Championship Sunday, Lions All Time Loss And The Ravens No Show Sets Up Chiefs/Niners Part 2, Plus Who's Back Of The Week

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On today's part in my take, Super Bowl 58.

Super Bowl 58 is set.

It is 58, right?

I'm not good with Roman numerals.

I hate Roman numerals, but Super Bowl 58 is set.

Chiefs, Niners, rematch from a few years ago.

We're going to talk about both the AFC Championship game, the NFC Championship game. Brutal, brutal loss for the Lions.
Brutal loss for the Ravens too, but a different way. So we're going to get into that.
We're going to do fastest two minutes. We're going to maybe talk a little basketball.
We got who's back of the week. Some coach.
We have more coach talk to go because PFT, you're about about to hire yours and bill belichick might be out of a job so we'll clean up on that and maybe some early thoughts on super bowl 58 and before we get to all of that ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working nah neither has ariat ariat work jackets and boots are packed with all the cold stopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions so you can take any job out there and always deliver. Check out Ariat in your local workwear retailer or visit Ariat.com slash work to get 10% off your first order when you sign up for email.

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Okay, let's go. Boy! Boy! Now in the street there is violence and then a lot of stuff work to be done.
No place to hang out or wash in and then then I can't name all of the sun.

Oh, no.

We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.

And then we'll take it higher.

Oh, we're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.

It's Pardon My Take presented by Barstool Sports.

Welcome to Pardon My Take. Today is Monday, January 29th, and it's Championship Sunday.
Championship Sunday. Some spray.
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. They're not going to get them.
In Baltimore, where the Ravens' offense looked like it was ready for a bad Valentine's Day instead of Super Bowl Sunday because all they could get was likely flowers. I say, I say, I say, I say, Pacheco made the Ravens look like big chickens scampering to a second quarter score, and the Ravens, much like Forrest Gump, abandoned the run and said, I think I'll go home now.
I can't even do Forrest Gump. I think I'll go home now.
I think I'll go home now. I think I'll go home.
I think I'll go home now. Me and Jetty was like peas and carrots.
In a remarkable rookie season, Taylor Swift will be going to her first Super Bowl, and it will be a hot topic who will be inside her box for the big game. Speaking of Taylor's box, the Raven watch their season tick tock away as jackson mahomes hit his dance on the city of baltimore chiefs 17 ravens 14 out west brock purdy woman made a couple big mistakes huge in the first half before getting the niners offense into richer gearere.
Speaking of into Richard Gere,

they ran through the A-gap like a couple of hamsters,

scoring two touchdowns to put the Lions up early.

Josh Burt Reynolds found the centerfold of the defense, but couldn't make a play, girl.

A Christian escaped the Lions' den

and found the end zone for the game-winning score,

and Lieutenant Dan Campbell needs new legs,

magic legs,

because he bit off his own kneecaps. Niners, 34.
The Lions, 31. And that is your Super Bowl.
I just remembered the Niners. That was, and that's the same team where I saw the play.
Yes. Tom Brady as a young boom.
And look at all that hair. Look at that hair boom.
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Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at boarshead.com okay super bowl 58 is set pft the chiefs and the niners set to meet in las vegas in the desert we're running it back we're running it back last time this happened this was our last four weeks of fun yes so r.i.p to the ncaa tournament in 2024 oh and I don't say that there will be no spring league football rain new strain of COVID uh I have just just high level before we get into the games I've seen some people complain that like well this matchup stinks because we've seen it whether it be Taylor Swift the Chiefs fatigue I don't care there's nothing that would ever stop me from enjoying the Super Bowl to its maximum you It's the last game of football of the year. I can't believe there's actually people like, I'm not going to watch.
Shut up. You're going to watch.
You're going to watch. You're going to like it.
I almost stopped watching today because they canceled the B2 flyover in Baltimore because of weather. And then they cut away from the flyover on the West Coast game, which is the least American thing you could do.
That would get you most unpatriotic thing. Well, they tried.
They didn't try hard enough. But you're going to watch the Super Bowl because it's two great teams.
It's Patrick Mahomes continuing his quest to topple Tom Brady, which might take a while. I've actually got some stats here.
I'd like to see what Hank has to say about these. Oh, we're going to get right into it.
Yeah, I think that we should. I mean, Patrick Mahomes was great.
We can talk about the other stuff. Yeah, Chiefs 17, Ravens 10, the AFC championship game.
Yeah, let's hop right into it. All right, so here's some stats for the first six years of the two of them starting in the NFL.
Mahomes, 72-22. Tom Brady, 70-24.
Playoff record, Mahomes, 14-3. Tom Brady, 12-2.
Four AFC titles for Mahomes three for Brady two rings for Mahomes playing for a third Brady had three rings and touchdown to interception 258-69 for Mahomes 167-87 for Tom Brady yeah I mean it's tough to deny uh if he wins a Super Bowl's on pace yeah I'd say ahead of pace yeah he's inevitable and this game was it was crazy because the beginning of the game it was like well this is going to be just Patrick Mahomes surgically dicing up the Ravens defense that first drive was perfect that second drive was peak Mahomes because they had four third down conversions that were all Mahomes especially he had a scramble and then that that flip play to Travis Kelsey which was like how the hell did this just happen those vintage those backyard stuff it was it was crazy so so so the game starts and you're like well this is just gonna be Mahomes the Ravens' defense showed up, and they played great ball for basically this, like, you know, after they scored, after the Chiefs went up 14-7 early in the second quarter for the rest of the game. The entire second half, the Chiefs had 98 yards.
But it didn't matter because it was way more about the Chiefs' defense and what Steve Spagnuolo did to Lamar Jackson. And I do want to say real quick, Steve Spagnuolo, he is probably one of, if not the best defensive coordinators of all time.
When you think about what he's done, he's got three Super Bowls. He stopped the 17-0 or 18-0 Patriots, one of the best offenses of all time.
Held them to how many points? How many did they have? 17. 17.
The Ravens were one of the best teams this year in terms of offense, like completely befuddled the MVP of the league. They had, after the game, I don't know if you guys saw, but the shirts, the In Spags We Trust shirts.
Yeah, those are awesome. Which are awesome.
And you can can tell like every single guy on that defense just trusts everything that steve spagnola is doing and he said before the game be relentless be a pack of wolves just get after it and that's what they did like it was see spagnola just ate todd munkin and john harbaugh's lunch for four quarters that's what we watched and again it was patrick holmes and then it was the Chiefs defense for the basically for the majority of the game just completely like making the Ravens look stupid and getting them out of what they do well and he deserves all the credit in the world because he that was a masterful game plan they had so so I should say that the score that Super Bowl was was actually 17-14. So they won with 17 points.
They won with 17. Just like the Chiefs did.
This is from Randy Gieslieri. By DVOA, we already knew that the 2023 Ravens were incredible, right? The 2007 Patriots were one of the other greatest teams ever by that stat.
Yep. And Spags both won big games against those teams by scoring 17 points.
He was the MVP of this game. And that's not taking anything away from the Chiefs offense.
And, again, like that Mahomes, that second drive, the first drive was scripted plays that worked perfectly, and we thought, oh, this is going to be a long day for the Ravens defense. And like I said, the Ravens defense showed up.
They even forced a field goal off of a – Lamar fumbled. That was when I thought the game was like fully fully over uh but they they did a good job of stopping the Chiefs for the majority of the game it was just the Chiefs defense was just incredible yeah so shout out to Spagnuolo did you know that he does an award a weekly award for his defense it's called the cram award whichever team like crams the hardest I love that like for hardest hitting big plays they get the cram award and the winner of the cram award uh gets a home-cooked meal from steve spagnolo's wife who makes you whatever you want so you have to cram before the game you cram before the game and then you cram after the game okay because legeria sneed should get the cram award for for the for punching out zay flower no you cram during the during the game you game.
Got it. So he crammed the ball right out of Zay Flowers.
It was a cram pie. The play of the game.
Yeah, play of the game. That was the play of the game.
When you fumble at the one-yard line, it's so deflating because you've done all that work. You've gone that entire distance.
And then just to have it happen, that's why Bill told you, don't reach out at the one. Yeah, don't reach out at the one.
So it was, yeah, it was a Chiefs. Like, this is, and hank i think you've actually kind of admitted it now that mahomes and the chiefs are the new patriots and just how they do it like this wasn't an explosion of offense by the chiefs it wasn't like they were just i mean they were better than the ravens the right team won but it was like they have shape-shifted year to year and especially even in this year where it looked like they were like had no chance of going to the Super Bowl to a team that is the toughest team in the league yeah and on the road too they beat they beat Buffalo at Buffalo they beat the Ravens at Baltimore that obviously adds to the narrative that before it was like you can only win at home this playoffs he's done it on the road they've won 66 percent of the road playoff games that have been won this playoffs.
The Packers are the only other team that won a road playoff game. That's crazy.
They won two. The Packers won one.
It's pretty crazy. And the defense was the story, but we're still going to just talk about Mahomes because it's fucking Patrick Mahomes.
No, I mean, that drive. He was really good.
Also, I mean, there should be some blame on Todd Munkin in that offense. Well, Lamar, we got to get to Lamar.
It was bad. The defense for the Chiefs over the course of the season, I think they were tied for 27th in terms of yards per carry allowed.
And then do you know how many times the Ravens ran the ball today? Yeah, eight. They ran the ball to the running backs eight times.
Lamar had a couple others. But they ran the ball with the running backs eight times today.
it was crazy to watch. It felt like they had a game plan, and then the first three and out happened, and they're like, well, we'll just abandon all of this.
And Lamar was not good. That is a fact.
Like, Lamar did not play well. He was missing receivers early.
That interception to Likely was one of the worst situational awareness balls I've ever seen thrown because you not only have Isaiah Likely triple teamed, but you're in a situation where you're down 10 in the fourth quarter. It's like you need to, no matter what, get a field goal here so that you make it a one-score game.
With Justin Tucker, that's a pretty certain thing when you're in that, what were they, at the 30 or 20? And having that happen was just like like how do you have that happen what how do you throw that ball their offense was just zay flowers is down there somewhere for the most of the most of the game um they they threw it to likely a couple times and with zay uh when i say they ran the ball eight times two of those were like little swing passes yeah with zay flowers or gadget plays with zay flowers so they really only ran the ball with the running back six times over the course of the entire game. And yeah, Todd Monken deserves a ton of blame, but Lamar was not precise.
He had guys, he missed guys routinely all day. A couple deep passes he overthrew.
And he was taken forever in the pocket too. Like Lamar should run with the ball like a full half second or full second before when he was taking off today because you wait that extra time then he gets caught from behind for like a one yard gain yeah it completely neutralized lamar's ability although he did have an awesome play where he threw and caught the ball at the same time maybe bill pull in and was right about that all-time play maybe he's a wide receiver yes uh but yeah it was an all-time play and he got caught from behind just barely think he probably would have scored a touchdown if he just stepped out of that one tackle.
But that was an awesome play. Yeah.
The game, if you're a Ravens fan, that game had to have been like torture because it was constantly the Ravens, like after it settled down and it was 14-7, and it was like, okay, the Ravens defense is starting to make some stops. They sacked Patrick Mahomes for the first time in these playoffs, which is crazy that he had gone two full games without being sacked.
They started to make some stops, and then you have the Zay Flowers, big play, taunting penalty, which we both agree, taunting should not be a penalty in the NFL. They're pros.
If you want to do it in college, that's fine because you want to just pretend like, oh,

yeah, they're amateur athletics, whatever.

The guys are putting their life on the line.

They're playing a passionate game.

This is the biggest game of their lives.

You should be able to taunt.

You should be allowed to taunt.

There are a couple of, I think at the point that it turns into a delay of game, probably flag it for delay game.

If it's that excessive, if it's just a taunt, you can do whatever you want. But if you if you step over the guy if you step over him he's allowed to hit you and you're nuts yeah besides that it's all fair i just it's like a passionate game these guys are playing a million miles an hour they're they're you know bodily harm and all these things and and and you're you're gonna get upset you're gonna throw a flag because he stood over him it's like that let him taunt it's the afc championship game yeah jo Yeah.
Joe Burrow agreed. He tweeted, let the boys taunt.
Yeah, let him taunt. Let the boys taunt.
Taunting's fun. And if you want to stop them from taunting, then stop them from catching the ball 50 yards up.
Someone pointed out that if you let them taunt, you got to let them fight. I kind of am okay with that, too.
Just a little scrap. Yeah.
Hockey does it. Yeah.
But they did have, like, the Ravens just kept on. It was self-inflicted wound after self-inflicted wound, where it was like even in the end of the first half when Kyle Vannoy gets that penalty, Travis Kelsey was doing a masterful job of just goading them the entire day.
And then you have the Zay Flowers taunt and the Zay Flowers fumble, and it's like they keep getting close and they can't cut the deficit. And then the likely interception, it just was torture.
It was torture for the Ravens because they had these moments where you thought that they were going to be back in the game, and they just kept on falling short in these big moments, and it's all credit to the Chiefs' defense and their game plan. Yeah.
Mike Flores, his head is spinning. He's so happy right now.
Yeah. Mike Flores was right.
We owe him an apology. I have a question for you, Big Cat.
Yeah. It seems like Jason Kelsey, brother of Travis Kelsey, the brothers, don't know if you knew that, it seems like he's the biggest Chiefs fan in the world right now.
He is. He's wearing Chiefs gear, head to toe, loves the Chiefs, rooting for Travis.
Would it irritate you if you were an Eagles fan seeing Jason Kelsey root so hard for the Chiefs? I don't think so. You don't think so? No.
If you were if you were any i actually don't i think brother like being brothers kind of trumps everything he's some are saying i saw a couple tweets i i don't that he's a bigger chiefs fan than max is an eagles fan i it would not bother me it would not bother brotherly love yeah i think that's one of those things that if you're trying to find an issue with that you you need to touch grass as the kids kids say. I'm just saying.
Go find another hobby. Interesting.
Yeah, I'm being dead honest. You've got to root for your brother.
You have to in that moment. I mean, he has been at the games.
They had a big hug after the game. Travis Kelsey, by the way, should – I don't know.
We should put out an investigation against him because he looked so washed for the second half of the season, and now he looks incredible again. What happened? Was he just rope-a-doping us? He was playing us.
He was. I think he was playing the long game on it.
I think the Chiefs as a whole might have been rope-a-doping us the entire season, trying to get the people to say, oh, the Chiefs can't do it this year. This team sucks.
And then they have all the bulletin board material they could ever want maybe the entire chiefs maybe cadarious tony was actually the best signing of the offseason yes to tank a few games make them lose and in very embarrassing fashion and now all of a sudden everybody doesn't take patrick mahomes and the chiefs offense seriously at all cadarious tony with an all-time uh idiot move of going on instagram live being like i'm not hurt they're just they're keeping me out keeping me out of the game. It's like, dude, we all knew that.
The Chiefs were basically being nice to you, saying that you're hurt, so you can save some face, maybe go to another team next year. They're not playing you because you're a detriment to the team.
He was the last person to realize that was what was going on. Maybe, I don't think they can say that you're sitting out the game if you're injured, if don't have an injury yeah but i also think that they're being nice they said in the in the report right it was like for uh for injury and also personal reasons yeah the personal reason being like you're not very good at football yeah so i have something else i want to say about patrick mahomes that was they'll probably people like you're glazing him so hard pat Mahomes deserves a ton of credit for uh how he's handled this season in moments that we've he's been criticized publicly whether it be complaining about the refs after the Packers game complaining about the refs after the Bills game he deserves a ton of credit because what Patrick Mahomes never did this entire season is give any type of complaint publicly about his wide receivers.
And it's paying off now because he basically stood in front of the bullets for these guys to suck for the majority of the year and get their feet wet and get a Rasheed Rice to a point where he's an actually really good receiver that you can trust. And I feel like that's an underrated part of his leadership where he was complaining about everything else, but deliberately never saying like, my receivers just suck.
Who would have blamed him if he had said that after all the, like they went through this regular season. And I think that's a key piece of the chiefs in these playoffs and being able to play like they're about to win another Super Bowl and his ability to keep these guys together and these like young guys their confidence doesn't get shattered because the best player in the world is like yeah you guys suck I liked Andy Reid's play call at the end of the game too when he was like it was the ultimate they'll never see this coming yeah MVS they hit MVS way down the field on that play like nobody thought that's the guy they're going to go to with that much time.
With that important of a play happening at that moment, it's like, no, they're going to throw it probably to Rice or to Kelsey or they're going to try to give the ball to Pacheco somehow. But, no, they went to the guy that probably hadn't.
There were a lot of times this season where Mahomes, you're right, could have just destroyed the ego of his guys. And maybe he did behind the scenes.
I don't know. I doubt it.
But definitely not in the press. He didn't even look like he was thinking that way.
He just would blame the – we all criticize him because he looked like a baby sometimes complaining about the refs and all this stuff. It's like I'm thinking back to him.
That was probably a little bit deliberate where it's like he's going to find anything but his receivers to blame. So, yeah, and a perfect example like mvs gets a lot of shit he's he obviously has problems catching the ball which is his job mvs also gets asked to catch a lot of the hard the difficult catches because he's so fast over the shoulder ones right right so there's a little bit of like he's not he's not catching you know five yard slants where it's easier to catch uh but yeah that that's a guy who his confidence could have waned and then in the big moment Patrick Mahomes trusts to throw him a perfect ball to seal the game and go back to the Super Bowl yeah if you're a Ravens fan you're probably pretty upset because it seemed like this was the healthiest that the Ravens could possibly be yeah over the last like three seasons I think today was probably the Ravens at their healthiest that they've been.
Maybe like week one of the 2021 season. And Kyle Hamilton was awesome.
He was so good. So, so good.
Zay Flowers was awesome. Obviously he fumbled, but he was their offense for a while there.
And then he cut his hand on the bench. Yeah, in frustration.
Tough. And I don't know, like Lamar, obviously the easy hot take thing to say is like Lamar can't, you know, he choked again in the playoffs.
And it does suck because that is what we've, that's all we've seen. We have not seen him step his game up and get to that next level.
This was the moment to get to the next level. And he did not, it was just weird watching the Ravens, especially in the first half.
It felt like they came out being like, we're going to gonna win no matter what and they got punched in the mouth and then they were just chasing it for the rest of the game Lamar has these games in the playoffs though like this was not the same Lamar that we've seen for the entire season where he has the lowest offensive output the lowest number of points scored right where he just like turns into a different player that happens once every playoffs with him it sucks it sucks it sucks if you're a Ravens fan. It sucks if you're a player on the Ravens.
It sucks if you're Lamar, too, because now the narrative is fully there. And I mentioned this to you in private, but I would like to make it in public.
And everyone can chime in here. Was watching this game on a bigger level, obviously these two guys, Mahomes and Lamar.
Lamar's about to be the MVP again. He's an incredible quarterback.
I'm not going to diminish that. But was it just watching the Justin Fields versus Caleb Williams debate play out in real time? One guy can make all the passes.
One guy, he's a good passer, but when things get tight, windows get tight, moments get tight, the passes aren't exactly precise like they have been maybe earlier in the season. Yeah, I can see where you're coming at with that.
The first half for Mahomes was just electrifying. Yeah.
The ball wasn't touching the ground. Ten for ten.
His first ten were completions. He was out of control.
And then I think the 11th one might have been a drop. Yeah.
So, yeah, he was very, very good. I think that justin is different from lamar though no i know lamar's way better i'm saying that i'm not there's no debate i'm just saying like when the when the big moments happen you have to have a guy who you trust passing the ball yeah and lamar i i thought i trust passing the ball but there was moments today where i was like that likely inter so bad.
Again, he was missing some short throws early and you could call, if you want to say the play calling was so bad that he never had a chance, I actually will buy it because it was so baffling to watch what the Ravens were doing offensively. But yeah, I just it will follow him because this is another moment where it's like we need Lamar to make these big time throws and they and they just weren't there.
And the deep balls, too. The deep balls were a problem.
Right. So the deep balls, too.
He had a couple to Odell. There was a very funny one where Odell put his hand up like Randy Moss when he got two steps on the cornerback.
And then the second the hand went up, he slowed down so much that the cornerback was just all over him. Ball was still overthrown by like three, four yards.
There were a couple of those to Beckham, and then there were a couple deep ones i i want to say that there were to aglar maybe yeah that were overthrown that same way but yeah um when he's just if he gets a good pocket and everything's on time he's a great passer if he has to move around a little bit and he's trying to decide whether or not he's going to take off and run right or whether or not he's going to stay in the pocket and throw that's when he doesn't have that exact touch that you want right and i maybe it's maturity that i'm trying to find a way to not like just knee-jerk winners and losers that guy stinks that guy's good because i still think lamar's a great great he's a franchise quarterback he's top five quarterback but this was a disappointing game no other way you can look at it yeah speaking of which i just wanted to throw no you know what i'll do that at the end of the show i'll do i have a stat at the end of the show i'll do so that we'll just keep it we'll keep it to the end of the show at the very end of the show um in terms of the chiefs and going back to the super bowl i know people are very tired of the chiefs this is what this is the next step in greatness that the whole country starts to hate you. They had that, I think, meme.
Did memes post it? The AFC Championship game from 2019, where it was like, who's rooting for the Chiefs and who's rooting for the Patriots? And it was just New England rooting for the Patriots and the entire country rooting for the Chiefs. And then it was this year, who's rooting for the Ravens, who's rooting for the Chiefs.
It was just Kansas City and Missouri rooting for the Chiefs and the entire country rooting for the Ravens. Was that one of those maps? Was that a Jeff D.
Lowe map? It feels right. Like everyone was rooting against the Chiefs.
That's the next step in greatness where the whole world happened to the Warriors. Like it's just this is what you get when you're this great all the time.
The 31 other teams do not want you to succeed anymore yeah this is it's them against the world quite literally yeah i i do agree with that the chiefs like say what you want about them um but i think they're they're more fun than most dynasties like this because it's hard to watch and steph curry is the same way i would equate them to being like you can you can watch those two teams play and be shit, it's amazing. I love watching what this guy does.
Yeah. There's some dynasties where you watch players and you're like, I'm just sick of this shit.
Yeah. I'm completely over it.
But Mahomes is good for like one or two plays a game that you'll never see. Yeah.
And you have to like appreciate that greatness as it's happening. So I think people can like be like, nah, I'm sick of the Chiefs, but also holy shit, this is fun.
Yeah. Hank, you, I mean, you see it.
Yeah, I'm sick of the chiefs but also holy shit this is fun yeah i think you i mean you see it the yeah i'm sick of them i don't agree with that yeah i root against them as hard as i can uh not fun to watch i mean mahomes was great he played great with that being said they didn't play great in the second half lamar jackson was just nowhere to be found yeah i mean that's kind of how the chiefs have been though this year where they're i mean it's i think the stat is something crazy like 16 and 2 to the second half under like they just their offense kind of goes into whatever needs to be done not anymore and their defense starts to shut teams down like chris jones even uh nate tice who does a great job he does a podcast with ro Mays he had a stat where Chris Jones not that he's like taking plays off but his stats first half to second half are like insanely different because he's just kind of feeling out the game and then in the second half he's like I'm gonna be the closer I'm gonna shut everyone down that's the Vince Young first half chill out second half go the fuck off yeah so like there is something about how the chiefs have have that's kind of how their season has gone where like when they're when they win games it's like punch them in the mouth get up big and then not hold on but like it the game slows they they slow down the game you know and and their defense shows up it sucks to watch because they just suffocate you is it is it good for Tom Brady fans such as yourself, Hank, that all this greatness from Mahomes is shining a greater light on how good Tom Brady was? Oh, good point. Yeah, I mean, they keep showing the stats.
I wouldn't have read those amazing stats from Tom Brady if Patrick Mahomes wasn't doing this back-to-back. Brady was 2-0 against him in the playoff career, which is you can always hang your head on that.
But it feels like the magic has worn out. The Chiefs are going to blow past the 49ers in the Super Bowl.
Early prediction. Yeah.
They just find a way. They find a way.
And they have completely changed. Think about the Chiefs winning their Super Bowl the last time they played the Niners.
That defense wasn't great. And that offense was explosive explosive now their offense can still be explosive at times because it's Mahomes but their defense is like carrying a huge load they were down going in the fourth right against those Niners teams the Garoppolo overthrow in the fourth quarter yeah and they ended up winning by 11 yeah yeah and the the 49ers it feels like they should have lost both of their playoff games the Chiefss went into Buffalo, beat Buffalo, went into Baltimore, beat Baltimore.
Yeah, it wasn't pretty, but it was like, yeah, they went in two tough places to play and beat teams. They were underdogs in both games, and that's just Patrick Mahomes as an underdog.
He's an underdog again in the Super Bowl. Crazy.
It's fucking insane. I'm going to do a game of the year on the Chiefs.
San Francisco was up 20-10 with just more than six minutes left in the Super Bowl. That was their defense.
Yeah, their defense wasn't great in Patrick Mahomes' offense and Tyreek Hill and all that. But this also goes back, I mean, again, we've said it a million times, but the Tyreek Hill not signing him to a long-term deal turns out to be genius because they have remade their defense.'re like legerius sneed is one of the best cornerbacks in the league like they they're young everywhere and that's just incredible roster management like the patriots used to do where they were just they'd have to just have a whole new roster of guys around tom brady and you know if you have tom brady you're.
Also, Mahomes is playing on a sweetheart hometown deal too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Remember the day after he signed the deal, people were like,

well, he's already underpaid basically.

Well, he's one of those athletes like it's him and LeBron

where it's like if it was free market, they'd get paid a billion dollars.

Yeah.

Yeah, truly.

Yeah.

If there was no such thing as a salary.

Yeah, right.

What is he worth to your franchise?

A billion dollars.

Jerry Jones would give away his entire family for Patrick Mahomes if he could easily easily easily um so andy reed also going for potentially in the goat conversation well again we've had this debate we said the debate was whether there would be a debate um which i think we're going to be right about that. He still has a long way to go to get to Bill Belichick,

but if he wins back-to-back Super Bowls, which hasn't been done since Bill Belichick,

three in whatever, however many years this has been, and going to four,

and he's gone to Super Bowl with two different franchises, pretty crazy.

Really crazy, yeah.

I think you're right.

I think if he does do this, then we'll talk about it. We.
We won't say that he's – obviously he has a long way to go to get there. But he also had a pretty good successful run in Philly for a long time.
Yeah. Just couldn't get to the Super Bowl.
Last thing, we're going to get just completely drowned in Taylor Swift talk. You know that.
Yeah, I mean it's already happened. It's already happened.
Did you reed did point i've drowned so in the post game they pointed at each other they looked to share a little bit of a moment there i saw a picture that was going around i don't know if it's real or not yeah she's how many fingers did he have he had six that i could see in the point he was pointing all six fingers at her yeah so i it seems like sparks were flying in that post-game interaction there. Also, if you watch the video of Jason and Travis saying what's up to each other, dapping each other up, Taylor sneaks around.
She lets them have their moment. She falls into the background, walks around, and makes a beeline towards who? Jeff Darlington.
Ooh. He had another viral tweet about her.
He was the one who tweeted out the point. Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Also, Tony Romo saw Taylor Swift. That was fun.
She complimented him. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, she's got bad taste.
Yeah. Bad taste in men.
I have a take. I have a take.
I think that the Super Bowl should be announced by the best announcers that year. Well.
Just like the game is played by the best teams that year. We're going to get Tony Romo,'re gonna get jim nance and tony romo is gonna annoy the fuck out of america it should be greg olson and jim nance well good thing we have an alternate option this year nickelodeon oh okay yeah um i have a take and this is i'll say a friend of the show told me this he does not he has no inside information but i want to also protect his identity.
He has a theory that this might be Jim Nance's last football game. Oh, really? Yeah, he did retire from March Madness this past year.
He's going to do the Masters, though, right? He's just going to do golf. But I started thinking about it.
We've had potential trades in broadcasters before. I think, wasn't there a deal like Al Michaels? Al Michaels was traded for the rights to Oswaldo the Rabbit.
Yeah, that's right. All right, so why doesn't CBS, if they lose Jim Nance, because then we're going to get just stuck with Tony Romo, and Tom Brady might be coming into the mix, Fox? Why doesn't CBS trade for Greg Olson? Yeah.
Greg Olson is so good. Yeah.
And I know he's a friend of ours, but he's so good. He's like, just trade for Kevin Burkhart and Greg Olson.
Have Tom Brady do it with Jim Gray. Tony Romo, just go play golf.
He is actually. Jim Gray doesn't really call games.
I know, Jake. It was a joke.
He is. That's all he does is he does podcasts with Jim Gray.
That's it. Tom Brady only does Jim Gray.
So I think we said this last year, but Greg Olson did so good in the Super Bowl that he at least gives Fox something to think about because they've got what? He's incredible. How many millions invest in Tom Brady on like a futures contract for whenever Tom decides to show up? Right.
Like you could maybe even trade the rights to Tom Brady. Yeah.
CBS. Get us.

10 for 375.

Get Greg Olson.

Swap with Tony Romo.

Tony Romo also had an all-time no-no in the broadcast booth

when he's like, and that's the game.

And what was it, like five minutes left?

And I think it was after the likely interception.

It's like, you don't do that.

That's the game almost.

Yeah, almost.

Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, no, what they should do, I think they should trade Romo

for the rights to Tom Brady, to CBS.

Keep Greg Olson on Fox.

And Jim Nance would probably stay if he got to call games with Tom Brady.

If he got to work with Brady, yeah.

And then Romo gets to go do whatever, go vacation.

We solved it all.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Yeah, Chiefs back in the Super Bowl, and they're underdogs. I'm going to make it a game of the year.
Are you going to do it, Hank? Yeah, I already did. Yeah.
It feels like the Chiefs, like, they're inevitable. Patrick Mahomes is inevitable.
I'm sick of just getting burned. I have to reassess my strategy with futures, and maybe I should introduce the word hedging into my life

because this was now four great values that I lost in 13 months

all to Patrick Mahomes.

But it's good value.

That's the thing.

It's great value.

It was a good bet.

Well, people are like,

oh, you're such an idiot for betting the Ravens.

Like, dude, I bet him in August at 18 to 1.

You would love to have an 18 to 1 ticket going to the championship game

as a four and a half point favorite.

The part that I fail at is the hedging.

Yeah, I still haven't figured out which way I'm going to bet

during the Super Bowl.

You're right.

Thank you. of the championship game as a four and a half point favorite the part that i fail at is the hedging yeah i still haven't figured out which way i'm going to bet during the super bowl i you're right you're right he's inevitable but now i feel like everybody is saying patrick mahomes is inevitable well he's been inevitable for a while now though yeah but everyone's realizing it i don't know i i'm gonna stand by but i've realized when you do the comparisons it's like they said that too and he always won yeah i mean i stand by i'm gonna run the numbers I'm going to crunch them and I'm going to stand by.
But I've realized. When you do the Brady comparisons, it's like they said that too, and he always won.
I'm going to stand by. I'm going to run the numbers.
I'm going to crunch them, and I'm going to trust the data. There's still going to be a lot of people who bet on the Niners.
I said on Friday, it was like if I didn't have the Ravens future, I'd bet on the Chiefs in this game because that's just what he does. So I didn't even – I saw it coming.
I probably could have done something, but I'm too stupid to do something. But I did see it coming.
You were pot committed at you were pot committed at that point right exactly it's like i you know it's fun to have something that you ride for an extended period of time to to hedge out of that come on but i should probably reassess this situation the situation is fluid uh what are you gonna say jake i enjoy watching this run of greatness i know a lot of people are sick of it but like you're gonna look back one day and be be like, damn, I got to watch Mahomes and Kelsey do this year after year after year, and as a neutral party, I'm like, this is cool to watch. Hank, I want Hank's thoughts right away.
I'm sick of it. Yeah.
I know you are. Yeah, that disgusts you, what Jake just said.
Yeah, and it's going to disgust a lot of people, but I like watching it. As a fan of an AFC team, that's especially disgusting.
Like a team that has title aspirations, that maybe gets one of Mahomes' biggest weapons. Now that they're eliminated, it's a few weeks in the past.
It's like, all right, this is cool. Yeah, as a fan of an NFC team that hasn't been to a Super Bowl in, what, 34 years, 33 years, I'm okay with watching greatness at this level.
But if I was a fan of an AFC team, I would be. If Patrick Mahomes was the NFC, I'd hate him so much.

Yes, I would hate him.

I would hate him.

If I lost to him in a Super Bowl as an NFC team, I would hate him.

Yes.

Oh, I'd hate his guts so bad.

But again, I don't live and die by my fandom.

You like to watch the story.

Exactly.

This is a great story for the history of football.

It would have been great if Lamar had won a Super Bowl too. It would have been a great story for the history of football it would have been great if lamar had won a super bowl too it would have been a great story for the history of my life or the bills or the bills bills would have been the lions yeah dolphins or the dolphins or the steelers yeah or the browns you could twist it in any way or the text so the point is what you're saying is dumb because literally anyone who gets to the Super Bowl, there's a story.
Yes, but these types of stories don't come around often. If the Browns were playing in the Super Bowl this year, it would be an incredible story, would it not? It would.
The Texans were? The longer version of the story. Actually, the Steelers are the only story that probably would have sucked.
Yeah. That's it.
Like every other AFC team, there would have been at least a cool story. Yeah, with the Steelers, I don't know what the story would have been just been like Tomlin like average team overachieves their way to greatness all you all you see students out there have something to hope for yeah this is why you never get divorced yeah just stick it out stay with it you're fine stay with it eventually you'll have one night of great sex yeah have another kid another quarterback yeah you just stick save the franchise yes uh okay again I mean it was it was just a master class by the Chiefs defense and Mahomes' first two drives were just so – I mean, the ball didn't hit the ground.
It was insane. It was crazy.
That second drive, I know the first drive was great because he completed every pass. That second drive, though, was – that was so – like that's what breaks your back if you're rooting for a team against Mahomes.

Because it was four third downs that he picked up all himself

and just big play after big play after big play.

You just know he's going to be there.

And when he completed that pass where he got hit in the face,

at that point, I thought it was over.

He kind of ran in his arm.

When that shit happens, then you know that there's something weird going on. He got punched.
It's going to be one of those games. Yeah, he got punched.
It was a clothesline. It was bad.
Yeah, I can't say that I'm rooting for the Chiefs, except I'm just going to bet on them because they are inevitable. That's how I feel about the Chiefs at this point.
I would love for our good friend Kittle to win a Super Bowl, but I'm going to emotionally set myself ready for Patrick Mahomes to win it again. And by doing that, I'm just going to bet on him.
And we should go back and watch that Bucs-Chiefs Super Bowl. How did they stop him? What's the magic? They play at home.
The Chiefs' offensive line was completely decimated. It was a home game.
That's how they stopped him. It was a home game.
I think they didn't have anyone. I think they literally had no offense.
That was the end of the big contracts not on the offensive line and they basically shifted and the Chiefs offensive line has been awesome. They were so good today, especially considering that Thune had a peck tear.
What the fuck? You're just able to put another guy and substitute for one of the the league and just not lose any steps whatsoever but that was that buck super bowl was the chiefs had no offensive lineman left and i i actually weirdly watched back i've been i guess it's not weird because i like football a lot but i've been watching back old super bowls like the the condensed cut on youtube and i watched that a few days ago and Mahomes had like no time and was running for his life on every play. They had like no fans in the stands too, right? No, they did have fans.
They had first responders in the stands. It was pretty full.
So we need another pandemic to stop Mahomes. Yeah.
The only thing that can stop him is a COVID year. Well, if they beat the 49ers in the Superbowl, watch out world.
Watch out world. Yeah, I don't like that.
That's not great. What did you guys think of that pregame kerfuffle? The what? The kerfuffle.
The kerfuffle before the game? With Justin Tucker. Travis Kelsey bullying a poor, helpless kicker? Yeah.
Is that the message that we want to send to people? Is that like, that's cool now? That's what you should do is pick the weakest, skinniest, best singer on the field and then just treat them like dirt. It was awesome.
It was good. I liked it because everything about this was leading to a big game.
It was like these two teams don't like each other. Yeah, there was another one.
It was like one Raven versus like six Chiefs before the game kicked off. I want that.
I want the anger to be just boiling over right before kickoff. I want these two teams to hate each other.
Right. I want them to despise each other.
Right. I want them to try to bring knives on the field.
I want them to be like the last Boy Scout. Yeah.
I want as much a possibility for violence to happen at any given second. I got one last question for us before we go to the NFC Championship game.
Will you trust Lamar next year when they're in the playoffs uh probably because i'm dumb and i've got the attention span of a goldfish so if lamar has another mvp season i'll probably be like you know what yeah the playoffs are a small sample size you have to look at the odds the odds are lamar is going to be good because i i love watching lamar play football and he's so much fun and he has been so good but this one hurts if you're if you're standing on the Lamar like you know he's up there in terms of passers with all these other guys because it just it didn't look it didn't look like Joe Burrow or Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen has looked at times in like these big games he can have these types of games though as long as he he runs with the ball and he was like a half second like i said i know he was a half second late leaving the pocket for almost the entire game i know so if he if he has these bad games it's okay as long as he's still breaking off like 15 20 yard runs left and right that's fine you that's actually a trade-off most people would make to have a guy that throws like a bad boneheaded interception but at the same time ends up with like 90 yards rushing and a touchdown all right yeah all right i'm gonna trust you can talk yourself back into back into lamar jackson imagine if if dak had thrown that pick yeah it would have been great that would have been incredible there were three guys right there were three guys three dudes and it was all you needed was you needed a field goal you had to have a field goal in that situation. Yeah.
He's like, fuck it.

I'm going to throw it to Isaiah Likely covered by three guys.

For blame, I'm giving 70% of the blame to Lamar and then 30% to Todd Munkin.

Yeah.

Todd Munkin deserves a lot of blame.

Yeah.

He got his lunch ate by spags and by his own doing, his own stupidity.

It did just feel like the Ravens thought they were going to win that game, and they didn't realize that it was a game until the second half. All right, let's take a quick break, and then we'll talk NFC Championship game.
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One also has other delicious flavors like birthday cake, maple glazed donut and blueberry cobbler find all one bars at a retailer near you or on amazon.com okay nfc championship game san francisco 49ers 34 detroit lions 31 we should start with the lions and what will be one of the most horrific losses. Yeah, that was a horrific, horrific loss if you're a Lions fan.
Bad way to lose a football game. You had C.D.
Deuce waving goodbye to the Niners fans in the first half. First half was all Lions.
The first half looked like the Niners were one of the worst teams in the league. The play calling was awesome from the Lions.
The second half, things started to get tight. There were some fluky stuff that happened, some weird shit going on.
Deep pass to Brandon Ayuk, and it bounced off Kendall Vinder's helmet. Yeah, that was bad.
And then Ayuk, he said in the postgame that before the game, a ladybug landed on his shoe, and he knew he was going to have a lucky day. That was pretty fucking lucky.
That was ladybug luck. That was lucky.
That was like the pass in the Seahawks Patriots Super Bowl where it bounced around on the defender and picked it up. And then who was it? The tight end, right, on the Seahawks caught that one? Yeah.
We don't talk about that that much because of what happened next. Right.
But it similar curse yeah it was very similar it was wild um it looked like the the lions could run the ball at will against the niners it was like three yards every time that not three yards rushing three yards the offensive line would displace the defense they were getting shoved around shoved around and we've said that the the 49ers have a hard time playing from behind on defense which i still think is kind of true but then some weird shit happened the second half they had a great forced fumble against gibbs so you can't take that away from the niners defense they forced that fumble oh yeah that wasn't a forced fumble the one they know the one they reached in are you talking about the one where they where he went the wrong way on gibbs and off was like all disjointed? They reached in. They grabbed the ball.
Yeah, but it was a disjointed handoff. It was disjointed, but they still forced a fumble.
Yeah. And then the fourth down play calls we should talk about.
That's what everyone's going to want to talk about. By the way, the Detroit Free Press tweeted, Final, you know what happened.
Yep. That was as sad as it gets.
So so the fourth down play calls there were multiple uh we actually people will focus on the two in the second half i think you actually have to talk a little bit about the first one in the first half at the end of the first half with 10 seconds left dan campbell kicks a field goal now it was a chip shot field goal it was like they were on like five yard line. That was a little confusing though, because Dan Campbell has been the king of aggression, the king of balls to the wall.
And that was like, okay, I I'm a big believer in, if you want to go aggressive, stay aggressive. If you want to be, you know, you know, punt it and play defense, do that.
That's fine. Just don't go wishy-washy.
That's what killed Brandon Staley. When you start to just second guess and do things differently in situations.
Like Dan Campbell, I thought he was going to be aggressive there. He explained it that it was just a little bit too far for what they wanted to do.
Fine. The one in the third quarter, they're up 14.
They're on the 30-yard line, 28-yard line, I believe. I think it was 28-yard line.
Because I think it would have been a 45-yard field goal. It would have been a 45-yard field goal, and they went for it.
And that's the one that people are very upset about. I don't mind that one.
Yeah. I don't mind that at all because the play call worked.
They probably should have run the ball there. That probably would have been easier to do.
But Josh Reynolds, he just dropped the ball. Right.
It was a play that worked, and at the time it felt like you get that first down and you step on their throats and they're done. Right.
Right? And, yeah, you can send out your kicker to try a 45-yard field goal. He's not the greatest kicker in the world.
They don't trust him. You're not guaranteed to make three points with that.
I don't mind that play call whatsoever. It was a good play call.
It was a good call to go for it. He just dropped it.
We've had this debate a lot about analytics versus... I don't even think this is analytics.
I think it's just Dan Campbell is very aggressive. He's been aggressive all year.
The whole reason the Lions are in this spot is because of his aggression. That's how he coaches the team.
That's how he's built the team. Like, they just go for your throat.
So I agree with you. I don't hate that call because I really think people are just forgetting the fact they do not like or trust their kicker.
I think they brought Badgley back like a few weeks ago. He's tried two kicks over 40 yards, 77%.
And i kind of like the fact that and dan campbell knows in the back of his head our defense isn't the best we have to keep scoring seven not three i agree with you and josh reynolds the ball hit his hands yeah you can touch it you can catch people are mad at dan campbell because he's he's always the guy he's the meme of the giant balls in the wheelbar. This time his balls were so big his receivers couldn't catch him.
Yeah. And it was, I think, the right call.
It was the right play call. It was a bad execution from Josh Reynolds.
He had some bad drops. He had that third and ten drop that was brutal.
Really bad. The other one.
So the other one is the other one. Yeah, they were not a similar situation because then by the time they we got to the other one it was 27 24 uh niners so the first one happened it was 24 10 lions so they were trying to basically be like if we can go up 21 like we'll put this game away people are going to say you go up three scores I get it I you can convince me kind of either way on that one I like it because that's how Dan Campbell's coached and he's being consistent about it.
The other one was Niners are up three, and you're on fourth. I think it was fourth and three this time, and it was on the 30.
That one I feel like maybe you should have kicked. Yeah, and I don't know what the numbers say if you get into the math.
We're not math guys. I don't know, but it feels like it's very important to tie the game right there i just yeah because what happened is the niners then went and and scored a touchdown it became a 10 point game with four minutes left and it's like the game's over everything fell apart after that iuk touchdown everything uh they had that one bomb from jack fox i think he punted the ball like 75 yards in the air yep and it bounced straight up at the one yard line then the Then the guy catches it and steps on the goal line, resulting in a touchback.
It felt like all the small stuff was falling apart for the Lions at that point, and the game kind of got out of control for them. And here's – I don't know how these numbers are crunched, but I'll just say them.
Ben Solik had it. Expected points lost for Detroit.
Gibbs fumble, minus 5.5. Ayuk reception off Vildor's face mask, minus 3.3.
Reynolds fourth down drop, minus 3.2. Incomplete to St.
Brown on fourth and three, minus 2.6. So the Gibbs fumble and the Ayuk reception cost them more than the fourth down, failed fourth down.
Yes. Like that's – I know that the game can be we we do this thing because we we watch and the easiest thing to do is criticize the coach and i get it people are gonna be like dan campbell's an idiot because there's one other decision i want to get to that was very mind-numbing but the biggest plays of this game were those two was the fumble and the reception those were the biggest swings in in win probability yeah but this is going to seem like a big knock against being aggressive on fourth down.
I don't even think the calls were that aggressive on fourth down. You're only calling them aggressive because they didn't work.
If they had worked, it would be just another Dan Campbell fourth down play call. Correct.
And if Reynolds catches that, the Lions probably win the game. Which he should have.
Right. As somebody who had bet on Josh Reynolds to catch more than one and a half balls.
Right. I know for a fact that Josh Reynolds should have caught at least two balls that game.
So the fourth down decision bot we're looking at right now, it was a go for it because it added plus two win probability. Now, I honestly don't.
People get mad about the numbers, and I understand it because you can't play football on a spreadsheet. There's such a thing as a game flow.
Right. And understanding the situation and who you're playing against.
But that's my whole point, that that's why I didn't hate him going for it on fourth and two the first time, because he knows his team, and he's been this guy the entire season, and this is what got them there. And their defense is not great.
You could see that there was going to be some cracks forming in the second half. Go try to go up 21 and put the Niners away.
Yeah, so you can criticize his decision-making for sure, but as far as having Dan Campbell as your head coach, do you think the Lions would be better off if they did not have Dan Campbell as your head coach? Right. No chance at all.
They're in the NFC Championship game. They have not been in the NFC Championship game in 30-plus years.
Yeah, and credit to the Niners, too, because the Niners, they were able to kind of adjust and respond. Brock Purdy played like shit in the first half.
Second half, he turned into the ESPN article, What If Michael Vick Were White? Yeah, he was running everywhere. The last one I wanted to say about Dan Campbell, the one thing that did drive me nuts is that timeout that he used at the end of the game.

And to run the ball on third down and then call a timeout,

that's not hindsight either.

We're watching that.

We were saying it is. We're like, what the fuck are you doing?

Now you have to recover an onside kick.

Right.

Which you can't do.

And this is kind of an aside that has nothing to do with this game.

They need to change the onside kick.

It's impossible.

You used to be able to recover an onside kick once every, what, 10?

It was like 10, 11% of the time.

Now nobody does.

Now you're going to be able to recover an onside kick once every what 10 it was like 10 11 percent of the time now nobody does now you got to hope for like the biggest fuck up ever to happen to have a chance at it they need to change the rule because i like the onside kick um but i don't like how it's set up right now no it's impossible they've made it impossible let them do the 10 yard run-up that was a sick play do the change it like the xfl and be like you have to convert a fourth and 20 yeah that would be fine too i'd like the team to have a chance whoever's trailing and mounting a comeback i'd like for them to be in the game at the end but now once they burn that time out it was so bad it was like the game's over that was so bad todd bulls would have just packed his shit and gone home yeah yeah right he would have just shook his hand been like i going to use these timeouts. I thought they were going to kick the field goal there.

That's why they ran.

So they were going to rush out the field goal unit,

kick the field goal, go down seven.

That was baffling to me, why they would run and then have to use a timeout.

That one.

You can run on fourth down.

It did feel like Dan Campbell, as the game progressed,

one thing you could criticize him for, and I'll buy this,

is it did feel like, and I know this is a gambler myself,

Like,

I'm going to keep pushing, I'm going to keep pushing. Someone said that Dan Campbell would hit on 18 in blackjack.
It did feel like he was doing that where he's like, just keep pushing, keep pushing. And that was where I was like, what's going on in his brain right now? Yeah, he doubles down every single time, every hand, and then he doubles his bet on the next hand.
Yeah. Again, I don't have a problem with going for it on the first, fourth down.
I don't have a problem going for it on the second, although I probably would have rather kicked that. I just don't feel strongly enough to say, like, you have to kick that.
I don't mind it. It was a weird play call.
But then also at the end of the half kicking a field goal yeah going along with that the rest of your strategy the consistency doesn't make a whole lot of sense like go for it all three times kick the field goal all three times i kind of like the like they were all very similar situations where it's like you have two or three yards to gain um and that's that was brutal for the lines because it really did feel like everything fell apart in those i know that they'll say momentum but like momentum had nothing to do with a ball thrown 50 yards bouncing off a guy's face mask into brandon iuk's hand yeah that wasn't that wasn't momentum that was just an insane crazy play that happened that was the ladybug effect yeah and so the yeah the niners, Brock Purdy was very good in the second half. Um, Chris McCaffrey continues to be just insane scores no matter.
I mean, his prices to score are insane and he just keeps scoring. Um, and yeah, I, I like that first half, I won't get out of my mind though, with the Niners going into the Superbowl where it's like they just got run on so hardcore.

Yeah.

They were just so out of place in every play,

and they did make good adjustments,

and they did dial up some stuff in the second half that, like you saw,

Jared was a little more rushed.

But it was crazy to watch the Niners, like this is now two games in a row,

like Hank said.

Like they barely won both both these games they get credit

for winning them but it's also like that's not sustainable they also beat the Cousins curse until this year no no team that had lost to Kirk Cousins had ever been to a Super Bowl oh wow so yeah monkey off the back Kyle Shanahan apparently can come from behind in the fourth quarter so that's that's another thing that they've gotten off there uh but yeah Brock Purdy not good in the first half, second half, different guy.

If Brock Purdy was taken with like a top 10 pick i'm not even saying like number one overall if it was a first round draft pick i think we'd be like purdy is good showing signs of of living up to his draft status right i don't think that we'd shit on him all the time there was a very funny moment on the cave when he dropped back, and Arian Foster was watching with us. He does not like Brock Purdy.
He watched him drop back, and he goes, he reminds me a lot of TJ Yates. And then as the ball leaves his hand, he threw a pick.
Intercepted. Yeah.
Like right away. But I think that if he had that pedigree, if he was a first-round pick, we'd be like, Purdy's good, and I think he's probably on track to be a franchise quarterback.
It is crazy so by the way they were tied going into the fourth quarter so kyle shanahan doesn't get an extra win on his on the one in 31 yeah on the one in 31 he doesn't get an extra one they were tied in going into fourth well he's one in 31 when not winning not leading the game no it's one in 31 when uh down by five or more going okay i got it yeah Yeah. It is crazy just how much everything swings in these games in terms of Dan Campbell, if they win this game, they go to the Super Bowl.
Even if they lose the Super Bowl, like they're the last franchise that's played in every year has not been to the Super Bowl. Like he a statue.
Even if they lose, it's probably a statue.

If the Niners lose that game, is Kirk Cousins the

quarterback next year? He still might be.

He still might be, but it's just

nuts how much the swing is

with how you feel about these

teams and their future.

He still might be. You might be right.

Let's talk about this matchup

compared to the 2020 matchup because I've seen a lot't know, I've seen a lot of people saying, like, we're going to do this thing again. The Niners are a much different team.
They don't have Jimmy Garoppolo. They've got Brock Purdy, who I think we can all agree is an upgrade, right, over Jimmy G.
Would you rather right now have Jimmy G start in this game? Well, Jimmy G's older and, like, hurt every year. Yeah.
I'd take Purdy. I think they're very similar.
I would take Purdy. They did not have Christian McCaffrey in 2020.
So that's where I think if you put Jimmy on this team from 2020, I think it'd be very similar. But yeah, go on.
It's a big difference. Yeah, but I'm just saying this 49ers team is better offensively.
Yeah, no, they have a ton more. Yeah, like Brandon Ayuk has come on.
Yeah, Christian McCaffrey makes all the worlds different. Debo's still Debo.
Yeah, Debo's still Debo. It also, a fun stat, this – hold on, let me find the tweet.
Here we go. Brock Purdy will be the second seventh round draft pick in the last 25 years to be a Super Bowl starter at QB.
The other guy, this guy, Tom Brady. It's crazy.
Whoa. There was another stat.
I forget who. Wait, you guys didn't get it.
Tom Brady was actually a sixth round draft pick. And Gary Rovell deleted this.
Wait, read the tweet again. Brock Brady would be the second seventh round draft pick in the last 25 years to be a Super Bowl starter at QB.
The other guy, this guy, Tom Brady. It was Tom Brady as a little kid in a San Francisco 49ers jersey.
He had this loaded for a very long time. Yeah, that's wild.
He was picked 199th overall, right? Yes, yes. He deleted that.
We're on your ass. I'm very excited for the Super Bowl.
I really am. I am too.
It's the Super Bowl. It's the Super Bowl.
How could you not be excited? Also, I mean, it really makes you go back and think, like, if the Niners had had Brock Purdy last year in the NFC Championship game,

how much different?

Would this be a rematch?

Well, I actually have a funny tweet about that.

This game really makes you wonder how much more the Eagles would have won by

last year if Purdy never got hurt.

That was from Philly Mays.

Oh, when was that?

That was around 730, so it was probably the second quarter.

Maybe at halftime.

Halftime.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it made you wonder.

After wondering on it for a little bit, what did you come up with?

Eagles still win that game for sure.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, also, all the listeners out there,

Max has agreed to try to get Taylor Swift on the podcast for Super Bowl week.

I have sources that say that she's not going to be in Vegas when we're in Vegas. Well, she's going to be in Japan.
Is that her concert tour? Yeah. We could go to Japan if you want.
You could book it. We'll go.
I would go to Japan for that interview. If you guys want to go to Japan.
You know what? We usually just do in-person interviews. I'll do Zoom.
Yeah, I'll do Zoom too.

I'll Zoom with Taylor.

I'll do Zoom or if she wants us in her box, we will go inside of her box.

All right.

All right.

Perfect.

You have the connection with Jason.

He'll be in the box.

Do we have a connection with Jason?

I mean.

Maybe.

We're both podcasters.

We maxed roots for him. We would be friends for sure.
Yeah, we would. You actually would be friends.
We hung out with him once. No, if I hung out with him, we would be friends for sure.
So I guess that is a connection. Yeah.
I think he'd probably listen to that if that was your pitch. Like, hey, Jason, you don't know me, but we would be like best friends.
Look at me. Look at you.
He'd probably be like, yeah, this guy's probably right. I would just read the

Always Sunny Chase Hutley letter to him.

And it would be... He'd be like, Jason, if I was a couple inches taller and maybe a little bit stronger, I could have been your life.
Probably. What do you think the odds are that we get Taylor on the podcast.

0.00000000000000000000000000.

Sorry, I burped.

Oh, oh, oh, oh. Taylor on the podcast.
0.0000000000000

0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 0.0000000001 0.000000000 0.0000000001 0.000000000 0.0000000001 0.0000000001 0.000000000 putting the word he's been on i jake i don't think you understand how any of this works you think

travis is gonna tell her to no but that's the point oh one yeah no i actually don't think that's the point oh one like i said the point oh one is like nuclear warfare everyone dies except us and we're like hey we have to send out help to the aliens want to record a message with us and we'll call it a podcast and then she she'd probably be like have the aliens on i think it's like i'd rather die the 0.00001 is uh the exact same percentage of the likelihood that travis has not heard any of the clips from us talking about taylor yeah true true i do like jake that you think that like if we've had someone on they're like our boys forever yeah you always say that's say that's the goal. For the end of the show, Dr.
Fauci. I'd say it doesn't work for a lot of the guests.
Maybe Travis. I don't think Travis.
If we saw Travis on the street, I don't think he would. Didn't he make fun of Max? No.
No, that was Billy. Yeah, he made fun of Billy.
Would he stop? I do not think so. I don't think he'd say.
He's probably on his way to a commercial shoot shoot my problem is with Travis Kelsey that every time now that I see him on TV I think I'm in a commercial yeah like he could be on the sidelines and I'll cut to him I'll be like this is an old spice commercial where they're dressed up as the Chiefs yeah like he's he's all over the place he's really good by the way good for him making the money yeah but still as a viewer I he's now he's now part of the commercials yeah we uh this will be a big time like who's got the best tight end bowl uh because kittle we we're we're partial to kittle uh did you see george kittle his block on aden hutchinson that was football porn did you see it yeah i did it was you can tell he's laughing too he fucking bodied him and i know kelsey's I know Kelsey has the accolades and is a better catcher, maybe.

Kittle has to block a lot, so he doesn't get as many chances.

There's a lot of weapons that you've got to feed.

Kittle can block.

I mean, he can play offensive line.

He's fucking nasty.

I love him so much.

I can't wait for the mic'd up to come out from this.

Like the NFL Films recap, watch Inside the NFL. I guarantee he was laughing after that block.
And we'll get Kittle on the show Super Bowl week. So I'm excited for him to get back to Super Bowl.
People were playing that clip where he was sitting there being like, I'll be back here, I'll be back here. So I'm happy he's back there.
He's got to win this one, but I'm happy he's back there. All right, anything else? Lions fans, I feel really bad.
Detroit Donna, he did reach out to me he said uh he he's pretty sad pretty down but there's a lot of things to be looking forward to with this young lions team i told him that in perpetuity if the lions go to the super bowl they can't the one caveat is they can't beat the commanders or the bears on the road to the super bowl yeah because i don't want to buy tickets for that but if they go to the super bowl without that happening i will buy them two tickets to the super but imagine a commander's lions nfc championship game and the stakes are either i get to go to a super bowl yeah or the lions go and i have to buy them okay so maybe we'll keep it in yeah yeah how much how much more exciting would that be you're right, you're right. Gotta chase that high.
That was tough though for the Lions. I feel bad.
I do think that the Lions at least from what I've seen in the post game they have a pretty good attitude about it which they're not saying it sucks but look at all we accomplished. Like Panay Sewell was like yeah this doesn't mean shit that we lost here.
Yeah. Like we're not this isn't what we set out to.
Now we're like every other team that lost this postseason. Yeah, Dan Campbell had some awesome quotes.
He was like, it's going to be twice as hard next year, but that's why we do it. This is what sports are.
They crush you. That's what you feel.
Now I'm looking forward to the discourse of, what do you do with Jared Goff? How much do you pay Jared? I'm not looking forward to that discourse. You're going to have to pay him.
You're going to have to pay Jared, and he deserves every penny. Yeah.
Well, Ben Johnson is going to be your coach. Ben Johnson.
So watching this game as a commanders fan, it was great for me because Ben Johnson is fucking awesome. I love his play calling.
The offense is just next level. They're a step ahead.
And then on the Niner side of the ball, Adam Peters, our new GM, helped put that team together. So I'm feeling if we can just merge these two teams together with play calling and talent, then that's what I want.
I was going to say, the talent part is definitely important because Ben Johnson is incredible, but he will not have the Detroit Lions offensive line. He won't have that.
And Jared had a good quote where he said, what I love about Ben Johnson is that he does what we do best, and he optimizes that. And then as a Commanders fan, I'm like, well, we don't really do anything that good.
Who are you going to optimize? He's just going to get in a training camp and be like, ah, shit. Just punt? Tress way? Sam Howell spinning? All Tress way all the time.
We have a running back that bounces back extremely quickly from being shot. So shoot him again.
So shoot him again and then punt the ball. I like that.
We'll do a little Super Bowl talk. Let's take another break quick for some ads and then we'll also do who's back of the week.
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Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card. Okay, so Super Bowl, real quick.
Chiefs opened as two and a half point underdogs. It's now a one point underdog.
So it has moved significantly early money on the Chiefs. I've already bet the Chiefs plus 114 before it moved.
I'd said I was going to do it. I could get burned, but I'm sick of Patrick Mahomes burning me.
Yeah. And this is the rare bet where it's like if the Chiefs lose and I lose this money, I'll be so happy for Kittle, and he'll probably maybe give me the money.
I would be very happy for Kittle, for Shanahan, for Trent Williams to win a Super Bowl. Debo.
Chase Young. Chase Young played so bad today.
I don't know if you saw any of those clips. Yeah, no, he was bad.
But, yeah, I would be very happy to see those guys win a Super Bowl. I think I might go with the Niners.
I haven't decided yet. I did put a future on Christian McCaffrey winning the Super Bowl MVP.
I would assume that would mean that the Niners would win that game. They would have to win.
The only thing that I know for sure is I'm going to bet no doinks again. I'm going to chase the no doinks.
Have to. I have to get that money back.
Yeah, you have to. I'm going to do the unstoppable force versus the immovable object to game of the year versus Patrick Mahomes.
Or game of the year on Patrick Mahomes. Which one is more powerful? Yeah.
My jinxing ability? You could be. My awful gambling record.
One of the worst gamblers of all time. If you game of the year and the Chiefs lose, it is going to be on site for you in Kansas City.
Yeah, that will be fair. Chiefs fans can absolutely say I'm not allowed in Kansas City, although I am believing in your guy.
Where is Chiefsaholic going to watch the game? Jail. Jail? Still in jail? Probably jail.
Free Chiefsaholic. Still jail.
I think it was MVS tweeted a tribute today. Did he really? Nice.
Double check. That was probably the difference in the game.
I've also taken the Chiefs. Okay.
So, Max. Max is a loser.
Max is a loser. Yeah, I'm a loser.
This Niners thing is UConn written all over it. He tweeted it out.
Oh, you're just going to bet against them every single way? Although, they didn't cover against the Packers. No, I actually haven't bet on the Niners or against them because I thought that they were going to kill.
Have you thought about how pathetic it is what you're doing? Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. I just want to make sure because if you had won the Super Bowl last year, I would understand everything you're doing, but you lost the Super Bowl last year.
But it's Niners fans that are just annoying. Let's talk about this because if you have the 49ers that are definitely better, that motherfucking graphic.
Yeah, there it is. Get off the screen.
It's the Washington coaches graphic. I hate it.
If you take this year's Niners and you just put Brock Purdy back in that game from last year, they probably beat the Eagles, right? Right. How many points did the Eagles lose by to the Chiefs last year in the Super Bowl? Three.
Three points. You think Brock Purdy's worth three points? Easily.
Versus a non-quarterback? But we're going to find out. Yeah.
I guess we'll find out. We'll find out.
We'll find out exactly how many points Brock Purdy's worth. Again, if you had won the Super Bowl, I would totally understand what you were doing.
But you didn't. But it's not justifying it to myself.

It's the Niners fans.

You just want to make sure that the sanctity of the NFC championship banner

that you rose, you put up.

I just don't want to hear it from Niners fans anymore.

Got it.

Well, they kind of already proved their point.

Well, if they get smoked by the Chiefs, then they don't.

Well, no, because they would have just gotten smoked by the Chiefs last year. But the Eagles did not get smoked by the Chiefs.
Okay. But they would have still been to the Super Bowl.
No. Their point has already been proven.
Your math doesn't work out. No, they would have beaten the Eagles.
They were good enough to win the NFC last year. They won the NFC this year.
Who knows what happens in a Super Bowl. But what show? Why? Because they had Brock Purdy healthy this year.
They won the NFC. But last year Brock Purdy got hurt.
They didn't win the NFC. But that wasn't against the Eagles.
I'm just saying they've mission accomplished. But both teams will play the Chiefs.
So if the Niner if the Niners get blown out by the Chiefs. So you are just trying to keep the sanctity of an NFC championship.
No, I just don't want Niners fans talking about how they would have won that NFC championship. You don't want Niners fans getting so uppity that they tell you that they would have gone to the Super Bowl and lost the Chiefs.
Correct. But they can because they won the NFC Championship.
He's upholding the sanctity of his second place. Yeah, right.
It's pathetic. Only for Niners fans.
Got it. It's pathetic.
Not for my own enjoyment. I will say this, though.
Max is the best at being second place, so I understand that. Yeah.
I don't want to be second place. I don't want to be second place.
How awesome would it have been, though, if it was the Lions and the Chiefs and you got Eminem against Taylor Swift? That Eminem picture was so cool. Double birds.
Double birds to all the Niners fans. It would have been great.
What if they came in their pregame hype-up video, it was Eminem doing the eight-mile battle rap, but he was just rapping about Taylor Swift the entire time.

Oh,

it was,

it was actually Vivek doing it.

That would have been,

that would have been insane.

Yeah.

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Yes? Is Bill Belichick going to be unemployed? No, I think he'll have a job with Fox. Fox? I heard a rumor today that Fox is going to throw the bag at Belichick, Brady, Gronk.
That would be awesome. If Belichick was sideline reporter for Brady's broadcast? Just get Edelman involved.
I'm still in the studio. Four-man booth.
So the story broke right after we had to record early on Thursday because we were doing Rough and Rowdy. Raheem Morris got hired by the Falcons.
That looked like the Bill Belichick destination. It looks like it's going to be Ben Johnson to the commanders, and I believe is Mike McDonald going to get the job in Seattle?

I don't want to jinx anything.

I would like Ben Johnson for the commanders is what I'll say.

And then, yeah, they're saying that probably McDonald.

Okay.

Either that or maybe Dan Quinn still.

I don't know.

Mike McDonald did a good enough job today that he should still get the job.

Not that you should judge it on one game,

but if you were thinking about hiring Todd Munkin, don't.

Yeah. That's crazy, though, that Bill Bel were thinking about hiring Todd Munkin, don't.
Yeah.

That's crazy, though, that Bill Belichick is going to be unemployed. Yeah, insane.
I guess it's just because of his age. I think it's probably – They don't want to do this all again in four or five years.
Control is probably my guess, is that no team wants to give up control for the – it's a control-age combo where it's like we would like Bill Belichick to coach. We don't know if we want to give Belichick the entire

Franchise It's a control age combo where it's like we would like Bill Belichick to coach. We don't know if we want to give Bill Belichick the entire franchise if he's not going to coach for the next 10 years.
It's like an older person just wrecks their Range Rover. Right.
And then they're like, hey, I'd really like to get the Grand Wagoneer instead. And you're like, wait a second.
Right. What happened to your last call? We're going to take your license away.

Yeah.

Maybe you go take the test again.

Yeah.

I would take Bill Belichick as a defensive coordinator right now.

No questions asked.

Yeah.

It is crazy, though.

It's like a very big passing on the torch.

If Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick can't get jobs.

Yeah.

Is Mike Rabel just going to sit out a year?

He might be a defensive coordinator somewhere. I don't know.
I'd like Mike Rabel to sit out a year? He might be a defensive coordinator somewhere.

I don't know.

I'd like Mike Rabel to sit out a year and wait,

and then he can coach Caleb Williams in a year.

That'd be nice.

I'd love that.

It would be weird, though,

especially because Belichick did take the interview,

and then for him to take an interview and not get a job.

Who else?

It was the Falcons and who?

No, two interviews with the Falcons.

Yeah, two interviews with the Falcons.

It'd be weird if he did those interviews with a team

and then they passed him up. Which is what happened.
I feel like, I don't know, maybe he didn't want it. I don't know.
He probably said, this is what I need, and they were like, I don't want to do all that. Or maybe he asked for something to be changed in their front office and they said no.
Yeah. I'm not going to do that.
There's another theory that was posted in our group chat i don't know if you guys remember this but the notion was that the eagles would sign kellen moore to be their offensive coordinator and they would get vic fangio as their defensive coordinator those two things have happened since we've gotten this text message yep and then surprise surprise belichick would swoop in and coach the eagles oh so you think that would be Hank's nightmare, Max's wet dream? He's so happy. Yeah.
For the sake of the show, I hope that happens. Vic Fangio is a great hire, by the way.
He is. Yeah, Vic Fangio is great.
I'm optimistic about Kellen Moore, but Vic Fangio is a slam dunk. Yeah, with Kellen Moore, he was pretty good for a long time, and then he went to the Chargers, right? Yeah, I'm going to chalk that up to the Chargers.
Yeah, it's the Chargers. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He got Chargers. He came down with a minor case of Chargers.
Yeah, he got Chargers. But you can bounce back from that.
You don't have full-blown Falcons. You have a small case of the Chargers.
Right. And he's an experienced play caller, which is what we needed, and that's what we got.
Okay. And then any other, Dave Canales, which we actually caught on Thursday's show with Peter Schrager, he gave us the Dave Canales.
Shout out to Schrager. He, five years in a row, got the Super Bowl.
Crazy. People were like, oh, well, they were the odds-on favorite.
Fuck that. It's hard to pick the Super Bowl.
Yeah, the two teams. It's hard to pick the Super Bowl.
If you do it, if everyone could do it, they would. And he had Chiefs over Niners, right? He had Chiefs over Niners.
He has the Chiefs winning. Not even the logo could pick the Super Bowl correct this year.
No, it's going to be an all-red game. Too much red.
You want a color stat from Jay Kuda, who I've shouted him out a bunch, but everyone should be following him, at J-C-U-D-A. Every time the 49ers have won the NFC Championship game versus a team that has a shade of blue in their logo, they've gone on to win the Super Bowl.
And any time they've beaten a non-blue team in the NFC Championship game, they've gone on to lose the Super Bowl. Interesting.
So think about that. Cowboys, Bears, Bears, Rams, Cowboys, all those years they won the Super Bowl.
And then Falcons in 2013 and Packers in 2020, they lost those Super Bowls. Just some things to think about when you're handicapping the game.
What? Would you just say it in 2020? Falcons and Packers. Yeah, Falcons and Packers.
Just something to think about. Schrager, by the way, he has 34-28 Chiefs.

Trent McDuffie picks six in the fourth quarter.

That's not going to be.

I would be shocked if it's that high scoring.

I think the Chiefs defense is good enough to keep.

I mean, that's just how they play.

They strangle you to death.

I would be shocked if it was that high.

What's the over-under?

47-and-a-half.

That'd be slamming it.

Yeah.

That'd be a fun game.

I do like the over, though. Yeah.
That'd be a fun game. Okay.
Should we do who's back of the week? Who's back of the week? Hank? Who's back of the week is college basketball. Yes.
Football's winding down. Time to get into other sports.
Ed Cooley came back to Providence. Yes.
Which is probably, you know, the best things in sports are rivalry games, big games, and also when a fan base just hates someone that's coming back to their home court. And the Providence fans were as crazy as I've ever seen any college hoops fan base for anything.
It was awesome. It was awesome.
The signs, that sign that just said Cooley as a cheats on his wife, and then nothing for O-O-L-E-Y. Or nothing for the second O.
o they were just screaming at him cooley brought his wife and kids to the game and there are the fans are chaining like where's your mistress oh that's that was it was a wild move to bring your your wife and kids i bet she probably insisted on it yeah because if it was up to him he'd be like no please stay at home it was a great atmosphere though and they were like i i the i at the dunk they just serve beer to everyone which i'm still getting used to that like in college sports because for the longest time you couldn't uh that crowd was a ruckus yeah ruckus that mascot for providence is a whole lot scarier when it's cheering against you yeah when it's on your side you're like okay at least we got this creep against us, that's menacing as fuck. Yeah.
And then Butler had one of the all-time comebacks. Yeah, that was incredible.
That was a great game. Ed Hinkle.
Two overtimes. I will say, since we're talking college basketball, did you have something to say? No, I'm just happy we're talking about like 11-7 college basketball games in fucking January.
Well, that was the biggest storyline. It's huge.

It was an incredible game. Georgetown and Providence?

Who's back of the week, Max?

No, I'm talking about Butler.

Butler.

That's a great comeback.

It was a great comeback.

Double overtime.

Big time program.

Big time program, Jake.

That's a fact.

We won two championships in the last seven years.

It's hard to do.

You'll be happy to learn this, Hank, because you love to just relish in my sadness.

I am all in on the Badgers. They're good.
They're going to be top 10 probably on Monday. They're really good.
And I'm believing. I'm believing in a miracle March run.
I can see even in your eyes right now, you're like, yes, the pain and the suffering. You just think about downloads.
That's it. It's going to be, yeah.
But I'm usually pretty honest about where my heart is, like in terms of like do I fully believe? Because I can usually emotionally keep myself safe. I'm going to be unsafe in March if they keep playing the way they're playing.
I'm going to be emotionally unsafe. Yeah, I feel like that sounds like a sweet 16.
Yeah, what if they play Arizona? What do you mean, what if they play Arizona? I mean, Arizona beat the fuck out of them. Oh, I'm sorry, Max.
What's the last two times that Wisconsin's played Arizona in the fucking tournament, you idiot? Learn college basketball. We whooped them twice in the Elite Eight to go to the Final Four.
Two completely different teams. Okay, but every's – every Arizona fan heard you say that,

and like Max is the dumbest person ever.

He doesn't know ball.

Every Arizona fan is scared of Wisconsin.

That's a fact.

I mean, I just – that's the only Wisconsin game I've watched this year.

I bet on Wisconsin.

Okay, but –

They were two different teams.

But you picked the one team that was dumb to pick.

But those are –

I'm telling you, every fucking Arizona fan –

There's not a single player that is on those teams.

I'll do a poll tomorrow.

Arizona fans are like, no, I do not want to play Wisconsin.

They're not even the same coaches.

It doesn't matter.

Greg Gard was an assistant coach.

Okay.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter.

That was a dumb thing to pick.

All I'm saying is that.

But you sounded dumb.

You sounded like you didn't.

No, no.

No, you sound dumb.

No, no, no.

You sound dumb.

No, we'll do a poll tomorrow.

Who sounded dumb there?

Oh, a poll for Wisconsin fans? No, no. It's Arizona fans.
What if Wisconsin played Arizona? Yeah, I would love that. All right.
Arizona fans, although Arizona is coming off a bad week. You're so off on this.
Arizona's coming off a bad week, so they might not be. I think you should do two separate polls.
One is Arizona fans, how would you feel about this? And the other, Wisconsin fans, how would you feel about this? You're so off. I can't wait.
wait i can't wait i think neither team wants to play each other i mean they're they're a better team right now but again they something they were a better team when wisconsin played them in 2014 and 15 i think both fan bases are scared yeah they have more nba players and all that shit i'm not scared i'm i'm scared to get my heart broken again because that's gonna happen all right pft who's back. My who's back was going to be Belichick because it turns out he's behind the scenes also still talking about other franchises.
So I think this was on an athletic podcast. He said that apparently Bill's been telling coaches that are thinking about going to the Giants, like, don't go there.
I don't like the way the organization is run now. So he's influencing other coaches behind the scenes pulling the strings.
But since we already talked about Bill, I'll just say my who's back is LeBron. Yeah.
LeBron, big win. Big win the other day.
Anthony Davis, every time he falls to the ground, I think that he's dead. Yep.
I think that we just witnessed a death on the court in basketball, and then he just comes back like two minutes later, he's fine. That was – was we're gonna do our big NBA preview as soon as football ends I watched that game it was an awesome awesome regular season game like it was it had everything LeBron big moments Steph that crossover he had on AD to take it into overtime like hitting big shots Clay hit a big shot that was fun he shots from the corner, and I have no idea how the shot doesn't get blocked.

Yeah.

And it doesn't touch the rim.

It just goes straight in.

It's crazy.

That was a very, very fun game.

Draymond Green's killing people again.

Yeah.

Draymond was laughing when Anthony Davis went down.

Yeah.

That was funny.

All right, so that's actually similar to my who's back

because I watched that game, and it was so incredible.

My other who's back is load management

because we were robbed of Joel Embiid playing in Denver against Jokicich so uh dude to be the man you gotta beat the man right 15 minutes before the game he's like no i don't want to play i want to duck yeah nuggets again well he's probably like philly fans ran me out of town last year in the playoffs yeah b-ball paul he's ducking them though b-ball paul outplayed b-ball paul but doiid is ducking Jokic? No, I don't give a fuck. You can't be like, oh, regular season doesn't matter, regular season doesn't matter, regular season doesn't matter, and then he doesn't play a regular season game and go, oh, what the heck, regular season matters.
Why is he playing games in regular season? It would be nice if he played. No, but that's just like everyone just likes to pick a narrative for when they want that narrative.
Well, it was rivalry week. I think that the kids beat the fuck out of Joe Kidd's last week.
I think that the kids that paid good money to go see that game and were deprived of having Joel Embiid, maybe their favorite player playing, I think that's disgusting. I want Embiid to be healthy in the playoffs, what everybody says.
Okay, but he did duck him. Sure.
I don't care.

I don't care.

You tweeted a lot about it for someone who doesn't care.

Well, that's because you just kept sending things to me.

No, I mean, he ducked him.

Don't care.

Oh, he played him last week?

Guess the last time that Embiid has played in Denver?

Oh, I don't know.

2019.

Oh, wow.

He likes to play Jokic at home, and then weirdly when they get to Denver, his knee hurts and he doesn't want to play. Ryan Howard has played more games in Denver since forever.
That's that rock, Hank. Great job.
You really nailed that one out of the park. Also worth mentioning, NBA did not have the highest individual point total in the NBA this week.
Oh, yeah, Luka. Scored 73.
Yeah. So – There are too many high-scoring games.
We'll talk to Rusillo about this, but – And I know J.J. Redick has gone on about it, how the offense is really just the offense is so great.
You can't tell me that the rule changes they've made have not, like, forced this to just be an insane – Like, every game is in the 240s total 240s total wise guys are scoring 70 you can't hold her or like grab anyone you can't like touch him you can't it's it's stupid i think they've gone too far you should be able to touch people you should be able to touch people you think 100 is going to be broken probably with no rules i don't i don't think so these rules are insane though you can't it's trending in that you literally can't like big week literally can't touch a guy around the perimeter. But, Jake, it's such a big difference between 73 points and 100 points.
If someone really wanted to try to do it and the whole team was like, let's do this, I actually think it could happen. If the Warriors did the ring theory that you saw on Reddit, which is just every other player forms a ring around Steph Curry, and they let him dribble the ball up forming a screen.

Steph Curry could probably do it.

Yeah.

But Luka, yeah, I mean, he's insane too.

I think Jordan Poole could do it.

He might have to shoot the ball 600 times.

Jordan Poole could do it if he had like 10 overtimes.

Yeah.

Played every single minute.

Okay, Jake, finish us off.

Who's back of the week?

My who's back is talking tennis. Oh, yeah.
We had the Australian Open. Sinner and Sabalenka are your champions.
Big upset over Djokovic, which big guy you said doesn't count because of the time. And it also wasn't that big of an upset.
It was like plus 180. For him losing.
Yeah, it's not that big of an upset. Was it Joker? He was like minus money at the start of the tournament?

And the people were yelling at him to

they were yelling him vaccine things. It was a

hostile place. Well, he's banned from the tournament

a few years ago. Yeah, it was bullshit.
He got deported, right?

Yeah, so he didn't have practice on that court.

Yeah. It's hard.
So

Sabalenka, she got her

revenge on Cocoa Golf. Remember that big

semifinal or championship

match at US Open? Yeah. Jimmy Butler, the Beavers, were in Coco's box when she won it.
And she got her revenge in Australia this week. Yeah.
So first major in the books. Who's the guy, Sinner? Yeah.
Sinner. I like that.
Italian, yeah. I like that.
Yeah, he is. Of course he is.
What's his deal? He's just one of the up-and-comers. Just an Italian center.
Yeah, just trying to break up the big three. You guys want that stat that I alluded to earlier? Yeah.
I'm going to do a blind QB poll. Okay.
All right. So the good news is these teams, this is against the exact same defense in the exact same situations.
QB won 26 for 39, 258 yards, three touchdowns, zero turnovers,

24 points scored, and his defense got two stops the entire game.

QB2, 20 for 37, 326 yards, one TD, two turnovers,

10 points scored, and his defense got seven stops.

Okay, I'm going to take QB one.

That would be Josh Allen versus Lamar Jackson.

But Josh Allen gets a lot of the blame.

Yeah.

I saved that for the end of the show so people can't get upset at me.

Well, Lamar's going to deal with his fair share.

He is, but there was a lot of, like, Lamar's better than –

whatever.

I don't want to do the whole thing,

but I think Josh Allen's one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He just keeps running into patch it just sucks that he's in the afc yeah it's like what i'm actually glad if he was in the nfc he probably would have been to at least two super they should yeah the afc needs all the good quarterbacks please yeah all right so that was the stat it was the end of the show so people can't get mad uh all right.
Anything else? Anything else?

That was fun.

That was a fun championship Sunday.

We got to do narrative Wednesday.

Narrative Wednesday. Also bonk list this week? Yeah, sure.
I want to add myself to the bonk list real quick. If you can do a late submission.
because I was one of the 32 000 oh no sorry 29 000 bookmarks on the sydney sweeney hot ones clip 29 000 bookmarks on that tweet and everyone's like look at all the bookmarks like, I'm going to bookmark it. Do you ever actually go and look at your bookmarks? Every now and then, I'll look at a couple.
What do I have? Let's do a quick bookmark. Sometimes I'll have tweets that get a shitload of bookmarks.
I have no idea why. Oh, this one sucks.
I bookmark someone. I bookmarked someone at 2.14 p.m.
today, which must have been like five minutes into the afc championship game someone said imagine fading mahomes i was hoping that i was going to come back to that bookmark that didn't work um what else you got oh i have some book some personal vendetta bookmarks that i can't talk about but i have them um what do you guys have i bookmarked the guy who got stuck in the vase that was awesome i don't know how i get there i don't do bookmarks i have so many oh i bookmarked this guy he's got me real good he he said great coffee man are you excited to get dominated for another 15 years so i was like i almost retweeted it because it was still blue coffee, but then it was on top of a Jordan Love jersey. So I'm going to hopefully come back to that.
Yeah, you guys have anything bookmarked that's good? I don't know how to find them. Yeah.
I have some good bookmarks. Oh, bookmarks.
Here we go. Bookmarks.
I got none. I got some stuff that I was planning on reading and just never read.
I got none.

I have some Bearstat bookmarks that I tried to use to my benefit.

Also, Hank, you might have been right that I was flip-flopping.

Thank you.

You might have been right, okay?

You might have been right.

Yeah, I just pretty much they're all grudge bookmarks. And Sidney Sweeney.
Oh, my God. All right.
Ready? 40. Oh.
BK, you didn't say the word. Number.
I'm going to do 40. Nice.
18. 20.
15. Three.
Hank, sorry. You have to go last.
Got it. I'll go 15.
Okay, good pick. Three.
99, Pogue. Shane, 21.
Is everyone picked? Yep. All right, Hank.
17. This is going to really suck if it's 17.
Oh, 40. Oh.
47. seven i got nervous there for a second.
47. Love you guys.
Today's our day to find you Shine it on I'll become a real love of dream Shine it on I'll become a real love of dream Take on me Take on me Take me Take on me Take on me Needless to say I won't say yes But I'll be stuck right away Slow and then I'm just okay Say after me I stopped in it To be safe than sorry Say after me I stop at it to be safe than sorry Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on be And I'll take on you Things that I say And raise it loud Just to find my memories away You're all the things I've come to remember You shine away We'll all be confident when you like You shine away We'll all be confident when you like Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me. Take on me.
Take on me.

I'll be gone.

Take on me.

Take on me.

Take on me.

Take on me.

Take on me. Take on me.

Take on me.

Take on me.

Take on me. Thank you.