Pardon My Take
Indiana Wins The Natty, Adam Thielen On Retirement, Paddy Pimblett Ahead Of UFC 324, Coaching Carousel + Listener Pardon Your Takes
21 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
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Every fight. Bam! One subscription. Oh my goodness! Pay-per-view. Just got knocked out. Back-to-back blockbuster UFC events. This month only on Paramount+. On today's part of my take, presented by DraftKings. The Indiana Hoosiers are national champions. We talk about one of the greatest stories in all of sports, the greatest story in college football. That is a fact. We're going to recap that.
We have some coach hirings, some cleanup from divisional round. Looking forward to championship Sunday. We have hot seat, cool throne. We have Adam Thielen on the show to talk about retiring from football. Mike Tomlin playing with Aaron Rodgers. What it might look like for Jared Stidham on Sunday. And then we have our good friend, old friend, Patty the Batty, Patty Pimblitt.
He's got a big fight coming up on Saturday. We talked to him and then we're going to finish with listener submitted. Pardon your takes. And it's all brought to you by our friends at Chevy playoff. Separate the pretenders from the football guys. It's a win or go home. And you need a truck that plays like it's on a rookie deal, hungry, tough, and ready to grind.
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Chapter 2: What makes Indiana's national championship story so remarkable?
Today is Wednesday, January 21st, and the Indiana Hoosiers are national champions of the college football world. Let me just say it again because it is still so crazy. The Indiana Hoosiers are national champions of of the college football world. PFT, it's the craziest story. Well, let's first talk about the game. What a game. We deserve this.
We haven't had a national championship that was one score. I think the last one was the two a game. So it had been a long time. It had been blowouts. This game was tight. It looked like Miami was dead in the first half. They come roaring back. You have like big time plays. The back shoulder throw to Charlie Becker over and over was just unguardable.
Fernando Mendoza calling his own number with the goal line run. It was awesome. It was a great game. It was an awesome game. You're right. Miami did look dead in the first half. The offense wasn't doing jack shit. And then the second half came out and Mark Fletcher kind of took over for a little bit. The offensive line started blocking people. And the Miami defense also played really well.
The defensive line, the first half wasn't exactly a great half for Indiana either. Miami's defensive line was just beating the fuck out of him, sometimes to the point of we're not sure if that was legal or not, but they didn't call it, so I guess it is legal. Fernando Mendoza might be one of the toughest guys. I'm the biggest Fernando Mendoza guy now because he is just so fucking tough.
And the spin zone on that is Fernando Mendoza got to show that he can take a beating, which he will likely have to do as a Las Vegas Raiders quarterback next year. What did he say? He can take shots from the front and the back? Shots from the front and the back. Shout out to Bella Danger, Miami superfan that was in the crowd last night. Yep. She looked amazing.
A little distraught after the game. She was upset. I actually had an idea last night. You know the show Heat Rivalry? Yeah. We're all big fans. They should do one of those shows, but it should be about college football super fans. I like that. Like maybe Bella Danger and Mike Pence at the game last night. Yeah. It's a Romeo and Juliet type situation.
The full Miami, by the way, the full Miami fan, the sideline experience is so funny because you had ā
a Bella danger you had Michael Irvin who I still don't know how he got the like I understand how he got the access but he was coaching the guys yeah during the game and then posting the clips you had Ray Lewis tell Carson Beck before the final drive I'm gonna fucking kill you if you throw an interception so we haven't seen Carson Beck since and then you had one of my favorite pictures
Malachi Tony being consoled by Ed Reed after the game. Ed Reed's wearing the big giant hat. The funny hat. Yeah. And he's wearing it backwards. Just so Miami. Yeah, it was very Miami. I think Michael Irvin's job is just be Michael Irvin. He is the executive vice president of being Michael Irvin. Yeah. For the Miami Hurricanes. It's a situation where you have Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, Michael Irvin.
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Chapter 3: How did Kurt Cignetti transform Indiana's football program?
So if Lane Kiffin gets a raise, Kurt Cignetti gets a raise. Yeah. Based on his performance as a coach. No, but there's also specific ones. Like if this specific guy gets a raise, I get a raise. So they all just keep getting raises on top of each other. That's so awesome. Yeah. But yeah, Kurt Cignetti, I mean, I'm happy the world knows of him. He is just a football guy through and through.
The scowl, the snarl. He just loves, he's a little off. And I say that in an endearing way. It's kind of a Harbaugh off. It's like a good off. The great irony about Cignetti is that, yeah, he does seem like the grumpiest old man coach of all time. And I'm sure that he is. But then when he does the sideline interviews, he snaps out of it. Yeah.
And he becomes uncharacteristically warm and open to answering questions thoughtfully and truthfully. Yeah. And then he gets back into grumpy old coach mode. Maybe he just likes Holly Bro a lot. I don't know. Maybe she reminds him of a sister or something. But he flips it on and off. And he's definitely an awesome football mind, obviously a great motivator.
He's the best coach in college football. And I think it's that talent recruiting, too, that doesn't get talked about enough with him where he's just finding talent. Finding talent. And it's not ā obviously every team tries to find talent, overlooked guys, and it's really hard to do. If you look at the history of college football, the teams that win, they have the most five-star recruits. Mm-hmm.
And the guys that aren't five-star, guess what they've got? They're going too deep on four stars and three stars. And the depth that they have is incredible. He is finding great players that will buy in to what he's doing and then taking them along for the ride and winning with it. And it's absolutely incredible. I'm very happy for Hoosier fans out there. Yeah. It's just the best story ever.
There might be a football school now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Kurt Cignetti had he was he had a hand in Julio Jones and Mark Ingram. He was because he was the when when he was a recruiting director when Saban started, Alabama went on to win, obviously, six national titles like got that thing rolling. I did look up Yale's schedule in 1894. Oh, so they went 16 to know.
Guess how many points Yale allowed that year? I was going to say 22. They allowed 13 points that year. But it seems like the offensive line might have been a problem for Yale because they had two games where they gave up four points. So they beat. That might have been intentional safeties.
They might have been intentional safeties, but it looks like, yeah, they had a game where they gave up four points on October 10th, 1894. And then later on, the second to last game, November 24th, right before Thanksgiving, they were playing Harvard. They won 12-4. Yeah. So they gave up four safeties that year. Not great. Oh, no.
And then the other game where they gave up points, that was at Army. They won 12-5. So they gave up five safeties that year. Wow. That's an issue. That is an issue. I would be remiss to say that Big Ten owns College Football World third in a row. I think that's the first time since the 40s. And the fact they did it with three unique national titles, Michigan, Ohio State, and then Indiana.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Indiana's championship win for college football?
Hank's going to win. The Patriots are going to win. They're going to go to the Super Bowl. And yeah, good luck, Hank. You'll be playing against Stetson Bennett and the Rams. You're going to win 40 to nothing. And then you're going to go to Disney World, which you've already planned. Yeah, you already planned that. You already booked your Super Bowl trip. You already booked Disney World.
Dynasty back on. And it sucks because I love Vrabel, and I want to root for Vrabel. I mean, the parade's going to be so sick. Duck boats. It's Mike versus Sean Bowl on Sunday. Yeah, we got both games. Mike-Sean squared. Yeah. It's wild. Kind of wild. Hank, would you rather both Mike's win or both Sean's win? Both Mike's. Yeah, okay. That was a good answer to that. Took you a second.
Mike and Mike Bowl? Yeah. I'd rather play the Rams. Oh, so you want to go double Mike-Sean? You want to face a Sean two times in a row. Yeah. It's tough to beat two Seans in a row. It's really tough. But I'd rather play the Seans. You think McVay is going to, much like he was with the Bears and Matt LaFleur, he's going to seek to avenge his brother that you vanquished the week before?
Is it McVay? No, you beat a Sean. You beat a Sean. You are one and one against Seans this year. What do you say, Meeves? You would rather play Matthew Stafford than Sam Darnold. Yeah, that's probably stupid. That's kind of crazy. I'm a crazy guy. You are a crazy guy. Any other cleanup from... I want to hear from PFT. What? Just like what's been your... We're not doing the preview yet.
Oh, you're not doing the preview yet. Yeah, no, no. On Friday's show, PFT will have something for you. I want to hear this question, though. Where are we going with this question? I just like... It's, you know... Game week, you're waking up and you're thinking about Jared Stidham. Where's your head at? Eight? You're talking about eight. Put some respect on that. Is he number eight?
We should double check that shit. From being $50,000 poorer, $40,000 poorer, is Jared Stidham... Yeah. I know that's the first thing that's been crossing your mind in the morning. Oh, yeah, he's eight. And then what are those next thoughts?
Yeah.
My next thoughts on potentially owing you $50,000, it would suck. He might be four. He was four on the Patriots. Is he four? That's a Broncos four. He's either four or eight. We got a four and an eight. Fuck, we don't even know the guy's number. Jesus Christ. I think it's got to be eight. Would it scare you if the Broncos do the throwback uniforms? I feel like they have to do that.
They have to throw everything at this game. I don't think you can for the playoffs. Why? You do alternate schemes. I wake up every morning feeling great, Hank. Feeling absolutely wonderful. You've got to have something for him on Friday. Listen, contrary to what Hank believes, don't flatter yourself. I don't think about you all the time. I think about facts, and I think about statistics.
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Chapter 5: What are the highlights of Adam Thielen's retirement experience?
I think that's actually his nickname, the alien. Jared Siddham? Yeah. No one knows if he exists. Okay, my hot seat is... The booth and my diet because we got way in tomorrow and it's not going to. We've all been just walking around preparing each other for bad. We're basically like a doctor being like, hey, it's not good. It's just not good.
Sometimes you're going to have bad weeks, but it's about getting back on that horse. And next week we're going to come back stronger. it's just so funny because we haven't actually weighed in yet but to a man all four of us have independently been like hey boys just want to give you a little heads up as a team I don't think I'm coming in with anything good We had catered lunch today.
Three Little Pigs. I think it's named really good Chinese food. And I had a plate, but it wasn't like the healthiest food. It was sandwiches and fried rice and orange chicken. I had a big plate. I walked back to our booth. It was like a cartoon where I walked past Max and I just hear him go.
Chapter 6: How did Adam Thielen feel about playing with Aaron Rodgers?
And I looked up, and there was like a cloud of dust, and Max Meems and Zach were in the kitchen. Oh, no. It was a good-looking plate. Someone did point out that we could technically report that we're minus 170 pounds and just say it was Puck. Lost Puck. Yeah, good point. I had a lot of salad on that plate that I brought back.
There was other stuff, but I made sure that I put mostly salad on the plate. Did you have that dessert? Nope. Oh, that dessert was good. That dessert thing was really good. Looked really good. Yeah. I did have half a fried chicken sandwich, though. I did, too. We're down like 23 pounds as a team. Yeah. The flu is doing a lot of work for us that you had in week one.
You're going to just have to keep firing somebody week after week after week.
Chapter 7: What was the atmosphere like during Mike Tomlin's last team meeting?
Like we lost Pug. Not a firing, by the way. Pug's leaving. He's back in East Coast. But yeah, next week you want to lose. You could lose anywhere between 190 and 200 X amount of pounds. Yeah. That's you. I'm not in the weight loss challenge. I'm getting swole. But who are you? Who's the 190, 200 X pounds? I was saying 190. I would guess like... Yeah, that's none of us, dude.
Memes is probably around the 200-ish zone. We're somewhere. Yeah, yeah. That's why it's challenging. We are somewhere. It's a true challenge.
Chapter 8: What does Patty Pimblett predict for his fight against Justin Gaethje?
Yeah. Life wouldn't be fun if you didn't have challenges. We're doing a challenge. You were saying, like, who's 200x? I thought you were talking about me, but I'm not that big. Are you losing weight, too? No. Yeah, you're just getting smaller. I would like to be 190.
Yeah.
Not that big. Yeah. 190 is not that big. Let's all... Weight is subjective, right? Weight is in the eye of the beholder. Yeah. Big time. Yeah, if you're on the moon, you'd weigh like 100 pounds. That's facts. Why don't you just switch the scale to kg? Good point. We could do that. We could report big time. But yeah, the flu is like a weird week one result.
You look back, you're like, how'd that happen? How did we lose 15 pounds week one? Oh, yeah, the flu. My cool throne is Hank. Nice. Hank, you're on my cool throne because I just saw this on Twitter. Robert Kraft said that the league is pushing for 18 regular season games.
reducing the preseason from three to two games and every team has to play an international game each season so you've done it you fucking piece of shit let's go that is such bullshit i more football that's all i heard every football podcast football guys it's actually not more more football because you're losing preseason you took away preseason game okay same amount of football same amount of football meaningful that's in the eye of the beholder more meaningful football
You know what meaningful football is? Football that takes place in the United States. American football. Football that grows the sport. American football. It grows our audience. Watch soccer. American football. Listen, I'm all for expansion. Okay. And new fans. Do you want a British team, you fuck? Yeah, I do. Do you want a team in London? You want to make live NFL? No, send the Jags there.
So mean. Zach. It's on the Jets there. New York already has a team. I would accept this. I would accept it. I didn't see that coming. Memes, if they move the Jets. It would just be pain. You'd get pain out of your life. If they move the team, you'd cut ties. Wagon. Say that again? You'd cut ties with the Jets? Yeah, I would cut ties. And what would you do? I don't know. Maybe find a hobby? Yeah.
You wouldn't become like a Giants fan? No. Become like a really sharp better. That'll never happen. Okay. I was trying to help you. I mean, I could try. Yeah. Zach, speaking of sharp bettors, Zach has lost the competition. We'll get to that on Friday, but officially he's lost the competition. I did clinch last place. I don't think you won a game in the last month and a half. No, it's tough.
Actually, it really couldn't have been worse because I had like three consecutive weeks where I could flip it and not be in last, and then I didn't do it a single week. I made no progress. I've been 16 and a half for seasons, for months. It's not good. I don't know what to do. I think I'm going to just fade myself the entire next season. Yeah. Okay. I might come out on top. There we go.
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