Julian Edelman In Studio, NFL Week 16 Picks And Preview Plus Fyre Fest Of The Week

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

Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On today's Pardon My Take, we have our good friend Julian Edelman back on the show in studio.
He came to visit us, just visit us. It's a great time.
We're going to do week 16 picks and preview. The race to see who has to do an hour set in Vegas is getting tighter.
We got three picks for everyone. Fantasy Club Boys.
Yeah, and it's the holidays. And Fire Fest of the week.
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Okay, let's go. Boys! Boys! Now in the street there is violence And then there's lots of work to be done No place to hang out or wash in And then I can't blame Friday, December 22nd.
And PFT, I do not want to watch Derek Carr play football anymore. No, no, I don't.
They were fun last week against the Giants. I don't know if that was just the giant factor or if that was just them finding something that they'll never regain again.
But yeah, they're bipolar. They're depressing and then they're fun for a little bit and then they're back to being depressing again get the saints off my tv uh on the other side though i i think we can say that the rams are legit like they're they're a good they're a good team i told you uh i believe it was right before they played the cardinals they had i think three wins at the time take the over on the rams season total seven and a half biggest bet of the year for me paid off tonight very happy about that they I'm gonna say this the Rams I think they're officially dangerous that's what they are they're dangerous Matt Stafford playing great ball I'm I'm getting closer and closer PFT to also uh just going down like all the receipts of the Matt Stafford Hall of Fame.

Because remember, we discussed it in 2018, I think.

And I've been long saying Matt Stafford's going to have all the stats.

He's been in the league for so long.

He's been really good for so long.

He's got the Super Bowl.

Matt Stafford is a Hall of Famer. And watching him play football is fun.

The throws he makes, and it doesn't feel like it's gratuitous. It's like he's making some of these throws because he has to make these throws.
Puka Nakua is awesome. Rams defense playing well.
They are, I'm putting it, tag them. Maybe make a graphic for me memes.
Rams, officially dangerous. Outside of maybe the 49ers, is there any other team in the NFC you'd would you'd be shocked if the rams beat in the playoffs no not really i'm not shocked it would obviously be an upset for some of these teams if they beat the cowboys i might be shocked just because of what happened earlier this season where they were down like 33 to 3 after it seemed like the first quarter uh but besides besides the cowboys and the niners no i they could definitely beat any team in the playoffs.
Can I say something that I think there's probably a certain sect of our fan base that is listening right now that has played this out in their head? Matt Stafford going to Detroit, Lions' first home playoff game. Man, that would be brutal.
Would not want that. I don't want to see that.
I don't want that. That's not fun for anybody.
But yeah, he is making crazy throws on a weekly basis. Like he threw one out to the numbers from like a standstill.
It probably went 30 yards in the air and just whipped it out there. He's got like a whip attached to his shoulder.
He's fun to watch. And I don't know.
Like I felt like Matt Stafford, the discussion around him was that he was getting old when he was like tailing off his career, his last two seasons with the, with the lions. And no, he's, I think he's always just had that same arm, that arm never goes away.
It's just a matter of putting pieces around him and the, and the Rams have done, I'd say, you know what? I think both teams won that trade. Well, the discourse on Matt Safford, like when he was, you know, last two after the Super Bowl was fair because a back injury, like who the fuck knows, you know? Wasn't that what he had? No, his arm.
His arm got fucked, right? I forget exactly. I thought he had a back.
He did have so many hits. He did have a back at one point yes he had a back and i'm pretty sure he had arm maybe even two arms yeah he had a spinal contusion that's always a scary thing the discourse was will matt stafford retire right and i thought he's gonna walk away and he looks like he's having fun he's balling rams are dangerous i would like to hear from Lions fans.
You can just tweet us and just maybe say, like, yeah, I've thought about it. That's all you have to say.
We don't have to actually address it, but I'm looking at it right now. And it's not an unreasonable, like the Rams sneaking into the sixth spot.
They're tied right now with the Vikings. They'll technically be in the sixth spot after this game goes final.
And the Lions are in in the three spot that's going to be a very weird spot for matt stafford too going back to detroit and playing against them in a playoff game it's going to be it's going to be weird for everybody i'm going to feel just uncomfortable watching that i think that would be the meanest meanest thing to happen to the lions like of all the things that would be the meanest thing i don't want that to

happen we've talked about the lions and how in the past they've invented new ways to lose whether

that be like making a catch in the end zone that's somehow not a catch or fumbling a ball through the end zone or having the nfl record long field goal kicked against you that bounces off the crossbar and goes in and it felt like they've they've checked all the for the most heartbreaking ways to lose. This would be the final stone in the affinity gauntlet if it was Matt Stafford coming to Detroit and beating them.
So that being said, it does feel like something that's probably going to happen. Yeah.
We also need to talk about the fact that Dennis Allen might be the worst coach of all time. And that's not being facetious.
That's not being hyperbolic. That is, if you look at the stats, I think he is somewhere around the seventh to tenth worst coach record wise.
That end of half, when he decided to go for it on the 42 with a minute left and they're down 10 or no, they're down three. They were down three.
Like, I know that, you know, analytics go for for it more often you punt that ball and you stop like the rams doing like a draw play or screen play the rams most likely just go into halftime he just gave them seven points and it was just and he punted on i know it was like uh fourth and 13 but he punted on the rams 37 yard line to start the whole game like this guy stinks he's fans deserve better he's officially a weird shithead in my book there are very few coaches that reach that that level he is a weird shithead i have no idea what he was thinking he was fourth and five i think if i were to put myself in his shithead brain i would say that on the third down play they should have converted

they had a good play drawn up and i believe it was a drop on that and it should have been an easy easy conversion and so in his head he thought oh it's going to be easy again and then derrick car ends up throwing the ball like 10 yards uh further to the sideline than his receiver was at that's what I think that wasn't a drop that was a car david derrick uh derrick car has a a thing that he does where chris olave was it was i think he came from out of the backfield and he was running like a slant and he was wide open and derrick car decided hey i'm gonna throw this 3 000 miles an hour at his back shoulder like yes olave could have made it but that was a bad throw and i i actually was wondering this pft because i was arguing with people on uh x.com which is a very fun thing to do during a football game especially when there's one football game we're all watching it um how many burner accounts do you think the car brothers have because like i thought i i was convinced i was talking to a car brother with the way he was blaming Olave for a pass that was not a good pass. It was an easy pass, and Derek Carr fucked it up.
Olave, yes, could have maybe caught it, but if you watch it a million times, you're like, that's on the quarterback, not on the wide receiver. The problem with that play is Olave had a couple other drops tonight too.
Yeah, but that one wasn't him. It wasn't all on him, but what I'm saying though, the point still stands, which is that Dennis Allen saw that.
He's like, we had the right play drawn up. I'm confident that we can get five yards if we need it, or seven or ten yards.
And he thought he had a play, so he drew it up, and then you give the ball to the Rams, and they've got like 20 yards to go until they can kick a field goal, or they can just take the ball down the field and score. That was a stupid decision, especially when you put to count the – was it from the 37-yard line where they punted in the first quarter? Those on top of each other make zero sense whatsoever.
But to the point about the Carr brothers, if you're not blocked by David Carr on Twitter, you're not using x.com correctly.'m pretty sure i'm pretty sure he does the name search for his brother and he i this is the part i don't understand with david carr it's one thing to be like yeah fuck you i'm gonna stand up for my brother it's another thing to like search people with these takes and then proactively block people that are being critical of your brother without even replying to them or addressing them or just like getting in his mind i think he's wiping the internet clean of any derrick car slander yeah yeah i think i was talking to a car brother i really do and uh by the way are you blocked i i am blocked derrick car uh a great uh garbage time drive there to make his numbers look a lot better than they were so he just took the saints all the way down the field he's going to end up with like over 300 yards passing and you're going to say oh he's not the problem the whole saints are the problem that thing is just it's a tough watch it's a really tough watch you know what i don't like a new a new feature that they're doing right now which is uh in the amazon advanced stats i don't know if this is sam schwartstein that's pushing this or not sam if you're listening just so you know i don't like this um they're showing you playoff percentages based on each play oh i like so like when well i don't like it because somewhere there's a falcons fan that's going to be watching a game, and the percentage of them getting to the playoffs is going to spike, and then it's going to crash, and they're going to be like, what the fuck? All these percentages feel like they're geared towards us getting bad beats. But when Shahid caught that touchdown to make it, what was that, 7-10 at the time? Yeah.
Very European of you yeah it spiked it spiked their uh playoff possibilities by like seven percent just based off that one play that to me feels like we're going too far numbers numbers are too far into this beautiful game that we love football yeah i i was watching the prime uh broadcast as well the uh it was prime vision sam's doing a great job it's fun Feels like you're smarter. Cause you, you just watch it and you're like, oh, that guy's going to blitz.
Cause he's like all lit up and I'm not doing anything because they're telling me, but it is cool to just say, oh yeah, I see that. I'd go hot route here.
No problem. I like, I like those parts where they make me think that I'm playing a video game when I'm just watching football it's like i'm doing two things at once uh one thing we need to write down and remember for future uh sean mcveigh on the opposite of a buy on a short week is great i think he's six and one this would make him maybe seven and one all time so he's like the opposite of andy reed in every in every way possible but uh in the off of off a short week stat we got to remember to hammer mcfay's teams yes i agree i agree um okay other thing we got to briefly talk talk about is the pistons lost again um and that's not notable because they've now lost 27 no 25 in a row 25 i, 25.
I think the record is 26. Yeah, they were, they started the season two and one.
But it's notable because they're playing the jazz at home. I think they're only a two and a half point dog.
Lori marketing was out. It was one of the more winnable games they'll have left.
And yeah, we're on like, could the Pistons finish like five wins territory I think I think the record is the Bobcats that one year it is yeah yeah um and that was I think that was a shortened season so I think they won seven games which wasn't as as bad I'm gonna look for it right now but yeah the Pistons they might be the worst team of all time they're deep shit right now. So they've got two games against the Nets.
And then after that, I think they're going – they're playing against the Raptors and then at the Celtics. And then at the Rockets, New Year's Day.
There's a good possibility they could – they might be able to win that game on New Year's Day if the Rockets get drunk enough on new year's eve i'm circling that one the um so the yeah the record is seven and 59 so not a full season they're they're gonna i think they're gonna beat it i would fuck i don't want to bet it i wonder if you can the rockets aren't terrible um that was our nba preview yeah we'll we'll do our real nba preview in like two months after the super bowl with riscilla we'll get him on i have a much more pressing question to ask you big cat yes how many eggs do you think you could eat in a day oh i saw this this is so i i don't like this because um i was raised correctly and my father made me watch cool hand luke at a very young age so uh I've always for the for my entire life thought I could eat 50 hard-boiled eggs no problem uh and then lie there like Jesus so um yeah my answer is 50. Yeah I so if they're deviled eggs the answer is unlimited for me I could I could eat infinity deviled eggs I've never gotten full eating deviled eggs if I'm at a wedding they bring out the hors d'oeuvres, the deviled eggs come out, and I hawk that person that's going around with the eggs.
And I easily put like 10 of those, which I guess is five full eggs, 10 of those, and I don't break a sweat at all. I think I could eat 100 deviled eggs, which would actually be 50 deviled eggs.
Yeah, yeah, it would be no problem. So so yeah that was a fantasy punishment that this girl was like this guy is so gross and i was just the whole time i watched the video i was like dudes rock that's awesome listen she she said that that was like the final straw that made her want to break up with her boyfriend listen your your body produces eggs okay what's gross that's facts um everyone should go see cool hand luke if you haven't seen it it's one of the best movies of all time wiping my brow boss shaking it off here boss um pft one last thing before we uh kick it to ourselves in studio i bought you a christmas present oh did you yeah we don't usually buy presents you you dick this is a dick move because we usually don't get each other christmas presents we don't and then you spring on me that okay can i tell you why though i was all right i got it i got a uh a targeted ad about a shoe and then i went and tried to buy the shoe and i saw there was a couple other shoes look at these they're reebok pumps in sick commander's colorway oh I fucking love that I had to buy it I had like that wasn't I wasn't looking for a present for you I literally I bought myself a different color pair same shoe but when I saw them I was like well I have to buy these I appreciate that I thank you for that that's a very nice gift when I was a kid in first grade I asked my parents for a pair of pumps, and they said no.
And I asked them again. They said, okay, we'll get you a pair of pumps.
And they came home, and I had a pair of Voight pumps that they got at Kenny Shoes for like $19. And I was like, I can't.
These aren't pumps. So it's always been my dream to have a real pair of Reebok pumps.
So I appreciate that. I actually did get you a present the the Chicago Bears Guy Fieri collaboration sweatshirt yeah yeah so yeah you're gonna have these sick Reebok pumps Commander's Colorway size eight perfect size what what size was that that was just me like what like if you get your boys a present like it's it's kind of lame so like you have to like be like i

didn't really want to get you a present i'll make fun of your shoe size no i got them 10 and a half don't worry okay thank you yeah that's that's very true though if you get if you get your friend a present it it has to be like merry christmas but also fuck you guys fuck you bitch yeah like i felt really lame just saying i got you a present so i had to throw in a diss that's just how how guys talk. Yeah, that's what we do.
All right. Let's kick it to ourselves.
Weekend preview and like an hour with our good friend Jules in studio. Ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working? Nah, neither has Ariat.
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There's one,

there's one game in particular this weekend.

We have a loser leaves town game for sure.

We have a fraud bowl.

We have a fraud bowl and we've got maybe a loser moves to the suburbs bowl.

Yeah,

but I'm ready for the playoffs.

I'm ready.

I'm ready to get it on.

I want to see these fucking teams.

I want to see some playoff football,

but yeah,

week 16,

um,

quick note.

We obviously won't be streaming on Sunday or the following Sunday because it's Christmas Eve and then New Year's Eve. We will be back, though, streaming the college football playoffs on January 1st.
And as a reminder, the show's scheduled this week. There will be a new show on Tuesday, recapping the whole weekend.
There will be a new show Friday, getting you ready for the weekend, and also a really very famous guest. Big guest.
Very. Massive guest.
Strongest guest we've ever had. Very strong.
Very strong. Schwarzenegger.
So get excited. And then we will have another episode.
The next one will be the Tuesday after college football playoff and week 17. So two shows a week for the next two weeks.
Yes. Tuesday and Friday for the next two weeks because this fucking whole Christmas, New Year's on a Monday blows.
They should change that. It fucking sucks.
Next year will be good. Next year will be on a Wednesday.
Beautiful. All right.
Let's get into it. Let's get into the Week 16 schedule.

Every team obviously playing.

It's a powerful slate.

So we've got two Saturday games.

We'll start with the Bengals and Steelers on Saturday afternoon.

By the way, we are doing three picks this week, right?

Yep.

Three picks.

Actually, we were going to do four or two picks depending on how much I beat Hank by

in golf today, and I beat him, so the original plan was to reduce it to two games. But then you know what I said? Let's do three.
It's the holidays. That's not true, but that's – It's the holidays.
Three's up. Three's up.
One, two, three. Three picks.
Okay. Bengals – Wait, does one of them have to be a Christmas pick like we did for Thanksgiving? I think one should be – I think one should be a Christmas pick.
Okay. It's the holiday.
Okay. Yeah.
Right. Okay.
It's a holiday. Three.
All right. Bengals, Steelers, Mason Rudolph time.
I don't know if you guys saw, but our colleague Jersey Jerry has been on the beat. George Pickens has slowly unfollowed every quarterback this year.
So he unfollowed Kenny. He unfollowed Mitch.
He only follows Masonason rudolph well again just to defend george pickets for a second he didn't unfollow them because he doesn't like being their teammate yeah he said he was just cleaning up his timeline their content wasn't good enough for him to follow on twitter or on instagram yes on all social media i think on all social media but this feels like to me and also uh no jamar chase for the bengals and DJ Reader, which will be very important in my opinion. This feels like the Mike Tomlin Steelers era is on the line.
Oh, this might be for the culture. This is for the culture.
This is an underdog game at home. No one thinks the Steelers are good.
They're very banged up. And I think they're going to win this game.
So if we're looking at this from the eyes of the nfl script writers uh mason rudolph starting christmas weekend that seems like an easy win for the steel right just you can picture yourself watching the fastest three minutes with boomer and he's just gonna go fucking hard on the rudolph jokes yes i feel like this is a mike tomlin do you have any culture game yes and, Big Ben was right. If they win, the culture exists for at least one more week.
It is, in theory, it should be a matchup of two decent teams because you've got, if you just look at their college careers. Yeah.
Mason Rudolph, Jake Browning, both awesome right around the same time. Perfect bowl game.
Great bowl game. Great bowl game.
If neither one of these teams make the playoffs, I want to see them play each other again. Yeah, Washington, Oklahoma State, if you put that on on Thursday night, I'd be like, done.
Yeah. In.
How should we rank the rivalries in the AFC North? Because I think they've shifted in the last year or two. Yeah.
I still think Ravens-Steelers number one. That's always going to be number one.
Bengals-Ravens might be just because they're both at the top recently. Yeah, recently.
it always going to be number one i bangles ravens might be just because they're both at the top recently yeah recently it's going to take at least another year the steelers being depressing to watch for me to because imagine it's a night game yeah it's like a sunday night raven steelers you know the home crown pittsburgh would just go hard for that game too but if the steelers have another bad year after this year yeah they start to lose a little bit of the we these rivalries matter yeah um Browns Bengals probably up there yeah Browns have owned the Bengals Lamar versus diarrhea yep um Ravens Browns I think I think historically that's an important one Joe Flacco has added a similar to that the stealing of the franchise. Yep.
That whole thing. Yeah.
But I still, I think we have at least one more season left. The end of this year, and then I will reevaluate my AFC North rivalry.
That's fair. I mentioned DJ Reader because the Bengals' defense is not good.
And they have not been great against the run. So, I went and looked back.
DJ Reader, obviously, is their big tackle who is very good against the run. So I went and looked back.
DJ Reader obviously is their big tackle who is very good against the run, and he's out for the year. In the Bengals' six losses this year, they've given up 175 yards rushing.
In their eight wins, they've given up 92 yards rushing. So when they can stop the run, they have a lot of team success.
And DJ Reader not being there means it's going to be very hard to stop the run. And on top of all that, the Steelers, like what's the key to making Mason Rudolph palatable? Just running the football.
Jalen Warren. Letting him do as little as possible.
Yeah. Set the play action.
Use the tight end. And Jalen Warren.
I'm betting on the Mike Tomlin culture game heavy dose of jalen warren this week please did you see the graphic of what would happen if every team in the nfl lost all the games that were one uh one score game i love one yeah i love these so games yeah the flip games in terms of one score games do you know which team would be in last place by far the stealer maybe the stealers they'd12. They'd have the biggest swing in terms of one-score games.
But again, you look at that stat and you think, okay, are they lucky, or do they do a lot of very small things well that enable them to overcome being a miserable football team? Is Steeler culture still alive? That might be Steeler culture. Yeah.
The difference between being lucky and good. Right, because the Steelers were, for the first of the season it was i actually enjoyed watching them because every game went exactly the same where they were within one score and then they had a special teams or a defensive play and all of a sudden they're winning in the fourth now they're just sad to watch yeah um is the nfl impacting steelers culture by suspending the safety for an entire year or for the rest of the rest of the season

i should say and minka fitzpatrick is also out yeah do they get that guy kz back if they make

the playoffs um let's just hope that doesn't happen yeah the best for i don't want to see

the steelers play any more football i'm i'm good with them i think they're gonna win this game

though uh what if mason's got that spark eligible for playoffs eligible for playoffs rudolph's got

that little that little spark on his nose he can't be be... No, I don't think he can be worse.
Yeah, so we're saying we're banking on Mason Rudolph not being as bad as we remember Mason Rudolph being. It's actually...
I don't think there's another team in the NFL where if you went from starter to second string to third string, the line wouldn't move more than like a half a point. There can't be.
Like every other team has – it would be a significant switch if it went to first to second and then even still a switch if it went from second to third string. So I would say if Kenny Pickett was starting this game, it might be a pick-em.
Maybe the Steelers – Maybe a line. Maybe Steelers be like one.
At home? Yeah. I don't know.
It just doesn't – Steelers' offense isn't really dynamic no matter what. I'd feel a lot more confident in the Steelers winning if Kenny Pickett was playing.
Maybe the Jets might have that same thing where it's like Sam Darnold, Tim Boyle, Trevor Simeon. You mean Zach Wilson? What'd I say? Sam Darnold.
Yeah, yeah. Zach Wilson, Tim Boyle.
No, I think there's a cliff there. From where? What's the cliff? I think there's a cliff from Boyle to Simeon.
Oh, I was going to say there might be a cliff between Wilson and Boyle. Yeah, there's definitely a cliff there.
Because good Wilson is average. Right, right.
That's a really depressing conversation to have. It is.
Okay, nerd nugget for this game. First off, Raven Steelers.
Remember when they played on the Wednesday? That was sick. Yeah, that was sick.
The Bengals have won nine consecutive games played in the month of December, dating back to week 15 of the 2021 season, marking the longest such active streak in the NFL. Joe Burrow.
Nine times. Joe Burrow.
That's Joe Burrow's stat. I'm just telling you.
Yeah, that's Joe Burrow's stat. He plays well in December.
Yeah. That's what he does.
Okay. Other Saturday game, Bill's Chargers.
So, big point spread. I did some research on Giff Smith because I wanted to make sure the listeners knew.
So, Giff Smith is the interim head coach for the Chargers. I read an article about Giff Smith.
He drinks six cups of coffee a day. Oh, I heard it was more than that.
Well, it was an embedded journalist. He was counting.
It was with the Chargers. Yeah.
So six was all he got to. I think they stopped around 7 p.m.
Southern accent. Wish he was a little fatter, but that's okay.
He actually said he wishes he had lost some weight if he knew that he was going to be interim head coach. Also coached Roman Reigns at Georgia Tech.
Oh, that's interesting. Kind of cool.
What I had circled with Giff Smith was that his name was Giff Smith. Yes.
which is if we're just going based off name it's a 10 out of 10 interim coach name it is it feels made up and uh i i like that part about him and also what i've kind of learned to love about gif this week is there's not a lot of facts out there about gif because i did the same thing you know yeah i went deep i read that article um but there's not a lot of lore around gif sm. There's not quotes from his former players being like, oh, shit, here's this thing about Giff, which I actually kind of like that there's not a lot of stuff floating around about Giff.
So. Mysterious.
There's a chance that Giff Smith, and listen, this is just a guess. So Giff Smith, I'm sure you're a really nice guy.
He could be a rat because he survived three head coaches getting fired in the Chargers now. And they did not ask Kellen Moore to be interim coach.
So, he was – Is he a mouthpiece for – Giff Smith was there under Mike McCoy. He was there under Anthony Lynn.
And now he was there for Brandon Staley getting fired. So I feel like three coaches.

You got to be like, wait, what's going on here?

Is this like he's the Tom Wamsgans?

Yeah.

Of the Los Angeles Chargers.

Yeah.

The rat.

You know what rats eat?

Peanut butter?

Cheese.

Oh, cheese.

People forget that.

Gift did say that they flushed the Raiders game.

I hope that means they actually put the film onto like USB drive and then threw it in the toilet. Like a goldfish.
Ideally, if I was interim coach and I wanted to flush a game, what I would do, I would get a port-a-potty brought in. I would throw the tape in there.
Then I would have everybody on the team go and take a shit or a piss on it. And blow it up.
And then light it on fire. fire.
Yeah, that ideally that's what flush means in this scenario But yeah, I mean you bring up a good point if he's been there through three regimes It feels like he's deeply embedded with the ownership. Yeah, yeah, but he's Spanos his guy They've also got an interim general manager Jojo.
Okay, and so it's gif and Jojo right? So which is a Disney Channel show Yeah, it a disney channel show or like a doo-wop band from like the 50s oh yeah they would slap just like standing on the street corner just snapping their fingers yeah uh but yeah i i can't think of a better job in the world than an interim general manager yeah because you're not you're not doing shit you're just telling the scouts like hey keep scouting yeah please keep scout just keep sending keep sending me your weekly emails yeah and besides that you're just telling the scouts like hey keep scouting yeah please keep scouting just keep sending keep sending me your weekly emails yeah and besides that you're not cutting anybody you don't have the power to do that you're not signing i think if somebody gets hurt you can be like okay we're gonna we're gonna move this guy up from the practice squad what that would be incredible if interim gm just went rogue and he cut justin herbert yeah just cut justin herbert right. Herbert, Bosa, Mack, hit the bricks.
Cut them all. We got to change the culture here.
Yes. As for the Bills, this does feel like a dangerous letdown spot in the fact that the Chargers, I haven't seen a team quit the way they quit against the Raiders in a long time.
And it's like they scored a ton of points. The Bills are coming off of three big wins.
I think the Bills will win, but it does make me nervous if I want to take the Bills. Minus 12 feels like a lot because it could get – it could just have a little bit of a sleepwalk and all of a sudden you look up and you're like, wait, the Bills are only up like five here? What's going on? Yeah, I have that fear too, but a little bit of that is put aside because i feel like the bills are in like do or die it's east and stick too it's east and stick and the bills the bills have zero margin for error do you know what's um an interesting trade that doesn't get talked about enough i think it gets talked about in the two cities that the the trade and the trader uh but razool douglas has been incredible and the Packers could have really used him in this stretch.
And the Bills, their defense. So I went back and I looked.
Aaron Schatz had the numbers. It was week one through five, they were sixth in DVOA.
Week six through 10, they were 32nd in DVOA because they got all those injuries that piled up. Razul Douglas, I think, showed up week 10.
And then week 11 through 15, so the last month, they're back to fifth in DVOA. They got him as like a stopgap, and he's become very, very important to everything they're doing on defense.
And I don't bring this up just because it probably pains Packers fans because I think Packers might be in the playoffs right now if they still had a good cornerback. There's another team where Russell Douglas came from that could also use him.
That would be the Philadelphia Eagles. Because there's so little trades at the trade deadline in the NFL, it doesn't get talked about a lot, but he has been a huge difference maker for the Bills.
I have a confession to make, Big Cat. I don't know what DVOA means.
I know that it's a stat. They just put all the numbers together.
I know it's a stat that makes sense and that smart people always use. Yeah.
And I know that if you're first in it, that's good. And if you're last in it, I know that in theory, it's a good stat to use for any argument, but I have no idea.
I think the difference between DVOA and then just dumb stats that we read like points per game and yards per play is dvoa puts into con he puts context into the stats do they like garbage time you know how how are you good at high leverage situations uh do they factor in just like quarterback winning percentage i don't think so they should and they factor in i thinkable metrics. So, an 80-yard touchdown is not the same as being able to go on if you're really good at getting eight yards every first down.
Yeah. That's something that can be repeated time and time again.
Yeah, I know it's a good stat. I know that smart people use it, so I look at it and I follow it, but I just realized in this moment I have no idea what goes into it.
But it's crazy the Bills were, for a stretch there, the worst defense in the NFL, and now they have climbed all the way back up to one of the top defenses. I'm guessing Matt Milano is out for the playoffs, too, if they make the playoffs.
I thought he was maybe going to come back. Because he makes a big difference, too.
Yeah. Yeah, well, that was where the dip started.
Jeremy provides injury update. Why don't you give us your nerd nugget? I look for this.
Does does not expect to return okay uh keep in mind that this is the first ever peacock exclusive game and they announced today that's gonna piss me off commercial free fourth quarter oh oh i i kind of wait now is it commercial free or is it going to be half the screen picture to picture half the screen's a commercial no i think they're going to like send it to a studio they're keep it up in the booth sometimes that's commercials yeah well send it to a studio that's a commercial yeah i want them to just i want to stay actually like league pass when they do like the this is the perfect time for if anyone's gonna streak yeah fourth quarter of this game that's the time they can't cut away from it yeah okay there. There's a game or two that I wish was like extra commercials in the fourth quarter this week.
During one of the two breaks. Like a golf broadcast.
During one of the two breaks, the announce team will delve into more of the other storylines. The other will go into the Football Night in America studio team.
Yeah, that sounds like commercials. Because isn't that going to be – we're just going to have to watch Jason Garrett? Yeah, they're going to be doing...
That's way worse than a commercial.

Bring back the USAA commercials.

I would rather watch 60 minutes of Flow

from Progressive on my TV

than one second of Jason Garrett.

They should just let Florio do like three minutes

on why making the Paisan jokes is problematic.

Or just initiating a congressional investigation

into injury reports. Yeah.
I'd like to see that. Look forward to that.
No. I'm not looking forward to it.
Heads up. Jason Garrett is.
I'm not looking forward to listening to Jason Garrett and Tony Dungy. It should be just Carrie Underwood.
Yeah. Alright, well when there's no commercials in the fourth quarter you can thank us for letting us know.
They gave us a worse option. Commercials you can zone out.
Jason Garrett and Tony Dungy being in my face on Saturday night, I don't want that. No one wants that.
All right. Anyways, Bills running back James Cook is the first Buffalo running back with 1,400 scrimmage yards in a season since LaShawn McCoy had 1586 in 2017.
Yeah, just run the ball. Just keep running the ball.
The Bills are good when they run the ball, and they kind of found that game plan by by accident

that wasn't their plan yeah joe brady said that joe brady was like it was working so i wasn't going to stop it which is love that perfect yeah just go keep doing it if it works all right next game we've got to sunday we're going to sunday uh browns and texans no cj stroud most likely here's a fun fact

so a couple quick fun facts for you

since Browns and Texans. No C.J.
Stroud, most likely. Here's a fun fact.
So a couple quick fun facts for you. Since 2000, the Browns actually this season, their defense is the number one in defensive success rate, which is pretty crazy.
That's pretty crazy. They have had 50% of the time they have forced the opponent to go three and out.
That's pretty good. That here's the other weird fact the browns at home have been giving up 10 points a game the browns on the road 30 points a game pretty insane yeah splits now in this case it's going to be case keenum it is going to be case keenum but that's different that's a bill it's a big difference like that's a huge difference.
It's crazy that they're that good giving 30 points a game on the road up and they're still number one success rate in the last 23 years. With Case Keenum, it's interesting because he was a guy that was a backup and then some teams saw him and they said, maybe he should just be the starting quarterback now.
And then they tried to make him a starter and they're like, no, he's just a backup. Then he went underground for a while, and now he's still a pretty good backup.
I feel like that back-and-forth swing doesn't happen that much. If you had told me that he retired, I would have been like, yes, of course.
Yeah, the Case Keenums of the world and all the Matts seem to retire at the exact same time. Yes.
I'm probably going to take the Browns in this game, that that defense thing makes me nervous it does but again it's it's case keenum yeah i think it'd be a big njoku game case keenum never lost a game when he started for the texans that's true his entire career three you know this would be a big swing game for playoffs this is the loser move to the suburbs game yeah so you're not out if you lose but if if Texans lose they would they're pretty close to being they're in trouble. It's not leave town but it's download Trulia, download Redfin, download Zillow and just spend all day looking on those.
I think the Browns if they lose they're not going to move to the suburbs. They might just be like oh the school districts you know like maybe we should take a look.
Yeah. They're not even doing Zillow.
They're just like, oh, yeah. Our friends, you know what? If the Browns lose this game, they're going to go visit their friends in the suburb and be like, oh, this is kind of nice.
Or maybe go on a vacation over the break. Yeah.
And it's like a nicer weather climate. And then you're like, we should really move here.
And then when you're in the downtown area of your vacation town, you walk past a realtor and you just look at the pictures on the wall yeah like our dollar could go pretty far out here if the texans lose they're gonna be in trouble yes yeah um okay uh what other oh i had yeah so i david njoku i think is gonna be big this game is gonna be tough watch for the for the texans offense with all their injuries and will anderson might be out as well tough tough nerd nugget browns head coach kevin stefanski owns the afc south he is 9-0 against the division cleveland looks to sweep the afc south the second time in club history on sunday which was last on in 2020 oh afc south killer that's interesting i like that that's a good stat jake 9-0 against the south. Hmm.
Okay. I think I'm feeling the Browns this week.

Yeah. killer that's interesting i like that that's a good stat jake nine and oh against the south okay um i think i'm feeling the browns this week yeah this is one of those games i think that uh no matter which one i bet i'll lose maybe yeah you know i'll make a i'll make a decision right before kickoff and it will be the wrong decision yeah the games that you stay away from where you're like that's a stay away game for me you end up betting them anyways at the last second just based on on vibes and usually the vibe is oh yeah case keenum starting so i'm not gonna bet on him yeah there's a shitload of stay away games that will all be bet i'm rather i would rather do like a last minute pick on flacco than i would on case i agree with you there i definitely lean the browns but again whatever side i pick i'm gonna lose uh all right next game lions vikings very game.
Very fun game. If Kirk Cousins was starting for the Vikings for the whole season,

if he didn't get injured, would the Vikings be like maybe a Super Bowl team?

I don't know if they'd be a Super Bowl team.

They might have saved your pinky.

Yeah.

They would be heavy in the playoff race for sure.

It would be them and the Lions, which it kind of still is

with the Packers sprinkled in there a little bit.

But they would be in contention for the top spot in that division.

Yeah.

I do think this is a very important game for the Lions because you want to build off the momentum of last week.

And now you have to go against a Brian Flores defense, probably going to blitz a lot.

The one thing I was looking at and trying to figure out, the Vikings defense. Remember the Vikings, what did they start, 0-4, I believe? 1-3 maybe? They were bad to start the season.
I know they were 0-3, right? Yeah, they were bad to start the season. So the quarterbacks they've faced in the last two months where their defense has been very, very good, Justin Fields, concussed Brock Purdyordan love taylor heineke jamis winston russell wilson justin fields again aiden o'connell jake browning not exactly the best quarterbacks so maybe a little regression what they're all in three um i just hoping jared you know i want the lions to continue the success i i'm going with the lions in this game based on the fact it's being played indoors.
Yes. Indoors is going to be big.
Yes. Jared has struggled, well-documented struggles sometimes in the cold, as we all do, but he really doesn't like playing in the cold.
It really fucks Jared Goff up. When he wakes up and it's like 30 degrees outside, his day is just done.
He's like, oh, this whole thing's going to suck. But, yeah,ings do you see the vikings are changing their entire playing surface next year oh well they're going split grass or whatever they might be getting away from split grass split turf split turf so uh they're concerned about the injuries because they've had a couple those fair and so they're blaming that on on the turf that they have so they're moving away from it next year i think there are like like three teams in the NFL that use the same type of surface that the, that the Vikings do.
It's the shoot. Who is it? It's the Bengals, the Vikings, and then there's one other team and two of the teams are moving away.
The Bengals are going to be the last team in the league to have that playing surface next year. Okay.
Let's go to grass. We're grass guys, grass guys, uh, Nerd nugget here.
The Lions can clinch their first division title since winning the NFC Central in 1993 with a win or tie on Sunday. Only four players on the Lions 53-man roster were alive then, and head coach Dan Campbell was a 17-year-old high school student.
Whoa. Yeah.
Could be first home playoff game in Detroit since 1993. That's pretty cool.
That's pretty cool. That's what I'm rooting for.
I saw a story that the Lions are increasing their season ticket prices next year by a significant amount, like 50%. Got to.
They have to. It stinks, though, for the fans that have been going to games and watching just getting shit shoved in their face for the last 30 years.
Yeah. And then they have one good season.
They're like, okay, now you're going to have to pay up. If I were an owner, I would do dynamic pricing.
And I would basically say, you buy your season tickets. We'll put a hold on your credit card.
Let's just say season tickets cost $2,000. It would basically be like, if we win the division, it's $3,000.
If we don't go to the playoffs, to the playoffs it's a thousand dollars i like that that would be sick because who wouldn't sign up for that yeah it's like hey if we're really good i have no problem paying more money yeah games will be fun to go to right or i would do a thing kind of like the military where if you um if you don't want to pay full price that's fine but your children have to work for the organization for two years after college and then the debt is then repaid

okay If you don't want to pay full price, that's fine. But your children have to work for the organization for two years after college.
And then the debt is then repaid if you don't want to pay the increased price. Do the dishes.
Do the dishes. Yeah, do anything around the stadium.
Now that I'm thinking about it, though, the only negative impact would be if you did the dynamic pricing at the end of the season, if you're having a bad season, I feel like your fans would root against your own team like if it was if the stadium was packed and you're like we get a hundred dollars off our season tickets if we lose this game that might but actually that's kind of funny it's kind of funny also if you were really good at the end of the season with dynamic pricing uh you would just make your fan base like poor. So as the team did really well, then the expendable income.
But again, we will pay for happiness. Be worth it.
We will pay for a winning season for sure. Some owner do that.
Dynamic pricing. Okay, next game.
Packers at Panthers. Did you guys see Devondre Campbell this week? Quite something.
He went on on Twitter and he said not going out of my way anymore and I'm not playing through injuries anymore because when shit goes wrong they always use it against you I'm treating everyone accordingly and giving them the same energy they giving me focus on yourself and your mental 59 you owe it to yourself uh whatever that's fine you know he's upset he's playing through injuries it sucks but the weird part was the next day when the media was allowed in the locker room a reporter asked him about it and he responded i'm not answering no questions about nothing happening on the internet you all want to talk about the panthers we can but i ain't answering no questions about nothing on no internet. The internet just brought that quote out of nowhere.
He's doing a great job of separating his brain here. From the internet.
Where he's like, yeah, that quote that was on the internet that I typed out, I'm not here to talk about that. That's on the internet.
I like how he's using his own brain as his burner account. Right.
It's like, that wasn't me, all right? That was my brain, my eyes, and my fingers. You're's not me the football things i say on the internet we're not talking about that wait so i was i was uh i had some three chi the other weekend okay i started thinking about the internet it will blow your mind if you really just think about the internet for a while every day for hours we sit down at a computer or on our phones and then we just go to a different place visually yeah and we just imagine ourselves being somewhere else and then we come back to real life and we're like oh this isn't as good as the internet let me see what's going on on the internet right what's popping on the internet kind of wild devondre campbell popping on the internet popping on the internet for sure yeah i have a prediction for this for this week um i think bryce young is going to get offensive player of the week oh because the last two quarterbacks that the Packers have played against have got Offensive Player of the Week.
Baker Mayfield, and then the week before that, Tommy DeVito. Yeah.
Which that one was maybe. Yeah.
Yeah. Bryce Young next up, Player of the Week.
Yeah, I mean, the Packers defense, this is a pride game for them because they've been so bad. Yeah.
So bad. If you're a coordinator that's under as much fire as Barry's been under, there's no way that you can just pretend that's not going on.
Like being, oh, I don't read the internet. I don't read.
I don't listen to the local sports talk radio. At some point, there's people that come into your office and say like, hey, did you hear what they said about you? Honestly, Joe Barry should just be like, shouldn't have traded Raz Douglas.
Yeah. He was the piece that he was everything that Rasul Douglas did unlocked my defense.
You took him away from me. Joe Barry should say, I stood on the table to keep Rasul Douglas.
Yeah, you traded the wrong cornerback. Jair Alexander has been out, you know, basically the entire season with an injury and yeah, you fucked me.
That's what you got to do. It's a good spin zone.
Just blame someone else. If anything goes wrong, blame someone else.
Okay. Nerd nugget for this game.
Third time's the charm. Green Bay has won both of the last two meetings against Carolina by the same score.
24, 16 in both 2019 and 2020. The Packers did not commit a turnover in either of those games.
And you can cover in the spread exact score. 7 000 24 24 16 packers okay not bad panthers i they can't win this game i'm gonna be so mad if they win this game did you see the report uh the fake report that was put online by a fake adam schefter yes about uh david tepper listen we've said a lot of things about david tepper but we have not said that he's on epstein's list yet so anyone that's saying that stop saying it well yeah panthers fan we haven't seen it you got to use any means necessary yeah if you're the panthers and you know you're in the charlotte area you're probably hoping that right on that list there's i was saying like how terrible of a christmas would it be to be someone who knows they're on the list and the list is coming out i actually think they should just keep teasing the list coming out because that's way more torturous than being on the list than having you know some pete your pr firm like wow we just knew him as a you know financier and it was nothing like that it went to a charity event just having just having the the anvil over your head constantly is is a great punishment i know i've noticed that since that report came out hank's been more on edge than usual oh that's true i'm excited for it the list yeah you're excited to prove your innocence once and for all yeah and to see who else is on there on there.
Clear your name? Yeah. Look forward to my day in court.
Yeah. I mean, you have a lot to bond over being like a disgrace on an airplane with somebody.
Yeah, sure. Mm-hmm.
I hope you're not on that list. Yeah, me too.
I think it's redacted. What if you randomly just were? That'd be good press.
It would actually be good press.

It would not be good press.

The next episode would pop off.

It would be funny if just a random name was on that list.

Well, just a different Henry Lockwood.

It wouldn't be him.

Yeah, there might be some of those out there.

Same name.

Oh, you know who might?

That'd be the best NoTap apology of all time.

I sincerely regret going on Jeffrey Epstein's plane.

Yeah.

What if Ravel was on the list?

Let us be the first.

He's not.

He's not.

We have no information.

No, he's not.

Backing up claims that I have heard been made.

No.

Darren Ravel is on the list.

No, he's not on it.

I'm just saying, what if?

That would be quite a day on the internet.

Yeah, I mean, the thought has definitely crossed Ravel's mind that he should maybe get some sort of memorabilia from Epstein's Island. Yeah, of course.
This is a swing set. Yeah.
Someone's, yeah, private plane, like, receipt. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Bill Clinton. This is the receipt Bill Gates used.
Yeah, Bill. Uh-huh.
Here's Bill Clinton's stamp pass. Boarding pass.
From St. James.

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Okay, next up, Colts and Falcons.

Hoo boy, Falcons. They have to win this game.
This is loser leaves town, I think. Yeah, Taylor Heineke.
I mean, the Falcons aren't going to make the playoffs anyway, but this season has become a disaster for the Falcons. Taylor Heineke can hopefully save them.
I do think the Colts, as great as they've been this year in terms of exceeding expectations, Shane Steichen's been an incredible coach. I do feel like the Colts are one of those teams that might be riding a little bit on luck, and so they can be had.
Yeah, a little bit on luck. There's been some fluky plays for sure for them.
They also have had some bad injuries. Yeah, and I don't think they're a bad team.
I think the Falcons right now are a bad team right but taylor heineke is a move that should that's this is like one or two weeks too late to make that move it's like your back's been up against the wall why did you wait hurt i don't he smith's been weird about saying like why he's going back and forth switching back and forth between desmond redder and taylor heineke uh even when ritter initially kind of got they're like, well, we went with Heineke for this reason, he's been playing a little bit coy. Because Heineke did get hurt, and then it was just they never updated us.
Yeah. I think he wanted to give Desmond one more shot to be like, okay, let's see if you've actually – he probably went into Coach Smith's office and was like, just give me one more shot, Coach.
Credit to the Cincinnati Bearcats football account tweeting, vote for Desmond Ritter for her Pro Bowl. That's nice.
Just jumping in front of that one. Got to support.
Sticking by their lungs. Yeah.
Got to support your guys. Yeah.
This is actually, we talked about earlier this year, it's the second time the Colts have played in a matchup. I think the second time in NFL history where the two quarterbacks have had names that are also occupations yes you got gardner and baker first now it's gardner and taylor yes kind of a fun fact that's my fun fact of the week oh very fun fact bird nugget of the week chirp chirp chirp chirp yes um ducks when they sleep together in a group on the outside of the perimeter of the sleeping group of ducks, those ducks keep one eye open.
Whoa. Just all-time ride or die, stand guard guys.
I like that. Yeah, protecting the flock.
Okay. Ducks are cool.
Ducks are awesome. I fuck with ducks.
Ducks are my, I think they're my favorite bird. They're also the most delicious bird.
Yeah. But that's, that's like a Devondra Campbell.
Internet, real life.

Yeah.

Like, ducks, cute, cool.

The food is totally different.

I don't even know where that comes from.

Yeah, exactly.

That's not the cute bird.

No, no, no.

They're also very problematic, ducks.

What?

In terms of how they get together.

Oh, yeah.

How they produce baby ducks.

Yeah.

They're aggressive. See, Duck Hodges tweeted, hey, right after baby ducks.
Yeah. They're aggressive.

See, Duck Hodges tweeted, hey, right after the Steelers lost the other day. I miss him.

Yeah.

All right, Nerd Nugget.

No team in the AFC has more interceptions than the Colts, who have five.

Indianapolis also has three pick sixes,

which is second in the conference right behind Miami.

Did you see, and we will get to the Eagles game,

but I understand why the Colts were okay letting Shaq Leonard go. I didn't make a point to go back and watch.
I saw some tape and he he's not moving fluidly, I would say. He's moving like he has a back injury.
He's moving like he had a really catastrophic back injury. He was so fucking good.
So good. He was like the best in the entire NFL for a little bit.
But I never the strategy of getting a guy who was once good. Just be like, maybe I'm all that would be all I would do as a GM.
So that one that part is not the problem. It's just once you see that.
Oh, yeah, this is why he was available. You can't keep doing it.
Right. The only thing they should have changed is how they let him go.
Yeah. They kind of surprised him with that one.
Yeah, they did. Okay.
Next up, Seahawks Titans. Seahawks off the big win.
They have Geno Smith back. And now we get the question, looks like Will Levis will not play.
And will it be Ryan Tannehill or will it be be malik willis give tannahill one more shot i let him prove right he can have a job somewhere else ryan tannahill the book's still out on ryan tannahill we don't know whether or not he's good enough to be a starting nfl quarterback i want to bet on the titans if ryan tannahill plays yeah i do not want to bet on the titans if it's malik willis yeah um i've got some fun stats here about the seahawks because we think about the Seahawks going on the road and them being a different team when they're on the road. Yeah.
They've actually played a way harder schedule on the road than they have at home. So on the road, they've played against the Ravens, 49ers, Cowboys, Lions, and Bengals on the road.
They've played the Rams on the road and then the Giants on the road. Those are the only two kind of weakish links, and the Rams aren't that bad no of a team uh so really it's just the giants that's the only break they've had on the road so this is really um there's i guess it's their second game against a team that they really should beat right being played away from seattle so um i was thinking this whole season like i'll bet against seattle on the road every time no matter what necessarily the case.
Also, fun stat, the Seahawks are 4-0 when Pete Carroll wears a hat on the sidelines. One of the reporters brought that up to him.
So he went backwards hat? He went backwards. And Coward had no problem with it.
Coward flipped the fuck out on Pete Carroll. No, he did that after the game.
After the game. No, I'm saying Coward, I think, was fine with it.
He was okay with it? Yeah, which is really fucked up i he's gotten soft yeah real soft real soft but uh i don't know he said that he would factor that into his decision making on what he wore for the game but i still despite those last two stats i just told you i still think if it's tannahill i'm going to take the titans this will be an interesting spot because i'm looking at it right now i think this might be the earliest that a Mike Frabel Titans team is eliminated. I think it is, yeah.
They've always been in it towards the end, so how are they going to respond? Can he get a classic Titans win where it's like no one expects him to win out of these guys? Really, the only move to go for here is to start Tannehill. Yeah, but I think they might do Willis just because we got to see what we got, even though we know it's not good.
Yeah. Just hoping.
Maybe it'll be different this time. Maybe Derrick Henry.
I do like, I am also in favor of the, it's kind of similar to the GM getting the name that was once good. Just living your life, just maybe it'll be different this time.
Knowing it won't, but there's always some fun. We're not going to second guess ourself here.

Yeah, maybe this will go differently

than it's gone every single time.

Yeah, just start Tannehill.

Let's do that for America.

Did you do the Nerd Nugget?

He got me.

Oh, nice.

No cap.

Oh, nice.

4-0.

Oh, nice.

4-0.

All right, shut off your mic.

Yep, see ya.

Got him. Nice PFT.
Fuck yeah. Got him.
See you later and O. All right, shut off your mic.
Yep, see ya. Got him.

Nice PFT.

Fuck yeah.

Got him.

See you later, Jake.

See you, nerd.

Commanders Jets.

This is a game of football, and it's being played this weekend.

Is it?

In the NFL.

Is it?

It's a game of football.

I went back.

I did an all-22 breakdown on the end-of-game sequencing by Ron Rivera.

It was worse than I had originally remembered. It was very bad.
He let the play clock go down to one second every single time. He didn't get a playoff intentionally before the two-minute warning.
He is doing his very best to tank, and I respect him a lot of Ron for it. So looking at this game on paper, I think the wrong team's favored.
I think the commander should be favored, but that doesn't account for the fact that Ron Rivera is actively trying to lose games. Yeah.
Maybe Aaron Rodgers will play, though. Yeah, he's not going to play.
Hasn't he been cleared? I think he said he was going to be medically cleared, and he was targeting this day to come back, but for some reason, he's not going to play. That's weird.
It's very weird. Yeah, this is...
No, I don't want to do this. I just want...
I don't want to bet this game. I will.
I want Sam bet this game i will sam how to not get injured the commander should win this game i think the wrong i don't know if that's necessarily true if you had eric biennemi as the head coach i think they win this game but i think i think ron is active and thank you to ron river for doing this i think he's actively trying to get us a better draft pick in exchange for getting to say he's that good so there's no gaps on his. I don't know if – I mean, the Jets' defense is still good, and if their defensive line you would think would still be playing hard to get stats and incentives and all that stuff.
Memes, this is a must-win? No, this is a must-lose. Yeah.
We would swap picks. Yeah.
This game will impact – this is maybe the most meaningful game, actually, of the weekend because it's going to impact both franchises moving forward. Yeah, I'm calling it the Joe Alt Bowl.
He's the top lineman in the draft. Oh, okay.
I like that. Notre Dame guy, right? Yeah.
I thought the Penn State guy was. I'm seeing Joe Alt higher, but slightly higher.
I watched the tape. I'm taking the left tackle.
Tagathon has Olu Fashanu. I don't know if I'm debating about this.
The left tackle for Penn State is a beast. Yeah, Penn State.
Joe Alt, also very good. Yeah, I know, but what position does Joe Alt play? I think he's an offensive tackle.
So this might be the... So is he a left tackle? It might be the Joe Alt bowl, but in terms of, oh, fuck,

I wish we hadn't gotten Joe Alt.

I wish we got the guy from Penn State instead.

Yeah, that's most likely what's going to happen.

To either team.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it,

whichever team ends up losing this game and getting the better draft pick,

if we're going based on history here,

we're going to be the team that you look back on and you say really blew that draft oh yeah yeah so you all now now you almost want to win i think the jets he is a left tackle so yeah you could take both the position is uh valuable yeah based on jets history they win this game yeah yeah i think it was like tuesday was the the anniversary of the trevor lawrence fuck up. Well, you got Zach Wilson instead.
They win this game. Yeah.
I think it was like Tuesday was the anniversary of the Trevor Lawrence fuck up. We got Zach Wilson.
Instead, he beat the Rams. In November, the AP wrote an article saying Notre Dame OT, Joe Alt is a once in a generation talent for the number 20 Irish.
We need to stop using that phrase, though. Once in a generation.
This is a once in a generation podcast. It wasn't Quentin Nelson that way.
Yeah, he was. Yeah.
Andrew Luck once in a generation. Tony Mandrick.
Trevor Lawrence. Brian Bosworth.
What's the nerd nugget for this game? Jets punter Thomas Morstead ranks first in the NFL this season in punts inside the 10 with 15 of them and tied for second in punts inside the 20. 28 punts.
Okay. It's a huge punting game this weekend.
Tressway versus Morstead. That's what we're going to keep our eye on.
Oh, we did cut the Cheeseman. So Cheeseman or long snapper got cut.
He got cut. He should have been cut in training camp this year.
And for some reason we used a – it doesn't get talked about enough, but the commanders used a draft pick on a long snapper that sucks. That's about as bad as it can get.
That's tough. It's not great.
No. It's not great.
Okay, next up, Jaguars at Bucs. Maybe no Trevor Lawrence.
Concussion. Maybe no Zay Jones.
Hamstring. Also, the Bucs are playing good football right now.
Did you know Devin White, I think they're going to bench him again. So they're 3-0 when they have KJ Britt play instead of Devin White.
I like the Bucs in this game. I do too.
I think the Bucs are just good now. I like the Bucs.
I think they stunk earlier this season. I don't think they're good.
I think they're above. I think they've played bad teams.
I think they're above average right now, the way they're playing. Because they played, they beat up on the NFC South.
Yeah. Which is, we need the NFC South.
They took care of business. They took care of business.
They also like to blitz. Trevor Lawrence not great against the blitz.
Trevor Lawrence, like if the Jaguars lose this game, the Jaguars are not going to – they could maybe not make the playoffs. It's a possibility.
It's crazy. It is.
We thought that when they beat the Texans a couple weeks ago, that like sealed the deal. Congratulations to the Jaguars.
But what have you read about Trevor Lawrence? Because I haven't heard one way or the other about him. I just concussion protocol.
We got to figure it out. By the way, the Bucs, three wins.
So that's why I push back a little on they're good now. They beat the Panthers by three.
They beat the Falcons by four. Then they did beat the Packers soundly.
But it's not murderer's row. On the road.
Yeah, but the Panthers and the Falcons are not good. Not good.
Not good teams. Nerd nugget for this game.
I'm looking up the Jaguars' rest of their schedule. Through Week 15, 12-year veteran Levante David is the only player in the NFL with 100-plus tackles and 15-plus tackles for loss.
Since 2000, David's 10 seasons with 100-plus tackles the third most trailing only london fletcher and bobby wagner that's so many very good for a long time so many times imagine tackling somebody 100 times all right so the jags should be good because they play the panthers and titans after this okay yeah but that would be very jacksonville to lose to like malik willis in week 18 yeah what looking at, Max? I think memes is all over draftboardguru.com. No.
Memes is just wrong about who the top tackle is. Memes? Wrong? He said according to his eyes, Joe Alt.
No, we looked something up on Sunday. We looked at 10 of them in a row that also the Penn State guy was ahead of them.
Those are opinion-based. Memes, are you thinking alt because he fits Izzy's running style a little bit better? Yeah, and the history of Notre Dame linemen.
And easier name to say. That's the biggest thing for me.
Yeah. The biggest thing.
Okay. I mean, for guys from Long Island, it probably does factor into the equation.
Yes, yes. Nerd nugget for Jags.
Oh, no, you did that. Levante David.
Cardinals-Bears. I hate that this game is in the afternoon.
I kept on thinking it was in Arizona. Yeah, you like to be able to just kind of lose it in the shuffle.
Right, and it's one of three games in the afternoon. Yeah.
So, I don't. I think the Bears might lose this game.
The Cardinals they outgained the 49ers last week. You're down on the Bears right now, but I don't think the Bears are as bad as you think.
No, no. I think you're letting your personal emotions regarding the gateway game.
I'm not down on the Bears. I'm very excited about the Bears future.
The rest of the season it's's back to losing is better than winning. That's a fact.
Especially a game like this, because the Cardinals, who you're neck and neck with for a pick. I'm as high as I could be on the Bears going forward.
The rest of the season, there's no benefit in winning these games anymore. This might be the Joe Altball.
um let's see it is yeah arizona yeah so if if the this could be huge swing because if the bears win this game they go from the fifth pick to like the the 11th pick it's funny because this weekend i think big cat's going to be rooting for the commanders and i'm going to be rooting for the bears no the jets can if the jets win it's fine too yeah i guess so because you're both five and nine right right yeah you you are going to be rooting for the bears let's go bears also i i like that everyone came out it's cool that everyone on the bears came out and was like it'd be a mistake to trade justin fields unfortunately that means nothing dj moore said very he didn't equivocate he was like it shouldn't be a conversation he should be a quarterback right and unfortunately like i like that i like that everyone has his back but you can't make a decision based on who the players like right unfortunately like it's just a fact like you can't can't be like oh we're gonna draft someone else hope they're gonna still want to play're not the GM. Yeah, they're going to still want to play football.
But it is cool to see everyone rally behind them. And, yeah, I don't really want – this game is whatever.
It does mean a lot. Got to lose.
It does mean a lot to the loser. Just lose.
Okay, the big – oh, yeah, Nerd Nugget. Do-do-do-do.
Oh, man. Nerd Nugget of the week.
For this game? It's crazy. In the Cardinals' first 101 seasons as an NFL franchise from 1920 to 2020, there were six made field goals of 56-plus yards.
So six field goals, 56-plus, and 100 seasons. Matt Prater's 58-yard field goal versus the 49ers last week gave him seven field goals at 56-plus yards in just 44 games in Arizona.
Yeah, Matt Prater's very, very strong. 44 games.
He's so strong. Seven long field goals is more than the first 100 years of the franchise.
Prater salad. It's a lot.
Yeah, his 58-yarder that he kicked last week, I think that would have been good from like 73. It was crazy.
Yeah, but they didn't kick long field goals back in the day. That's a good stat for like the last 20 years.
Still, yeah. I wonder what was the long – can you find that for us? In like the 1900s? Yeah, like what was the record for the longest field goal until it was broken sometime in the 90s? That would be interesting.
It was Dempsey. It was Dempsey, the kicker that had the club foot.
Yeah. And he had the special shoe that he wore that was just like, it was half of a foot, so the front of it was just flat.
How long was it? He kicked a 63-yarder. That's longer than I expected.
But they made it a rule that you're not allowed to have a kicker that has a front flat. Right.
Right. We need kickers with two feet here.
Find that for us, Jake. I'm interested in that.
It was Dempsey. I think it was 63, and then that was tied, and then I think it got broken to 64.
Because kicker position is definitely one of those positions that you can note where it became very different. Where it became specialized.
Yeah, where guys are really good at it, and they don't miss. My field dimensions have been the same since 1920.
Well, I don't think that's true because the uprights used to be at the front of the ends. But they were just counted differently.
Yeah. They were counted exactly the same as the yardage.
What do you got? I'm still looking. Okay.
Add it on to the next Nerd Nugget.

Wait, that was Nerd Nugget of the Week?

Yeah.

I'm trying to think whichever other ones.

Oh, the Pete Carroll one should have. Yeah, the No Cap.

Yeah, No Cap.

Yeah, it doesn't hit the same one.

Oh, but that one, I said that one.

You should have made it Nerd Nugget of the Week.

Go ahead, Jesse.

I'll make it.

That was Nerd Nugget of the Week.

Nerd Nugget of the Week.

If I defeat you to a Nerd Nugget, Jake, we should get a locker, and I should get to put you in the locker. I like that.
We have lockers, but I don't know if they're big enough. Jake Locker.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
Last game on – or no, not last game on Sunday, but last game in the afternoon. Best game.
Fraud Bowl. Cowboys at Dolphins who baby who baby uh let's start with the fact that uh we know why Tyree Kill has been scoring all those touchdowns he's on his third baby this year with three different women yeah he's that Jake was like what's going on with with Tyree Kill I was like he's just been doing a baby bump all year long yeah he's been scoring every single week yeah literally yes on and off the field yes um he also i think congrats i think he got married like last month good for him yeah good for him settling down yeah i guess having three kids in the same calendar year will will make you reevaluate some stuff i don't know if any of them are with his wife there's gotta be one right i hope i don't know good luck to the couple he has a type yeah he's

got a type i saw the graphic that they tweeted out and it was like all right i know i know what you're into tyreek yeah yeah good job yeah tyreek's having a great season on and off the field he's getting a head start on his post nfl career being a porn star correct correct although yeah i mean I guess they probably do pay more for cream pies.

No comment.

Do they?

I paid more or less i think i think cream pies because that's like not everything is a cream pie so it's like a specialized like that would i don't know if that's an add-on for the guy i think the girl gets paid more for that for the guy it's just like i would rather do that oh hank said maybe not no yeah i agree you know how the budgets work on uh that'd be funny if it actually was a line item tier system yeah like all right we got craft services for the food this one's gonna be a cream pie so we're gonna add an extra thousand mm-hmm yeah tf'ing beforehand yeah all right we're watching tom dempsey's 63 yarder on 1970 yeah he. See the front of his foot.
It's just flat. That's cool.
Because he was born with half of a foot. Okay.
Okay. That's not a 63 yarder though.
That's like a 62 and seven eighths yarder. You really shouldn't be counting inches like that.
I should. All right.
So that was a good nerd nugget then, Jake. then jake stand correct talking about my penis or my height probably i was talking about height but if you were thinking penis no i was thinking height originally and then i was like maybe he's talking about my penis again i'd never talk about another man's penis back to tyree kill cream pieing uh okay so i'm excited for this game i've been thinking about it a lot it Fraud Bowl.
It's the unstoppable force versus the immovable object. The Cowboys on the road versus the Dolphins playing a team over 500.
Hank, how are you feeling in Cowboy land? I feel good. I feel like this is the get right game.
This is the game we prove to the world we're for real, and it's going to give us all the momentum we need going into the playoffs. Still trying to win the division.
Win out, we win the division, right, Max? Is that correct? Let's let Max run the numbers real quick. No.
It's not correct? Not correct. Hank, is that not correct? I trust Max, but we want to win the division.
It seems like you really set Max up to say, yeah, you would win the division, then you were wrong. No, I actually didn't know.
I legitimately.

Right now, the Cowboys are listed ahead of the Eagles.

That's because the Eagles haven't played the Giants yet.

Oh.

So they have a better divisional record.

Got it.

But that's only because we haven't played the Giants.

Got it.

Yeah, this is going to be.

Wait, but the Cowboys only have one loss in the division as well.

I don't think they have as many divisional wins, though.

No, they actually have more.

Do they? Yeah. But we still play the Cardinals as well.
Conference. You're talking conference now.
Yeah, wait. You said division.
Division. If the Eagles and Cowboys win their final three games, the division would be decided by strength of victory tiebreaker, which can't be determined yet.
Oh, what strength of victory? Via Edwarder. That might.
So what you're saying, i think it starts it goes head to head then it goes division then it goes conference i think conference is what you're talking about because the wait no but the cowboys have three losses and the cowboys and the eagles both have three losses i don't know i think i've seen people say that like the the narrative right now is that if the eagles win out they still get the two like the percentage i think like the percentage all right let's look i'm gonna do the simulator right now is that if the Eagles win out, they still get the two. Like the percentage.

I think like the percentage.

All right, let's look.

I'm going to do the simulator right now.

What's awesome while you're looking at that is like,

I'm sure you guys know this,

but I'm sure some listeners don't like the final tiebreaker is a coin flip.

Yeah.

Yeah, it should be telling.

I don't think it'll ever happen.

It happens for draft picks sometimes,

but like could you imagine?

Who do you send out?

Who do the Cowboys and the Eagles send out for that coin toss?

Head coach each team or owner?

No, pick anybody from your franchise's history.

Where would they do it?

Like in the office?

Right now?

Roderick Dell's office, yeah.

I just did it on the playoff simulator.

It does have the Eagles winning the division.

But I think you have to take into account every other game that you fill out

to figure out what the strength of victory is. All right, so let's do this.
We have the Chiefs. They didn't play the Chiefs.
Saints-Rams. No, I'm just kidding.
So strength of victory is the fifth tiebreaker. We just filled out every game.
Strength of victory is the fifth, and then it goes down to 12. 12 is the coin toss.
There's net touchdowns, net points. this will never happen.
Max losing a coin toss would be incredible. Yeah.
They should actually have the president do it. Oh, man.
It'll never get to that. If Sleepy Joe tried to flip a coin, isn't that one of the tests that you give somebody to see? Yeah.
Yeah. How good are you? Okay.
I kind of like the Cowboys in this game. I don't.
Here's why. I'll make my argument, then you make your argument make your argument so the Cowboys have given up 264 points this season 5th best in the league half of those games they gave up 70 points so the other half is the majority of the points they gave up those 7 games where they only gave up 70 points have all been against bottom tier offensive lines.
So Commanders, Giants, Panthers, Giants twice, Panthers, Patriots, Jets, Rams even are in the bottom half. They're more like in the middle.
The Dolphins have had good offensive line play, but now they have a shitload of injuries. So they lost, I think they got their tackle back, but then they lost Austin Jackson, who might play with an oblique injury.

I think the Cowboys might be able to get home.

I think they might be able to pressure Tua in this game.

My counterpoint is that Tyreek Hill is going to be like 110%.

Yeah.

And he's ready to go.

And the baby bump.

And the baby bump, which is just his entire season has been a baby bump.

But I feel like in this case, they held him out last week for no real reason other than to just make sure he didn't get hurt again. He was ready to go in pregame warm-ups.
There's no defense for Tyreek Hill. There's no protection that you can put on Tyreek Hill that will stop him.
He'll cream pie no matter what. We've learned that he is going to feast on the Dallas Cowboys defense, I think.
And also, part of this might be because I've been watching the in-season hard knocks with the Dolphins, so I've got that attachment to them that you get every preseason. Yep.
When you watch it, Mike McDaniel stood up in front of the team after they lost to the Titans, and the speech that he gave to the team was just him going through every single mistake that he made as a coach, and how he personally cost them the game. I love it.
And how he needs to do these things differently because he was counting. He was begging his players to like have to make superhuman plays in order to keep them in that game to win that game.
And he put them in bad positions and they almost overcame how shitty his coaching was. I love that.
I love it. I love this is my Mike McDaniel game.
I think that the team's going to line up and be ready to go, and I love Tyreek Hill in this game. This game, no matter whoever wins this game, the loser I'm going to think is just forget about it.
Biggest fraud ever. Yeah, no chance.
I will change my perception on the loser of this game so severely. And the winner.
The winner is a Super Bowl contender in my mind. This is the most important game of the season in the entire NFL.
Yeah. They might as well just eliminate the loser from the playoffs and put the winner into their conference championship.
The coach should have to wear a patch on his jacket like the Walter Payton man of the year. This is fraud on it.
So now that you've listened to all this, if you're smart you should wait to see who the loser

is and then put a future on him because we're going to be

so wrong. Yep.
And we're going to completely

eliminate the loser. And you should fade the fuck

out of the winner. The winner, yes.

Alright, nerd now. We won't be doing that.

I just thought of it. No, no, we'll be clear.
We'll stay

clear with our overreaction

this game matters more than every

other game on the calendar. I'm going to have it in the

back of my head that I'm wrong about it but I'm

still going to follow my heart. Correct.

Send the Cowboys home. Yeah.
We will lead

I'll see you next time. This game matters more than every other game on the calendar.
I'm going to have it in the back of my head that I'm wrong about it, but I'm still going to follow my heart. Correct.
Send the Cowboys home. Yeah.
We will lead Tuesday's episode with, and the Dolphins or the Cowboys have been eliminated. Promise.
I just thought of an impromptu Nerd Nugget. Uh-oh.
Oh, no. Do you guys think this is the- Whoa, you're going- Jake, you're really stretching here.
Well, it's not confirmed, but I want to – Are you going to freestyle a Nerd Nugget? Yeah. Holy shit.
Do you guys think this is the first ever NFL game where the two head coaches are Mike Mix? No, I can't. I can't.
McCarthy, he's probably coached against McDaniel – Scott – Josh McDaniels before. Oh, no, Mike Mix is insane.
Huh? Oh, Mike Mix. Mike McCoy, wasn't he the head coach of the Chargers? Yeah.
Mike Mick – Mike – Mike – Yeah mix Mike McCoy wasn't he the head coach of the Chargers yeah Mike Mick Mike Mike yeah Mike McCoy was or was he with that no he was the charge no he was the Chargers yeah yeah you know who else was there fucking gif Mike McShanahan it might be it might be Mike McShanahan great name I would hire that guy in a second the confirmed our nuggetget via the NFL on CBS. The stat does back up the fraud ball allegations.
Cowboys versus Dolphins will be the first game in NFL history between teams with 20 combined wins, but one or fewer wins versus teams above 500. Cowboys, 1-3 against teams above 500, 9-1 against teams 500 or below.
Dolphins, 0-3 above 500, 10-1 versus 500 or below. Not only will I call the losing team fraud, I'll call them Mickey Mouse.
Yeah. Chargers played the Packers week six in 2015.
So that was Mike McCoy. It was Mike McCarthy.
Yep. All right.
So probably second game ever. Don't make me fucking go.
No, no. It's okay.
I'm going to find some more Mike Mix. Are you serious? You've given him a purpose now, James.
It's cool. It's the Mike McBow mickbowl uh okay name mike mickbowl that's actually a pretty good name yeah are you uh todd bowles shows up next year after he's been fired for an interview he's like hey let me please coach my name's uh mike mickbowl am i loading up on the cowboys yes oh you are it's a load-up game you're gonna take him in in our weekly picture? Find out.
Well, you said you're loading up on the Cowboys? Yes. Oh, you are.
It's a load-up game. You're going to take them in our weekly picks here?

Find out.

Well, you said you're loading up on them.

I am.

You've been pretty good at gambling this year too, right?

No.

But.

No, yeah, it's been bad.

There's no buts.

I'm due. That was a big but.

But I'm due.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'll give you a but.

But Hank has actually been probably the best gambler on the show until this year yeah because we're we're looking at his stats no he he had no he had one hungry dog on a bonus day last year but it was the holidays facts are facts we've been looking at hank's stats and leading into this, he was actually up money over his entire career gambling on the Barstool Sportsbook.

Whoa.

And nowhere near that for me.

I know it's nowhere near that for Big Cat.

No.

But this year, Hank's been so bad that not only has he lost all his money this year, but he lost all his gains from his previous seasons.

No.

I got like a small island country's GDP I got a small island country's GDP.

Pick a small island country.

Okay, last game on Sunday, Patriots, Broncos, Christmas Eve.

Why is this prime time?

Yeah.

It's going to be a flex.

Because we're the Patriots, and the Patriots are America's team.

We're a fucking dynasty.

I think you guys are going to win this game. You're not going to win this game think you're gonna cover this game did you see the news this week that nfl now looking at more game ball deflate allegations oh yeah so in the chiefs patriots game they found that a bunch of the kicking balls like all the kicking balls had been deflated down to 11 pounds per square inch instead of up to the standard 13 pounds per square inch and now the nfl is just saying oh yeah that's the ideal gas law it got it naturally deflated down to that can you think of any other important game where the pay where the the balls were deflated down to 11 pounds per square inch and the nfl did not accept the argument of it being the ideal gas law i can think take a one.
They should personally apologize to Tom Brady

after the findings of last week's game.

Agreed.

You think they're going to cover?

Yeah.

Patriots stopped the run very well.

Maybe run the – I don't know if Ramondre's playing.

Is he?

I'm not sure.

Garrett Bowles on the Broncos did say playoffs football from here on out. Okay.
I love when that happens. Yeah.
Playoffs. Lose, you go home.
They have an 80% chance of making the playoffs if they win all the remaining games. They might set a record for the most playoff losses in a single season.
Yeah. That's true.
Possibility. Okay, Nerd Nugget.
Also, I don't think this game can be flexible because it's technically not Sunday Night Football. It's an NFL Network game.
So that might have to do with it. That makes sense.
Because Saturday is the two NBC games. Got it.
That always fucks with my brain when they're like Thursday Night Football on Saturday. Monday Night Football on Thursday.
Yeah. Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson needs one passing touchdown to become the second Bronco quarterback Peyton Man Manning in 2012 and 2013, to pass for at least one touchdown in each of the first 15 games of a single season.
Wow. That really just shows you how bad Broncos quarterbacks have been besides Peyton Manning.
John Elway never did it, huh? That wasn't a passing league. No.
Also 15 games in a season. How many regular season games? Was it still 16? It was 14 and then 16, but it was 16 for a lot of his career.
Really, as long as I can remember watching football, it was 16. 14 was like what? Yeah, no, 14 was way longer.
I think it was, yeah. Okay, Monday.
Monday, we got three games. So much football.
Love it. Raiders of theiders the Chiefs I don't know maybe the Raiders that's all I wrote down no I think it's the Chiefs you know what's a crazy stat I think Rice is dialed you know what's a crazy stat because I think we all admit Travis Kelsey Hall of Famer incredible tight end has maybe lost a little step this year also you could also make the argument it's maybe not his lost step.
It's the fact that the receivers suck and everyone can just focus on him. Travis Kelsey is still leading the league in yards for tight ends.
Yeah, it's crazy. I went to look it up and I was shocked.
We're used to seeing Travis Kelsey put up 150-yard games all the time. It puts into perspective just how good he is.
The fact that everyone's like, ah, he's lost step. He's still leading the league in receiving yards.
Is this Travis Kelsey's best season? Yeah. It's nuts.
Yeah. It's nuts.
The way he gets talked about now is, well, it's funny because if you listen to Fantasy Podcast, it's like, he might not be TE1 anymore. Okay, he's still fucking really good.

I think that the Chiefs are, their switch flipping is inevitable.

Yeah.

I think that's-

Should start here?

It gets started, and I think that the Chiefs,

I think we're going to end up looking at the season

and saying the Chiefs are the number one seed.

The only thing is, Patrick Mahomes historically is a big favorite.

Like, they don't cover a lot.

Right. Because they just don't have to blow teams out.
They kind of have the game in hand, run the ball. Second half.
Second half unders in the Chiefs I think is like 13-2 this year. Yeah, we talked to Julian Edelman a lot about the Chiefs and the receivers.
Turns out drops are contagious. They are.
So hopefully they've stopped that. Yeah.
Okay. Nerd Nugget.
AFC West titles at the conclusion of the 2015 season.

Broncos 15,

Chargers 15,

Raiders 15,

Chiefs 8.

AFC West titles as it stands today.

15,

15,

15,

15.

With the win against the Raiders,

the Chiefs will have the most AFC West titles,

completely flipping the script in eight seasons.

We have Pete Sweeney.

God,

I think that's the nerd nugget of the week.

It'd be so awesome. I had it, and then I switched it.

Nah, you made a mistake. That's a good nerd nugget.

It'd be so cool to be a Chiefs fan.

Goddamn.

We're not allowed in KC. We are now.

Oh. I think the poll ended up

52% were allowed. Fuck yes.

So, yeah. I might buy

a house there. I went back.

You know when someone will like a tweet

from weeks ago?

Someone did it on that thread,

and I went back, and I just started laughing again

to be house there i i went back so you know like when someone will like a tweet from weeks ago someone did it on that thread and i went back and i just started laughing again about that guy who's just like don't even try to come to case it's on site in case it's so great uh okay giants eagles max you're going up against the italian wonder yep little house little house divided. Also, people were saying we mushed the agent.
He still is agent. Yeah, he is.
He's just not off field. Right.
Yeah, he hired a marketing agent, which I'm pretty sure happens all the time. Correct.
And they did the right move. He went out to the pizza place.
I think he did the appearance for free. He's a stand-up guy.
Yeah, stand-up guy. Max.
Yep. Max is a hoop guy now.
Mm-hmm. He's just a big day.
Nova and Sixers. That was a big night of hoops last night for me.
Big night of hoops. I went over to say hi to Max last night at the bar.
I sat down next to him at the table. I was just like, hey, Max.
And he just looked at me and goes, how the fuck are we losing this fucking game? That's not what I said. That's almost exactly verbatim what you said.
Some guy came up to me at the bar and was like Is Max like real? Like are you guys like Does he Are you guys making You know is that on purpose when you guys get him mad? Or is that like planned? I was like if you know We were planning that Max would be the greatest actor in the world He's like you think if I go up to him right now and get him mad? Can I? I was like just go ask him about Jay Wright In the middle of the Villanova game Oh man What did you say Max't know. Well, he immediately was like, Hank told me to ask that.
But he did snap. He got the snap.
Eagles offense is broken, Max. The get-right game.
Okay. The spread is alarmingly high.
Yeah, it is. Eagles scored 20 points or more in the first half 10 times last year they've never done it this year until until sunday or sunday monday uh ben solik wrote a deep dive article on the eagles offense being broken it was good read it was basically like shane steichen had at least some type of offense that you know flowed and and Jalen Hurts injury which we've been the first to report is actually a big detriment because they run they don't run under center except for the push tush tush push um and they run it like he is a they run their offense like he is a scrambler and he hasn't really been a scrambler this year.
Designed runs, yes, but scrambling runs, no. The play calling is just very...
Vanilla. Yeah, it's like the same six play calls.
It's essentially smashing the A.J. Brown man coverage button over and over.
They said they were at the end of the game against the Seahawks. The goal of that play was to get pass interference.

I hated that quote.

Yeah, I was going to say why I hated it,

but I want to hear why you hated it.

Because you should never go into a play with the result hoping to be a— Counterpoint, Joe Flacco.

I don't care about Joe Flacco.

Okay.

Just go to the middle of the field.

Get the yards.

I don't need to get mad about that again. I agree with Max, actually.
Joe Flacco can do it because he's really good at it. He's the one guy you should do that.
But Jalen Hurts, to ask him to do that, you're almost saying, like, hey, go out there, throw an incomplete pass on purpose. Yes.
That's what they were asking to do, and I don't like that at the end of the game when all you needed to get was 15 yards in the middle of the field.

It was also tough that Christian McCaffrey went on the Manning cast

and perfectly predicted the play, and that's not good.

Is this a must-win?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Has to be.

Has to be.

Has to be.

13-and-a-half-point favorites.

But, I mean, you lost a must-win.

Yeah.

So your must-wins mean nothing to me they always meant nothing that's not true oh also take that clip and put it on the soundboard uh okay last oh nerd nugget did you do it jalen hurts ranked second in the nfl with 33 total touchdowns trailing only josh allen who has 37 hurts needs two total touchdowns to tie his franchise record of 35 set last year which he shares with randall conningham in 1990 sounds like he's the guy maybe great stat jake maybe he did say he was the thermostat this week i like that quote i'm the thermostat i set the temperature of every room i'm in that's just a mentality to have. Yeah.
Good mindset. It is.
Okay, best game. Ravens and 49ers.
Ooh, boy, is this a treat. I can't wait.
It is a good Christmas present for America, isn't it? Yeah. Also, I think the latest two teams with the best record in each conference have played since like 1993.
Whew.

Whew.

I love the Niners.

I love the Ravens.

Okay.

I like that we, yeah.

I love the Niners.

I just think, I don't think that the Niners can be beat when they have their team together.

If you're missing Trent Williams, Debo Samuel, then that's, they're obviously much, much weaker. Well, we're talking spread too.
Yeah. I'm talking spread.
Oh, you're missing Trent Williams, Debo Samuel, then they're obviously much, much weaker.

Well, we're talking spread, too. Yeah? I'm talking spread.
Oh, you're talking spread? I like Ravens and spread. Okay, I like the Niners.
I've yet to determine whether or not I like them, but I think that I like them against the spread. Okay, a couple things for the Ravens case.
Shout out to guys at Sports Info Solutions. The Ravens are second best in the league.

Sorry, they're best in the league.

Or sorry, they're first in the league in stopping yards after catch,

which is what the 49ers feast on.

Think about all the times when it's like, you know,

Debo over the middle, 10-yard, boom, he takes it to the house.

McCaffrey out of the backfield, little, you know, screen, boom, he takes it to the house. Ravens gang of the backfield little you know screen boom he takes to the house ravens gang tackle they do a good job getting to the ball i that's part of why i like this i like the ravens for that reason also i like the ravens because lamar jackson and the ravens are 19 and 5 against the spread as an underdog since 2015 and lamar remember pft 19 and 1 straight up against the NFC.
I don't look at the Niners being the NFC. The Niners are different.
They're just the Niners. Here's another one.
Is this truly Monday Night Football? Yes, Joe Buck will be on the call. Seven straight upsets outright.
Yep. Monday Night Football.
Do we know what the word with Kyle Hamilton is? I do not. Yeah, I think the Ravens are going to keep – I think they're going to stay in this game.
Kyle Hamilton feels disrespected. I don't like that.
Oh, no. He's disrespected going into this game.
He's disrespected that they're underdogs to the Niners. This is – You should be underdogs to the Niners.
Maybe not five points, but – Tomlin gets all the credit for being the underdog guy. Harbaugh is just as much an underdog guy yeah he they they crush as underdogs yeah i i still like the niners i just don't think that the niners with a healthy team i don't think they can be beat brock purdy is just good just playing good and with all the talent that they have i i love the niners to to win every single game that they're in if they're healthy and if the the Niners win this game, I think it's pretty much set that it'd be tough for them not to get the one seed.
Yeah. Yeah, because they've beaten the Cowboys and the Eagles head-to-head.
Is there? And their last two games are Commanders. Oh, I'm sorry.
That's going to be bad. And the Rams.
So I would say that maybe they're going to take their foot off the gas if they've got the one seed locked up.

Well, they can't get it locked up this week.

Kyle Shanahan is going to put his foot to the ground against the commanders.

He still fucking hates the commanders.

Even though Snyder's gone, he is going to want to score 50 on us.

I guess they could get it this week if the Lions, Cowboys, and Eagles would all have to lose rams could be playing for a playoff spot in that last week that game could be interesting oh you're talking yourself into this no i'm just saying well no but if the niners win this week and against commanders the niners will have the one seed well they could lose this week too could lose this week i guess the lions could still get it i wonder what the tiebreaker is there is there a line that you can bet right now on AFC versus NFC in the Super Bowl? I think so. Because I feel so strongly about the Niners that I almost want to bet them because I'm sure there'll be plus money, right? No.
You mean there'll be... The Niners to win as a future, but I'm also curious about what the AFC, NFC Super Bowl odds are right right now i'm sure there is um but then you're obviously injuries that would suck yeah that would suck yep uh read what's the nerd nugget here uh in running back christian mcafree and wide receiver debo samuel the 49ers are the first team in nfl history to have multiple players with five or more rushing touchdowns and five or more receiving touchdowns in the same season yep those guys can do it all they can do it all also how many people being tackled yeah how many people in media if this is a good game I'm expecting like 10 or 20 uh journalists being like sign me up for round two in Las Vegas in February are you when you say that are you saying you're going to tweet that? Yeah.
I agree you are going to tweet that. But don't you think a lot of others will, too? Yeah, and give me all the popcorn.
Yeah, give me all the popcorn. Or wouldn't mind another one between these two in February.
No, that will definitely happen. Okay, I'm trying to find if there's that line.
I'm trying to find it for you, PFT. I'm sure someone has it.

I found it.

What is it?

AFC Conference plus 115.

Okay.

Yeah, so that would be a good bet.

That would be what, like minus 1, 05, 110, something like that?

Yeah, and you would have to imagine if the Niners roll to the Super Bowl,

they're going to be more than a field goal favorite.

Yeah, I think I might do that.

Okay.

Just go NFC.

Yeah.

Should just take the Niners to win the Super Bowl,

even though it's a terrible line.

I was looking at what that is.

240.

But it's probably better than it would be if they win this game on Monday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If they win this game, they might be like 200, which is crazy.

All right.

Ready for some picks?

Yeah, I'm ready.

Standings.

I wish that we were doing more picks.

We can. So we're locked in at three? Yep, yep.
And one of them has to be on Monday. Okay, so for the 15-minute opening act, I'm at 19.5.
Max is at 15.5. Memes is at 15.
So I'm close to safety but not there yet. Right now they're half a game separating Max and Memes.
One hour, Big Cat 19 a half. PFT 18, Hank 14 and a half.
So three and a half with seven to go, not six. And Big Cat, you are five up on Hank with seven to go.
Okay. Who goes first? Max.
Max. I will be taking the Ravens plus five and a half on Monday night.

I like it.

I like it, Max. That's the 49ers.

And we have to pick a Christmas game, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

I see five.

No, a Christmas day, yeah.

Right, right, right.

Five.

Five.

Five.

Can we not take the same picks?

No.

Even?

No, there's three games on Christmas.

You wanted the holiday pick.

Holiday pick is the holiday pick. Max, Hank wanted the Ravens.
I'm still fighting over here, too. Okay, all right, that's fair.
Memes. I'm going to go Lions minus three.
Okay. Hank.
Against the Vikings. Hank.
I'm going to go 49ers. Minus five.
All right, I'll go the over in the Ravens 49ers game, 46 and a half. I'm going to take the over in the Giants-Eagles game, 42 and a half.
Okay. Jake, you got two picks.
I'm going to take Patriots-Broncos under 34 and a half. I'm seeing 34.
Same. I see 34 and a half.
I just refreshed. Yeah, I see 34 and a half.
And I'm going to take Chiefs minus 10 against the Raiders. Okay.
That is my PFT. I'm going to go with the Miami Dolphins minus one.
Against the Cowboys. Okay.
Yep. I'm going to take, hold your nose, New England Patriots plus seven.
Good pick. Against the Broncos.
I'll be taking the Cowboys. Oh.
Shocker. I was thinking about taking the Cowboys.
I was like, nah, I got to leave that for Hank. Hank for PFT.
Huge. Wow.
Your boys. Light on the line for Hank.
Fins up, PFT. Fins up.
That would be huge, Hank. Miami has a Dolphins.

The greatest football team.

They run the ball from goal to goal like no one's ever seen.

All right, memes.

I'm going to take the Jaguars' Bucs over 41.

I see 41 and a half.

I see 41.

41 it is. I am going to take the Cardinals plus four against the Bears.
That's four and a half. Four and a half.
Love it. A lot of movement today.
And I am going to take the Packers, Panthers over 37 and a half. Ew.
Gross. Offensive player of the week, Bryce Young.
Gross. Okay.
Memes. Holiday pick, I'm going to go over 43 Giants-Eagles.
That was already picked? I took it, yeah. Good pick, though.
Fuck. Love that pick.
Over 40 and a half Raiders-Chiefs. You're just going to go to the next over.
Jumping around. Hank, big pick.
Huge. I'm going to take the Patriots-Broncos over 34.
Ooh. Okay.
And a half. Let's go 34.
Oh, let's see what it is right now. Well, I took under 34 and a half.
I'm taking under 34. Over 34.
Over 34. We're having different lines.

Does that work?

I think so.

Right now, I just refreshed it.

It's over 34 and a half.

Okay, so you're taking over 34 and a half.

Do you want to change your pick?

You can change your pick.

Can I change it to over 34?

You want to buy a half point?

I'll let you buy a half.

For an extra minute?

I'll let you buy a half point.

It's definitely going to be 20 to 14. But if you lose, you have to add 10 minutes onto yourself.
I'll do 34 and a half For an extra minute I'll let you buy a half point It's definitely going to be 20 to 14 But if you lose You have to add 10 minutes onto yourself Nah I'll do 34 and a half Okay You know what PFT You talked me into it I'm going to take the Browns Minus 2 and a half Okay Good pick Thank you I'm going to take Falcons Colts Over 44 and a half I like that No Shane Steichenover has been money. Also, Heineke.
I get to root for my guy. Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pitt in both playing.
Oh, huge. I definitely knew those things.
Huge. Pittman's playing? Yeah, full participants in practice.
Wow. Built different.
Just making sure everyone took a Christmas pick. I think we all did.

Jake finishes off.

I'm going to take Bucs minus two and a half against the Jaguars.

Bucs are feeling good right now.

A lot of good picks.

Overall, I think we're doing pretty well.

So if Hank went 3-0 and PFT went 0-3, what would it be?

Two?

Half.

Half.

Half.

Yeah.

Half with four to play. So if he goes 2-1 and PFT goes 1-2, what would it be? Two? Half.
Half. Half.
Yeah. Half with four to play.

So if he goes 2-1 and PFT goes 1-2?

Four and a half with four.

That would be it.

Wait.

He'd be up four and a half?

Oh, if PFT beats Hank this week, it's over.

Right.

No, but if I go 1-2 and Hank goes 2-1.

So it would be 2-1-2 with four.

Not dead.

2-1-2 with four.

Not dead.

Still alive.

You need the sweep.

Sweep is everything.

Yeah. Cowboys-Dolphins is pretty much everything.
That is. That's for all the marbles.
Yeah. Okay.
Should we do Fantasy Fuckboys and we get to Jules? Let's do it. Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo.
Yo. Yo, what's up? Yo.
It's Fabrizio Guatemala. Fabrizio.
I still don't miss the holidays.

I love the fucking holidays.

Tis the fucking season.

You got food.

You got family.

You got everything.

You got football.

The three F's in life.

The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Love the holidays.

Shout out to the holidays.

Tis the season.

Triple F.

Hell yes. My sit-em.

Coastal Carolina.

Okay.

Yeah. Since when can't a coach go to the beach with some of the dancers on the team? What is this? What is this? North Korea? He just had some gumas.
Yeah. He's there for the ball game.
They're going to the beach. It's the holidays.
What the fuck? Lighting up. My sit-em, redacted.
Or my sleeper is redacted. Yeah, you definitely want your name redacted.
I think we're going to see a lot of redacted this week I'm saying 50% plus redacted Henry Lockwood Was not on that list Not one of the redacted names on the list Okay Hey, what's up dickheads? It's Anthony Giuliani, Tony G Anthony, Anthony, Big F Yo, what up? My starting is my Uncle Rudy Rudy, he can't pay he's got no more money He's flat broke right now So just move on to the next one You leeches aren't sucking off this teat anymore It all went to a security guard's haircut It did great haircut That guy that's a barber that knows the time of day I'll tell you what My sitting is Cameron Diaz uh my my sit-in is cameron diaz saying that you've got to normalize couples having separate bedrooms over here tell you this much if cameron diaz and me he tried to give me the second bedroom i'd say you got another thing coming girl we're sleeping in the same bed i'll take a second bedroom call it the fart box fart box and then my sleeper this weekend is tommy d tommy d for the paisans out there heans out there He just trademarked The passing Paisan I like that nickname Tommy Trademark Tommy Cutlets Passing Paisan Tommy is going to go into Philly And that crowd is going to be rooting so hard For my guy And they're going to say hey this guy He's a good guy He's one of us We can't root against Our guy The passing paisan And that's what I love about The city of Philadelphia I love that Uh What's up fuckers It's Tony Baloney Hey Mr. Baloney My stardom Is cheese and crackers Holiday season Salami Oh boy I go hard in the paint Pepperonioni.
Holy fuck. The pursuit you got to seven fishes you got to save room for.
Don't even give me a dinner. I'll just sit by those cheese and crackers all fucking day.
Cartruderie. Yeah, cartruderie.
My sit-em is Zion Williamson. The rest of his contract is not fully guaranteed because he's too fat.
Yeah, he sat out a bunch of games last year and they said, guess what? Yoink! You're getting this money. He had to be under 295.
He wasn't under 295. Real fucked up to say this to him right before Christmas.
Wait, wait. They actually weighed him in in weight clause? Yes.
The unusual contract also states that some of his weight in pounds and his body fat percentage must be less than 295.

That's unfortunate. Unfortunate.
That's discrimination. It is.
My sleeper, rivalries. Charles Barkley said he'd root for Afghanistan over Alabama.
That's fair. Yeah.
That's fair. That's a real rivalry.
Both have the same literacy rate. Yeah.
Fuck yeah. Okay, yeah, that was an insult contract.
That's tough. Like, how did the NBA media not get their hands on that contract before to say he has to stay under 295? There would have been like a 295 watch Twitter account.
Yeah. It's like when Kyler Murray's contract was leaked.
It's like you have to watch X number of hours of film a week. So the way it reads is I don't think he's 295 pounds, but so it's the sum of his weight in pounds and his body fat percentage.
So he could be like 275 and he's like 30% body fat. Yeah, that would rock.
Yeah. That's what I would do.
I would just lose all my muscle weight, get down to 250, 40%. Yeah.
That's unfortunate for Zion. Yeah.
That sucks. It sucks.
Remember that girl that was like, hey, Zion,

I want to have your baby?

Yeah. That whole thing? Yeah.

Yeah. Could have lost some weight.

A little more sex. Yeah.

What did he have? He had Pepsi and

Coke in his bathroom? Yeah, that's why

Tyreek Hill is in such good shape. Yeah.

Have you seen a guy? Not an ounce of fat on him.

Yeah. Okay.

Let's get to our good friend Julian Edelman in studio. All protein bars generally taste the same, but not one bars.
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Okay, we now welcome on one of our favorite guests. It's been a long time.
He's canceled on us like five times in the last year. Busy man.
Busy man. One time.
But he made the trip to Chicago just for us. Literally for you.
It's Julian Edelman. What's up, guys? Three-time Super Bowl champion, one-time Super Bowl MVP, future Hall of Famer.
Why haven't we had a Julian Edelman Hall of Fame debate recently? I feel like that died down. I think we had it right when you retired because your retirement got hijacked by people being like, Adam shafter was like possible future hall of famer yeah and then we had to discuss like whether or not you were hall of famer in the moment that was supposed to be about saying goodbye to the game what's the question the question is are you a future are you a hall of famer and follow-up question will there be a certain amount of times that you don't get in the hall of Fame that you'll be like, actually, I don't want it? Like, if you get voted in, like, nine years after, you'd be like, that was kind of a pity vote? I don't vote.
Okay. We'll say it's a pity vote.
The thing is, I think you've got Hall of Fame moments. Like, I can imagine the DVD.
This is so mean that we're just doing it. No, it's good.
I'm saying, like, this is good for for your case where i close my eyes and i think about julian edelman and after i get past the thirst traps and the shirtless pictures on father's day and the peds and the p no he got his drink spiked um i envision julian edelman making that catch in the super bowl against the falcons yeah can't tell the story of football without julianelman. That's a fact.
It's a fact. Yeah.
Who would give your speech? This is making you uncomfortable. I like it.
Heck. I don't know.
Yeah. I haven't even thought about it.
Is it weird when you see that debate happening and you're like, this is kind of weird that everyone's decided to repeat my quarter? Yeah, because everyone gets mad about it. Right.
Like, I'm saying something about it. I'm like, whatever.
Right. People are legitimately arguing.
Yeah. You haven't said anything.
You're like, I just played ball. Yeah, I just played ball.
Yeah. All right, so we haven't seen you in a while.
Yeah. I want to talk about just current NFL.
I don't know if you've seen, but there's been reports that a coach might get fired. Yeah, I've seen him.
I've talked about him. So do you think Ron Rivera will get fired? Yeah, I do.
Okay. Yeah, I think you probably.
Well, I actually disagree with you on that. I think he's going to be able to go out on his own terms after the end of the season.
It's going to be a mutual parting of ways that is in no way a firing or presented as a firing. But I think what Big Cat might have been alluding to and correct me if i'm wrong i don't want to interpret what you're saying and misinterpret it but yeah um there's another coach won a few super bowls with you in new england and uh there's a lot of people talking about the possibility that he goes to the washington commanders it's a discussion that's happening across the league could you see Bill Belichick coaching for any team but the New England Patriots next year I mean I think it's a reality that's gonna it's gonna come you know I won't believe it until it's done but it when the media starts getting on this and starts talking about it where there's smoke there's fire and I just hope it's handled correctly you know like, you know, Bill is a huge part of the success that we had.
I mean, he laid the template. Mr.
Kraft was a huge part of the success that we had. Tom Brady was like it's a team sport.
And, you know, he was I think he's the best coach that I ever had. I always felt prepared.
I always felt like we had nuggets on, on teams and we had, we had a competitive advantage because of how we prepared and the, the time that the coaching staff always put into the game. So, uh, could I see him coach for another team? It's going to be weird, but yeah, I mean, this is national.
Everyone gets fired. He used to say that all the time time bill would always say that everyone gets fired in this business you know and i remember him talking about the media once and he was like you know one of the things were how we were supposed to handle the media this that he goes look you know they're just looking for a story like there's gonna be a day where they throw me under the fucking bus and it looks like it's it's starting to turn that way so hank's got to go in a second do this live stream what what would you tell hank to give him because he's kind of down yeah he doesn't literally all he has left is this lighthouse that's all he's got the lighthouse the lighthouse how is the lighthouse i haven't been yet fake as fuck it's not yeah it seems awesome yeah but he he's like beaten down he's he doesn't know what is like.
He's living the other half. It's the end of an era.
Yeah. Yeah, it's...
What do I say to Hank? I mean, Celtics look good. Yeah, that's what he's been doing.
That's a great answer. You know, I mean, the Bruins are doing pretty good, aren't they? Are they doing good? Yeah.
He's a huge buckhead. So, yeah, it it's gonna be tough probably for a little while this is this is you know when the empire falls yeah take some time to to rebuild it's kind of a somber transition because it is he's been such a big part of that entire area and just a part of football for so long it's gonna be weird oh what i'm sorry were you talking about? Hank? I thought PFT was talking about me, but.
Oh, Hank too. Hank was a big part.
Like Bronk told us what a big impact Hank had on winning the Super Bowls. Amongst the guys you played with, there have been a couple names that have been maybe linked to being the next head coach of the Patriots.
We don't talk about another man's job, so we're not going to say that Belichick has been fired or anything, but I'm saying hypothetically, in a scenario where you had a new head coach next year, between, let's just say Mayo and let's say Vrabes, who would you want taking over for Belichick? Ooh, that's tough. I'm a fan of both.
I think Vrabel's an unbelievable head coach. I mean, it seems like his team always squeaks away with wins they're not supposed to have.
I mean, they've been number one seeds. They've built something in Tennessee that's been pretty competitive for the last, what, eight years? How long has he been there? Six, seven years? Wow.
Eight years. You know, Gerard, he's one of the smartest football players I played with.
You know, he was the guy that was helping me get lined up when I was playing DB. I'd look at him, he's covered fucking five, get over there.
You know, so Gerard knows football. But, you know, he hasn't coached a head coach.
He hasn't had a head coaching role yet so if it was if i were to go that that route of of hiring a coach you know with with the pick that they're probably gonna i would want to probably have an offensive minded guy yeah yeah that's kind of what the league's going to matt patricia bring him back yeah maybe yeah Maybe Matty P. Do you think, play a hypothetical out.
Kraft walks into Belichick's office after the season. He's like, look, I think time's come.
We're going to part ways. Belichick says, what if I bring back Ernie Adams and Dante Skarnickia? And Kraft's like, shit, the boys are back.
We got to do do this does he have that card in his in his back pocket i don't think so i think they're out dante he's over in uh where he used to go he somewhere in rhode island narragansett and he swims laps right now with the whales he's like i'm not joking he's like 85 years old that guy would swim every morning he's a badass I don't think he's come out of retirement And Ernie I have no clue where he is That's probably for the better He's probably Just off the grid Off the grid He's like Jason Bourne He's probably still keeping notes though Wouldn't you think? Definitely Yeah Like he never stops I honestly wonder if Bill ever calls those guys and asks asks or is he just in the what the the program of i'm with the guys i'm in yeah now but yeah i remember dante when we didn't have them we had goodge gutierre or the offensive line coach uh i remember i would see dante he would come in and he would consult you I think, do some of those kind of roles or work a guy out or go look at a guy for Bill. So I don't think that card is going to be able to be pulled.
Yeah, I like the fact that Dante is just out swimming with whales. He just needs to be around his big dudes all the time.
He really is. I just like being around he does dude he's probably yelling at those whales yeah get formation hit low leverage put your fucking hand like he would yell and that that that's why he was such a good coach because you would see in film you know in the film room sometimes a coach will just like yell at you like we got to get better like like Dante would break down the fundamental of what you have to do like it'd be really mean how he would say it like you fat fuck put your right foot over here drop your ass put it on your hand like he'd give the actual technique and that's what a good coach is yeah you know what I mean and uh I love the behind the guy, too, in football.
Because it's like the Georgia strength and conditioning coach, Scott Sinclair. He was with Saban at Bama for all those wins.
And then he goes to Georgia and they win two national championships. And I'm like, this guy, he's got the secret sauce.
Like, he's the guy behind the guy. He's the one who's with the players all all through the offseason like the strength and conditioning coach is the most important coach i believe in college football like each program because he's with them all the time he's making you know little skinny kids 18 year olds into men yeah and it's like the guy behind the guy that doesn't get all the shine sometimes those guys are like what makes it all tick without a doubt i mean it's it's always funny to see the dynamic of of the head coach with the strength coach because the strength coach is kind of like he's the ears right he's the ears but he's also you know the head coach would go up to the strength coach and be like you know how how we running today how you know he's like checking the cars and you know he's a mechanic yeah you know got a couple hamstrings coach but we'll get them right in the you know weight room like shit like that and uh it is i think the strength coach is more important in college because you're you're influencing the the younger kids uh you know um when you get to the pros uh you would think that you'd have that relationship with the strength coach but you don't because you guys aren't lifting heavy and stuff right you do in the off season yeah but you don't want to get hurt in the weight room you know and you know it's more specialized to your position by the time you get to the national football league where you you may even hire a third party you know trainer just to work on speed or you work on change of direction.
There's all these guys with their techniques and stuff. There's always an L.A.
guy or a fucking Florida guy or a Houston guy or the Bomberitos of the world where you go and run with him and he makes you – so it's just different when it becomes a job. So I want to talk about the whole league right now.
Maybe, you know, get all your thoughts because you're on TV all the time. Also, Games With Names is back.
Back. Great podcast.
We've both been on it. Yeah.
Awesome. Like, you're going viral, I feel like, every other week right now with the MJ story.
That was fun. So MJ told you he was going to bet on you before the Super Bowl? He said, I got a lot of money on you guys.
Don't fuck it up. That had to be the most intimidating thing ever.
I was so intimidated, but I loved him even more after. Yeah.
Like, he put his alpha on me. Did you think during that Super Bowl, like at any point? No, I didn't.
Like, the break of the game, like, shit, MJ's got money on me. No, I completely forgot about it.
You put the blinders on, but yeah, that was, that was pretty cool. Yeah.
So, so one of the big stories right now is Kansas city wide receiver room. So what do you think is going on in that wide receiver room? Like if I were in that wide receiver room, I just basically just be keep, keep telling my homes, like I'll catch the next one.
Don't worry. Just keep throwing it to me.
But, the pressure that those guys have on them, did you ever have a moment like that where your room is not doing everything? Like, maybe there's a bunch of dropped balls in a game, and you're sitting there and you're like, Tom was giving us, like, the throws. We just weren't making the plays.
Yeah, I've been in rooms like that, you know, where you're not holding your end of the bargain up you know as the team goes and that comes down strictly to confidence and it is hard for young guys like in Kansas City right now these guys are young guys it's a young group and that beast of Kansas City I mean they're like the new like the new Pats you know what I mean you have the superhero quarterback you got a great coach you guys have a system that's in place you got a tight end that you know demands all the eyes so everyone's looking at the receiver and saying well it's going to rely on you so it's tough I'm sure they're they're hearing some of the noise about it you know it's it's it's easy to nowadays with with the social and and everything but it ultimately comes down to just practice and preparation like whenever i would go into like uh i had a couple drops or something i would always just i'd hit you know you go back to the fundamentals you have to do extra ball drills you, you take practice like the mini games, you know, just because the more pressure you put yourself through in practice, you know, it makes the game easier when that pressure comes on the game. So, you know, there's going to have to be some leadership that comes out of that room.
You know, the Rasheed Rice kid, he's had some production these last few weeks. And I guarantee, you know, Patrick Mahomes, the type of guy that's going up to him and Watson and saying, hey, guys, I know there's been a couple drops,

but let's build off of the successes, those little successes that you've had.

And that's what they have to do.

Just try to stack good days together in practice,

and it'll translate in the games.

Yeah. Are drops contagious? They are.
They are. How so? Because I've heard people say it, and it always sounds funny when somebody on TV is like, drops are contagious, you know? But is it like a mental thing where one rod receiver, he drops a couple easy catches, and then that just adds the pressure on the other guys where they're like, fuck, that guy's dropping it.
I really better make sure that I catch mine mine and that added pressure makes them more likely to drop a ball yeah i i would say probably but the good leaders and the great quarterbacks they don't they they don't yell at you for drops they yell at you for stupid shit like you know not knowing a formation or a pre-snap penalty or you know uh you know a technique in a route like like that's when they get mad. They, they understand drops are going to happen.
And as a quarterback, you're, you're on that level of where you have to play, you know, and figure out each guy in your rooms, what kind of coaching or what kind of love do they need? Do they need tough love? Do they need, you know, supportive love? to make these guys get the best out of themselves? So I still think they're figuring that out in Kansas City. But when you have the defense that they have right now and Patrick Mahomes, you're still going to have a shot.
I don't think they're the favorite. I think Baltimore is real tough right now with what they have going over there.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they go.

I mean, they're probably going to win their last three games.

Yeah.

And that's just going to get them more confident.

And that's what it's really about.

These next three weeks are going to be a pivotal part of the season

because you're starting to get your grind going. I remember back in 2018 when we lost to the steelers we had two losses in a row in like close to december late november and like that's we were hitting the panic button right like we got to get this shit going right now because you know you got to get in those runs and that's where your confidence builds and you get excited for work because there's there's a there's a light at the end of the tunnel the season's right there you know what i mean you know that those weeks when you're like six to probably 12 your body doesn't feel good the lust of the season starting is not there no more guys are banged up more weather weather's starting to get a little colder it gets hard and

it becomes the grind this time of the year is when you know you start you start getting those cream teams yeah have you ever have you ever had to react from losing a must-win game yeah that that that's that that Steelers game we felt like that was a must-win game because we we dropped one and then we lost that one, and then we went on our roll.

But the sense of urgency in the building after those kind of losses,

with the teams that I was on, the urgency went up.

So the schedule might actually work out well for the Chiefs,

where it's like they get three easier opponents,

maybe they use those weeks to get right, and then in the playoffs they're like we don't have the drops anymore our receivers are fine I mean it could I mean it comes down to making the plays uh you know I tell you right now when you get to the playoffs there's always the saying the coaches say we ain't saving nothing so that's when you know you get the plays and the scheme comes more, more magnified, something you've been working on all year.

So I have trust that they're going to be able to figure out ways to get those guys the balls the way they need to get it.

Yeah. Can the 49ers be beat?

Yeah, but it's going to be tough.

How do you beat them? They look so much better than everyone else. I mean, you've got to run the ball against them.
The number of carries, and you can't lose on first down. You do not want to get on a hole against that defensive line that only has to rush four, and then you can get all that crazy scheme with the defense behind, and they fly.
They're physical. They all swarm to the ball.
They play hard. It's tough, but you have, like, whenever we were playing against the best defensive lines, the Von Miller D-lines and shit like that, we always had to run the ball because those guys don't like guys coming at them.
Right. They want the pass set.
You know, so they want to go and do all their fucking moves

that they practice in the hallways when they're going to the cafeteria.

You always see the defensive ends doing a fucking shake-shake this.

It's weird.

Like, Ninkovich and Chan Jones used to do that.

But, yeah.

I just got a loss of thought.

Yeah.

With the Niners, I was going to say the way to beat them,

just injure the quarterback.

And then the backup quarterback.

Yeah, it's tough.

I mean, you got to play tough.

You got to play – you got to keep that offense off the field.

Yeah.

And that's what the running game does as well. And you have to execute in the red area and on third down, which that's where they're good.
So we had Jeff Saturday on last week, and something that's very interesting to me looking at the NFL right now, specifically in December, there's teams that have had good seasons, but they have a glaring weakness. Yeah.
Like the Eagles defense or the Lions defense. And we asked them, like, can you correct this? Do you remember a time when it was like, we're not that good, but something scheme-wise or how we practiced was able to fix that? Because it does feel like every year there's a team that we kind of write off and they can make a deep run because they fixed something that, you know, whether it be defense or offense, that they look totally different come January.
I honestly think it's not just one thing that you fix. It comes down to, you know, guys working together to execute a play.
And when you get guys that don't worry about the big holes that you have or whatever and get and get to like the what we have to do to win if you can get everyone to buy into that and you guys can have good weeks of preparation and when practice looks there's not a ball on the ground there's not a fucking split double team like when all those little things start getting corrected in practice that's when when you go on your runs you know that's when the confidence is rolling it it's it's stupid it sounds stupid but everything from the success that i had or our teams had you always saw it in that week of practice right have you ever had like a great week of practice and you're feeling really good and then you go to the game, get your teeth kicked in? Yeah. You're like, what happened there? Yeah.
One year against Baltimore, I had, like – and it was when we just traded for, like, Dion Branch. And we traded Randy.
So I was sitting there like, man, I'm going to get hella more reps. Hell yeah.
Had a great week of practice. And I ended up having like, I got knocked out of the game by Ray.
And I was like, fuck. That was like the only one time.
But other than that, anytime I had like a really solid week of practice. Translated? It always translated.
Yeah. So you think the Ravens out of the AFC.
You think they're the best team. I'm going to throw another team at you.
Team nobody wants to play right now. You know who that team is? Let's hear it.
I think it's the Bills. Yeah.
I think nobody would want to play the Bills right now. I got to see this week from the Bills.
Yeah. Because that was something they've never done.
They've never relied on the run game. And that's something that I've always said that they should incorporate.
Josh Allen under center. You know, and I got to see this week with the Bills because their defense, when playing from behind, doesn't play the same if they're playing from ahead.
Yeah. That's when they can start using their schemes and McDermott can do all his stuff on defense.
You know, they've kind of struggled on the defense-aligned position, not including last week. Last week, Oliver and, you know, Vaughn was effective.
I think Vaughn's going to continue to get better with his knee. I mean, he's an older guy and he's still recovering.
With that injury, which I've had, you know, you get better as the year goes on because you need that load. So I expect him to get better, and he's a veteran.
You know, he'll probably start kicking it up. Yeah, that's a tough team to play.
But I got to see this week how they're going to – are they just going to try to go back to what they were? Because, you know, the sudden jolt of of a really good game, they haven't been like that all year. They've been so inconsistent.
Two in a row, too. Yeah, like the Chiefs and the Cowboys.
So I want to see some consistency because it's usually the teams that are consistently doing well in big games are the teams that go on runs. The one thing I loved, Joe Brady had a press conference, I think it was today, where he was like, our plan wasn't to run the ball like that.
It just worked. And then we're like, why would we go away from that? A redo team.
A do-over team. That's what coach used to say.
Yeah, but that's like the best. Those are the best offensive coordinators, I would assume, that like, yeah, they might have a plan, but if something's working, why would you – you don't have to win pretty.
No, you've got to feel the flow of the game. Right.
You have – you know, we were never a scripted team. Like a lot of the West Coast teams, they have a 15-play script, and they'll go through that 15-play script, and then they'll do adjustments off that script.
You know, we had like kind of a a hybrid of that where we had a script of plays that we wanted to get in the first quarter that had plans to see how they were playing it to to be able to counter it like a flow chart like if then yes play works then exactly there's right flow that i mean they have the category that's the play sheet is one of the most incredible things to see from an offensive coordinator, how they design their play sheet. They've got to have it plays.
They're fucking third down windows that are broken up in three to two, two to five, you know, short yard. Like, they have it all broken down.
When you look at those things, it's pretty cool. So, I think, yeah, you've got to feel the flow of the game.
If something's working, you go. Yeah, because you spam it, that Chiefs championship game that you were in.
I feel like you spam that play of you over the middle. It felt like five times in a row.
And a couple of those run gap plays that we were running, yeah, we felt we had good matchups on a lot of those plays. When it's nut-cut it's nut-cutting time and it's, you know, the playoffs, you got to go to the plays that you executed the best throughout the year.
Yeah, so when you're spamming a play like that, does the defense ever say, like, yo, we know this is coming? Yeah. But they still couldn't stop it? Sometimes.
That's got to feel like a superpower. Nah.
It doesn't feel like a superpower, but, you know, it was pretty cool. Yeah, I think it was a superpower.
I was thinking about it, you know, like, because I used to run a lot of those crossers, and I would run over to the thief or robber, which is the other safety that comes down, so they funnel you into him, so it's a form of doubling, you know what I mean, where this guy will not get beat on the outside and this guy will will catch you on the inside so that's a way of using someone and like when you get on a great page with the quarterback there's one thing that can never be covered the perfect throw yeah you could have a guy in the perfect position you can have everything but if there's a perfect throw and you make the catch, I mean, it's uncoverable. That's the Dan Marino.
Wasn't that his quote? Was it? There's no defense for the perfect pass? Maybe. Yeah.
It was. What about in the NFC? There's a team I'm concerned about.
I've got rising levels of concernment with this organization, the Philadelphia Eagles. Would you be concerned? I i am if you were you're concerned i would be concerned i'm hitting uh i'm pressing the urgency button we need to we need to press that uh you know they've been struggling with an identity all year on offense uh the defense you know they're designed to get after the quarterback because that's where a lot of their money's at and their draft capital and they really haven't been getting after the quarterback and they haven't been able to stop the run uh and you know we've all seen what what you know the secondary has been doing um so you're getting to the point where you have to be concerned you know you're gonna start playing the best teams in the league like when you go to playoffs it turns turns like a switch.
Everyone's playing 15% to 20% harder. There's nothing else that you keep in the gas tank.
You did your Belichick voice there. I liked it.
Did I? Yeah. Flipped the switch.
Yeah, everyone's playing 15% to 20% harder. That was good.
You slipped it. It was like playoff mode just went in your brain.
Yeah. No um i i would definitely be concerned i mean they're turning the ball over you don't that you don't want that you don't want to play bad football in december would you be concerned or would you say season's over i wouldn't say season's over that's smart yeah but losing a must win well we'll see how they they could still be what 14 and three or what are they they're four losses four losses.
Four, then 13-4. 13-4.
I mean, they very, very, very easily could be 13-4. Speaking of turnovers, how much did it suck when you turned the ball over going back to the side? Oh, my God.
It was the worst. Would you be, like, putting your head down, hoping that no one says anything, knowing that someone's going to come ream you out? If you fumbled when I was on theots you were they had a term you're in the doghouse yeah we love dog houses yeah my my receiver coach chad o'shea he would always say yeah you're you're in the you know i remember i fumbled on a punt return against the giants in like 11 or something and uh he goes yeah you're in the doghouse with the big guy i'm sitting there and i'm like oh fuck he's like yeah you better stack some good practices he had quite a doghouse yeah so a couple good practice go you know and i'm like and i go check in with o'shea i'm like yo am i still in the doghouse he goes you a paw coming out, but you're still in.
He used to say that shit. So the receivers coach would be like almost the good cop, like, listen, I'm trying everything with the big guy, but there's nothing I can do.
You're in the doghouse. You know, a good position coach is a guy that he's kind of like a psychologist.
Yeah. You know, they have to be able to read the room and get the points that the head coach is drilling into him to, you know, a group of eight guys, you know.
And every guy is different. So he has to put that psychologist cap on, and you got to play and pull certain strings with certain guys.
You know, and I kind I liked tough love and I was terrified of Bill and he knew that and so he would play that game with me you know or he would say it to other receivers like yo you motherfuckers big guys you guys need to start doing some shit or you know we're gonna I remember he used to say where you're gonna get that to get that call, window or aisle. You know, give me your playbook.
So that's what you responded to was like the fear of getting cut. Yeah, when I was younger.
And then it changes. Everyone has a different stress in the locker room.
You know, when I was a special team guy and a guy trying to make a role and learn the position, I had to make myself know versatile and I had to make I had to be good at a lot of little things I wasn't great at one thing yet um you know so uh you know by the time you get to you know I establish a role then you have a different kind of stress where you don't want to you know you don't want to let your team down you know you see another guy working his ass off next to you, blocking. You see the quarterback making the right read, getting the right play call in.
Everyone's doing their job. You didn't want to be the guy that didn't do his job.
And so you feel disappointed. So anytime you came off the field after you fumbled or you had a drop or something, it hurts you.
You get sad because you let the boys down. Who's the AFC team? We can't figure it out.
Baltimore? I like Baltimore because the only reason I like them, their defense is fast sideline to sideline. They always seem to get better and better each year.
It doesn't matter what Ravens team. In December, their defense is always getting dialed up.
On offense, Zay Flowers, I think he's a really good little football player, man. He's had some really good production.
Isaiah Likely, I liked him two years ago in the preseason, and I'm a huge Mark Andrews fan. I think that dude's a man-child, and that was a thing that concerned me with them.
But, you know, Lamar Jackson's playing – when he plays in control and decisive and doesn't take the crazy risks, you know, he's unstoppable. And he gives the best matchup against any NFC team.
You know, if you think about, that's what I think,

who could challenge the 49ers?

Because when you have an X-Fact,

like Lamar Jackson is just a game plan killer.

Right.

He can go take a game over.

Especially if he's, you know, Odell.

When the lights are bright, you know Odell's going to come out and he's going to start balling.

And you already started to see it churn with him.

He's getting better and better. I mean, he's coming off a knee.
He's an older guy. So I expect him to get better.
I think they're a scary football team, and on special teams with John Harbaugh. They take importance in all three phases of their game.
Yeah. And that's scary, you know, because you can win a game on special teams just like they did two weeks ago on the punt return.
Yeah. You know games.
And when you have that, I think it's scary. And they're playing consistent football right now.
It is crazy. Special teams, you ignore it.
And then it always feels like playoffs. That's when it shows up.
Like teams that have spotty special teams, even if it's like their net punt yards or just like where they're letting're letting teams start from yeah and then all of a sudden you get to january like oh that's actually really important very i mean if you look at like all the super bowl winners you can see their top categories you know it's it's you'll you'll notice that special teams they're always in the top eight you know like that's a big part of the game you know i know it's getting dwindled out with a lot of the rule making right now but uh i remember in my career we would win like two games a year on special teams yeah you know whether when we came here to chicago and cp fucking took one we couldn't get anything established it was a grind game they had a pretty good defense we weren't We weren't getting anything going on offense, and we busted that. Our defense played well, and we won the game because of that.
That can win you games. Yeah.
What about your old nemesis, Joe Flacco and the Browns? I know. Do you like watching Joe? I do.
I mean, we came in the same year. He was an old nemesis, but I'm excited for him and how he's doing because it didn't look great when he was in New York.
And I talked to Chad. He's over there, Chad O'Shea, with the Browns, and he said he could still throw it.
He gives him an opportunity and and it's really it's really interesting that team reminds you of the baltimore team that he won a super bowl on yeah you know all all flaco's got to do is really take care of the ball hit a couple of those deep balls you know which he loves throwing uh you know he's had some mistakes but you expect that for a guy who just came off the couch you know and and he's played

some really good football even with those mistakes well if he can do what he did when he won a super

bowl and not have any interceptions at all in the playoffs they i could see cleveland winning a

super bowl if he doesn't throw a single interception well i think it's going to be a tough road it'll

be a tough road but you know they're going to be a there'll be a strong team yeah has uh has there

been we asked gronk this has brady texted you at all being like i'm thinking about coming back

Thank you. You know, they're going to be a strong team.
Yeah. Has there been, we asked Gronk this, has Brady texted you at all being like, I'm thinking about coming back? No.
He would text you, right? I don't think so. You don't think so? I'm too far out now.
Get the gang. You're in the media too much? You're too far out? Yeah, I think I'm out now.
Damn. Has anyone gotten mad at you for a take you've had in the media that you used to play with? Matt Jones got mad at me.
Oh, really? What'd he say? I don't know. He texts me.
He was like, what the fuck, dude? Nah, he texts me like, what's up? How are you, bro? Oh, that's perfect. And you knew you said something.
It was literally like right after the thing I said it. I was like, I'm good, man.
I'm taking my daughter to school right now. How are you? Oh, use the daughter shield.
Oh. Yeah.
Father of one. Humanize yourself.
Yeah. Put something on the plate for my family right now.
How are you? How are you doing? Got to get a takeoff. Actually, I'm great, man.
Weather's great in LA right now. Just came off a crazy long night.
That was a couple years ago. I haven't...
Brady will... He calls me a little media darling now or something.
I like that. Gronk also said that occasionally Brady would text him with just highlights of the two of them playing.
Does he ever do that? Like, hey, remember how awesome this was? He hasn't texted me highlights, but he'll text certain plays that we had if he saw a game. Because now that you're retired, we've never watched the games on TV.
He does the, this could be us, but you playing. Yeah.
Like, remember that? Yeah. Remember when we used to do that together? Yeah, it was more of a remember that.
Yeah. Not a this could be us.
So how's everything going? You are a media a media darling games with names back who's the dream guest on that uh we already had you two so yeah check those dreams off good pandering i like that um wait is this the first time you've been on since you weren't on the mount rushmore was he not on the mount rushmore i don't know i know we voted for him yes we voted yeah we voted for it. Hank did not.
That was hurtful. Yeah, fucking Hank.
But who's the dream guest? It's an awesome podcast. Like, it's genius.
I would love to get Jordan on. Yeah.
Or Bill. Oh.
You know, I think Bill would be fun. I think Bill.
You and Bill in, like, a big game. I think Bill would be, I would just love to see him, because I know the fucking smile he gives When he does I would love to I've never done an impression in front of him Yeah So I would start it like Hey Bill how you doing I want to see how he reacts He probably is like alright Do you think he would want to do Like the 283 game, or do you think that Bill would want to dive, like, way back to some, like, week seven Cleveland Browns game where he remembers, like, the cool shit that he did? He might go back to, like, a Baltimore Colt game when he was a special team coordinator.
Like, that dude, if it's the further in the weeds, he loves. Yeah, or what was the game where he, like, made time disappear? Was that against the Jets? Yeah.
Or he was on the sidelines. And Vrabel did it back to him.
That was a different one. There were two times.
Yeah, we did it first, and then Vrabel did the same thing to us in the playoffs. Yeah, but the first time you did it, I think, was against the Jets.
It was. It was a penalty.
Yeah, you guys took two consecutive penalties, and they showed Bill on the sidelines, and he just had this shit-eating grin that was just going across his face. And I think Adam Gase was the other coach who was just trapped in a vortex, like, what the fuck is happening to me right now? That was awesome.
No, I don't know if he would do that. He loves the Giants games.
He would love talking about a Giants game. Yeah.
Or an old, I don't know. I would say whatever game he would want.
Where do you think you rank in Bill Belichick's favorites?

And is there a clear favorite?

Oh, yeah.

LT.

LT.

LT's number one.

Loved LT.

Yeah.

He loved defensive guys.

Yeah.

Like, we used to call Devin Belichick.

You know, he loved Mayo. He was like a little bit like Gerard Belichick.
Love defensive guys. I don't know.
I don't know. Because he should.
You should. He's got a good poker face, bro.
A lot of people don't know what he's really thinking. If you ever got him on games with names, you should ask him, like, give me your top 10.
Because I feel like you should be on there, just like your story. Scrappy.
Like, you're the perfect Belichick patriot of, like, guy that no one wanted to draft. Like, switching positions, utility, then becomes an incredible wide receiver.
You know, I think he respects my game. I think he respects me, which is the ultimate, you know, because he's seen a lot of players, you know, and I don't know exactly what he said, but he released a statement when I retired, which, you know, that shit brought tears to me.
Yeah. You know, Coach was like, Dad.
Yeah. Dad saying I love you.
Yeah. It was like the first time he said I love you yeah yeah first i've been working so hard my

entire career just to hear that yeah made it all worthwhile i mean that's how it felt anytime he gave you a compliment yeah speaking of how's frank doing frank's the man frank is still working the the uh auto body shop uh auto motor repair but yeah yeah he's still just grinding every day He's grinding.

He's all worked up about this bullshit, too.

Oh, really?

Yeah, he called...

Does he call into tom coran he does he him and tom talk and so he's like what the fuck's going on yeah and my dad still watches like we had so we sell direct tv at my parents and so he has all the boston, and he still watches, like, the Boston media stuff. Just to see if they say your name? Nah, just to see.
Like, he still loves the team. He loves Belichick.
Yeah. He loves Brady.
You know, so he's been all worked up over this whole thing. Like, they can't fucking do this to coach.
Have you tried to get him to take some time off like dad you've yeah bro like so i had i had my parents down for thanksgiving and i was like pop you can you can you come you know tuesday well you know nah i gotta come wednesday i gotta close the shop up you know getting into the year, man, and getting into the year. It's tough.
So he's got to close all the books. We'll get him on a vacation here soon, hopefully.
Yeah. Yeah.
Where would he want to go on a vacation? I think he said he wanted, he's never been out of the country. He's never been to Europe.
Okay. All right.
He wants to go to Greece. Okay.
Yeah. He wants to see, like, he wants to see the island stuff, but he also wants to see the old history of Athens and shit.
Yeah. Parthenon.
Yeah, I don't know. Get him there.
I got to. It's a good family trip.
There was a big story in the news this week. Made some waves.
It was Rashard Mendenhall. Oh.
Rashard Mendenhall. Yeah.
Doing the hypothetical all-black versus all-white Pro Bowl. I drafted you onto the all-white team as a defensive back because our ranks are so thin right now that I feel like – Who's the receivers? Receivers with Cooper Cup and Thielen and maybe Braxton Berrios.
We got stacked tight ends. You got Berrios and Thielen over me? Well, no, it's current.
It's current. Our ranks were so thin at DB that I was like,

I think we have to call up Julian Edelman and see if he can come back and play.

You'd be struggling.

Could you guard Tyreek Hill?

Absolutely not.

How many yards, if you were matched up against him for four quarters,

let's say it was a close game, how many yards do you think he put on you?

He put a lot.

But I tell you right now, I'd hold him every goddamn play. I'd hold him at five yards.
And I'm holding. That's what I would do to Wilker when I'd cover him in practice.
He'd get so fucking mad. Just hold him.
Just hold him. Make it so bad that they can't throw it to him.
I actually think the defensive back might be the hardest position to play them yeah you're doing everything backwards yeah you're doing everything in a back pedal yeah every rule change has been put into place every advantage is on the offense they know where they're going you don't know where they're going what's your take on this whole uh the kid who got suspended which one for the hit oh the colts um i i think it's bullshit i it looked indefinitely On that play, it looked like. Anything in slow motion looks bad.
Yeah, there's not a lot. We see with hockey, I think, more than we talk about with football, where you slow down the replay, and you're like, look how malicious this hit was.
It was the stroller to the head. And if things are happening at warp speed in real time, you can't adjust your body that quickly.
In that case, he was diving forward almost into the path right the defensive back was going to the defensive back knows you're not allowed to hit a guy high so your your target as a defensive player is going to be right around that midsection area and that's where his head was going towards i think it's just way easier to say with the benefit of slow-mo like like that's a dirty play. And it's also like for some reason offense –

and there are times when it's clear the defensive player is targeting,

but offensive players don't get any criticism in terms of like

that was a reckless play on his side too.

It was like both sides, it was an unfortunate hit,

but I just think indefinite –

I think it should have been a penalty in the moment,

but suspending is crazy. Does have a record he must he might does he have some priors yeah the guy from denver definitely doesn't so that's like that's such a bang bang play where it's like both guys are in the air going for the same spot i mean the quarterback makes a better throw we don't have it right right Right, right, right.
That goes into what Brady was saying. If you were rewarding offense for lack of execution of a play.
Right, right. Or it's even like you'll see a running back lower their head into a defender.
It's like, that never gets called. They're using their helmet as a— They have a couple times.
They've been doing it more lately. I mean, you can clearly see these point of emphasis is going on right now yeah the other one like lining up offside so did did you ever get called for lining up did you line up offside in pittsburgh so i was in the slot a lot and i like to hug that line so i can get into my route quicker and so i would always go and i would look at my guy and I'm telling him I'm back.
And I, and I did it on film and you know, sometimes you get lazy and you just, you do it without making eye contact with them. Motherfucker called me and I was clearly, I mean, I was close to the line of scrimmage, but I wasn't on it.
And I, on film, I gave him, I'm off, you know? So I, I have been called for something like that, but it goes into like the most fundamental thing that you practice in every walk through every fucking practice play every seven on seven right look over to the imaginary ref and you make eye contact with them that's like what we were taught you know what i mean so i think that's sloppy yeah that was the mahomes rant about the refs i don't get mad at mahomes either no it was after the game. Right after the game.
And I also like watched it being like, what he's really mad about here is that they're not executing. Like they're not making the little things that you have to do to win football games.
You know, it, it, it's like when you make, when you make hardwood floors, I heard this, I heard Belichick say this to us once. he goes you know like it's like making floors you know like you got to go and you got to hammer down each nail and you check you double check all those nails because you may miss one and you may not see it but three months down the road when you stub your fucking toe on it you'll realize you should should have checked again.
You know, it's like that.

It's just getting sloppy execution.

These little things that you're not doing in practice,

these little things that are coming up,

that's probably because they haven't been practicing it.

Right.

Yeah, no, it's true.

Every house you're sneaking out of,

make sure that there's not a ring doorbell camera on.

It might catch you shirtless. Yeah.
He looked good look good he looked good i really wish he ripped a fart though you know what i'm gonna tell him i'm gonna ask him about it the first yeah i'm gonna go up there and i'm gonna say hey coach um you know that deep breath that you took to gather yourself that's what i used to do every time i had to step in your office i thought he looked good in the video yeah i thought he looked strong and powerful yeah he's he's you know moses got him going right that's the strength coach over yeah he's still on the bar speaking of which um there's some people talking haven't seen a lot of shirtless pics of you recently. Are you getting soft? I'm not soft.
I'm still cut. Prove it.
I'm not doing it right now. Six pack? Prove it.
I got something. Prove it.
Gronk said he didn't have it like that anymore. You want to do a football drill like that Father's Day? We'll stand in front of you or stand behind you.
Classic Father's Day shirtless, you know. I'm sweating still from the goddamn shoot thing.
Yeah, yeah. Listen, people are saying like, hey, where's the thirst traps? Berrios is taking over your crown.
You know, I got a kid now. It's tougher when you're around her more.
You know, when I was playing, I only had her for have her for a week at a time so then you know like when you have her in your schedule all the time i can't just be can't be just thirsty yeah can't be working out as much that's what i heard i heard that you weren't really going to the gym yeah no i got i heard you've gotten soft no you sure yes okay because like that can happen to any podcast they're calling you julian fettleman because you eating so much. Fettleman? Yes.
Okay, because that can happen to any podcast.

They're calling you Julian Fettleman because you were eating so much. Fettleman? Yeah.
I do like to eat, though. Yeah.
I went to Owl's. We can tell.
Owl's. We can tell.
Oh, you went to Owl's Beef? Yeah. Hell yes.
Pretty good. Yeah, I just don't want to see you get soft because, like I said, podcasting can get you soft.
Can it? You get that little hunch. We basically are the evolution chart, man walking upright.
Podcasters go in reverse. We just eventually are going to just be on all fours.
That's true. Yeah.
We should do a podcast laying down. That would be great.
I did do one. Remember when I threw out my back? That's true.
You guys came over and I was laying down for it. Evolution of man, upright, upright, upright.
And then the one at the end is just a guy with a microphone. Yeah.
Just being like, women should have more sex with men. Yeah.
No, or the opposite. Fellas, stop having sex with women.
Make them earn it. Yeah.
Why are you as a man having sex with a woman? The gayest thing you could do is have sex with a girlfriend would you agree those podcast clips that come out every now and then it's just like what is this what is happening yeah why are you as a man debasing yourself and acting feminine along with a woman in order to get a female's approval you're disrespecting yourself i don't see that content really my algorithm you content. Yeah.
Good algorithm. You see any deaths? I see deaths every day on Twitter.
No, I see a lot of fights. Yeah.
I always get trapped in ... I get sad when I see a bad fight.
I know. It's like, oh, no.
The situation- Watch out. It's coming from.
Not even that, though. What if you're that guy, and you're fighting someone, and he hits you, then it flips a switch where you can't stop and you have to beat him up? Yeah.
Do you still have that switch? Do you still have that dog? When you're born with it, don't go away, boys. You sure? How do you release the dog? I box.
You have to have an outlet. I box.
Box? Rough and rowdy? Not like that. No, but would you? No, absolutely.
You wouldn't be interested? You versus Welker? You versus Max? No. Rough and rowdy? I don't need any hits to the head.
I just, you know, I like to train it. I go to church on Santa Monica.
It's a pretty dope spot. Okay.
Just rough and rowdy. Max says, one thing about Max, he says that he could beat Julian Edmonds.
I beat the fuck out of you. Is he a boxer? No.
No, he's just a big dude. No.
He's got big, meaty clankers, too. No.
It would be bad news for me. It would be very bad news.
I would be gassed within 10 seconds. Yeah.
You'd be fucked. All right.
Big guys, you got to get in and out. Yeah.
Super Bowl pick. Is it Ravens Niners? I think it's Raven Niners.
Are you going to the Super Bowl the whole week? Probably. Are you going to come hang out? Yeah, we're doing games with names there at the Wynn.

Who you guys got on?

I don't know.

Who do we have?

I think maybe Mark Wahlberg.

Oh.

That would be good.

Are you doing 9-11?

Huh?

If there's one thing you could change about this day, Mark, what would it be?

I would have been there.

Games with names?

Mark Wahlberg on the plane. I would have been on that flight.
He had that quote. What did he say? He said things would have been different.
If he was on it, yeah. If you were taking care of it.
Things would have been different. Would you guys ever play that situation? What would you have done? I don't know.
I don't want to say. Yeah, I think I'd just try to trip someone running down the aisle, and then if that doesn't work, it's like, well, I tried.

I think I'd probably just cry.

Yeah.

Yeah, probably a lot of tears.

What do you think about the Sean McDermott thing?

Oh, yeah.

Apparently in the preseason he motivated his guy.

Yeah, I heard about it.

Because football coaches talk about just crazy shit all the time in locker room

to get guys motivated.

What's the craziest thing that a coach has ever tried to use

as a motivational tool for you?

Nothing along that line. I probably would – I don't know.
They always used – sometimes they don't – like nothing like that. We used to get these tip sheets on, you know, Saturdays from Chad O'Shea where it'd have the call sheet of all our plays.

We'd have all our run game block assignments,

like printouts of how it looks on film.

You know what I mean?

Just so you can go over it and study before.

And on the last page, you'd have some kind of saying or some old history knowledge of the team we were playing

or Braveheart quote or something. Nothing yeah but it's like i don't remember anything i mean it's happened where you're like where's he going here yeah the mcdermott story was like that's bad but also football guys just they kind of take it too far sometimes yeah but usually football guys are pro military yeah i make that like why when we talk about the navy seals about the Navy SEALs that took out Osama? Yeah.
True. Why couldn't we do that? If he had just done zero dark 30, it would have been perfect.
Zero dark 30. That's so true.
Those guys are badasses. Yeah.
He just got lost. He got lost a little bit.
He tried, I guess. He tried.
Yeah. You've obviously scraped the last idea.
the last guy would have been pissed though yeah i would be like what the fuck is he talking wait hold on a second those are the bad guys yeah yeah and i'm sure that that is definitely a story where i i mean it's clearly out one of the players someone said it but that's when you know you go to the locker room after team meeting you're like what what the fuck was he talking things are bad yeah is coach okay yeah something you just you just did mark walberg

for that for that hype up speech you were like if i were there i would have spoken up yeah i would

that would have ended differently no i i said i would have probably in the locker room would

have been talking to like mccourney or nicovich like what the fuck was he talking about there

was it will compton that told us about a coach that he had that was like talked about um like being in the military he served in Afghanistan or Iraq and he was like you got to shoot whatever's in front of you over there safety's off safety's off if it's a child if it's a woman it's a man dog dog doesn't matter you got to kill it and that was that was a pump-up speech, and Will Compton was like, wait, what? Child?

Yeah, wait.

We're killing dogs now?

Safety's off.

Safety's off.

Yeah, you could definitely go over the line.

Yeah.

All right, I got one last question.

Roback question.

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The most important question.

How do we talk about Brock Purdy? Is he the MVP? I mean, right now he probably is. I mean, the MVP is always a quarterback.
Offensive player of the year is always someone else. But it's very interesting because Brock Purdy, it feels like there's a lot of people online who, like, I don't want to say nerds, but maybe nerds who are like, oh, it's just the system and all this stuff.
And then you see a lot of people online who like I don't want to say nerds but maybe nerds who are like oh it's just the system and all this stuff and then you see a lot of guys who played the game who are like no he's balling like the way he's throwing with anticipation like this isn't yes of course if you put Patrick Holmes on the Niners he would look great but like you have to give credit to what Brock Purdy you have to you have to uh You have to. You know, this whole game manager thing, people don't realize.
It's more like a game operator. You know, being able to go in and communicate personnel group, play call, checkout play, give, like, you know, being on the same page with each guy in the huddle, being able to do that and execute at the level he's doing is very impressive.
Yeah. I mean, he's got too many situational throws where he's throwing, you know, a third and eight, you know, third and 13, an in-cut anticipation.
There's too many of those throws to say he's not good. You know, we've seen this system with Jimmy.
We've seen this system with Trey Lance. It looked nothing like it.
Right. They're the same players.
So, you know, you've got to start talking and putting some respect behind his name because he's playing good football. He looks like he's always in control.
Yeah. He doesn't ever look flustered.
You know, I'm really impressed of how he's playing, and I hope to see him continue to succeed know it's a it's a great story and and he's continuing making this you know a bigger and bigger narrative on it and the more we talk about it it's the better he is doing yeah it's not unlike the start of Tom Brady's career that's all I'm gonna say not saying he is Tom Brady but if we're to flash time. Probably more productive.
Yeah, if we were to flashback in time to 2001, 2002, and we look at what we were saying about Tom Brady then and how he was playing compared to Brock Purdy right now, yeah, late draft pick, late draft pick, comes in, no expectation. Got a great defense.
He's relying on that right off the bat. It's the start.
I don't know what the finish is going to be, but it's the start. He's having a phenomenal start to his career.
And you hope, you know, you hope he stays healthy. And you hope that he continues to keep the mindset that he has right now.
Because he's a very, I've met him, we went and did a, you know, an event at the Super Bowl last year. and he's – you could just tell he's got a good head on his shoulders, and you have to when you're the face of a team.
Okay, I love – Christian McCaffrey's a dog. Everyone on that team is a dog, but the face of that team is a quarterback.
Yeah. Okay? You know, we saw what it was when they didn't have the quarterback position going, and you see what it is when they have Brock Purdy playing.
So that's the league we play in, and he's balling out. And I'm excited to see what he does in these playoffs.
Yeah, this is a trick question. The answer was Trent Williams, actually.
John Williams. Trent Williams is a fucking monster.
Wouldn't that be just cool if they gave the MVP to an offensive lineman one year? Yeah, I would. What would you have to do as an offensive lineman? I don't know.
You have pancakes? You'd probably have to catch a couple touchdown passes, like maybe three or four. The tackle eligible? Yeah.
Yeah. I don't, you know, I don't, it's too vain of a world.
The year that J.J. Watt.
It's too vain of a world. I agree.
It's society. The year that J.J.
Watt had, like, all those – like, he had touchdowns and, you know, like, a pick six and 20 sacks. That was, like, the last time it was like, oh, someone not named a quarterback could probably – Didn't LT get an MVP? I think he did.
Yeah, he was pretty – But wide receivers never won MVP. Never? Never.
I mean, Tyreek Hills. Right.
If he gets, I mean, he's having a hell of a year. A.J.
Brown's having a hell of a year. Last non-quarterback, I think, was Adrian Peterson in 2012, I want to say.
Yeah, I think. But it's, yeah, I don't, it's.
It'd be cool to see the running backs get it, though, if they gave it to Christian just because of the whole, you know, before the season stuff that was going on. That'd be cool.
Yeah. I That'd be cool.
But it also could be one of those things where the league gives it to the running back just to kind of shut them up. I think we might reach a point where we have Brock and Christian splitting each other's votes.
Somebody that wants to vote for the best player on the 49ers they're not all going to focus their attention on the same guy. So those guys might get split up.
And then who knows what happens after that. Mark's having a goddamn good year too.
Yeah. The 90s had a lot more running backs.
Yeah, Lawrence Taylor won 1986 MVP. You're right.
Yeah, Terrell Davis, Marshall Falk, Emmitt Smith, Barry. Marshall Falk was really good.
Yeah. I love watching him play.
And then, yeah yeah It hasn't been since Adrian Peterson There was Sean Alexander And LaDainian Tomlinson In 2006 That year was so Alexander got paid after that And he was on the cover of Madden Yeah He didn't play LaDainian Tomlinson I had him on my fantasy team In 2006 That was the last time I was good at fantasy It was awesome He would just He would literally every single— And he had 25 touchdowns or something? And he would throw them, too. It was just every week.
He'd just be like, oh, that's 40 points. That'll be interesting, San Diego.
Yeah. Or L.A.
Harbaugh, maybe. I want him in Chicago, but I feel like— Harbaugh.
That might be— Maybe Belichick. Belichick.
Where would you prefer to see Belichick? I would love him on the Chargers. Yeah, because you could go to practice.
I would go to practice. Would you ever coach? Hell no.
Really? Dude, when I was playing, you go in, you put 13 hours in, and you're leaving work, and it's dark, and you're watching the coaches see their family in the parking lot for fucking 45 minutes before they have to go to a fucking night meeting hell no yeah you know it's it's those guys love football i've gotten soft how many how many minutes of uh pmtd tom brady's heard through you the social clips count maybe yeah sure probably like 15 okay that works that works that's fine probably 15 yeah i mean you like you blake griffin these are the guys that like we know you know you got some other guys into it which we appreciate it's huge for us fun you guys you guys are we have fun with ball what now what if what if bill said like jules i need you like like father father i need you bad jules i need you bad we're taking receivers suck they have no dog we need to learn i need you to be chief dog and you know in the in the locker room yeah i need you and still i need i need a dog uh trans transplant in the locker room gets Julian Edelman and Cesar Milan to go in there. Yeah.
We need a dog transplant in the locker room. He gets Julian Edelman and Cesar Millan to go in there.
Yeah. We need surgery.
I don't know. He needs you, Jules.
We need you to put dog into every one of these guys. If coach needed me, maybe I'd go.
Yeah. Especially if it was like.
Hell no, I'm not going to. No, if it was a top secret dog mission.
No. But I told Brady, you know, if and when or when he becomes the coach of the Raiders

or the owner of the Raiders or whatever, a piece of it,

I told him he could pay me, you know, a couple million bucks

and I'd work out the talent in L.A. three days, you know, three, four, five times a year.
It's a good gig. You know? Yeah.
Could you call something out for us? I don't know. Let me get mine.
Maybe we just interview, like, potential guys. We'll do the dog testing.
The dog test is just a look in the eye. Okay.
Do we have it? I can't see your eyes, so maybe don't take them off. You're afraid? No.
Do I have some dog? You got puppy. Okay.
That's fine. Puppies grow into dogs.
Yeah. I got dog.
Could you teach us how to run routes and have us look like what we're doing? It's not teachable. It's fine.
I take pride in my blocking. I'm more of a blocking.
You know, it's like speed. You can't teach it.
I got some great slow twitch muscles. I do.
How does that work? It's just whenever you teach me, I would just do it slower than you ever expected. Which is almost as effective as being super fast.
You know what? You're smooth, though, because I was watching you out there. Smooth? And that's what I remember when I was doing.
I was young, and I had a coach. He goes, you know, I was trying to go through the bag, and it's too fast.
And I clipped a couple of things or something. He goes, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
Yeah. Is that Mr.
Miyagi? No. Oh.
I was just what I would say that you look like when you're. Yeah, I don't have any wiggle.
Wiggle is so important. You had so much a lot of wig i i love i love being able to decipher that when you see like a slot a white slot receiver he has no wiggle and you're like nah can't make it he can't make it he doesn't have the wiggle no you gotta have wiggle you gotta have the wiggle oh my favorite route that you used to run would be when you go you do like a half fake to the inside actually i think you'd set up like half step fake to the outside two step fake to the inside and then go back out to the outside along that same line yeah did you ever think about doing like adding one more fake in there and doing like three fakes and then coming back to the inside you try it in practice yeah uh but i know exactly what you're talking about welker used to do that a lot you're playing with people's like leverages and you try to, you know, you get an outside technique.
You know, sometimes I'd bring it out and go in because they're thinking in cut. If you give a jab release and you go out in, go up, and then slap them out and get out, you're trying to gain leverage.
So you're doing anything you can to gain that leverage. So, you know, it's tough because if you don't get them, you're stuck

and you're not getting the ball.

But once you get the feel of it,

that's when you see a really good route runner

and you see like Wes Welker was really good at getting guys

to flip their hips in such a short span of time in the slot.

So you try to mess with those stems.

You get wiggle.

All right, last question.

Who's the best route runner in the game?

Right now? Yeah. You get wiggle.
All right, last question. Who's the best route runner in the game? Right now?

Yeah.

Best route runner in the game.

That's a tough question.

It is.

Cooper Cop?

Cooper is very good.

And when I went and interviewed him, I was watching all this. know you watch the game but when you watch all of his film you know he can run a lot of routes you know the guys that run more like the bigger route trees not a guy that could just run a go or come back the guys that can run go come come back in cut you slant, fast.
The bigger your tree is, the better you are. Jamar Chase has really good routes.
Justin Jefferson. Justin Jefferson.
He's like, Justin Jefferson is so skilled. Diggs has really good routes.
Yeah, and I feel like those guys are so skilled they don't get the credit for being route runners because usually when you're like, oh, he's a great route runner, it's like well maybe he doesn't have everything else no but those like justin jefferson he changes direction without ever breaking speed or stride or like any you know like yeah you gotta look at the tops of routes when you see how they they cut out of the top of a route and when they come flat to downhill and stuff like with guys that you know they'll break an in cut and they'll drift up field that's a terrible route that's why you get undercut picks you know you gotta you're basically coming flat to downhill when you know you see that in in a route runner like then you know that he knows yeah so there's a lot i mean route running's it's at an all it's very good right now yeah just because there's so much film yeah guys are learning quicker at a younger age they're practicing like their releases and they're they're putting these tools on their belt at such a younger age like i i didn't really i did releases instinctively they have like five different releases and you know know how to use use them you know and so there's a lot of good stuff right now yeah well jules you're the best you're welcome back anytime i was telling sam we have uh open podcast studios if you ever need to do a games names in chicago i need to love to have you come back maybe i get jordan yeah that'd be good here yeah i'd say that would be a good podcast yeah Yeah. That would get so cocked.
I would be so mad. Jordan came into our office and did another podcast.
I'd be furious. I would be happy for you as a friend.
I wouldn't. I'd slash your tires.
Can I do it right here? I'd slash your tires while you're interviewing an interview. I'd do it in this studio or I'd go to a satellite.
I think you could do it in this studio, but you would just have to release a podcast on the part of my take feed. Deal.
Let me get back to you with that. It would be good promotion.
But yes, you got to come back because we love having you around. We missed you.
It's been too long. It has.
You know, we got to see each other when I lived in New York. I know.
I know. I know.
But now you're not in New York either. I know, but you're not either.
We got to make a trip to LA. Yeah.
We've been talking about it. Have you? Yeah, we've done it a couple of times.
We've been talking maybe like sometime after March Madness, do like a week in LA, bank a bunch of interviews. Yeah.
So maybe we'll do that. Definitely.
Show us around, take our shirts off, run some rounds. I mean, standard.
Yeah. 75 and sunny right now.
Standard is the standard. Yeah, but that earthquake's coming.
It always is. It always is.
Taxes. that's all i can say yeah none of those

in chicago yeah i wouldn't want to chicago tax no state income tax not the same as in california

california state income no i'm just fuck california is like eight percent fuck out of you i forget

like five five yeah california's what like 13 eight yeah 13 eight yeah you gotta wear a mask still

fuck that i mean it's it is weird out there. All right.
Thank you, Jules. All right, guys.
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Okay, FireFest.

Let's do it.

Henry?

This is kind of like a mystery FireFest.

I don't know if it's a FireFest yet or not.

Mystery FireFest.

Oh, we're going to decide?

No, it's to be determined.

We had the event last night at River North, the talent show,

and then we went out afterwards.

Shane, me, Max, Evan, a bunch of the guys played some pool, had some Coors Lights, had a good time, got a little wasted. And then I went home and packed.
Oh. I don't know.
You don't know what's in your bag? No. You should open it live on the show.
You got to keep that briefcase shut. Yeah.
Did you pack like a Jameis Winston type thing? No, I mean, it's it where are you going san diego i'm going to massachusetts and new orleans yeah so that's a double climate pack yeah wow you should wait until you get home and do like an unboxing of your own clothes that you packed yeah so i don't i i i don't know i really don't know are you doing new years in new orleans i'm going New Year's Eve night. Got it.
Because we have to work. That would be New Year's Eve.
Yeah. New Year's Eve night.
Yeah. Well, like day, night, I don't know.
Well, yeah, it's New Year's Eve. So I'll be here New Year's Eve.
I will be in New Orleans, though. I'm excited.
Billy Strings concert. Friends, golf.
Hell yeah. Sounds great.
I've been to New Orleans for work. I've never really just been for fun well we had a lot of fun when we went to new orleans true the that was to be not only that but the final four coach k not even that that one yes the fucking national championship was all the national championship it was literally like two interviews parting yeah that was the best night ever and one of those interviews we were blind drunk actually two of them we were blind drunk in them.
We've had a lot of fun in New Orleans. Also, when you talk about going to New Orleans for work, when we went there for the Final Four, our job was to just go watch basketball games and then come back and be like, yo, that game was awesome.
And eat chicken fingers. Yeah.
Yeah, that was it. Grinding.
Grinding, yeah. Grinding.
Senior vice president. Yeah.
Are you? Yeah, I did i did do uh part of his bit last night performed last night pft kind of spoiled it tweeted out my routine should be illegal oh you never can do that uh you can never burn their material i did it i just i tweeted out the just the very first part of it i sent hank and then i entire clip so that he could watch it back yeah but then but then I... The only part I tweeted out was Hank saying,

PFT Commenter's here.

Give it up for PFT Commenter.

He donates $3 million to charity.

That's the part that I tweeted out.

Oh, that's a good joke.

Yeah, it's a great joke.

I loved it.

What's the funny part about that?

I'm not going to get into it because I'm trying to save it.

I don't have a lot of material.

I didn't tweet out the punchline and your reason for saying that.

I tweeted too.

I apologize.

No, at the years of yours was appropriate, Jake. I cut it off after my name is Henry Lockwood.
Yeah. And I'm going to be doing this.
No, I just didn't. I didn't realize I had to pass out those little like cases for your phone.
Yeah. Yeah.
We got to do that. But I did six minutes.
It was kind of a train wreck. So it's going to be a long January.
I thought it was awesome. Thank you, Jake.
Well, that's, that's not good. Unless you beat me.
Jake sayingake saying it's awesome it's not good i am a big procrastinator i can't even consider we'll see after this weekend i guess but i can't consider beating you because then i just won't work on anything so i have to just pretend like it's over that's smart yeah it is smart that's really smart uh okay pft uh my firefest of the week week I'm shaving my mustache shaving it before

because my mom

my mom's just gonna look at it

my mom's just gonna be like

what are you doing

what are you doing PFT

I raised you better than this

no man

no commenters

mustache is finally coming in

I agree

I think it looks awesome right now

I've gotten so many compliments on it

what about

go ahead Max

I wasn't gonna say anything

but I was looking

at what

the sideburns

at the sideburns

I'm looking. At what? Sideburns? At the sideburns? Sideburns? I don't know what Max is thinking.
I've had sideburns. You hung up on your sideburns.
I've had sideburns for 15 years. But you specifically shaved them to look like sideburns.
I'm going to shave them to even finer of a point. Do you know what? There's nothing worse than a new insecurity unlocked.
I'm impervious to your sideburn slander. That doesn't faze me at all.
But the mustache leaving, it's going to be the end of an era, sadly. People call me feeble knees when we do the golf streams.
It's in my head. Do you guys have those moments where you're like new insecurity unlocked? I remember in college once a girl was like, your eyebrows are too big.
And I was like, okay. I never thought of it.
And now I'll think about it every day for the rest of my life. I've had a couple of those.
There was a person that used to just tease me for having red hair a lot. And I was like, my hair's not red.
It's new insecurity unlocked. She was like, you're a ginger.
And then for a while, I thought I was a ginger. Yeah.
Yeah, so I'm... Max's meaty clackers? That's not insecurity.
That's a security. Yeah, that's just fact.
That's ball security, baby. Ball security.
Yeah, so end of an era, shaving the mustache off, sideburns will stay. Boo.
As they always... Maybe, you know what? I'll put up to a poll.
Yeah. I'll put up to a poll.
I'll let the people decide.

I want my vote counting 10.

Okay, deal.

My other fire fest was that Megan making money ate my lunch yesterday.

Yeah.

And I was very much looking forward to my lunch.

I'd been podcasting for like four and a half hours doing a long episode of macro dosing.

Oh, I thought it was when she crossed you up on the court.

No, no. She could never put the clamps on her.

I ordered a Greek lunch. Literally ate your lunch i ordered a greek lunch and i was very much looking forward to it because again it had been sitting there for about hour and a half and i was hungry by the time we were done podcasting and i got out and the lunch was gone megan came and found me she said pft i'm so sorry i accidentally ate your lunch and what? I was like, I guess that's okay because she also ordered a Greek lunch.
Yeah. She was like, I got mixed up.
I saw what you ordered. I thought it was my lunch, so I ate that.
I'm very sorry. I was like, oh, that's fine.
I'll just eat your lunch then. She goes, well, I also ate my own lunch.
She double dipped on lunch. Wow.
I feel like in that circumstance, you offer your lunch to the person and then if they don't take that then you order them you should have made her baby bird her lunch well i heard i heard she was she was like passing around she was like oh the sandwich i got is really good everyone take a bite oh no so everyone ate your lunch everyone i got my lunch eaten by everyone damn this is for the team damn that stinks so um my terms are clear i just need to hang out with her husband raul for a night and then we're back even yeah so i get i get one night with raul and then it's water under the bridge progressive shout out the mister yeah mister making money is the best doesn't doesn't eat on lsu game days i like that notice he said nothing about drinking I said doesn't eat. Yep.
I've been around him a couple LSU game days. I like that.
Notice he said nothing about drinking. I said doesn't eat.
Yep. I've been around him a couple of LSU game days and you can tell he's a guy who was not eating that day.
You know, he was the absolute best at darts at darts day. He was the dart father.
Oh, yeah. He's the best.
Yes. Mr.
Making money. All right.
My fire fest is I lost my voice again this week. Apologies to everyone.
I feel very bad. Fuck you to the couple of people who are like, dude, no like dude no one wants to listen it's like yeah i don't want to listen to myself it sucks sound you sound uh mature i was i i went to sleep very early every single night the problem is our job is to talk so like i was actually almost all the way back on tuesday and then wednesday i had like five shows in a row.
But yeah, I do actually care.

I'm not trying to lose my voice happens once a year thought we were going to get through this football season without it but here we are so I apologize again I'm going to rest up the break comes at a perfect time you got to start doing throat exercises I have these drops, I've doing everything. I've been chugging like Robitussin at night.
Raw milk. Raw milk.
Everyone said honey. Everything.
I've been gargling salt water. Literally everything.
So apologies again. Jake.
I wasted my time going axe throwing last week. I waited in line for 20 minutes.
It was three throws for $15, and I missed the thing all three times. I'm not strong enough.
Yeah. Axe throwing is one of those.
I've done it. It's hard.
Well, it's one of those perfect schemes that looks great on Instagram. Yeah.
And then you get there, and you're like, okay. Three throws for $15? I want to know who decided that axe throwing was going to be everywhere.
It seems like it just happened. It's like pickleball.
It is. No, pickleball is taking over the world.
That's what the axe throwing people say about axe throwing. But I feel like it's probably like some big venture capital firm that got together with other rich people.
And they're like, you know what America is going to have in every single town a fucking axe throwing range it is like that's a great it's it sounds like the thoughts of a group of really coked up guys yeah that got together and they're like you know even if i hit a bullseye i would be like okay yeah you know when you look at instagram people doing it on you know axe throwing it looks fun it's like oh all your friends together i did it i literally did it with all my friends once, and it was just like, okay. Everyone's trying to find the next bowling.
Yeah. Bowling can just be bowling.
Bowling is the best. Bowling is the next bowling.
Yeah. Bowling is the next bowling.
I would like... By the way, we're running back the bowling challenge for Mount Rushmore next year.
I would love to live inside Jake's brain. Where you just, like, everything reminds you of a company that you should sponsor.
Yeah. Shout out to AWL, by the way, who used our bowling challenge for fantasy punishment.
So smart. Awesome.
Yeah. That looked like a good time.
That's one of our best punishments that we've come up with. I think he did five for beer and ten for hot dogs.
That was definitely a fun one,

so we're going to run

that back next summer.

Will Levis did not

practice today.

Yeah, I think it might

be Malik Willis,

which would be a bummer.

Bummer.

Give us Tannehill.

If it's Willis,

I'm going to,

I might be,

I don't do Game

of the Years anymore,

but nuclear missile.

Numbers.

40.

18.

Should we do two for the holidays? 20. 71.
Three. It's the holidays.
No, but we'll tape the next two right after this. Oh, okay.
Yeah. All right.
71. 28, pug.
Pug is a pool shark. Pug is a weapon on the pool table.
74.

74.

Alright, we'll see you guys on Tuesday.

Love you guys. I'll be coming for your love.

Take me on me Take me on

I'll be gone Take me on me. Take me on.

I'll be gone.

Without a long dream.

Needless to say.

I want to say it.

But I'll be so a little late.

Learn and learn that life is okay.

Say after me.