Transcript

Baker Mayfield & Alex Caruso On Being Professional Athletes, Their Mutual Hate For Texas & More

From Pardon My Take · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 29 min · 7,135 words · 208 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Baker Mayfield & Alex Caruso On Being Professional Athletes, Their Mutual Hate For Texas & More", an episode of Pardon My Take published November 16, 2025 (29 min, about 7,135 words). It mentions 46 people, works and ideas, including Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, TJ McConnell, Alex Caruso, Liam Cohen.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Baker Mayfield, Alex Caruso, Jen Daniels, Liam Cohen
  2. – 10:00: TJ McConnell, Baker Mayfield, Body Armor, Roger Goodell
  3. – 15:00: Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, Miles Garrett
  4. – 20:00: JJ Watt, John Matir
  5. – 25:00: Bucky Irving, Rowback
  6. – 28:54: Blue Bell, Heisman Trophy, Lake Tahoe, Lakeland, Florida

Notable quotes from "Baker Mayfield & Alex Caruso On Being Professional Athletes, Their Mutual Hate For Texas & More"

  • Guests. It's a combo, little crossport combo. We did this last year at Chill Week. This year it is Alex Caruso, Baker Mayfield. Two friends of ours. Thank you for joining us…
    about Baker Mayfield · at
  • Was there a small part of you though and we interviewed Liam Cohen at the combine great dude. Was there a small part of you though that when he Duvall you're like all right now crushed him. Yeah. Get.
    about Liam Cohen · at
  • Sorry about Jen Daniels and the Commanders. It was awesome for me. did you when there we go.
    about Jen Daniels · at
  • When TJ McConnell was out there and you're watching him play ultimate tryh hard TJ.
    about TJ McConnell · at
  • Christmas is Roger Goodell's now. Yeah.
    about Roger Goodell · at
  • Shout out Body Armor. Lot of water.
    about Body Armor · at
  • Okay, that's that's true. I was going to say Mike Evans.
    about Mike Evans · at
  • That were really athletic and like they struggle to keep the weight on like between the D line and Miles Garrett Bill.
    about Miles Garrett · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

  • Body Armor — Product · 1 mention · first at
  • Heisman Trophy — Product · 1 mention · first at
    So, Heisman Trophy, we keep that in man cave man mantle. at the house, different spot. Bazer pad. Where are we where we keeping that?

Places & events

  • Lakeland, Florida — Place · 1 mention · first at
    So I'm I'm from a Lakeland, Florida, which is like central Florida, and the Bucks have just my whole life been a Bucks fan.
  • Lake Tahoe — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Question. What's your favorite west of Mississippi? So, what's your favorite aspect of Lake Tahoe being here for a couple days?
  • Tampa — Place · 1 mention

Sponsors

  • Rowback — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    Promo code take 20% off your first purchase. QZips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com, promo code take. And I'm giving my last question to Zach, who's a massive I was wondering if you're going to get a an appearance.

Full transcript with timestamps

We now welcome on two very special guests. It's a combo, little crossport combo. We did this last year at Chill Week. This year it is Alex Caruso, Baker Mayfield. Two friends of ours. Thank you for joining us, boys. I have the first question is easy one. Baker, would you say Alex has one ring, two rings, or one and a half rings

or zero or z? No, you have one. You You officially have one. One is the one is the lowest.

The baseline. One's the lowest. Yeah, you got two. Hell yeah. Bubble. Two is two. Hell yeah. You

count the bubble. I count the bubble. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's one. Now get to the LeBron question. Let's get out of the way.

Yeah. All right. All right. So, Alex, you win the championship. You made it. These are the two mandatory questions I receive.

The mandatory questions. You win the championship. You make the comment after that you now have officially have a real ring. What was going through in your head in that moment? Was it Was it us?

Um, you were part of the the conglomerate of people I was talking to. Don't give them that. Yeah, it was it was a little bit y'all.

Yeah. And were you surprised that people took that seriously? Yeah, dude. They got so they got so pissed. I was like, "All right, guys." Like, "Let me have a little fun." It's [ __ ]

You were addressing the internet. Yeah. Yeah. I I tweeted, too. I was like, I had already had three Michelobes. Like, we were a couple champagne shots. Like, we were

we were we were riding we were getting to the top of the roller coaster. Like, I was saying whatever I thought was was good at the moment.

Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. Congratulations title. Uh, was it harder than you thought it would be in the finals?

Yeah, I would say yes. Um, but also I knew I knew what it was going to be. Like Indiana, we knew how fast they're going to play and like they were sneaky aggressive defensively through the playoffs and nobody was really talking about it, but like they were they were really physical. Like they played exactly how we played like fast on offense, physical on defense,

trying to get a bunch of people in double digits. Yeah. Uh, I'm happy you guys were together because and we're interviewing guys together because Baker, I was thinking about this and a question I was going to ask you. You thrive off of people doubting you, but I feel like no one doubts you anymore. Like you you got the new contract. You had a Pro Bowl year. You were awesome this year. You're tough as [ __ ] just running over people, making awesome plays.

No one is like Baker Mayfield isn't a really good quarterback. Everyone knows you're a really good quarterback. So, are you are you Oh, okay. So,

always a couple. Yeah. How do we always How do you stay motivated? Do you go and search and be like, I got to find who's hating so I can get a little chip on my shoulder?

No, I don't I don't look for it anymore. Okay. I had enough 49ers fans yesterday talking [ __ ] to me. So,

we are out west, huh? Yeah. We're in Niner country at this point, so I'm good. But do you feel Maybe it's Maybe it's that they just keep switching offensive coordinators for you.

They keep getting head coaching jobs, man. Yeah. I don't know if I don't know if I smell or they just keep leaving me.

That's a compliment to you. You're you're helping the promotion. I appreciate it. Yeah.

Was there a small part of you though um and we interviewed Liam Cohen at the uh at the combine great dude. Was there a small part of you though that when he Duvall you're like

all right now crushed him. Yeah. Get him. Crushed him. Crushed him. What are you doing? Stop trying to be the cool guy.

Just do your job. Be a head coach. Be a figure culture. Ro the culture. I don't know if they want that culture.

Yeah. That was a good That probably felt good in the moment where you're like, "Yeah, you left me, but now you have to deal with like the head coach spotlight."

Yeah, he's I mean, he's a great coordinator. I'm interested to see how it goes. We still talk all the time, but uh he's a great coach, so we'll see how it goes as a head coach.

Dealing with me as a head coach is just with regardless of sport seems like the job isn't worth it.

Yeah. They have to talk to the media every single day. No thank you. Yeah. Every every word that you say, there's a magnifying glass on it. people find something wrong no matter what you put out there. It takes a guy that probably does not give a [ __ ] to be a head coach and be successful at it without reading into it. Uh the last season though, very impressive season. Unfortunate final game for you guys. Sorry about Jen Daniels and the Commanders. It was awesome for me. Um did you when when uh there we go. There's some doubt.

Yeah, there's some doubt for it. Fuel my fire. Yeah, absolutely. Uh when when when the Commanders got the ball back at the end of the game, we were like, "Fuck, they're not giving us this back."

Yeah. I mean, at that point, you could kind of feel the momentum out of it. Um, we just offensively didn't play good enough and it's it was one of those days like we had we were averaging I think damn near 30 points a game and we didn't even come close to that. Just too many mistakes. So, but we got a lot of the boys back all 11 starters and then some on offense and so uh made some additions. I'm excited though.

Yeah. Do you look at last season is that I know it sucks the way that it ended but do you look at it like that was a successful year?

Um I mean no. I mean, the goal is always Super Bowl or nothing. Um, it was I mean, you check off the boxes on your way to try and get to the Super Bowl division, playoffs, but then after that, if you don't if you don't do anything in the playoffs, it really doesn't matter.

Yeah. All right. So, combo question, cuz you guys both kind of play the game the same way. Uh, scrappy, undersized,

what? White guys, white guys. White. Are there ever like lunch out first guy in Jim guys that you want to date your daughter?

Yeah. Are there ever times though like Baker when you run someone when you're like I'm going to just run someone over or Alex when you I think there was the moment in the NBA finals when you were literally trying to swim on the floor to get a loose ball.

Do you ever have a moment where you're like maybe that was a little too tryh hard like maybe I should just dial it back a little? I think y'all asked me this before the finals. You remember we had that conversation? You're like, "Do you know you're try hard?" I was like, "Yeah, I know I do for sure."

Yeah. I mean, yeah. Look at me. I'm I'm not built to be in the NFL. Yeah. We can't be

You're supposed to try hard. Yeah. We can't be cool, dude. If you're cool, it's not going to work.

Cool for me is a losing. Yeah. So So keep trying extra hard. Oh yeah. Does anyone ever say anything after like being like, "Hey, that was a little much."

They chill out. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe on chill week, but yeah. You know what's funny about that? They did that when I was a young player in the league. Like whenever I was like on two-way and like just getting into the league cuz like I have like 8 minutes to prove myself and it's like some tenure vet who's like you know it's the third quarter they're up 20 and they're like all right guy what are we doing? I'm like hey I don't have any money right now I'm not in the league. Like this is this is what I'm going to do.

Yeah. When TJ McConnell was out there and you you're watching him play ultimate tryh hard TJ.

You're like dude did that make you think about yourself like wow is this what I look like?

Yeah. Yeah. I know I I me and TJ I think I told y'all the origin. We were on the same summer league team in Philly. So we had like a a nice kind of similar path coming in and we text each other every year when like you do something like you go into a game not supposed to play well and then you just kill all off of effort

and you'd text them and be like, "Dude, that was that was sick." Can you imagine how fundamentally sound that summer league team was?

Yeah. Honestly, great great handshake line after the game. Yeah. Eye contact. But that but TJ McConnell like in the finals there.

Imagine a summer league team slapping the floor with that cringe. But the way he plays it it does [ __ ] guys up because he gives like I know it's you can't give 110% technically but he does like he would just like if he's just jumping every you know inbound pass 90 ft from the basket it messes you up.

Yeah. You got to make up for the like we said the the white guy lack of athleticism. But like you guys do that and Baker, you do that too where it's like most quarterbacks will slide and it's like no, I'm gonna [ __ ] run this guy. I'm gonna run through his face. Does it

Do you have to run through someone's face to like kind of wake up in a game? Do you have to get hit first

sometimes? Yeah. Yeah. It's got to feel good. It feels real nice. And I mean real nice, Clark. Real nice. The next day. Yeah. Till the next day.

You'll deal with that on a Monday though. Yeah. Yeah. That I I think I told you this last time we interviewed you, but the first I think it was your first game, maybe second in Tampa Bay, maybe against the Vikings.

Yeah. Yeah. You ran through some guy's face and then your entire sideline like jumped up and from that moment I was like I think these guys are in love with Baker Mayfield cuz

I was bricked up. Yeah. Do you do you ever get just like a little rush of blood like you hit somebody like who

a little little rush of blood below the belt line and I never heard anybody. Yeah. A little up to

Yeah. So uh in the finals this year game one you go out. Could you tell that the logo wasn't on the court?

No. I didn't even remember that that was a thing. I'm not going to lie. bothered us

cuz I being on the court. You don't like the TV when you look at it, it's different than being out there.

Um they do need to bring that back though. It's so good. The big the big one in the middle of the court.

Yeah. And congratulations by the way. I think game seven like a good amount of people watch. So you guys cuz I know you guys care a lot about the ratings.

Yeah. That's how we get paid. So it's important. Baker, you got to be like when you see ratings wars, do you even do you just you got to laugh at it because they they always do the like top 100 watched sporting events and it's like 99 are football and then one is like the Olympics and it's just like football's king.

It is around the world. I mean, they just keep expanding. I know. Took Christmas. I mean, it's

Oh, they took Christmas. No, no. Christmas is Roger Goodell's now. Yeah. I don't know if you knew that. Christmas is

We're the Grinch. Yeah. We'll just wait till break. Yeah. Yeah. This is theirs though.

Yeah. How sweet was the uh was the championship parade? Oh, bro, it was so It was so sick. It was so sick. We we I drank way too much naturally. Um I think I was asleep by 3

p.m. Yeah, that's awesome. My fiance, she was taking she was she's in the back. She was taking care of me. It was uh

it was shortlived. Yeah. I slept from like 3:00 to 11:00. Woke up for like 30 minutes and slept from like 11:00 to 8.

Yeah. Actually, one of my questions was, how are you live right now? Because you went won an NBA title. Yeah.

Bachelor party this past weekend. And now top got in the Sunday sauna Monday night.

Yeah. And then flew here Tuesday evening. How are you alive? Lot of water. A lot of water.

Shout out Body Armor. Yeah. Shout out Body Armor. Lot of water. Lot of water. That parade had to be nuts, though. The parade's sick, dude. The parade was so sick.

Yeah. What time do you wake up on the morning of the parade day? When do you crack the first drink? Uh, I think I took my first shot of tequila at 8. We had to be at the We had to be at the facility 8:15 to get on buses. I took one of my buddies who stayed back.

He's like, "Oh, that's what we're on." I said, "That's what we're on." Yeah. That's got to be cool seeing fans out there just as drunk as you are. So,

I don't even know if they were to be honest. I I remember everything that happened, but like the details of what the people were feeling.

It was all play. It was all player one main character. That was all I had. Yeah. Baker. I've seen a lot of Baker Mayfield jerseys out here in Tahoe on the course waiting to see you play. Uh, a lot of like throwback ones, too. A lot of Oklahoma Baker Mayfield jerseys. When you see somebody that's wearing like an old jersey, like a college Mayfield jersey, are you like, "Hell yeah, that's a real fan." Like, I appreciate the effort.

Sometimes, yes. You can tell based on the interaction. Sometimes it's somebody trying to be cool, grab a retro jersey.

Yeah. It's the tryards, you know? Yeah. But I can relate to them at the same time.

You see yourself in them. I think as a fan when you're when you're figuring out which jersey to put on, you're like, "Well, I might see him. I'm going to wear like an obscure one from way back in the day." So, we see

I'm a real fan. Try to catch the eye. I do love it though. It's fun. What if I told you guys you have one thing that is like very much in common? What would you think I was about to say?

What's that? What? No. One thing you have very much in common. We both played Texas High School football.

Okay, that's that's true. I was going to say Mike Evans. Yeah. Well, I was I was going to say that earlier when he's talking about the team. I

Mike Mike. So, let's just talk about how awesome Mike Evans is. Unbelievable. He's I mean, do you did you feel a little bad about getting the thousand yards with the Saints and that whole situation?

I hate the Saints. Absolutely not. No. But if I mean, we had already we were making the playoffs situation where you take a knee, go to the playoffs,

but we decided to throw it on first and 10. Yeah. Just to get Mike the thousand yards and like that reaction in the stadium. Yeah, try hard.

Real try hard. Really try hard. But he is the We we we always like we'll have moments in the NFL season where we're like, "Hey, we're just going to randomly on a Monday just be like, "Hey, everyone needs to just respect Mike Evans more cuz he's so good and he's been so good for so long

and he's not flashy. So like he goes under the radar a lot." But I think now it's starting the tide's starting to turn for him. Like people are realizing his Hall of Fame resume.

Yeah. First time I met Mike Evans, I played against him in AAU at at Texas A&M in the rec center and he was dunking on everybody.

That was the origin of Mike Evans and we both ended up at&m and I was like, "Oh, okay. It makes sense now."

He still wears like the old Nike Elite socks, like his old basketball, long gym shorts like down. I mean, it's it's my

ball. That's that's what that is. All so hard. Players respect him. The the opposing teams respect him so much. The Saints were like, "Yeah, you can go ahead have this record on this catch." That was very cool of them. I'm Yeah, I'm sure that was their mindset.

Yeah. Yeah. Nice people. Since we have you guys here with the NBA NFL debate always happens, do you guys think you could play each other's sport?

I suck at basketball, so no. Okay. There's a select few from each that I think could cross over.

Give me a couple names like from mine that could go. Yeah. And then you give me a couple NFL guys.

LeBron could have. Anthony Edwards could. Um I'm trying to think of like Draymond.

Lou Dort could. Lud fat ass. Draymond could could probably play O line. You just have to put on weight.

Great screen setter, you know, smart um athletes. I think one of the Thompson the the Thompson

Oh, they're freaks. Yeah. That kind of athlete, you find a spot on the team. You find a spot on the team.

Yeah. What about you, Baker? Have you played with guys who you've like seen hoop and you're like, "Holy shit."

I mean, Mike's one of them. Um there's Saquon. There's a couple receivers that are supposed to be really good. I can imagine like if I don't know if AJ Brown has a shot or not.

Yeah. But that's a big man. Yeah. Uh I know there's some like O linemen that were really athletic and like they struggle to keep the weight on

um like between the D line and Miles Garrett Bill. Yeah. Miles Garrett. I mean I've seen him.

I've played basketball with him. He's But this is actually minutes. He could get minutes.

This is a perfect answer because this has always been the answer where they have the debate and it's like there's probably like five guys from each side. I don't know if they have I don't know if they would have enough like finesse to be able to play basketball.

Yeah, that's the thing with like to for a football player to come to basketball, you have to play both ways. And like for the guys that are like I could play and then there's the guys that are like dunking shooting threes. It's like well you got to guard

and you got to be able to remember like what the hell's going on and doing this. It's like gets a little tricky. And then you talk about the basketball guys who want to football. It's like you're gonna get hit in your mouth a lot.

Yeah. like you you think that's you think that's like ah I could handle that until it happens and you're like

I don't know if I like that so much. Yeah, that's true. There's an element of toughness that that I I think some guys could pick like DK Metaf I think he could probably also make the switch to uh to NBA.

That's what I'm saying. Like there's certain athletes Yeah. that could just find minutes in the NBA cuz like there's guys in a league that can't shoot or like can't do stuff but they can rebound the hell out of the ball and they like dunk and put it like you can play 12 minutes in the NBA if you're a good enough athlete. Yeah.

Right. Who's a uh who's a better golfer between you two? That's a good question. How good are you golf? Probably

Alex. Yeah, I'm like an 11 handicap. I'm a little better than 11. Yeah, this guy's probably what, like six five?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm probably No, no, no. That's probably it. One summer I got down to like a 27, but that was just a crazy month. We're not there right now. I haven't played golf this summer.

I'm still I'm still pissed that the Bulls traded you uh and also got no picks because you don't get picks for anything, but uh

we have a golf simulator in our office and Alex, there's a couple times where we were literally working and he would just be hitting shots.

Oh, that's awesome. It's like it's right there. Yeah. And we could have taken all the credit when you one day win this tournament. It could have. We could have We could have started like a little sponsorship or something or like a YouTube a vlog like building up to it.

Give us a cut maybe post career. Yeah. Oh, you want a cut? Yeah. Yeah. Just give us a little 10%.

Yeah. I don't that be 10. Baker, maybe you give us a cut for your new contract when you sign another one.

You think so? You think they helped you get there? Well, allegedly they have. So, I mean, I got I got to believe them.

I don't know if they've ever lied to me. So, yeah. Maybe whoever runs the main account at Barcel Sports should get a cut because of the doubting.

Yeah. Do you? So, I don't know if you guys ever see headlines, but when the main account puts it out, a lot of times me and Big Cat get [ __ ] for that.

Yeah. Because it's like they think you guys we'll take it. That's our job to be a shield.

Yeah. Get a text and be like, "What is this?" I'm like, "Dude, I don't know. They're just trying to get numbers. What do you want me to do?"

Engagement. That's our say it. I retweeted it, but whatever. I liked it. I laughed at it. I dared the guy to tweet it out.

You put the the line in the in your in your header. It's like all retweets are not

Yeah. endorsement. Yeah, mine are are mine are 100% Baker. It's just whenever if you lose a game, they just play you dancing from the Oklahoma video. That makes sense.

That's Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah. By the way, is there anything as uh you went to a school that went from Big 12 to SEC? Baker, you you just went Big 12 to SEC. Do you want to give him any tips cuz it's not going great for Oklahoma football right now?

It's not great for the fellas. Yeah, I don't know how to cuz we went in, we had Johnny right away. So like that was like you know that was kind of a nice crutch to fall on. We haven't been very not to that level since. So better recruit better get some uh some some good guys into the team.

The difference like from what I can see is O line D line. The D line SEC just bunch of naps like manchilds.

Yeah. And then O line Oklahoma hadn't had a they're all fast as good of an O line as we used to have.

Yeah. You do have a dude this year though. John Matir. He's awesome. He's one of the boys.

I tried to get him to go to Wisconsin. Like I had phone conversations and it was just ran out.

He's So I was going up against you. So I outrecruited you. Did you bring in JJ Watt? I brought in JJ Watt.

I didn't do that. Didn't he walk on? Well, JJ. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. So you've been playing NCA football in real life.

Yeah. It's tough to be It was tough to be like, "Oh, uh, what's happened to Oklahoma in like the past 15 years? They have all these Heismans and also his OC went from Washington State. So, I'm rooting for him no matter what. I told him that after I was like, "Dude, I'm not going to be like a a loser here and be like, "Oh, [ __ ] you. You didn't pick my school." I want him to He's awesome. He's sick.

He's got some [ __ ] in his neck, too. Yeah. He's kind of like a little mini mini baker.

I like him. Yeah. Yeah. I also appreciate the fact that you said that you hate the Saints earlier. I I like it when athletes admit that they hate other teams like rivalry. Do you have like a list of teams that you absolutely hate?

Texas. Yeah, you guys both hate Texas. I should have said that. That was a great one. That's

There we go. Yeah. Texas horns downers. Bunch of losers. That felt real. Yeah, you really

That's from childhood. That's not That's not adult hating. Texas fans and Cowboys fans are very similar.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of them are the same fans. Delusional. They're the same people. They really are.

Hey, what about Coach Doug? We going to get another Yeah. Oh, yeah. We'll be back. We'll be back. Yeah. Playing some playing some college ball for sure.

We going to start online online dynasty league. Uh I got time. I should Oh, maybe we should link up. We should do that. You probably kick my ass. But I'm bad at the I mean

Well, now I suck at You play Heisman, right? Yeah, I play. It's hard. They're not It's not easy. You also got a staff

and I also spam plays. Yeah, you do. You do. Bigger. Do you ever spam plays in real life?

I don't know what you mean. Like you just find one play that works. You just keep playing over and over and then the AI doesn't pick up on it. call in for

and then everyone in the chat says you're a loser. Cheap play. Cheap play. [ __ ] you, big cat. You piece of [ __ ]

Does that ever happen to you in like a two-minute drill? Yeah. I didn't realize that's Yeah. I didn't realize I was going up against AI. But yeah,

we spam in the NBA. Oh, yeah. If it works, I'll yell at the bench, run it again out loud.

Yeah. Which would like what's your what's the a play that you've spammed and you're like it just they can't stop it?

Um like we run one play where it's just like a flat ball stream. put the worst defender in it and Shay has the ball and it's like if we're like if our off if we haven't got a good shot in a while it's like all right let's give the MVP the ball get this like slip screen out of the way and you put the bad defender and if they if they [ __ ] it up I'm just like hey let's run it again and again and eventually they'll change it

now we can get back to our real offense yeah that's got to suck to be hunted in the NBA

like some of those guys they just get picked on I was that guy when we first started and then I like transitioned into the guy that got taken out of the action

right and so now it's Like you better you better have some nuts if you're going to be called into it. Like you better just stand up and put your ch you got to what we say run some run through someone's face. Equivalent of that in the NBA if they call you into the ball screen you better

foul the [ __ ] out of them. You better do something good cuz if not you're going to get put right back into

So your defense stays up because you're like I'm not going back to being the guy that got hung

for sure. We're not going back there. That's a bad Nobody likes being embarrassed in front of 18,000 people. You can't be the weakest link.

No good. And everybody in the arena knows, well, majority of them know, oh, that guy's not good. That's why they're to putting him into the like put him into let let LeBron, let Shay, let whoever it is go with that guy.

Yeah. Yeah. Nobody likes that feeling. Baker, how awesome is Bucky Irving? He's the man.

His name is also very fun to say. It is like great football name. Come on, Bucky.

Chicago guy, too. Yeah, he's [ __ ] beast. He is. I mean, he's full of energy all the time. He's all ball, though.

Mhm. Doesn't do anything else. He's just And he's 22. Yeah. It's wild. When'd you know he was a dog? Like this is this is a guy that we can lean on.

I mean, talking to him, you could tell his like mindset he was, but then like in practice when we're not going full to the ground until a game, like you couldn't tell like how many people going to really make miss. Like some people would get in front of him, but like in a game they're not touching him.

So, I mean, it was hard to tell until our first game. Yeah. I wonder what that feels like as a running back to where it's just like me and you distance away. It's like, "Oh, you're not going to touch me."

Good luck. Yeah, that's probably amazing feeling. That's probably a sick feeling.

I mean, it's got to be similar in the NBA where you like get oneonone. I don't know that feeling.

Yeah. You don't know that. But some guys some guys where they're like, "Oh, I'm about to cross this."

Have you ever called like ISO like everybody back up, I got this guy? Yeah. One very very limited.

Yeah. Very few times. Did it work out? Um once or twice. Usually it happens like when the best players don't play and so it's like I know I'm going to get a bunch of shots this game. So all of a sudden your confidence and your imagination gets a little

and then you tell him to run it again. Yeah. Yeah. And then I I over like, hey,

it's me. That's the best part. If I'm the guy on if I'm playing point guard that game, like we played against the Suns late in the year. I had a great game. I had like 20ome points, bunch of assists. And we had a we had a couple plays where I was like I I vividly remember I was like, "Come screen for me. I'm about to go do something." And then I scored. I was like, "That's the best feeling ever."

What's it like to like be on a heat jack, you know? Like I I can't shoot a basketball, so I can't I don't know.

Yeah. No, that's a that's a fun feeling where you just like every time you let it go, you feel like it's going to go in.

You got to have that feeling though when you when you're Yeah. When you're when you're ripping it and you know it's

like you know exactly where the ball is going to go on time. That's that's probably the same.

It's more like for me it's more like visually like seeing the field extremely quick and clear.

Um anticipating. Yeah. And then at that point arm takes over, but like it's more the mental aspect of it for me. Are there weeks where the prep, like when you get on the field on Sunday, you're like, "Oh [ __ ] I I'm like really ready to go because I know exactly what they're doing and I have all the answers." Yeah,

that's got to feel incredible. That one that one feels incredible. Yeah, there's there's been a few times like every time we played Cincinnati when I was in Cleveland, I felt like, "All right, I'm about to have 300 yards at least."

Yeah, it's a great feeling. Bengals a lot. It was good. It was good. Yeah. Um, all right. I know you guys got to run in a second. Uh, I'm going to do one last question. Robback question. rhac.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. QZips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com, promo code take. And I'm giving my last question to Zach, who's a massive

I was wondering if you're going to get a an appearance. He's a massive Bucks fan. Not a big intercourse guy.

Yeah. Uh saw that. He's didn't see that, but saw the clip. Saw the saw where he said he wasn't. Yeah. Uh he we've we we speedrun ran uh his interaction with you Baker earlier and he ended up inviting himself on your boat.

Okay. He also That's sick. That's greatation. Yeah. You want to go do karate in the garage?

Yeah. Karate in the garage. Yeah. You karate guy? I could be. You got room for activities in there?

So much room. We can run that. Okay. All right. So, Zach, the floor is yours. Oh, big. How are we doing today, my man?

Fantastic. Great to see you. I just want to say I appreciate everything you do for the city of uh Tampa. It's so awesome seeing you out there on the field. Uh just a quick quick questions. Uh are there any uh outside of football, any passion products or hobbies you you would look forward to spending more time on later in life?

Question. Honestly, it's the golf game. The golf game. Yeah. I would I would love to see how low I can get my handicap, but right now not exactly the time for it.

Fair enough. I I love that answer. Golf Golf great sport. Super frustrating. And then if you're cool, one more. Is there like a is there like a comfort meal after game or pregame that you dive into that's like your your one-1 of like you know this is just going to hit just right. Ooh, postgame.

If you just said no. No. No more questions. Got time for one more? No. Uh pregame? No. It always depends on the time of the game. After the game, a lot of carbs.

A lot of carbs. Yeah. Love that because it just like you don't I'll have breakfast. Say we're playing at one o'clock. I'll have breakfast. Pretty standard. And then I won't eat until 6 p.m. So it's

mac and cheese. Yeah. Mac and cheese, chicken tenders, wings, whatever it is. Yeah. Zack, uh, hit or do you have a followup question?

I mean, you were talking in fast forward right there. Oh, my bad. I can still You're good. No, no, I can hear it.

Is there a uh So, uh, concentrated. So, Heisman Trophy, we keep that in man cave man mantle. Uh, at the house, different spot. Bazer pad. Where are we where we keeping that?

Bazer pad. He's buried with a kid. Second apartment. Uh oh, man. Uh man cave. Yeah, man cave.

Man cave. Yeah. Sweet. You got a secret apartment that people don't know about.

Where's your bachelor pad? Uh when are we going to kick it? Hit him. So Zach is a recent hire at Bar Stool. He's He's electric.

So why are you a Tampa fan? Uh so I'm I'm from a Lakeland, Florida, which is uh like uh central Florida, and the Bucks have just my whole life been a Bucks fan.

Yeah. So he uh he got to he moved to Chicago. Moved this is actually the first time he's been west of Mississippi. So we're we're Zach is experiencing the new model. Yeah. But he when he moved to Chicago, his apartment was right across from McDonald's. And he gained 18 pounds in the first 3 weeks. Uh tell them what you ate for dinner every night. This is this is what you should do after the game. Both of you guys.

I was I was with you bigger. I'm carb loading just like you. Comfort, carbs. It wasn't too bad. Just uh

a lot of protein, too. All right. Double cheeseburger. You get two patties. A lot of protein. I appreciate that, Alex. Just two double cheeseburgers, no pickle, little onion, uh, two large fries, and like 10 to 20 nuggets. Nothing crazy.

Nothing crazy. It just continued to go. He throws a nugget. He's not done. He's not done.

That's just McDonald's or just carb blow. Just We're on the same Yeah. both two carb loading guys

and and dessert. Uh, you and ice cream. Yeah. You You have a top flavor. Like cookies and cream.

Great. Great pool SG. This guy knows cream. Blue Bell. I like Ben and Jerry's. Makes sense. Maybe a pine or two of that.

Maybe. Did you get an apple pie? I'm not. Uh, no. No apple pie to McDonald's. Do they take Do they take open like walk hunts for the Nathan's hot dog eating competition?

Well, no. We actually did that earlier this week. Yeah. Not Not a great hot dog eater.

He's not exactly He likes to enjoy his meal. That's a sport thing. I'm more of like a pleasure guy.

Got you. Time frame. No. No. Yeah. I got you. Well, okay. One one question. What's your favorite west of Mississippi? So, what's your favorite aspect of Lake Tahoe being here for a couple days?

The uh the mountains look unreal. Like it doesn't feel like we're it's like a a foreign world that we're in. Like we're just dropping

seen like elevation like this or any kind of Not at all. Like there hasn't been a cloud in the sky whatsoever. We're just on a a different map. This isn't This isn't the Earth. This is something I've never seen before.

This place This place is not like most out here. It's It's little paradise. It's cooped up.

It's wild. What about yourself? Do you have a anything in Tahoe that you enjoy?

Uh golf. Free golf. Golf as well. Yeah, free golf. Golf. Golf's nice. All right. Good job, Zach.

Great job, Zach. Great job. All right, Baker, Alex, thank you, boys. We appreciate you coming on. This is a lot of fun. And uh good luck this week.

Appreciate it, guys.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Baker Mayfield & Alex Caruso On Being Professional Athletes, Their Mutual Hate For Texas & More"?

Baker Mayfield (Host), Alex Caruso (Guest).

What is discussed in "Baker Mayfield & Alex Caruso On Being Professional Athletes, Their Mutual Hate For Texas & More"?

In order: 0:00 Baker Mayfield, Alex Caruso, Jen Daniels, Liam Cohen; 5:00 TJ McConnell, Baker Mayfield, Body Armor, Roger Goodell; 10:00 Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, Miles Garrett; 15:00 JJ Watt, John Matir; 20:00 Bucky Irving, Rowback; 25:00 Blue Bell, Heisman Trophy, Lake Tahoe, Lakeland, Florida.

What is mentioned in this Pardon My Take episode?

46 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, TJ McConnell, Alex Caruso, Liam Cohen, Jen Daniels. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Baker Mayfield & Alex Caruso On Being Professional Athletes, Their Mutual Hate For Texas & More"?

The episode runs 29 min; the transcript is about 7,135 words in 208 timestamped sections.

More from Pardon My Take

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.