Take A 20

The beautiful game meets the beautiful podcast! In the final Take A 20 episode of 2026, we revisit Zinedine Zidane’s shocking meltdown in the 2006 World Cup Final. There’s nothing Mark hates more than a French athlete who plays dirty! As this year’s World Cup prepares to kick off across North America, Josh and Mark reflect on their own status as global icons, and the legions of loyal fans who make...

A horse winning the Triple Crown is almost as rare as the Knicks winning the NBA championship. And a whole lot less annoying. In 2006, Barbaro appeared destined to make history. After dominating the Kentucky Derby, he was lauded as an all-time great thoroughbred. But as soon as Barbaro hit the track for the Preakness, the story took a devastating turn -- and horseracing would never be the same. Ul...

On September 25, 2006, the New Orleans Saints returned home to the Superdome for the first time since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city a year earlier. Had enough time elapsed for a symbol of despair to become a house of healing? Two minutes after the game kicked off, the answer was a resounding “yes,” thanks to one of the most uplifting plays in NFL history — and a 13-month commitment to make...

Hartford Whalers fan trigger warning! The Carolina Hurricanes, who relocated to Raleigh from Hartford in 1997, won their first and only Stanley Cup in 2006,  legitimizing the NHL’s commitment to building in the Sun Belt. After canceling the entire 2004-2005 season due to a bitter lockout, the league was in a precarious position -- seeking new fans in the South, while honoring its lifeblood in the...

The 2006 Tour de France began with the biggest doping scandal in the history of sports. And it only got worse from there. The first race without 7-time champion Lance Armstrong was supposed to be a shining moment for a new generation of riders. That included Lance's former teammate, Floyd Landis, who was on the verge of becoming the next American cycling hero. Until he wasn't. In this ep...

Believe it or not, the Celtics are not the only team who consistently underperforms in the post-season. The Oakland A's were similarly snakebit in the 2000's, often failing to capitalize on regular season success. In 2006, the A's finally won a playoff series -- but that long-awaited breakthrough was the beginning of the end of Moneyball's golden age. 

It’s officially clay court season, which is as close as Mark and Josh get to red bottom shoes. Unlike our plebeian podcasters, Roger Federer was always comfortable with luxury brands. In 2006, the man who personified elegance and grace elevated his game to the highest level, compiling one of the greatest seasons ever in men’s tennis. 

The NBA Playoffs are underway, the underdogs are barking, and Mark and Josh are not even thinking about pushing the panic button for the Knicks or Celtics (no, seriously, things are totally fine!). It was panic time for the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals, until everything changed in an instant. Dwyane Wade emerged as a superstar -- with some assists from a highly criticized officiating crew --...

“Get your popcorn ready!” Those were the words of Terrell Owens when he joined  the Dallas Cowboys in 2006. Words that Mark and Josh live by every day. When T.O. spoke them into existence, it was both a warning and a promise. The most polarizing personality in sports joined the most polarizing franchise. Everything could go right, or it could fail in spectacular fashion. The only certainty was tha...

For the first time in 32 years, the Masters is taking place without Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods. Phil won the tournament in 2006, claiming his second Green Jacket, and setting the stage for a magical year. Everything was lining up perfectly for Phil, until it wasn't. Epic talent. Reckless risk-taking. That was Lefty in 2006. And in many ways, it remains the same today. The azaleas are in bl...

Despite an 83-win regular season, the St. Louis shocked the baseball world by winning the World Series in 2006. They even received an authentic, full-sized trophy, even though they were the least successful team to ever claim baseball's top title. So, were the Cardinals lucky, good, or simply smarter than everyone else in the 2006 post-season? It was a little bit of everything. And it was a r...

Long before Mark Davidson petitioned the DMV for a "Le Magnifique" vanity license plate, someone else in Pittsburgh claimed that moniker as his own. Unfortunately for Mark, that individual was a lot bigger, wealthier, and more handsome. Mario Lemieux was one of the greatest hockey players of all-time -- and, yes, The Great One himself would agree -- but the stories behind that greatness...

Clear eyes, full hearts, clean brackets, can't lose! Behold these magical hours of March Madness when every player is a champion and every fan is a genius. But dreams die fast in March -- except when they don't. In 2006, George Mason engineered the most improbable Final Four run in modern history. The under-sized and 11th-seeded Patriots took on the biggest names in college basketball, a...

A funny thing happened when America's pastime set its sights on global supremacy in 2006. It turns out the rest of the world is pretty good at baseball, too. That was the enduring lesson from the inaugural World Baseball Classic, a surprisingly compelling competition that featured a dominating performance from Japan, questionable strategies from Team USA, and a whole bunch of rules that were...

"It's Kobe Freakin' Bryant!" Those four words said it all after Bryant scored 81 points vs. the Toronto Raptors on a January night in 2006. But Josh and Mark are contractually obligated to say more than four words every episode -- time to get new lawyers! -- so they dig a little deeper into that historic performance. What unleashed Kobe's superpowers that magical evening?...

Imagine a bizarro NBA All-Star world where the game is a nail-biter, the smallest guy wins the Dunk Contest, the biggest guy wins the Three-Point Contest, and superstar musicians clamor to be a part of it. Could that type of sorcery ever happen in our lifetime? Well, all of that DID happen over the course of 24 hours at NBA All-Star Weekend in 2006. In this week's episode, Josh and Mark marve...

The Take A 20 crew loves awards season, even if they haven't won anything...yet. Speaking of cherished national treasures that never received the critical acclaim they deserve, this week's episode celebrates the 2006 film "Rocky Balboa." The Oscars are a few weeks away, but time stands still for Sylvester Stallone.

Josh Green and Mark Davidson are no strangers to flying tomatoes -- they are usually on the receiving end of those saucy projectiles. But in this episode, the Take A 20 hosts pay tribute to THE "Flying Tomato," Shaun White, the long-locked snowboarding superstar of the the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy. Big air, big hair, big flair! This pomodoro podcast has it all! 

It's Super Bowl week, and Take A 20 looks back at an extremely rare football phenomenon: the New England Patriots NOT advancing to the Big Game. Shocking, we know. But it actually happened in 2006, when the plucky Pittsburgh Steelers rode The Bus to a championship, beating the Seattle Seahawks in Jerome Bettis' hometown of Detroit. A fresh-faced Mark Davidson had recently relocated to Pi...

It's as if we never left! Josh Green and Mark Davidson return from their extended hiatus to kickoff a brand new season of Take A 20. Throughout this season, we will focus on 2006, and this debut episode re-examines one of the greatest college football games of all-time: the 2006 BCS National Championship featuring #1 USC and #2 Texas. Come for the nostalgia, stay for the moderately entertaini...

In 2003, ESPN had it all: the NBA returned to the network, the "embrace debate" era was booming, poker became a TV sensation, and they almost hired an exceptionally gifted sports anchor named Josh Green. Ultimately, ESPN chose NOT to hire Josh, and they have been cursed ever since. Luckily, someone who did work for ESPN in 2003, long-time anchor Scott Reiss, joins the podcast to describe...

It's a special Rosh Hashanah episode of Take A 20! The boys return from their summer hiatus to ring in the new year with legendary broadcasting voice Gary Thorne. Gary was on the mic for the 2003 ALCS between the Red Sox and Yankees, and he relives the drama of that epic series, as well as other moments from his remarkable career.  Sit back, dip your apples in honey, and try to say nice thing...

John Gagliardi won more football games – 489 – than any college coach, ever. Gagliardi set the wins record in 2003, which was his 51st season as the head coach at St. John’s College of Minnesota. Gagliardi was famous for his list of “No’s," which included no hitting in practice, no playbook, no mandatory weight lifting and never allowing players to call him "Coach." He was simply Jo...

Take A 20 is taking the "L" to the North Side of Chicago. And speaking of "L’s," we are embracing the pain to discuss the Chicago Cubs and everything that went wrong on October 14, 2003. To this day, one word comes to mind when you mention the 2003 Cubs. That word is “Bartman," the superfan who became a super villain.  In this episode, we speak with a different Cubs superf...

Take A 20 makes its triumphant return for Season 4! We are deep in our bag(gy suits) to break down the 2003 NBA Draft, which featured LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and countless fashion violations. Ben Osborne, former editor-in-chief of SLAM and Bleacher Report, joins the show to provide his first-person perspective of covering that Draft and those superstars over the year...