March Madness and College Football Playoff Expansion (Hour 3)

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That's right. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. It is Ryan Hickey's 30th birthday today. I just saw the hickster in the newsroom.

I feel bad for Ryan Hickey. First off, he's a professional. Shows up to work, right? Could be, hey, I'll take the day off.

It's the 30th birthday. You go out, you have a good time. He shows up to work.

You give him a lot of credit. But I see there's this big cake in the newsroom and for like my naive moment I had for about like 20 seconds, I'm like, wow, Hickey's this good of a guy that they got him like a big cake in the newsroom. And then I see the great Howie Rose, who is the voice of the Mets and used to be the voice of the Islanders and had the famous also when he was the voice of the Rangers to the motto, motto, motto call. So I see Howie Rose. I'm like, hey, how you doing, Howie?

I go, oh, by the way, congratulations. And I forgot that they're celebrating 50 years of Howie Rose being involved in the New York media scene, and they're celebrating that down the hall. So there's this big cake in the newsroom for Howie Rose and Howie Rose kind of upstaged the 30th birthday celebration of hot Hickey. So hot take Hickey. Hot Hickey. Wow. Sorry. Hot take Hickey.

I forgot to take part in there. Happy birthday, Hickey. Some people in the YouTube chat, they think Hickey's hot with all that gel that he puts in his hair.

I'll tell you that. They are always on Hickey for how much gel he puts in that hair of his. So we have ordered Hickey to make him feel better because he really looked down in the dumps.

Now, this is a big Mets fan. He looked down in the dumps over Howie Rose getting this big cake, and he's like sitting there in the corner just crying and cutting up my sportsman and all that. And basically like prepared for the J.R. Sportbrief extravaganza. And he's just sitting there probably crafting up his next hot take.

You know, that hot take Hickey or some people may call him hot Hickey. And I ordered him a few gourmet cookies, which are arriving here in five minutes. The cookies will arrive in five minutes. How should we give Hickey these these cookies? So we just kind of throw them at him.

Hey, happy birthday. Don't bug us for a few months. Or do you think we bring him in here and then we'll give him the cookies on the air? Maybe we'll do a collaboration with hot take Hickey. We will bring Hickey into the studio coming up at some point.

So that's what we'll do. But I felt bad. By the way, fun fact about Howie Rose. He did my bar mitzvah intro. There is a call where I hit a home run in the World Series Mets against the Yankees. And he said something along the lines of Matsui going back. He falls down. Damon going back.

He trips over Matsui and this ball is gone. And it was like, give it up for the World Series Most Valuable Player, Zach Gelb. And then I walked in with like two smoking hot chicks to Party Up, the song by DMX.

So they had to like bleep out everything because Party Up is a very, very, very dirty song, let's just say, if you're having a bunch of 13 year olds that are sitting there at a big bar mitzvah. Good to see Howie Rose, even if it came at the expense of hot take Hickey. Just absolutely his birthday just getting ignored. Anywho, two topics that I don't love. We'll get to them here.

You have to stand the cup final today, which I absolutely love. And we had Brian Boucher on earlier. I don't know about you guys. And maybe we'll delve more into this in onsite, offsite coming up in 20 minutes.

What did you think about that, Samter? Right? It feels like the pressure is on Florida tonight because they were up 3-0 and then they blew this lead. And now it's game seven in their building. It seems like everyone is picking the Oilers to win this game. So you could argue, hey, maybe there's more pressure on the Oilers.

But I thought his thought process being close on similar side to this, having a big lead and then blowing it and then, you know, having a team, even though he got hurt coming on back. You know, I thought Brian Boucher's take on it was fascinating that when you're down 3-0, there's really no pressure on you because no one expects anything. And now people expect you to go win tonight, where I think most people, Samter, are kind of looking at this, oh man, the Panthers don't win tonight.

This is one of the biggest gag jobs in sports history. Yeah, and then you add on to the fact that they lost in the cup finals last year to Vegas. So, I mean, the pressure's absolutely on Florida. They're at home, they had this blown lead, they were the favorites heading in, they lost in the finals last year. All the pressure's on them.

All of it. I mean, listen, Brian Boucher knows more about hockey than I'll ever, he's forgotten more about hockey than I'll ever know. So I'm not going to question him, but to me, I don't think there's any question that the Panthers have the most pressure on them. Yeah, I'm trying to think about this. If the Panthers lose tonight, we all know what the take is tomorrow. Is this the biggest choke job in the history of sports? Right? That's how we led the show.

I think it is. You know, out of the four major sports you talk about in the playoffs, yeah, the Falcons blowing 28-3, enormous. The Yankees choking up 3-0 lead to the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS, enormous. The Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, enormous. But when you look back at those, all right, NFL, it's one game, it's Super Bowl, right? It's the biggest game that we have in sports. Major League Baseball, 3-0 with the Red Sox as they came on back is enormous, but it's not in the World Series. And the NBA with the Golden State Warriors, yeah, it's 3-1, but that's not coming back from down 0-3. Like all three of those, I said this earlier, it's like what disease would you rather have?

You don't want any of them. But if you're trying to say what's the biggest choke out of all those, I would say it would be the Florida Panthers blowing a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final. I know people say, oh, football's bigger, hockey's so bizarre and all that, this stuff happens.

I get that. But the NBA wasn't the Finals, it wasn't 3-0. The Yankees blowing a 3-0 lead, that was in the ALCS. And the NFL, see, it's a singular game. It's a singular game, and don't get me wrong, it's an enormous choke job. But it's got to be tougher.

What's tougher? Being up 3-0 and then losing 4-5, 6-7, or being up 28-3 in the third quarter and not winning that game? It would be the equivalent of being up 5-0 in Game 7. You choked once, which is an enormous choke, the Panthers would be choking four times.

You have four chances to go raise that Stanley Cup and you can't do it. The one thing I'll say is, Ack actually said it well, it doesn't feel like a choke per se. Oh no, this is an enormous choke.

In the sense of, it feels just like a collapse. I know it feels different, collapse versus choke, but also when you have Conor McDavid in dry side. Well that's the thing, you have McDavid.

And you have dry saddle. You have McDavid and dry saddle, two of the top five players in the league, and Zach Hyman is ridiculous as well. But the reason why you'll have some people, I think the majority, like if I put out 100%, tomorrow 95% of the people are saying, wow, what a gag job by the Florida Panthers. But, maybe it's not as high as 95% because if the Oilers win, sure, I think the story is the Panthers blowing the lead, but since they've already blown the lead, maybe the story tomorrow becomes the greatness of Conor McDavid. I think we're more of a society that reacts to negative first and positive, so maybe that thought of how great McDavid is and how he gets his Stanley Cup and how unlikely it was, that will make some people feel like, oh no, this is just one of those all-time great players and this is what all-time great players do. And it's more of a tip of the cap to the greatness of Conor McDavid than the Panthers choking. I still think this would be a mega choke job by the Florida Panthers. You have 3-0.

It would. It feels like, and I've said this before, hockey just feels different because like Pouche was saying, when you just get a goalie who gets hot and is standing on his head, it's not even about choking. Sometimes in hockey, you just get hot. Like baseball, you can't do that because you have a different pitcher every day. So it's not like if you get a pitcher who's hot, he's going to pitch every three days. But this isn't the goalie standing on his head. This is Bobrovsky losing his game and McDavid in that two-game stretch was just ridiculous. Right, I guess my point is just in hockey in general, it feels like the momentum swings are a little bit less. This is why you have more eight-seeds beating one-seeds. And it's the toughest championship to win.

So that to me is even more of a reason why. I know people say, oh it's bizarre, it's hockey. And I wasn't even sold on this at first, but now I am. Hey, by the way, the cookies are here for Hickey if we could go have someone run down and get them. Not me. Can you do us a favor? I can do you a favor. I'm not doing Hickey a favor. Why are you so anti-Hickey? Very nice guy.

Good friend to the show. He's hot Hickey. I can't compete with that. Isn't that funny? All those years working with hot Tay Kickey, I've never butchered that. Don't work with him for a few months. And I called him hot Hickey on the radio.

Hot Tay Kickey. It's missing a pretty big part of the sentence. That totally changes the meaning still. It really does.

It paints him in a totally different context. The people are talking on YouTube chat, I'm very distracted by the YouTube chat today. They think you should get a makeover. They think you should lose the glasses, go with the contacts.

No, I can't do that. Maybe cut the facial hair. Because Manny, a few weeks ago, he had the mustache and he looked like he didn't bathe in like four months or something. And then came in clean shaven and got his hair cut and he looked phenomenal.

Yeah, I would say two things on that. The glasses, I'm not doing the contacts again. I did contacts for like 15 straight years every day and my eyes were just shot from them. I can't do the contacts like maybe once a week.

I got to do glasses. The facial hair may be... You're not a big facial hair guy, though. I mean, I've had this basically since COVID. Yeah, but it's not like a thick beard, is what I'm saying. You're very patchy with the facial hair.

It's very patchy, especially on the sides. But the facial hair, I believe, at some point soon, I don't know exactly when, but it will be exiting at least for a little. Now, is this the girlfriend just putting the edict on it? She wants to see what I look like without the facial hair.

And part of it, I just feel like I just need to change it up a little bit. How long have you been dating your girlfriend for? Two and a half years. And you guys are living together? Yes. How long have you been living together?

Since September, so almost a year now. Now, this is just right off the tip of the tongue. I don't know where this is going.

This is just immediate thought. Okay. You're going clean-shaven, wedding bells, maybe? No, no, no, no, no.

This is not for an engagement shoot? That's not the reasoning, no. That is not the reasoning. This is just like, let's try something a little different. Okay.

Which is not too different because I used to never have facial hair until a few years ago, but I think I'm going to change that up a bit. Now, MoistPork is saying, leave him alone. MoistPork, I didn't start this conversation. These are people in the YouTube chat that were starting this conversation. We listened to the YouTube chat.

So I'm just responding to the fine folks in the YouTube chat. I tried contacts once. Yeah. And it was when I was younger. I was in high school still, and I thought I put one of the contacts in my eye, and it did not get in my eye.

It fell on my counter, but I thought it was in, you know, my bathroom counter as a kid. So I was in like a 830 a.m., whatever first period was, and I was scratching my eye thinking that, like, the contact moved, and I just couldn't see. And that was the last time I wore contacts. I was one.

I was like a college basket. I was one and done with contacts. Yeah.

I would think about getting laser. I was about to get LASIK, and I was about to get an old job I worked at. It was like a promotion, like endorse this, and then I took a job somewhere else, and I tried to get it on my way out, but that didn't happen. Are we talking about the same place? Yes.

When we first met. Yes. I remember that was a big, big thing there. That was one of the, you know, sponsors, if you will. Judging by the quality of the radio station, the lack of it, probably better that I did not get the surgery. Yeah, you might be blind. Probably would have been some fugazi surgery or something like that.

Yeah, I could have been blind. Anywho, I want to get into this. NCAA tournament or college football playoff expansion.

Which one ruins their sport more? So, it's been long talked about that the NCAA is going to expand from 68. They're going to expand once again. And there was a report in March from the Athletics saying it was going to be 72 or 76 teams. And that has now been talked a lot about recently. And people say it's not a matter of if there's going to be expansion, it's just going to be when.

So, Stu, this is the way that I look at it. We know college football is expanding their playoff from 4 to 12. Going from 4 to 12 is just way too much. I could argue that it should stay at 4.

If you say they need to expand, okay, 6 or 8 would have been fine. But the regular season right now in college football is awesome. Like, the NBA regular season product sucks. I love hockey and I think it's a great product. But not enough people care about hockey in the regular season.

A lot of people just parachute in. You know, Major League Baseball, there's too many games. And college football is the one sport, you know, in the NFL obviously. Because every game does matter. But college football, it means so much in the regular season.

I'm not saying that people aren't going to care in the regular season because they're all addicted to football. But adding 12 takes away from the intensity and the game's meaning so much. And it gives teams a soft landing spot. Like, Ohio State, Michigan, what made it so much fun the last few years, not just Michigan beating Ohio State three straight times, but it felt like the winner of that game was going to the college football playoff and the loser was on the outside looking. And I know, right, there was that one year Ohio State lost and they still got in and they did go up against Georgia. It was that year where we saw two Big Ten teams get in. So going to 12, it gives a lot of the elite schools landing spots. The reason why expanding college football from 4 to 12 is worse than the NCAA tournament, going from 68 to 72, 68 to 76, is a lot of people don't give a rat's ass about college basketball in the regular season. They just don't. You know, it resonates. College basketball, Santa, I don't think this is an unfair statement.

College basketball is really a three-week, four-week, maybe at most a month sport, where the biggies tournament I love, right, the conference tournaments are great, and then it's that three to four-week stretch in March into the early part of April when you have the NCAA tournament. That's when people really care. Nowadays, yes, but I feel like... Back in the day differently.

Yeah, five, ten years ago, I think it was different. Now you're right because I don't think anyone cares about the regular season because you don't know any of the players. So them going from 68 to 72, 68 to 76, I don't think it's necessary. I would not do it, but it doesn't ruin the regular season for me. There is a big part of the regular season that people will see this year in college football that you'll still watch, you'll still enjoy it, but the games won't mean as much because you're allowing now, and here's mental math right on the spot, eight more teams into the college football playoff. And I do think that harms the product even though everything is, you know, whenever football does something, it's undefeated against everybody else because we're all addicted to football. So that's why I think the college football playoff committee expanding from four to 12 is worse than the NCAA expanding from 68 to 72 or 68 to potentially 76. What's your answer on that? Just wondering.

I mean, you and I will disagree until the days we die. I love college football expansion. I love the 12 team format. I don't think that it devalues the regular season at all. I think that maybe for the top three or four teams it devalues it slightly, but for the other 20, 25 teams who have a chance to get into that top 12 throughout the season, it makes it so much more interesting.

If you're ranked number 15 in the country and you know you have no chance of getting into the college football playoff with four teams, now you have a chance. It makes every other team outside of those three or four teams matter and it makes you care. It's the same thing with the expanded playoffs in baseball. More teams care. More players care. More fan bases care. And yeah, maybe it's not as fun for the top three or four teams who were going to be in the playoffs anyway. Maybe it devalues their regular season, but it makes it so much better for everybody else. So for me, I love it.

I don't like, we actually had Mark Ryan filled in for you on Friday. And he had a great thought of actually de-spanding or shrinking the size of the NCAA tournament. Do you even hang out with a rash too much? I don't know if that's even a word. What was that word that you just said? Un-expanding. De-spanding? De-spanding.

What's the point you're trying to make here? To un-expand, to shrink the NCAA tournament because it's too many teams. And it's not about devaluing the regular season, it's just that it doesn't matter. So short in the field in the NCAA tournament. If you're the seventh best team in the ACC, whoop-de-doo. But at the end of the day, I think that the college basketball tournament could shrink and college football expansion is awesome.

So I'm all for it. Stu, you're a big Notre Dame fan. Did you need to see more of Notre Dame last year once their regular season ended?

No, I did not. And I, again, I feel like the regular- Because they were in that, they were 14th in the last eight people. Yeah, and I feel like the regular season is just, I'm not going to say people aren't going to care about the regular season. Because we always will care about college football.

And there's rivalries and there's that craziness that go on. But there's going to be something lost when, okay, a team loses a game, even two games. Like some of these big SEC schools can definitely lose, go 10-2 and still make the playoffs and have a chance to win the title.

Like Penn State after their regular season when they couldn't beat Ohio State or Michigan. And they probably would have been in the playoffs. They were 13th in the last eight.

I don't need to see more of them. So they would have been right on the line depending on, it's all different now with the conference changes and everything. But this was the final, this was the final one. So they lost their bowl game to Ole Miss and they probably dropped a few spots so they would have been in otherwise. You know, there's 14 teams out of 32 that get into the NFL playoffs. And it doesn't devalue the regular season. We're obsessed.

We sit around every Sunday at a bar, at home, with Sunday ticket or whatever. And we're watching every single NFL game. If you love college football, which we all do, we're going to watch it anyway. Yeah, but sixth football, sixth to seven wasn't necessary. It wasn't. Going from six teams in each conference to seven wasn't necessary. Sure, fine.

12 out of 32. We still loved it. We don't love it any less that they're seven. In fact, we probably like it more because now we have more of a chance of getting in. But here's the problem with you people that are all for expansion.

Stop cross-contaminating. Do it from one sport and stop bringing in all these other sports. Because there's more evidence in all these other sports that will basically allow everybody, like basketball.

NBA is a great regular season product, let me tell you. They allow everyone and their mother into the postseason. One of 30 teams getting into the playoffs is too many. So there's an opportunity for too many. There's 115 or so. But how many of those schools actually matter?

Like, I'm sorry. They're going to hate me that I say this. And I love my alma mater. And when I was there, I was at the glory days of Temple football. They got college game day there. With NIL, Temple can't compete.

They can't. So how many of those schools actually matter? It's the schools that are in now the power four. You had one conference wipe away.

And then even there, there's some schools. Like Rutgers. Is Rutgers getting into a college football playoff? Are they ever going to be a great team in the Big Ten? Rutgers didn't have a terrible season last year, but you get the point.

You know, I go through it. Last year, I didn't need to see. Hey, the school you've been critical of. LSU. You need to see more of LSU last year? The defense sucked. Their offense was awesome.

I need to see more of them? You know what? To get into the playoffs, to win a couple games, get a high. They weren't winning a couple games.

They couldn't stop anybody on defense. So I think it's worse for college football to expand their playoff than it would be the NCAA tournament to go from 68 to 72 or 68 to 77. What is your answer, by the way? I know that you are. Yeah, I think it's much worse for college basketball to keep expanding the tournament than it is for college football to expand to 12 teams. I love 12 teams. I can't wait for 16.

Okay. Geez. Soon they're going to allow 100 teams. Soon the NCAA tournament is going to be basically college football. It's still less than 10% of the overall Division I football programs. That's the lowest of any of the major sports that we watch as far as teams that get in. You soccer guys. It's always you soccer guys that are always like, expand, expand, expand. No, I'll say shrink the NCAA tournament.

Four out of 115 college football teams is not enough. Alright, we'll take a break. We'll come on back. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. They will not be expanding the time slot of our show. We are a three-hour show. If they tell us to go to five or six, they better compensate us accordingly. Regular day here in the Infinity Sports Network studios.

It is the Zach Gelb show. We got game seven of the Stanley Cup final. And oh yeah, by the way, the hot take hickey is in the building. And it's his birthday. His 30th birthday.

A big milestone. You know, turn on your microphone. Because, you know, Stu's just getting used to the settings once again after being out of here for three weeks. And I'm just like accustomed to whenever we have someone in that chair.

Whoever was filling in for him just didn't know how to turn on the microphone. So, I was just not feeling great there in a moment. But a happy birthday to hot take hickey. Oh, thank you, Zman. I appreciate that.

Thank you, sir. Now, I'm not going to lie. I know you're not like an old look at me kind of guy. I'm a little surprised. Big 30th birthday. You have all these off days.

You know, some may even say unlimited. I wish. I wish.

Maybe one day. And you didn't take today off? It's a Monday. What am I going to do? It's your 30th birthday.

You lolly go get a good dinner or something like that and then go have some fun. I mean, look, if I had unlimited off days, sure, would I take a Monday off in the summer? Sure. Did you do something at least this weekend to celebrate your birthday? I did, actually. You know what I did?

What was that? You went to the beach. I went scuba diving with sharks.

Wait. You went scuba diving with sharks? That's right.

That's right. In the Long Island Aquarium, into the shark tank, I went. Four big time sand tiger sharks swimming around me. There I was.

That's how I celebrated big 30. And you were in some kind of bubble, I'm assuming? I was in a cage, yes. So, technically, I was safe. I know you're a dangerous fella, but I didn't know how risky you were getting.

And, I mean, I'm sure these sharks, you know, they lose a lot of aggressiveness now that they've been in the tank for a while and not out in the wild. But, yeah, I was. Were you ever, like, afraid? Because still, even though you're in some cage, just that image of a shark getting close to you, you think maybe the shark gets through. No, I was not afraid. Not at all. I figured, no, I knew I was a million percent safe.

I know you think I'm the mush, but. So this is what you wanted to do? Yes, you always wanted to do it. Love Shark Week.

I really want to get in the water, great white sharks. Could you imagine, Stu? People know who Hot Take Kinky is. He's getting ready to go in a cage with all of them. Guys, I guarantee you, we are not going to die. I will be alive in 20 minutes.

And you know what? One of the predictions I got right, thankfully. I can get, you know, some NFL predictions wrong, some basketball predictions wrong, but thankfully, when it comes to my life. College football. College. We can go down the list. Baseball. In terms of guaranteeing my life, I am one for one.

And I would say that's the most important. Who do you think wins the Stanley Cup final tonight, by the way? Oilers, lock it up. Guaranteed. Oh, no. I was all in on the Oilers.

All in on the Oilers tonight. And I have some skepticism. But it is your birthday.

If there is going to be one day for you to get the prediction right, wouldn't it be tonight? You would think, although I've gone to plenty of Mets games on my birthday and I've seen plenty of L's. So that, unfortunately, does not always translate. So that's actually a fun. That was your idea for your 30th birthday. That's what you wanted to do? I mean, not 30. I've always wanted to do it for a while.

And 30, you know, is a milestone, I guess, where it's an excuse to finally put action or words in action. So, yeah. Who'd you go with? My girlfriend and my parents. And she went in the cage, too? Your parents went in the cage? No, no, no, no, no. I was the only one. It was only you?

Yes, and an instructor. Wait, what happened to the hickeys? They don't want to go in. They're too scared. Your dad is like a big, burly, tough guy. He's like one of 900 children. He didn't have the cajones? He didn't have the chops to join his son for a memorable moment? He didn't want to go. I was not going to force anybody.

I think, if anything, it makes me tougher. Now, your girlfriend was probably like a nervous wreck. She thought something bad was going to happen. She was like, I heard his predictions on the radio.

He's getting out alive. She was not as confident as I was. Did she make you take out life insurance before this? No, no. Although, if the cage accidentally opened up during the middle of it, I asked some questions. The cage opens up. You survive.

Okay. I don't think that would be a bad thing. It would be a good lawsuit. Oh, I was going to tell you a pretty bad ass story. Yeah, I fought a shark and who won? Not the shark.

That would be pretty cool, actually. Now, was this like a real rewarding? When you left, was this real rewarding? Um... Like, did you feel like you conquered something?

Yes and no. Like, those sharks are so docile. So, it's like, you're not, like, there's no actual danger there. I give you credit. Like, Ack, let me ask you. Ack, you've been around on this planet a long time.

I don't call me old. Jesus, a nice way to... Have you ever had the desire, even if you were in a protective cage, to go swim with sharks? No, what am I, Richard Dreyfuss?

Are we supposed to understand that? I don't know that one. That's Jaws. He was in Jaws. Oh, okay.

He got in the shark tank to try to get the shark. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. That was the first reference that went above Hickey and I's head. I'm saying Julia Lewis, I know. Julia Louie.

They're not related. By the way, this has been a running topic in our YouTube chat. People are obsessed with your hair. They want to know the process, how much gel you put in. Today is all natural.

How long are you standing in front of the mirror with the comb and everything? Baker Mayfield. Thank you, Ackster. He does not look like Baker Mayfield. He does. He absolutely does. I'll take it.

Baker's a good looking guy. I'll take whatever I can get. Ack, I say this with love. Maybe time to get your eyes checked.

I think I'm closer to the pin than you. Okay. The process does not take very long. A little bit of gel, you know, run it through. A little comb to kind of get the part going. But I would say full process, three minutes. And what happened to the shower no cap, by the way? I did wave the white flag on that a little bit.

Okay. So you stopped with the segments in the shower? Well, I like to take a long shower to begin with. That's why it's called shower no cap?

That's what it was, yes. And then I realized that when I would record these videos, shockingly, I would not get them on the first try for the most part. So I try to, you know, do second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth takes. And I'd be in there a long time.

Okay. So I try to save some time and save the planet by saving some water. By the way, Hickey revealed this to me when he first started this segment. He was once brushing his teeth in the shower. And he says he brushes his teeth in the shower all the time.

Every time. Do you brush your teeth in the shower? I don't think I've ever brushed my teeth in the shower. Samter, do you brush your teeth in the shower? I mean, it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard anyone say in my life, so no.

It's his birthday! You guys are missing out. I feel bad for you.

And Ack, I'm assuming there's no way you brush your teeth in the shower. That's the first time I've ever heard of that. But I'm okay with it. Like, if that's what you want to do, that's fine. I don't have any issue with that. It's just I found that odd.

Yeah. Why don't you just spit on the floor? I mean, Kramer used to, like, cook dinner. It's a good thing I don't live with you. Kramer used to cook and prepare dinner in the shower.

That's right. I'm not cooking in the shower. I'm not washing my vegetables in the shower. You do a lot of weird things in the shower. You do podcasts in the shower.

That's right. You brush your teeth in the shower. Can I ask a question? Sure. You said you spit in the shower? Of course.

Sound like Hawk Tua? How does your girlfriend feel about that? I'm surprised you both know what that is, by the way.

Samter especially. I'm shocked you know that one. You know what? That's why we get along. Let me tell you, everyone knows about the Hawk Tua girl. I'm on the golf course yesterday.

I'm playing golf with my best friend. And his father. And my dad joined as well. The two old geezers knew about this social media trend that quickly. I think there's no person right now that doesn't know about it.

It's a phenomenon. People were yelling on the golf course yesterday. You hit a big shot. Someone was like, Hawk Tua.

There are things that unite us in this country. This is one of them. You want to know what our old boss is doing right now? Spike Eskin. Sure. Here's his poll question for his popular radio show in Philadelphia.

On Sports Radio 94 WFP. You wake up one morning and your 24 year old daughter is famous for one thing or the other. Which would you prefer? That's a great question. Hawk Tua girl or the 24 year old that's dating Bill Belichick?

That's a great question. Dating Belichick. You know she's dating a multimillionaire and if she marries him, you guys are going to be set for life.

2472. That's a big, big age. Whatever. It's her choice.

And then you've got like a whole family set for life. Hawk Tua girl. What does she get out of it? I think she got fired from her job or something like that. There you go. I think she's like a teacher.

I don't know if that's true or not, but I saw that on one of the gossip blogs. So, Samter says Belichick. You'd rather want your daughter to date Belichick. 100%.

2472. And then I get to hang out with Belichick at Thanksgiving? Oh yeah. Oh that's awesome. You don't shut up. He doesn't like to talk. That would be great. Let me tell you.

I think Belichick talks a lot more and he's a lot more personable in his personal life than he is on the field. Pass the sweet potato pie. Alrighty. Just pass those sweet potatoes. That's what he calls his girlfriend.

Sweet potato pie. Oh. Jeez.

That doesn't sound right. Chills. Um. Stu?

Who would you rather be? Or have your daughter be? No. No. No.

They can't date Belichick. That's. No. No.

Hickey? I'm with Stu actually. I think I'd rather be the Hawk Tua girl.

Hawk Tua girl's dad. Because you know why? It's actually a discussion we talked about.

Remember last year with the guy who's drinking the beer through the hot dog? Oh yeah. You thought that was the biggest deal in the world. I told you it wasn't.

It will eventually go away. Uh. I mean. Was that last year? I can't remember.

I think it was two years ago. I will say at this point I forgot about that guy and he's out of sight out of mind for you know he was in this new cycle for a lot and then just went away. This girl is going to go away very fast. And she has a history of dating older guys. The Bell. Right.

So that's the thing. She's dating Belichick now. She has what?

A 64 year old. Right. Who's coming to her defense.

Ack you were dating this girl? Jeez. Sorry. What does the poll question say?

What's the results? Ack. Do you know about the Hawk Tua girl? No.

Ok. We'll show you during the break. Well I'd take her over the other one. Ok. Because you know that relationship is ending. Most likely. That's not lasting.

66.1% would prefer their daughter being the Hawk Tua girl than dating Bill Biden. Well hold on. This relationship has been going on for a little bit.

I mean we saw him sneaking out of her house last year so it's been going on for at least a year. Yeah. And they bonded over their philosophy project.

You believe that too right? I mean. I don't care how they bonded.

They bonded. Alright anyway. Hickey we got you a birthday present. Oh. I knew it. I knew there was some sort of catch here. See. Hickey.

Hickey thinks. This is too good to be true. I always get him bad gifts. So I did once get you the first ever Matt Rhine 28 to 3 Colts shirt. When you. That's right.

The quarterback that choked up a 28 to 3 lead in the Super Bowl. I then got you. Didn't I get your Quinn and Nelson jersey? I don't remember that.

That might have been a Christmas gift. Ok. I got you. I got you an Anthony Richardson t-shirt. Yes. That was very nice. I still have that. Thank you sir.

Very comfortable. And. And. Do you think this is a good gift or? Well you'll even get a gift. What was the other gift?

A Russell Wilson Broncos jersey. Oh yeah. After the prediction. Because.

Because I said they're going to the Super Bowl. That is true. And Nathaniel Hickey got fired. There's that Hickey magic right there. That is true. I did get him a very nice. It was like a dry fit Russell Wilson jersey.

They don't call him hot Hickey for nothing. Sure. That was 70% off. I misspoke earlier. I heard. Hopefully that was clips too. Yeah. You guys play that or give it the Hickey. We'll be fine.

The new producers. I'll tell you that. Oops. Oh. You already gave it to him?

That quickly? Okay. That's fine.

Um. Do you think this is a good gift or a bad gift? Bad gift. Really? Bad gift. It's your 30th birthday? I just don't know what it could be.

Because we're Mets fans and Rangers fans. So it's not going to go there. Uh. It's definitely. You know what it is? It's definitely some sort of.

On the line with this right now. It's definitely some sort of Penn State. On the line with this right now is the head football coach of the Penn State.

Nittany Lions to wish hot take Kiki a happy 30th birthday. Stu. Cue him up. It's James Franklin.

Coach, how are you? Oh, sorry. Uh. Did you actually think it was James Franklin? No. No. I thought it was going to be some sort of drop of you suck Ryan. You know, Ryan.

And then like, I hate you. Something like that. It's definitely like a Penn State second place Penn State. Can't beat Michigan. Penn State. Can't beat Ohio State.

Can't win the big game t-shirt with all the years of the losses. Let's let's come on. This is going to act.

I give credit to act. Hey, act walks in. He's dissolved birthdays here. And he goes, oh, it's like his birthday today. And I go, oh, I always thought his birthday was on the 26.

So it wasn't anything planned, but we got you since how we rose upstage your 30th birthday with him celebrating 50 years of being on on the air in New York. We got you from chip city, a huge six pack of chocolate chip cookies. We also got you what else are these cookies that I got you? Chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate macadamia cookie and two triple chocolate cookies as well.

And those are heavy cookies. Can I open this? Because I don't believe it. Mm hmm. All right. Is it rocks in there?

There's either rocks. Here comes the protesters from the travelers. Oh, hot hickey. Hot hickey. Go ahead. Look. Wow.

Come on. Let's get the credit here. Thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you. Got you.

Hamster stew. Wow. This is. Can you take a bite on the air?

Like a jerk? Not that one. Oh, yeah. Hickey going with the chocolate chip cookie. How do you rate that cookie out of 10? Oh, not these are good cookies, but not as good as what the guy Jamison once sent us. Right.

You're right. Those were gourmet. I would say eight out of 10 is solid. OK.

Very solid chocolate chip cookie. Thank you. Wow. Thank you.

Thank you for a bunch of bad guys. That's right. I do. I did pay one of the sharks to try to eat you over the weekend. Didn't look. I figured one.

There's one that kept going very close and kept trying to, you know, I me down. I figured he's up to something. All right. Well, happy birthday. Oh, thank you. See, ma'am. You know. Act.

I told him not to make me any part of this. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. I jerk.

I think Sam Jack. That one is jealous that we get along and now he's the producer. So I think he just hates you now. Yeah. You got me nothing for my birthday. What are you talking about? Tensions. I'm talking about your birthday.

March. I'm going to get him a pair of shoes. We were working together for like eight months. I took you out for two dinners, you rat bastard. I once got you a razor.

You never used it. Ten years old. Get him, Mac. Wow.

All right. Because, you know, he has trouble shaving. He's got a very thick beard.

I got him the best razor you can get. And he, you know, he's. Oh, you're being serious? Yeah, I'm being serious. Oh, I thought you were just making a joke. Wow.

He's never. Have you used that thing? No, I have it. But no, I have not used it. There you go. Wow. I think I gave that to you 10 years ago.

Yeah, I have to use a special formulated like shaving cream and a special razor because I have very. All right. Let's get the latest update in with the Ackerman, Rich Ackerman. It's time to answer Ask the Pros question of the day. It's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Mark in South Florida says Zach, who will win the Stanley Cup final tonight? You could submit a question by tweeting at INF Sportsnet or at Zach Gelby's and hashtag Ask the Pros. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts are all your car care needs.

Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts, O'Reilly Auto Parts. I like the Oilers to win tonight. I'm not as confident as I was about 10 to 15 minutes ago when I hear Hickey say that he guarantees the Oilers are going to win. And I love everyone in unison was like, oh, no, no, no, because we all think the Oilers I think are going to win tonight. Brian Boucher, who joined us earlier, said, I think everyone but Paul Bissonnette believes that the Oilers are going to win tonight. So I will take the Edmonton Oilers.

There is part of me that I want to bet the Panthers because usually when everyone's on one team to win, the other team ends up winning. But I just think Connor McDavid is about to join the likes of Tom Brady in that 20 to 3 comeback, Ortiz in the 0-4 Red Sox comeback, and obviously LeBron James, what he did in that 3-1 comeback up against the Golden State Warriors for the Cleveland Cavaliers. So J.J. Redick, we're going to blow up onside offside today. Sorry about that.

We just didn't have enough time. We got sidetracked with Hickey and his birthday. But Connor McDavid, actually Connor McDavid, I have the hockey in my mind. J.J. Redick, not Connor McDavid.

J.J. Redick got introduced at his press conference today to be the Lakers coach. I saw someone asked about the outside noise, and he said, I don't really give a bleep. So I can't wait to watch this.

On a scale of one to douche, how douchey will J.J. Redick be? Oh, I can't wait to hear this press conference. Sanford says he has some sound.

What's the origins of this sound like? What's the question? They asked him basically if it upset him or if it concerned him when the team started going after Dan Hurley and the whole pursuit of Dan Hurley. All right, let's listen up.

The origins of this sound like what's the question? They asked him basically if it upset him or if it concerned him when the team started going after Dan Hurley and the whole pursuit of Dan Hurley. All right, let's listen up. I was getting ready to call game one of the NBA finals when the Dan Hurley news broke. And Rob was quick to call me. We had a great conversation during that whole four-day period. At no point was my ego or feelings hurt or bruised in any way. Dan Hurley is a two-time national champion at UConn.

I am a two-time 55 Swiss league champion in the third and fourth grade division. It's a good line. I understood, you know, I understood.

You know what? I don't believe a single word he's saying because I think it's easier to say that when you get the job and the other guy says no, but that's a good line by JJ Riddick. I'm not saying he's won me over. I can't stand the guy's guts. That's a pretty good line by JJ Riddick. So do we have anything else from this JJ Riddick press conference?

If not, we'll play more of it tomorrow. But what was the Ryan Clark, I saw this today, is Ryan Clark interviewing Samter Jayden Daniels today and then what Brandon Aiyuk showed up to the interview? What happened there? It sounds actually he was interviewing Brandon Aiyuk is what it was going to be. And then he kind of explains a little bit here about what happened in that meeting. We have it? All right, go ahead.

And I will tell you this. When he sat with us, he did not walk into the room alone. First, it was Brandon Aiyuk. Second, it was Jayden Daniels. I'm not a tea leaf reader, but the way that that sounds is that Brandon Aiyuk wouldn't mind playing in Washington. Well, everyone knows that he wants to play in Washington, and he posted about it last week when talking to Jayden Daniels or whatever was shown there. So Clark is about to interview Aiyuk and then Jayden Daniels walked in with him. That's the way that this goes. And also, along with that, apparently Brandon Aiyuk told Ryan Clark he was meeting with the 49ers today with the intention of potentially getting his way over to Washington.

Hmm. So we'll see if that does go down. I think the 49ers want to keep him. But there's been a contract dispute, obviously. Now, Aiyuk thinks he's worth a certain price, and the 49ers think he's worth one price.

I think they're trying to keep him and then trade Deebo Samuel a year from now. But if you ratchet up the drama, maybe you find your way out of the 49ers quicker than what the organization actually wanted. That's juicy. That feels like tampering. But then they're two friends, so tampering player to player never ends up going down. But if I was the owner of the 49ers, I would not feel great about that.

But hey, what can you do about it? Big thanks to Brian Boushey for joining us. Big thanks to Stu. Great to have him back. Big thanks to Moist Mike. Ack. Even hot take Hickey for stopping by. And each and every one of you will be back tomorrow to recap Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Boys and girls, we'll talk to you at 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific. We out.

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