Chris Long Talking Divisional Round, Adam Schefter On Coaching Carousel, Picks And Preview + Fyre Fest

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Speaker 1 On today's Pardon My Take, it is time for divisional round of the NFL playoffs. We have our good friend Chris Long on the show.
Been too long. Too long.

Speaker 1 Live of the year. Three times?

Speaker 3 I think first two years he might have had it. Yeah.
But right now, Jerry looks to be at the start of a dynasty.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's on fire.

Speaker 1 We have Chris Long. Then we have our good friend Adam Schefter.
We're going to break down some of this coaching stuff. Is Dion going to go to Dallas?

Speaker 1 It seems like that's a possibility now. God, I hope so.
It would be incredible. We're going to break down every game for Saturday and Sunday.
We're going to give you our picks.

Speaker 1 We're going to finish with Firefest.

Speaker 4 When cool, creamy ranch meets tangy, bold buffalo, the hole is greater than the sum of its sauce. Say howdy, partner, to new Buffalo Ranch sauce only at McDonald's for a limited time.

Speaker 6 At participating, McDonald's.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's go.

Speaker 1 my take.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Martin My Take.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Martin My Take.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 More than my Take.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 More than my Take.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings Sportsbook. Score big during the NFL playoffs with DraftKings Sportsbook.
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Speaker 1 when you bet just five bucks only on draft kings sportsbook the crown is yours today is friday january 17th and hank you know what i'm about to say one of my favorite weekends of the year yep divisional round and my sister's birthday oh no i was not gonna say that happy birthday to hank sister happy birthday

Speaker 1 happy birthday uh i was thinking about it I might wild card weekend is great because it's six games, more football, more better.

Speaker 1 But divisional round.

Speaker 1 this is it. This is the final eight teams.
These teams all have

Speaker 1 won a playoff game or had a buy. This is the cream of the crop.

Speaker 3 This is my favorite. I've been pretty consistent about this one.
This is my favorite sports weekend of the year. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because in wildcard weekends, sometimes you get some lopsided matchups, which we saw last week. Divisional round, you get the prestigious teams.
You get the elite teams

Speaker 3 playing against teams where they win their wildcard matchup.

Speaker 3 And even if they weren't favored to go far in the playoffs, you're like, well, maybe the Texans can do some damage this year, that type of thing. So, this is my favorite sports weekend of the year.

Speaker 1 Also, next weekend's one of my favorite sports weekends of the year.

Speaker 3 Oh, the championship?

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, because you get to take it. I mean, that, like, the championship round is always, you remember who played in championship game.
You don't always remember who played in divisional rounds.

Speaker 3 Next week is my favorite Sunday of the year. Yeah.
This is my favorite sports weekend of the year.

Speaker 1 But I'm pumped, and I've thought about all four of these games back and forth. I forgot

Speaker 3 some people were angry at me because I was like, the commanders are are final four this weekend. This is the final four and they're like there's not four teams left.
I was like there's four games.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's four games and you're also in the final four of the NFC.

Speaker 3 Final four. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Have some have some conference pride people. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Come on. Get with the program.

Speaker 1 All right. We're going to do our picks and preview.
Do we have anything else going on? I know we're going to talk to Schefter about coaching.

Speaker 1 It does. I did see Ed Werter's report that

Speaker 1 essentially said Deion Sanders, if he gets offered the Cowboys job, will take it. Yeah.
Now Jerry Jones, will he offer him the Cowboys job? job? I want it just because it'd be fun.

Speaker 3 I think it'd be great. And I'm not even factoring in, like, yes, I have an anti-Dallas bias.

Speaker 3 We've demonstrated that pretty clearly on the show, that it's been fun to see Dallas at times lose, especially when Hank's rooting for him.

Speaker 3 I want it because it would be just an incredible story for the NFL. Like having Deion in the NFL, especially for the Dallas Cowboys, would be awesome.

Speaker 3 I want to see Deion interacting with Jerry Jones, how he handles that relationship where Jerry, you know, he likes to have a guy that he can push around sometimes.

Speaker 3 Deion will not be pushed around by Jerry Jones. Yep.
It would just be awesome. It would be good for sports.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it would. It would be good for sports.
So we'll see what happens there.

Speaker 1 Mike McCarthy did interview with the Bears. He did it in person because he wanted the free dinner, I assume.
Yeah, that's not a fat joke.

Speaker 3 One possibility. Yeah.
Also, maybe just a possibility that Mike McCarthy, he knows that face-to-face is way better than Zoom.

Speaker 1 That's true.

Speaker 3 Maybe not with his face.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 3 Or also, wait, maybe he just knew that if he showed his face on Zoom, it it would look too much like him looking at the scoreboard with his fat-confused face.

Speaker 1 And it would take the whole Zoom up.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's like the camera adds 40 pounds. Right.
So maybe him being in person was just a slimming move. That might be new.

Speaker 1 And I don't even know what the Jets are going to do. I feel like the Jets have been.

Speaker 1 What's going on, memes? And Schaefer will tell us, but what is going on?

Speaker 6 There was a report that Aaron Glenn is.

Speaker 1 He wants the Jets.

Speaker 1 Jets fans want Aaron Glenn, which means we're going to make the wrong choice. Oh,

Speaker 1 okay. So it's, yeah,

Speaker 1 it's as straightforward as possible that one side wants him, the other side want, like, this is a perfect marriage, and they will fuck it up.

Speaker 3 So the Jets, they seem to be enjoying single life right now. They're like, they're doing a lot of dating.
They're figuring out what their type is because they're meeting with everyone.

Speaker 1 I hate. Wait, how many did you do? Did you beat the Bears? The Bears did 20.

Speaker 1 I don't even know how you could come up with 20 names.

Speaker 3 I think, well, with the Jets, it's like they're doing GMs. GMs as well,

Speaker 3 it's like you're doing your own version of that OnlyFans check.

Speaker 1 gonna woody johns is gonna hold up a sign that says a thousand a thousand candidates interview series i think they just also put in a request to interview the dc for the packers i don't even know what they're doing at this point i think they're robert salah it's uh no robert salah i think is uh finalist for the saints yeah and the cowboys and the cowboys the uh yeah i don't really understand the whole process of uh interviewing like 20 25 guys like i get the saying of like no no stone stone unturned or whatever there's some stones stones you don't want to look under.

Speaker 1 Yeah, David Shaw, you didn't have to look under what that was. It just said a punt.

Speaker 3 A bunch of weird bugs and shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it said punt from plus territory.

Speaker 3 I think David Shaw is a classy guy. Yeah.
He's just a class act, so they just wanted some class in that building.

Speaker 1 He is also a classic case of mistiming it. Yes.
Like he was the hot name for a while, and then

Speaker 1 it kind of faded on him. You got to just strike while the iron's hot.

Speaker 1 All right, so we don't, we'll ask Schefter what's going on with the Jets.

Speaker 1 Did you see also our good friend Jim Harbaugh gave me and this podcast a shout out because he's also buying all of Justin Herbert's stock?

Speaker 3 I saw that. That's insider trading for him, though.

Speaker 1 Was he asked the question about you or did he just see the clip? No, he saw the clip.

Speaker 6 He came in prepared.

Speaker 1 The question was something like, how did this game go and everything? And then he started answering it. And then he was like, and one last thing, can you play it, Max?

Speaker 1 And he was like, and one last thing.

Speaker 1 You know, Big Cat said this. And I mean, listen, I'm ready to buy stock.
It was kind of, outside of the fact that it was, I love that he mentioned me, it's kind of cool how much he has Herbert's back.

Speaker 1 Yeah. All right, play it.

Speaker 6 I agree with Big Cat, you know, from

Speaker 6 when he said, if you're, if you're,

Speaker 1 I forgot about price,

Speaker 1 paraphrasing this, but Big Cat said,

Speaker 6 if you're selling Justin Herbert's stock, then he's buying.

Speaker 6 I

Speaker 6 completely concur with that statement.

Speaker 1 So we're going to make billions buying Justin Herbert stuff.

Speaker 3 I mean, if you really think that Justin Herbert is a bad quarterback, I question whether or not you watch football. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Agree. I do.
Oh, Hank.

Speaker 1 Hank race.

Speaker 3 I do, in fact, question if Hank watches.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true. You are.

Speaker 1 You're the perfect person to be sitting on that couch being like, 0-2 in the playoffs, thanks.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 3 He's not a bad quarterback.

Speaker 1 No, he's talented. He's a very bad quarterback.
He's got got talented. Yes.

Speaker 3 He's got talented. He's got talented.

Speaker 1 He's not talented. Also, Harbaugh in the middle of the day.
I mean, if Lamar loses this weekend, like, again, it's kind of this. He won't make him a bad quarterback.
He's not a bad quarterback.

Speaker 1 Lamar's obviously really good, but still, if you can't win in the playoffs, it doesn't matter how good you are. Who cares? Two games is very early to say you can't win in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Would you not agree with that? Two bad games. The first games.
Yeah, no, they were two bad games. I agree with that.

Speaker 1 They were two bad games because remember the first game, he didn't throw interceptions, but he yeah, he couldn't get first down.

Speaker 3 It was one and a half bad games.

Speaker 1 But he, uh, I still, if next year they go and they're like at a home game and he

Speaker 1 completely shits the bed, I will start to possibly like, you know, do some insider trade. You know, Nancy Pelosi unload a little bit of the stock, but maybe not say it.
Cannons.

Speaker 3 I think that what Hank said a second ago is insane. That if who cares if you're a good quarterback if you don't win the playoffs?

Speaker 1 I care.

Speaker 3 I think it matters. Like, if you're a good quarterback in the regular season, you're still a good quarterback.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you do have to elevate your game. Yeah, you just have to elevate your game.

Speaker 3 You just have people tacking onto it, but he can't win in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I just think two games is way too early to say, like, he can never win in the playoffs. Yeah.
Like,

Speaker 1 if he gets a couple receivers and they get, like I said, a home playoff game and he's terrible, then I'll be like, you know what? Maybe there's something there. But until that happens, I'm buying.

Speaker 1 I'm buying all the stock. Did you see also Harbaugh, like a hockey guy, is he's getting a heart surgery and a hip, new hip at the offseason?

Speaker 3 Yeah, he's getting the, well, it's the heart ablation. So that's in a shocking twist of events, I think I accurately diagnosed Harbaugh when he had that moment on the sidelines.

Speaker 3 I was like, he'll get an ablation, he'll be fine. It's like they're going to shock part of his heart.

Speaker 3 They're going to put an electrical charge into part of his heart and kill off the bad cells, leaving his heart stronger. It's like the buffalo herd theory.
Jesus.

Speaker 3 Where the buffaloes get hunted, the weak buffaloes get hunted down by the predators, and then the herd moves faster in the long run.

Speaker 1 Damn. Yeah.
That's a crazy surgery.

Speaker 3 Yeah. So

Speaker 3 it's like they're going to, it's outpatient, I think, just put like electrical charges on his heart, and then he's going to walk out of there feeling 100% better.

Speaker 1 Do you guys ever think about how crazy surgery is?

Speaker 1 Do you ever, do you, like, even we were talking about the other day, uh, LASIC.

Speaker 1 Like, they invented a way to shoot lasers in your eye to make you look, to make you have 20-20 vision for the rest of your life. Yeah, surgery.
That's fucking insane.

Speaker 3 To me, the crazy part is just anesthesia. Yeah.
They figured out a way where they can, like, kind of kill you for a second. You don't remember anything.
You don't feel pain.

Speaker 3 And then you just come back.

Speaker 1 And anesthesiologists, I think, make bank.

Speaker 3 They make bank, yeah. I want to be anesthesiologisted after the Super Bowl every year.
Yes. Like, just put me in a coma until March Madness.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, we've talked about the idea of

Speaker 1 I really think it would do well, like

Speaker 1 a pod that you could put your body into after a bachelor party for 24 hours that's like refrigerated. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, when they, when there's a spinal injury and they bring your body temperature down to like 86 to stop the swelling?

Speaker 1 Imagine if so, if you're like, all right, I just finished a three-day bender. I'm going to go lay in this pod for 24 hours.
They're going to knock me out. They're going to cool my body down.

Speaker 1 And when I wake up, I'll feel great.

Speaker 3 That's why you got to take the buffer day after the bachelor party. Yes.
Like take that work that work day off on Monday. I had to use that to recover.

Speaker 1 I had a friend once who did a move that

Speaker 1 was insane, but looking back at it, it was like, holy shit, he might be a genius. He rented a hotel room in the city we were in and stayed on Sunday night just

Speaker 1 to sleep. Yeah.
And then flew back on Monday. I had some buddies that.

Speaker 3 You have the extra day.

Speaker 1 Yeah. He's very smart.
Yeah, he's just like, we all were ready to go to the airport and he's like, all right, I'm going to my hotel. And I was like, what are you going to do?

Speaker 1 He's like, I'm going to probably eat dinner by myself, go to sleep at seven o'clock and sleep.

Speaker 3 I had some buddies. We did that for a bachelor party in Colorado where on the last day, they just said, okay, we're going to leave.
We're going to go up to Denver.

Speaker 3 When weed had just been legalized there, they're like, we're just going to get really high and sleep all day, Sunday, and then into Monday morning. Yeah.
Ease ourselves back into the real world. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Shit, even after doing like two nights where you don't sleep that well, it'd be awesome to have that pod go in at like 6 p.m. Right.
And then wake up at like 10 a.m. the next day.

Speaker 1 Someone invented that.

Speaker 1 We have all types of surgeries, Max. Are you thinking about your bachelor party that you got to go on?

Speaker 1 Or bachelorette? Or bachelorette. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was going to talk about that. We haven't got a lot of submissions.
I mean, the submission we got last night is an all-timer.

Speaker 1 You want to say it? No. Let's talk about a fire fest.
This is a fire fest. It's a fire fest? You have a fire fest this week?

Speaker 9 No, we can just talk about it. Talk about it then.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Why not just, I mean, we're naturally talking about bachelor parties.

Speaker 3 We'll circle back to the bachelor parties.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we'll circle back to that party.

Speaker 1 What's the issue? It's football. It's time to talk about football.
Okay.

Speaker 3 I have one non-football related story that I think it's one of the more fascinating stories of the year. And it's a soccer story coming out of Italy.

Speaker 1 What is this?

Speaker 3 So, hey, just

Speaker 1 what a leading. Yeah.
We're talking about other football.

Speaker 3 So far, I'd say this is the story of the year. Okay.

Speaker 3 Lazio, the Italian football club,

Speaker 3 they're in a bit of hot water right now because they have an official team, Falconer.

Speaker 1 Falconrer?

Speaker 3 The guy that flies the Falconry.

Speaker 1 He does Falconry.

Speaker 3 He does Falconry. Yeah, he's a Falconer.

Speaker 3 Curterus.

Speaker 3 Falconer.

Speaker 1 He does falconry.

Speaker 3 Yes. So this guy, he's been with the team for years and years and years.
And he manages the falcon, flies around the stadium. They're the falcons? Their mascot is a falcon.
Okay.

Speaker 1 It's part of the pageantry. Dumb question.
Just wanted to.

Speaker 3 The Syria Club Lazio. Yeah, yeah.
This guy just got fired. Okay.
He got fired because he had a

Speaker 3 penile enhancement surgery.

Speaker 1 Was he fucking the Falcon?

Speaker 3 No, he was not fucking.

Speaker 1 Well, we don't know.

Speaker 3 Okay. We don't know.

Speaker 1 I can't take a story about a guy fucking a Falcon.

Speaker 3 To my knowledge, he has not fucked a falcon, but it would not shock me if it went there at some point. Okay.
Because it's a crazy story. So this guy got fired because he got a dick implant.

Speaker 3 That's not cause for firing, but right after he got the dick implant, he posted a picture of his dick with a dick implant saying what a great surgery he just had and how he needs to ejaculate at least twice a day with as many women as possible.

Speaker 3 The owner of the club

Speaker 3 said this.

Speaker 1 In his pants or just straight up posted his dick. Naked?

Speaker 3 I have not seen the picture.

Speaker 3 I've read the articles about his dick was out in the picture, and he's bragging about his dick implant. So he was fired.
The owner of Lazio was very, very upset with him.

Speaker 3 This guy apparently lives on the training ground with the Falcon. He lives like in the team facility with the Falcon.

Speaker 3 He was suspended in 2021 because he was doing Benito Mussolini's salute. And then they brought him back.
They said, okay, you've served your time. We're bringing you back.

Speaker 1 So fascism okay. Fascism okay.

Speaker 3 It's not. So, he has been fired from the team for posting this picture, and then he barricaded himself inside the team's facility, demanding that he have his job reinstated.

Speaker 3 So, he's in a hostage situation, potentially with the Falcon, like threatening to kill the Falcon to get his job back.

Speaker 1 And jerking off because he's got to ejaculate twice a day.

Speaker 3 He has to ejaculate twice a day. The owner also fired the doctor that did the penile enhancement surgery because apparently that guy's also the team doctor.

Speaker 3 So the team doctor gave the Falconer a new dick.

Speaker 1 This feels very wrong in the fact that, like,

Speaker 1 it's an Italian league. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, Italians are horny. They're horny.
Why would the owner be against this?

Speaker 3 This guy.

Speaker 1 Guy's just trying to get laid and also lay better. This guy.
Is it the owner? It might be like the owner's not Italian. Oh, and the owner's got a small dick.
Once definitely got a tiny penis.

Speaker 3 The owner is 100% Italian. His name is

Speaker 3 Lotito. Lotito.
So Lotito.

Speaker 1 Claudio Lotito.

Speaker 3 Claudio Lotito. And then he did come out and officially say that the picture that he posted is worse than the fascist salute.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So the story just keeps getting weirder. I don't know what's going to go on with this hostage negotiation.
If he kills the Falcon, I'm out on this guy. Right now, I think I'm on his side.

Speaker 1 Claudio, people are, the streets are saying that you're upset because you have a smaller penis in this guy. Yeah.
Don't let that become the story. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Let this guy just keep his job and keep the Falcons safe. He's listening.
I mean, people get surgery to get themselves better. What's wrong with that?

Speaker 3 I agree. Like, some people on this podcast have had some elective surgeries, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Speaker 1 There's no problem.

Speaker 3 He had a procedure done. And yeah, I just want to say I stand with the Falconer.

Speaker 1 As long as he doesn't harm the Falcon.

Speaker 3 Not the Mussolini stuff. Yep.
I disavow that. Yep.
But I think he's Italian.

Speaker 3 Let him be a little bit horny. I think it's good for club morale.
You don't want to have a falconer out there with a tiny penis.

Speaker 1 No. That's awful.

Speaker 3 No. So he's trying to better himself.
He's probably trying to improve the club's image as well. And if he does harm the falcon, then I'm out on this guy.

Speaker 3 But right now, I think he's reacting as you or I would if we were in this situation, which is to grab a bird, take it hostage, and then barricade yourself inside your employer's facility.

Speaker 3 While you masturbate all the time. While you masturbate all the time.
I don't see anything wrong with this. And yeah, we stand with him until he does

Speaker 3 harm the falcon, at which point we wash our hands.

Speaker 1 I also, like, it sounds like, and I don't know the picture, but it sounds like he was just kind of putting out like a PSA. Yeah.
Like, hey, I got an awesome new dick, and it needs to get sucked.

Speaker 1 So that's what he was saying. So could anyone who's got a mouth, let me know?

Speaker 3 His explanation for it was I was promoting...

Speaker 3 self-love.

Speaker 1 I was promoting, I was shining visibility on a part of lives where people are generally afraid to discuss this they're they're ashamed and they shouldn't be ashamed look I had the surgery it's good for me you can too yeah yeah raising awareness of his bigger penis and does yeah self-betterment should not be frowned upon they got to get girls that's how you break through the hostage situation yeah send some girls in open the doors and then bust in yeah send some chicks in all right so falcon falconer falconry guy falconer keep keep fighting, but don't fight the Falcon.

Speaker 3 Oh, also, the doctor that was fired by the team claims that he was not fired. Oh.
Because he's not under a contract with the team.

Speaker 1 And also probably because Claudio wants that surgery.

Speaker 8 Yeah. Is what the streets are saying.

Speaker 1 Again, Claudio, don't make this part of the stories. You're jealous of someone else's penis size.

Speaker 3 So this guy is the team doctor, but he didn't have a current contract in place.

Speaker 3 That's just wild to me that the team doctor is putting dicks in. Yeah.
But I guess it makes sense for Italian soccer.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's exactly what Italian soccer would be.

Speaker 3 I bet you that guy that goes out on the field for the Cowboys with the cowboy hat, that doctor, that guy's definitely giving Jerry Jones a penile implant. Yes.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, I remember that guy. He's the funniest.

Speaker 1 Any guy who's wearing a cowboy hat who's a doctor or a lawyer is always funny. Yeah.
How is Lazio doing this year?

Speaker 3 I did not. Oh, they're fourth.

Speaker 1 They're fourth. So they're actually good.

Speaker 1 They're in the, right now, if they finish where they're at right now, they'd be in the Champions League next year. They're ahead of Juventus.
So you're fucking up a a good thing here, man.

Speaker 1 I think this is a curse waiting to happen.

Speaker 1 Waiting to happen.

Speaker 1 Okay, should we talk some football? Some American football? Yep. All right, before we do that.

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Speaker 1 Okay, boys, let's do it. Time for the games.
And I'm excited about all of these games.

Speaker 1 Saturday afternoon, we're going to start. Oh, by the way, just a note.

Speaker 1 So there's two eight plus point favorites. And

Speaker 1 the two, so eight plus point favorites have not lost outright since the Ravens lost to the Titans. Remember when the Ravens were the one seed in 2019?

Speaker 1 And then the previous one was the Chiefs and Titans in 2018.

Speaker 1 So that was before Mahomes. I think that was Alex

Speaker 1 Mariota for the Titans. Yeah.
So it's been a run for eight plus point favorites in this round to win outright.

Speaker 1 So that's why I bring that up with the Texans and Chiefs, because right now the Chiefs, Texans versus Chiefs on Saturday afternoon, the Texans are eight and a half point dogs. The over-under is 41.5.

Speaker 1 I am not going to do the thing

Speaker 1 where I tell myself the Texans just won a playoff game. The Chiefs haven't won any playoff games this year.
You've got to take the Texans. Yeah,

Speaker 1 Hank is. Hank is 100% going to do that thing.

Speaker 3 Which, that's good. We need somebody that will do that.
That won't be afraid.

Speaker 3 Yeah, the Chiefs' defense is completely different. Like their defensive line, Chris Jones against that Texans' offensive line, I think it's going to be an issue.
And the Chiefs are healthy.

Speaker 3 They're rested. They've got all their guys.
We saw them at the end of the season. Don't forget how good the Chiefs are.
Don't stop forgetting how good the Chiefs are. They're awesome.

Speaker 3 Their offense is humming. Everything looks good for them.
Andy Reid off a bye. Don't overthink it.
It's also going to be a high of 17, low of three in Kansas City on Saturday.

Speaker 3 So, Hank, did you count on that?

Speaker 3 That the Texas Boys going up Tornado Alley to Kansas City, playing outside at Arrowhead Stadium in the cold, that should factor into it, too.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's going to be a problem for the Texans. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Jalen Watson is supposed to be back, which is huge for their defense, because if you had to say one weakness is when he got hurt, Chief's secondary could be vulnerable at times.

Speaker 1 But I think this game comes more down to the Chiefs looking at their season.

Speaker 1 They did what they've done the last couple years where

Speaker 1 they won a shitload of games. They looked not great in some of these games, so people threw doubts at them.
And now they're coming into the playoffs, and their offense is fully healthy.

Speaker 1 Pacheco's back. They got Xavier Worthy, DeAndre Hopkins, Juju Smith-Schuster is getting worked in.
Hollywood Brown.

Speaker 1 The last time we saw them, eight guys caught a ball, and Patrick Mahomes had 320 yards and three touchdowns. That was against the Steelers.

Speaker 1 So I think they're just going to flip the switch, and this offense is going to look great and it's playoff Patrick Mahomes playoff Patrick Mahomes in the divisional round you ready for this he is 6-0 yep he has 1,813 total yards 16 touchdowns total touchdowns zero interceptions 70.4 completion percentage he plays in this divisional round and he's basically just

Speaker 3 he's I mean he's undefeated he's lights out that's just what happens it should be 6-0 asterisks because the Browns should have beat him that one year

Speaker 3 But not actually. But they didn't actually beat him.
Yeah, they didn't actually beat him. The Chiefs ended up winning that game.
But yeah, Patrick Mahomes in this round of the playoffs. Lights out.

Speaker 3 Don't forget that. Stop forgetting about the Chiefs.

Speaker 3 This is the rematch of the original Thanks for Coming Out.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So

Speaker 3 back in 2019, the Texans were up 24-0

Speaker 3 against the Chiefs with 10 minutes left in the second quarter. Yep.
They were up 24-0.

Speaker 3 The final score, 51-31, Kansas City. That was crazy.
They just poured it on him. They were down 24-0, 10 minutes left in the second quarter.
The Chiefs were winning at halftime.

Speaker 1 It was crazy.

Speaker 1 And that felt like that was right at the beginning of all of this happening and Patrick Mahomes becoming Patrick Mahomes. He is also,

Speaker 1 how old is Patrick Mahomes now? Is he, what, like 28 years old, maybe?

Speaker 1 Find his age. He is, if he wins this game, he has tied

Speaker 1 Joe Montana. He's 29 years old.
Joe Montana for playoff wins.

Speaker 3 That's crazy. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 16. He's still got a long way to go.
Tom Brady has 35, but I was looking at it. I think if he wins this game, he has something like more playoff wins than, I think it's like 10 or 11 franchises.

Speaker 1 Just him personally.

Speaker 3 Yeah, the graphics are going to be crazy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so

Speaker 1 he's just so goddamn good. You can't forget about Patrick Mahomes.
Now, also, he gets the baby bump. Yep.
So he welcomed a third child, Golden Ray Mahomes, who

Speaker 1 all three of their children are bronze, silver, gold.

Speaker 3 It's kind of crazy that he waited for the third one to be named Golden. Gold, yeah.

Speaker 1 Bronze is a, I think Bronze is the second one because it's Patrick III,

Speaker 1 is his son, so he's technically, his nickname's Bronze, and then

Speaker 1 Sterling Sky is silver, and then Golden Ray.

Speaker 1 Listen, people do whatever they want with their names. I mean, it's, you know, I also think when you're, I think

Speaker 1 the wealthier you get, the crazier you get with your names.

Speaker 3 Andy Reid calls the sun 3 p.m.

Speaker 3 3 p.m. Because Patrick is 2 p.m., and then that's 3 p.m.
Yeah, do whatever you want with your names. I always thought that naming your kids various types of cheeses would work out well, too.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You got Colby, Jack,

Speaker 1 Pepper, Monty,

Speaker 1 Brie. Yep.
Gouda. Gouda.

Speaker 3 Gouda. Who could forget baby Gouda? American.

Speaker 1 Sharp cheddar. American, yeah.
Yeah. White American.
White American. Yeah, white American.

Speaker 3 This is my son, the white American.

Speaker 3 That actually rocks.

Speaker 1 White American.

Speaker 3 Actually, I get to name a litter of puppies for Paws. Oh, nice.
Because we won that auction at the Paws Gala. I might just go all cheeses.

Speaker 1 We should go all cheeses.

Speaker 3 Various types of cheeses for the Ducks.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Let's at least say something nice about the Texans. I do think their defense is...
They won't get rolled over. by the Chiefs.
Their defense is elite.

Speaker 1 I'm just nervous about the Texans' offense

Speaker 1 because it hasn't been good this year. And

Speaker 1 there's a lot of data behind them just not being very good. And in a game against the Chiefs, you pretty much have to play perfect to stay in this game.

Speaker 1 Now, they did stay in the game when they played, what was it, like four weeks ago? That was the game Tank Dell got hurt. Did they only lose by seven, I want to say? Yeah, it looked...

Speaker 3 It looked close in the first quarter and a half, I want to say.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so I don't.

Speaker 3 But the Texans' defense is capable of stepping up their game to a point where they can frustrate really good quarterbacks. Correct.
We saw that with the Bills.

Speaker 1 And the Chiefs' offensive line is not great. That is another area of weakness.
So I do think.

Speaker 3 The Bills and the Texans are Bills and the Lions, right?

Speaker 1 The Bills, the Lions, the Dolphins, the Chargers. The Texans defense took all those teams and made their offense look significantly worse than it is against everyone else.

Speaker 1 It's just Patrick Mahomes. That's the thing that I just keep going back to.
Yeah, they lost by eight in the meeting they had a month ago.

Speaker 1 So I'm not saying the Chiefs are going to, it's going to be a cakewalk.

Speaker 1 I just keep looking at this eight and a half, and I'm like, it feels like a game the Chiefs are going to be up by seven for the majority of the game.

Speaker 1 And then at the end, you know, go on one of those patented late second-half Chiefs drives where they just burn clock, get a bunch of third-down conversions, either kick a field goal or score a touchdown to win by 10 or 14.

Speaker 3 Yeah, do you think there's any additional pressure on Patrick Mahomes now that his brother's biggest source of income has dried up with the TikTok ban.

Speaker 3 Like, now Patrick Mahomes is the breadwinner in that. He's feeding it all.
Jackson Mahomes was independently wealthy.

Speaker 3 And now it's like all on his shoulders.

Speaker 1 Travis Kelsey, maybe. New Heights is not.
I like memes throwing. Did you see Memes tweet last night? Just showing some podcast charts.

Speaker 3 What do you say?

Speaker 1 Just bragging on our behalf.

Speaker 3 I like that meme.

Speaker 1 Which we don't really brag about it, but it was nice that memes bragged on our behalf. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It just showed the rankings, and it was us one, and then we had two out of the top three episodes as well so that's a that's just memes being a a good a good soldier for us also all respect to the kelsey guys oh yeah i i like both of them a lot like i mean jason kelcey is max's i don't vision board yeah i mean would it be his hall pass maybe i think technically i think your hall pass max goes to sleep every night looking at a picture of jason kelcey like this is this is my goal for tomorrow to do that no i i i like both kelse and i also think that this is gonna be three kelseys oh yeah kylie yeah I do think this is where.

Speaker 3 And Mama.

Speaker 1 And Mama Kelsey. No one talks about dad.
It's bullshit. It really is bullshit.
I do think this is where Travis Kelsey ramps it up. Like, I like his over yards.
I think this is he

Speaker 1 plays in

Speaker 1 second gear for the majority of the regular season.

Speaker 1 And then when you get to these points, the two things that I always look to is Mahomes rushing yards in the playoffs and Travis Kelsey yards because that is when they need a big play, it's Travis Kelsey or Mahomes using his feet.

Speaker 1 And we've seen it time and time again, and I think that's exactly what's going to happen on Saturday.

Speaker 3 I like CJ Stroud rushing yards, too. I like it last week that hit, and you go back to back when he was in college.
Yeah. In that playoff game, everybody's like, oh, shit, C.J.
can run.

Speaker 3 He can use his feet. I think he'll do it again.
That might also just be a product of plays breaking down sometimes around him. And he's not.

Speaker 3 I think the Chiefs defense is going to do a very, very good job shutting him down.

Speaker 3 But yeah,

Speaker 3 I like the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Now, if the, so I want to, I don't want to, because we've obviously obviously put a lot of love on the Chiefs, even though

Speaker 1 I'm sure there'll be some Chiefs fans being like, all you guys do is suck off Josh Allen. And, you know, you never mentioned, or Jared Goff, you never mentioned Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 1 Who is the best quarterback in the NFL, even though statistically he wasn't this year? You'd still take him 1-1.

Speaker 1 The Texans.

Speaker 1 Hank, make us a case.

Speaker 1 Defense makes a play. Okay.
Control the ball on offense. Joe Mixon, two touchdowns, own time of possession.
Got to get lucky.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 it's a good game plan. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Can we get a keys to the game for Hank?

Speaker 1 The cold is.

Speaker 1 I don't like that.

Speaker 1 Isn't it weird that I don't. This probably just goes all the way back to candy ass uniforms, but like, if you told me it was cold for Miami, I'd be like, they have zero chance.

Speaker 1 For some reason, I'm like, Texans might still have a little bit of a chance.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I don't know about that.

Speaker 1 Houston, Dome. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 I'm admitting that it's completely based on the candy ass uniform.

Speaker 3 It's not really a dome, though. They open up the roof a lot.

Speaker 1 At NRG? Yeah.

Speaker 3 They do? Yeah, from time to time.

Speaker 1 So there you go. It snows like an inch in Houston.
Like, the world shuts down. That's true.
That is a fact.

Speaker 1 They can't handle it. What are you going to say, Max?

Speaker 9 I feel like D'Amico Rines feels like a cold weather coach.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that might be it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's very opposite Mike McDaniel.

Speaker 3 Yeah. It's the bald head, I think.

Speaker 9 There's something about him feels like he can coach in the cold.

Speaker 1 There's a toughness about him. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 The Texans are also wearing.

Speaker 1 Joe Mixon's the key to the game.

Speaker 1 Okay. And they'll get lucky.
Well, yeah, that's just the playoffs, though.

Speaker 3 And also keep Patrick Mahomes off the field.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
By Joe Mixon. Score three.
Those one and three are basically the same.

Speaker 3 Let me give you another key to the game. Somehow hope that Carson Wentz is named starting quarterback.

Speaker 1 Hank, what would you say? Would you say it's a key to the game for the Texans to get sevens instead of threes?

Speaker 1 Not necessarily. Oh.

Speaker 3 Stop giving away all my keys to the game for shit. Commanders.
Shit. I've been teasing this all week.

Speaker 1 Fumble.

Speaker 1 You got to have a turnover? That's the luck. Yeah.
Yeah. Get lucky, turnover.
Pick six? Pick six, kick, return, touchdown, punt block.

Speaker 3 Can we stop?

Speaker 3 I'm not going to have any more keys left.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 3 my keys are completely different, but those are valid keys.

Speaker 1 Those are huge keys.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but the Texans also wearing all-white uniforms,

Speaker 3 which led to a lot of infighting amongst the Texans fan base whether or not they should be excited about this. I found a great interaction underneath the official team tweet about it

Speaker 3 from Astros Fade. We've never won a playoff game in all white.
What are we doing? Texas uniform tracker replies, to be fair, we've never won any playoff game in white jerseys, regardless of pants.

Speaker 3 And then Sad Astros posts, to be fair, we've never won any divisional playoff game. And then Astros Fade replies, and then Astros Fade replies, we've never won a road playoff game in general.

Speaker 1 It might not be the white pants.

Speaker 3 You drill down a little bit and you find out it might not be the white pants. Yeah.

Speaker 1 If this game was at home, we need the Texans next year to somehow get

Speaker 1 like a two or a three seed and wear white pants at home in the divisional round.

Speaker 3 And then we can kind of

Speaker 3 parse out exactly where we're going wrong with the uniform taxes.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's do the next game. Commanders at Lions.
Lions are nine and a half point favorites. Over-under is 55.5.

Speaker 1 PFT, you've been teasing your keys to the game, so I'll let you take it.

Speaker 3 Okay, my keys to the game.

Speaker 1 Should I write these down? Yeah. Okay.
You should. Hold on.
Hold on.

Speaker 3 Number one.

Speaker 1 By the way, people were asking what I was writing down during our vagina conversation last week on Wednesday. I was drawing a vagina to see if I could get hard just looking at just a vagina.

Speaker 3 Big hat does take notes during episodes. Yeah.
All right. Here we go.
All right, keys to the game.

Speaker 1 Number one, fuck them up. Fuck them up.

Speaker 3 I love that. We got to beat the fuck out of them.

Speaker 1 Now, would you

Speaker 1 can't say four quarters of fuck you football because that's Notre Dame. But would you like them to play four quarters of fuck you football?

Speaker 3 I'd like to play five quarters of fuck you football.

Speaker 1 Five quarters.

Speaker 3 Because you got to be ready for 110%.

Speaker 1 Fuck them up.

Speaker 3 Really, really fuck everybody up.

Speaker 3 Number two, kill everyone. Kill everyone.
Especially on defense.

Speaker 1 Women and children?

Speaker 3 Put the women and children to bed.

Speaker 1 Women and children to bed.

Speaker 3 That's key to A.

Speaker 3 Okay. Number three,

Speaker 3 Jaden Daniels.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 1 I think that one, I'm going to, you know what I'm going to do for that one? I'm going to underline it. Okay.

Speaker 3 Underscore. Yep.
And number four, the fourth and final key to the game, I absolutely need an incredible hype video.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 3 And I'm talking,

Speaker 3 this has to be the best hype video that I've ever seen. Yes.
There's a lot of, I might make my own hype video.

Speaker 1 I think you need the best one you've ever seen. But I'm going.

Speaker 1 I'm going to make... Oh, man, what a shot.
I'm going to make. That was so mean, Peter.

Speaker 3 I'm going to make the best hype video you've ever seen.

Speaker 1 Don't let him talk to that. Talk to you like that.

Speaker 3 Hank's a loser.

Speaker 1 Don't let him talk to you like that.

Speaker 3 You're not even in the playoffs. You don't know shit about hype videos.

Speaker 3 I'm going to make the best hype video. I've already got an idea for it, as a matter of fact.

Speaker 1 Oh, if he makes a hype video, it would probably be the best hype video he's ever made.

Speaker 1 Ever made? Ever made it? Everything he's ever made.

Speaker 3 I'm talking the best hype video of all time.

Speaker 1 ACDC with like

Speaker 1 glitter glitter transitions.

Speaker 3 No, no, no.

Speaker 3 Hater. It's going to be.

Speaker 1 I'll just.

Speaker 3 I think it's got to be Fix You by Goldplay.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 3 And I think it's got to start.

Speaker 1 I don't know about that. Oh, yeah.
Wait, is this after they lose and like you're remembering them? No, you know.

Speaker 3 Fix you remember fix you start sad, and then it's like when you're lost out there.

Speaker 3 And then you got pictures like Dan Snyder, you got picture Arthur Free.

Speaker 1 I'm not sure.

Speaker 3 Yeah, that's you got pictures of the stadium raining shit on fans. You got

Speaker 3 you try your best, but you don't succeed. And then it's a picture of like the Sean Taylor statue that's not even a statue.
It's all the bad stuff. And then it goes, ding, lights will guide.

Speaker 3 And it's Jaden Daniels getting drawn to the brain.

Speaker 1 Walk around the tunnel.

Speaker 3 That's him getting drafted at that point. And Ignite, I will try.
I fix you. Dunno.

Speaker 1 And then Jaden's out of the way.

Speaker 1 I'll let someone make this for PFT. He just gave you the vision.

Speaker 9 No,

Speaker 9 I just went back and listened to the song.

Speaker 9 It's more of a like after you win like like like yearbook video it is it is a little bit of that it's a yearbook video because it gets exciting at the end but that's when you show like the winning that we won the super bowl

Speaker 1 let's go win it but for the hype video needs to be like

Speaker 3 that's not a fire me up song you don't know shit about hype videos yet this is my vision this is not i must wear beneath

Speaker 1 no it needs to be like iron maiden and shit

Speaker 9 run for the hills that was my first job here was hype make making hype videos Really?

Speaker 1 What was your best work? I did them for you. Doug.

Speaker 1 I knew that. I knew that.
I knew that shit.

Speaker 3 Just let me enjoy my vision. You do your hype.

Speaker 1 Are you texting them to me?

Speaker 9 No, I would text him to Hank and Hank would text me.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's the problem. Hank was taking credit for it.
No, I wasn't. Yeah, he was.
No, I wasn't. He was taking all the credit.

Speaker 3 Do we have a hype video guy now at Barstall?

Speaker 1 The Quigs. Quigs.

Speaker 9 Malisek makes some good ones.

Speaker 1 No, we don't talk about him anymore.

Speaker 1 I'll talk to Quiggs and we'll work on it.

Speaker 3 But right now, I feel like, just let me follow my vision, which is gold play.

Speaker 1 I think this should be a fan-submitted one now.

Speaker 1 But you were just taking credit.

Speaker 1 If Quiggs makes it, it might be good.

Speaker 1 If Quiggs makes it, it will be good. Just keep taking shots.
Well, dude, he's like, I'm going to make the greatest.

Speaker 3 You don't think I can do it?

Speaker 1 He can direct it. Yeah, direct it by.

Speaker 1 It's going to be what I was doing with Max. It's going to be a PFT joint.
That's also not even a job. I think you should have send you a song and be like, here you go.

Speaker 9 You would do that like once every six videos that i made that was bullshit

Speaker 1 and probably whenever he said that it was because i said it i was like i want this song that's probably true yeah i was playing a lot of call of duty back then he was just being the middleman uh

Speaker 3 you should just do fan submitted because now you'll have like a hundred hype videos and one of them is going to be an absolutely incredible like people are going to make this now whether you ask them to or not well i let me do the cold play one and then but i am interested in watching all the hype videos okay like that's to me that is a key for my game is to just you you got to have great hype videos going on this week because it's us against the world.

Speaker 3 Washington versus everyone. That's what they're saying about this game.

Speaker 1 So, my take on this game, and this is a compliment,

Speaker 1 I think the Lions are going to fucking kill him, but I can't bet him because of Jaden Daniels. Because I keep thinking in the back of my head, like, but what if Jaden Daniels does something crazy?

Speaker 1 Like, the Lions are better, and they should.

Speaker 1 The Commanders play a lot of

Speaker 1 man coverage. Jared Goff is number one beating man coverage.
I think Dave Montgomery is back. So I keep going back.

Speaker 1 The Lions can name their score, but then I'm like, but Jaden Daniels and everything that happens and the voodoo stuff, I don't think I can bet the Lions.

Speaker 1 So that way I can root for the Commanders with you.

Speaker 3 Yeah, a couple weeks ago, I said if we do, if we win our first-round playoff game, we're going to be very lucky if the Lions don't score 70 points on us. The Lions have, they've got...
a great roster.

Speaker 3 They've got all the weapons. They've got an incredible offense.
I was shocked to learn that the Commanders' rushing offense is actually better than the Lions' rushing attack. Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 It doesn't feel like that, though, does it? But I guess you've got to take into account Jaden's legs as being a big part of that. Montgomery coming back, I'm more afraid of Gibbs.

Speaker 3 I know that Montgomery is a great running back. But if you were to say, are you more afraid of a healthy dose of Jameer Gibbs or splitting time with him and David Montgomery coming off a PCL?

Speaker 3 Like an injury that people thought was going to be season-ending. Yeah.
I'm okay with Montgomery and Gibbs splitting carries.

Speaker 3 I just think that our pass defense has to step up. Lattimore's healthy, I guess.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 I think there's going to be

Speaker 1 on defense, I think we're going to have a lot of moments where Lions receivers are running completely untouched somewhere down the field.

Speaker 3 Did you know that our pass defense is third? Is ranked third? That doesn't feel right either, does it? No. The commanders' pass defense?

Speaker 3 I don't know how that works out, but

Speaker 1 yeah,

Speaker 3 I want to believe in the commanders. If it becomes if it's a one-score game in the fourth quarter, that's what I'm saying, we win this game, yeah, I think.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but then you have to wonder what happens in the first three quarters. Like, but I mean, think about it: the Bears went into Detroit and basically beat the Lions on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 Yeah, like they're, they've had games where they look human. The last month or so, they have not, they've looked incredible.

Speaker 3 Our offensive line has done a much better job, especially with our center coming back, Piadis. Um, Sam Cosme is playing really, really well.

Speaker 3 So, I realize I haven't talked about any of those guys, I've just been focusing on Jaden. But we've had, our team has stepped up.

Speaker 3 We play weird games. We will not blow anybody out.
We'll be lucky to keep it within a score because Detroit is so, so good.

Speaker 3 But if we can keep it within a score, Jaden Daniels can go out there and win the game. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the Lions' buttholes might get tight. Lions' buttholes might get tight.

Speaker 1 The other thing I would say is Aaron Glenn, his defenses usually struggle with mobile quarterbacks. Like Justin Fields used to

Speaker 1 give them fits.

Speaker 1 And he's had that happen multiple times, not just once. So Jaden Daniels might be able to use his legs significantly on Saturday.
What are you looking up, Max?

Speaker 9 This pass defense thing.

Speaker 9 For some reason, I've clicked on four different things and said four different websites that said four different things.

Speaker 1 Well, what's the, is it EPA or what did you, is it yards? Passing yards. I don't know.

Speaker 3 I saw a couple things and it had us listed as the third best pass defense, and I was very confused by by it. Like, Max, when I said that out loud, it doesn't sound right, does it?

Speaker 9 I mean, this says third here. I don't know what I'm looking at.

Speaker 3 That's yards per game. Yeah.

Speaker 9 But then this one, I feel like I'm also looking at yards per.

Speaker 9 Oh, wait, that's postseason.

Speaker 3 Get it together. If we're the number three pass defense in the postseason, that's a much different stat, but that's not the case.
Because I think we're like the number 30 rush defense.

Speaker 1 The only thing I would say about that is the

Speaker 1 Lions are not like everyone else you played on the schedule. Yeah, correct.
So that that would be

Speaker 1 they're just really fucking good. Yeah.

Speaker 3 But, well, the Eagles' pass defense is pretty good.

Speaker 1 The Eagles' pass defense? Yes.

Speaker 3 And we put some points on them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, I was saying the Lions' offense. Oh, right.
Your pass defense versus the Lions' offense. The Lions' offense is in that level of just, I think it's essentially the Bills and the Ravens.

Speaker 1 Those are the three teams where it does feel like whenever they want to score, they're just going to score.

Speaker 3 We're going to see ultimate Dans in this showdown. Yeah.
Dan Quinn, Dan Campbell, both going for it on fourth downs all the time.

Speaker 1 Two alpha dudes.

Speaker 3 And it's crazy because the history of these franchises, at least recent history, Tress Way for the Commanders has been a great punter.

Speaker 3 I went out there, I bought a punter's jersey. He was the only bright light on the team for a while.
And then Jack Fox on the Lions, great punter. Now neither one of those guys is being used.

Speaker 3 They were both in weird ways like the best player on each team. But yeah, there's going to be a ton of punts, or excuse me, a ton of going for it on fourth down in this game.
Not a lot of punts.

Speaker 3 One thing about the Lions defense, they are the fourth worst in the NFL at allowing explosive plays.

Speaker 3 So explosives, they allow on 12.4% of snaps.

Speaker 1 Now, the only counter to that would be they did miss Alex Anzalone for a majority of their season. He does wear the green dot.

Speaker 1 So getting everyone in the places they need to be, you saw it against the Vikings. But yeah, their defense is obviously the weakness.

Speaker 1 You could make this a shootout. And I feel like when you make a game a shootout, it really is the

Speaker 1 randomness of the game. Like, if you're a nine-point underdog

Speaker 1 and you can score like the Commanders can score,

Speaker 1 all you need is

Speaker 1 one interception, one weird thing to happen to the Lions, almost like breaking serve in tennis. Yeah.

Speaker 3 I'm going into this weekend thinking there's a very good chance that this is the end of the run. And if it is, what a great run it's been.
No regrets.

Speaker 3 It's been an incredible season, but I do think that there's a path.

Speaker 1 I think that

Speaker 3 don't write us off. Don't write us off because if it's a one-score game, we can go out there and win the game.
And the top seeds are 11-7 in playoff games since the format changed.

Speaker 3 So it's not like getting the one seed is like automatic. You're going to go to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think the Lions, I don't know. I just feel like

Speaker 1 they're 440.

Speaker 3 I've said all year if the Lions are the best team in the NFC.

Speaker 1 Are you going to take the Commanders? I'm going to take the Commanders spread. Okay.
And probably the over.

Speaker 1 Because that's the only way the Commanders win. There's Max.
Left hand up.

Speaker 3 Left hand up. Let's go, Max.

Speaker 6 Love that, Max.

Speaker 9 Let's go, Commies. You're the man.
Let's go, Commies.

Speaker 3 I love Max. You've always been on my side.

Speaker 1 Yep, always. Let's talk about your game, Max.
Rams, Eagles.

Speaker 1 Eagles minus six over under 43.5.

Speaker 1 Let's first say, Max,

Speaker 1 how did the

Speaker 1 class go? So you have Karma all the way back on your side, by the way, because we also got a little more into the story of the Eagles fan versus the Packers fan.

Speaker 1 The Eagles or the Packers fan, and this doesn't excuse calling a woman a cunt in the crowd, but the guy

Speaker 1 whose wife was called that, he essentially did a GoFundMe to try to get money to go to the game and was like

Speaker 1 antagonize and

Speaker 1 film it.

Speaker 1 So it kind of is one of those situations where everyone's a shithead, except for the woman who just, she's somehow a pawn in all this, and like was the one who got disrespected.

Speaker 3 She's like, bait.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the guy. Her husband's taken into the game.
The Packers fan sucks too.

Speaker 3 So, but the Packers fan did a GoFundMe probably to get all the way across the country from Wisconsin to Philadelphia to go see this game, right, Max?

Speaker 9 No, he lived an hour outside of me.

Speaker 1 He did a GoFundMe for that?

Speaker 9 GoFundMe for go to.

Speaker 3 A car ride.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. So, yeah.

Speaker 9 Doing a GoFundMe as just like a normal

Speaker 9 random dude to go to a football game is insane. Insane.

Speaker 3 Especially one down the street. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's under the name of the website, though.

Speaker 1 The funniest GoFundMe I saw was a few months ago. Some guy got busted at a fish concert for selling.

Speaker 1 It was something like

Speaker 1 hundreds of tabs of acid, like a shitload of ecstasy, nitrous, and all this stuff. And he did a GoFundMe for legal stuff.
And people were just coming. They're like...
Dude, he was a drug dealer.

Speaker 1 He sold those drugs. It's like, I know that, you know, we all want to party, but

Speaker 1 I think the GoFundMe should go to someone, you know, a kid with cancer.

Speaker 3 El Chapo doesn't go fund me. I need to re-up.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But yeah,

Speaker 1 I think you've been vindicated, especially with your class. So how'd it go?

Speaker 9 Yeah, I took the class. It was a four-hour class.

Speaker 9 I learned some good information, learned a lot about the Lincoln financial field and the security around it.

Speaker 6 However, Big Dom got

Speaker 9 hurt about me taking this class and was unhappy.

Speaker 1 What'd he say?

Speaker 3 I don't know if he was unhappy. He was concerned that

Speaker 3 you got kicked out for something. Yeah, no,

Speaker 9 he thought I got kicked out of the game

Speaker 1 on Sunday. And did you explain it to him? Yep, I texted.

Speaker 9 I told him the whole thing, and he was like...

Speaker 1 Wait, how do you find out about this?

Speaker 9 He said, I was tweeting about it. I at first thought that there was like an alert that

Speaker 9 there was an alert that would like go to his desk or something as soon as something took the test, which I thought would have been way funnier. But someone just like sent him his tweet.

Speaker 1 He was like, what happened to you this week?

Speaker 3 All right, so Max, you were saying that that you were kind of panicking and you weren't sure if you explained it correctly in your text back because you were very nervous about what to write back to Big Dom.

Speaker 3 So, let's just clear the air right now and reset. This Eagles fan was caught on video last week saying bad stuff.

Speaker 3 Max, as a great representative of the city of Philadelphia, decided that he was going to get some good karma back, show that Philadelphia Eagles fans are passionate, but they're not all assholes.

Speaker 3 So, Max took the course that the NFL offers for fans who have been kicked out of the stadium to learn more about empathy and appropriate stadium behavior in order to get all the good vibes back on the city of Philadelphia.

Speaker 9 Correct. I was just trying to do my part.
Just trying to do my part.

Speaker 1 I do love the idea of Big Dom having a fax machine next to his desk and just every person who has to sign up for it.

Speaker 1 And it just, all it spit out was just a piece of paper that just said Max in your picture. He's like, what the hell?

Speaker 9 I know that's what I was reading.

Speaker 3 So watch on PM TV, but Max, what did you learn?

Speaker 9 You know, you always have to put yourself yourself in the shoes of an opposing fan. Like, if you were going into an opposing stadium, how would you want to be treated?

Speaker 9 Curse words are not allowed at any moment. So use of foul language, disappointing.
Drinking, it was a lot of drinking.

Speaker 9 It was a lot about the rules of how much you can drink, what your blood alcohol level will look like. If you are drinking, what can happen if your blood alcohol gets to a certain level.

Speaker 9 Stress management, that was another one. It talked a lot about stress.
You need that.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 that's big.

Speaker 1 It was not only

Speaker 9 if things are going poorly in your life, you can be stressed out, but also if things are going well in your life, you can be stressed out.

Speaker 9 So that's another thing about stress, and that can cause people to say things that they shouldn't be saying.

Speaker 1 Did they give

Speaker 1 like, did they do thought exercises where it's like it's third and 10 and Jalen Hurts runs to the right and throws it 20 feet out of bounds?

Speaker 1 Like, what are you thinking?

Speaker 9 No, they did not do that.

Speaker 1 Run a simulated game for you? No.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you're down by 17 points, and A.J. Brown's reading a book.
What do you say? Yeah.

Speaker 9 Well, that was a motivational book that keeps him locked in.

Speaker 1 Jake Elliott missed his third PAT of the day.

Speaker 9 That I'm worried about. I'm so worried about that.

Speaker 1 I'm worried about that as well.

Speaker 3 Andy Swan had a great idea. It was

Speaker 3 dress MMA fighters as opposing fan bases. So

Speaker 3 if you go to

Speaker 3 Lincoln Financial Field, have an MMA fighter dressed up in all Packers gear, and then have somebody get in a fight with them, and then those guys get their ass kicked by the MMA fighter.

Speaker 1 I like that. I like that.
So let's talk about the game, Max. It's got to be a Saquon game.
Jalen Hurts has to get out of the concussion protocol.

Speaker 1 And your defense has to win this game. Because I don't know about your offense.

Speaker 1 Assess those.

Speaker 9 Disagree. It's going to be cold.
You're just going to pound the rock.

Speaker 1 Our offense will be good. I did have that question.

Speaker 1 How long do you have to live in warm weather before you get soft?

Speaker 1 Because Matthew Stafford, he played in his only cold game, only game under 40 degrees in the last three years was the game against the Jets a month ago where they won 19-9 and they did not look good.

Speaker 1 He obviously played in Detroit, had to play in NFC North, go to Soldier Field, go to Lambeau.

Speaker 1 Is there an amount of time that you get soft? Yes.

Speaker 3 How quickly? Two years. Two summers.

Speaker 1 Two summers. Especially the older you get.
The older you get, the joints,

Speaker 9 they don't do as well in the cold.

Speaker 3 Yeah, two summers.

Speaker 3 Your first summer, you're like, you know those videos of when they have a monkey and it sees the outdoors for the first time because it's been kept in a lab for its entire life and it's never been like in the grass and it's like, oh shit, this is awesome.

Speaker 3 That's your first summer in warm weather. You're like, this is incredible.
Holy shit.

Speaker 1 You lived in Texas. I love it.

Speaker 9 As you were saying that, you know, from first-hand experience here.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 No, I got real soft. I got real soft over the course of like nine years down there to the point where I moved to New York.
I was like, what the fuck is going on?

Speaker 1 And now it's the flip where I think tomorrow it's going to be 40 degrees in Chicago. It's like, I might wear shorts.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Now I'm hard. Yeah.
I was soft, now I'm hard. But I think after your second summer, then you just expect nice weather.

Speaker 1 Nice weather all the time. Yeah.
So that will be big. Matthew Safford, older, doesn't, you know, doesn't play well in cold weather.

Speaker 1 The other thing I like about this matchup, Max, is the Rams are somehow worse than the Eagles in starting games, which is pretty hard to do.

Speaker 1 But the Rams are 30th in first quarter scoring and 23rd in first half scoring.

Speaker 1 So that's, you know, the Eagles have started slow.

Speaker 1 They shouldn't have. Well, I mean, they got a fumble seven seconds of the game.

Speaker 9 Yeah, that's the opposite of starting slow.

Speaker 1 I understand, but that fumble doesn't happen. They have maybe three points at most in the first half.

Speaker 9 Great touchdown pass, Jahan Dotson, right?

Speaker 3 Great touchdown. It did happen.

Speaker 1 But your offense looked like shit in the first half. Did it not?

Speaker 1 They scored in the first two minutes of the game.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 9 It was 10-0 like that.

Speaker 9 Defense looked great.

Speaker 1 I think your defense is going to win this game. And I also...

Speaker 1 Vic Fangio, against its small sample size, but he played them this year. The Rams scored 20 points.

Speaker 1 And then the famous game in 2018, when the Rams were just ripping through everyone and they came to Soldier Field and Vic Fangio is the DC and they scored six points.

Speaker 1 I think Vic Fangio is going to have, he's going to dial some shit up.

Speaker 9 Nicobi Dean being out is a worry. That's really my only worry on the defensive side of the ball.
We're going to have Oren Burks, who did not look great. He's the one who had

Speaker 9 the fumble on the kickoff to start the game, but defensively he did not look great last year or last week. And then Jeremiah Trotter Jr.

Speaker 9 is rumored to be getting a bunch of snaps this weekend. And he's a rookie and hasn't gotten any playing time.
So that's Nicobi Dean's like the play play caller, the

Speaker 9 middle linebacker that is the leader of the team, and not having him is going to be worrisome for the defense, but I still like, I like our guys.

Speaker 3 I think your offensive line will do a great job going up against one of the Rams' strengths.

Speaker 3 If you were to say Rams' defensive line, probably one of the better units out there, but the Eagles' offensive line, I think, can neutralize him a little bit. Are you ever nervous on punts?

Speaker 3 I know you love Cooper DeGene, but are you nervous the way that he fields punts? Yes.

Speaker 9 We watch the game together on Sunday. Every single time, I just say, just catch it.
Just catch it.

Speaker 1 Punts are the...

Speaker 9 Returning punts is the scariest play in football for me because I feel it has to be the highest

Speaker 9 percentage play of turnover.

Speaker 9 Like, it's very easy to turn the ball over on a punt, and it completely changes the game because it's 60 yards of field position or whatever that number is.

Speaker 9 Just hold on to the football, get the ball back to the offense, run the rock, win the game. Play good defense.
Don't turn the ball over. Run the rock, win the game.
Love that.

Speaker 1 Peace to the game. Are you going to go hair down or up?

Speaker 1 You won against the Packers with hair down.

Speaker 9 No, but I put it up right before halftime because they went into that lull.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you got to go up.

Speaker 9 So I think I maybe start. I think the first couple drives are going to be down.

Speaker 1 Can I make a request? Yep.

Speaker 9 No pigtails.

Speaker 1 Overalls?

Speaker 3 Nailed it.

Speaker 1 Come on. Yep.
You have the Eagles overalls. The people want the Eagles overalls.

Speaker 3 Everybody's been asking for the Eagles. You teased them last year, and he never wore the overalls.
You got to wear the overalls for them.

Speaker 9 Yeah, but if they lose,

Speaker 9 think of how bad of a look that will be if they lose. And I, exactly.
For you, it'll be a good look.

Speaker 9 But Philly fans will be so mad at me.

Speaker 1 So you're just never going to wear these overalls?

Speaker 9 No, I'll wear them.

Speaker 3 No, I don't think that you will. You have to wear them now or never because you're not going to want to win them in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, you've got to work them in.
You should have worked them in the regular season. That was a big mistake.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I know, I should have. But

Speaker 9 there were so many times I thought about it during the regular season, and I was like, well, what if they lose?

Speaker 9 Then it's a bad look. Here's what you should do.

Speaker 1 You should wear the overalls and maybe wear a hoodie over it for the first half.

Speaker 9 I don't hate that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't hate that. Work it in slowly.
Work it in. Yeah.
Okay. I like that.
Feel it out. I like that.
If things are going well, you go overalls. Then you have the overalls for the NFC championship.

Speaker 9 Philly fans listening to this are mad at me and I get an overwhelming response of do not wear the overalls, I can't wear the overalls.

Speaker 3 No, I think you wear them, put the hoodie on over, and if it's going good, then

Speaker 3 you can demonstrate. And then if it's going poorly, you can also take the hoodie off to switch up the juju.

Speaker 1 It gives you multiplicity. Okay, multiplicity in your attack.

Speaker 1 I like it. I like it.
Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 3 Complimentary overalls. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 The last game, best game, Ravens at Bills. Bills are underdogs.
They're one and a half point underdogs.

Speaker 6 The over-under is 51.5.

Speaker 1 I'm so excited for this game. I've been trying.

Speaker 1 I think everyone knows that we're, I think everyone in this room wants the Bills to win because it'd be awesome if they went to the Super Bowl. I think the Ravens are probably the better team overall.

Speaker 1 So I've been trying to make a case for it in my head that the Bills can win this game.

Speaker 1 Here's my case.

Speaker 1 The Bills' defense in the first matchup was not, they didn't have guys.

Speaker 1 They didn't have Milano Johnson, who I think is in concussion protocol right now, and Bernard. All those guys should help with the run.

Speaker 1 The

Speaker 1 Zay Flowers looks like he's not going to play.

Speaker 1 And the last thing is the Ravens' defense has been incredible in the last half of the season, right?

Speaker 1 I did look back, and in the last five games, this is DVOA, who they played. They played the Browns, who are the 32nd defense, or sorry, offense.
The Texans are the 26th.

Speaker 1 The Steelers, the 19th, the Giants, the 28th, and the Eagles, the 13th. Their only loss.
The Bills are obviously a top-five offense.

Speaker 1 And so maybe there's a little inflation in numbers. I don't fully believe everything I'm saying.
I was just trying to make the case.

Speaker 3 Okay, here's another bit of data point for you. I'm all over the weather this weekend.

Speaker 3 Eight degrees in Buffalo, in Orchard Park. The coldest game that Lamar Jackson's ever played.
Guess what it was?

Speaker 3 35. No, 27.
Oh. So kind of cold.
But this is eight degrees. It's very different.

Speaker 1 And he said he wasn't going gloves.

Speaker 3 Also, Lamar, in their earlier matchup this season, the temperature was like 60, and he was wearing a hoodie and a beanie for it. Yeah.
I don't know that Lamar loves the cold. Broward County.

Speaker 3 Broward County.

Speaker 3 I think that it is a very different team that the Buffalo Bills have right now. Homefield advantage is going to make a huge difference.
I have no idea who's going to win the game. Absolutely no idea.

Speaker 3 I've been trying to figure it out too. I think I'm going to bet the over.
I'm going to bet for football.

Speaker 3 I'm going to root for good football. No idea who's going to win this game.
I don't know if they can stop Derrick Henry.

Speaker 3 The Ravens are a much more complete team. The Bills have Josh Allen as an all-pro, nobody else as an all-pro.

Speaker 3 But that said, I don't know. I feel like the Bills are playing their best football right now.

Speaker 1 I just want both quarterbacks to play out of their mind and have one of those classic games where it just comes down to whoever has the ball last.

Speaker 1 I'm so excited for this game. Yeah.
Hank, you think the Ravens are going to kill him? No. Oh, I think the Bills can win.
I want the Bills to win. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But I do think the Ravens on, you know, in totality, are the better team. And Lamar's been out of his mind.
Lamar is probably going to win another MVP.

Speaker 3 Might be his best season ever.

Speaker 1 He's an incredible, incredible quarterback. And he's, you know, he last week in a playoff game was awesome.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm rooting for the Bills, but

Speaker 1 this is going to be a tough game.

Speaker 3 I was shocked to find out that Jim Nance.

Speaker 1 I think the weather matters more in the playoffs if people give it credit for, to PFT's point.

Speaker 1 And Josh Allen.

Speaker 1 He loves that cold. Yeah.

Speaker 3 So Jim Nance is, quote, stoked for this game. Oh, shit.
I never thought that Jim Nance was capable of being stoked. Did he say that with a Stusi shirt on? He said it twice.

Speaker 3 He said, I am stoked for this matchup.

Speaker 1 That is the Callie in him. yeah how old are jim nance's kids that's definitely he just found out his kid is like 12.

Speaker 1 yeah yeah yeah and he lives in cali tony no i think he does have i think he remarried and has a younger kid and he's probably a cali teen tony i'm stoked no cap bruh imagine if he dropped a brah lamar has an incredible run he's like bro brah he he did not just do that fam and lamar jackson bruh He's different.

Speaker 3 He's different, Tony.

Speaker 1 You just don't know how to spell Jim Nance's name, Max. Daughter born in 2014, son born in 2016.

Speaker 3 Okay, so he's got a 10-year-old and

Speaker 1 a nine-year-old. He probably got.
That's getting there. I mean, nine is a nine-year-old maybe skating.
Yeah. He's getting those words.
Stoked.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Tony,

Speaker 3 you know, he's famous for calling plays before they happened. Last week, he called that they were going to get this game at the end of the last game.

Speaker 3 He's like, can't wait to be up in Buffalo next week.

Speaker 3 And I don't know if the network executives got bullied into making that the Nance. No, it was always going to be Jim Nance and Tony Rumble for this game.

Speaker 1 Always.

Speaker 9 What were you going to say? I don't know if kids still say stoked.

Speaker 1 Oh, they don't?

Speaker 9 That seems like kind of.

Speaker 1 I don't know what they do in California, so maybe.

Speaker 9 I would assume that stoked is probably out of

Speaker 6 vernacular.

Speaker 1 I was assuming that. I'm not saying that I'm in vernacular.
Yeah, not in Cali.

Speaker 3 I was assuming that Stoked was big in like the 90s, maybe early 2000s. That's what I'm thinking.
Then it went out, and I was assuming that maybe it just started to come back.

Speaker 1 I think Cali is just part of the language. Definitely.
Some Cali AWLs hit us up. Do you still say stoked? Because I feel like they still say hella, too.

Speaker 9 Hella.

Speaker 9 This Twitter account that

Speaker 9 just covers the world of ski lifts said so stoked to be adding Norway Mountain.

Speaker 9 That sounds like...

Speaker 3 I could also see Jim Nance being big time into skiing.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 He probably spends a month in Aspen each offseason. Stoked.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm so excited for this game.

Speaker 3 After the game, tribute to our darling Jake Marsh. I predict sportsmanship of the year.

Speaker 3 I predict the handshake between Lamar and Josh is going to include some form of now go out there and win the big one. Win it all.

Speaker 1 Go take care of it. Go beat the badman.

Speaker 3 Go beat the badman.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. Should we do our

Speaker 1 parlays? Because we have them. Very close last week with the Jaden Daniels having the kneel down that hurt

Speaker 11 but we are you guys are gonna do the Commanders Lions we'll do the Eagles Rams balls here kids are back in school vacations are over and cozy season is officially on you know what that means bombas season is on bombas makes the most comfortable socks ever and they even make slippers tees underwear all crafted from premium materials perfect for this time of year and cozying up for football watching their slippers are also sherp aligned which feels like you're walking on the clouds.

Speaker 11 Bombus really has it all. And if you head over to bombas.com slash audio, you can use the code audio for 20% off your first purchase.
That's B-O-M-B-A-S.com slash audio.

Speaker 9 Code audio at checkout.

Speaker 1 Okay, I'll give you ours. This is Max and I put this together.

Speaker 1 It is

Speaker 1 a AJ Brown anytime touchdown, over 35 and a half Dallas Goddard receiving yards, the Philadelphia Eagles to win the game. And Kenneth Gainwell, over nine and a half rushing yards.

Speaker 1 It's a four-leg parlay, and it is plus 950 in the DraftKings sports book.

Speaker 3 I like that. How much for Kenny?

Speaker 1 Kenny, over nine and a half. Okay.
I like it. Over nine and a half.

Speaker 3 Hank and I put together a juicy one. Jameer Gibbs, anytime touchdown.
Yep. Zach Ertz, anytime touchdown.
Yep. Austin Eckler, 25 plus receiving yards.

Speaker 1 Plus 800. Plus 800.
I like it. I love it.
Love it.

Speaker 1 Points bonanza. Let's get some games going, boys.

Speaker 1 So excited. So excited for this.

Speaker 1 Bills Ravens. I'm just going to soak in it.
Lay down in it. Yeah.
We need to upset Saturday. Okay.

Speaker 3 For the vibes. Gotcha.

Speaker 6 For your bets.

Speaker 1 All right. Let's get to our interviews.
Everyone's been saying these playoffs have sucked.

Speaker 1 It's just the first round. We'll get to upset Saturday.
Like, we're the weekends made. Playoffs are crazy.
Okay, let's get to our interviews. We got Chris Long and then Adam Schefter.

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Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on our very, very, very good friend. It is two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long.
You can see him on his podcast, which is incredible.

Speaker 1 Anyone who loves ball should be watching, listening to the green light with Chris Long. He's also doing a bunch of media inside the NFL.
He's everywhere. He's everywhere.
It is Chris Long.

Speaker 1 Chris, we wanted you. We've been trying to get you on for a couple of weeks.
It was my fault on a lot of the scheduling, but no, no.

Speaker 6 That was kind of my fault, too. I was like, oh, I have a procedure.
I'm going under.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 And I showed up to the doctor's office. They're like, no, it's just a consultation.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and you didn't eat for an entire day before? Yeah, dude.

Speaker 6 Just a mess over here, but it's good to see all of you. Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 3 First guest in part of my take history, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 6 I was going to point that out, but I didn't want to toot my own whore. That's a big deal.

Speaker 1 That's a fact.

Speaker 3 We were so bad. Why did you ever come back?

Speaker 6 Because

Speaker 6 you guys became really popular.

Speaker 1 Yeah, good answer. That's a good answer.
You got a nine-year anniversary coming up.

Speaker 3 I feel like you came on part of my take and we were so bad that you were like, I have to start a podcast because these fucking assholes are doing one. I'm way better.

Speaker 6 Dude, I just remember it was so fun because like we got my dad on.

Speaker 6 I was doing it on my phone, I think, or maybe my laptop. It was like 200 what?

Speaker 1 What year? 16. Yeah.

Speaker 6 So we were in the dark ages of technology, but I was doing it in my living room.

Speaker 6 My dad came to the door mid-interview and I got Howie on the pod and I was like, hey, it's the guy's from Pardon My Take.

Speaker 1 And he was like, oh, cool.

Speaker 3 It's a podcast that doesn't exist yet.

Speaker 1 Awesome.

Speaker 1 You're going to be sorry.

Speaker 6 And now he's been on your show. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And now full circle.

Speaker 1 All right. So let's talk some ball because you know the NFL better than anyone.
You know, playoff football better than anyone.

Speaker 1 I want to go through every game, and we already taped our preview,

Speaker 1 the Texans versus the Chiefs. And I have to say, we didn't really give a path for the Texans.

Speaker 1 So I don't know if you see this game differently, but we didn't give a full path for the Texans to win this game.

Speaker 1 We just kind of were like, Patrick Mahomes is Patrick Mahomes, and this is what he does, especially in the divisional round.

Speaker 6 I hope it's not a blowout as a fan, because if it is, you're going to be like, damn, we're going to have maybe, maybe, sorry, PFT, maybe two blowouts Saturday.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 6 I'm hoping that both of them are close, honestly.

Speaker 12 But here's the path.

Speaker 6 The path is now they've got Aziz Al Shair back,

Speaker 6 who is legitimately a leader for them and patrolling the middle of the field. Next to nobody's as fast as him at the linebacker position.
You also get Christian Harris.

Speaker 6 They played together for the first time, I think, all year.

Speaker 6 last week. So two really good players in the middle.
I like the corners. The corners played really well.
And also for the Chiefs in that game, like they just got Hollywood Brown back, right?

Speaker 6 And to me, that gave them a new look that maybe Houston wasn't ready for.

Speaker 6 So not saying it's going to be close, but the path is if they can take care of the Mahomes scrambles, which they didn't in that first game, that killed them.

Speaker 6 They can keep it closer. They had a chance in that game.
You remember when they got the ball at midfield after Tank Dell got hurt? Yep. And they were all just like, they were crushed.

Speaker 6 You know, that really,

Speaker 6 some injuries you can kind of move on from. I felt like that one kind of killed them.

Speaker 6 But they got the ball in midfield with a chance after stopping Kansas City on fourth down to take the lead, I believe. And they weren't ready for the moment.
They botched a screen.

Speaker 6 Schultz drops an out. And you're like, you know what? This Kansas City team's been here in this game a thousand times.
Houston has not. And I think that was really apparent watching in the first game.

Speaker 6 We'll see if they got better.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we always make the case because, you know, people will say, oh, Kansas City's lucky and, you know, they get the flags and all that stuff. And we don't, though.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we've always been on the side of it's not luck. It's the fact that they've been in all these situations.
And when you get, and if you make a single mistake, they will pounce on it.

Speaker 1 And that's the difference between a championship team and a team that's just a playoff team.

Speaker 6 That's right. And I think also when you watch like Ken City's offense, and it might be different now, they started to open things up a little bit more.

Speaker 6 I think part of that is having Joe at tackle, Joe Tooney, who makes a big difference. Like that left tackle spot was a revolving door.
They couldn't figure it out.

Speaker 6 At some point, they said, hey, we'll put a guard out here who's pretty good.

Speaker 6 He's an all-pro at guard, but we'll put him out here because we're going to prioritize our best player being able to operate. And so I think

Speaker 6 what they were doing to that point was, let's get into third and manageable, which they're so good at. If they're in third and three or third and four, you feel like you can't get off the field.

Speaker 6 And so I think that's the key to the game. If I'm Houston, you kind of say, fuck it.
Like, let's be aggressive

Speaker 6 early downs, like, get them behind the sticks a little bit. If they burn us, they burn us.
But we'll see. I think the slow start is another, you know, little hopeful nugget for them.

Speaker 6 You know, the fact that the Chiefs haven't played and it feels like a month.

Speaker 6 And, you know, if you remember the last team to jump them in divisional round off a buy was Houston. It's a totally different team now.

Speaker 6 But you remember that game, coincidentally, on the way to New Orleans, that trip we were just talking about. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 That's 24-0 in the second quarter.

Speaker 6 I watched her on the plane on the way to New Orleans.

Speaker 3 then it was like immediately over after that moment. So as a defensive end, you were talking about like keeping them in the pocket, limiting the scrambling stuff.

Speaker 3 Has there ever been like a game plan that you've had going into a game where you're like, okay, we've got a great idea of how we need to limit this quarterback.

Speaker 3 And you get like really detailed with your preparation. And then you get in the game and it absolutely does not work.

Speaker 6 Yeah, like any time we ever played a running quarterback. Like the coaches, I mean, and now it's more the norm.
Like where guys, if you can't move,

Speaker 6 there's not many like you. And so I think more guys are like Jayden, not many like Jaden Daniels, but where third and short, you know, some element of quarterback run is a threat.

Speaker 6 And I think with Mahomes, it's very,

Speaker 6 it's very unique because he drifts if you watch him, and it makes playing offensive line for him a little bit difficult. It's like best job in the world, but he might be at nine yards.

Speaker 6 He might be at 11. He might be at 12.
He's going to step up.

Speaker 6 So rushing him is not as simple as like, you know, staying down the middle and power rushing a tackle, which can piss a defensive end off when all week you hear, we got to cage this guy, right?

Speaker 6 Which is basically like, we got to keep him in the pocket. That kind of takes your fastball away.

Speaker 6 And a lot of times at the end of those games, anyways, you get, you get your throat ripped out by, you know, some quarterback that you gave him too long to throw the ball.

Speaker 6 And then the DC is yelling at you, like, why didn't you rush him?

Speaker 6 You know, so it's frustrating. And then you'll play guys who do the read option.
You see, like Lamar, you'd have coaches that would say, hey, just blow up the mesh. Get both of them.

Speaker 1 Yeah, just tackle two guys.

Speaker 6 Physically impossible. Yeah.

Speaker 6 So, you know, like just having a running quarterback, you allot so much time during the week to things that might not even happen, you know, to scenarios that might not come up.

Speaker 6 And that can take you away from doing the meat and potatoes.

Speaker 3 Makes sense. So you sound like you're on the Texans, too.

Speaker 6 Well, inevitably, I'm not going to bet it like a nine-point favorite. That's not fun.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Right.
Like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 6 I'll probably end up doing something stupid like a teaser or some dumb shit like that.

Speaker 3 So that's actually not a bad tease. What you would tease him down to a point, point and a half.

Speaker 6 You could tease Kansas City down. Yeah.
But then that means you probably got to find a dance partner, and that's probably Detroit.

Speaker 6 But Vegas knows a lot of teasers on Saturday are going to be just that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's going to be everyone's.

Speaker 6 Somebody's going to keep it close Saturday. And I don't know.
It could be this team. I don't know.

Speaker 1 It could be your guys. Yeah.

Speaker 3 So let's talk about that game. I gave my keys to the game already.
You probably know a little bit better. You're going to get a little more granular than I did.

Speaker 3 My keys to the game were basically just kill everybody. You said fuck them up.

Speaker 1 Yeah, fuck them up.

Speaker 3 Kill everybody. And then Jaden Daniels.

Speaker 1 To beat the Detroit Lions, you have to be the Detroit Lions.

Speaker 6 Right.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 6 you got to go for it every fourth down, right? Which you guys are very good at. I mean, like, you were 87% the other night before you got stopped, so it's probably down to like 85.
But

Speaker 6 on the season, I think the key to this game is y'all got to get stops in the red zone. Like, Detroit's going to move the ball.

Speaker 6 Can you get them to be like 205 in the red zone?

Speaker 6 Or, you know, like there was a game last year versus Vegas where they totally shit the bed in the red zone. Like, can you recreate that issue for them? I don't know that you can.

Speaker 6 It's just going to come down to being aggressive. And if Aaron Glenn wants to play so much, man, I actually have a lot of faith in Jaden.
You know,

Speaker 6 you're probably going to have to a lot of spy, right?

Speaker 6 And you can't take Anzalone out of coverage. He's too good.

Speaker 6 You know, is it Jack Campbell? Is it somebody else? Like, I don't know. But Jaden Daniels with his legs.
I kind of feel like

Speaker 6 we're just building a path for the underdogs here. Yeah.
The path for Detroit is bludging them.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 You know, like David Montgomery, he's on track to play.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Crazy.

Speaker 6 It's like nuts. Like

Speaker 6 this team is so tough. Everything they've been dealt this year, they've just dealt with it.
I mean, and

Speaker 6 Dan Campbell, you guys, I know you guys love him, but as a football player, the longer he coaches this team, the more I'm impressed with him. I mean, they really have not flinched all year long.

Speaker 1 I got a question about the Detroit defense, and you can explain this a lot better than we know that the green dot is important.

Speaker 1 Alex Anzalone comes back week 18, he puts the green dot back on.

Speaker 6 Explain it to us why it's so important and how much it can change if you lose the guy who is your defensive captain getting everyone in the right spot well look you get home field advantage that's a big deal right like it's a big deal for a lot of reasons but it's really loud in a playoff game at home and you talk about communication like i remember being in st.

Speaker 6 Louis and we never played in the playoffs but there were a hundred instances of me screaming at James Laronitis like what the fuck is the call am I stemming like what's happening here like there

Speaker 6 he's like a he's like a service agent on the phone like a bunch of people are calling him at the same time, like whether it's me, the other D-tackle, somebody needs a call in the secondary.

Speaker 6 We need to figure out what that call was tagged with. There's just a ton of communication issues, but then not only that, he's a great cover guy.

Speaker 6 And in the NFL now,

Speaker 6 we kind of went through this thing where backers, not important. Coincidentally, running backs, not important.
They're important again. But backers are really important.

Speaker 6 You play, and we're not talking about the commanders so much, but any of these like souped up West Coast offenses, like you've got to have guys in the middle that are rangy and that can cover.

Speaker 6 I mean, like the Eagles, we're going to talk about them in a second. They lose Nacoby Dean in a game where, you know, Matt Stafford is going to be trying to chunk the

Speaker 6 intermediate part of the field all day long. And you see it like when they play Minnesota, Minnesota gives up a lot of chunks in the middle.

Speaker 6 Having a dominant backer in the middle of the field, like imagine if you have like, I'm not comparing Anzalone, but to illustrate the importance of the position, Fred Warner changes the entire game.

Speaker 6 Right. You know, and I think like for the Bills, when we get to that game, one thing we'll talk about is they were down three backers in that first game.

Speaker 6 So it matters, not just having the green dot, but having good players in the middle of the field.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you think any chance the Lions break out the Todd Bulls defense, the double quarterback spy?

Speaker 3 Todd did that at one point. I'd never seen that before.

Speaker 1 I don't know why.

Speaker 3 It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. It didn't work.

Speaker 6 I don't know why Todd Bulls did a lot of things he did down the stretch. Like, I was really disappointed in that Bucs team.

Speaker 6 Like, I kind of, you know, when you, when you pick a team to win the division, you kind of get married to them and you fall in love with them and you justify all their mistakes.

Speaker 6 And you're like, well, that wasn't that bad what they did in Dallas with the season on the line. Like, they're better than that.

Speaker 6 But in the biggest game, they kind of pissed down their leg with procedural stuff.

Speaker 6 And the point I want to make is the commanders, they've won a lot of close games this year, including that game. I mean, when they beat Chicago, Stevenson was being an idiot.

Speaker 6 When they beat Atlanta, there was bad clock management by Raheem Morris.

Speaker 6 And then last week, the Bucs with the third and inches, with the jet sweep that they drop on the ground, like there's a lot of teams that have been fucking it up, not to take anything away from the commanders in close games.

Speaker 6 Detroit doesn't do that. Like, they're as well coached on both sides of the ball as any team in the league.

Speaker 1 Are you worried when you talk about the red zone? Obviously, I assume that Dan Campbell's going to keep coaching the way he's coached and anything fourth and four or less, he's going to go for.

Speaker 1 Are you in the mindset? Because I've seen people be like, oh, I can't wait till Dan Campbell fucks this up again in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 I've been a big believer in like, dude, he knows what he's doing, and it's also not a secret to his team. I think when we're sitting on our couch, like, what is he doing?

Speaker 1 It's going to be so deflating. Those guys in the huddle, they know

Speaker 1 what he's going to do, so they're prepared for it if they don't get it.

Speaker 6 Dude, I think it's twofold. Like, number one, the schematic part of it, which is like the plays they're calling on fourth down are working

Speaker 6 even when they don't execute it. The plays were there last year in those big moments against San Francisco.

Speaker 6 It's like Shane Steichen last year with the division on the line, giving the ball to Gardner Minshew and throwing the ball in the flat. Right.

Speaker 6 And everybody's second guess is the call, but it's the execution of the call. So the right calls are being made.
And I think also you listen to his players.

Speaker 6 After that game, their faith in his way of doing things things was unwavering and so like that's a big part of it and i i liken it to like if you have a a dad who walks around beating guys up and like if he turns down a fight you're like dad wait that's not who you are right i feel like every time dan stares a fourth down in the eyes like it's like a game of chicken and all his kids are watching and if he turns it down

Speaker 1 they all look at him like what the fuck was that about yeah and this game is like literally my dan could beat up your dad yeah my dad could beat up your dad. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Exactly what it is. And from a defensive perspective, like I know people will say like, oh, the defense must be deflated when they don't get the fourth down.

Speaker 1 I feel like the defense knows what the offense is going to do.

Speaker 1 Like that's part of it, it's complimentary that they know you're going to probably steal a couple and you might have a couple where you get put in a bad field position.

Speaker 6 Well, that's what it comes down to for me is like when you play Detroit.

Speaker 6 And being on a defense knowing, it's a lot of the reason I think Greg Olson has spoken to this, like decisions to force a team to drive the length of the field or have to kick a field goal at the end of the game like what you do offensively dictates the tone of the next possession the tone of a possession where an offense has four downs is uneasy for a defense right you know like everything you do is different and i think you're always in that mode playing them and it can create a lot of discomfort that's why i think like early down pressure You know, like when they play Buffalo, the reason Buffalo won that game is because they got him off the field like twice in the first half.

Speaker 6 And if you're to believe that the commanders are going to beat man coverage and run up some points, then all you have to do in this scenario to keep it close is get him off the field once or twice.

Speaker 6 The way you do that, in my opinion, is time up a blitz when they're going to play action and get Jared when he turns his back and try to cook something up on second down, get him in.

Speaker 6 third and 12, get him in second and 13, something like that. And then you got a shot.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a very tough battle.
The Lions are obviously a great team. I think Dan Campbell has done a great job playing into the whole macho man Dan thing.

Speaker 3 And he throws like a lot of red meat out to the press a lot. He's like, yeah, I do push-ups in the shower.
That's where I work out.

Speaker 3 Is that what he said? Yeah, he said he gets his workouts in when he's in the shower. He says, you know, he'll bite a kneecap off.
We're going to drag you down. We're going to drown you.

Speaker 6 I'm more concerned with like walking into the shower to try to get a shower if I'm like the O-line coach.

Speaker 6 Dan's doing naked push-ups in the shower.

Speaker 3 I think he means like at home that he works

Speaker 3 at play.

Speaker 1 Not in the communal shower.

Speaker 3 But again, again i don't i don't necessarily buy into everything that he says like that because i think he does a very good job of playing this persona and then hoping people underestimate him oh i'm and he's a super smart guy because if you look at how aggressive he is he actually just goes for it when you're supposed to go for it based on math so like he he knows those numbers he's the guy that like you know

Speaker 6 What you see is what you get, but there's also a totally different element to him as you just talked about. And like think of who he learned from.

Speaker 6 Sean Payton's one of the most aggressive guys in the NFL, like faking a punt last week,

Speaker 6 stuff like that, the Super Bowl, the onside kick. So he's got that like Sean Payton edge to him.

Speaker 6 And he's also got the intellect that comes with Sean Payton's one of the greatest coaches to ever coach, in my opinion.

Speaker 6 And he's so ball smart. He got all those situational nuggets from him.
And then he puts his very physical like caveman edge on it. And you kind of, I liken a team to a Ferrari with mud tires.
Like

Speaker 6 they can do anything. You can can go four-wheel drive, they can go 200 miles an hour, and that's what the Ben Johnson element gives them.
The offensive line's awesome.

Speaker 6 Everything they do looks the same. It's all in sync.

Speaker 1 They're incredible. Yeah.

Speaker 6 But they could lose two coordinators.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.
Good point.

Speaker 1 They could lose two coordinators. All right.
So

Speaker 1 Sunday, what's wrong with Jalen Hurts? What's wrong with the Eagles offense?

Speaker 6 Well, in this scenario, I thought it was the game plan. I thought the passing concepts looked like last year, and any Eagles fans know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 6 like spacing, very vanilla, not enough quick game.

Speaker 6 But I also think the game kind of played out in a way where they knew when they jumped on that football and turned it into six in the first five minutes of the game, Jordan Love can't hang.

Speaker 6 He might be dinged. Our defense is, I mean, they're physical.
They're really good. And I think they just kind of played the game out in a way.
that suited that, to be honest, very shitty game plan.

Speaker 6 Right.

Speaker 6 Now, they're not going to be so lucky lucky this week if they do that.

Speaker 6 In my notes here, I got written down McVay's script versus Philly's slow starts.

Speaker 6 That is it. You know, like to me, how do you start this game? And I think if you look at the second half, especially of that first game, Brandon Fisk is like 290.
He's a great player. Love him.

Speaker 6 Turner, great player. Love him.
297.

Speaker 6 The N's, they're really good rushers. I don't know if they can set an edge for 60 minutes.

Speaker 6 And, you know, we saw that last game with the interior, that defensive line, Landon Dickerson, Juergens. Juergens is fucking huge, man.
You know, he's standing next to the other guys.

Speaker 6 I was just there last week. He's standing next to the other guys.
He looks small, but he's like a WWE wrestler. Like, he's got that kind of build.
And, you know, the guards are big, powerful.

Speaker 6 The tackles are big and powerful. I would just lean on these guys.
So

Speaker 6 that's it. The concerns I have is like with Nakobi Dean down, as I alluded to, Stafford in the middle of the field, if he's got time,

Speaker 6 I think there could be some uncomfortable moments in the past defense.

Speaker 3 Yeah, where's your heart at in this game, Chris? This is the Chris Longbowl. It is the Rams, Eagles.

Speaker 6 My heart's with the Eagles, man. It's super weird because, you know, playing there the last two years of my career, when St.

Speaker 6 Louis cut me after eight years and moved, it felt to me like, all right, well, I am a Ram and I do feel a lot of pride when I watch like Jared Verse play or Nico or not Nicobi D, I'm all over the place or Byron Young or the two interior guys I just talked about.

Speaker 6 I take pride in like, oh, there's another group in horns like R D line back in the day. Like there is a sense of pride there.
And I still talk to people in that organization. I have no bad blood.

Speaker 6 But when the team moves across the country, it's just, it doesn't feel like home as much. You don't get out there.
And then obviously being a St.

Speaker 6 Louis Ram, I'm always real cognizant of like, they have Super Bowl parties without the game on. That's how much they hate Stan Cronkie and the LA Rams and the concept of it.

Speaker 6 And for me, I don't have that same vitriol, but I was actually supposed to go out last week and be legend of the game.

Speaker 6 And of course, the game gets moved, forest fires, the whole thing. So that got rain checked.
And then I ended up in Philly. When I go to Philly, man, it just feels like home.

Speaker 6 You know, it's like the most recent thing I did. And that city, like what we did there, excuse me for really enjoying being there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it makes sense.

Speaker 3 It makes perfect.

Speaker 1 Perfect.

Speaker 6 We walk around that stadium. Bo told a story on our pod this week.
We're like, it's legit. Like, the people in the yellow jackets are like, wherever you want to go.

Speaker 1 I don't know if they want to hear that.

Speaker 6 Like, Dom's like, where do you want to go? Come on, Boo. He walked me in the locker room.
Supposedly, Bo was in there before the game, sat Bo down in the coach's locker room, gave him a cannoli.

Speaker 6 He has like a stack of cannolis in his locker.

Speaker 3 Big Dom does? That's so awesome.

Speaker 6 And he just pulled out a cannoli. He's like, hey, just you and Kelsey, just take a seat.
Wait, Chris will be down here soon.

Speaker 6 So I just, the feeling you get when you go back, it's hard for me to say my heart's with anybody but the Eagles, but I think it's going to be a great game.

Speaker 6 And I think Matt Stafford is one of the best quarterbacks left in the damn playoffs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Future Hall of Fame.

Speaker 3 He looked good last week. He looked kind of shaky in December, but what we saw last week, like my concerns with Matt Stafford, I think they're gone.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I agree. Him playing outside, that's kind of a different story.
But

Speaker 3 yeah, he looked so good last week that now I'm like, yeah, the Rams can do it.

Speaker 6 They're scary, man. Like, when you, this is the one matchup for them.
Like, if they can win this game, uh-oh, look out.

Speaker 6 Because the one matchup I worried about for them was versus this offensive line in Saquon.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 1 How much does uh we were talking about it when we were doing our preview that we don't probably take into account cold weather enough when it comes to these playoff games.

Speaker 1 How much does it really suck? And who does it suck most for?

Speaker 6 The fast guys.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 6 I think,

Speaker 6 you know,

Speaker 6 like we got more meat on our bones. And for me, as a guy who was like quick, athletic, but not fast, I always felt like when it got cold, if I could just run the same speed,

Speaker 6 then I was as fast as the other guys. And I just think playoff football is better in the cold.
Like, I'm one of these outdoor freaks.

Speaker 1 I agree.

Speaker 6 Like, you know, I'm watching the Miami Dolphins play, and, you know, it's complicated for me anyways, in Kansas City last year, and everybody's like, this is inhumane.

Speaker 6 Like, people are getting frostbite.

Speaker 6 People lost limbs. I'm like, hey, that was incredible.

Speaker 6 It's just, there's something about it. And yeah, I'm a little twisted.
I played football, but where you see people have to adapt to like totally unnatural shit and how they respond.

Speaker 6 Like, you know, and in some ways, The best team doesn't always win in that circumstance, but that's what it's about. And football is like reacting to whatever's on the plate that day.

Speaker 6 And I think it's cool as hell to like turn on TV in January and see smoke coming out of people's helmets and shit. You know,

Speaker 6 to see quarterbacks wearing gloves. And like, I do think it affects the fast guys more.

Speaker 6 I think the big guys like it. And then we always have our conversations about like, do you wear sleeves? Do you not wear sleeves? That sort of thing.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.
So is Derrick Henry a big guy or is he a fast guy?

Speaker 12 I think he's both. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So that's a problem. So he unfortunately he's both.

Speaker 6 I was just looking looking at Brian Baldinger's social about

Speaker 6 them running Wildcat, and it was like all 22 end zone, and it was from Pittsburgh's side. So he's the furthest guy from the camera, but he's dwarfing Patrick Queen and Landon Roberts.

Speaker 6 He looks so unnaturally damn big, and he doesn't slow down, man.

Speaker 6 And so, yeah, they got to have 11 hats to the ball this weekend. Yeah.

Speaker 3 So the Bills linebackers, you talk about it, it's a big difference from the first time they played.

Speaker 6 how how do they slow down derrick henry you you have you have to commit to i mean it's like listen i understand last week i think part of running lamar is to put something on tape where you're saying early in that game hey we're not always going to give like he's going to pull this ball and that happened at the cost of you know eight ten quarterback runs in the first half i would force them

Speaker 6 to pull the ball in the option, you know, when all things are considered, like it's 50-50.

Speaker 6 There are times where I saw Pittsburgh and their linebackers up on the line. It's really hard to have the quarterback, especially Lamar,

Speaker 6 from a place on the field like that. You got to be really careful about where you have your second-level defenders popping off to handle the option on the pull.

Speaker 6 I would be crashing on Derrick Henry and forcing. the key to the entire game to run the ball 15 times.
Like, you know, the attrition of that, you never know.

Speaker 6 And so I would force Lamar to run the football.

Speaker 6 I think, obviously, you're going to have to play some base, but you feel a lot better about it. It wasn't just Milano.

Speaker 6 They were down Bernard. They were down Taryn Johnson, who's a really important box player.
He's a little guy, but he'll play big.

Speaker 6 And so, you know, when you run out Spectre, Dorian Williams, and Morrow, I think it was, to play linebacker against the Baltimore Ravens, and the first play of the game is a trap for 87 yards, that changes everything.

Speaker 6 The mood of the game, the tone tone of the game, how you call the game. It was like Baltimore got whatever they wanted after that.
And a lot of it is because they just play the numbers game.

Speaker 6 If you're going to stack the box, they're going to play the numbers game outside. I think Monkin's done a great job with the RPOs, with the screens, jet motion.

Speaker 6 So it's not just a slug fest, like you also have to tackle on the perimeter. But if Zay's down, and Orlofsky pointed this out on ESPN, God knows ball.
He does.

Speaker 1 I love Dan. Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 6 But he pointed this out with Zay Flowers down.

Speaker 6 not only can you play more man,

Speaker 6 but the run fits are better off for that. So I think this team's changed a lot.
And for Baltimore fans, I'll say this: this is the best team in the playoffs coming in. Yeah.

Speaker 6 And they played fantastic down stretch. They've changed a lot too.

Speaker 6 You know, Hamilton moving to safety, putting Washington at safety, putting the fire out at safety was huge. I think your guy Eddie Jackson was there at some point this year.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 And in one of those games, it was like,

Speaker 6 man, the safety play was bad. So they improved that.

Speaker 6 I think another thing is,

Speaker 6 you know, that game was one of those games for Buffalo where it became apparent they got to go get an outside guy to pair with Coleman. And so they get out and they get Cooper.

Speaker 1 They don't really have a number one.

Speaker 6 I think their number one is Shakir.

Speaker 6 Agreed. I think he's the most important guy.
And he left that game in the second quarter, I believe it was.

Speaker 6 So he didn't get a full day's work. I'm not making excuses for the Bills, but I think even Harbaugh said it like this, you can throw that first matchup out the window.
And usually you can.

Speaker 6 I remember 2018, we're defending the Super Bowl. We played, we started 4-6,

Speaker 6 and we played down in New Orleans. They beat us like rented mules.
It was like 47-7,

Speaker 6 and Peyton didn't let off the gas pedal, fucking ran the score up. And we play him a second time.

Speaker 6 It's a low-scoring ball game, and we're a couple big mistakes away from winning that game and going back to the NFC championship. So things change a lot in three months.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I also think Sean McDermott's a great defensive coach. Like, I think he will figure out something, a wrinkle to throw at the Ravens.

Speaker 1 When you are talking about like a wrinkle, so to speak, let's even go back week 18, the Vikings and the Lions.

Speaker 1 It felt like the Lions had something they hadn't shown before, and they did a great job with Sam Darnold.

Speaker 1 How long when you go in with a game plan, you're like, we're going to throw something at them that they haven't seen?

Speaker 1 How long does it usually last where it's like, you know, until it's like, all right, now they're going to be able to adjust?

Speaker 6 Well, if it's one thing,

Speaker 6 it can be fixed pretty quickly on the sideline on the tablets. And usually that was above my pay grade when I was a player.

Speaker 6 You know, they were usually arguing about it in the linebacker circle or whatever. It's like this motion means this or, hey, they're trying to outleverage us doing this.
And you make one adjustment.

Speaker 6 But I think a lot of the times it can really, that counter punch can knock you off your feet for the entire game or the halftime.

Speaker 6 I felt felt like, I felt like Detroit, you brought that up, and the Rams took that same game plan

Speaker 6 to play Minnesota. And, you know, I think when you watch Minnesota, for instance, they knew that like the longer and the down you go, the more dangerous Minnesota is.

Speaker 6 Your zones expand, they find creases, but they also know that as good as Darnold has been statistically against the Blitz, this offensive line was in bad shape.

Speaker 6 And so I think you come into the game and you're worried about protection, but you don't think they're going to blitz that much. And I think then you go play LA and it's in the back of your head.

Speaker 6 And this is what makes, you know, what happened to Minnesota so like it wasn't going to change. They knew coming to that game, the same thing could happen.

Speaker 6 And they didn't call their best game, but it still happened.

Speaker 6 And so sometimes it's just like, hey, we got you where we want you. And we're going to find out early in the game if you can block the edges.

Speaker 6 Like the other night, there was a sack on Sam in the first quarter where it was like a sandwich. Yeah.
And both of those those ends just fucking ran through the tackles.

Speaker 6 That's like a code red thing.

Speaker 6 And sometimes you don't know how Brian O'Neill's anchor is going to hold up. You don't know how the left tackles anchor is going to hold up.
You should have from the first matchup.

Speaker 6 But yeah, it can really knock you off your feet.

Speaker 1 That's my favorite. One of my favorite parts about football is like Sean McDermott can throw a wrinkle in there.

Speaker 1 You can even steal one possession, kind of going back to like your, you know, the Commanders Lions game. You can get him off the field once and a half.
That could be the difference.

Speaker 1 Especially in this game where it's Josh and Lamar who could score every possession if they, if, you know, if they're playing well.

Speaker 6 I think it could be a lower scoring game. I don't know.
Like, you know, I think for Buffalo, the key is going to be being able to run the football, obviously. And I think they've done a great job.

Speaker 6 Both of these teams, you kind of get lost in the shuffle talking about Baltimore, who does a great job, obviously, but Buffalo and shout out to their offensive line coach, Aaron Cromer, and that whole group.

Speaker 6 Like, they've done a great job. And they were in a lot of of gap scheme last week and just kicked it.
If you didn't watch the Denver game,

Speaker 6 and most of us did, and I was drunk and tailgating watching, but then when I went back, I was like, holy shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 It was like, and this is an example, like, oh, early and often in the game, Vance Joseph probably had to contend with, oh, we can't stop the run. Yeah.
Yeah. Which puts you in a bind.

Speaker 6 And I think for Buffalo, what makes them good is I alluded to them not having a number one. They really do.
And that's why people were doubting Josh at the beginning of the season.

Speaker 6 He's got a lot of good options, whether it's the tight end, whether it's Shakir, whether it's Coleman, and they're all different. And now you got Cooper.

Speaker 6 And another thing is the backs out of the backfield. The backs out of the backfield can be a problem in this game.
So I would look for that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, shout out to Aaron Cromer punched a kid. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's interesting because he doesn't like have a true number one, but I look at it like he just doesn't have a receiver where everybody is asking, why isn't this guy getting enough targets? Right. So

Speaker 3 it's good. He's got really good options.
Like Coleman's been pretty good as a rookie. And Shakir, the more I watch Shakir, I'm like, yeah, this guy is a legitimate star.
He's awesome.

Speaker 6 He's awesome.

Speaker 1 He is awesome.

Speaker 6 And, you know, when you look at the Ravens, Hamilton is the guy you got to know where he is. And it's easier now with them moving him to safety primarily.
You know where he's going to be.

Speaker 6 I think this is a game where you could get after Brandon Stevens. Yeah.
Not to call somebody out, but like if you're playing the Ravens, you take your chances outside.

Speaker 6 Whereas last week with the corners they have, they were like, Hey, it's going to be run game, or work the middle of the field, and that's what Josh did. This week is about outside the numbers.

Speaker 3 Yeah, so if you're looking at all the coaches still remaining, and we're just talking about like during the game, X's nose during the game, and being a tactician in between the white lines, what's who is the best coach that's remaining?

Speaker 6 Well, I got to give my respect to Andy Reed, number one, right? And part of that is the extension of who you have as your coordinator.

Speaker 6 He's got Steve Spagnolo, who is a total stud and

Speaker 6 has turned down opportunities to go back and interview as a head coach before.

Speaker 6 So I put Andy Reid number one. And then number two, I think Sean McVay is a wizard.
I really do. I think Sean McVay is one of the best coaches of our generation.
I think he's that good.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 I got to put Dan up there because of his coordinators and his cutting-edge kind of decision-making in-game.

Speaker 1 Dan Quinn, yeah, I agree.

Speaker 6 You know, and then I'm not going to ignore my boy Siriani.

Speaker 6 You know, I know that there's a a hook here and I got the Eagles hat on, but you're asking about tacticians and he doesn't call plays. But I just want to point this out.

Speaker 6 Like, you know, the record is the record.

Speaker 6 And I think anytime you listen to players talking about his way of communicating, motivating, having the team ready to play, he's had some bumps in the road, but he's also like our age, dude. Like,

Speaker 6 not to say McVay's not young. But like, I think he can grow and he's grown even in this year alone, I think.
And hiring Vic Fangio was fantastic.

Speaker 6 I mean, Vic has been like, you know, you think if you had to take a head coaching job tomorrow, like one of us did, we would probably hire a former head coach to be on the staff somewhere, right?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 6 And I think Vic adds a lot in this game and on the defensive side of the ball. So I just think it's Reed, McVay,

Speaker 6 in that order. And then you've got a lot of guys that don't call plays.

Speaker 1 Harbaugh doesn't call plays.

Speaker 6 Siriani doesn't call plays. Dan Quinn's a defensive guy.

Speaker 6 You know, it's fun to see that defensive guys are back in in the NFL and like culture guys too, and they're showing up this deep into the season.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. It is.

Speaker 1 I had a question about coaching because we have the coaching, hiring, and firing going on right now. When you went through a few different coaches

Speaker 1 with

Speaker 1 the Rams. What is it like when you're sitting there waiting for the new coach? And

Speaker 1 what are you hoping for? And

Speaker 1 what happens when that new coach gets hired and how quickly they can maybe change the culture or maybe they don't?

Speaker 6 Well, there's two things. Number one, you want, and this isn't the most important thing.
Number one thing is winning, right? But number two thing is like, what kind of scheme do they run?

Speaker 6 You know, who's going to be the coordinator? How am I getting along with my new D-line coach?

Speaker 6 Is the scheme going to be prohibitive of me like taking that jump?

Speaker 6 Like when I was a young player and watching Spags getting hired, I was really excited, but we weren't good enough to turn that thing around.

Speaker 6 And the thing I didn't think about was like, what kind of defense does he run? Like, that's what I should have been thinking about. And that was different.
Like, I had to play in a six technique.

Speaker 6 And, you know, like, the defense was a little bit different than the one I played in the year before. And then when fish came, you know, I'm like, okay, I'm back in a wide nine.

Speaker 6 This is a lot of fun. You start calling players that played for him, you know, or played for him.
You know, if you got somebody in a Rolodex, you hit them up.

Speaker 6 But it's usually like, it's like opening a Christmas present, but you have to do it like every week if you're a St. Louis ramp.
Right. You know, like it feels like it happens way too much.

Speaker 6 But by Jeff Fisher, I was like, hey, whatever happens, happens. And he ended up being like my favorite coach that I had in St.
Louis. So,

Speaker 6 you know, yeah, I think I had a total of like five or six head coaches.

Speaker 6 If you include like interims and guys that came and went in St. Louis.

Speaker 6 But, you know, it keeps you hungry if you're on a bad team and the coaches change all the time because you got to prove it to the next group. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's true.

Speaker 6 It makes it harder, but it also keeps you hungry.

Speaker 3 And I feel like we're right at that time in the cycle where Spaggs is starting to go to, he's going to get some interviews. People are going to be interested in having Spaggs as a head coach.

Speaker 6 At some point, I feel like the thing I mentioned, culture guys, defense, I mean, that's kind of back in vogue.

Speaker 6 And I think at some point, like things can get stale. It hasn't with him.
I think maybe the day Chris Jones moves on, I would consider it. Yeah.

Speaker 6 But I think the interesting job right now that we're talking about is Vegas. I texted Dan the other day.
It's kind of a wild card, but it's starting to shape up a little bit.

Speaker 6 The fact that y'all, would y'all send a private plane down to pick him up to come interview in Chicago? Yeah.

Speaker 6 You know, I don't think it'd be the worst hire in the world. Like, I think court of public opinion has eventually come around on McCarthy.

Speaker 6 There's some guys that are never going to like him, but the players like him. And at the very least, I think they have a high floor with him.

Speaker 6 But what that tells me is that Ben Johnson might not be the guy. And it makes sense because of the GM alignment.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 You know, if you guys have a GM in place, like Ben has made it, and Ben's done a really good job.

Speaker 6 Sometimes you can make yourself really valuable, not just by your play calling, but turning down the job last year. It adds a little bit of mystique, right? Like you're like, I don't put out.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right, right. Everyone wants you a little more.

Speaker 1 But you're exactly right.

Speaker 1 Like, this is going to be a very interesting test case because if he takes the Raiders' job without a, seemingly without a quarterback, turns down the Jaguars and the Bears, he's basically saying, like, you guys should have fired your GM.

Speaker 1 Tom Brady. Yeah, and you should have fired your GM.
You should have given me a shot to bring in my own GM. Like, that was stupid of you.

Speaker 6 And hopefully, you're not kicking yourself because, you know, if he's as good as people say he's going to be, like, then maybe you are.

Speaker 6 But I think what's interesting about the Vegas job is like Mark Davis is not known to be a cash fluid guy. Yeah.
And I hate to talk about me and PFT's good buddy. Yeah, good friend.

Speaker 6 And we met at the win

Speaker 1 by the koi pond.

Speaker 3 I was so high on mushrooms.

Speaker 1 I was, I was, hey,

Speaker 1 hand up. Hey, we had just come from, I don't know where we had come from, but I was like, there he is.

Speaker 6 Let's talk to him.

Speaker 6 But, but there is a rumor that he's floated like a really big number.

Speaker 6 And if he did that, what a burn the chips like move that would be, especially considering all the coaches that he's had to buy out. And, you know, I think the Tom Brady effect is real.

Speaker 6 for Ben Johnson. He must really think like this is a valuable thing.
And he must have been given some assurances, along with the fact fact they fired Tom Tolesco, the GM, last week.

Speaker 6 You know, I think that bodes well for Vegas. But, you know, the most interesting thing is this weekend, Tom's going to be calling that game.

Speaker 6 And it's going to be so funny to hear him try not to talk bad or

Speaker 6 just listen for the dynamic as the game goes on. Yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 3 Pig Cat's never said a bad thing about Mike McCarthy before.

Speaker 1 So I think he's totally cool.

Speaker 1 He'll be fine.

Speaker 1 He'll be good.

Speaker 1 How do we feel about it?

Speaker 6 You remember we talked midway through the season, and you were getting excited off the Jacksonville game.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 And I tried to bring you back down to Earth, but I think he's going to be okay, man.

Speaker 1 I like the kids.

Speaker 1 The way I'd say it is, you can't script a worse set of circumstances. And that obviously makes me look stupid because I said it was the best set of circumstances, which I'm a moron.
But

Speaker 1 next year will be very telling because

Speaker 1 he literally went through three OCs, a head coach change.

Speaker 1 The interim was his OC for three games. He looked good.
So it was a mess.

Speaker 1 Hopefully the Emerin gets figured out.

Speaker 6 Dude, I was impressed with him this year as bad as things were and as bad as he played at times. Like I was impressed with his mentality.
I was impressed with his toughness. I was impressed with

Speaker 6 his...

Speaker 6 Just his like leadership, it looked like for a young player, like just the fire in his belly, like when things were going wrong to give a shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Like the winning that game at the end of the season like means nothing, but that meant a lot to him, right?

Speaker 1 Absolutely. And so, you know,

Speaker 6 I look forward to seeing him with somebody competent. And, you know, we got to work on like maybe not answering every phone call.

Speaker 1 Yep. Uh-huh.
Yep. That was unfortunate.
That was very unfortunate. I also think he played that off pretty well.

Speaker 3 Yeah, exactly. Like that was a good response to it.
Rolled with the punches.

Speaker 3 I've been telling Big Cat that Mike McCarthy, I want to see it just because it's very funny considering everything Big Cat said in the past about Mike McCarthy. Yes.
To have him now be the head coach.

Speaker 3 Yes. That's an interesting dynamic.

Speaker 6 When you get him on, you have to go to the bottom.

Speaker 1 I'm going to read him all. I'm going to read all the tweets.
Yeah, I'll read all the tweets.

Speaker 3 But the more I think about it, it is a safe choice. And when you look at his history, he's probably going to make you a pretty good team.

Speaker 3 But Caleb, in my opinion, physically has the tools to be special, like an incredible quarterback. Mike McCarthy, if you're looking at him as like a high-floor play,

Speaker 3 I don't know. I think you can do better.

Speaker 3 I think that if you really want to maximize what could be a great quarterback, like one of the best, best, if not the best, in the history of your franchise, you kind of should take a shot at that player.

Speaker 3 Ben Johnson.

Speaker 3 Who would be the high floor player not to put y'all on the spot?

Speaker 1 I think Johnson. I think I know Ben Johnson, but how do we know?

Speaker 3 I think McCarthy is going to be good. I don't know if he's going to be great.

Speaker 1 Ben Johnson's a swing for the fences. You could obviously

Speaker 6 swing for the fences, but there's also like, hey, we have to build that offensive line that you're two

Speaker 6 running backs have been running behind. And Jared Goff's actually pretty fucking good.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, he is. And it's, you're right.
Like, you don't get Ben Johnson's offensive line when you get Ben Johnson. That's a pretty big deal.
Can he bring the guy?

Speaker 1 Right. That's a pretty big deal.
I like Sark. What about like some wild cards? Todd Munkin.
I like Todd Munkin. I don't know.
I mean, there's some names out there. It's

Speaker 1 Peyton McCarthy. Taboo.
Tabo. Oh, my God.
I mean, they interviewed Matt Campbell.

Speaker 1 All right. I got one last question for you, Chris.
This has been awesome. Everyone, like I said, go listen to Chris's podcast, Green Light Podcast.
They do a great job.

Speaker 1 Rowback.com, R-H-O-B-A-C.com, promo code, take 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts.
I got new hoodies that are super comfortable. Roback.com.

Speaker 6 Great company, not to step on the

Speaker 1 great company. All right, putting you on the spot.
Favorite bet of the weekend.

Speaker 6 Ooh, favorite bet of the weekend.

Speaker 1 Jeez. Yeah.
Favorite bet of the weekend.

Speaker 6 Golly, I am on the spot, huh? I'm going to bet it.

Speaker 1 Please don't. Yeah, favorite bet of the weekend.

Speaker 6 I went like 55 and 31, picking five a week this week or or this year or whatever it was and I went one and four last week. So

Speaker 1 playoffs different games.

Speaker 6 Can you read me the lines at this point?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 the

Speaker 1 Chiefs are

Speaker 1 eight and a half point favorites, excuse me. The Lions are nine and a half point favorites.
The Bills are one and a half point underdogs and the Eagles are six point favorites.

Speaker 6 That's a lot of points in Philly.

Speaker 1 I know, but you want to do it.

Speaker 6 What's the first half Rams line? I mean,

Speaker 6 I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say anything about Philly and the Rams.

Speaker 3 We can connect the dots based on what you're going to do.

Speaker 6 You know, I'm inevitably going to bet Buffalo.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 6 you're going to do it anyways. Why don't we just do it? Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Plus one and a half at home.

Speaker 6 Just both. We're going to bet Buffalo.

Speaker 1 I am. I know that game's going to come around because I've said it.
Like, I have no idea who's going to win, but I know when the game is about to kick off, I'm like, yeah, fuck it. Let's go, Buffalo.

Speaker 1 Or you could tease the Buffalo Bills

Speaker 6 with

Speaker 1 the

Speaker 6 Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I like that one too.

Speaker 6 And then, yeah, close to the heart, you know,

Speaker 6 on both things.

Speaker 3 I like teasing them with the Chiefs because I feel like Chiefs, you tell me that they win by one point or one and a half points. That feels like a pretty good chance to take.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 It does feel good, but

Speaker 6 it would make it so not fun if you're trying to celebrate seeing an upset. Right.
And, you know, that's the biggest enemy I have betting during the playoffs. Right.

Speaker 1 right yeah i always love seeing the dog yeah you don't want the guy you don't want to be the guy who took the the one seed against a 16 and then like a unbc happens i did that yes and then you can't even well you you

Speaker 1 want a title the next year it doesn't matter you bet against

Speaker 1 gold i know i know you bet against um bc

Speaker 1 no

Speaker 6 what's the big deal but i was at i was at a wedding that weekend

Speaker 6 And it was like a Baltimore wedding, and there were like 10 UMBC people

Speaker 1 at least.

Speaker 1 That's got to be the most UMBC people in one room ever. In one room ever.

Speaker 6 And they just happened to be like at this fucking wedding. And I'll never forget

Speaker 6 waking up so hungover the next day and all the people that gave me the like, hey, you know, tonight

Speaker 1 on the way in. They fucking, oh, they didn't even mean it.
And they were right. Oh, that's brutal.

Speaker 3 I like C.J. Stroud over 14 and a half Russian yards.

Speaker 1 I like that as well. Yeah.
Yeah. You know what?

Speaker 6 Hey, shameless plug, you can check it out on our show. I'll have my shit together by then.
Love the gambling.

Speaker 1 Love it.

Speaker 6 Because

Speaker 6 it's too early in the week.

Speaker 1 Okay. I gotta check it out.

Speaker 6 Sharps, we wait. Yeah.

Speaker 3 You know, I've loved watching you on TV, Chris. You've been very good on TV.
You've worked with Coach Belichick.

Speaker 3 What's that been like behind the scenes?

Speaker 6 Dude, he is the funniest motherfucker ever. I mean, he has the advantage of like surprise because, you know, you don't think of him that way.

Speaker 6 And even having been coached by him, I knew he was funny in his own dry kind of way. But like the production meetings in the morning, my face hurts from from smiling.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 And it's also, he's like, he's like a football dad. Like you just want to follow him around and ask him questions.

Speaker 6 He's been fun, man. You know, and they took the UNC job the morning he took the UNC job.
We were all like, he walks in the production meeting.

Speaker 6 We're like, Coacho, you know, I'm playing the UNC fight song. And he sits down.
He's like, you believe everything you fucking hear in the media.

Speaker 1 And then four o'clock that day when we all leave, he takes the UNC job. So good.

Speaker 3 Wait, has he he signed the contract?

Speaker 6 Has not steel trap, dude?

Speaker 1 Oh, what?

Speaker 3 He hasn't signed the contract.

Speaker 1 He technically signed the contract.

Speaker 6 Well, you know,

Speaker 6 he likes to make things interesting. Yeah, always.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, Chris, you're the best.
We'll see you in New Orleans, man. Thank you so much.
Dude, can't wait.

Speaker 6 Let's get after it, man.

Speaker 3 Love a good time.

Speaker 11 Experian is your big financial friend, helping you find ways to save, manage your credit, and apply for cards labeled No Ding Decline.

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Speaker 1 Experian.

Speaker 1 Give it up for Chicago.

Speaker 14 Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is coming to Hulu on November 21st.

Speaker 1 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos, complete nerd. Bezos now ripped to shreds on his super yacht, and the boxes keep coming

Speaker 14 sebastian maniscalco it ain't right premieres november 21st streaming on hulu and hulu on disney plus for bundle subscribers terms apply

Speaker 1 okay we now welcome on our very very good friend adam schefter He's the SPN Insider.

Speaker 1 Now, I just want everyone to know that this is not going to cover our yearly combine tradition where we will just go backwards into the entire year of tweets and stories.

Speaker 1 This is solely because we need to know what the heck is going on with the NFL coaches hiring, firing, where everyone's going.

Speaker 1 And I think we have to start in the most intriguing spot, and that's the Dallas Cowboys. And what

Speaker 1 let me start with this.

Speaker 1 How close was Mike McCarthy to staying and how did that all fall apart?

Speaker 1 Like, you know, in the last couple of days.

Speaker 5 Well, before we get to Mike McCarthy and it falling apart, first i'll have to say that one of the coolest things of my career so far has been to watch my daughter on the nickelodeon broadcast yes introduce you guys yes

Speaker 3 and make you a part of the of bikini bikini bottom right that was pretty cool it technically wasn't us it was big catfish and pf manatee yeah she did a great job though i appreciate that she introduced us before she introduced lepron james yeah i thought that was the correct order i should have started with that you're absolutely right

Speaker 1 She did a fantastic job. And that was, we were the Leo meme.
We were explaining it. We were watching it because we had the main TV was the main broadcast and one of the side TVs, Nickelodeon.

Speaker 1 And PFT and I both just looked up. We're like, what the heck? And she crushed it.

Speaker 5 Well, you know, the funny thing is, is that was the first game that she's done. And she's done four or five games that I haven't been right there with her.
I had to be in Bristol.

Speaker 5 on Sunday morning for Sunday count. And I tried to figure out all these ways to get to Houston.
And there were no late flights out, no early morning flights out. And so my son took her.

Speaker 5 And so I'm sitting there at home like a regular viewer watching her. And she pops on the screen.
I think her first hit, our very first hit that day was you guys kind of showing you guys at the game.

Speaker 5 So I hope you guys enjoyed the

Speaker 5 bikini bottom.

Speaker 3 And she did a great job. You must have been a very proud dad.
Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Well, and the great part was sitting with my wife, and I know that she's going to do the post-game interview. And I said, yeah, we'll see what it is.

Speaker 5 I don't think it'll be Joe Joe Mixon because I just don't think it would be it.

Speaker 5 And they said, let's go down to Dylan Scheft. They were standing by with Joe Mixon.
I'm like, they did it.

Speaker 1 They did it.

Speaker 5 And sure enough, Joe Mixon uses the word ass in hell.

Speaker 1 And then he blow you like cat.

Speaker 1 Very funny.

Speaker 1 All right. So Cowboys, give it to us.
What happened with Mike McCarthy? And then are they going to actually hire Deion?

Speaker 5 First of all, I know a lot of people felt like Mike was going to be back, including myself at one point, like, okay, the players are coming out and supporting him.

Speaker 5 Jerry's coming out and supporting him. He wants to be like, it was going that way.
But it's one of those things where I guess it's like a couple dating. Well, yeah, they're going to get married.

Speaker 5 They're going to get married. Except the guy never gives up the ring.
And after a while, at some point in time, the woman's like, you know what?

Speaker 5 Either you're going to give me the ring or I'm moving on. And I think they sat down, they went over football stuff all week long.
And it became apparent that Jerry wasn't committing long term.

Speaker 5 They never, ever got into negotiations. They're moving forward with insights and observations about the football team.

Speaker 5 Now, was there something that was said or done in those few days between the end of the season till the time where both sides said that they parted or going their own ways?

Speaker 5 I don't think there was. I just think it became apparent over the course of those conversations that The Cowboys weren't entering into negotiations.

Speaker 5 Like, okay, at what point do you realize, like, wow, he's eligible to talk to teams Tuesday at midnight, and there's been zero negotiating.

Speaker 5 Like, we're going to wait till midnight on Tuesday before you realize he's not going to be back as the Dallas Cowboys coach or what?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 And I just think it went in that direction and to the point where both sides knew that was the way it was going to go. And then they memorialized it and made it official.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because when they blocked him from doing other interviews, it felt like that's a move that you would make if you were progressing towards a new contract, right?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 5 Yes, yes. But but here's the thing.
I think sometimes you're trying to explain actions that aren't so easily explained with certain people.

Speaker 5 And also they knew that it wasn't like they were denying him the right to go take the Bears job, right? Because

Speaker 5 in-person interviews can't even occur until after the divisional playoff round. The Bears have been all over the map.

Speaker 5 And if Mike McCarthy is going to talk to the Bears, he's going to be able to do it next week, whether he does it then or now.

Speaker 5 I almost feel like it's like, again, to use that dating analogy, you know, okay, the girl wants you to propose. You're not proposing.
Well, can I go out with? No, you can't.

Speaker 5 But now a week later, you can.

Speaker 5 It applies there too. And so I just think that in the end, ultimately, that's what they decided to do.
Each side went its own way. And when they said no,

Speaker 5 You didn't know whether that meant that they were going to try to get something done or whether they were just kind of being Dallas. And that's what they were doing, being Dallas.

Speaker 1 So, who's who? If you had a handicap of three, three, three names that you could see going to Dallas,

Speaker 1 who is it? And

Speaker 1 we're all just intrigued about the Dion part of the world.

Speaker 5 Of course, everybody is, right? And I think that,

Speaker 5 again, we're going to hear other names come up,

Speaker 5 but I think Kellen Moore is a logical name because he fits there, knows how it works, can do the job on Jerry's terms,

Speaker 5 wouldn't cost what it would cost to hire Mike Vrabel.

Speaker 5 It fits in so many ways. But then you also have the allure of a guy like Deion Sanders.
And

Speaker 5 it's not like Jerry, I don't think, has to interview Deion. He knows Deion and Deion knows him, although you'd want to hear his ideas for the program and what he would be thinking going forward.

Speaker 5 And so, look, I think Jerry changed his mind a couple of times on McCarthy going along this.

Speaker 5 And I think it's possible, probably likely, that he, like other teams, you go through this process and you think, you know what? I think I kind of like this guy.

Speaker 5 And then you talk to this guy, you're like, well, I like that guy. And then this guy makes up ground.
So it's hard to forecast exactly how it's going to come out.

Speaker 5 I would just say, like, Helen Moore, squaring contention. Deion Sanders, if that's the way Jerry wants to go, squaring contention.
Could we get a guy like

Speaker 5 Leslie Frazier or Jason Witten?

Speaker 5 Yes, it's possible, but I think that Kellen Moore is the logical name, and Deion Sanders is the really fun, intriguing name.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 And we'll see what else they go.

Speaker 3 It's like

Speaker 3 the angel and the demon on Jerry Jones' shoulder. The splash hire is always going to be in Jerry's mind.
He's like, you know, Deion, instant excitement for the Dallas Cowboys. Good for the brand.

Speaker 3 Kellen Moore makes the most sense.

Speaker 5 Well, but no, but PFT, the splash hire may be the logical hire here.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 The logical hire here.

Speaker 5 Deion

Speaker 5 has got something of the Midas touch. He's incredible around people.

Speaker 5 I think he'd be great. I really do.

Speaker 5 And in fact, again, I said this on GetUp this morning, but I go back to this call that I got in October of 2023. GM calls me up and he's like, hey, write this down.

Speaker 5 The next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is going to be Deion Sanders. I'm like, really? He's like, take it to the bank.
I'm like, okay, why do you say Jerry loves him? He loves Jerry.

Speaker 5 It's going to happen.

Speaker 5 Will it happen?

Speaker 5 We're all waiting to see. It'd be unbelievable for everybody.
Be great for

Speaker 5 the Cowboys, be great for Deion, be great for shows like yours and this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, big time.

Speaker 3 Do you think that Deion would want his son to play for the Cowboys if he was going to be the head coach?

Speaker 5 I don't view that as a viable option right now that doesn't mean that at a later date that that couldn't happen but first of all dak prescott's got a no trade clause in his contract he's the highest paid player in football they just paid him like it's not practical to move off dak and i don't think they're thinking of moving they want dak to be there and by the way like are the titans who have the number one pick where you potentially would have to be to take shadore Are they going to go trade that pick for Dak the highest?

Speaker 5 I don't know about that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 I mean, it's just, it's, to me, that's more fantasy football. I know, I know Deion has talked about the fact that he'd want to be with his son.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 5 okay, but

Speaker 5 that would be ideal, but it's not practical right now, unless the Titans wanted to do something.

Speaker 5 So I think it's more along the lines of he's got great respect and affection for Jerry Jones. And it's the Dallas Cowboys.
And I don't know if he still has his house. I still think he does.

Speaker 5 He's had a house in that area. Yep.
Yeah. Ows the franchise.
Like, I mean, it's a no-brainer. So that's one that I think could

Speaker 5 get him to change his mind. Okay.

Speaker 1 So other spots. Are the Bears going to lose out on Ben Johnson? It feels like there was a lot of momentum of Ben Johnson in Chicago, and now all the momentum is switched.

Speaker 1 And it's Raiders for Ben Johnson and Mike McCarthy for the Bears. Is that fair?

Speaker 1 Where is it at?

Speaker 5 I would just say this, that

Speaker 5 there's a lot of Ben Johnson Raiders talk, right?

Speaker 5 A lot of conversation about that, right?

Speaker 5 And that may happen, like, it could.

Speaker 5 But I don't think the Jaguars should be dismissed. And I don't think the Chicago Bears should be dismissed.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 5 I really believe

Speaker 5 that all of them have something of an equal opportunity. I don't believe there's one ahead of the other.
And I think there are three potential options, and we're going to see how that goes. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 what is it with Ben Johnson? Is it he wants the most money?

Speaker 1 Is it, you know, obviously the two, the two out of the three of those have quarterbacks that you would think, you know, Caleb Williams and Trevor Lawrence. The third has Tom Brady as partial owner.

Speaker 1 What do you think he prioritizes?

Speaker 5 I think when you're going through one of these job searches, it becomes obvious to you and apparent to you over time who wants you most. And I don't mean in the form of money.

Speaker 5 You guys have been through this yourselves in your life. Just think back to people who have wanted you and how that became evident to you.

Speaker 5 And I think that Ben Johnson is going to be in a situation here where I believe he's going to be open to any one of these situations. And

Speaker 5 the landing spot will make itself apparent and evident to him over time through the conversations that either he or his agent have with that particular team.

Speaker 5 There are drawbacks, questions with each one of those openings.

Speaker 5 He's going to have to get sufficient answers before he proceeds forward. There's not going to be a perfect spot, but there's going to be a good spot in the end.

Speaker 5 And it's up to him to pick really the best of the

Speaker 5 that are out there that are after him. And I think, I really believe right now, he doesn't know what that will be.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 But again, it will over time materialize and become clear. You know what? Boy,

Speaker 5 this team is doing what I want in the front office. This team is handling this the way.
They're going to structure this the way. They're saying this team's giving me more years.

Speaker 5 This team's giving me more money. This team is saying, come do that.

Speaker 5 These things become apparent to you over time. And I believe the same will be true here of Ben Johnson.
And

Speaker 5 I don't believe there is a favorite right now. I really don't.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay. I like that.

Speaker 3 What kind of questions, maybe not in the sense of the Ben Johnson interviews, but if it's a coach that is not seen as someone who gets to pick their destination, what kind of questions are asked to a coach, prospective coach, during an interview for the head job?

Speaker 5 You know, I've never been a part of the process, so I don't exactly know, but I know that a lot of that time is spent going going over staffing and their visions for the team.

Speaker 5 And if you're a team like the Jets, I'm sure they're asking, okay, if you come in as the head coach, the GM, what are we doing at quarterback? Like they want to know their plans.

Speaker 5 And by the way, the Jets have asked for permission from basically every candidate out there except for Robert Sala, which at this point in time, I wouldn't be surprised if they turn in commission for him at this point.

Speaker 5 But I'd want to know the ideas of everybody. Like, what are you doing? What do you think that we should do at quarterback? Yeah.

Speaker 5 Because somebody may have an idea that you hadn't thought of that can help you at that spot. So I've never been a part.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in one of these head coaching processes.

Speaker 5 It would be fascinating to see. And again,

Speaker 5 just like we're talking about the team over time

Speaker 5 distinguishing itself and becoming obvious to a guy like Ben Johnson, I believe the same is true in turn.

Speaker 5 where a candidate distinguishes himself over time and makes it such that that that team believes that that guy is the right guy to go get.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 3 We saw Rex Ryan, your colleague, has distinguished himself a lot on the airwaves.

Speaker 3 Is that going to happen or is that ship sailed?

Speaker 5 Well, I don't think the ship is sailed. Listen, Rex is so passionate and so confident, and he's so unique.
And I love working with the guy so much. I'd love to see him give the chance.

Speaker 5 I told the story to somebody. I'm like, I'm sitting at the kitchen table, and the local news comes out and they say, and Rex Ryan's interviewing for the Jets

Speaker 6 today.

Speaker 5 And, you know, my wife and daughter, they don't know anything about football. Like, Rex Ryan, like, didn't he coach there 10 years ago? I'm like, yeah.
They're like, well, didn't they fire him? Yeah.

Speaker 5 Well, why are they talking to him now? I said, well, they haven't been back to an AFC championship game since they fired him.

Speaker 5 Right?

Speaker 5 So, Rex knows what's worked in New York, what succeeded.

Speaker 5 I would never underestimate Rex. I'm personally rooting for the guy, but let's see how the process plays itself.

Speaker 5 I mean, I think a guy like Aaron Glenn

Speaker 1 is

Speaker 5 a favorite in New York, and I believe Aaron Glenn is absolutely going to get one of these head coaching jobs, whether it's in New York or New Orleans.

Speaker 5 So if it happens to be in New York, well, that knocks Rex out of the Jets and he doesn't get the job then. If it doesn't happen with Aaron Glenn, does Rex come into play? He's got...

Speaker 5 A lot of friends, a lot of relationships there,

Speaker 6 and

Speaker 5 I'd love to see it, although I'd hate to lose him from ESPN because he's so great to work with, but we'll see how it all plays out.

Speaker 1 I want to go back to the Cowboys real quick. Is there anything to do with Belichick still

Speaker 1 possibly looking at the Cowboys?

Speaker 5 I know people keep bringing this up. I know it is lingering out there.

Speaker 5 I just don't see it. I just don't see it.

Speaker 5 I mean, I'm going to take Bill at his word. He said we didn't come to North Carolina to leave North Carolina.
We came here to be here. He said all kinds of things along those lines.

Speaker 5 He's in high schools every single day. I don't care that his contract isn't formally signed.
I don't care that he's connected to the...

Speaker 5 Here's my question. A better one.

Speaker 5 Let's do it

Speaker 5 in basic common sense. Give me a place right now where you believe

Speaker 5 he fits naturally as a head coach. Go through the openings and I could blow up every one of those places for a different reason.
Like, there's not even a logical fit for him out there right now.

Speaker 3 Possibly the Raiders with Tom Brady?

Speaker 1 No, don't see it. The Cowboys are the only one that comes to mind for me.

Speaker 5 By the way,

Speaker 5 I understand why people would say that. I don't see it.
I think Bill obviously had to be aware that that job could open.

Speaker 5 He's not an idiot. Everybody knew that McCarthy was in the last year.
I'm sure that a close look was taken at that situation. For whatever reason, he took the North Carolina job.

Speaker 5 I just don't see a fit for him with these current openings anywhere for me.

Speaker 3 That's one of the things that I was looking at when the story came out. I think it was Jonathan Jones reported that he has not signed his contract officially at UNC yet.

Speaker 3 I don't know how common that is. I don't know if it's one of these things where coaches...
frequently get to work before signing on the dotted line.

Speaker 3 I know he signed a term sheet, which is different, and it's not legally binding to him. But, I mean, Bill has signed a napkin before and said this is legally binding.

Speaker 5 The way it's been explained to me is they have an offer sheet agreement, which is common as the state of North Carolina works out the details. It's a process there to get a deal finalized.

Speaker 5 There isn't a gray area, but they have an offer sheet agreement, which is common in that state right now.

Speaker 1 Got it. Got it.

Speaker 3 So who would be a good fit for the Raiders?

Speaker 5 Well, Ben Johnson, I believe, they're definitely definitely interested in. You know, whether or not they'll see, that remains very much in question.

Speaker 5 And then if they don't get Ben Johnson, what do they then do? That's where I think it gets really interesting. Who is their next choice? I don't have an answer for you right now.

Speaker 5 Like, again, they haven't met face to face with a lot of these candidates. We could just throw people up at certain spots and talk about it, but I don't know how much that makes sense right now.

Speaker 1 It feels like there's maybe too many teams, and I count myself as part of this,

Speaker 1 who are just banking on like, well, we'll get Ben Johnson.

Speaker 5 Well, let me say this. I believe that Ben Johnson is the big domino here.

Speaker 5 And so

Speaker 5 I think the Raiders are waiting to see what happens with Ben Johnson. I think the Bears are waiting to see what happens.
I think the Jaguars are waiting to see. So

Speaker 5 right then and there, the process is slowed down.

Speaker 5 Then we have the NFL and its clunky process slowing it down even more to where no face-to-face interviews are even allowed with coaches under contracts to teams until after this upcoming weekend division.

Speaker 5 So that slows it down.

Speaker 5 I mean,

Speaker 5 you know, again, it's great to talk about and wonder about and speculate, but this is still really early in the process. Yeah.

Speaker 5 And there's a lot that's going to play out and a lot that's still going to change.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Let me ask you this.
Is there a possibility that Ben Johnson does what he did last season and just says, I want to be a line?

Speaker 5 I don't see it this year. I don't see it.

Speaker 5 Ben Johnson

Speaker 5 has turned down two years of opportunities. And I don't care who you are in this league.
At some point, you have to take the plunge. The money is too great.
The opportunities are too great.

Speaker 5 You can't keep turning down jobs year after year. And again, the Lions might be this good again next year.
They might be. But this is the NFL.
They might not.

Speaker 5 And if if they're not, and he doesn't take one, well, all of a sudden, you're on your coordinator salary as opposed to a head coaching salary of anywhere between, I don't know, $10, $11, $12 million

Speaker 5 a year.

Speaker 5 There's just too much money to turn it down again.

Speaker 5 I don't believe it's going to happen. I believe he's taking a head coaching job this year.

Speaker 3 You think maybe Glenn and Ben Johnson, a little bit too focused on doing outside interviews, maybe taking their eye off the ball this weekend?

Speaker 5 That's why you have agents, though. That's why you have agents to go over that and gather all the information and find out the answers to the questions while you're coaching the game.

Speaker 5 Like that's an agent's job. And he presents everything to you, boiled down so that you can then sit down with your wife and figure out what's best before you're going into it.

Speaker 5 He has an idea of all that. Like we're not oblivious to this.
He knows what each organization is about.

Speaker 5 And by the way, yes, he's getting ready to coach in an incredibly important postseason where the Lions could make history and have an unbelievable, unbelievable, memorable run for that city,

Speaker 5 but he's a human being. He also is aware that there is a career-altering option in front of him.
So, of course, there's going to be some thought given to that.

Speaker 1 Is the Edevel going to do anything about Tom Brady being an owner of the Raiders and calling that game this weekend and then being able to interview Ben Johnson before?

Speaker 5 Here's what I say to that, honestly.

Speaker 5 Tom Brady has spoken to Ben Johnson. He'll go through this in the interview.

Speaker 5 Do you you think he's going to sit down there this weekend while Ben's getting ready for the biggest game of his season and be like, if you come to Vegas, here's what we're going to do.

Speaker 5 And what do you like?

Speaker 5 Tom Brady is a professional. Ben Johnson is a professional.
They're not doing that this weekend. I know there are sensitive people, but I think you have to be practical about it.

Speaker 5 What are we talking about?

Speaker 1 Yeah, and it also feels like, I assume, I've never been in one of those big production meetings, but aren't there like 10 people in there who would be a little bit more.

Speaker 5 It'll be used used that time for the it'll be kevin burkhart it'll be all the producers the directors aaron andrews tomorrow like they're all around there so if he does it we'll find out there will be a leak now if he actually does that yeah they wanted me for a glass of wine later to go like do you do you really think they need to do that what are they going to go over there that they haven't before or couldn't in the future what do they have to do at that moment that has to get done the night before the commanders play the the lions like come on maybe tom just flashes him that winning smile and charms him with his eyes.

Speaker 1 I was getting nervous about it. That could be.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because I think the Bears are going to end up losing out on Ben Johnson and get Mike McCarthy, which

Speaker 1 it'll be fine.

Speaker 5 I'll just say this, big cat. I don't know how it's going to go yet, but here's what I would say.

Speaker 5 He may not be a bear. Absolutely.
That's possible. But I would just say right now, at this stage of the process, right now.

Speaker 5 Don't lose the faith.

Speaker 1 Okay. I like that.
All right, so Shefty, I got one last question for you. This has been awesome.
Again, we're going to do it. We'll do our full sit-down in Indy, which we always love.

Speaker 1 Go to the next one.

Speaker 5 Did anything happen this year that there is to go over? I don't know.

Speaker 1 We'll find some stuff.

Speaker 1 We got some stuff, some beefs.

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Speaker 1 Please tell me that the NFL is not going to change how the seating works because one season the Vikings won 14 games and had to play on the road.

Speaker 5 It's never happened before. I don't see them changing it any time in the future.
The league is always looking at ways to innovate and improve, but I've heard this complaint.

Speaker 5 Remember the year where the

Speaker 5 Seahawks won the division with a horrible record? It was like 500, and then the Saints had a much better record and had to go to Seattle for the opening wildcard game.

Speaker 5 And that turned out to be the Beastquake game where Marshawn Lynch had one of the most memorable runs in NFL history. And the sound level

Speaker 5 in that stadium matched a new world record.

Speaker 5 The league is intent upon

Speaker 5 rewarding division winners. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Speaker 1 Okay, good, good, good. Division should matter.
Yes.

Speaker 5 Now, could the league, nobody said this, but we're just talking out loud, logically. Could they then say, okay, we're going to have the division winners post-games, and then after that, we'll recede?

Speaker 5 I don't know. Does that even make sense?

Speaker 5 Maybe, I don't know, but I've never heard any momentum or movement. to change the way the playoff seating system works.
Okay, perfect.

Speaker 1 That's what I wanted to hear. I appreciate that response.
Yep. That's the correct response.
All right. Well, Shefty, you're the best.

Speaker 1 We'll see you in, maybe we'll see you in New Orleans, but we'll also see. So Jayden Deniels.

Speaker 5 Hold on. How nervous is PFT about Saturday night?

Speaker 3 I'm nervous. I think the Lions have a great team, but they don't have Jaden Daniels.

Speaker 1 They don't. Period.

Speaker 1 That's how I feel about it.

Speaker 3 If we can keep it within, if it's a one-score game in the fourth quarter, I think that Jaden Daniels will go out there and do something special and win the game.

Speaker 5 That's where he's most dangerous, right? Six comebacks in the final 10 seconds of games this year. No rookie quarterback ever has done that.

Speaker 5 He's become like a modern-day Joe Montana John Elloway with the ability to improvise and run around. Guy's been incredible.
And one person there said he covers up for a lot of our sins.

Speaker 1 Yes, yes, he certainly does.

Speaker 3 On that note, Cliff Kingsbury, is he going to get a job offer, do you think? And would he accept a head coaching position?

Speaker 3 Because he said, you know, when he left the Cardinals, like, maybe it's a good thing that I'm not a head coach. You know, that's a lot of stress that he dealt with.

Speaker 3 Do you think he's going to get an offer and would he accept?

Speaker 5 Let me start by saying this. If I'm Cliff Kingsbury and I'm happy right now, I'm in no rush to leave Jaden Daniels.
I know I've got arguably the best young player in football on my roster.

Speaker 5 And so if something materialized and it was ideal and it was great, sure.

Speaker 5 I don't know that he's looking to rush back into that world, right? I think he's still being paid by Arizona. He doesn't have to, it's not going to impact his bottom line any.

Speaker 5 There's a lot of stress on that. I don't know that he's going to get one.
I don't know that he really wants one. I don't know that he cares about one.

Speaker 5 I think he cares about playing the Lions right now.

Speaker 5 And we'll see how that process plays itself out. Like I said, to me, Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, getting two of the six openings.
Now we're down to four openings.

Speaker 5 You can go try to figure out who those other four guys. are going to be that are going to fill up those head coaching jobs.
One of them is Dallas wild card. We'll see how Jerry Jones thinks.

Speaker 5 Now we're down to three. So we got Brian Flores.
We got Joe Brady. We got Liam Cohn.
We got Todd Moon.

Speaker 1 Kingsberry.

Speaker 5 They're a lot of guys. And again, these guys are under contract.
They haven't even met with these teams yet in person. Right.
It's hard to say how that's going to go. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, Chefty, you're the best.
We'll see you soon. We really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Tell your daughter, congrats on him. Great broadcast.
And thank you for giving us the respect we deserve going in front of LeBron James in fish form.

Speaker 3 Yes,

Speaker 5 that had to be a career highlight. Like, I've never been called out on

Speaker 5 bikini bottom slime, slime corner.

Speaker 5 It was great.

Speaker 5 That's big time.

Speaker 5 That I know you guys have done a lot, but that's when you know you're really.

Speaker 1 Yes, absolutely. All right.
Thanks so much, Shefty.

Speaker 5 Thanks, guys. See you soon.
Thank you.

Speaker 3 Good to see you.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's wrap up. We got Fire Fest of the Week.
Henry. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Give it to us. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Good friend, long time colleague, co-worker, collaborator,

Speaker 1 brother,

Speaker 1 PFT commenter, who's in the room with us right now. He's trying to spin a false narrative against me and you, kind of big cat, that we don't like V.
That you don't exist. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 9 And it's... I love V.

Speaker 1 I love V. Love V.
We love V. Removed the context from the conversation.
He did.

Speaker 1 He basically is just going around saying these guys are gay. No, I didn't.

Speaker 1 No, I did. I was a witch hunt.

Speaker 3 I didn't say that at all because in the moment.

Speaker 1 He was leading a gay witch hunt against it.

Speaker 3 This is interesting because in the moment, I felt like an outsider because I was the only one putting my hand up and saying, I love V. It's

Speaker 1 visually. Yeah, just as itself.
I think I was on your side, PFT. I think you matched it.

Speaker 9 I think I was talking about how I like full V pictures.

Speaker 1 Listen, hand up.

Speaker 3 I'm sorry. I like vaginas.
I'm willing to die on that hill. Me too.

Speaker 1 I know. I'm willing to die on that hill.
Now I have to say, like, I have to clarify, knowing that you and you got memes in your pocket with the clip army.

Speaker 1 And it's like, I got to say, I also love vaginas. I do too.
Okay, great. But I also love T and A.
But yeah, if we're talking about strictly pictures, which we were, like, visually. Yes.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, the question is, is, is tits or ass? And you would say V. That's what you're answering.
You would rather have a picture of V than T? I love looking. Yeah, they look great.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'd rather ask you. I'd rather see a picture of T.
T or A. What would your answer be?

Speaker 3 T or A? You would say V?

Speaker 3 No, if you ask me T or A, that's a two-part question. It's A or B.

Speaker 1 How about this, for example?

Speaker 1 I would say

Speaker 3 T.

Speaker 1 The nice young lady at the Oilers game. You would have preferred her to flash her V.

Speaker 3 No, because that's different.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's way different. No.
It is way different.

Speaker 3 Flashing V in a public setting is a little low class, even for me. But

Speaker 3 the T was great.

Speaker 1 I loved the T. Yeah.

Speaker 3 And there's a bunch of people that are using the Super Bad argument of like, oh, yeah, I'm going to say what Jonah Hill said.

Speaker 3 Jonah Hill's character in Super Bad also had an obsession with drawing dicks everywhere. He loved dicks.

Speaker 6 I don't even remember Super Bad.

Speaker 3 Where he was like, you ever seen a V on its own? Not for me.

Speaker 1 Ah. Yeah.
Got it.

Speaker 3 Listen, Hank, I believe that you like V. I'm not saying that you're gay.
I'm saying that I felt like you were saying I was gay for liking vaginas.

Speaker 1 Well, you made the wings analogy,

Speaker 1 which you said that

Speaker 1 A is celery, which if you're looking at, you know, the wings, the saw, celery, you're ranking A

Speaker 1 last.

Speaker 1 What What do you mean? Like, if you're talking about a plate of wings, you're like, maybe that was a

Speaker 1 ranking a wing of plates. It's blue, it's the wings, it's the sauce, it's the celery, it's last.

Speaker 3 It might have been a clumsy analogy. Maybe the V, ribeye steak, A, mac and cheese, the T, maybe.
Well, we're talking just mac and cheese, loaded baked potato, twice baked potato is what it is.

Speaker 3 That's what the T's are.

Speaker 1 I don't know. I just didn't, I didn't, I didn't appreciate it.
I've had people, you know, coming up, talk to me, be like, do you, do you don't like V, dude? I'm like, no, this is all PFT

Speaker 3 spin doctor. No, I'm just saying in the moment, I felt like I was a weirdo because I was the only one that said, hey, I love V.

Speaker 1 So do I, for the record. Me too.

Speaker 1 Now you've put me in a spot. Yeah.
Okay. Well, yeah.

Speaker 3 We all have our preferences.

Speaker 3 I'm just a V guy.

Speaker 1 I like brains.

Speaker 1 A woman's brains.

Speaker 3 I like her soul.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I agree.

Speaker 3 Like kind souls.

Speaker 1 So wait. I'm not talking about feet.
Just to put a bow on it.

Speaker 1 Gay?

Speaker 6 No. Oh.

Speaker 1 V. Okay.
V. I'm Pro V1.
Pro V1. Pro V1.
That's what they call you. D?

Speaker 1 D? You like D? Cups? No.

Speaker 1 No. Oh.

Speaker 1 Not even your own?

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.

Speaker 3 So your Fire Fest is that

Speaker 3 everyone thinks that you're gay.

Speaker 1 My Fire Fest is today in our office, which is

Speaker 1 against, I don't even know what's the word, inappropriate. inappropriate, I had to defend my stance on liking Vs around a bunch of coworkers.
Who was attacking you? Yeah. A lot of people.

Speaker 1 Were there women?

Speaker 1 Women. Women.

Speaker 1 Maybe Rick.

Speaker 1 Everyone was getting lunch, and I was just trying to make my lunch just being like, nope, I love V.

Speaker 9 So Rick, this rattled?

Speaker 3 I think it was the internet. I think the internet came out.

Speaker 1 It was PFT's tweet being like, I don't like V, Henry Lockwood. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 3 Let's back up because Memes posted the clip and then I posted it.

Speaker 1 But you took it out of context.

Speaker 3 No, I posted it out and I said, fellas, is it gay to like vaginas? And then Hank was like, that's not what I said. Then I directly quoted you.

Speaker 1 Right, but that's when you're talking about pictures.

Speaker 3 What was your quote?

Speaker 1 I don't know. You said it.

Speaker 3 No, it was your quote.

Speaker 1 I don't know that I get it turned on by straight V. Visually.

Speaker 1 Okay. A picture of it.
Yes. I do.

Speaker 3 We all have differences.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think a picture of it does. I'd rather see a picture of Tits.

Speaker 1 Pictures. We're talking strictly pictures.
That's exactly. That's where the context you were selectively choosing context.

Speaker 3 I was just quoting you. I'm sorry for you.

Speaker 1 I go TAV for pictures. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Not me.
Definitely. Not me.

Speaker 1 Okay, PFT.

Speaker 3 Good Fire Fest, eh? Great Fire Fest. I'm glad we cleared that all up.

Speaker 3 My week's been pretty good overall. I would say that my Fire Fest is mostly something that I realized last week watching football.

Speaker 3 And really, as the college football playoff began, I started to realize this, that there are only like five commercials in the world. Only five commercials exist, and I'm sick of all five of them.

Speaker 3 And I've seen all of them. And the commercials, you basically have your pick of like the State Farm Cinematic Universe, which includes like Derrick Henry, Mahomes, all that stuff.

Speaker 3 You've got some, usually a product with Shaq in it. Yep.
is one of the options that you have. Then you've got Flow

Speaker 3 and just like a lot of insurance out there. There's only like five commercials anymore.
We used to have lots of commercials.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and you get now they're all gone. And you get

Speaker 1 caught in these times where you're like, really, you know, we watch a lot of sports, but like when you're really like March Madness, when you're really watching sports wall to wall, and it's like shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 That's it. And that's all you get, and you see them over and over.
And I feel like it's gotten more limited in scope, too.

Speaker 1 Shout out YouTube's TV, by the way. The Zen

Speaker 1 is the best. And I don't, I don't.
It actually cools my brain down.

Speaker 3 It's really good. And I don't want to sound like I'm talking shit about the NFL or their corporate partners or their messaging.

Speaker 3 I respect the NFL's ability.

Speaker 1 I would never

Speaker 3 be racist as fuck until the NFL painted end racism in the end zone. And so I pay attention when Roger Goodell speaks.

Speaker 3 And I just want to say constructive feedback, Roger Goodell. Give us different commercials.
This shit sucks.

Speaker 1 I'd agree.

Speaker 6 I'd agree.

Speaker 1 All right, my Fire Fest is

Speaker 1 I'm solo doubting this weekend, so I'm probably going to miss the Commander's Lions stream. Apologies, PFT.
It's okay.

Speaker 1 I'm going to try try to be in for the Texans Chiefs where I have a little help, but the menu is going to get

Speaker 1 tight. We're going to do a

Speaker 1 chicken nuggets and mac and cheese. And that's it.
And that is it. Annie's? Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Got to hit Annie's. Elite.
But yeah.

Speaker 3 What kind of silverware and cutlery and plate situation are we working with?

Speaker 1 The two older ones use regular plates and silverware. The youngest still uses

Speaker 1 his hands mostly and plastic plate because he likes to throw shit everywhere.

Speaker 3 I would just lay down a tarp. Yeah,

Speaker 1 like a garbage bag.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I should put a trough out.

Speaker 1 Are you hoping for bedtime by the Commanders game or are you hoping like halftime?

Speaker 1 I'm going to probably be watching the first half of the Commanders Lions game, no sound while we watch minions on the top TV.

Speaker 1 So yeah, that will be my reality.

Speaker 1 Just being honest. But it's only that one game I'll be in on Sunday, all day Sunday.
So, but yeah, I got to just power through it. But yeah, that's why.

Speaker 1 So, if you tune on the stream on Sunday night and I'm not there, or I might not even be here for the Saturday afternoon one, I'm going to try to make it in. That's why.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, wish me luck.

Speaker 3 I got this. Good luck.
I got this. Good luck.
We're going to have the Beave is going to be on from Hard Factor.

Speaker 1 Kate's Mr.

Speaker 3 Beeve is going to be there giving me moral support.

Speaker 3 A fellow Commanders fan. Yeah.
Love that.

Speaker 1 Also, Reverse Fire Fest. I just love everyone in this room and all of our listeners so goddamn much.
That's really just been a tough couple weeks,

Speaker 1 but it's great. I got a little teary-eyed actually last night driving home because I was just like,

Speaker 1 it was a nice perspective of being like, damn, you know, the internet's a scary place, tough place, but there's a lot of people who care a lot about us. And it's good to have that moment.

Speaker 1 And then everyone in this room, I'd fucking die for it.

Speaker 3 Take a bullet for.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we love you too.

Speaker 3 I know it's been a tough few months for you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's been a few months.

Speaker 3 I didn't realize that you lost how much?

Speaker 1 Like 15 pounds. I just not been eating.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's not even conscious. It's like lunch happens and I just walk right by it and I'm like, I have no appetite and there's stress.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 got to just,

Speaker 1 we're powering through. I didn't even tell you this.
This is just a funny, if we're doing reverse Fire Fest. It's just an anecdote that's made me laugh since it happened.

Speaker 1 But I went out to dinner with Stu on Wednesday or Tuesday, just me and him. And, you know, a few months ago, I was talking about quitting smoking.

Speaker 1 I have quitting smoking, and he also used to be like the biggest pothead of all time. He has also quit, so we were talking about that and like talking about how like weird dreams and shit.

Speaker 1 And I was like, you know, do you think you'll ever like start again? He's like, no, I can't. Like

Speaker 1 his diabetes or whatever it is. He's like, I just can't smoke.
Like, I can't eat carbs. After he had just eaten like

Speaker 3 two appetizers,

Speaker 1 like a massive pasta meal, and then ate like half of my chicken parm.

Speaker 1 I was dying. He's like, like, Yeah, you know, I just can't eat the carbs.
And I was like, Stu, you just fucking wolf down like to an Italian dinner for three.

Speaker 1 It's like, uh, he was like, Yeah, you know, I just can't, I can't smoke and I can't do Cobbs.

Speaker 1 Wait, wait, wait, wait, what? It's like the remember the Mincy picture of him at the barbecue joint, and he's like, no sugar.

Speaker 1 All the barbecue parts. We are the barbecue, yeah.
Wait, Max, you didn't do your fire press about the bachelor parties.

Speaker 9 You didn't say it, I didn't say anything.

Speaker 1 Go ahead.

Speaker 9 Bachelor parties, a lot of bachelor parties. Yeah,

Speaker 9 that's basically it. And I also can't, I'm not picking the bachelor party.
We are.

Speaker 1 Or bachelor party. Correct.

Speaker 9 So that's why everyone, the amount of text that I've gotten from people that I've met like one time, six years ago, being like, you have to come to my bachelor.

Speaker 9 It's never been more of a thing in my entire life, and I can't keep track of it all. I guess if you guys want to do that one, we can do that.

Speaker 3 I like giving you the illusion of having a choice, but ultimately we're going to be able to decide.

Speaker 9 But that's why I think we need, I need, I'm putting out a Google form so that it's just organized in one place.

Speaker 1 Who's going over the Google form?

Speaker 9 Not me.

Speaker 6 Not me.

Speaker 1 I will. Oh.
I don't want Hank doing either. I will.
I trust PFC. Are you going to go over the Google form in Vanny Woodhead when it's driving down the street? Vanny Woodhead's buzzing.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay, yeah. Max.

Speaker 1 I'll do that. I'll be in charge.

Speaker 1 I'll be in charge of the Google Doc.

Speaker 3 And as my first act of being in charge, I'd like to delegate that task to Hank.

Speaker 1 I'm done. Actually, you know what?

Speaker 3 Hank, I need you to report to me, though, and then I'll report to Max.

Speaker 1 You know what we should do is, because, you know, we have a lot of work. I think we should delegate the Google Doc to one Stephen Che.

Speaker 1 No. He's a Google Doc master.
No, but he'll give Max, he'll be like, oh, like, you know, go to Chicago. No, but he'll get us down to 100.

Speaker 1 True. I honestly haven't seen that many people send us DMs.

Speaker 3 I haven't either.

Speaker 1 I'm surprised with the lack of AWLs getting married.

Speaker 3 Yeah, here and there I get a couple.

Speaker 9 Most people are just sending them to me, and I just have to say I can't. So keep sending them to me.

Speaker 1 No, but have you gotten like 10?

Speaker 3 Yeah, that's our way of saying that.

Speaker 1 What do you five?

Speaker 3 We would like to see a lot more.

Speaker 1 What's going on, what's going on? You got five bachelor party requests?

Speaker 9 I've gotten like 5,000

Speaker 1 requests.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I've gotten a shitload of them.

Speaker 1 I have two.

Speaker 1 All right. Good show, boys.
Football this weekend. Can't wait.
Only, what, how many games left? Four.

Speaker 3 It's the final four this weekend. Seven.

Speaker 1 Seven. Eight.
Counting the national championship. Eight games of football left.
Enjoy the fuck out of every second.

Speaker 1 Okay, numbers:

Speaker 3 five,

Speaker 1 three, eleven, seventeen.

Speaker 9 AJ Brown's gonna have a game 11.

Speaker 3 Hype video coming out Friday.

Speaker 1 100.

Speaker 3 It's already started. 99 puck.

Speaker 3 54.

Speaker 6 29.

Speaker 1 98!

Speaker 1 Ugh, right on it.

Speaker 1 Fuck, book.

Speaker 3 Love you guys. Also, Shane wants a nickname.

Speaker 9 Leader in the clubhouse is Graphics Guy.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Shane has requested a nickname.

Speaker 1 Shane wants a nickname?

Speaker 3 Yeah, he said, I'd like a nickname. I've never had a nickname before.
So Memes posted a picture of him. I think a pretty up-to-date photo, which

Speaker 1 like yesterday?

Speaker 1 I have one for you.

Speaker 3 Tom Fernelli had a great suggestion, which was Graphics Guy. That's good.
And that is so far the leading voceter. I suggested Zane.

Speaker 1 Shane, I have one for you, but we've discussed it. I don't think it would be Poppy.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 6 Let's hear it.

Speaker 1 You know which one I'm going to say. I can't say it.
Oh, don't. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Why not? Graphic Sky, a lot of votes.

Speaker 1 GG.

Speaker 3 Love you guys.