Mike Florio, College Football Playoffs, Week 18 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest of The Week

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

Twin Peaks is the best in the game.

Here, historic rivalries tip off with shareable bites and every shot you take is a game winner.

I mean, where else can you pair wall-to-wall hoops with hard-to-find whiskey?

Only at Twin Peaks, the number one sports bar.

On today's Pardon My Take, we are back in studio. The boys are back.
We have our good friend Mike Florio on the show. Talking some coaches' firings, open positions, who's going where.
Great talk with him. A couple conspiracies as well.
We are going to talk talk college football playoffs then we have our weekend preview for week 18 and then we'll finish with some fire fest the bar still golf time app makes it easy for golfers to find the best tee times at the best prices stop searching all over google for your next tee time start searching multiple courses in your area from one app it's annoying to have to create accounts for each individual course to book online. Just make one account with us at Barstool Golf Time and book all of your tee times.
Plus, the new reservation sharing option allows you to take control and book tee times for your entire group. Earn golf time rewards every time you book or leave course reviews.
And then you can redeem those rewards for free Barstool Golf Merch in our store.

Download the Barstool Golf Time app now.

Start earning those rewards and booking those tee times.

Barstool Golf Time app now.

Okay, let's go. Welcome to Pardon My Take presented by DraftKings.
Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE.
That's code TAKE for new customers to get $150 in bonus bets if your bet wins when you bet just $5. Happy holidays from DraftKings.
The crown is yours. Today is Friday, January 3rd, and the SEC is dead.
So is buys. Buys are dead.
Buys are dead. Buys are dead.
Rest first rust has been settled. The SEC is dead.
We have three big 10 teams and a big 12 team in the in the semifinals yeah texas represent the big 12 what a big 12 matchup that was notre dame is is is a honorary big 10 team but yeah we had uh listen this was the college football i i know that not uh every game the boise state penn state game wasn't super thrilling but it was actually a pretty close game. It started out bad.
Yeah, it was in doubt for 50 minutes, and the Rose Bowl was a shit-kicking by Ohio State, but man, Texas-Arizona State was an instant classic. Notre Dame-Georgia had some good drama.
College football might be back. Should we talk about each game? Yeah.
Boise-Penn State, let's start there there. Max Penn State wins.
It got a little. Andy Kotel, Kotel, Nikki.
Some of his play calling was very frustrating. If you're a Penn State fan, because it did feel like Penn State could just run the ball down their throat if they wanted to.
And they're like, nah, let's bomb this on third and short. At the start of the game, it just seemed like they could big boy him all day.
Yeah. And then there was some little boy ass play for Max.
Yes. Some little boy ass play.
A lot of drop passes. Catron Allen could have run.
He could have run for like 190 yards in that game if they really tried to. And that's what most Penn State fans, I think, were wanting for most of the of the game but whatever it got a little like it never got like nervous nervous but it got like why aren't we beating the fuck out of this team nervous it never got to the point where it became a big game correct I did tweet that it was a big game because you know emotions in the game I'm getting mad that happens to you between the lines things happen shout out Tyler Crowe low man trophy winner get a touchdown Yes.
All the game. I'm getting mad.
That happens to you. Between the lines, things happen.
Shout out Tyler Crowe, low man trophy winner, got a touchdown. Yes.
All the haters out there that said that he wasn't worthy, suck my dick. He got a touchdown in the college football quarterfinals.
And as for Boise, I mean, this is the part of like it was very clear that they had to play a perfect game to win that game just by like the the matchups in the trenches uh i actually thought like i know there was a lot of memes going around about ashen genti i thought he was like there was a bunch of times where he got the ball and it would have been a loss or a yard and he found a way to get like four or five yards and like i didn't walk away from away from that game being like Ashton Gentry got like, they were keying in on him, basically saying you can't beat us with the pass. And he still had a couple of runs where I was like, holy shit, how did they not bring him down? Yeah, he was shaking off a lot of tackles, but nothing, they bottled him up a little bit.
They didn't let him, because he's had halves like that before where he's not really breaking anything, but then he gets his like 70 yard touchdown. Right.
And I also, I mean, the end of the game, that was a little sad by Boise State where they were just trying to get him the record. I mean, I know they were down, what were they down, 17? And I know they were like, there's probably no chance, but running on first down with two and a half minutes left was a little sad.
It was a little sad it was a little sad they had no urgency to try to cover the spread for the people and then so that game happens then we wake up on new year's day and we we tune in to arizona state texas and we thought that just all the college football games were going to be bad yes in the first half it just seemed like there was no chance was the first two offensive plays that texas had went for six well no they got they had a punt return yeah so they had they had the deep they had like a their their first play from scrooge was like a 50 yard pass then a touchdown and then they had the punt return it was 14 0 or 14 3 almost instantly and we're like fuck this sucks and then arizona state kenny d and the boys i mean that was scadabo was like he was puking he was looked like he got bottled up in the first half and then he just did everything that's when he woke up was after he puked he caught a 60 yard pass he threw a pat a touch a touchdown pass he ran for 140 he had two touchdowns the sideline reporter said that he was he was throwing up profusely on the sidelines yeah and then the announcers are spec well, maybe it's because he hasn't had to play into the fourth quarter a lot recently. Some other people were speculating, well, it is New Year's Day.
Who knows what happened last night? Whatever happened, he got better after he puked. Yeah.
Which was great. And on that touchdown pass that he threw, did you know that that's not the pass that he was supposed to throw? I can believe it.
It was designed to be a pass back to the quarterback. And he said, fuck it.
I'm going deep. I mean, he, the Arizona state, the way that came started, I've never seen worse body language from a team.
Like you had guys yelling at each other, uh, pushing each other. And then they just kept on crawling back.
And like, if you actually look at the stats of that game, Arizona state played better than Texas. Like they had more yards.
They were, they kept on getting to the red zone.xas just i don't know what it is but their their defense is so good and their offense just goes into these dry spells that are like what what's happening right now they got lucky that they ended up winning so there was the the um targeting call that confused america yeah because nobody knows what targeting is no one knows that would know that was targeted i feel like i feel like the rule was created so that the refs have an opportunity to to impact a game one way or the other yeah where like if they if you want it to be targeting you can say okay that's targeting this guy's ejected yeah if you don't want it to be then you can say no and everyone's like well okay i guess i don't know what targeting is yeah because it's so weird but the way that it's written he was defenseless i think he did hit lead with the crowd of his helmet yeah it was like it was above the face mask they ended up being face mask to face mask but it looked like he led with the crowd yeah but ball don't lie they doink a kick at the end shout out to the arizona state ball girls that walked right in front of the kicker well and also sark with one of the weirdest decisions ever to be like hey my kicker who just missed a kick uh has the biggest kick of life. I'm going to make him stare into my eyes while I hold his head and tell him everything's going to be okay.
That felt like it might have rattled. So I think that the reinforcement was so positive beforehand that the kicker didn't have any fear in him.
You have to be a little bit afraid of your coach, right? Like kickers were mental midgets. Can we say that? Yeah.
Mental. You need to have the, oh shit, I'm probably going to get killed by my head coach if I don't make this kick.
Yeah, and Stark was just like doing the, I love you, man, whatever you do here, we're proud of you. You're Burt Auburn.
His face pissed me off. Burt's? Yeah, and his hair.
His hair? Yeah. Yeah, I got a lot of people saying the hair is too much for kicker.
I don't disagree. Yeah.
You don't want to stand out at all. No, you got to be just, you got to not have any idea, like point to the sideline.
Random creative face. Skinny white guy.
Yeah. That's what we're looking for.
And, but Arizona state. Yeah.
Like I wish they had won that game. They balled their ass off.
Texas got bailed out with that, that touchdown pass in overtime. Yeah.
That was a Greg williams special yeah the zero blitz was it fourth and fifth fourth and 13 i think yeah don't really understand the play call i guess they're just like let's go win it let's be aggressive and i like i still think texas is good uh i still like i think they'll their defense can can give ohio state some problems but i just wanted i wanted just wanted Arizona State to win that game so bad.

They got to use Isaiah Bond a little bit.

Yeah.

I know he's coming back from something, but they got to use him a little bit more.

Scadaboo.

This guy.

I fucking love this guy.

Yeah.

I love him so much.

Sean Payton probably will use a first-round pick on him because he's like, that is my new Taysom Hill.

Yeah.

That's everything I need out of the guy. He was so fun to watch.
He was like Michael. Stop mixed with John Kuhn running people over in the backfield.
So fun. He's so fun.
He's he's an electric college football player is going to be. I mean, this is a loaded draft for running backs.
And then we had the Rose Bowl where Ohio State basically played a perfect half of football. That first half was one of the best halves of football I've ever watched by one team.
Jeremiah Smith is, I don't know what Oregon, what they spent their bi-week doing, but it wasn't scheming up a way to stop Jeremiah Smith. They said, we're going to make him beat us.
Yeah. And he beat him.
Okay. And he beat him.
He beat him. He beat him by the time most of America started watching the game.
Yeah. And then Dan Lanning, we had a sad punt from Dan Lanning.
It was just, that was, Ohio State is just a team on a mission right now. I don't know what else you can say.
As long as they don't have to play Michigan, they are the best team in the country. Do you think Michigan is rooting for Ohio State at this point? I think if you're a Michigan fan, and Michigan fans can chime in and let us know i think what michigan fans are rooting for is for ohio state to get to the national championship and then lose in tragic fashion yeah i think that's probably what they're rooting for because they don't because like i know the whole if they win we could say well we beat them it still is a national title so i think they want them to get as far as possible and then choke at the end if okay so like ryan day choke if you're a michigan fan drawn this up you want them to get to the national championship and then maybe lose to penn state yeah yeah or notre dame even like yeah just be like no michigan fans would would rather penn state win the national championship than notre dame uh probably yeah no that's that's a toss-up i don't know because i I know Notre Dame's not in the big.
They're not in the big. They are.
But the rivalry from. Yeah, but Michigan and Penn State play almost every year.
Notre Dame and Michigan haven't. They stopped the rivalry.
They haven't played in years. I think they'd rather see Penn State.
I don't know if they would. No, because Michigan could also be like, oh, Penn State, the Big Ten is the best conference.
If Penn State wins it all, they're the best conference. That's what I'm saying.
I'm saying that they'd rather Penn State beat OSU. I think you could ask a Michigan fan and they'd give you a different answer.
They don't like Notre Dame, but I also think they don't like Penn State. What were you going to say, Max? Should we ask Jack? Yeah.
Yeah, ask Jack. Yeah, get Jack in here.
Resident Michigan fan? Yeah. So, yeah, it's...
He's so young, though, I feel like he doesn't even remember Notre Dame and Michigan playing. But it's an added bonus every time Ohio State wins an important game that Michigan gets to be like, yeah, ever since we beat them.
Yeah. Yeah.
Also, to your side, it might be better for James Franklin to beat Ryan Day, so it's like Ryan Day's brain is fully broken. Then Ryan Day becomes James Franklin.
Yeah. Jack, our resident Michigan fan, one of our behind-the-scenes guys, does a great job.
Jack, as a Michigan fan, if it was – what are you rooting for for Ohio State in this college football playoff? So I'm different I don't want them to win right well I what I said was I think most Michigan fans are rooting for them to get to the title and then lose in tragic fashion yeah that would be hilarious yeah and then if you were playing Penn State uh would you rather Penn State or Notre Dame beat them Penn State for sure you You'd rather Penn State beat them? Yeah. Okay.
Because that would just be even funnier. Yeah.
As a funny factor, not as a hate Notre Dame factor. I mean, I also kind of hate Notre Dame as well.
You guys are kind of the same, Michigan and Notre Dame. Don't tell them that.
Yeah. How? Well, you are the same.
Yeah. You just refuse to.
It's like Ravens and Steelers. They hate each other so much, and they refuse to admit that they're the same team.
They love to talk about football from the 1940s. I mean, Notre Dame is like the biggest fraud of all time.
Okay. Until last year, that was literally you.
Who have you guys beaten in national championships besides the most recent one? Yeah. You guys are the same.
That's fine. It's okay.
I mean, congratulations congratulate you are a national champion right now. Thank you.
Not taking that away from you. Thank you.
We support Connor Stallions. Okay.
So you want Penn state to beat Ohio state in a tragic fashion for Ohio state. You just want Ryan data.
I was saying the best outcome for Michigan is Ryan day to have like a full blown Ryan day meltdown in the national championship. Yeah.
That would be, that would be the greatest thing ever. Yeah.
If he loses the natty to a guy who is known for losing big games that would be that would be the best outcome right yeah that would be hilarious yeah uh okay thank you jack yep um and then yeah i mean the the georgia notre dame game notre dame just out muscled georgia which was kind of shocking although georgia obviously on their backup quarterback who i wouldn't say pocket presences is his strength. It's not also blocking for their backup quarterback.
Yeah, the whole the whole left side felt like it was it was a problem. But we also had the emergence of antihero for Georgia.
What's the name? Parker Jones. I believe it was Parker Jones.
Parker Jones, who number 39 Who got it. It ended up not mattering because they lost by 13.
Yeah. And also, they made the field goal.
They did make the field goal. But they would have had first and goal.
Parker Jones, a walk-on cornerback, got in the way of a ref. 15-yard penalty.
Memes, you're a Georgia fan. Yep.
What were you thinking about parker jones at that point we were watching with the sound off but it was just like wait what happened i thought we were inside the 10 and then it was just parker jones parker jones everywhere yeah no i mean parker jones is going to be an awesome pharmaceutical sales uh rep in like three years maybe not anymore yeah i don't know i mean it's yeah his that sucks so bad for him because like i was joking that you know even if you're a walk-on or you're you know you never play a snap for georgia to live the rest of your life being like yeah i was on kirby smarts georgia teams and he would have been able to say that and then someone would be like hey what's your name like oh i'm parker parker jones like wait a second i remember that i thought it was mean that they showed him at the end of the game they showed him so much everyone had kind of moved on from him a little bit and then to put him back on the screen on the national broadcast that felt that was targeting that was targeting that was absolutely targeting so uh, Notre Dame. Max, how are you feeling? I feel good.
I feel like Penn State and Notre Dame have kind of looked – Notre Dame just had a very impressive win. I don't know.
Their offense is so bland. Their defense is elite.
Their defense is shown to be elite. If Drew Aller can have a good game, get hot.
Kolinecki. But this is the sort of game where we're not going to be able to shove it down their throats.
Right. So Kolinecki will have to kind of do a little bit of the...
I think he's going to have to do some fuck shit. Yeah, he's going to have to do some fuck shit.
He's going to have to get creative. Yes, he's going to have to this game and if he does i like penn state's chances i like that they're dogs i like that they're dogs in this game as of right now as of right now they're one and a half point dogs opened his dogs opened his dogs it'll be a good game it'll be a good game i think i i think i like the under i'll say that yeah okay i i i hope abdul carter play i mean Abdul Carter put put out the Darth Vader video saying that he was loading up to...
What happened with him? His shoulder? It was insane that they just weren't talking about it. Yeah.
They just weren't talking. He just went off and they showed him adjusting in the pads and then it was just like, that was it.
He's the best player on the field. He is going to be a top five pick in the draft.

And he just didn't play for three quarters of the game.

And they just didn't say a thing.

And nobody knew what was going on.

Yeah.

So if Abdul Carter plays, I like her chances.

So tell me about this Darth Vader video.

So I didn't know anything about this video.

I had some super Connor Griffin resident.

Star Wars nerd.

Star Wars nerd and Penn State. Super, super super super fan explained to me that his fly and then came that it's a scene from star wars where darth vader goes into this healing chamber okay and then he gets healthy super fast and like gets super jacked and powerful and then darth vader ends up winning in the end right i don't i'm not a star wars guy okay that's probably an important part to look up i'm not i personally am not a star wars guy hank does he win yeah i mean he made up his relationship with his son oh he was a good father okay and his hand was fine.
Yeah. No.
No.

No.

No.

Well, what happened?

It got cut off by a lightsaber.

Oh, no.

A lightsaber?

Saber.

Oh, no.

So he's going to... Abdul Kader's going to play a whole game without a hand?

Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

Where does Baby Yoda factor into this?

He doesn't.

Wait, did he even post a video?

It looks like a picture.

It's just a picture? Yeah. He posted a picture of darth vader right before darth vader died i'm not a star wars guy so you you be if you have to be a star wars guy to know the difference between a picture and a video the same premise it's a meme sometimes memes are pictures sometimes memes are videos you know whatever tomato so he's going to do something that is unregulated that will heal him extra fast, and then he's going to die.
I don't know Star Wars. Okay, all right.
Or videos are pictures. Yeah.
All I know is that it seems like he's getting super healthy and super jacked. Super jacked, super healthy.
Hank? That's sick. All right, good.
That's my analysis. Max max if it makes a difference to you i will be rooting for you love that i think i'm gonna bet on penn state i think i'm gonna bet on penn state and ohio state it should be a good stream i think i i penn state ohio state is what i want just because whichever whichever coach loses is just very funny yeah that is a very funny like you could just go whichever now you want it no i mean James Stryker losing to Ohio State when he gets a cakewalk, like, you can just go whichever way you want.

No, I mean, James Stryker losing to Ohio State when he gets a cakewalk to the semifinal.

But if you beat Notre Dame to go to the national championship, that's a big win.

I agree.

But then if you lose to Ohio State yet again, it's like he can't beat Ohio State.

But Penn State fans won't be mad in that scenario. If you get to a natty and you lose.
If it just keeps proving that he would be, I think, 1-11 maybe against Ohio State. Yeah.
He won the one. If you lost to anybody else, it wouldn't be as bad.
Yeah.

I don't know.

Like, this, but this is the game.

Like, they got it.

This is the big game.

This is the big game.

This is the big game.

This is the big game.

And then everything else is gravy.

You don't care.

Yeah.

I think it would be funnier if Ryan Day lost than it would be if James Franklin lost.

Ryan Day losing in the national championship and it getting so far in this season that they can't fire him would be very funny.

But I'll see looks insanely good. Like, they look – their two wins now against Tennessee and Oregon were absolutely, like, lights out just the best team.
They have by far, if you reseeded right they are the they are the one seed by far and you can just imagine them winning and jack sawyer getting on stage and crying and screaming for about seven minutes non-stop right yeah like that feels like something that could very easily happen yeah and then hopefully a reporter would be like well congrats to the natty but what do you think about the flag that Michigan put in the 50-yard line? They're fucking doing the flag. Yeah, that counts as a Michigan National Championship since they own that stadium, right? Yeah.
Should Jeremiah Smith declare for the draft? A year and a quarter from now? It's crazy. He's so goddamn good.
It's bullshit. You should do the Maurice Claret being like being like i'm ready now he is ready right now yeah they showed the graphic in the first half of comparing him to like it was to and julio jones right yeah i was like come on let's let's pump the brakes a little bit and then you watch him play and you're like yeah i i can see it he's got another two years it's the most humble player he's ever seen ever yeah him and ryan williams there's two two dudes that we're going to get to watch in college football for the next two years.
Yeah. Just insane.
Okay. Let's do NFL Week 18.
Also, I love Caleb Downs. Yeah.
That guy's awesome. Yeah.
I mean, Ohio State's just really fucking good at football. And they just, as long as they don't have to play Michigan.
Because even their other loss to Oregon, you can, like, losing by one or two, whatever it was, to Oregon on the road, is not like a crazy loss. It's just losing at home as an 18-point favorite.
That is a crazy loss. Because they wanted to become Michigan to beat Michigan.
Like I said, if they had played their game, they should have beaten the shit out of oh yeah yeah absolutely um okay let's do uh week

18 in the nfl we got a lot to talk about uh before we do that game time football season is here we

can't wait to get out to some games with the help of game time the official ticketing partner of

barstool sports you know how much we love game time and now with their brand new game time picks

feature they're making it even easier to get to a game game time picks filters out the fluff

to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets we're looking at the lions vikings sunday night football save the best for last gonna be an all-time environment lions fans need to bring everything they have uh i'm seeing you can get in for 370 and i'm looking at a super deal right now for 505 Okay, so get there. Try to get the one seed if you're a Lions fan.
Say what's up to Sprinkles. Yeah, home atmosphere.
If you're a Vikings fan trying to get the one seed, go to the Game Time Picks deal for great seats. Just pull up your chosen event.
Turn on the GT Pick setting at the top of the screen to browse the best local Game Time Picks deals near you on your Game Time app homepage. What are you waiting for? Going to go get those tickets.
If you are a Lions or Vikings fan, download the Game Time app today. Use code PMT to easily score great deals with the new Game Time Picks.
What time is it? Game Time. We're also brought to you by our friends at the Farmer's Dog.
This new year, healthy habits don't only apply to humans. Give your dog a fresh start too.
The Farmer's Dog makes feeding real, healthy dog food easy and convenient and your dog will absolutely love it. The pre-portioned meals are personalized for your dog's needs, which makes it simple to help your dog reach and maintain a healthy weight.
If you've ever thought about making the switch, now is the time. I know Stella is a farmer's dog, so is Blake.
It's made from human grade real meat and veggies that are gently cooked with the safety and quality standards of human food. Even the best traditional dry and wet dog food options are highly processed.
And because pet food is very loosely regulated, you can use much lower quality ingredients than they claim to. It doesn't matter if your dog is young or old, it's always the right time to begin investing in their health.
That means more happy, healthy, and full years together. Get 50% fresh healthy food at the farmers dog.com slash pmt plus you get free shipping just go to the farmers dog.com slash pmt to get 50 off that's the farmers dog.com slash pmt okay boys week 18 in the nfl uh we had pro bowl by the way congrats pft jaden daniels pro bowler, Pepsi Rookie of the NFL.
We had Pro Bowl, by the way. Congrats, PFT, Jaden Daniels, Pro Bowler.
Pepsi Rookie of the Week as well. Pepsi Rookie of the Week.
Did you have any Pro Bowlers? Yeah. I had one.
Jalen Johnson. Yep.
That's pretty sick. Max, you guys had a lot.
Ravens had a shitload. Mebs, do you have a Pro Bowler?

Nope.

None?

We got some reserves.

Zero?

Zero.

And Sam Darnold made his first Pro Bowl, which, by the way, solidifies.

2018 draft was insane.

It's the year for everyone in the 2018.

I mean, there was already some incredible players, but the renaissance of some of these guys just a reminder the 2018 draft baker mayfield went one uh saquon barkley two sam donald three so one two three pretty much had career years uh four was denzel ward he's been to four pro bowls bradley chubb quentin nelson josh allen roquan smith mike McGlinchey, and then Josh Rose. But really, we should just make Lamar 32.
He was 10. Yeah.
No, it was a good draft. Really good draft.
So eight out of the 10 first rounders or first picks in the 20 or sorry, the first eight picks in the 2018 draft had been to at least one Pro Bowl. Now I'm interested to see who actually ends up playing in the Pro Bowl

because that's when things get fucked up

when you start getting a bunch of guys

that get put on the team at the very last minute.

What reserves do you have, Memes?

I believe Quentin Williams, Garrett Wilson, Xavier Gibson, Irv Charles.

Oh, shit, dude.

That's a lot of reserves.

A lot of reserves.

But there's like second reserve, third reserve.

There's tiers. Okay.
That That's a lot of reserves. A ton of reserves.
But there's like second reserve, third reserve. There's tiers.
Okay. Yeah.
That sounds like a lot of reserves. Yeah, we lead the league in almost Pro Bowls.
Oh, nice. So Patrick Mahomes, is he in the Pro Bowl? He is not.
That's weird. Yeah.
Because he's the best quarterback in football. I don't think that Patrick Mahomes cares at all.
I think this is probably a good thing for him for him yeah i mean he what he's gonna probably play in the super bowl he was not going to go to the pro bowl anyways so but but now you give the chiefs a tiny bit of ammunition yeah like look patrick mahomes wasn't a pro bowler yeah that's that's the opposite of what the rest of the nfl needs out of him it's also you know you've uh fully made it when if you try to like say haha Patrick Holmes is in the Pro Bowl. You're like, well, that's okay, dude.
Yeah, I don't care. He wins Super Bowls.
Yeah, it really doesn't matter. Who cares? Okay, let's do games.
By the way, this week, so at the end of the preview, we'll do our picks. Memes and Hank are safe, so they're not going to pick.
It's between me, PFT,FT and Max and the deal is PFT and I both have 18 I believe and Max has 16 so under normal Max would have to go 2-0 and we'd both have to go 0-2 for a tie and we're not going to do a tiebreaker this year if anyone ties they have to go to the bachelor party together so if Max Max and I tie, we're both going, which I think would be better for content. And PFT and I have graciously given Max an extra pick.
So he's going to get three picks and we get two picks. He's getting the easiest road to the championship.
So that means that any combination of Max going, if Max goes 3-0 and PFT and I both go 1-1, all three of us are going to go. If either PFT and I go 0-2 and Max goes 2-1, then we would go.
So, Max, you got to at least win two. You got to at least get two out of three and hope for us to suck.
Yeah. Because if either of us goes 2-0, we're automatically safe.
Have we figured out what bachelor party we're going to go on? No, that's a whole other process. That's a whole other process.
I have so many weddings this summer. Oh, well, sounds like you're going to have another bachelor party.
Unless you go 3-0 and one of us goes 0-2, then you're safe. That would be a hell of a...
I mean, Davis Mills, that year still... Davis Mills, so many hot dogs.
So many hot dogs. Okay, let's get to the games.
First game, Saturday, which I'll just say it. I don't understand why the NFL did the scheduling this way.
The Steelers and the Bengals should have played first because Browns at Ravens, Ravens minus 20, over-under is 41. If the Ravens win this game, they win the AFC North and the Steelers have nothing to play for.
So they have absolutely not. They don't have seating to play for in that case.
I thought they did. I guess they would with the Chargers, but because it would be a pretty big seating deal then.
Right. Because yeah, I mean, you would much rather you would want to avoid the Ravens.
You would want to avoid the Ravens, but still like the AFC North will be decided. I it didn't.
But that no to me me that makes a massive difference but it makes so much more sense for them to just go first yeah it probably does why wouldn't they have just gone first it probably does I think you probably wanted to get Joe Burrow and the seal it's a it's a much like more impactful game in terms of driving viewers so you want that in prime time right but it would have been like them going first being like if they win they get to they can win the afc north i think they want that in the afternoon slate because i think i do think the steelers have a lot to play for yeah no they definitely do because playing a home playoff game is a lot home playoff game is a lot but also avoiding the ravens in the first round is a lot and then i at least we're getting the bangles on saturday so that we can see the outcome of their game before we see the other games.

Yeah, I like that part. All right.

So the Ravens, so it's going to be Bailey Zappi, I believe, for the Browns, but also maybe still DTR, which is so sad.

Yeah.

We've got a lot of those this weekend.

A lot of, like, really, really depressing two-headed monster backfields.

If and.

Yeah.

So we might get a combination of both DTR and Bailey Zappi. Bailey Zappi has been there for how long? The year? The whole year? Maybe not the whole year.
I don't think so. Half the year? Jameis, emergency quarterback.
Oh, yeah. It can't be the whole year because he was probably, unless he was on practice.
I believe Deshaun went down and then they signed him. Then they signed Bailey Zappi.
Got it. Yeah, he was on the Chiefs before that, on the Chiefs practice squad.
Damn, Bailey Zappi was so close to a ring. That would have been tough.
Yeah. So one thing to watch for in this game, Lamar Jackson might break the single season quarterback rating record.
So he's right behind Aaron Rodgers from 2011. Yep.
So maybe lamar just plays a half gets out of there yeah and we also points is a lot yeah yeah we have uh it is a lot but the browns are really really bad uh miles garrett i do think we'll be playing hard that he he is never as good as miles garrett is he's never led the nfl in sacks and a cleveland brown has never done that so he also said tied right now for with trey hendrickson he said they want to play spoiler they want to play spoiler um which yeah okay yeah play spoiler you'll be nice if they scored like maybe 17 points that'll be nice for the defense yeah right yeah in their last three games how many how many points do you think the browns have scored in three games not many 16 yeah i mean dtr in his five starts has scored 37 total yeah so uh it's it's not it's not looking good also here's a fun fact from paul hembo in the browns owen 16 season in 2017 they never were more than a 13 and a half point underdog and they're a 20 point underdog in this game also derrick henry incentives if he gets one touchdown he breaks uh jamal lewis's record for the franchise record and he also gets 500 000 that's huge and he also is 217 yards away from 2000 which he would be the oldest player to get 2000 rushing yards that That's huge. I read somewhere.
I forget who posted this, but this is the 40th quarterback that the Browns have started since 1999. Oh man.
With Bailey's happy. Oh man.
Yeah. That's tough.
Okay. Yeah.
I mean, this is kind of a one eye game. It's football.
Yeah. It's a Saturday afternoon.
One eye game. This is, this is the last week of the NFL season season your team is playing this weekend yeah for a lot of people it's going to be your last chance to watch your team play which this is big uh i'm so excited to not see my team play anymore okay like the playoffs are going to be great because i don't have to watch my team i think browns fans probably are in the same boat i get that but there's something different about an nfl sunday where you know what you have to do and you know that you have to put on that browns jersey the face paint yeah you know you have to do you have to do the whole it's a uh it's a tradition it's a ritual yeah this is your last sunday of that ritual that you get to experience until maybe late august yeah uh okay bangles at steelers steelers minus two over under 48 i don't know what's going on with the Steelers Mike Tomlin allegedly corrected the he hit the elephant in the room talk with I think it's Cam Sutton is what people are guessing but also maybe Minka and also maybe Patrick Queen is the guy that everyone keeps talking about who's missing assignments yeah also did you see pickens uh video from the locker room i did not see that one okay so this is kind of uh perfect for can you actually pull it up max george pickens talking about russell wilson and him being not being on the same page this is a perfect uh like it's a perfect example of where the steelers are right now as a team because they've been taking on water.
They've been playing real teams, and they've been losing, and it doesn't feel like the vibes are super high. Yeah, here we go.
Here's the video. This is George Pickens being asked about being on the same page with Russell Wilson.
It seemed like you and Russ weren't on the same page in that interception against the Chiefs. How does that happen, and what do you guys do to address it? You said me and Russ wasn't on the same page? Yeah, well, that's what he said.
That's what he said? Yeah. Or is that what you said? That's what he said.
Oh, okay. How do you just address that? Thank you.
You know what? So they weren't on the same page even? You know what? Mike Tomlin, Coach of the Year. Right there, what I just saw from George Pickens, that's growth.
He physically took his shysty, pulled it up over his mouth. He's like, I want to say a lot of things right now.
Coach told me, don't say anything. And he physically restrained himself from talking.
I admire that. But that video is so funny because it's a reporter saying uh what do you think about not being on the same page as russell wilson and he's like wait he said that or you said that it's like no russ said that and he's like oh shit i didn't even know russ said that proving that they're not on the same page they weren't on the same page on that one play or or in the follow-up interview in the follow-up yeah because if they were on the same in the follow-up interviews, they both would have known they weren't on the same page.
George Pickens thinks they were on the same page. Russell Wilson does not.
I just appreciate George moving forward. Yeah.
Okay, for this game as well, Joe Burrow could become only the fourth player ever to get 5,000 yards passing and 45 touchdowns in a season. So he needs 359 yards and three touchdowns.
The other three players, four players, so he'd be the fifth actually of all time. The other four players are Patrick Mahomes in 2018, Peyton Manning in 2013, Drew Brees in 2011, and Dan Marino in 1984.
And it made me realize we don't put enough respect on our good dear friend recurring guest dan marino because him having 5084 yards and 48 touchdowns in 1984 when the game was not a passing game is fucking insane that's an insane statistical seat like think about it joe burrow's having a career year and he still needs to do some work to get to what dan marino did and the league is completely different all four of the all the other three that i mentioned all happened in the last 13 years and dan marino did it fucking 40 years ago yeah you could still basically interfere with receivers yeah you could hit the shit out of the quarterback five seconds after they threw the pass teams just tried to run the ball yeah they tried to establish the run over and over i looked it up so after he did that in 1984 uh it took 15 years until someone had over 40 touchdown passes in a season not named dan marino because he actually did it again two years later 44 uh touchdown passes Kurt Warner in 1999 and it took 22 years for someone else to eclipse 5,000 yards and drew breeze and it's 21 years I think until uh when Brady broke the the touchdown record uh his touchdown record in 2007 so it's like more respect on Dan Marino that that's just an absolute anomaly of like basically you picked a stat line from today's NFL and you just stuck it right in the middle of the 80s and you're like yep that's what Dan Marino did yeah it's pretty crazy to imagine it's nuts and and what Joe Burrow's done this year has been awesome I can't I can't wait for this game because I think that no matter what the are going to play very, very hard. The Bengals, when they try their very hardest, they might end up losing in heartbreaking fashion, but it's going to be a crazy game.
Yeah. Yeah.
No, it's going to be a great game. And I – We get Renegade in a night game.
We get the terrible towels going. Double Renegade.
Maybe double Renegade. Yeah.
Joey Porter Jr. trying not to interfere with people it's gonna be great it's gonna be great it's gonna be great uh okay on to sunday commanders of cowboys cowboys plus six over unders 44 how we feel bft you got to win this game to avoid the eagles doesn't matter we play who we you got to beat good teams in the playoffs okay that.
That's what I'm looking at right now. Max, have you fully come to grips with the seeding? Yep.
I'm on to the Packers. Okay.
Okay. I'm ready for the Packers.
Because you're trying to duck the Commanders. It's okay.
I'll play you. I want Max.
But the reality is... We'll see what Mike Florio said about that when we get to that.
We got to take care of business. Number one thing he said was as long as you don't play the Eagles.

Okay.

Mike Florio knows ball.

We'll get to it.

Who am I to argue?

Yeah, we'll get to it.

We'll get to it.

But that's what he said.

Okay.

All right.

So, Max, I want to beat the Cowboys because I want to win every game that I'm in, regardless

of opponent.

Also, four and two in the division in those parentheses next to your record looks a lot

better than three and three in the division. So that's what I'm hoping for.
And I'm hoping to stay healthy. Yeah.
Just stay healthy. This game made me think of there's a lot of especially with the 12 team playoff and the new wild card and Major League Baseball people complaining about, you know, the playing game, the NBA.
Too many teams make the playoffs.

Imagine if we only had six seeds this year.

Yeah.

Well, actually, it would be awesome if you win this game because then the Packers would be out.

But still, you would basically be eliminating a team that has an 11-12 win team.

Yeah, 12 wins, two teams tied at that, one would get left out.

And then in the NFC, anything can happen as far as the road goes. If we win this game get the six seed we could play at the rams we could play at the bucks you don't know and then once the reseeding starts to happen we talked about a dream scenario crazy we'll have to wait for that that conversation yeah i'd like to beat the cowboys you always want to beat the cowboys but to me the most intriguing part of this game is is Mike McCarthy and what happens afterwards.
Yeah. Yeah.
Also, Ezekiel Elliott went for the saddest release ever. I don't know if you guys saw this, but Jerry Jones released Ezekiel Elliott out of respect and appreciation for Zeke.
So he'd have a chance on a playoff team. He did not get claimed.
And I don't know if anyone will sign him. Yeah, I don't know.
I i don't know what really the expectation the ideal scenario for him is to stay on the cowboys and to keep getting these lifetime achievement touchdowns from the cowboys when they get the ball at the one yard line yeah be like here you go zeke who i guess you can have a touchdown who would even who would even sign him maybe the one team that i've heard that would make any bit of sense would be the chargers i was gonna say the chargers are injured because they're banged up at that position but J.K. Dobbins is back besides that I don't know why I don't know why any team would really let him be a raven fuck it let him be a raven get him on the Chiefs let him spell Derrick Henry if Andy Reid is trying to win a Super Bowl on expert mode get get Ezekiel Elliott back there and give him meaningful carries.
Get Ezekiel Elliott back there and what's his name? Carson Steele? No, the guy who drops all the balls. Oh, Kadarius Toney.
Yeah, Kadarius Toney. Bring him back.
Yeah, let's get it going. But yeah, I feel like the Cowboys could be a little live,

but it's really just not about the Cowboys.

It's more like, is there any emotional letdown to such an incredible Sunday night?

Which was incredible.

Like, that was, you know, clinching the playoffs, winning at home,

the Jaden Daniels insane drive to end the game.

I still think the Commanders will win, but that would be my only argument for it.

I hope so.

I hope we win.

I think that we're going to win.

I'd like to see Luke McCaffrey get a touchdown too.

I went back through all the film.

It was my all 22 project this week.

The stuff he does without the ball.

Did you hear on Sunday night football that they,

they,

they did say Marshawn Latimore played well.

He did.

He did play well.

Collinsworth did say that he did.

You listen,

obviously you don't want pass interferences are not good, but they don't always tell the whole story. Yeah.
But yeah, Luke. Get Luke a touchdown.
Will you – He's always the first guy to help up a teammate too. Yeah, while watching this game, will you be – if you lose this game, will you be like – will you be upset? Will you be like, shit, Eagles? I think it only, it matters how we lose the game.
If we lose with no injuries and we don't look just terrible, then I'll be like, listen, I'll take the Eagles. You play who you play.
Because Hank and Memes, you guys agree, we want to see Eagles commanders. Yeah.
Yeah, for the show. You play who you play.
I think every A.W.L. is nodding their head right now.
Yeah. I want to beat good teams.
That's the thing about me, Big Cat, is I want to beat the best. Yeah.
Max wants the easiest path possible. Also, his quarterback's still in concussion protocol.
That's very true. Well, Tanner McKee.
Tanner McKee. Okay, can I amend this? I don't want – I want zero part of playing Tanner McKee in the playoffs.
I don't want that guy because that guy, he's different. Three for four, two touchdowns.
Yeah. All right.
Bears at Packers. Packers plus 10 over under 41.
LaFleur said he's playing everyone. The Bears haven't won a road game on a Sunday since.
Anyone want to take a guess 2021 yes week what week 15 at Seattle Nick Foles was the quarterback 20 Sunday road games in a row they have lost Sunday they've won some shock they've won some Thursday night road games they've won think, a Monday night road game. They have not won a Sunday road game since 2021.

And they won't win this game, so we'll just go into 2025 being like,

we haven't won a road game on a Sunday.

So it's going to be bare weather, though, which is also Packer weather.

No, it's more bare weather.

So it's going to be like low 20s, maybe some snow.

Just get me out of this season. I don't really want to watch this game.
What if you beat the Packers, though? We're not going to beat the Packers. Packers are going to embarrass us.
They're going to laugh at us. And then we're going to hire Brian Flores.
And I'm going to kill myself. That's a bad thing, you think? Yeah.
Would he kill himself? I don't know. Hope you would not want me to die.
Yeah. Well, let me ask you this.
Has Brian Flores ever coached a young quarterback? And how did it go if he did? They had a couple, what, two 9-1 seasons back to back? Two in the Dolphins? I don't believe so. I think they um well he put in brian fitzpatrick over to uh yeah well i can also chalk that up to brian flores being part of bill belichick's tentacles where he would just he would farm out his assistant coaches to go destroy another team and so he probably loved a team in the division getting absolutely creamed by b Flores.
Let me put it this way.

Nine and eight,

10 and six,

five and 11.

Uh,

which one of the, those 10 and six was with Tua.

Yeah,

that might,

no,

that was,

I think the year that they,

they,

he like wouldn't play Tua.

2019,

they were five and 11 and then 10 and six and nine and eight.

I would rather have, I'm going to say something crazy right now. Actually, I don't think it's that crazy.
I'd much rather have, if given the choice, Mike McCarthy over Brian Flores. Just because – you don't think that Brian Flores is one of these coaches that goes to his second job and he's like, I learned a lot of stuff from my first job, like namely don't make your young quarterback hate you? I think Tua started nine games that season.
I think Brian Flores could be a very good head coach with a well-established quarterback in place. Okay, but he'd probably have to hire a guy whose only job is to take care of Caleb.

I just don't want a defensive coach, and I want Ben Johnson,

and then all the reports are out that Ryan Poles is trying to softly push the team away from Ben Johnson

because Ben Johnson would then softly push Ryan Poles away from the team.

It's the height of dysfunction.

We're going to talk about it with Florio.

It's the worst. Brian Flores would be a disaster i i don't know that he would though yeah he wasn't okay yes he alienated tua but hank just said 10 wins tua did not start that whole season 10 wins without tua mike mcdaniel would love that yeah i just you You get two started for nine games.
You win 10.

I just don't.

I don't want it.

I don't want it.

But you did say you wanted Mike McCarthy.

I said if given.

If you made me choose between the two.

I don't want Mike McCarthy either.

If you said you have to take one of the two.

I would take Mike McCarthy.

Mike McCarthy is a good coach.

He's won a Super Bowl.

Yeah.

I do not want either. Just for the record.
But if you said you have to take one or the other, I would take Mike McCarthy. I mean, he coached a young Aaron Rodgers.
He coached the transition between Favre and Aaron Rodgers. Like, that was a difficult transition when Brett Favre decided to come back after retiring.
He also can't beat the Packers. Well, no, he can beat the Packers.
As the Cowboys coach? No, as the end of his time with the Packers. He beat the Packers all the time.
That's true. He's got a lot of experience.
He's beating the Packers. Being in football games where the Packers lose.
Yeah, right. Yeah, he's beaten the Packers many, many times.
So right now the Packers have 108 wins against the Bears.

It's tied all time for the most victories by one team over another team.

You know who you're tied with, though?

They've been playing for a long time.

You know who you're tied with, though?

Who?

Me.

The Giants beating the Redskins football team commanders.

So we'll have that record.

Yeah.

Passing of the torch game.

I've been playing a long time, and it's been a long time of getting our faces just smashed in uh hank bills patriots bills of patriots patriots plus two and a half over under 37 and a half what are we thinking for this game i think that what you said the other day about mayo coaching for his job and leaving on the line is is what's going to happen. I think I can speak from most, if not all, Patriots fans that we would rather see Drake may not play, give us a little Joe Milton action, and hopefully we lose the game.
But it just feels like one that they're going to win, and we're going to lose some great draft picks as a result. And he's going to try to save his job.
Yeah is the joe milton coming out game no i don't think he's going to play i think i i wish it was the drake may coming out of the game game for joe milton but i think today they announced drake may as a starter so that's that dream is dead well josh is starting too yeah but that's mostly so that he can continue the streak because he is available to play yeah so he's going to try to start. How many series do you think for Josh? Two? Two.
I do think the Patriots are going to find a way to win this game because I think the Bills are going to pack it in. Bills are a good team, though.
They got good backups. They're well coached.
Hopefully they're focused on the playoffs, and so hopefully their whole team is kind of locked in in playoff mode and the Patriots are just like, get the season over with, and that's how it plays out. But I feel like the Patriots are going to win.
Fun fact about the Bills, and I guess it depends on – well, no, right now it stands. They're the only team to beat two 14-win teams in a season, and if the Lions win against the Vikings, they'll be the only team to beat two 15-win teams in a season.
Oh, that's pretty cool. Pretty crazy.
Also, imagine if the Lions win, and it's like, hey, that was their two wins, or two of their wins against the two best teams, one seed. Yeah, and they could get 14 wins, which would be the most for the Bills in franchise history.
Yep. Here's the big thing that we have to figure out for this game, boys.
And I don't even know if it will be listed. Maybe.
Is there, for touchdown scores, is there other listed sometimes? It's probably not up right now. I haven't seen a touchdown.
So the Bills have 13 different touchdown scores, reception touchdowns this year. The record is 14.
And the Bills have talked about it, how they're like, they see this as a team award, and they're excited, and they want to break this record. Zach Davidson is the name that I found.
He is the backup, backup tight end. And Reggie Gilliam.
Those are the two guys that could conceivably catch in in like there might be it might be an offensive yeah i was thinking of one in particular dawkins yeah does he have one this year i don't think so but this does i mean doesn't it like there was a report that they've been actively talking about like this would be a really cool record to get as a team. We got to figure out who that touchdown is going to be to.
Dawkins anytime touchdown. Is that listed? I don't think that's going to be listed.
I think we have our best shot at doing offensive players and just spraying against. Like, I think they're going to try to get this.
I think they're going to try to figure out a way to get someone to catch. Maybe it's Mitch.
John Daw he did oh fuck what about has josh got a receiving touchdown josh does he does yes pass it to himself yep oh shit yeah so we have to figure out who that's gonna be yeah i looked through it today yeah zach davidson has uh three games played in one reception this year no touchdown touchdowns. And Reggie Gilliam as well.

Because everyone else has scored for them.

So it's crazy.

They've just had every single guy score a touchdown.

We just have to figure out who it's going to be.

Wait, maybe.

What?

Dawkins hasn't scored?

None of the props are out yet.

Yeah.

What about DeMar?

I feel like if you put him on the field, everyone's going to be like,

that's going to be a touchdown to DeMar, right?

Yeah, probably.

Why is he out there?

Okay.

So that was more to come on that.

We got to figure that out.

DeMar out there is a decoy, and then he trips and falls down.

To Reggie Gilliam.

Then the whole defense is like, oh, my God, is he okay? Touchdown pass to Reggie got it i'm rooting for reggie gillian that would be fun gillian softly with his song reggie gillian would be a very fun touchdown uh okay uh let's see next game giants and eagles eagles minus three over under 37 and a half. PFT.
Saquon is kind of a pussy for this, huh? No touchdown for Deion Dawkins this year. Okay.
No touchdown. Okay.
For not asking for the rock? Yeah. So if I was Saquon Barkley.
I demand the rock. Here's what I would say.
I would march straight into Nick Sirianni's office and I would say, Coach, I want to play. I want to play for my teammates.
I want to play most of all, though, for the game. Yeah.
For the game because I respect the game so much and it's such a meaningful record. If you don't respect the game, the game won't respect you back.
That's a good point. And also, you're not going to tell me that Saquon doesn't have any feelings towards the Giants, like going for the record against his own team that didn't want him.
Like either this is a Saquon problem, which Max just told me that it's not, or it's a Nick Sirianni problem. Yeah.
Nick Sirianni is like, I don't have any. The game means nothing to me.
Yeah. Records mean not.
History means nothing to me. Yeah.
And it's just like, I mean, I saw Dan Campbell playing all the stars against the 49ers. That's culture.
Yeah. You play to win the game.
Yeah. And the it's just like i mean i saw dan campbell playing all the stars against the 49ers that's culture yeah you play to win the game yeah and then and the eagles are just like no we're not gonna play saquon yeah you play you guys don't care about winning super bowl herm edwards uh culture max culture super bowl culture culture okay it's not it's not about it's not about yes it is saquon it's not about saquon it's about the offensive line, too.
Have been able to tell their kids and their grandkids, hey, I blocked for that guy that set the all-time record. And you still can say it.
And Sirianni's taking a record. I mean, Max, Steve Downs, you know this is coward shit.
This is chicken shit. You guys.
You know it's chicken shit. Max, would you rather see Saquon get the record? The feel like the way you two looked at each other was like you planned this conversation.

We didn't plan anything. It was like

we're going to find a way to fuck with Max.

No, we didn't plan it. It's called being in locks.

It's called being a football guy.

With your teammate. Football guys is making

sure you're in the best situation to win a

fucking Super Bowl. You guys

wouldn't know anything about that. I'm Lane Johnson

right now, okay? And

we looked at each other and we said we want to play. Yeah.
Give me the rock want to play give me the fucking rock they're not playing either and then sirianni up in the boot what the linemen aren't playing i know i would say give me the rock i want to get this record we haven't had a week uh we haven't had a bye since week five oh football too hard for you max see it's too hard for you. I would fucking, I would be like, give me the fucking rock, Nick.
You would love to be in a situation where you can rest your starters going into playoffs. You do realize no matter which way they decided, we would have just spun it to get you at this point.
If he had started, we would have been like, that's the dumbest decision you could ever make. He's risking injury.
They care about records over Super Bowl. True.
Yep. I feel like we've had this exact conversation the other way.
Just keep falling for it. I actually do feel bad for Saquon.
He said afterwards, he was like, yeah, it was hard telling my dad because he was like, my dad was like, this is our name with a hollowed record. But it's the right decision.
It is. I would feel worse if he didn't get into the 2000 yeah the 2000 yard club no matter what is still like an elite group of running backs in history that have got there it's it's hard to do he still got he still got that mark and he did it in in the correct amount of games too yeah correct yeah so Correct.
Yeah. So I'm not – like, he still has that from this season.
No one can take that away. No, he had an all-time season.
But we're trying to win a Super Bowl. We're trying to win a Super Bowl.
And I cannot – could you imagine if him or any of the linemen got hurt? You would be – Because that's the thing. You're risking six guys.
Yeah.. But Max, what do you think about rest versus rust? I know that's been a topic of discussion recently.
Right now, we need rest. Yeah, but you saw what happened in college football playoff.
Buys. Okay.
You haven't had a bye in 15 weeks. That's not right math, but basically.

You already have the bye.

What?

This is just more rest.

Well, if you play the Commanders, you have a bye.

That's true.

That's not true.

That is incorrect.

That is incorrect.

Tanner McKee.

This game is about Tanner McKee.

Tanner McKee.

Are you a little worried that Jalen Hurts is still in concussion protocol?

Oh, that.

Yes. That.
Yes. Yeah, I'd say yes.
But like that's not something you can just cheat your way out of. But you can just like stay in concussion protocol.
No. You can tell me how concussion protocol.
I'll tell you how concussion protocol works. Jalen Hurts can't do any like physical activity when he's in concussion protocol.
He doesn't want to be in concussion protocol anymore. He'll be out by the beginning of next week.
I think Max is right. I think he will be, too.
I do, too, but I'm just saying it's not like concussion. Jaquan Brisker went into concussion protocol.
I haven't seen him since. Thumbs up.
Thumbs up. Did Jaquan Brisker give a thumbs up after the hit? No, and he's going to concuss a lot, but I'm just saying concussion protocol is the one injury where you can't be like, I'm good to go, and they give you the test and you fail it, and they're like, no, you can't play.
I would be more comfortable if he wasn't in concussion protocol. That's true.
However, my panic meter of that is like a three. Okay, yeah.
Well, one good thing about him is if there's a guy that has a history of being a starting quarterback, it's no longer the starting quarterback supporting the new guy. It's probably Jalen Hurts.
And if there's a history of a team being able to have a backup quarterback go win a Super Bowl, it's the Philadelphia Eagles. It's true.
It's true. But I think he'll be okay.
Oh, my God. Imagine if they make a statue for Tanner McKee.
Tanner McKee. We're just skipping over Kenny.
Is he out this weekend? Yeah, Kenny's not playing. He hurt his ribs.
So who's your backup? Ian Book. Oh, yeah, that's right.
That's nice. Right? Yep, Ian Book.
Yep. Yeah, he hasn't progressed enough to be at practice i mean he would definitely want to be at practice like he can't be in practice so but next week he wants to be at practice okay listen i hope that's true i want to see jalen hurts play in the playoffs i don't same i just know that like the concussion protocol is the one thing you can't be like.
It's not like a bum ankle where you're like, I don't care. I'm going.
Monday. If he's not practicing on Monday, then I'm nervous.
But this week, because I don't get how you get out of concussion protocol. You have to pass a test.
But what does that mean? Could he just be like, oh, yeah, I'm not going to pass the test today? You could. Yeah you could flunk the test intentionally.
Just be like, I'm not. I guess you could.
And then be like. But that would make no sense because he still would want to go to practice.
Why? Just take the week off. Just walk through with the team and be able to get your lifts in and shit.
He can't get his lifts. He probably doesn't lift a lot right now.
Him and Saquon, they don't really

squat much.

Thumbs up, though. What if he just gives a

thumbs up again? Two thumbs up.

Two thumbs up. Then you're out.

Monday. Because this

week is not a real week

of practice. They're

preparing for next week.

Has anybody asked AJ Brown what he thinks about

him still being in concussion protocol?

No.

I would like to see that question asked.

Yeah.

A.J. Brown also not Pro Bowl, so he's probably mad about that.

Jordan Mailata not being Pro Bowl is bullshit.

Number one ranked player in all of offense in the NFL this year.

The number one offensive player in the NFL?

According to PFF.

Okay.

Number one ranked offensive player.

Ahead of Saquon.

Ahead of Saquon.

So Saquon's system running back.

I hope we're not.

go The number one offensive player in the NFL. According to PFF.
Okay. Number one ranked offensive player.
Ahead of Saquon. Ahead of Saquon.
So Saquon's system running back. I hope we're not.
Jordan Allen, good tackle. I hope we're not having this discussion about the concussion protocol next week.
I agree. I don't think that Philly fans will understand.
No, he doesn't. Max literally doesn't understand.
He's like, what do you mean? I just knowing Philadelphia as a city, your starting quarterback has not been cleared to return to practice the week of a playoff game. That is not going to go well.
This isn't the week of a playoff. I'm saying next.
Oh, yes. Next week.
That would be a big, big, big, big problem. Big issue.
By the way, I was thinking about it because Saquon Barkley obviously went over 2,000 yards. Adrian Peterson almost broke Eric Dickerson's record in 2012.

That is another one where, similar to Dan Marino, he deserves more credit because he had one of the worst quarterbacks of all time in Christian Ponder.

And his number one weapon was Percy Harvey.

Terrible quarterback.

They could load the box.

Adrian Peterson just ran right through him.

Yep.

And he should have gotten that record, too.

Yeah, he should have. He was so close.
So, so close. Hank, what happened? Jerry.
Oh, you're watching Jerry. Sorry.
Is that the one? No. Oh.
Is it coming up? No. Oh, it's behind? It was close.
No, I thought it was close. Got it.
Got it. Okay.
Texas Titans. Titans minus one and a half.
Overrunners 37. The Titans are wearing the Oilers throwbacks.
That's it. That's so sad.
So sad. It's so sad.
Need the Texans just stomp them for that. But I don't know.
I don't know. I feel like this might be.
Oh, Jerry? No. That was the one.
We got the two-headed monster of Will Levis and Mason Rudolph. You don't know how to game plan for that.
No. You absolutely don't.
And I believe the Texans are not going to play a lot of guys, right? I think D'Amico said that they're going to play the starters just because they looked so bad in their last game. Got it.
I think it goes based off how the first drive looks. Got it.
If they have a good first drive on offense, then they'll probably take the starters out good first stop on defense okay get off the field um we also have incentives uh tony pollard 83 yards he gets 250 000 okay that's possible but that we should just do an incentives parlay for the touchdowns especially yeah i've got i've got one that I'm looking at later. One guy.

This is a huge weekend for one guy in particular.

Okay.

All right.

Let's – in this game, yeah.

Do we have – no.

Let's not talk about this game anymore.

No real analysis on this game.

Yeah.

I hope that the Titans lose so that they can be two and – what is it?

Two and 15 against the spread.

Yeah.

Panthers and Falcons.

This game also – I mean, the Falcons, obviously, if they win and the Bucs lose, they're in. I don't think the Bucs are going to lose.
So the Falcons are just hoping and praying. They're just thinking about last week.
They're thinking about timeouts. Yep.
So the good news is, if you're the Falcons, Raheem Moore still has a timeout left over. Yep.
So he gets four to start the game. That's a good advantage.
Yeah, you're just going to spend this entire game being like, fuck, we should have won that game. Yeah.
Yeah. And you could have been in the playoffs.
You could have won this. Won last week.
Won this week. Been in the playoffs with Michael Penix.
Would have been awesome for them. But instead, no.
I don't hate the Panthers in this game. Was it eight points? Their defense is so banged up.
Defense is bad.

Yeah.

Eight points.

It's a lot.

Yeah.

Miles Sanders legacy game.

Oh, okay.

This is for his legacy in Carolina.

I like that.

I like that.

Here's another depressing game.

Jaguars or Colts.

Colts minus five over under 44.

The Anthony Richardson fallout has been a little ugly.

Obviously, McAfee had his long tweet, which I actually thought was well said, where he was just like, you guys, I tried to say that the culture was not good in this locker room, and everyone said that I was being a hater. It turns out the culture is not good at that locker room.
And there was a report. So this is, I think, from The Athletic.
They're trying to hold Richardson accountable, which is understandable. But then the guy they put in, wasn't the guy either talking about Flacco.

Uh, so when they went back to AR at that point, it's like, okay, but what are we doing?

That really affected the team.

And then multiple players met with Richardson privately to tell him he wasn't meeting the

standard.

And, uh, it sounds like everyone's been trying to, he's been late to meetings and stuff like that.

It's a mess.

Fire Chris Ballard and try to figure it out from there.

Yeah, so we're not going to preview Jags games, though, because we said –

No, it was the Colts.

That was the Colts.

That was the Colts preview.

We do have Colts tickets to give away to somebody.

Oh, God.

So for the Jaguars game, what should it be?

Bortles jerseys.

If you have a Bortles – Yeah. If you're a Jaguars fan that is planning on going to this game, how about that? Yeah.
Absolutely. Because the Colts fans, you shouldn't want to go to this game.
It's depressing. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
Saints at Bucs. So hit up Pardon My Meme.
Yeah. At Pardon My Meme if you're a Jags fan in Indy this weekend and you want two tickets.
Yeah. All right.
Saints at Bucs. So hit up Pardon My Meme.
Yeah. At Pardon My Meme if you're a Jags fan in Indy this weekend

and you want two tickets.

Yeah.

All right.

Saints at Bucs.

Bucs minus 14 over under 43 and a half.

We do have some incentives in this game.

So this game, I think the Bucs are going to win.

Saints are walking corpse.

They just want this season to end.

So Mike Evans gets $3 million if he catches five passes and 85 more yards. That's a lot of money.
Yeah. Also, Baker, in his contract, and remember, Baker had that whole terrible thing where he got kind of robbed of a lot of his money.
I mean, he obviously is doing fine, but it's not like... He got by it's got financial advice yeah uh so baker has five incentives in his contract each worth half a million dollars he gets paid if he finishes the season in the top 10 in the league or top five in the nfc in any of these categories passer rating touchdown passes passing yards completion percentage or yards per pass attempt through through the through 17 games he's like third or fourth in all of these yeah so he that's another two and a half million dollars yeah it's big you could get it's big and also with those 85 yards for mike evans then he would get to a thousand yards yeah the 11th straight season every season he's been in the nfl jerry rice tie his record pretty good record to have mike evans is a certified first ballot hall of famer that deserves more respect is getting close to top five wide receiver of all time yeah so here's the real question about this game the saints it they should want their season to be over yeah but they're planning on maybe bringing back all their starters yeah like Derek Carr, I saw that might play as of right now when we're taping this he might play kamara might play they're doing a simulated game which i think is also known as practice if you're an interim coach you call it sounds more badass something that jalen hurts can't do right now that's very true um chris alavi might return i don't know why that's crazy he's out of concussion protocol before jalen hurts yeah apparently so i don't know if these guys are going to play yet because we don't have the final word on it but it seems like they want to play their best players why are you pointing like that focus focus on him chris you're just looking at me i'll look at look at your co-host chris allave got two concussions, and he's out of concussion protocol, maybe.

Yeah, that's crazy.

It is kind of wild.

But, yeah, I don't know why the Saints are doing this.

What's the upside?

Yeah, it makes no sense.

It makes no sense.

Also, the Saints, I feel like when they play at the Bucs,

they typically play pretty hard.

Yeah.

Pretty well.

Yeah.

They don't like each other. No.
That's for sure um what were you say memes mvs also needs one touchdown for 250k okay so that might happen uh by the way the looking at you reminded me i forgot to tell this story that i i read an article today uh chris boswell made the the pro bowl and he was talking about his career and he said that when he was uh first on the steelers that uh james harrison would in practice stand over the kicks and say if you miss this kick you fucking kicker you got to wash my back in the shower and then he would he said that they would sit in team meetings and james harrison would just like be sitting like a couple rows over and just be staring at Chris Boswell the entire time. See, this is, that's what kickers need.
You don't need this lovey dovey shit from Sark. You better, you're going to have to wash my back in the shower.
And that's a big back too. Yeah.
It's a huge back. Take a long time.
painting a barn. I just love the idea of James Harrison just not listening to anything Mike Tomlin's saying and just staring at Chris Boswell instead.
You little bitch. Yeah.
You better make this fucking kick. All right, so, Max, earmuffs.
So, if I'm being real, I would like for the Bucs to win and for the Packers to lose this weekend because I feel like the Bucs is probably my best road.

Yeah, the Bucs, fun fact about the Bucs,

I think they've beaten only one team over .500.

No, it would be us.

No, at the time, I'm saying.

Oh, at the time.

I think it might have been the –

We were at .500.

It was like week two?

We were 0-0.

They beat the Detroit Lions, right?

Yeah.

Let me see this.

When is it?

Maybe it's in their last – They also beat the Eagles. When was that? That's just wrong.
I'm just wrong about that stat. I'm just wrong about that stat.
Couldn't be more wrong about that stat. I'm looking up their schedule to maybe save myself a little, but early reports are that that was very wrong i don't know this is the time of year where it's like i just see a tweet i'm just like oh shit that's interesting yeah you could lie about anything uh they beat you week one yep that doesn't count zero and zero 500 over 500 is the is the thing uh they did beat the lions? What were your record? At that time, we were 2-1.
Okay. Here's what it is.
And I probably just read it too fast. I believe since September, they have not beaten a team over 500.
Because their wins have been the Saints, the Giants, the Panthers, the Raiders. The Chargers will be the one team.
That's where it is. Since September, they've beaten one team more 500 and the Panthers again.
Okay. Yeah, I'll take that.
They had a tough early schedule. I think they're a good team.
September is basically the post-preseason. Yeah.
Not even a real regular season. Yeah.
If you were Team X, though, hypothetical Team X in the NFCc and you had to pick who you wanted to play in the playoffs would you rather play at the rams the bucks or the eagles team x i would rather play rams one bucks two eagles three you'd rather play the rams i would i think it'd be bucks rams eagles i agree for team x i'm not a believer in the Rams championship experience though. I, I, be Bucks, Rams, Eagles.
I agree for Team X. I'm not a believer in the Rams.
Championship experience, though. I'm a believer in Sean McVay's coaching ability.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I guess that probably makes sense. The Bucks probably.
I mean, they've only beaten one team over 500 this entire year. Entire year, yeah.
Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Okay, yeah, I'll go i'll go with that bucks rams eagles and now so you need the bucks to what lose no no bucks bucks win win i got the playoff simulator pulled up right here we need the bucks to win and then we need to we need to win okay got it.
And then it would be you versus Stephen Jay. Me versus Stephen Jay, which I've lost to him before.
It's not a pleasant experience. Oh, and then I think we would also need the Seahawks to beat the Rams.
Got it. For that to happen.
Got it, which should happen because the Rams are sitting everyone. It could happen.
Okay. Afternoon, Chiefs at Broncos.
This is the big one. It is.
Everything, it all hinges. This is the hinge game.
Carson Wentz controls the fate of Sunday. I can think of no worst fate.
If you had to pick one guy in the NFL for everybody else's enjoyment to be pinned on, he's the last. He's dead last.
Dead last. DTR.
DTR. We've got Bo Nix, uh beat out patrick mahomes in the pro bowl this year and the broncos obviously have everything to play for the chiefs the only thing they have to play for is to just be like yeah we're the fucking chiefs yeah i i kind of like the chiefs in this game there's so much pressure on the broncos i mean and maybe not to win it outright but ten and a half like there's just so much pressure on the broncos.
I mean, and maybe not to win it outright, but 10 and a half, like there's just so much

pressure on the Broncos.

And you have Carson Wentz who had the reports like, hey, look, I, this, these are, these

are moments that I have to like cherish and take advantage of.

Cause I don't know how many I'm going to have.

Like he's going to try to play his best, which that could be a problem.

You know what?

I'll say this.

It's way more entertaining that we get Carson Wentz and try your very best best game than it would be if we had Bailey Zappi. Right? Absolutely.
Because you're either going to get something spectacular from Carson Wentz or you're going to get like the most awkward looking like a deer on a frozen over pond. Yeah.
From Carson Wentz. From Carson Wentz.
Yeah. Yeah.
There's just so much pressure on the Broncos. Like, you just can't fuck up.
You're playing the backups. You can't fuck up, and they might fuck up.
But if the Chiefs win, then everything else gets way more exciting. That's absolutely true.
That's absolutely true. All right, let's do the next game, Dolphins and Jets.
Listen, I know Dolphins fans are upset because I saw it. They're a little upset that we've discounted the Dolphins.
Here's my thing on the Dolphins. And I said a lot of nice things about Dan Marino.
Remember those things I said about Dan Marino? And Brian Flores. And Brian Flores.
Well, no, I actually said nice things. About Tua.
No, I said nice things. Dolphins fans will back up everything I said about Brian Forrest.
True.

If the Dolphins could get in the playoffs,

and I could guarantee that Tua was healthy,

and they could play in a dome,

I'd be interested in watching a Dolphins playoff game.

If the Dolphins get in the playoffs,

and it's not Tua,

and it's going to Buffalo,

seen it.

We're actually helping out Dolphins fans here. The meanest thing you could hope for is to get to the playoffs, make the trip to Buffalo, super cold, Bills win by 35 points.
Yeah, and I guess I know that with Skylar Thompson, you only lost by three in that same setting, but I just I can't do the Dolphins in a cold weather playoff game again. I just I want really good playoff games.
What happened last year in Kansas City was just a total quit, where it's like that was a waste of our Saturday night. Remember we started watching the Telemundo? Yeah.
What are they? Panuelas? Panuela. Panuela.
I'm sorry, Dolphins fans. If you gave me a choice broncos dolphins or bangles in the playoffs it's broncos and bangles way ahead of the dog it does it's something new well it's not new for the bangles something new for the broncos and it's an insane explosive offense for the bangles yeah but i can understand if you're if you're a dolphins fan you would rather get into the I get that, especially after a season that looked as lost as this season did many times over, where it felt like the sky was falling.
All the time for the Dolphins. If you can turn a sky is falling season into a playoff berth, that's a pretty cool thing.
All right. But we're just thinking, we're trying to protect Dolphins fans.
Yeah. You know what would happen if you went up and you saw Daddy and Josh Allen hung four touchdowns on you and the game was over in the second quarter.

Yeah.

I'm rooting against the Dolphins to make the playoffs.

If the Dolphins somehow make the playoffs, I will be the first on Sunday night when we're taping the show to say that was an insane season by the Dolphins to put it all back together for Mike Ritano to keep the team going and find a way to get into a playoffs where you thought it was completely lost after two got concussed. All credit to the Dolphins.
They would be deserving and it would be nuts because they were dead. They were dead in the water six weeks into the season.
But I'm not going to root for you on Sunday. It would also answer the question that we had about Mike McDaniel when he first got the job.
Like, how can he do in a season where everything goes to shit? He's done pretty well. He's done.
Okay. Yeah.
No, no. The dolphins have done pretty well in this season.
And so they're going up against the jets. Memes.
Congratulations on interviewing Louis Riddick and Ron Rivera for GM and coach. I love these posts, by the way, that the official team accounts put out, like after they've concluded it.
They're usually sponsored posts, too. Yeah.
It's like, we've just interviewed Ron Rivera, sponsored by Bose. I thought of a positive for Ron Rivera.
Okay. Great guy.
We know him. I have his phone number.
He's an owner killer. Oh.
That is true. Yes.
So his final two years of the Panthers. Oh, I want Ron Rivera.
He sold the team. And then the final is last two seasons of the Commanders.
How many? He was there for three. Yeah.
Yeah, that's true. And then they.
Damn. That's a good spin zone.
That'd be a positive. He's such a good person that he ends up making the bad owners be like, hey, we got to get out of here.
We've seen how good a person should be.

Yeah.

And we're just not that.

He's a nice guy.

Good podcast guest.

Very good podcast guest.

Very nice guy.

Memes, which A or B sad stat for the Jets?

B.

B would be the Jets have gone nine straight years without an offensive player in the Pro Bowl. 2015, Brandon Marshall.

There's no way that's true.

There's no way that's true.

We had a wide receiver, but it was technically special teams.

I don't think that counts.

Is that true?

Andrew Roberts.

That's a long time.

Okay, you want A?

Sure.

Greg Joseph is now the kicker for the Jets.

The Jets have more kickers this year than wins.

All right.

Positive.

It's their fifth kicker.

There was also a stat that the Jets signed five players from the commanders,

which would line up for Ron and Bear getting the job.

Who'd they sign?

I'll have to pull up the tweet. But it greg joseph they signed a d lineman a cornerback so ron was getting his players in there ahead of time yeah to learn the playbook from a different coach and then they're getting them in yeah just to learn the culture and the environment is this aaron rogers last game for the new york jets memes i believe so and then in the final act i think they're gonna get him killed because we oh my god our right guard it was uh dnp and morgan moses who the right tackle was also a d not dmp today so if we don't have either of them i'll lose out aaron rogers just might get sacked a thousand times okay yeah i mean it doesn't feel like aaron rogers uh he says he's no darkness retreat this year so that's good he's gonna lock in yeah it's been the best two years of his life yeah it's gonna be fine i guess it's been a cool year you got paid a lot of money for not working.

Yes, you're sucked.

No, last year, I'm saying.

Yeah, he was injured, but if you get paid $20 million, $30 million to not work,

that's a pretty good year.

Yeah, it's a really good year.

By the way, we'll have more with the Aaron Rodgers stuff with Florio,

who actually has some good insight.

Don't give it all away, Max. This time.
You were about to. Not just that one part.
Okay. Chargers at Raiders.
Raiders plus four and a half. Chargers, if the Steelers lose, the Chargers are going to want to win this game because they would play the Texans and get up to the five seed.
I feel like there's a correlated parlay in there. Maybe take Bengals and Chargers because if the first leg hits, that line will probably go a little higher because the Chargers will have more incentive to play.
The Steelers win. The Chargers will have nothing to play for, correct? If the Steelers win, let me pull up the play playoff machine again here i believe they have nothing to play for because they beat the broncos twice this year the the good vibes fun parlay which is jets chiefs bengals money line is 17 to 1 whoa 17 and a half to wait say it again jets chiefs bengals not the hungry dog that's not the hungry dog i would just but for oh because the bangles are favorites yeah yeah would it be a hungry dog stealers win and the chargers would be they get the 60 yeah no matter what yeah uh so just watch that that will be important yeah uh i don't think that harbaugh is capable of playing any activity where he's not trying to win whether that's not the object of it so i feel like they're going to go out there and uh and compete i'm gonna try to win the game i wouldn't be shocked if like the steelers win this the game on saturday night and then like the chargers medical staff is like tells all the guys like just say you're injured to start the game because otherwise there's no i mean harba literally did say we're attacking it with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.

Yeah.

Yeah. But hasn't he said that before about things? Everything.
It's just like every time he says that, it's unknown to mankind because this week it's even more enthusiastic. Correct.
He just keeps bumping up the enthusiasm. Also, incentive watch J.K.
Dobbins, 58 rushing yards for 150K. that's gotta be so awesome to go into a game being like if i do this like if i catch one touchdown pass i get a half a million dollars yeah that's awesome and i feel like all all their teammates are rooting for them to make money yeah it's not their money you want your boys to get paid yeah absolutely uh all right seahawks at rams rams minus six and a half 38.5.
Gino. This is my incentive special.
Yeah. 185 yards passing gets $2 million.
So not only that. Yeah.
Yeah. That's scratching the surface, Big Cat.
Buckle up. Smith gets $2 million if the Seahawks finish with a 10th win.
Okay. He gets $2 million if he gets 4,282 yards yards that's the one where he's uh he's 185 away and he also gets two million bucks if he finishes with a completion percentage better than 69.75 right now he's at 70.23 whoa so geno smith could make six million dollars wait so this is not only Gino Smith, but this is also dump offs.
Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Charbonnet catches.
Charbonnet catches Walker. Is he playing? I think he's out still.
Yeah. But yeah.
Okay. We got to go crazy on Geno.
Geno. Geno's going to...
Listen, Geno. Wait, what was the second one you said? The the 10 wins the yards and then completion he needs he needs 185 yards yep and then he needs to win and then he has to finish with a completion percentage better than 69.75 right now he's just above 70 wow so if he finishes this game at 69 that might be enough to bring it down yeah I don't know.
I'm not a math guy. What are you doing, Max? Sorry, that caught my eye.
He needs... To be safe, he's got to get...
I don't know. 69.75% is what the number is.
If he... Would it drop him down beneath that if he finished this game at 69 it would for the record also i saw something

that popped up on my twitter that said bears eyeing head profile airs eye high oh my god

bears eye high profile coaches for head coaching role and it was about mike mccarthy and then the

first tweet and it was just mine saying stop this which should have told you to stop this

so this is our gino game this is our gino game okay i think we got to unload the clip on gino

yeah i agree nobody's ever believed in gino smith more than us. Yes.
And Jimmy G starting for the Rams. Jimmy G, who's a winner.
He is a winner. He went to a Super Bowl.
He wins football games. Yep.
Went to actually multiple Super Bowls, technically. Maybe the funniest outcome would be if Jimmy G went out there and just lit it up.
And then to see what team would then overpay Jimmy Garoppolo to be a quarterback for them next season I feel like if you're Jimmy Garoppolo even if someone tries to overpay you it's like dude being the backup in Sean Sean McVay like being around Sean McVay just do that yeah just be there and also Matthew Stafford's like the toughest guy ever yeah so so your job it's a good job it's pretty safe yeah it's a. Okay, 49ers at Cardinals, wrapping up the afternoon slate.

Big question here is, Josh Dobbs,

can you have a revenge game if you've played for eight teams?

No.

Okay, I thought so.

It's tough to have a revenge game in that scenario.

And also every stop you made was like the team being like,

we're going to give Josh Dobbs a shot.

The first team that got rid of you. So if it's a stealer yeah i think you can have that revenge game yeah uh also kyler murray is 50 rushing yards and one rushing td away from 750 000 so that should be in there yeah and and really nothing there's no difference made in this game if you're the 49ers if you win or lose lose, really.
No. Josh Dobbs.
You're going to be picking right around 11.

Yeah.

My notes for this game were the incentives, and then it was we need to just keep hammering. It starts right now.
Today is January 3rd, 2025. I know he's got a lot of years left, but George Kittle should be in Canton.
He he is the fourth tight end all time to have four thousand yard seasons fourth all time so kelsey has seven of them gronk has four witness for kittle has four yeah put him in put him in a gold george kittle should be in a george in a gold jacket we'll start working on a powerpoint uh but he's an absolute monster you know what i this season's been he's been great. I'll say this.
If Kittle, when he gets into the Hall of Fame, we'll make our own bust of George Kittle. Yes.
To keep in this studio. Yes, absolutely.
And we'll say Greg Kittle. Yeah.
And we'll make it bigger than the Canton one. Yeah.
And it'll look sweet. Double the size.
His hair, his flow will be better. Whatever hairstyle he wants in it, the Mohawk.
Will be incredible. You name it.
He's a Hall of Famer. Start referring to him as George Kittle Hall of Famer.
Yeah. Do you think that the Cardinals try extra hard in this game to put up points because the last half of their season has been so disappointing? Try, maybe.
Yeah. Could they? Is that Jake Marsh? Yeah, that is Jake Marsh.
Our darling Jake.erry jerry uh we're doing a good job of watching this jerry stream being distracted while we're podcasting also jake jake being on tv reminded me uh with college football with the playoffs on i would like to see jake marsh calling college football next year yeah i feel like i feel like a lot of people would yeah so if you're a big so-and-so out there, hire fucking Jake. Oh, actually, I talked to Jake this morning, and I meant to tell him,

when he listens to this, Jake, text me your predictions for time slots

for the playoff games on Sunday.

Although we did do that like five weeks ago.

Yeah, but I want to see his because he takes a lot of pride.

And he usually nails them.

Yeah.

Except that one year. He had all of them wrong, and he was devastated.
Okay, but I want to see his because he takes a lot of pride. And he usually nails him.
Yeah. Except that one.
He went all of them wrong. He was devastated.
Okay, last game. The big game.
Vikings at Lions. Lions minus two and a half.
Over under 56 and a half. Maybe the best game of the NFL season is the last game.
I'm so excited for this game. Did you see Vikings OC West Phillips said donald is a guy's guy type of guy i saw that yeah guy's guy type of guy that's a football guy that is i think that's we've been looking for the way to describe a football guy for eight years a guy's guy type of guy yeah that's a football guy i don't know how the lions defense is going to hold up although alex anzalone did return to practice so that's good uh i don't i just don't know i don't know how i think the lions offense will continue to be elite uh but that defense is just it's tough i don't think dan campbell's gonna punt i i honestly don't don't either i don't think that he is this so this game i think kevin o'connell might not punt they that would be awesome right gentlemen's agreement.
Because, like, why would you want to give it back to the Lions offense?

Yeah, neither one of us will punt.

And, you know, if you're the Vikings, what's the point?

Like, there's got to be a better chance on fourth down

that you're going to get a first down against the Lions defense

than stopping the Lions from scoring on the way back.

Yeah.

Maybe the best way is, like, punt until Jack Fox boom one down there. He made the Pro Bowl which is crazy yeah that the lions punter of all people yeah made the pro bowl uh let them return it for a touchdown so you just get the ball right back yeah uh that's kind of like a turnover yeah exactly and then you just go for two yeah so this game is going to be awesome i don't i honestly don't know i lean lions just because of the home crowd and like playing with that edge, but the Vikings are just really fucking good.
Yeah, so in this game, it's the most combined wins of any regular season game in NFL history. Yeah.
So I didn't realize this. There's only been eight teams total in NFL history to have 15 wins in a season.
So one of these teams is going to be the ninth team. And it's the fact that it's happening, obviously, with 17 games is a little bit easier.
But this will be the – this year we'll have two teams with 15 wins no matter what, unless they tie, I guess. But, yeah, the 15-win list is short.
Only eight teams. It's the 84 Niners, 85 Bears, 98 Vikings, 0-4 Steelers, 0-7 Patriots, 11 Packers, 15 Panthers, 24 Chiefs, and then the winner of this game.
So pretty cool. Also, do you know that Dan Campbell has more wins this season than Matt Patricia did in two and a half seasons? I did know that, yeah.
Yeah. It's pretty crazy.
Again, great job by the Patriots sending your coaches out like little dandelion seeds floating through the wind to just go poison other NFL franchises. We didn't talk about it because it was Monday Night Football.
We didn't have a show on Wednesday. I understand people being like Dan Campbell's an idiot for playing everyone.
I had no problem with it because again dan campbell is as consistent as consistent gets and he said it before the game he's like i'm gonna get ahead of it so when you guys rip me this is the plan like i just think that the that's just what his culture is and it's just balls to the wall all the time i think there's something to be said too for guys that are stepping into positions on defense to just get them in games more yeah and they're not gonna they're not gonna get better unless they play and and the lions are still on that climb up if the lions win the super bowl this year i would expect dan campbell to to to maybe be a little bit different next year if they get if given that same exact spot yeah it's like hey we've been there done that but they're still on that hunger climb up where that game meant something to them personally because that's where they lost last year. And yeah, I just Dan Campbell does everything.
He telegraphs what he's going to do. He's going to be insanely aggressive at all times.
And I think everyone in that locker room buys in. And that's all that matters.
Whoever loses this game is going to be the best fifth seed, the best wildcard team of all time. Yeah.
And it's, I mean, it's brutal. The consequences of losing this to have to go on the road immediately.
Well, imagine that you're the Bucs or the Rams. Yeah.
And you're just sitting there. We won our division.
Oh, fuck. The Detroit Lions.
Who would you want? Well, if I'm the Bucs, I think I would rather have the Detroit Lions because we beat them in September. But then if you're the Rams, you'd rather have the Vikings because you beat them also? Yeah.
I guess that makes sense. I feel like whoever, if these teams meet up again in the NFC Championship, whoever loses is going to win.
Oh, I like that. I like that.

So not the end of the world if you lose this game.

That's like my...

Unless it's the Eagles,

like unless that team loses and you have to go play.

Like if you're playing in a dome,

I think the Lions could easily win in Minnesota.

If they have to go to Philadelphia,

maybe a little different story.

That's like my,

I wish we could find out who the MVP is

before the Ravens and Bills potentially play in the playoffs because I would take whoever lost the MVP to win that game. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
Picks time. Let's do it.
So Max, you get three. PFT and I get two.
Reminder, PFT and I are two points up on Max. We have 18.
Max has 16. If there are any ties, the tied people go to the bachelor party together.
Max, you want to go first? I am. Yes.
Right? Yeah. I think you have first pick.
I have first pick. What would your first pick be? Should I say or should Hank? Max.
No, you say. Seahawks minus six and a half.
Ooh. Bad pick.
Geno Smith. Jimmy G.
Terrible pick, Max. Jimmy G.
You forgot about Jimmy G. Geno Smith needs to win the game for $2 million.
That was my number one that I said over. Okay.
I'm going to take the Vikings and the Lions over. I wrote down the wrong number here.
But what is the over on that game? 56 and a half. 56 and a half.
PFT has it at 42 and a half. I have it at 42 and a half.
Oh, I love it at 42 and a half. Yeah.
Holy shit. Yeah.
That's great. I just, that's the fun over.
Yeah. Okay.
I'm going to take, do I take my top two? That sucks. I'm going to be rooting for the under for that game.

Hank, do I take – Oh, I do?

Well, no.

Well, not to – I'll take my second one and another one,

but it's not going against anyone else.

Correct.

All right.

I'm going to – no, I'll take my top two.

Stick my guns top two.

Bengals minus two and the Panthers-Falcons over 48.

I got the opposite side. I got the Steelers plus two.
So then I have my next two, right, Hank? Yeah. I have the Bengals-Steelers over 48.
Whoa. Ugh.
And the... What did memes just say? He said, don't do it.
No, I'm not going to do it. Do it.
I switched. I told Memes I was going to take the Jets, but I'm switching it to Saints-Bucks over 43.5.
What's it called? The incentives game. Incentives.
Yeah. I like that.
That was on my list. Okay.

So, wait.

What are your three picks, Max?

I have the Seahawks minus six and a half.

That over in Bengals Steelers is a disgusting pick.

Why?

Because the Steelers might not be playing.

I guess.

I mean, we talked about it.

They're going to play.

And the Bengals defense is the worst defense ever.

There's a lot of points. There's a lot of points the first time they played.
The Bengals are playing for their lives. All right, say it again.
Take it back. Bengals Steelers over 48.
Okay. Saints Bucks over 43.5, and Seahawks minus 6.5.
So it could come down to that, because my two games will be done by the late slate. Your two games will be...
I got the late... Oh, you have the late, late one.
So we have that. That would be great.
It could really come down to that. Yeah, if Max goes 3-0 and PFT needs a win.
I thought I wasn't... The Bucs-Saints, I thought I wasn't going to get.
I had that on my list. It just wasn't top two.
Can't believe you said Seahawks, Max. Well, that one is just...

I saw that Gino wins the game.

He gets $2 million.

They have to win that game for him.

Yeah.

All right.

So should we do our TD parlay?

Can we put the Seahawks in our TD parlay?

Why not?

Yeah.

Why not?

Seahawks money line?

Yeah.

All right. Fine.
We won't max uh okay let's let's get some you know what i'll do kyler murray because he gets that 500 000 if he scores a rushing touchdown okay i like that ma hank conviction jacksonigba. Okay.
All right. PFT? Do a Vikings-Lions.
You got one of that? I'm trying to think of pretty much anybody in this game should score. In theory.
In theory, everyone should score. All right.
We'll go Jefferson. Okay.
What are the odds on what we just put out there? I don't know if all those TD scores are out yet. Oh, okay.
But those should be pretty good odds with Kyler Murray. Right.
Okay. What are the odds on what we just put out there? I don't know if all those TD scores are out yet.
Oh, okay. But those should be pretty good odds with Kyler Murray.
Right. Yeah.
Okay. All right.
Let's finish up before we get to Mike Florio. By the way, DraftKings.
Go to DraftKings and bet all of our TD parlays and our picks. Every day is game day at DraftKings Sportsbook.
And now through the end of the year, it's extra special. All customers will get a special daily promo every single day from profit boost, odd boost, no sweat bets, and more.
There's something for everyone. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app.
Now use code take. That's code take and take advantage of special daily promotions only on DraftKings.
The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER, 800-327-5050, or visit GamblingHelplineMA.org in Massachusetts.

In New York, call 877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY 467-369.

Please gamble responsibly.

In Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

21 and over and present in most states.

18 and over in Washington, D.C., Kentucky, New Hampshire, or Wyomingoming offer void in ontario void were prohibited eligibility restrictions apply terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promos on behalf of boot hill casino and resort in kansas one plus promotion per day promotion sport eligibility and requirements vary ends 12 31 24 sponsored by draft kings uh Uh, okay. Time for fantasy.

Fuck boys.

Before we get to Mike Florio,

fantasy.

Fuck boys.

Last of the year.

Last year.

If you're still playing fantasy,

you're a fucking loser.

I got all my,

I got four leagues going week.

Eight.

My top,

my stardom is six packs.

Yeah.

Six packs.

Superbowl six packs on the way.

We got it.

Fuck.

Yeah.

January time,

time to lock in and get in the gym. Yeah.
Get that six pack going. My cinema is sixbowl six packs on the way We got it Fuck yes January time Time to lock in Get in the gym Yeah Get that six pack going My cinnamon six packs Six packs Dry January Love it You doing pretty much dry January I'm doing fry January Fry January I like that So you can drink some beers on Fridays Yeah Okay Love it Or if it's your birthday Yeah my birthday Which it's not but maybe If it's somebody's birthday Then you can drink Deal Got it Deal Love it Love it.
Or if it's your birthday. Yeah, if it's my birthday, which it's not, but maybe.
If it's somebody's birthday, then you can drink. Deal.
Got it. Deal.
Love it. Or if football's on TV, too, you can drink Peter's dad.
Deal. My sleepers, jumpsuits.
Things are so comfortable, you can sleep in them. I got a nice velour one on.
Good to be back in the season, boys. Hell yes.
Looking good, boys. I'm looking strapped.
Us Italians in jumpsuits, it just feels right. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Hey, it's Johnny Buglisi.
What's up, Johnny? What's up? Johnny B. My starter, I was going to start jumpsuits because it is jumpsuits.
Oh, hell yeah. Right? So we're all zipped up here.
Boys looking good. What is that, Tally? It's Sergio Taccini.
That's nice. I like the jumpsuits.
Solves a lot of problems. Mm of problems.
My sitting, I'm sitting the Cleveland Browns because they're so fucking boring. I can't stand this team.
Can't stand, though. Get them out of my face.
Just simp the rest of the season. Just don't show up on Sundays, guys.
Come on. And then, or Saturday this week, we're subjected to an extra day at Cleveland Browns.
My sleeper is Pornhub. Pornhub is sleeping if you're in like a third of the United States because it's now officially banned in 33% of states in the United States right now.
Oh, shit. You can't log on without an ID.
How are we going to whack off? It's going to be tough for those people to go to sleep. Government putting wet, sticky hands into your cell phones.
Get them off there. Get them off there.
That's bullshit. What's up? What's up, fuckers? It's Freddy Alfredo.
Hey, Freddy. My stardom is health because I'm two days in.
No candy in January. Love that.
What do we think about that, boys? No candy or ice cream in January. No sweets.
No sweets in January? No sugars in January. We're doing baby steps this year.
What about your birthday? Whoa, shit. Gotta have cake.
What about donuts on Saturday? Gonna buy them for my kids. What about if there's football? No bites? Maybe just take out donuts.
Donuts on Saturday count. That doesn't count.
What about when you order $40 worth of candy every Sunday? Not gonna do that. What about? Not going to do that.
What if you have a bad day gambling? Only donuts on Saturday and cake on my birthday. That's it.
What if you're on a cold streak? Not going to happen. Already happened.
What if you're really hungry? Two days in. All right.
My sit-em is Mr. Beast, so he kind of did a thing.
Did you guys see that? No. He proposed to his guma, but he used the caption, so I kind of did a thing.
That's some chick stuff, bro. I did a thing.
That's some chick stuff. Some personal news.
Yeah. Put a ring on it.
So I kind of did a thing. And then my sleeper is Geno Smith.
Good sleeper. I think he's going to have a big game.
Yeah, did you guys see this? Listen. Cool.
But doing so. So I kind of did a thing.
That's a chick Instagram hashtag, right? I did a thing, and then what's the emoji? Or we did a thing. Yeah.
Well, he said I kind of did a thing. Make it all about himself.
Yeah. Mrs.
Beast, you should be respected, too. You were part of the process.
White Boy Rick, I think, had a funny tweet. He was talking about one of the funniest phenomenons on Instagram for engagements is the chicks in the comments, best friends who want to be like I knew before everyone else, and will comment like, finally, or like, I've been holding it in forever like i i was i was so happy when you told me yeah right yeah just being like i knew before everyone else just want to let everyone know uh wait go back to the picture of the hand he could have done better with the ring with the ring side yeah i agree you know what he should have done is he should have had his he should have been like hey my girlfriend uh i'd like to propose to you here's an african diamond mine and i'll give you 24 days to find the biggest diamond you can get yeah or if he goes he just puts it on a live stream the the more hours you can last without saying a word yeah the diamond gets bigger yeah that would have been great if he beastified it yeah oh so kind of did a thing.
Why are they all just wearing his merch? Also, this is the most staged picture ever. That wasn't a candid.
You don't think that was at the moment? Congrats to him, though. Looks very happy.
I did see somebody when Jeremy Reeves got engaged after Sunday Night Football last week. Yeah.
I saw somebody that was that was saying, I would never in a million years

get down on my knee to propose to a woman.

Yeah, I saw that.

That's a bad way to start off a relationship,

putting yourself beneath the woman.

Honestly, fellas, is it gay to propose to a woman?

Sounds like it.

I think it might be.

What a take.

What a take.

Okay.

Let's get to Mike Florio.

Before we get to Mike Florio,

he's brought to you by Nutrafol. It's easy for guys like us to overlook our own well-being.
We're busy. Many of us don't realize that the stress from the inside can affect us on the outside.
If you've been noticing a little less hair when you look in the mirror lately, now is the perfect time to start taking Nutrafol so you can improve your hair growth from the inside out. Nutrafol is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand trusted by over 1 million people.
In just three to six months, you can go from a hat guy to a hair guy, get thicker, stronger, faster growing hair with less shedding. Nutrafol's hair growth supplements are physician formulated using 100% drug-free ingredients.
Their patented technology provides consistent, reliable results. Men also reported no compromise in sexual performance.

Start your hair growth journey with Nutrafol.

For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping.

When you go to Nutrafol.com slash men and enter the promo code PARDON.

That's Nutrafol.com slash men and use the promo code PARDON.

Find out why over 4,500 healthcare professionals and stylists recommend Nutrafol for healthier hair. Nutrafol.com slash men, N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com slash men, promo code pardon.
Nutrafol.com slash men, promo code pardon. Mike Florio is also brought to you by Experian.
For the AWLs who really know us, you know how responsible we are with our money. The secret reason we have so much to gamble is because Experian helps us save money across our other purchases.
League rights are getting out of hand. We have to subscribe to way too many streaming services so we can watch every key game and keep our listeners informed with our hard-hitting analysis.
And that's where Experian comes in. They'll find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions for you so you don't have to worry about paying for services you forgot about.
They'll also save you time and money by negotiating bills like cable and internet. That's right.
They stay on hold for as long as it takes to make sure that you're getting the best price so you can save money and focus on what really matters. You can also have Experian negotiate your bills.

Cable, internet, cell phone, and you keep all the savings.

All around, Experian does the work so you can save money.

It's a one-stop shop for your financial health.

Get started in their app today.

Results will vary.

Savings are not guaranteed, and some may not see any savings.

Not all bills or subscriptions are eligible for negotiation or cancellation,

and eligible paid membership is required. Get started in theian app see how much you could save today and now here's mike florio okay we now welcome on one of our best friends in the whole world it is the ceo of pro football talk also author all his books amazon 99 cents for the entire year uh it's mike florio mike we wanted to have you on because it feels like there's a lot it's like almost a a precursor to what will be black monday soon uh in a matter of days there's a lot going on in the league i don't know where you know what let's start i got i got one real quick for him okay mike is a big j journalist that.
We respect him, despite the fact that memes tries to slander him all the time. We always have your back, Mike.
But how can you claim to be neutral if you show up on a national sports podcast wearing a Minnesota Viking shirt? First question, why do you hate the Detroit Lions? Yeah, that's a good question. That's well done.
I wear what they send me. If the Lions want to send me something, I'll wear've gotten stuff from the buccaneers i've gotten stuff from the eagles now this week i don't know if i had something the lines i'm not sure that i would wear it you know i i used to wrestle with this idea that we have to appear neutral at all times but over time i've realized that from greeny to you to berm doesn't berm i donerman, Berman loves the Bills.
What an honor to be included in that group. Yeah.
But people don't shy away from whatever it is that drew them to the NFL in the first place. We're not Rob Lowe.
We didn't start following the NFL because we're fans of the NFL. We all had a team and mine is very deep seated, 50 plus years.
I saw those purple helmets. I didn't know what the thing on the side was, but I loved it.
I love Chuck Foreman. I love Fran Tarkenton.
So the rare good years take me back to when I was like 9 or 10 years old. Well, they are having an incredible year.
Obviously, that game on Sunday night against the Lions to decide the one seed. But the question I have for you, and I think you probably have more intel than we do, what are the Vikings going to do with Sam Darnold? The Vikings would tell you they'll make their decision when they have to.
And that sounds like a smart-ass remark, but they don't have to do anything for now. And they always have the franchise tag available.
If they would try to work out some sort of deal sort of deal with now at one point, I thought they would let him go see what else is out there because there aren't a lot of teams that will be definitely looking for a new starter and would pay someone starter money on the open market. Also, I think there's a general sense that Sam Donald's performance, at least as a few weeks ago, might have been artificially boosted by Kevin O'Connell and that you can't replicate that with another team.
But something happened, I'd say, in the second half of the game against the Cardinals, where Darnold accessed a higher level of performance. And when you hear what Kevin O'Connell says, when you see that video where they went nuts and dumped water all over him after the win against the Packers, they can't let him out of the building.
Jason Garrett turned to me at one point, I think even before that game and said that you can't let this guy leave. Everybody's looking for a franchise quarterback.
When you have a guy who's playing like a franchise quarterback, you can't let him leave. They can figure out whatever they're going to do with J.J.
McCarthy. If they have to franchise tag him, so be it.
If they can work out a contract, so be it. But you can't let him go when he's gotten as good as he's gotten in his first year in the system because he'll be even better next year.
Yeah. Do you think there's a chance that they would potentially trade J.J.
McCarthy, especially because this quarterback class feels like one of those quarterback classes where obviously teams are going to talk themselves into a few guys, but it's not maybe like last year where there was five or six guys that went in the top 15. So is there a chance they trade J.J.
McCarthy? I think all options will be on the table if and when they decide Sam Darnold is the guy. He's only 27.
I know. It feels like he's been around forever, and he turns 28 next June.
So this is a guy you could have for five, seven, ten years. And you drafted J.J.
McCarthy because you're looking for a franchise quarterback, and then one kind of stumbled into your lap. So if there's a team out there that's willing to make the Vikings an offer that they won't refuse, then you do it.
If it gives you opportunities to get young players, cheap players, high draft picks, if you can do that, then it's easy to justify. And look at what the 49ers did.
They gladly threw Trey Lance overboard because they stumbled into Brock Purdy. And there's no one to blame.
Shit happens. We stumbled into Brock Purdy and he's so good that we can't let him go.
We can't bench him. We can't go with Trey Lance.
So they give Trey Lance away for nothing in comparison to what they gave up to get him. And I think the Vikings get a hell of a lot more for JJ McCarthy than the 49ers got for Trey Lance, if that's what they decide to do.
Or they could just play it out a couple of years. You could let Darnold be the starter for two more years, let McCarthy learn for a total of three years, and then flip to McCarthy at the appropriate time.
What would that be? 2027, McCarthy becomes the starter. That's another option that I think is on the table.
Yeah, I don't know why they would get rid of him right now unless a team came in and offered a high first-round pick for him. Outside of that, I don't get why the Vikings would move on.

And there's an argument out there that the Vikings should tag and trade Sam Darnold and just go with McCarthy.

But the big unknown with McCarthy is we don't know if he can play.

He's like any other unscratched lottery ticket at this point.

We know Darnold can play.

We don't know that McCarthy can.

So it becomes dangerous to move on from Darnold and hand the ball to McCarthy. Although I think O'Connell would do a pretty good job of getting the most out of McCarthy if he had to.
Yeah, I agree with that. So you mentioned Trey Lance.
Is there any chance that Trey Lance gets meaningful minutes this weekend? Isn't it weird that they just refuse to use him? At one point, I thought it was a bizarre sort of we don't want people to realize how good he is so we can sign him back to be the backup next year but at some point it's just ridiculous yeah you just put the guy out there his contract expires after this season he's going to be a free agent and I mean Cooper Rush hasn't been bad and Cooper Rush has a good one loss record. But it's just odd to me that Trey Lance hasn't been able to earn playing time.
And I don't know what the Cowboys ultimate motivation is. And, you know, who knows what they're going to do.
And I think Jerry Jones loves the fact that we don't know what they're going to do. And, and we talk about what they're going to do, whether it's about Trey Lance, whether it's about Mike McCarthy, whether it's about anything, he just wants to give us things to talk about.
Yeah. Yeah.
So with Mike McCarthy, I mean, people have been talking about like getting him fired. Mike McCarthy is his contract expires.
So after the end of the season, what does that process look like? Are they going to start negotiating or are they going to just be like, do you think they'll just say, hey, Mike, nature ran its course. Good luck.
Godspeed. See you around.
Jerry Jones has said that it's something that will be a topic next week, and they love to take over the news cycle if they can. I could see Jerry Jones dropping his decision on Mike McCarthy during a playoff game or right before a playoff game.
Remember, the Dak Prescott contract, the news of that hit during the pregame shows before the first Sunday of the regular season. He knows how to commandeer the news cycle.
And I think at some point next week, we'll find out whether or not McCarthy's coming back. But because that contract expires, Mike McCarthy, if he wants to, when you think about everything Jerry Jones has put him through, forcing him to coach out his contract, saying, I think people work better if they're under pressure and all the other crap that he's had to deal with wouldn't it be great if somebody else was interested in mike mccarthy and he just said to jerry jones i don't want your job go find somebody else and and jerry would like at least the dance at least the drama because he loves it when the cowboys are able to consume our attention, even in a year when

they're horrible, not horrible, but they're worse than they were expected to be. They're still commanding our attention.
But McCarthy will be a free agent and could go anywhere he wants. When does he hit free agency? When is his contract expired? They draft the contracts so that they usually expire in February or something like that.
I can't imagine he wouldn't be available to talk to other teams right away, that he would need some sort of dispensation from the league. But because it happens so rarely, it's a great question.
And I'm going to make a mental note to find out exactly when he's a free agent. We assume it's after the game, but that's a good question.
Your instincts are good, B.J. Yeah question.
You're making me proud of the internet, son, to start 2025. I assume that he's free and clear, but he might not be because these contracts are written to expire at a certain date, usually after the regular season ends.
He may be strapped if the Cowboys want to play hardball. I feel like it would be after the Super Bowl, right? In the event that the Cowboys had made the Super Bowl this year, you don't want to lose your coach in January.
But you could also do the... But if you're done, if you're done, obviously if you're still alive, he's not going to get hired out from under you in the playoffs.
Right. But when you're done, does it end then or is there some artificial buffer that gives the Cowboys exclusive negotiating rights while all the other jobs fill up? It's like, hey, sorry, Mike, there's no other jobs out there for you.
there for you you got to take our offer yes he's just going to have to go into the office and just kind of sit in his room and just wait wait for jerry to call him into his office hope someone talks to him yeah um mike i hate to bring up my bears because they're so goddamn bad but this recent report is making me very nervous and i want you to tell me it's not true i heard through through the grapevine, or I saw it online, and who knows, that Ryan Poles is trying to softly push the Bears away from potentially hiring Ben Johnson because Ben Johnson would kick out Ryan Poles and it looks like Ryan Poles might try to hire Brian Flores, who was a teammate of Ryan Poles at Boston College for a year, which would be the

death of Caleb Williams

if Brian Flores, I mean what he did to Tua

what's going on?

What the fuck is going on? Why can't they just do something

right and just be like, hey, we have a clean

slate, get rid of

Ryan Poles, let a coach come

in, let him bring the person that he wants

to bring in, have them both lockstep

for once

have it be clean and everyone

going in the same direction

Thank you. in let him bring the person that he wants to bring in have them both lockstep for once for once have it be clean and everyone going in the same direction right after they fired Matt Eberflus I started poking around to figure out what the Bears would be doing where they'd be looking what their focus would be be would become and I was told in no uncertain terms their number one objective is to get the most out of Caleb Williams over the long haul.
They view him as a franchise quarterback. They just need to get the most out of him.
And the person I spoke to that caused me to say, so you're getting an offensive guy. You got to get an offensive guy because otherwise you get a defensive coach who hires an offensive coordinator.
Things start going well. The offensive coordinator says, see you later.
I'm going to go be a head coach somewhere somewhere else find another offensive coordinator to get the most out of caleb williams you want to sean payton drew breeze situation i was told they're not closing any doors when it comes to which side of the ball the coach comes from but yeah offensive coach seems to be the the message that that the bears are sending as it relates to this desire to get the most out of Williams. But these palace intrigue questions are real.
We've seen them before. And Ryan Poles isn't going to want to hire the guy that's going to eventually push him out the door.
He doesn't want a guy that he's not going to be on the same page with who's going to come in, have success, and try to take over. And it's critical that the GM and the head coach be on the same page.
They should have equal equal accountability there should be no avenue for the GM to try to undermine the coach if things are going poorly no avenue for the coach to undermine the GM and that's unfortunate if if that's true and I saw that as well if Ryan Poles is going to be disinclined to go after Ben Johnson because he wants to protect his own turf that's when you have have to ask the tough question. Do we just hit the reset button here?

But they won't. Do we just do a clean sweep?

That's what a real organization would do, but they won't.

It's such an awkward to have a GM who's on the hot seat

interviewing for a coach.

It makes no sense.

Why can't they?

I know the answer why, but the most logical thing is

if you have even doubts about Ryan Poles, just get rid of him right now. It's the same as Matt Eberfuss last year when you kept him, even though there was doubts, and you could have gotten Harbaugh or someone else.
Like, just do the right thing. Otherwise, you're going to get a coach and then fire the GM in a year, and then it's going to be the whole thing again.
Well, what's harder to find, a good GM or a good head coach? What's more important a good gm or a good head coach i actually don't know i don't know the i honestly it's a good coach the good coach goes a long way toward making up for bad personnel decisions look at bill belichick look at he was such a good coach he was able to make up for shitty personnel decisions that he made but but the real answer is and i i kind of agree i would lean towards coach but the real answer is a coach and a GM who work well together right that's the real answer it's the two guys who are going to be working and their vision is the same because you can't have a GM who's got a one vision for the team and a coach who's got a different like that will never work and that's what the Bears are end up doing. Well, and that's why I think Bill Belichick ultimately had no one interested in him because even if he comes back without final say over personnel, okay, fine, this GM who's 30 years younger than him is going to draft a guy that Belichick doesn't want, so Belichick's going to put him at the bottom of the depth chart.
There's a lot of ways that the coach and the GM can butt heads if they don't have a shared vision for the players they need, the systems they run, and equal accountability. So we either both fail or we both succeed.
So look, if there's any truth to an idea that Ben Johnson wants to make a power play on the way through the door, or he'll make one once he gets some wins, and that creates hesitation. If there's anything other than making the Bears as good as they can be that's influencing these decisions, that's a sign of a dysfunctional team because, as you said years ago, and I use it all the time, and I attribute it to as much as I can, dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things.
Every time. Every time they get a chance.
All right, so uh the current openings we know the current openings the saints the bears uh the jets uh what other openings are there going to be come black monday who who is who is you're hearing right now is is gone you know there isn't like a clear obvious list of of definite openings we We've been waiting for Jacksonville ever since their bye week. And it felt like it was a done deal going into the bye week.
For whatever reason, Shad Khan, the owner of the team, didn't fire Doug Peterson then. But it was such a bad season.
Can't imagine him coming back for another year, especially after Khan in late August said, this is the best team the Jaguars have ever compiled. How do you live with that statement and say, oh, it's fine that we were four and 13 or whatever the record is.
So I think Jacksonville's at the top of the list. New England is one to watch, although I think Gerard May was going to get another year.
Devin McCourty was on PFT Live on Tuesday, and he spent some time around that team this year, and he got the impression that guys in the building aren't sure what's going to happen so if Gerard Mayo is safe he hasn't gotten the memo yet and I don't know what the Patriots are thinking there but they could decide in theory they could decide to just rip the band-aid off and move on after one year and try to hire somebody like a Brian Flores whose ship seemingly will be coming in this year whether it's Chicago, whether it's New England, whether it's somewhere else. The other ones that would stand out, and I'm running through the divisions in my mind here, we look at the Giants as a place where how can you justify doing nothing if you're John Mara when they had one of the worst seasons in franchise history? What a way to celebrate your 100th anniversary as an organization with your franchise record longest losing streak.
If they lose on Sunday, it'll be the record for the most losses in a season. And those are the big ones.
The Colts are another one that I think has come onto the radar screen recently. And I was asking someone today who's among the pool of candidates to take these jobs.
And the message I got is there's always a few surprises. And that's got me wondering what people on the inside who are in the process of being interviewed at some point, whether they might know about where things are going to pop open.
But we see it every year. It's a surprise when there isn't a surprise yeah opening during that hiring cycle

all right so there are two other teams that you didn't mention uh one is the arizona cardinals

is there any chance that they move on from gannon there and then the second is the raiders

is i didn't mention the raiders and i should have because it feels like something's going to happen

in las vegas but i you have to factor in the owner. And Mark Davis tolerated losing football under John Gruden because John Gruden was his buddy.
And if Antonio Pierce is now Mark Davis's buddy, Mark Davis will tolerate losing football because there's multiple ways to define success as an NFL team. One is how much money are you making? And the Raiders are making more money than they ever have before because they're in Las Vegas.
They got that prime market and they're making a ton of money. Stadium's always full, even if it's not Raiders fans.
So I don't know what his tolerance is for being perpetually a non-contender. If it's high, if it's higher than it seems, then Antonio Pierce is out after one year.
But that one one is weird especially when you throw in the tom brady influence or lack thereof and when will tom brady be more involved and mark davis says we're not gonna bother him while he's still working for fox and they've got the super bowl so that one is just kind of got a weird vibe to it because you don't know what the owner really wants with the cardinals you look at 105 years they've never had a coach longer than six seasons. They've had two guys, Jim Hannafin and Ken Wisenhunt made it six seasons.
Nobody else made it that long. Gannon's got two years.
This year was a disappointment relative to how they started. I think he gets one more year, but that's the thing with these jobs.
You always have to factor in ownership because it's one group, typically one person making the decision. And you can have 10 people make 10 different decisions with the same set of facts.
Yeah. What I love about you, Mike, is you've been all over the Tom Brady rules.
So every time there's a seeming conflict of interest, I feel like I hear it from you. So what's the latest on that? What was he allowed to do last week that he shouldn't have been allowed to do well he's one of the voters uh-huh thank you no it's no you're on top of it you're an important voice because nobody else is doing we live in a time where standards don't matter anymore and just do whatever you want to do and you know just it it doesn't care nobody cares but when you think about this the idea that any owner of an NFL team would have a vote on league-wide awards it's preposterous it would never even be a conversation it would it's no one would ever even have the the guts to suggest it and with Tom Brady what I can't understand is is he like the NFL's version of Michael Scott who has no self-awareness whatsoever? Or is he hyper aware of the fact that he can do whatever the fuck he wants and he's going to do it? I think it's probably that.
Yeah. But there's a chance he just kind of, he just kind of, you know, nobody ever tells me no.
So I'm just going to do whatever I want to do. And I never stopped to think that there might be some ramifications here that are a bad look for me.
Yeah. I mean, the conflict of interest thing is interesting because everybody, we all have our biases.
You're wearing a Minnesota Vikings shirt right now. Good point.
But we still allow you on part of my tape. It's one thing to be a fan of a team and set that aside when it's time to do the right thing.
It's another thing to have a fiduciary duty to that team as a part owner who holds 10% of the equity. It's impossible.
You know, when I practice law, there are two types of conflict of interest. Wait, you practice law? Shut up.
I mean, if I just say it without the setup, people will think, what the fuck does this guy know? Shut up about the legal system. There are certain conflicts of interest that can be waived once the client understands what they are.
And then there are some that just cannot be waived. And the idea that an owner would be voting on league-wide awards that seems to be a non-waivable inherent conflict of interest and i think after the season the ap will find a way to clean it up i think it just fell through the cracks and it wasn't until last week that they were like oh shit he still has a vote and he's officially an owner now yeah yeah i'm a part owner of the green bay packers but i'm still right i'm right down the down the middle when we talk.
Our goldfish was not. Give back to me when you buy about 300,000 more shares.
Mike, is there a team? So we talked about all the openings we think, and you alluded to it. There always could be a surprise.
Last year, Pete Carroll was a little bit of a surprise. Yeah, big surprise.
Right. So is there a team that you've maybe even heard a little bit of rumblings where it's like they don't know what they're going to do it's not a matter of rumblings it's just a matter of feel and it's a matter of what patterns have we seen in the past you know and it also depends on how the playoffs go yeah if the and i don't want to turn this into a bigger thing than it would be but you know there have been occasions in the past where maybe it's run its course between the ras and John Harbaugh.
And there's been rumblings in the past at times that maybe it's time for a fresh start for everyone. If they'd go one and done in the playoffs this year, would that vibe return? I wouldn't rule it out.
Last year, Mike Tomlin, there was a lot of what's he going to do. And we reported at the time that he wasn't going to make any decisions until their playoff run was over.
And when it ended, he made a pretty quick decision to come back. If they go one and out again, does he continue to renew his vows with the Steelers? I don't know.
There isn't the same noise this year as there was last year. But you just never know when everything's going to align.
And it's either the guy wants out or the team wants

to make a change and there's only so many years that i think a guy can make it it's amazing how

long harbaugh and tomlin have been where they are in today's nfl yeah and and sometimes you can just make the argument for both sides that it it makes sense to have a fresh start i'm not saying it's going to happen i'm just saying that's how surprises happen because things go on behind the scenes, unrelated to losses, unrelated to failed performance that, that caused people to say, we just need to do something else here. We got the Cleveland Browns.
We, we both love Stefanski. We think he's a great coach.
Things have been very weird in Cleveland this season. It's just been a weird year.
Like, I don't, I don't know what type of decision-making was going on behind the scenes, how they were determining who the starting quarterback was going to be week to week. But is there any chance that Stefanski gets the axe?

My read on the Browns situation is pretty simple. A couple of years ago, what was it, 2022, they got into the Deshaun Watson pursuit.
There were four teams. And credit to the Texas Texas they took a situation where a guy hadn't played football in a year and they created a four-team competition yeah for his services and they like pre-qualified them for the loan when you're buying a house like you had to tell us ahead of time what you're going to give us in trade and we have to say it's okay and once we know it's okay we'll let the four of you figure it out with Deshaun Watson as to where he's going to go.

And it was the Browns, the Panthers, the Saints, and the Falcons.

And once it got out that the Browns were involved, that destroyed their relationship with Baker Mayfield.

And then Deshaun Watson said to the Browns before any of the teams, I'm not interested

in you.

So I think that's the moment that ownership said, forget it.

We're going to make this guy an offer that there's no way he's going to say no to it. Five years, 46 million per year, fully guaranteed.
And they've been working to justify that horrible contract and trade. Three first round picks plus three other picks given up.
Worst trade and signed deal in NFL history when you factor in what they gave up, what those guys could have been, and the money that's tied their hands and the salary cap issues. I just think it's been stubbornness that's kept Deshaun Watson under center.
And I think Jimmy Haslam, who's, I believe at the root of it, the owner of the team, I think he's sufficiently flexible to realize it's not the fault of Andrew Berry, the GM, or Kevin Stefanski, the head coach. They were just doing what Jimmy Haslam wanted them to do.
That's happened before, and it doesn't insulate people when it's time for folks to get fired, but Haslam's already indicated back in December that he's not going to change coach or GM. That's not binding, but the Browns are kind of off that radar screen because of the things Haslam had said, but dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things, and maybe Jimmy Haslam wakes up one day next week and says, screw it, I'm going to get a clean sweep here and start over.
And, I mean, Stefanski, I feel like, would get a job right away. I mean, he's a phenomenal coach.
He's a two-time coach of the year. He took the Browns to playoffs the first time in forever.
He's been put in a situation that I don't think is fair to him. Yeah, I don't know that it would be the same as if like a Mike Tomlin got fired.
I think if Mike Tomlin would ever get fired or leave Pittsburgh, they'd be lining up out the door to try to hire Mike Tomlin. But two-time coach of the year, you're right.
That's a misleading award. Coach of the year just means you're the head coach of the team that surprised us the most.
And anytime he won one. And anytime he won one, it's a surprise.
So let's make him coach of the year. But still

to do well amid

the dysfunction that is the Cleveland Browns

is impressive. Yeah.

Where's Mike Frable going to coach next year? Because it feels

like he has

maybe not by his own choosing because I

think he probably wanted a job last

year. But what's happened in

this year off is he's basically

got every team has been

linked to him in some way and it feels like

he will be at the top of the list

I'm going to go ahead's been the vibe for about a month now that the two no-brainers who will have options to coach next year are ben johnson and mike vrabel beyond that we just don't know how it's going to shake out and vrabel has been linked linked to the Raiders because once Tom Brady is done with his season and he's whispering into Mark Davis' ear, Vrabel is the guy that Brady would want because they're friends and it goes back years. There's a point Sims has made, and I think he's right.
I think Vrabel would be perfect for one of the New York teams because Vrabel's got the right personality to deal with the New York fans and the New York media it's almost like Parcells where he just doesn't fuck around and and he and he can he can be abrasive in a charming way that's how Parcells was like he he'd say things that were hostile but it was kind of funny and I think Vrabel would be good if he wants to subject himself to that. I don't know.
Do you want to subject yourself to being the head coach of the Jets? Do you want to be the head coach of the Giants? I don't know. But I think a guy like Vrabel, and there aren't many guys like this, he would do well in that market.
And I think both of those teams need to be considering very seriously trying to make a run at Vrabel because that may be exactly what they need to stabilize things in the eyes of the media, in the eyes of the fans. Has he lost weight this off season? So he's less intimidating.
Well, who, who was it that wasn't that one of the justifications for firing him in Tennessee was some weird shit like that. Dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things.
I think Brian Callahan could be done in Tennessee just because look at how erratic they've been and look at the rash decisions they've made in Nashville with head coaches. They never should have fired Mike Vrabel.
But I think Vrabel offended the owner in some way. And hey, that's the reality of working for a mom-and-pop shop, multi-billion-dollar football operation that's run like a family food truck.
Not just that one. No, I mean, the Bears way where they would i don't think they'd hire mike vrabel because he he's too much of an alpha and george mccaskey would have to like hide under his desk every time he walked down the hall i i think you're right about him in the new york market though because he has a way of he'll be like a little bit hostile but it'll still give you good copy as a reporter yeah like the headlines will be funny and entertaining and he wouldn by it.
Yeah, he wouldn't be bothered by it either. Yeah.
We've made him an offer if he wants to come to Chicago. We offered, what was it, Wednesdays on part of my take? Wednesdays on part of my take.
He gets to do an exclusive interview. Hank is his butler.
Yep. We've given him a lot of options.
So Chicago is in play for Mike Vrabel right now. Hey, actually, this just popped my head.
I hope this is not going to be the case, but our colleague, John Gruden, is there anyone who's kicking the tires on that? Now, obviously, if Gruden wants to take a job, I'd be very happy for him, but I selfishly want him to stay at Barstool. His name has been on the fringes of the chatter for two months now here's the reality though set aside the emails and you know it's been three years and we've seen people come back from from worse than the emails and i'm not justifying it i'm just saying the passage of time causes things to dissipate he still still has active litigation against the NFL and Goodell.

So what you have, and we talked about the Browns earlier, when they made that big contract offer to Deshaun Watson,

it pissed everyone off because now we got to have more guaranteed contracts

for quarterbacks.

There's still an arbitration that's looming or pending over not giving players

guaranteed contracts.

Thanks to what the Browns did.

If you hire Gruden, you're going to have some pissed off people at 345 Park.

We're going to have some pissed off people at 345 Park Avenue headlined by the guy that runs the show whose name's on every football so you better be damn sure that this is something that's going to work because there's going to be blowback one way or the other and maybe they settle the case beforehand I don't know but it's it's a lot there. And this is the other side of it, too.

And I love Gruden.

I love Gruden.

But when you start looking at his history as a coach. Sounds like you don't love Gruden.

Okay.

I've defended him vehemently in this litigation.

Put your gun up, Max.

Go ahead.

Continue.

But it sounds like you're about to say something.

The PFT, put your gun up. Go ahead.
Hey, hey, just let me say this. Look at his regular season win percentage.
Compare it to Jeff Fisher's. That's all I'm saying.
Also a great head coach. Another gun.
I got another gun. Listen, and compare Mike McCarthy's win-loss percentage to Grudens.
That's all I'm saying. That's the difference.
Fat. All right.
Okay. So you're saying, actually, I mean, a guy that has a pending lawsuit against the NFL would be a perfect fit for the Raiders.
Yeah. Maybe he could be a Raiders head coach.
Wouldn't it be something if Mark Davis hired him back? Yeah. Let me just say this, too, because I don't think people understand this.
In this age of legalized gambling, somebody decided five games into a season in 2021 to peel off emails and to weaponize them to get John Gruden fired. Forget about whether it was right or wrong.
Somebody fucked with the integrity of a season five games into it. I mean, if you had a futures bet on the Raiders to make the playoffs, although they did win the Super Bowl, whatever the case may be, they're always so big on the integrity of the season.
Somebody connected to the NFL and not many people had access to those emails specifically said, I want this guy out five games in. And that's something that I hope his lawsuit goes forward.
And we find out who did it because I think there's a lot of accountability there that may never be properly meted out and and hashed out because that's as wrong as it gets as it relates to the overall integrity of a given football season to take out a team's head coach five games into it if you were betting man would you say that there would be good odds on somebody who's named rhymed with spruce fallon that was behind the leaking of that email I don't know that it was him i don't know because look the the accusation is it was the league and that goodell was part of it and until we get a chance to see how the lawsuit plays out we won't know it shouldn't be hard to recreate who it was that took those emails and sent them to the new york times and the wall street journal with the clear goal of taking out gr. It could have been Dan Snyder.
It could have been Roger Goodell. I don't know that Bruce Allen even had access to those emails by then.
Because what happened was they had the investigation. What's her name? Beth Wilkinson.
She did her investigation. They had the emails.
Somebody who had access to those 600,000 documents found those, removed those, leaked those, and took out gruden uh mike i forgot the question i was gonna ask uh mike fuck wait hold on i got i got i got a good one i got a good one let me know because i'm ready to fire you're getting old you're getting 50 this year your brain's starting to shut the fuck up you 85 years old. Go, PFT.
Mike, did you want to wish us happy birthday month? Happy birthday month. Thank you.
Happy birthday month. Happy 50.
How is it that Big Cat's going to be 50, but you're only going to be 40? I don't understand how that works. It's crazy.
It's weird. Yeah, you age in dad years.
Mike, you're short. You've got a short face, Mike.
You've got a short face. I have a real question for you.
You talked about playoff teams. Sometimes there's a disappointment in the playoffs and a team decides to move on.
Last year, there was a lot of buzz around the Philadelphia Eagles. If it's like a bad loss, I'm not saying Sirianni's had a bad season.
He's had a very good season, in fact. He's a great guy, and he's a good friend to Max.
Yeah, but a bad loss. But if he has a real bad loss, like a blowout, like the Packers roll in there and he cries at halftime.
They forget how to hike. And tries to fight Matt LaFleur.
And it's embarrassing. And they lose by 30, 40 points.
Yeah. You think there's any chance that Philadelphia moves on from them? They had a real bad loss last year, though.
And before they had the real bad loss to tampa bay 32 to 9 in the wild

card round they lost all those games down the stretch but for uh what was it the christmas day game against the giants they lost all their games after starting 10 and 1 and it didn't happen then remember that shot of jeff lorry sitting in the suite who could forget tampa bay it was like this perfect combination of rage and amazement and confusion all in one.

And we were waiting to see whether or not they'd fire him and try to go after Bill Belichick.

It didn't happen then.

I think they've been good enough now that even if they get blown off the field,

and do you really think, they're one of the most talented teams out there.

I can't imagine that happening. But there's just enough weirdness that happens with sirianni you know the stuff with zach ertz giving the fans the business after the browns game um what else there was some there was a clip after one of the games where like he was trying to talk to somebody on the sidelines they were like openly ignoring him like there's just enough weird there that makes you wonder how sustainable it is but then you look at the record that's the thing look at the record he's damn good is there is there a situation where they're good despite him and they'd be even better with somebody else i don't think jeffrey lorie wants to you know roll those dice yeah uh i've remembered my question mike after lebron said that the nba owns christmas day how many games are are we going to get on Christmas Day next year from the NFL? It's going to be a continuous loop.
It's going to be all day Christmas Eve and all day Christmas Day. Look, the numbers speak for themselves.
And I don't know what the numbers would have been if the two games on Netflix had been on broadcast TV. Would they have hit 30 million? Would they have been 35 million? We got 38.9 or 39.8 million who watched Giants Cowboys, a shit Thanksgiving game in that middle window.
These were real games. Steelers Chiefs, real game.
Ravens, Texans, I mean, until they started playing it, real game. If those would have been on regular TV, the numbers would have been even worse.
And the NFL went easy on them. They didn't play on new year's on christmas eve and they didn't play a great a game on christmas night i think the bottom line is christmas football is here to stay whatever day of the week jerry jones made it clear last week we're already new they're going to play whenever christmas is wednesday is the hardest day to pull it off the other days they're going to do it here's the question i have because in the past when christmas lands on a sunday they play the bulk of the games on saturday i wonder if the next time christmas lands on a sunday it's not for like another 10 years will they just say it we're doing our regular schedule on sunday where everybody's in the pool it's christmas it's a sunday we're not going to shy away from that we're going to completely and totally own it that would rock that would yeah maybe i i feel like they'd probably stick to the Saturday though they would probably split it evenly yeah because you want it to be like appointment television for certain games on Christmas otherwise it's just your full-blown schedule think about it your full-blown schedule on a day when everybody is is home and everybody's looking for something to do let's tune into red zone let's flip on this game let's go I mean the numbers could go through the roof in comparison to what they ordinarily are but it's not like until 2033 or something like that so you know some of us will be dead by then do you think goodell uh like sees that from lebron and is like oh okay like get ready get ready to learn like cowboys eagles uh bills chiefs like we're gonna fucking drop the next year.
I think it's like the old line from Mad Men when Jon Hamm says, I don't even think about you. Okay.
I think that's his reaction. Yeah, but I think he would say that, but I think he really does think about the NBA.
He wants to just twist that knife. They put it on streaming so he couldn't even change the channel.
Yeah. You couldn't even flip over to the NBA games.
Yeah. And it's going to keep getting bigger and bigger.

I mean, the NFL is by far the biggest attraction in the United States, and they want to make

it global.

It's a hundred year thing.

We'll definitely be dead by the time it comes to full bloom.

But there would have been a time when people would have laughed at the idea of football

overtaking baseball in the United States.

And I'm sure deep down, they'd love to overtake soccer one of these days. That'll probably never happen, but I would have said the same thing in the seventies about baseball and football.
Yeah. Crazy.
So, all right, playoffs coming up. What teams do you think can win the Superbowl? Well, the Eagles, the Lions, the Chiefs, the Bills, the Ravens.
The answer is every team that gets in the playoffs. No, well, yeah, I mean...
Chip in the chair. You've seen wildcard teams win before, Mike.
Fine, I know, but it feels like it feels like there's a cluster of teams that rise above the rest. No, you're right.
Keep going. Sorry.
I just had to throw that in there because you said I was going to be 50. I've dealt with you for so long.
you're a smart ass it doesn't even register anymore there's no dominant team the lions had some dominant wins earlier in the year they beat the jaguars like 52 to 6 they blew the cowboys off the field but since thanksgiving when the bears almost forced overtime remember that game when the bears like fucked up the timeout they're tough to deal with they've been in close games pretty much every week since then there is no team that's just going to show up and kick your ass like the 85 bears there's nothing close to that so i mean you're gonna have chief fans mad at you i'm trying to help you i'm trying to help you out mike because you're going to get a lot of from chiefs fans but they don't but they don't blow anybody out. The win over the Steelers was the most impressive win of the year by 19 points.
But all they got to do is win one game to get to the Super Bowl. Two.
Well, I mean, they're... No, I have no...
I'll say right now, they're in the AFC Championship game. But what if the Bengals show up? I don't think they're worried about the Bengals.
The Bengals are not a good football team. Joe Burrow in that offense is phenomenal and out of this world.
Their defense is trash. The fact that they need not only to win, but they need two other games to go their way, doesn't that tell you what type of team they've had as a season? Oh, absolutely.
But also, Joe Burrow transforms into a next-level superhero when the playoffs roll around, and he's gone he's gone toe to toe with Patrick Mahomes multiple times. He's the only active player, only active quarterback who has beaten the Chiefs in the postseason.
It really is amazing, though. And the Chiefs history and Mahomes doesn't make the Pro Bowl, which is laughable at one level.
But you look at the numbers this year and you can see why he didn't. But his worst outcome since he became a starter in 2018 is losing in overtime of the AFC

championship.

That's his floor.

I mean, for a lot of teams, they haven't even done that.

For the Vikings since 1976, their best case scenario is losing in overtime of the NFC championship once.

Mahomes has done it twice.

That's his worst outcome.

It's uncanny. So I agree.
It's going to be very hard to go to Arrowhead Stadium and win but they're not dominating people that's the point there's no one that's just showing up and kicking your ass each and every week but here's the thing the teams that they would have to play would be either the Bengals the Dolphins or maybe the Steel? Yeah, or possibly the Chargers. Broncos.
Broncos or Chargers. Possibly the Broncos.
Yeah, I feel like the real matchup is them against the Bills or them against the Ravens. Correct.
I agree with you completely. And they might work it in a way that they avoid both of them.
Maybe the Bills and Ravens end up playing each other in the divisional round, so they only have to play one of them. Mike, give me a path, because I just want to fantasize.
They definitely won't have to play both of them. I guess if the Steelers win...
They could end up drawing the Ravens in the divisional round. So you think Bailey Zappi is going to beat Lamar Jackson? Well, no.
Was it 17 and a half points? Wouldn't it be the Browns that would fuck up the last act of a clear tank and win with Bailey Zappi? Because I do think the Browns are very live to get the one pick. I don't think it's crazy for the Browns to lose, the Titans to win, and the Patriots to win.
The Browns have the one pick. And the difference is the Browns want it.
The other teams, they don't care. The Browns organizations organizationally top to bottom they want it and they've done a good job of positioning themselves for it so you're right you're right they win the division they won't meet in the divisional round and it would be if the ravens win and the bills win in the wild card round they'll end up playing each other in in the divisional round and the chiefs will get the lowest team left you're right um mike can i just fantasize just give me talk me through this what is the what is the path that the commanders could make it to the Super Bowl well if you can avoid the Eagles which which is doable I want it's not crazy it's not crazy I mean you you can you win and you don't have to go to Philadelphia you're going to.A.
or Tampa, right? Jaden Daniels, it feels like he's busted through the rookie wall. There was a period of time where he's either hurt or he's fatigued.
Lately, he's been phenomenal. MVP chance on Sunday night.
Don't forget about the interceptions. Well, that's all right.
They're doing better than anyone expected, and they fought through that lull that they slipped into they slipped into a spot where it's like okay you know the chariots turned back into a pumpkin it's over for the commanders they came out the other side of it and they've been winning and it seemed like that can be dangerous when when you get to the playoffs and you're on house money and you don't give a shit and you just go out and play and you have confidence that you can make it happen and jayden daniels has been you know better than anybody expected uh when we were at the scouting combine and we were meeting with defensive players and we asked as many of them as we could remember to ask who's the best guy you ever faced in college the sec guys all said without hesitation jayden daniels because he's there and then he's gone. And we've seen it.
We've seen it come to fruition.

So with a guy like Jaden Daniels,

because when we see low seeds in the past make a deep run,

the common denominator for those teams is to have a great quarterback.

And even though he's a rookie,

he's already in that list of great quarterbacks.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, they can make some noise.

I think they can make some noise.

Stay away from the Eagles.

Stay away from the Eagles. Make some noise.

If the Packers take out the Eagles in the first round, we beat the Bucs, weird stuff starts to happen. It's not going to happen this year, but I just want to think about it.
You know, there's a way that the team that loses on Sunday night only has one road game in the playoffs. Because those wildcard teams could go in.
You get the Packers at the Eagles, the Packers could win you get the the commanders at the bucks or the rams they could win and then the five seed wins at the four seed all of a sudden the teams left are one five six and seven the five seeds host in the divisional round game and if the the seven seed upends the vikings or the lions yeah five seeds hosting the nfc championship or the six seed host hosting the NFC Championship that could happen that's the path that is the path right there Packers, commanders at Raujohn yeah, that's it and I'll be I'll fucking wear your Sam Howell jersey yeah, I'll fucking get into that alright, Mike, last question by the way everyone go to amazon and buy mike's book 99 cents make sure you say the e-book the print edition is at 99 cents paper ain't free my e-book that was my new year's resolution my first one in 21 years because i want to encourage people to read people view reading as a chore they view it as work you do i send you all my books you never read them because you view it as work you have association to school mike and you don't want to do it mike i'm trying to get people to read mike in 2025 mike i i not only didn't read it i have even taken out of the package yeah there you go i've got it right behind me i read the cover every day i think it's a great book thank you because my friend made it yeah so i and read. You know what? Pitch me real quick.
No, no, no, no, no, no. Pitch me.
One of my New Year's resolutions is to read a book this year. Pitch me on your book.
Okay. Father of Mine is a Mobb Tale set.
Just kidding. I'm not reading it.
In West Virginia in the earth. All right.
Fuck you. Ask me about my fantasy team.
Oh, we finished in third place this year. Yeah.
Yeah. We're a big fantasy podcast now.
We are. Jerry O'Connell talked to actually we might fire Jerry O'Connell and have his wife do it next year.
Yeah. I feel like she'd be good.
Please do buy Mike's book. I'm going to, you know what? I'm going to read two books this year and one of them is going to be father of mine.
Well, read father of mine in the sequel. Once you finish father of mine, you'll want to read the next one.
so what's the sequel the sequel son of mine so it's basically like the old testament the new testament exactly all right the new bible i'm doing the next one which i guess is essentially revelation scientology ever clear you ever heard of uh that band father of mine great song yeah it's a great title titles aren't protected by copyright law you know how i learned that how part of my take oh but i think there is some rules because we tried to make a book that's that was just a new york times bestseller was the title that's good no you can't do that can you name mike as a lawyer could we name our book a new york times bestseller by john grishller by John Grisham? I think that would probably be pushing the limits of the law. That would require, what do they call that? It's a case of first impression.
All the way to the Supreme Court. Legal minds from all over the world would be studying it.
Harry Potter 9. Yeah.
All right, but last question. Rollback question.
RHOBACK.com. Prc-k.com promo code take 20 off your first purchase q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts rowback.com promo code take uh give us one one florio story we're working oh you know what actually we didn't i don't know why we didn't do this what's gonna happen with aaron rogers and the jets i think aaron rogers doesn't want to come back to the jets but he wants them to be the ones that break up with him he's been needling woody johnson every time he's on mcafee's show he says some snarky thing about woody johnson now i might be fired by a teenager i think he wants them to end it and then he'll see if anyone out there really wants him if no one does he's decided to.
But if somebody that he deems worthy of his services wants him,

and I'm fascinated by the possibility of him going to Pittsburgh,

remember that video of him and Mike Tomlin kind of making googly eyes at each

other. And yeah, not, you know, it's like that Sopranos gif where they're,

you know, it's, it's Christopher and Patsy are doing this.

I feel like that tracks with what the Steelers are currently doing at quarterback, which is, we know how to develop one let's just go find a veteran and plug him in but if he finds a team that wants him and he wants to play for them then he'll play for another team next year and he'll use the jets not wanting him as a motivation even though i he says it but i don't believe that he wants to play for the jets again he knows what a shit show it is there aaron rogers and george pickens that would be fun they don't speak the same language that would be so fun he said it's the best two years of his life though in new york yeah yeah which tells you his priorities are completely out of whack they were horrible he was injured all the last year they were horrible this year how does that become the best year of your life when you want a super bowl and you're a four-time MVP? I think it's just something you say. He's hung out with a lot of friends.
Yeah, you just say it. Here's a crazy one, and we'll end with this because we've got to go watch Notre Dame in Georgia.
If Brock Purdy's elbows kind of fucked up, Aaron Rodgers finishes where the team that should have drafted him? No. Why not? I guarantee that won't happen.
Why? I'll just say this. There are more than a few people around the league who have figured out Aaron Rodgers and want nothing to do with him.
Oh. Oh.
Trouble in paradise. Kyle doesn't like Aaron.
Oh. I didn't say that.
I just said there's more than a few people who know that, you know, I don't – look, got enough we got him in this spot i got enough problems you know what i think that i think there's a lot of coaches for whom it would be a hard sell and you better be damn confident that you can coexist with this guy and it's not going to completely you know up your life and get you fired five weeks into the season like it did robert solid jets Jets hire Mike McCarthy. Mike McCarthy, Aaron, reunite.
We're an Aaron Rodgers podcast. I didn't know if you knew that.
You know who Kyle does like a lot? Kirk Cousins. What's going to happen with Kirk? What are the possibilities for Kirk Cousins? I know where he's going to go.
Here's what I think. Heaven? No, he's going to go to heaven.
Let me throw this one out there for you, Mike, real quick. Before you say Vikings trade J.J.
McCarthy for a second round pick and then they need a backup quarterback. No.
Look, there aren't many guys who, once they've been the highest paid player in the NFL, who voluntarily accept being a backup. Flacco's like the only guy that's ever done that.
Usually it's, hey, if I can no longer start, see you later. I'm out of here.
I'm going to go count my money. The thing with Cousins, and this is why I think Rodgers might have a future, but Cousins won't.
Both had the torn Achilles. Both have less mobility than they used to have.
Again, Cousins never had much. Rodgers still throws it 40 yards on a dime with a flick of a wrist.
Look at Cousins. He's got to muster every ounce of energy in his body from his toes to his fingertips to try to throw the football.
And his body eventually rebelled against him this year because he was compensating for the torn Achilles tendon. So it just got to the point where he just can't do it anymore.
And I've talked to people who said, you know what? There's a chance it just never comes back for him. He could be done.
But he still gets paid next year. Yeah, he does.
He gets paid next year. He gets $27.5 million next year.
He made $62.5 million this year. He gets $27.5 million next year, regardless of what happens with the Falcons.
The only way he'd lose it is if he'd retire. And it'd be stupid to retire.
You force him to cut you and you take your $27.5 million. Good for Kirk.
All right, Mike, thank you as always. Can't wait to see you Super Bowl to cut you and you take your 27 and a half million yeah for kirk uh all right mike thank you as always can't wait to see you super bowl week um you're the best every time and i never even hear from you super bowl week so because you get up like you get up to ask crack of dawn to do your show with phil sims where are we this year it's it's central time zone so it won't be asked it won't be quite the ass crack of dawn yeah Yeah.
If you need a guest, PFT and I are more than welcome

to come on. You can't get in.
You can't get in the

building. We have ways.

You can get us in.

Gruden will get us in.

NFL loves him. I might just

dress up as Mike Florio.

We'll get a whole bunch of Florios out there.

I rotate them in and out.

We'll all go as Florios. Alright, Mike.
Thank you as always. You're the best.
Thanks, guys. Happy New Year.
It's soup season. We're going to get cold.
This next week is going to be pretty cold all across the country. It's perfect time to crack open some soup.
Get involved with soup season. Taste up.
Today's episode of Part of My Take is brought to you by Campbell's chunky soup it's the soup that eats like a meal when you think chunky you got to think of players like Frank Ragnall Montez Sweat Will Anderson Chop Robinson Trent Williams Jason Kelsey it's soup season you know that they're eating Campbell's soup it's their favorite it's our favorite too I love soup because it warms you up from the inside out but even guys like Jason Kelsey can't compare it to the go-to like chunky steak and potato it's packed with great ingredients keeps me going strong I'm eating soup every single day all winter long during soup season you can find me with a big bowl of Campbell's chunky soup chunky takes satisfaction to the max this soup season Grab a bowl of Campbell's Chunky Soup. Chunky takes satisfaction to the max this soup season.
Grab a can of Campbell's Chunky today. Okay.
Fire Fest of the week. Wrapping it up.
Short week. Boys.
Hank. By the way, in Vanny Woodhead's chair.
Yeah. Nice little addition to the studio.
Yeah. Got's good.
Got a new rug. How does it smell? It smells good.
It smells fine. We used to smoke heaters in that van all the time.
Corncob pipes. Oh, yeah.
So that was RV. Yeah, that's different.
That was when the RV, the sewage tank overflowed. And we didn't have the heat.
And we didn't have air fresheners, so we figured two birds, one stone. Yeah.
We smoked corncob pipes. Yeah.
My fire fence was just when I moved. I mean, there's not a lot going on.
I got my bag back or it's, I think I got my bag back. Yeah.
They found it. They're shipping it back.
Okay. So it's not back yet, but it is your bag.
Yeah. They've confirmed my bag.
So I think that was a good, good, good vibes going into the week. I just regret when I moved to Chicago, I think I threw away like 25 jumpsuits.
yeah because i think jumpsuit january was kind of over we kind of feel like it's had some new life i'm excited to do it again but yeah i was looking today and i was like i have like three when at one point i had upwards of 40 because jumpsuits they're the first thing to go because they take up so much room right so if you got to thin out the closet a that said, jumpsuit January rocks. It does.
And I feel more energized than I have in a long time by the jumpsuits. I'm energized.
I will hit a wall where I'll just have to throw on some real pants at one point in a couple of weeks, but I'll then get back to the jumpsuits. My kids were like, why are you dressed like that today? Because I do look a little ridiculous, but that's, you know, I'm comfortable.
I feel comfortable. Kid sounds like he's got some anti-Italian bias.
Well, he's Italian, so he shouldn't. He hates himself.
So you got rid of all the jumpsuits? You buy him more? I bought a couple more. Although I ordered some two weeks ago and they're nowhere to be found.
So I have some of these, the Sergio Ticini. I like just wearing sweatpants and a matching sweatshirt.
That one makes me feel a little more athletic this one makes me feel like i just want to eat i loaded up on the one pieces this year and so i've got a bunch of these ones that just have it's a one piece it's a one piece it's got the zipper down the middle of it which is very convenient uh for if you're a six-year-old and getting dressed yeah but you're wearing jammies yeah i'm wearing jammies but the problem is with these uh if you go to the bathroom how do you problem yeah it's a big problem when you go to the bathroom yeah i have to wrap it around my waist and and hold the front of it against my stomach if i'm going number two got it i just want all i was trying to find it's not easy to find velour jumpsuits yeah those are the that's the pinnacle you gotta get chinis yeah chinis they're expensive but they're worth it because they're comfortable as hell uh okay pft uh my fire fest is i've honestly had a pretty good week things are going well yeah it's a new year 2025 new year new me i've resolved i'm gonna get one percent better every single day and if you get one percent better every day you end up like 37 times better there you go by math i saw somebody say that online so every day i'm just trying to i guess that might be my fire fest is it's hard to find ways to get one percent better every day i there's no way i could find one percent just one percent that's all you gotta do i also i went to the winter classic which was it was cool to go to. Great concert by the Smashing Pumpkins at Wrigley Field.

Great concert by Chance the Rapper.

Besides that, what you don't realize when you go to the Winter Classic is when you're looking down at a hockey game that's almost at eye level.

It's hard to see a lot of hockey.

It's not.

Turns out Wrigley Field has done a really good job of putting on baseball games for a very long time, not other sports. Not hockey.
And I missed the flyover at it. I was coming back from getting beers.
And four A-10s, four Warthogs buzzed the tower. It was a big disappointment.
How could you? Big disappointment. How could you miss the flyover? Closer support.
Yeah. Yeah, I don't really have a fire festival.
than i mean i was i'm good to be i'm happy

to be back with the boys because i was on vacation with my kids and when you got three little kids under six it ain't vacation it's just trying to figure out a way to uh make them happy which they were i went to great wolf lodge oh nice in scottsdale that was cool it's a great Yeah. I watched my daughter, my middle child, go down the same small slide 300 times in a row.
Did you take him to Houston's? I didn't take him to Houston's. I should have gone to Houston's.
Family restaurant. Family restaurant.
Great organization. Shut up, Bis.
Unbelievable salad. Unbelievable salad.
Max, how was your week with the foot? I was all over the place. I went to the wedding was very fun um did you dance i did i i didn't i sat for like two minutes at that wedding oh my god killing me at the end of it i'm i'm fucking up this this i'm gonna go back to this doctor in three weeks and he's like somehow this is worse than when it was when you first came in here.
What have you been doing? Yeah. I was riding bikes down in South Carolina.
Max, this is not good. It's not good, buddy.
So you're just pretending you don't have a broken foot. He's just like, he said, I probably won't need surgery.
So now I can really bang it up. No, I mean, it's travel.
What are you supposed to do? Yeah. Does more maybe not ride bikes no because pft did this where he remember when we went to the cubs playoff game and then a bears game and you're you were like we walked way too much your foot like got purple well we picked up a wheelchair at walgreens i think for the bears game yeah i was like i don't want people to keep having to push me around i'll just walk i got a boot it'll be fine and then i walked on it a bunch and i went back to the doctor he's like yeah you do need surgery yeah that's not gonna happen to me i didn't i also didn't ride bikes maybe riding bikes is good for riding bikes was i was worried about the riding of the bikes it was yeah you got a broken foot you idiot.
No, but I don't got a broken leg.

Yeah.

And it's not like you're putting a...

I wasn't standing on the bike.

Yeah, but did the bike ever lean to the side of your broken foot and you had to put your

foot down?

No.

It was nice.

I was biking around a neighborhood and stuff, so it wasn't strenuous biking.

Yeah.

Memes, how was your break?

How are you feeling? It was good. I ate so much.
a lot of portellini with crumpled sausage it's so good wait how many times did you eat that like four times oh okay it was i just wanted i have a i have a request yeah i want us to do because january we do free lunches here yeah i want the free lunches in de okay. Okay.
Hank, don't shake your head at me. No.
Because there's so much. It's like you get back and you don't want to eat food all the time.
And now we just have unlimited supply of food just staring you in the face all day, every day. Request an eye.
January in Chicago fucking sucks. You know what's awesome? When you wake up every day and you're like, I don't have to think about what's for lunch because it just gets delivered.
That's the whole point of it. It's to boost the morale in the office in January.
Also, Max, you have two weeks of vacation in December. Would you rather have two weeks of food or four weeks of food? Also, eat less.
But it's just staring you in the face. Calories in, calories out.
I know, I know, but I can't do calories out right now. Max, you know what I'm doing? I was getting my steps in.
You're right. Max, there's always a salad option.
There was a salad option. I ate, I didn't eat unhealthy today.
It's just every time I went back, I was like, oh, I'll get a piece. I'll eat some chicken.
You know who you're in the boat with right now? You're in the boat with Nikki Smokes. The only two people who've ever complained about free lunches for January.
Completely different. It's the best.
Completely different reasons. Hey, would you not agree? It's one of the best things easily.
Morale-wise. You aren't guys that are like, all right, January time to lock in on my.
No, because I do that all 12 months. That just don't eat sugar like me, except for donuts and cake on your birthday.
That's fine. You don't like the free lunches because you're afraid that you'll eat too much.
Correct. Nicky Smokes doesn't like him because he somehow never has an appetite.
Right. And he also just wants to get drunk one random night with everyone who we see every single day and then probably make decisions that would get him fired correct also facts uh here's the good news max we're also i've added uh at some point this month i think probably maybe third week of january we're gonna do tan week i'm gonna get a tanning bed in here calling it tannuary yeah we're all going to get fucking tan and it's going to look so that i'm in yeah that i'm this entire office just looking like we should get spray tans that's fine yeah spray tans would be way otherwise everyone's just going to be burned yeah but i'm cool with what i want everyone in this office to be as tan as fucking possible i love that in the middle of january we just all look hot this that sounds great okay pug how was your week week was good pug a lot of too much driving around i'm ready to chill out oh you've been mobile very much pug's been cruising yes where are you driving down new jersey oh garden Jersey.
Oh. Garden State Parkway.
You see any drones?

I woke up this morning.

Saw a couple drones, yes.

What do they look like?

They kind of look like they're lit up green and red.

They kind of look like little airplanes.

So drones.

They look like planes.

It sounds like you're describing planes.

It's the good aliens.

Okay.

Yeah, that's true.

It's good aliens.

Also, Pug, you have a, what is you have a was it a 2500 free bet yeah oh yeah was it hank how much did we split no uh 10 grand it was so you have a 5 000 free bet then oh wow i didn't know i didn't know it was that much because hank and i split it, right? Yeah. So, Pug, what are you going to bet?

I don't know.

It's a lot of pressure.

I'll have to think about it.

Okay.

Pug.

All right.

First numbers of the new year.

Memes, have you ever gotten this?

Nobody has this year.

Three.

Oh, okay.

Seven.

You're going three?

What was your number last time?

Eleven. I think it was three.
Yeah, I think I're going three. What was your number last time? 11.

I think it was three.

Yeah, I think I hit on three.

No, you hit on two.

I hit on two.

Yeah, I can't keep track.

No, no, no.

I've gotten the lottery ball so many times.

You won on two.

You won on two.

94, Pug.

78.

I'll go 56. 44.
That wasug. 78.
I'll go 56.

44.

That was Jack.

21.

That was Shane.

Oh!

It's nine.

I saw single-digit memes thought i thought that was it that would have that would have to win the first of the year and then you all year you can be like have you guys gotten it this year but you know what let's do one more because we missed wednesday show this one's official. All right.
Three.

Fuck.

Seven.

20.

11.

79.

20, huh?

Mm-hmm.

You heard me.

94.

44.

21.

What was yours, Hank?

Seven.

43. 43.

43.