Overview of Pardon My Take on Barstool Sports
This episode is packed with post-Memorial Day sports reaction, led by a long NBA playoffs breakdown, a few viral side quests across the sports world, and two strong Grit Week interviews: Travis Etienne and Justin Reid. The crew leans hard into Knicks hype, debates Oklahoma City’s public hate level, touches on soccer, golf, baseball, hockey, and wraps with a lot of jokes about fandom, media coverage, and general sports absurdity.
NBA Playoffs: Knicks steamroll, Cavs get roasted
Knicks to the Finals energy
- The hosts are fully buying into the Knicks being the hottest team in basketball.
- They rave about:
- Jalen Brunson
- Mikal Bridges
- Josh Hart
- OG Anunoby
- the impact of Landry Shamet as a bench spark
- and the coaching edge from Mike Brown
- Their takeaway: the Knicks have been blowing teams out, staying on the gas, and playing near-perfect basketball.
Kenny Atkinson’s “expected points” quote
- The crew calls out Kenny Atkinson for saying the Cavs “won two of the games” analytically based on shot quality / expected points.
- They dunk on it as one of the biggest loser quotes ever in pro sports:
- in basketball, the point is literally to make shots
- “we would have won if our shots went in” is not profound
- They frame it as a classic excuse from a team that got outplayed.
Knicks fan ceiling and “America’s team” talk
- They argue the Knicks might become America’s team if they meet Oklahoma City in the Finals.
- The caveat: Knicks media hype can annoy people fast if the coverage gets too much.
- They joke that ESPN will find a way to ruin it by injecting people like Stephen A. Smith or Eric Adams into the broadcast.
Thunder, Spurs, and the Wemby conversation
OKC as a hateable team
- The group debates whether the Thunder are actually “hateable.”
- Main talking points:
- SGA’s foul-drawing/flopping
- Lu Dort’s physical style
- the general fatigue around a team that seems to get a lot of social-media attention
- Their conclusion is mixed:
- the Thunder are annoying in some ways
- but still a fun basketball team
- and the league benefits from having a team people love to root against
Wemby is doing Wemby things
- They are all-in on Victor Wembanyama:
- averaging monster numbers
- making impossible plays
- looking like a future problem for the NBA
- They also praise Steph Castle for his poise and toughness.
San Antonio crowd and NBC broadcast
- The San Antonio crowd gets major praise as the best atmosphere of the playoffs.
- They love the NBC broadcast’s weird energy:
- a long segment on the Jackals fan section
- the nuns in the crowd
- and, of course, the ongoing joke about the visible “titties behind Mitch Johnson”
- The crew jokes that sports streaming would improve if broadcasts simply guaranteed “titties in the wild.”
Other sports and viral side stories
USMNT roster email drama
- They discuss the U.S. men’s national team reportedly informing players of roster cuts via email.
- Their view:
- probably should have been a call, not an email
- but the bigger issue is that the U.S. soccer setup still feels unprofessional
Premier League relegation jokes
- They talk about Tottenham surviving relegation and West Ham finishing strong.
- They mock the idea that a strong finish in English soccer means momentum carries over next season.
- They also get a stat about there being no Premier League team starting with W in the league’s history for one stretch, which sends them down a name-guessing rabbit hole.
Indy 500
- The Indy 500 gets a quick recap:
- late cautions
- a dramatic finish
- and a strong final move from the winner
- They also mention Connor Daly getting unlucky and an amusing “expected MPH” joke.
PGA / Wyndham Clark
- They briefly cover Wyndham Clark winning and joke about his quote about “opening up some grape,” which they find unbelievably uncool.
College softball: Jason Williams and Mia Williams
- One of the funnier side stories:
- Jason “White Chocolate” Williams and his daughter Mia Williams
- the Florida/Texas Tech super regional
- the handshake controversy and Florida getting mocked with the Gator Chomp
- They love that Jason mostly owned the chaos rather than apologizing too hard.
Baseball notes and curses
- They mention:
- the Cubs’ wild streakiness
- the Nationals’ surprisingly good offense
- a Houston Astros no-hitter
- They debate whether the Cubs are cursed by:
- PCA’s “suck my dick” incident
- or the death of the original Billy Goat curse figure
- They also note the perennial baseball theme: superstition matters.
Joey Chestnut is back
- One of the biggest “who’s back” moments:
- Joey Chestnut is returning for Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest
- The crew is ecstatic that Joey is back on the 4th of July stage.
Hank / TMZ “juicy fart” saga
- They spend a decent amount of time on the TMZ story about Hank’s alleged fart during an interview.
- Key beats:
- TMZ called it a “juicy fart”
- Barstool sent a cease and desist
- the show insists it was just a physics-based release of air, not a fart
- The bit escalates into a legal-ish discussion about:
- the picture TMZ used
- whether it was technically odorless
- and whether the whole thing should be remembered as a “not a fart”
- It becomes one of the episode’s main running jokes.
Grit Week interview: Travis Etienne
What grit means to him
- Etienne defines grit as:
- not giving up
- fighting through adversity
- continuing to grind when things get hard
His path and background
- He talks about:
- growing up in Louisiana
- being around LSU often
- choosing Clemson because the offense fit his style and better prepared him for the NFL
- He explains that his name pronunciation issue started in college and he eventually stopped correcting people because he was focused on football and didn’t yet have NIL-era leverage.
NFL adjustment
- He says the NFL was much harder than college:
- faster game
- more film study
- more mental processing
- He emphasizes that being a great running back requires:
- understanding blocking schemes
- reading defensive structure
- and playing “above the shoulders”
Saints return and family
- He’s thrilled to be back home in Louisiana with the Saints.
- He talks about:
- his mom’s cooking
- loving gumbo and red beans/rice
- managing his weight despite the temptations of Louisiana food
- He says he now understands how important discipline is after five years in the league.
Football notes
- He praises Tyler Shough as a leader and says the team believes in him.
- He talks about:
- getting game balls
- his son’s name being Saint
- how cool it would be to win a Super Bowl in New Orleans with his kid there
- how he enjoys playing his brother in the division
- He also discusses:
- his duck-footed running style
- his burst/cutting ability
- his old high school monster stats
- and the Chargers comeback playoff win, where he says Trevor Lawrence “locked in” and led the comeback.
Grit Week interview: Justin Reid
What grit means to him
- Reid defines grit as:
- tenacity
- handling adversity
- doing what needs to be done even when it’s ugly
Playing through a torn labrum
- One of the wildest stories of the episode:
- Reid tore his labrum in his second NFL season
- played the whole year on a busted shoulder
- and only hit people in games, never in practice
- He describes:
- his shoulder going numb after tackles
- needing to wait until he could do push-ups again before returning
- eventually getting a Latarjet procedure after the season
Stanford nerd energy
- Reid fully embraces being a nerd:
- engineering degree from Stanford
- chess player
- photography/videography hobbyist
- deep dives into airplanes and mechanics
- He says he likes understanding systems and puzzle pieces, which helps him on the football field.
Chess, planes, and random obsessions
- He talks about:
- getting into chess because of a teammate
- having a 1500 chess rating
- being into aircraft models and flight mechanics
- learning camera gear and Adobe editing while rehabbing
- He’s one of those players who seems to go all-in on whatever he’s interested in at the moment.
Football IQ and kicking
- Reid explains how he thinks about football like engineering:
- each player has a role
- if one piece shifts, he knows how the whole system changes
- He also reveals he can kick:
- a 65-yarder in practice
- and he’s kicked field goals before
- He jokes that if he can tackle on kickoffs and also kick, it’s a roster efficiency problem for the NFL.
Chiefs dynasty perspective
- He praises Steve Spagnuolo heavily:
- for disguise
- for creativity
- for late-game pressure packages
- He explains the Chiefs’ defensive advantage:
- special plays installed for specific opponents
- some not even called until the fourth quarter
- and the “cram award,” a pasta prize for the nastiest hit of the game
- He also says the team intentionally held back certain looks for key moments.
Defensive identity and championship experience
- Reid talks about:
- the Super Bowl wins
- how the Chiefs adjusted through different title runs
- and how much the Eagles’ defensive line mattered in the rematch
- He also jokes that from a fan perspective, people need refs and controversy so they have something to blame when their team loses.
Family, golf, and life outside football
- He shares:
- his mom played football too
- his father and family were deeply involved in LSU athletics
- he chose Stanford partly to make a name for himself beyond being “Eric Reid’s little brother”
- Golf side:
- he’s a 4 handicap
- shot 74 at TPC Louisiana
- is working on swing changes and takes coaching seriously
- He also says he’s getting into commercial real estate and likes to keep learning new skills.
Main takeaways
- The Knicks are the story of the NBA right now and the hosts are fully riding the wave.
- Kenny Atkinson’s expected-points quote is the episode’s favorite punching bag.
- Wemby remains the most fascinating player on the board, and the Spurs-Thunder series has real juice.
- Travis Etienne comes off as grounded, disciplined, and clearly happy to be home in Louisiana.
- Justin Reid is one of the most interesting interviews PMT has had in a while: smart, detail-oriented, funny, and weirdly elite at everything he tries.
- The episode also features classic PMT side chaos: Joey Chestnut, the Hank fart saga, baseball curses, and a lot of jokes about titties, grapes, and game balls.