same guys are there, a lot of the same infrastructures there. You just have to get rid of the dumb coach and get a good coach in, and uh yeah, you put a good coach with a good quarterback, like fucking turns out, you know. I mean, I it's been an awfully quiet off-season for the Caleb Williams haters. I'm just putting it out there, and there were they were a very vocal fucking majority for the first year. And I I honestly, I was putting Drake May in this same camp. I was putting all the young quarterbacks in this same camp. I fucking hate when people are all in or all out on QBs in their first two to three seasons. It doesn't make any sense. I don't I don't know when this culture started. It doesn't make sense to do it with anybody. It doesn't make sense to say you're 100% sure you have something with Drake May, even though he just went to the Super Bowl, because I've seen guys come in, have a great second year, and then never do shit again. I've seen it happen. So have you guys. So it's like, let's see what they're what the the first actual few years of their resume actually says. That being said, uh Caleb's a lock, he's a fucking beast.

SPEAKER_02 42:58

So and that, and that being said, your second best memory is the 2008 Boston Celtics.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

Well, it's like nothing.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

Which somehow comes comes back to the uh the Chicago Bears somehow. So here we are.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

But it's well, because Mike brought it up. But I know, I know it's it's it's unrealized potential. It's I just I love the I I'm just thinking about the romance of the moments. That's how I'm going after it. You know, I'm really thinking about like the like the how it how it made me feel at the time. And like I I didn't feel that much from the last Celtics championship, if I'm being totally honest with you. I really enjoyed it. I was glad we won, but I would have I would have been way happier if we beat the Warriors that year. I would have been, you know, way happier if the Isaiah Thomas Celtics had done something. Like I I I didn't like the feeling of like it's gonna be embarrassing if we don't win a championship this year, and that's how I felt with that Celtics team. So it's like, you know, it just gets weird. It the context matters, the nuance matters.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

Can I ask you one more one more question just to just to keep this segment going?

SPEAKER_00 43:53

Yes, sure.

SPEAKER_03 43:54

I know how we all devalue uh the the 20 the the most recent Celtics one because I was such a An easy road. Let me ask you this. If we were able to make the the finals in the bubble against the Lakers and we beat the Lakers, which one do you think would mean more? That one or the one against uh Dallas?

SPEAKER_00 44:14

No, by far, by far the Lakers won. It's still the Lakers and LeBron was on the team. Oh, that would have been fucking stupid. 100%. And if everybody was like fucking COVID title, like that wouldn't affect me at all. I would have been like, I had a great time watching the Lakers lose to the Celtics again. And I had an even better time with LeBron being a Laker and fucking losing to the Celtics. That would have been fucking beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

It would have been great to be like, I'm sorry, I can't hear you guys playing off the sound of this ring. Do they give rings to COVID champions or just regular champions?

SPEAKER_00 44:40

I would have been, and I don't actually think this, but this is my homework coming out. I would have been the number one advocate on planet Earth of like that was actually better basketball in the bubble. Well, I don't and I don't believe that at all. But I would have been like, that's actually bad. It was actually more pure representation of basketball, to be to be totally honest with you.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Well, I mean, in a way, I'm not saying it was a better representation of basketball, but you're not saying it wasn't. I'm not saying it's fun. No, it was. It was fun, but it uh but it also was like the most even playing field possible. Like you didn't have any sort of like travel, you had no uh fan uh interference or or you know crowd levels, any of that crap.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

Like the markets didn't matter and the Lakers still fucking won.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Yeah, like that's what I mean. Like it was very much the most even, it was the most even playing field possible for all those teams. So like the people who say, Oh, it's a Mickey Mouse championship, it's it doesn't matter, it's bullshit. Like I mean it's no, I think it's pretty, I think it's pretty good. I say that's because the Lakers won.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Yeah, I say that because the Lakers won too, and because don't don't mansplain me out of mattering. I'm a fan, I matter. If I affect you at your at the free throw free throw line, I deserve the championship too. You matter to me. Had a boy.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

It still matters to me, damn it. Yeah, exactly. It's still real to me. Uh, how was SummerSlam, Mike? Did you enjoy it?

SPEAKER_03 45:53

I did immensely. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Okay, won.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

Um the the entire internet the entire internet hated it, but I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

Are you guys good?

SPEAKER_02 46:02

I feel like everything opposite went that you wanted for, correct? Okay, great.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

Wrestling fans are masochists Mike makes a fucking terrible memory for himself unless he hates himself. It's a real thing. Um, all right, I've lost track of everything.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

Uh Matt Matt's up.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Oh Matt's up.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

Yep,

Brady 28 To 3 And Belief

SPEAKER_04 46:19

so I'm gonna go with an obvious one here. Uh and obviously I it it's more this is more personal to me than I think a lot, but um because I think it's a very casual, it's a very regular thing that happened. But uh back in 2017, a little man named Tom Brady came out of a tunnel down 28 to 3 against the Falcons, came back and won that Super Bowl. Um that was so I turned that game off uh in a fit of rage, having a meltdown. Um I had gotten in my life was in shambles at that point. Uh I got married. I got married, my mom had just died. Um, I was living with my brother who was driving me insane. My me and my no nothing was going well. It really wasn't going well at all.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

And you got married, you're still married to the same woman, just putting that out there.

SPEAKER_04 47:04

Oh, don't remind me. Uh but it was like our lives were just like so centered around like looking for pockets of happiness. And everywhere I turned, something bad would happen. I'd be like, this is just how life goes now. And I did that here. And my wife made me turn back on the game over me having a screaming fit about how it doesn't matter, it's over, you don't know what you're talking about, you don't know sports. And when they came back and won that game, it put me on like a good streak for like the next three years, and I'll never forget it. It was it gave me hope in the fact that like uh miracles can happen. Like it can't don't stop watching. Uh, what did I say to you against the Bears? Uh, against the Packers, there's a lot of game left. There's always a lot of game.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

It's so hard when you're close to it, though. Because I said the same thing to you again in that uh during that Patriots game. I texted you and I was like, those fucking foul that Falcons bench is celebrating a little too hard for like the team they're fucking playing against. Like, there's a specific shot, and I'm sure you guys have seen it in like retrospect or whatever, but maybe you were in a deep depression as it was happening. But there was a specific shot because again, to your point earlier, Zach, like I didn't have a horse in the race. I kind of wanted to see the Pats win only because I had left Massachusetts and being outside of the bubble of like watching you guys all celebrate, like in my face, just kind of made me nostalgic for for you know, I had just sort of moved to LA and I was like, Oh, I miss my friends, like I hope they're happy, like I want the Patriots to win. And I didn't, but I didn't really care. And I remember my then girlfriend, now wife, was uh cooking dinner in the kitchen and I was and you know, sort of watching, and she was like, Oh man, this is so satisfying because she's a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan. She was like, This is so satisfying, I fucking love seeing the Patriots lose. And I remember it was one of the first times I was like, you know, that's a fucking loser mentality because you're not the one handing them the loss, you know. So like you can't watch another team. I was like, especially as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, like you guys are traditional winners, you know. Like, if it's not you winning the duel, if it's not you facing the Spaniard on the mountaintop in the sword fight, then you should want him to win because you want him at his best. That's what winners think. And I remember her being like, no, I don't give a shit what you're saying. Uh, I want them to fucking lose. I fucking hate the Patriots, fuck them. And I was like, okay, cool. Well, you seem cool. Um, don't let me fucking talk you into anything else. But I do remember that moment so clearly of like watching the fucking Falcons bench. Same thing with Istanbul. We took what we kicked this this show off with.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

They showed Arthur Blank on the sidelines on the sidelines with like 12 minutes left in the third quarter. I just was I was like, wow, they it's bad for that's not that's not smart, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:35

It's his creepy little mustache, yeah. It's it's dumb for your mentality. And if you're jumping around celebrating like that, I gotta tell you, this is a scientific fact, and it might sound silly on first hearing it, but think about it. You're burning through adrenaline. You fucking need that for the second half, dude. Like you need that shit. You're letting your adrenaline out, you're letting the fucking cork pop on the champagne, and you're gonna need that because on the other side of the field, when the second half comes, is the best guy to ever do it. It's the best fucking guy to ever do it. The only thing worse than celebrating too early is getting too careful. The like that those are the two things that you can't do. And they chose one of them, and you gotta go out there and you gotta play your same game. You gotta try to try to think of it as zero zero when you when you walk back out in the second half, and like, I don't know, man, Tom Brady. Like, that was it. That was when it was cemented, and I said this to you, Matt, at the time. That he's that was the day he became the GOAT to me, and it was basically undisputed, and people dispute it, but they're wrong now because of watching that happen. And I always defend him, despite not being a Patriots fan when people talk about Mahomes or when they they want Mahomes to be in the conversation to make it more interesting. And I go, like, not only does he have to tie his seven, he has to have a game like that in there, and like the likelihood of that is fucking so so low. And now I've seen him participate in Super Bowls where I don't know, when Brady would lose, I'd be like, never he never got blown out, yeah. Can't win them all, you know, and then get kicked in twice.

SPEAKER_03 51:00

One of those times was by Brady, right?

SPEAKER_00 51:02

Yeah, I know, and that the last one we were all saying in the group chat at the time, I never watched Tom Brady. I never watched this happen to him that one time. No way, not a million years that this ever happened to him. So, you know, the conversation ends there for me, and yeah, I'm kids these days again, but man, I watched that shit happen. That was fucking wild.

SPEAKER_04 51:21

That was fucking wild, man.

SPEAKER_02 51:23

I remember at halftime Lady Gaga stupid performances going on, and I'm just like, you know, good for Matt Ryan. BC guy, like he's gonna get a championship, he has an MVP. I'm like, good for him. Like if it if he's gonna win, like if any guy's gonna win and beat the Patriots, Matt Ryan's a good guy.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Tech game, you know, like that was that was hard going.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

He remember hey, remember in 2007 that BC football was like number two in the nation? That was a cool time, yeah. You know, he should win a Super Bowl, and then I just kind of like started drinking more because I'm like, well, they're gonna lose anyway. And then just by the end of the game, I was kind of drunk, like, really happy, and then we're just popping champagne after. I'm like, this is the greatest fucking Super Bowl ever. This is great.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

Yeah, it really was great. It was great for the neutral too, because it's like even just since like not having a huge horse in the race, I was able to watch a fucking momentous comeback in a Super Bowl, which is just awesome.

SPEAKER_04 52:17

I spiked my phone on the ground at halftime. Yeah, it was a good day. It was a good day.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

But I mean, the thing is, is I I have this take where I I mean, I I don't I haven't done it to you guys yet because we haven't really gotten into football, but I think the Super Bowl is the worst game of the season. Traditionally, it's the worst game of the season. I think putting two games in between is really dumb. I think the extended halftime is really dumb. I think going to watch um the one game with a bunch of people that weren't paying as close of attention as you for the entire season is the most I'm so glad in my 30s I stopped like having any FOMO for Super Bowl parties. Like now, Super Bowl, I'm like two to three handpicked people were you know, we're we're planning out the food, and I'm and I'm actually not participating in the pageantry as much because I don't care. I just want to see the final game. I watched all the games, I watched the fucking Browns play the Bengals just because it was on. I I it it's you know, I I I need to know the results of the season. I I don't want to explain to people why this is important or who's good or who's not good. I don't want half-hearted football takes in my ear. I don't want to like eat chips and salsa just because they're in front of me and then forget that I've eaten too many and then I feel like I have a tummy ache. I don't want to do all that. Super bowl parties are overrated.

SPEAKER_02 53:29

I do that during like week 12 anyway. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_00 53:32

I I have this great trick. I I have a bar like kind of away from the couch, and I have to get up to go and do the snacks, and then that is weighed against how much I want to sit down. So then it's like I can only get it on the way to the fridge to get another beer and back, and then I'm back sitting, so I don't overdo it. That's just if you want to try to just put them away from you so you don't do it mindlessly. That's that's my trick.

SPEAKER_04 53:54

So when I second trick, Ozempic.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

Yeah, I also do that. I also am on GLP ones, that that's been helping. Um, especially the amount of beers I consume on a Sunday has dramatically decreased.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

See, when I when I worked at uh DraftKings and had to cover games like every other Sunday or whatever, I just plop my ass on the couch for quite literally like 12, 13, 14 hours, snacks next to me, a few beers during the day, and it was just the best Sunday of my life. Just sitting there just tweeting all day. It's like, hey, I'm working and just like shoving food and beer down my throat.

SPEAKER_00 54:32

Like, I can't wait for football season to start like this. I can't fucking wait. This has really got me excited.

SPEAKER_04 54:37

I'm so excited. Um hey, like Zach, where do you guys want to stand for the Super Bowl parade this year? We'll talk about it later. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

Um, where is it gonna be in LA? Um I don't know, I don't know anything about the street locations there.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

So we gotta leave the house really early, guys. You can all stay here, but it's gonna, it's it's fucking it's it takes an hour and a half to get anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 55:00

Yeah, because apparently Aaron Donald's working out with the the Rams now. So told you. Yeah, I told you that. Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's just ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04 55:07

That's what's he working on? Is putting, driving, chipping?

SPEAKER_02 55:11

I mean, yeah, chipping blocks.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

That's gonna be that's that's gonna be such a what whatever. We'll we'll talk about that in the prediction show because that's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_04 55:19

It should be really funny when the needle they stick into his arm to test his blood bends like fucking superman, but yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

I mean, I think he was like that anyway. Uh Zach, you're up.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

All right.

Michael Phelps Photo Finish Greatness

SPEAKER_02 55:28

Uh my surprise, surprisingly, my other two are not Boston based at all, and they're kind of different. Um 2008, uh, Beijing. Uh Michael, my no, it it sounds very strange. Uh Michael Phelps, the 100-meter butterfly, uh, to win by one one-hundredth of a second.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 55:50

Um I didn't even think about the Olympics. No, and so so this nobody does. Right, but this is what stands out to me is you don't really think about the Olympics, you don't really think about the World Cup, but like if I were to say, hey, what's you know, what's like a and when this question was proposed, like what's your favorite sports moment? And you know, I didn't want to just stick to Boston sports, I didn't want to be stereotypical like that. And I was thinking, like, what like what makes a good sports moment? It's something that makes you feel something that even if you don't have a rooting interest in that team, makes you feel the emotion of it. That's why we love sports, right? You feel emotion from these grown men or women playing a game, and for some reason you get emotional and you get excitement out of it. And who the fuck cares about the 100-meter butterfly? I don't, I don't care about dudes or women swimming in a pool back and forth. I don't give a shit about that. That's dumb. It's swimming in a pool, it doesn't matter. But watching that so the whole hype around that 2008 Olympics was hey, Michael Phelps is in a ton of events, he has this opportunity to beat Mark Spitz's single game record of seven gold medals, and he's gonna be competing in eight events. He could go eight for eight, get eight gold medals, set the record, be like an all-time Olympian. And he had already had success in Athens four years prior. Uh and this was basically gonna be like his big moment. And at this point, it was the it was the race to tie the seven gold medal mark. And uh I forget who he was going against, but he he was kind of falling behind, and you can just hear you can hear it in the crowd, you can hear it in the commentators, and the the most memorable part of this race was that the other guy who finished in silver, he extended under the water straight ahead and kind of glided to the wall. Whereas Phelps came over the top because he took that extra butterfly stroke over in the air, he was able to beat it out by one one hundredth of a second, which that is fucking crazy. Is it it's insane? And like they had like the photos, they had the the the slow motion cameras and everything else, and like I'm sitting there just watching this, like holy shit, this is crazy! Like, this is like the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life, and it's like fucking guys swimming, like I like it's just swimming, it's it's guy swimming. Like, I can't emphasize that enough. Like, if I can get excited and talk about this and like remember sitting in my living room and getting hyped up and being like fucking USA, let's go! Like, this guy's American, even though he's just swimming in a chlorine pool back and forth in the middle of China, like this is cool, like go America. Like, that means something. That means something for a memorable sports moment. So, yes, Michael Phelps, 2008, uh 100 meter butterfly.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

That's really awesome. That's actually a really good pick, and as well as coupled with the fact that Phelps then just like went on a historic Coxman run that like never got called out as being gross or Epstein-y, like, he just basically like hundred meter butterfly his way through like every woman that he encountered, but in a consensual and like wholesome way, and there was never any Lance Armstrong shit. There was never any like it was he was a guy that essentially just went, came, saw, and conquered and and smoked pot along the way.

SPEAKER_02 59:13

That was like the big controversy.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

That was but that was that was what was called controversy back then. Remember that shit? Fucking cool. What a fucking time to be alive.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

Guy smoking pot and setting records, man. Like, that's awesome. Good for you.

SPEAKER_00 59:22

Everybody immediately came around to that too. I remember the entire consensus, at least within my degenerate friend group, probably you guys too, where it was like, and he still swam better than that Serbian guy. It's like his lungs are filled with soul, for God's sake. Um, yeah, I mean, it's it's nuts, you know. In the in in eras like that, when you sort of watch that, you when you do look back and see, I watched it as well, and I wouldn't have even thought about it, but it are it is moments you're so glad to have like experienced in your lifetime because witnessing greatness seems to be the theme of your of your picks here, and I think that like witnessing greatness is is also is something we've all been able to do as sports fans, and it really is a thing that gets your ass in the chair. And I think you know, it's like I talked about seeing Brady become the GOAT before my very eyes, and he's not he was never my QB, but witnessing greatness is witnessing greatness, right? Like I I just fucking like it when it happens. So whether it's a guy swimming in a pool, as he so uh hilariously and eloquently said, or it's a guy throwing a fucking football. I mean, whatever, it's it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool that he did that, and it's like the the absolute photo finish. Like you couldn't have like if it was in a movie, people would be like, that's a little that's a little close, you know. Like at least put it at 0.03 to make it seem more realistic, you know. Um, yeah, that's really cool. You guys remember that, Mike Matt? You guys remember that shit?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:40

I mean, I was watching it, but I don't have such a vivid memory of Mr. Marfriend's in the pool.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:46

It was he painted such a word picture. No, he did a great job.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

I watched the movie, Michael. You're welcome. I thought you were being funny, but like I do remember it now. I remember like the like him throwing the goggles, and that yeah, that was a great answer. Damn it, Zach.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:00

Wasn't the guy he beat? Wasn't his name like Ryan something? Wasn't that the no Ryan Lockney was like uh his teammate.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:07

Um, so four years later.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:08

That was the guy who did the relay, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:10

He yeah, yeah. He was part of the relay team. He he was like everyone's like, Oh, is he gonna take over? Uh, this is a great question memory. I don't swim. So, like four years later, uh don't or you can't? No, I can't, I can. I can. Michael tells you no because the first one of the first times we went swimming was with his mom, and I almost drowned, and she was eight. So she was like, What what the what the hell's going on? I was like, I don't know how to swim. She's like, Who why did your father teach you how to swim? Whole other thing. Um that's funny. But yeah, no, four years later, Ryan Locking was supposed to be like the next Phelps, and he was just a blockhead. That's all.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:46

Was he the kid that was kind of a fuckboy? Like he was all the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:49

He was fuckboy before he fucked fuck boy was a uh term. Yeah, yeah. Um sports are awesome. Listen, you're looking you're lucky I didn't uh pick uh some horse racing ones because those those were in the back of my mind there.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:04

Lay them on me.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:06

That'll be in that'll be in the honorable mentions section at the end of the show. So we'll we'll do that after.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:10

Oh I had a really great one, and then I realized I set my parameters wrong because I said it had to be professional sports, because I was actually gonna pick the summer that um Matt and I took on his brother and our other good friend Alex in pool basketball. And we put on an absolute fucking clinic, guys. Like it was it was it was if you talk about witnessing greatness, like it's a real thing. But um unfortunately I can't make that choice uh because I I I made the parameters professional sports, so I'm gonna choose my last one. And I can't even get into honorable mentions, which is depressing, but um, we really did. It was an unbelievable fucking showing. Um, I think if pool basketball was a professional sport, like I might have tried to go pro.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:51

Um, it was it was our three game was phenomenal. Phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:55

Unbelievable. The range we could hit at from uh with it with a basketball this size and a hoop this size, it was just it was it was absolutely absurd. We were like the Splash Brothers, but it was more apt because we were in a pool.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:05

I still have a chip in my tooth from that, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

Yeah, great summer. Oh, yeah, there was dirty. We played, it was a dirty game, there was no rules. Uh, but uh I digress. That was an impactful sports moment, especially because our friend Alex, who was on the other team, was a way better athlete than us. But the uh pool was the ultimate equalizer, you know. Like my height really counted for a lot in that oh yeah. Um, anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:25

Are you tall?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:26

Yeah, I'm six foot two. I'm not like a fucking freak like some of us here, but like I'm regular guy tall.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:34

Um Matt, how tall are you?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:37

I'll have to answer that.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:38

Can you can you please answer this? Zach's five's four, so uh no no no five's six, god damn it. All right, fuck off.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:45

I'm five eight and maybe a quarter inch. That's five eight.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:48

That's five eight. I'll be the sh I'll be the shortest guy here.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:50

I love how the five club always feels in quarter inches. Um, the I never did.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:53

Oh, oh Dave, I'm sorry, are you adding your fucking pompadour here? What were we doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:57

My pompadour? No, bro, that makes me six four, and that puts me in fucking in fucking ogre status with Mike. Fucking guarding the fucking gates. Like I can't like have you ever fucking stood? You've never met Mike in the club. I've never met Mike huge.

unknown 1:04:13

Is he really?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

He's a big guy, six foot six, yeah. You would have thought he played six? Yeah, you would have thought he played like basketball or something, but he did choir in high school, so there's that.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

That's true. Yeah, brother, so did I. FDR had a better vertical than me, so we can just keep going.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:29

Uh Matt did choir too. Um we pronounced it differently in 2006, though. So anyway, moving back. Um the uh the next pick is me again. Is it you again? Great, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:44

Um all right. I'm

Steph Curry Double Bang From Deep

SPEAKER_02 1:04:47

kind of torn between two ahead here. Um Michelle McWan.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:54

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:54

No, no, no. Uh again, not a Boston uh base one. Uh February 27th, 2016. Uh, if you're watching on ESPN, it's the uh the double bang Steph Curry from the logo uh or 38, what is it, 38 feet out, uh, or 30 feet with uh 0.6 seconds left against the thunder. Um that I mean group of Celtics fan would casually watch national basketball here and there. I think 2016 was like the first time I really got into the whole NBA from a national standpoint, and watching that 2016 Warriors team was incredible. Uh 73 wins, nine losses, uh, beating the Chicago Bulls record that I think anyone agreed would never be broken. And watching that season in real time, Kobe's last season, uh you know, like there was I mean the NBA uh dunk contest with the Zach Levine and Aaron Gordon, uh obviously. The Cavaliers going in the run and eventually winning. That the 2016 NBA season was incredible. And that game alone was uh people were saying it was gonna be the Western Conference final preview, ended up being true. Um it was just an electric game left and right. Um and to go into overtime and then Steph Curry hitting that, like was the that's where Steph like Curry range came from, was that game. Um and just the call from Mike Breen was just absolutely electric. Um a lot of my sport and thinking about this question too about like favorite sports memories, like a lot of it does come from the play-by-play guys, and thinking like how much they hype up these moments too. It does help in a sense. Um, but I mean, when I watch that clip in here, I get goosebumps over and over again. It's been 10 years since that game. Uh just you know, uh Mike Breen just like, you know, that they have a timeout, but they're not gonna call. And it's like you can hear like his shock and his voice that like is Curry really pulling up right now? Is he really shooting this ball from 38 feet out? It's really even though they have a timeout.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

Yeah, like it's just like this little commentary.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:06

Like, like you, like you can't believe it as someone watching the game, you can't believe you're watching this guy just pull up and make this shot. Mike Breen can't believe it, and then he hits it and he's just like stepping, like just stepping and dancing all over the Thunders fan. Like, it's just incredible. It's it was just an incredible moment to watch. And I'm like, that like why am I I I think I've thought to myself, like, why don't I watch more basketball outside of the Celtics? Like, this is I need to like be fully invested from here, and that game really did it for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:36

It's like that game that made you really fall in love with the game. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:39

I mean, I'd say that is a fucking great answer again.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:42

Yeah, yeah, you can you can fall in love with your team and you can really want the Celtics to do good, but like I think the real sort of nirvana of sports watching is when you get to that sports atheism, you know, when you can really enjoy a game. I mean, I think we all have it with football, and and to get to to get there with with different sports is is difficult, especially as you get older because you're like you have less time to dedicate to watching these games, but to get to a place where you you love a sports so much you can turn on any two teams, even the worst two teams in in a given league or division or whatever, and you're just enjoying it for that reason, kind of like you used to watch your old man or like your grandfather or like your uncles do, where you just be like, You're just watching this game because it's on, huh? Like it's like it's not the Red Sox, it's not you know what I mean. It's like the fucking Orioles are playing the athletics and you're just into it. Uh that's cool. Um, but I think that that's cool because it's like uh you need something. Your description of this story is like you need something to sort of get you into it, and it's you know, it's it's it was a really crazy fucking moment and a really great season of basketball that I remember very fondly as well. And I remember where I was and what I was doing while that was going on, and it's just like I can't believe that's been a fucking decade, which freaks me out a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

That's a great it's been a literal decade since that season.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:55

It's like maybe the fastest of decades past in my entire life, but uh that's not a great sign. I gotta stop drinking. But it's awesome, it's awesome, it's a fucking great answer. Um, I'm not like the hugest, biggest Steph Curry fan. I wish people had stopped sending me fucking reports that he might be coming to the Celtics, but uh that's you know, that's cool. I mean, that was that bang bang was great. I love great commentary moments too. I really do. I'm actually I've got a great commentary moment in my last one too, and I I really think that they do, especially upon rewatch, and but I felt that one at the time, of course, but like especially upon rewatch, they become the soundtrack to those moments, and you need the commentator to step up. Like you, the like the commentator needs to be as good of a teammate as everybody on the court in that moment to really cement it. And I think that that bang bang uh commentary is unbelievable. And Mike Breen's the best word about him now, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:42

So Mike Breen is the goat.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:44

He's awesome, he's really awesome. Um, I was really actually happy for him being able to call the Knicks, um, considering he's a lifelong Knicks fan, even though I didn't love that happening. But yeah, good for him, I say. Uh, because he he's he's painted the sound of some of the best sports moments in in basketball moments in history. So that's super cool. Any you guys got anything on that moment?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:04

No, that was just a great, another great answer. Yeah, Zach. I'm sick of losing these to Zach, but you know what?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

There's no winners here.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:11

We're all winning here. We're all winners. We're all just walking, taking a trip down memory lane.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:14

Um the power of friendship. That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:18

It was a real winning was the friends we made along the way. All right. Um, I'm gonna do my last one really fast. This is actually the Liverpool moment that I chose. Uh just skipping that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:27

Yeah. Oh, I thought it was me. I'm not keeping track. That's your producer.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:31

I'll go real quick. I think you are the producer, but um so I I got stuck between two.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:37

That's not fair.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

Be the second tallest and producer? What's wrong with that?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:41

Second tallest really hurts. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:44

I mean, you could be shortest.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:46

But yeah, but on bad day, I might be shortest too. We're gonna we're gonna do some back-to-backs, we'll work it out. But uh, I got stuck between two uh as my list got narrowed down here. Um, I want to pick another Tom Brady moment because he defined sports for me for so long in my life. But if I'm being honest, and it comes back again to uh uh to family and who I was in the moment, Derek Lowe's 2002 no-hitter, being at that game with my dad was uh really cemented my love of baseball. Like you know, like watching my dad who I like, obviously, you know, he loomed so large and him caring so much. Like he was always the guy that would go to a game and we'd leave by the halfway through the sixth thing, seventh, sorry, the seventh thing because traffic or like you know, oh well, we got our our fill, let's go. But he loved that team so much that like it killed him when they would not win. And watching that game and watching him throw those pitches, and even after the walk that he had, watching him just shut down Tampa Bay. I was like, oh man, I fucking love this for and now I've I've I've been a season that's been taking hold of the Patriots for uh over a decade now. I've still been to more Red Sox, I still they're still my number one team from probably that moment forward.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:51

Uh seeing a no-hitter line's gotta be fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:54

It was crazy. It was crazy 2002. I was a kid, it was a Saturday, it was sunny out, and he just lit them up. He would throw 100 pitches, he just lit them up.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:02

It was also like the year he those the the year after he was demoted from closer, right? He was replaced by like was it Ugith Urbina? Some I think it was Urbina. Yeah, and they put him, they put him in the in the starter, and it was the best decision that they ever made for him. And we don't win a TV.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:18

I mean, for the for the team, because two years later he was the winning pitcher in three straight games in the postseason. Or to clutch it.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:24

He was in the Cy Young race that year, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:26

And he all he did was throw an 86 mile an hour sinker that could not be could not be lifted off the fucking ground.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:37

What's crazy too is like you went to Fenway Park, saw no hitter, and there was guys in the ground that had what been going for what 40 years and not seen one, you know, like like that era. I I think I mean it must have been 35, 40 years before like anybody in that ground had seen one. There's guys that have had those seats that are fucking glued to those seats, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:56

So it's the first the last one was in like the 60s.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:58

So it's like so you walk in and you're like, oh fuck, fuck around and watch a no-hitter like that with my dad. Like, that's cool. You'll always have that.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:04

That's super cool. That's why you go to the game. Didn't Nomo oh well that that wasn't that fun way. You're right. No, yeah, he had no hitter was, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:13

It was a year before, I think. Yeah, man, Nomo, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:16

I think an underrated I think an underrated part of that no-hitter is uh who the center fielder was for the Red Sox.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:24

Uh was it Ricky Henderson? Ricky Henderson. Oh shit. Wow, that's what that's when we had uh Ricky Henderson, we got Alice Burks back out of uh from the Nashua Pride. It was great.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:38

It is crazy to like kind of go to games and like look back and be like, oh, like this, you know, obviously going to a no-hitter is insane, but then like, oh yeah, yeah, and like that was a year Ricky Henderson was starting center field.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:50

It's like crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:51

I don't even remember that like he was like uh 41 years old and he had 13 stalling bases that year. I mean, I that's 13 more than for any other 40 or whatever year old. I know, I know. But I think of like um there's a random Celtics game I went to in oh god, what year was it, 2011, 2012, and like Shaquille O'Neal was the starting center. I'm like, at least I can say I saw Shaq play in person, and he played for my favorite team, which is like great, but was he old and fat and sucked? Sure, but like still pretty cool. Like you saw. So it's cool that you saw both the no-hitter and you saw the you know the greatest base dealer of all time in that same game.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:30

You know what's so crazy about that is I thought I saw Shaquille O'Neal's last ever game because I went to the Cavs uh Celtics game where LeBron and Paul Pierce went like one-on-one, and Pierce came out on top. And it was also the game where LeBron ripped off his Cavs jersey and like threw it as he was walking into the tunnel, and I was like standing there, it was like the loudest place I'd ever been. I was I really thought we were gonna come back and like win another championship. I was like so stoked to score playoff tickets. And I remember being walking out and turning to Matt and I's mutual friend Robbie at the time. I don't I haven't talked to him in a long time, but um at the time I was like, uh I was like, we just saw Shaquille O'Neal's last every game in the NBA, and we just saw LeBron James' last every game as a cavalier, and neither of those things turned out to be true. Because Shaq went to the Celtics the next year and LeBron came back to the Cavs eventually, and I was like, God damn it, I didn't see shit. Um, but that's why you go to the game, you know. Um that's cool. Good choice, Matt. Going to see a no hitter, nice personal memory for you. Um

Liverpool Barca Comeback And Tears

SPEAKER_00 1:15:28

I already revealed it because I forgot that it was your turn, but uh, I'm picking um the Liverpool uh for Barcelona three comeback um in you know what's obviously my lifetime, but just a really special moment because it sort of capped off after years of pretty mediocre um football by Liverpool. Finally, there was a team that like deserved to be in the semifinals um against arguably one of the better Barcelona teams of my lifetime and uh uh Leo Messi at the peak of his powers. Um the guy who is the overall pretty much consensus goat now at this point after having won the World Cup. Um in the first leg in in football, soccer, they played two legs and uh in the later stages of the Champions League. In the first leg, Liverpool way outplayed Barcelona, but still somehow lost 3-0, also on the back of like one of the best free kick goals I've ever seen by Messi. And the week that happened between going to the new camp in Barcelona and going to Liverpool, there was a lot of speculation of like, well, if any team can do it, Liverpool have this, as we discussed earlier, sort of um pedigree, I guess, for lack of a better word, of coming back against teams. But most of the smart money was essentially on now, it's messy. Like, you know, there's just no way if they were gonna do it, they were gonna have to come out and blitz them. I mean, this was the best assembled Liverpool team of my entire life. I I don't know if I'll ever have it this good again. We had a lot of talented players, but our best player was injured. He wasn't gonna play. Uh, he was on the sidelines, Mo Salah. Um, and I was like, I guess we'll see. You know, I I guess we'll fucking see. And my wife had recently sort of like really converted into like a diehard fan, was like getting up with me in the morning at like 4 30 to watch the team, like watch the league games, and was really in. And I was like, you know, I felt that guilt again of like, uh, what have I got her into? Most of my life watching this team has been pain. Um, but D Vakarigi taps one in in the seventh minute, and you start to believe Genie Wine Aldam scores two back-to-back, 54 and 56, like right away, and then it caps off in what's to me is just like the fucking best goal I've ever seen. Barcelona are starting to kind of line up on the corner, and traditionally you're supposed to like wait for them to like get set for whatever reason. And Divak Origi is who's our backup striker, and he's like not the most talented guy in the world, but he scored some of the most important fucking goals in the history of the team. And he's standing in front, and Trent Alexander Arnold starts to walk away from the corner, spots him, and sprints back and just hits it. Results in an iconic piece of commentary in the history of Liverpool with uh with the commentator saying, corner taken quickly, Arigi! And then Origi fucking buries it to make it 4-3. Um, at one point in that game, uh, Messi had fallen down and was like kind of complaining that he didn't get a foul, and our Scottish left back, Andy Robertson, walked by him and like rubbed his head like he was a little kid. And it's just an iconic piece of video footage. Um to for and like even now he's like, I don't know why I did that. Like, I have a lot of respect for that guy. I was just like in the game, you know, and we were just trying to kick him and like win the fucking game, you know. Um, and then we went on to just walk the final and and and beat Tottenham in the final because like Tottenham's never gonna fucking beat us in a final. But um, the fact that they were there is like the best thing that's ever happened to them. But um, yeah, that moment was crazy. I, you know, you talk about crying after after a win. Like, I was a full grown man at that point. I was 29 and I was weeping after that game, and I was just like, I can't fucking believe that just happened. Jurgen Klopp's the best man to ever live. Um, this is the best team I'll ever watch. I still think that's probably true. And uh yeah, corners taking quickly Origi in the 79th minute was just fucking something else, man. It really was just unbelievable. And then to go on and win the Champions League was just it was just sick. Um, so I really enjoyed it. It was just I the reason I picked over Istanbul is because that team deserved to be there, and they really were fucking unbelievable. And it was so heartbreaking to watch them go down 3-0 in the first leg, and to just uh Jurgen Klopp was like, you know, the coach, he was like, if anyone's gonna be able to do it, it's these guys. He's like, and he's like, I remember standing on the sidelines and watching them do it and being like, these guys are just fucking mentality monsters, and then that became the name of the team of that era, like that's how we we refer to them when we look back. So the mentality monsters, Liverpool come back. That's my uh number one overall best moment in my sporting journey.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:48

It's a great moment, and watching you do that. Dave dressed up like he had survived Burning Man for the past week and then took acid on the way home, and then that championship happened. He was uh he disappeared for two days, nobody knew where he was.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:01

It was pretty well a pretty epic fucking bender. There's like uh there's footage of me uh uh chugging beers faster than I ever have been able to before since. And like there's only pieces of the post-final that I really remember, but there's Instagram videos that I was taking, like I was going on lives for some reason. I don't know, I don't really remember much of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:19

You you're ahead of the the guy that used to be on the show. Good for you, Dave.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:24

Yeah, yeah. I came back though. I came back that the the the madness the madness subsided. Um, but uh yeah, all right, let's truck right along because I know you guys aren't aren't soccer fans.

Being A Long Distance Fan

SPEAKER_02 1:20:33

So uh well I was gonna ask how because obviously two of your favorite memories come from Liverpool, and you're uh you know living out west, but you know, uh in you know, living here too as a Chicago Bears fan as well. How how do you kind of stack your favorite memories and like fanhood being like a transplant fan, and especially one cheering for a team like Liverpool across the globe as well? Like, how is that experience compared to being in a city that you know has the sports teams there as well?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:10

It's a good question because it's like it's always been sort of tough to be like the satellite one, you know, to not be like in and amongst like the people. But what it does do for me is it like it first creates an insecurity, right? Where it's like once if I'm going into a room full of the fandom that like I am traditionally the only one standing in the room like a member of, right? I find myself a little insecure. It's like, do I really actually deserve to be here? Because I really haven't been in and amongst the people that like know and and love this team. But I think what's really great about being an actual fan of a team and really having it in your DNA as opposed to like people just sort of showing up for the bandwagon or like you know, you know the difference, you know the thing I'm talking about. I think every time I've then been in the room, it's like, oh, I'm home. Like I feel I've felt like I belonged, and I've been able to talk and and participate and and like sort of live the energy of those rooms in a way like there's a Chicago Bears bar that I that I frequent here where it's like everybody's a transplant, but it's it just feels like I like that sense of unbelonging that I create in my own head where I'm like, oh, I'm not in the city, like I'm not, like I'm not this, I'm not that, it goes away immediately. And it's like, oh yeah, you can you can talk the talk like you're one of us. You felt the pain. Like once you felt the pain, once you've like bled alongside your brothers and sisters, it doesn't really matter if you've done it from 3,000 miles away. And I think that's actually a cool perspective because, and I appreciate the question, because it's like it it does breed a level of insecurity where it's like I I felt alone in the room being the only Chicago Bears fan, being like, why am I even, you know, I'm I'm 15, I'm I'm talking to this fucking Jamoke and like everybody else that we know, and I'm like, why even am I one? You know, and it's like because once you pick, you can't re-pick. It's like that's right, once you're in, you're fucking in. And if you if you do, then like I question your whole shit. Like, I don't really think you're like the real deal at that point. So it's like, if if if if I'm anything, I'm a great example of like once you pick, you can't switch because I there was moments where I fucking wanted to. Like there was moments where I was like, my allegiance would be really better spent being a New England Patriots fan right now, but I just couldn't. You just can't, you know. And I think that like, yeah, it's it sucks to be far away, but like, man, it fucking feels good to be in in and around them when I am, you know. Like the absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:28

I imagine there's being out at the west coast. I'm I'm sure there's some Liverpool like meetups or bars.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:35

Yeah, everybody's a transplant here. That's the nice thing. LA has actually been great for that because it's like, yeah, there's a Liverpool bar, there's uh a Bears Bar. There isn't anywhere to go and watch the Celtics. That's uh that's you in like six fucking you know, pipe hit and scumbags that you met from Boston, go to a Lakers bar and see if anyone's gonna say anything, which I'm a little old for.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:54

So I'm gonna I went to Chicago for a wedding years ago. And uh and uh I think the the next day there was a Patriots game on. I think after on Reddit, I'm like, hey, we're uh where can I where's there a Boston bar around here? And I and end up finding one and it was a great time. It was like a really, really weird experience. First off, watching a 12 p.m. kickoff, greatest experience in my life. Central time is Central Time is the goat. And then uh uh just being like around these random people in a different city watching this.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:26

Honestly, because you're just like you're fucking you can you can do something after the Sunday night game.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:30

Well, that's and that's so like my one time going out west uh was for work, and my brain couldn't comprehend all the NBA games starting at 4 p.m. And then and then afterwards we're like, oh yeah, let's go and get drinks after it's whatever. And my like my brain couldn't process why the fuck they had like Jimmy Kimmel live on the TVs at the bars. I'm like, can't we throw on like you know some West Coast games? I'm like, oh wait, fuck, never mind. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:58

No, I love that, honestly. It's the best, especially in my old age, as I'm more like inclined to um wake up a little bit earlier and I'm like, oh great, the 10 a.m. game is about to kick off. Wonderful. And I can already start drinking beers.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:11

You you kind of think people who uh retire and then in Massachusetts wouldn't go to Florida, they go out west, if that's the case. Like it kind of sounds more induced.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:20

It's uh you know, it's I mean it was 104 degrees uh at my house today, but uh that's only for like three months of the year. Only only uh but I I got central air, I don't give a fuck. I don't I don't like leaving the house anyway. Um I got the I got Sunday ticket in Central Air. Life's good, baby. Uh wait, do they still call it that? Sunday ticket?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:40

I was gonna say life's good, yeah. That sounds familiar, but I was saying Central Air?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:44

Yeah, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:45

No, I love Central Air.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:46

Sunday ticket. I is I thought was that just direct TV?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:49

No, no, it's you too it's on YouTube. It's still Sunday Ticket, though.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:52

Okay, cool, sweet. Well, I love it. It's the best. Um yeah, good times. Um, Mike, your final?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:59

My final one uh uh is one? Yeah, it's my final one. I went twice last time.

Shawn Michaels Return And Wrestling Respect

SPEAKER_03 1:26:04

Uh August of 2002. Um after after four years, four and a half long years. Um the heartbreak kid Shawn Michaels makes his return uh to SummerSlam and has a 30-minute match, his first match since having since breaking his back, having surgery. And I think I I think when we first started this podcast, Dave, I'm like, I know that you're not a Sean guy, you're a pet guy, I get it.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:29

But you have to go watch it-be that made me come around on him, honestly. You really have.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:33

You have to go watch this match, and you did it, and you were like, I get it. I understand why why you like Sean. Because uh I listen, I understand, I I get it. Professional wrestling is not is not legitimate, it's scripted. I understand all of that, but the way that I never said that. I never not you the people that are the all you know, the the 12 people that are listening to this. The haters, of which there are many. The yeah, the way that they make you feel during a match is why you love professional wrestling. And Sean has always been able to do that for me. He was my favorite guy. I mean, 30 minutes after not wrestling for four years, he jumps off a ladder, he goes through a table, he goes, they target the back, and it was un and he had the crowd in the palm of his hands the entire time. Um, so I he was always my guy, and and I remember I was like I was 14 years old, and I was just in fucking tears when they said he's he's gonna wrestle again because I've been waiting for it for four years.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:28

Amazing. That's like the opposite of the experience I had with Connor McGregor. It's like it's like he hit all these heights, I really loved him, and then he didn't fight for a while, and whilst not fighting, committed atrocious sex crimes, and then when he came back, uh I didn't care, and his knee exploded. So twice.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:48

Thank you. Um yeah, we thought we were gonna watch him fly off into the sunset, and they just hit every major building on his way down.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:54

Matt, I know that you're not well versed in WWE, uh because but that matches you if you've not.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:00

Seen it, you need to I will watch it because when I was a kid, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, and Stone Cold were big obsessions of mine. And that's just kind of the more I got into what I considered real sports, the more I fell into that trap of like, oh, it's fake.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:13

So that was so passive aggressive.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:15

I hate to be honest. I'm gonna be honest with you, and I and as a as a 36-year-old man or 37, whatever I am, I feel a little weird. Logan Paul's bringing me back, baby. I kind of like him. I kind of dig the whole stick that he's doing. Sorry. Okay, it's a big time.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:30

Mike, is that match the one he wore jeans during too? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:34

So I think like he did he didn't dress up in his normal gear because he didn't want people to compare him to his 1998 self because he knew he couldn't do it. He was well, he was unsure if he could do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:44

And then I think like Triple H was like on the record, like saying either during the match or like after, like you still got this. Like you haven't like missed a beat, essentially.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:52

Yeah. They uh the famous linebacks stage was Arn Anderson uh said to Sean, like, this isn't like riding a bike. And 35 minutes later, when he came back through the curtain, he goes, Well, I guess it is for you. It's like he never lost it.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:04

Yeah, you either got it or you don't, I guess. I mean, fucking bad, especially that era, like I could understand now, like the way surgeries have advanced and stuff, like everything. And but you see Shawn Michaels now and how beat up he is. And one of the best points you ever made to me about that kind of rivalry and like my love of Brett and how I wasn't really as plugged into like where those guys had ended up. Like, I I loved Brett to hit my heart when I was a kid, and I I I hated the Montreal screw job, and I, you know, I was just re-listening to our cheap heat that we re re-released because of the dog days of summer. And you know, one of the best points you made in that in that whole podcast was like, yeah, but like Sean became more humble, you know, like the way he is now, he went through the ringer, he had some devastating injuries, he risked it all even after those devastating injuries for the love of the game. And he was he's in full acknowledgement that he was a fucking prick. He was like a young kid who kind of like hit these heights, and I don't know how I would have been if I was, you know, 26 and I was the fucking heartbreak kid, and I was like, it was just me and my fucking six-pack and a bag of cocaine every time I was like done, you know, fucking wrestling and like uh at the peak of my athletic powers, right? I I have no idea what what kind of a guy I would have been, but I bet I would have been marginally worse, uh, marginally less humble at the very least. And also since then, Brett's become bitter, you know, the for lack of a better term. He's he's become sort of angry at his legacy, angry at at the things that happened to him, and he hasn't really been able to shake that bitterness. And that's a real tough thing to watch somebody go through to watch an old bitter person, especially someone who achieved all the things that he achieved, yeah, is it's tough because all you all they really have to do is move the camera and change their perspective, you know? It's just if you just looked at it a little different, you would see that you were fucking blessed, man. Like you really had a great career and a great life, and you're sullying a lot of it by by being uh kind of a dick about it now. And you look at Sean now and the way he talks, and you're just like, he's now just sort of like this old steward of the of the world wrestling entertainment, and and he's sort of a wholesome character, and and he's sort of a feel-good story, and you know, he's also had sex with probably a thousand women, so it's just like it you just have these, you just have a the man contains multitudes. So, like everything you've explained to me about Sean and like your love for him has definitely made me come around.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:16

It is it is funny you're talking about the the rivalry between Sean and Brett, that Brett's whole shtick was best there is, best there was, best there ever will be. And then after he left WWE, and then Sean came back in 2002 and had a whole second half of his career, that that alone would have been a Hall of Fame worthy. Yeah, it was like, yes, like Sean got humbled and and you know became a born again and all this other crap, and like is a better person now. But in a sense, him coming back and performing the way he did was kind of a giant fuck you to Brett as well. It's like, oh, best there was like, oh, sure, okay. Brett can let me show you.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:55

Got severe concussion and then had to have a stroke because of fucking Goldberg. Like they're different, they are different.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:01

That I'm okay with him being bitter about it. Yeah, for sure. But I also think that if Brett made some different decisions in regards to his persona, I'm not even sure he gets in that situation with Goldberg. You know what I mean? Like if he's a little bit less you know, like I was just watching a clip of of uh McMahon calling Big Show and being like, hey, we're gonna take the title off you in May. Who do you think, you know, who do you want to face? Like, who would you drop it to? And he was like, Cena, he should do his finisher on me. And everybody was like, he's not gonna be able to pick you up, dude. And he was like, Yeah, he can, dude. I've seen him in the gym, like, watch, he will, he'll be able to do it. And like Cena fucking drops the finisher on him, picks Big Show up, has him on his fucking back, crazy moment, right? And you're sort of like, that's you taught me that doing those cheap heats is like it doesn't matter if you have the title or not. Brett holding on to that is like really what's what what tarnished his legacy. What he should have done was he should have elevated Sean, because elevating Sean would have elevated him and elevated rivalry even more.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:56

Sean was a dirtbag at the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:58

Like, I get and but like it was about the show must go on though. But he's you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:02

Brett Brett has aged so tort terribly from that. It's like, oh, I didn't want to lose in Canada. It's like, dude, it's it's a work, yeah?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:09

It's not real. Everybody gets it.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:11

Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, it's what it's a work. No, no, what was after that?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:15

It's not real. It's like you're not really losing, you're not really losing. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:19

Like, but but but the it's not real thing. It's like it's real immediate Tiago isn't a real character in an opera, you know? It's like it's it you have uh you it showmanship is a real thing, you know. The the the things they did to their bodies are real things, and like honestly, the fact that the fact that it's not real and they create the storylines means that they're not only athletes, they're also storytellers, which I respect.

Wrestling Stories Emmys And Wrap

SPEAKER_03 1:33:41

Uh my next thing is I I want to get WWE uh nominated for Emmys, but like we'll have to we'll have to work that out because they should be. There's no reason why they should be. They would have won every best performance.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:51

Wait, for the do they not get like any they're not able to? Nope. Why?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:57

Because it's a live sports broadcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:00

You know, it's don't like don't live sports broadcasts get Emmys too? They get in certain categories, not in like drama or oh like for like sports sports yeah, so I guess WWE is in a very interesting uh script they get drama. Or can't you do like for sound? Maybe they can just do like really good sound work.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:24

Can I ask you an ignorant question? Sure. I have I have an outside perspective here of people that grew up watching where I didn't I didn't either. If you didn't either, okay, good. So if you're a rock fan over Stone Cold, are you in fact a pussy?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:48

No, you're not you're not a you're not a pussy. You just don't like wrestling for wrestling, you like it for the promo.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:53

Okay, you're can I ask a final question just to round this uh this draft out? Do you remember when we first started the pod, we were having an argument about like the the rock is like the best sort of like conversion from something else into box office star, and you were like it's definitive or whatever. Is it over for him? Is he cooked because Moana's not doing good and the last two haven't done that good?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:14

So I mean everybody's running to an end, but and well, he he's gonna pop back into WWE to get people juiced up again, and then they'll be fast 12 or 20 or whatever the fuck number they're on, and that'll that'll juice up his box number office numbers again. And then there's that uh what's the one with him and Kevin Hart? Uh Central Intelligence. Jumanji. Jumanji, there's a there's a third one of that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:37

So this is real sidekick. So all right, well, we did it, guys. We talked about our best personal, most fun, most impactful, most romantic, most memorable sports moments. Um, and we did it because it is August 5th. Um, so uh thank you so much to Mike, Matt, Zach, and to myself. And uh we'll be back next week with something we think about that day. All right. Thanks everybody. This has been a good thing.