SI

‘Pardon My Take’ Is Still Doing It Better Than Anyone in the Podcast Game

PMT’s annual Takie Awards is perfect and hilarious content.

Jimmy Traina

‘Pardon My Take‘ did its annual Takie Awards recently, which included the category of 17th Best Quarterback of the Year.
‘Pardon My Take‘ did its annual Takie Awards recently, which included the category of 17th Best Quarterback of the Year. / Barstool Sports

1. The podcast game is so cluttered and saturated that I don’t know how anyone can figure out what to listen to on a regular basis.

There are just SO MANY out there and it’s ridiculously hard to break through in the current landscape, unless you date one of the biggest pop stars of all time.

But from a consistency and creativity standpoint, I’m not sure anyone has ever done it better in the sports world than Pardon My Take. Big Cat and PFT are still at the top of their game all these years later.

What has always impressed me about PMT is the way they naturally and easily mix humor with amazing interviews. The guests they land on a week-to-week basis are an A+. That is not an easy thing to do.

In addition, they are still churning out more newsworthy interviews and how-did-they-think-of-that content than anyone else in this podcast game.

That was just proven yet again with Pardon My Take’s Annual Takie Awards.

If you like edgy, politically incorrect humor and satire, I guarantee you will laugh at seeing the categories and nominees. (“Death of the Year” is one category. And you should see what PMT did with an award for Darren Rovell’s media startup, cllct.)

My personal favorite categories and nominees among the ones that I’m allowed to publish on SI.com:

• Italian of the Year: Tommy DeVito, Big Dom, Sean Stellato, Caitlin Clark.
• Gambler of the Year: Shohei's interpreter, Shohei Ohtani, Jontay Porter, Dave Portnoy, All the Lions.
• 17th Best Quarterback of the Year: Dak Prescott, Kirk Cousins, Deshaun Watson, Gardner MInshew, Geno Smith.

This is the ninth annual edition of PMT’s Takies and they are as good and as refreshing as ever for those of us who enjoy content that pushes the envelope.

2. Big SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast news. I’m dropping two episodes for you this week. I’ll have a new show for you very early Friday morning with Puck’s John Ourand on all the latest news regarding the NBA, Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon and Charles Barkley (plus “Traina Thoughts” with Sal Licata).

Wednesday night, we released a podcast with WWE superstar CM Punk, who will face Drew McIntyre, with Seth Rollins as special referee, at SummerSlam this Thursday.

Punk previewed the match by breaking down which individual he thinks is the “biggest dips---,” and also discusses why the WWE is so different under Triple H and reveals that he wouldn’t have returned to the company if Vince McMahon was still running things.

In addition, Punk talks about what it was like getting injured so quickly after returning to the WWE, what he thought about Rollins’s reaction to his return, how he feels about “Monday Night Raw” moving to Netflix.

Punk also reacts to the photo of Shane McMahon meeting with AEW’s Tony Khan, reveals whether he roots against AEW, why he has left Twitter, what it was like watching the WrestleMania 40 main event, talks about what a possible feud with Cody Rhodes would look like and much more

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

3. I don’t know if this is a product of baseball’s fading national appeal or if it’s because we’re in the middle of summer when people are checked out, but the White Sox have lost 17 games in a row and it’s hardly getting any attention.

Perhaps even more astonishing is that Chicago’s overall record is 27–84. Just surreal.

The 1961 Phillies have the MLB record for most consecutive losses at 23. Maybe the White Sox lose a few more games here and baseball fans will get into the team’s chase for immortality.

4. Venu Sports, the upcoming streaming platform that will feature ESPN, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery, will be available for $42.99 per month when it launches this fall.

Subscribers to Venu will have access to all the ESPN channels, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS and truTV.

Of course if you’re a fan who likes to watch as many sports as possible, you still need to pay for CBS and NBC and Amazon and Netflix and AppleTV and NFL Network and MLB Network and plenty of other outlets.

5. Not the best news for those of us NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers who were hoping for a big payout from the anti-trust lawsuit.

6. You know what’s crazy? There’s an NFL game tonight. The Texans are 1.5-point favorites against the Bears in the Hall of Fame Game that will air on ABC and ESPN.

You know what’s even crazier? Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, who have been doing games together for 20-plus years, will call the action.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: In honor of my podcast with CM Punk and our discussion about the time Punk used Howard Finkel as his personal ring announcer, I give this gem.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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