PFT Commenter and Big Cat have spent 10 years building Pardon My Take into one of the country’s biggest sports podcasts, and now they’ve turned that run into a book.
Their new release, “Pardon My Book,” is meant to capture the show’s rise, along with the mistakes, the forgotten laughs and some of the behind-the-scenes material that never made it on air.
“It’s been 10 years. We just had our 10-year anniversary back in March. We wanted to do ”Pardon My Book" that kind of documents the rise of our podcast, and some of the missteps that we might have taken over the years, some of the funnier moments that we might have forgotten, some behind-the-scenes stuff.”
Getting the tone right turned out to be one of the bigger challenges. The group brought in a ghostwriter at first, but PFT said the result didn’t quite match the voices fans hear every week.
“Our fans and people that listen to podcasts, they know what we sound like. They know our voice, and they’re going to say, ‘That doesn’t really sound like them.’”
So PFT, Big Cat and producer Hank ended up rewriting a large chunk of it themselves, with help from several special guests, to make sure the book sounded like the show.
The book also carries a strong Virginia thread, and for PFT that part is personal. He was born in Northern Virginia, raised in Fairfax County and went to James Madison University.
“I love Virginia. I think it’s obviously my favorite state.
I miss it tons. Every time I go back to the Shenandoah Valley or check out the Blue Ridge, it’s a very beautiful place.”
He also says JMU played a major role in steering him toward the career he eventually built.
“I had some great professors there, including my comedy writing professor who lived in Staunton for a long time as well. So he really kind of helped me focus in on what I wanted to do in life, which was to be a comedy writer, which then evolved into a blogger, which then evolved into a podcaster.”
PFT’s Virginia ties don’t stop there. He said he made plenty of trips down Interstate 81 to visit friends at Virginia Tech, go to Hokies games and spend time around Blacksburg.
And as Virginia Tech tries to work its way back into the national college football conversation, PFT said he’s rooting for the Hokies - even as a proud JMU alum.
“I do think that Virginia Tech might be the best landing spot for James Franklin. I think that college football is better when Virginia Tech is one of those schools that’s in the national conversation.”
If the book gets people who don’t usually read to give it a shot, PFT thinks that’s a win too.
“It’s a book for people that don’t even really like books that much. There’s a lot of pictures.”
And he may already have left himself room for another one.
“On page nine, I think we open up a parenthesis and we never close the parenthesis for the rest of the book.”
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