Mike Florio, Thanksgiving Day Preview, Week 11 Picks, CFB & Lotteryballgate

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
Twin Peaks is the best in the game. Here, historic rivalries tip off with shareable bites and every shot you take is a game winner.
I mean, where else can you pair wall-to-wall hoops with hard-to-find whiskey? Only at Twin Peaks, the number one sports bar. On today's part of my take, an extra long Wednesday episode sending you into Thanksgiving.
Here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk Monday Night Football.
We're going to talk Thanksgiving games. We're all going to give a pick.
We all have to have at least one pick for the Thanksgiving and Black Friday games. So we're going to do three picks this week.
Let's do four. Let's do three.
Let's do three. Nice try, Hank.
We are going to talk to our good friend, crazy uncle, Mike Florio, and we're going to do guys on Thanksgiving. And after Florio, you can stop if you have to work on Friday.
We'll do the Sunday preview for all of week 12. So big show, extra long show for the people.
Rated T for team. My name is Paul Heyman, special counsel to Roman Reigns and the Bloodlines wise man.
Step out of the ropes and onto the island in WWE 2K25, an epic WWE themed world ruled by the one and only Roman Reigns. The return of promos, plus intergender matches,

My GM goes multiplayer, and more.

WWE 2K25, available now.

Okay, let's go.

Boys, it's part of my team.

The number one spot podcast on the charts and in your heart.

Yeah. Hey, football guy.
Part of my take today is Wednesday, November 22nd, and the Philadelphia Eagles have the best record in the NFL, PFT. Congratulations to the Eagles for getting the one seed.
I don't see them losing. Max, congratulations.
Eagles, Super Bowl champions. They didn't get the one seed.
Oh, I thought they did. I watched your video, and I thought they did.
Sorry. You guys don't like passion anymore.
It's fine. We love passion.
So, Monday Night Football was great. It delivered.
We wanted a very good game. We got a very, maybe not the best played game, but we got a very dramatic game.
It was a close game. It was an interesting game.
I don't want to downplay what the Eagles did because going into that environment, that's tough to win in. Credit to the Eagles.
That's a sign of a good team for being able to come out of that game with a win like really well coached team great players i'm not gonna say anything bad about the eagles they deserve to win but it's very concerning to me that the chiefs can't score a single point in the second half of their last three games chiefs very concerning chiefs yeah three games in a row no points in the second half so let's talk about the eagles real quick because they did win. And then we'll get to the Chiefs.
The Eagles, so they got, if you watch that game, the Chiefs look like they were the better team while watching it, but the Eagles get a ton of credit because the Eagles are a team that knows how to stick in games and knows how to make the big play when the moment arrives. That is to me what the Eagles are, is that you get credit for that Jalen Hurts, Devontae Smith throw, being able to figure out the second half, your defensive adjustments to keep the Chiefs out of the end zone, like punching the ball out of Kelsey's hand in the red zone.
The Eagles are a team that is not just good, but they also have that ability to big moments they deliver.

And so they do get a ton of credit from me for winning in a very tough environment in Arrowhead in a game that it looked like they were not the

better team while watching the game.

Again, they might be the better team come January,

but if you watch that game, the Eagles, at least in the first half especially,

the Chiefs were able to move the ball,

whereas the Eagles were getting sacked every single play.

Yeah, so it's crazy because if you watch the Super Bowl you think fuck the Eagles are really good I can't believe they lost that game they played such a good game if you watch this game you're like it was kind of ugly Eagles gritted it out stayed in there didn't make too many mistakes they made a big play when they had to I think Jalen Hurts had like 105 yards passing that bomb to devontae smith at the end of the game um but you look at the other side of the ball the eagles defensive line played really well last yeah really well and that's the difference that's why they didn't win the super bowl the second half they showed up was because they couldn't get to patrick mahomes and they got to patrick mahomes a lot i do like nick sirianni though nick sirianni is kind of like a defensive back who will celebrate incompletions when it's like a drop pass or a massive overthrow.

Sirianni was the first guy being like, no, incomplete when Mikko Harden,

or no, MVS, Valdez-Scantling, dropped that bomb at the very end of the game,

which he should have caught.

Packers fans are like, told you.

Yep, we've seen that play before.

If you can touch it, you can catch it.

Right, Hank?

Facts.

Jalen Carter actually should have had an interception on that spike

Thank you. Yep.
We've seen that play before. If you can touch it, you can catch it.
Right, Hank? Facts.

Jalen Carter actually should have had an interception on that spike

by Patrick. Oh, that was the best.
He touched it.

That was the best. Max, so

while we're talking about the Eagles, tell us

your thoughts on the game real quick.

Do you, like, is it

okay to say that the Chiefs

maybe were, like, they

look like the better team, but it doesn't matter because the Eagles make the big plays for the for the majority of the game yes at the end of the game no right when big plays have to happen the eagles step up not to mention everyone keeps saying that that mvs drop lost the game if he catches that ball eagles have a minute 50 and three time and three timeouts to just get a field goal so that's one thing that is really bothering me that everyone's like, if MVS catches that ball, it's game over. Well, there were other drops.
It wasn't game over. There were other drops.
I know, but like, sometimes you got to make plays. Yeah.
You made a play, they didn't. Correct.
Here's for the Chiefs. So the Chiefs' wide receivers are a problem.
Like, it's clear that it's a problem. And it's also, I know that people are going to play the revisionist history and be like, how do you not keep Tyreek Hill? I do think in terms of the Chiefs were not thinking about one, they won a Super Bowl without Tyreek Hill.
That happened. That flag flies forever.
They won the Super Bowl. That's everyone's goal.
They won the Super Bowl without Tyreek Hill. I also think the Chiefs made a calculated move to essentially say, we know that with Patrick Mahomes, he's going to be the franchise quarterback for 15, maybe 20 years.
We have to evolve and stay ahead of this, like trading Tyree Kill for a bunch of draft picks, making the Chiefs have their best defense for Patrick Mahomes. Their defense is very, very good.
And we have to evolve into a team that can get a little younger

on the wide receiver, try to find that next guy,

because we know that Patrick Mahomes will be here,

and you have to keep constantly almost rebuilding on the fly.

Otherwise, you're going to fall behind.

So I have no problem with people who are complaining

that they got rid of Tyreek Hill.

I think that was a smart move for the next five, ten years

instead of right now, which again, right now, they won the Super Bowl last year. It would be awesome if they had Tyreek Hill.
I think that was a smart move for the next five, ten years instead of right now, which, again, right now they won the Super Bowl last year. It would be awesome if they had Tyreek Hill.
I think Andy Reid would tell you that, yeah, we could use Tyreek Hill on this team. That's not like a question.
But when you factor in the contract and everything that goes along with it, yeah, you have to make decisions about who you pay. And they're like, well, this guy is going to be a massive, massive price tag.
We have to figure out a way to win without him. And you're right.
They did. They won without him.
So they were right about that. Right.
I don't know if it's like alternating nights of which Chiefs receiver can't catch a ball or if they just all can't catch. But it seems like every Chiefs loss, it's because one guy, and it's a different guy every time, can't hang on to a football.
They lead the league, I think, in drop passes. By far.
Yeah, by far. What I don't, there also was a very funny clip.
Patrick Mahomes threw his towel or something to a fan after the game, and the fan dropped it. It's like, perfect.
Perfect ending. The one thing that happens with the Chiefs that I want to push back on is it does feel like when the Chiefs lose a game, we don't give credit to the team and we're like oh well they drop passes and the Chiefs are fine which I do think they're fine long term but I think this game as much as the drop passes hurt them it comes down to knowing that their offense is not as explosive as it has been in the past you need two guys to basically basically be A-plus or A in a game, and that's Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey.
And what happened? Patrick Mahomes throws a really bad interception in the red zone. Travis Kelsey fumbles in the red zone.
Those are the two plays that changed that game that the Chiefs, like they don't have the margin for error for both of their best players to make mistakes like that in the red zone.

If one of them doesn't make that mistake, the Chiefs probably win the game.

That's really what it comes down to.

You need Patrick Holmes not to throw interceptions in the red zone.

You need Travis Kelsey to hold on to the football in the red zone.

Travis Kelsey also looks a little bit slow out there.

I don't know if he's hurt.

There's a chance he might be injured.

I know he just snuck away to Argentina for a week.

So people are going to talk about that. That's the way the game played when uh when tony romo remember he went to cabo before it was the bye week that they had in the playoffs right yeah and back like that's just it's something that we're going to talk about i don't know if like the travel had anything to do with it all that all that red meat he was probably eating down there yeah the the other one i always point to is when brandon marshall uh started doing inside the nfl midweek when he was on the bears and it was like oh this is cool he's you know thinking about his next career and then the bears started losing it's like what the fuck dude why are you traveling i did notice he had a couple drops he fumbled fingers might be tired i don't know what that's all about just something to keep an eye on where those fingers been uh taylor swift was not there uh she was playing a concert last night which was touching i don't know if you saw that it gave me all the feels every feel I had it but then Swift on the on the Eagles had a great game I'm so listen I as a rival I root for a rival team but even I can see like Swift it's fun to watch him run the ball yeah I don't know how the Eagles keep finding all these impact players that they can get in it's like oh shit oh, shit, we paid what? I don't know.
What was the price tag on Swift, Max? A third, I think. Yeah.
They're well coached. And he's awesome.
And he's really good. And every time he gets the ball, it's like, oh, shit, they have this guy, too, in addition to everything else.
And the Chiefs could not stop the tush push at all. I think the Eagles averaged like two, two and a half yards last night on each tush push it was unstoppable yeah and it's listen both those teams i would not be shocked if they're in the super bowl i think the chiefs that the the burying the chiefs after a loss is we've we've done this before it's kind of like when when tom brady and the patriots would have a loss and everyone be like they stink now it's like i i in late January they'll still be in the picture, but the Ravens are now the one seed if the season ended today.
That is an interesting thing because Patrick Mahomes has never won a road game in the playoffs. I don't think he's ever played a road game in the playoffs.
It's easier to say he never won a road game. He has not played never.
Yeah. But I'm saying that's a concern to me.
Yeah. Is he really that good? We don't know.
He's never won a road game. He's been protected by the home field.
He has never played a road game. That is a fact.
But yeah, it's interesting that, I don't know. Both those teams are really good.
I would love to watch them play a million times. I am actually concerned about the Chiefs.
Like, if you can't score a touchdown or any points in the second half of three straight games, that's a problem. I'm concerned about the Chiefs and the fact that their receivers have not made the progress that you thought they would make, especially coming off a bye week.
You thought, like, this would be the Chiefs' best effort in terms of, you know, offense, and they look a lot better. But again, I'm just never going to write off Patrick Mahomes

because he'll be there. And their defense is nasty.

They were all over Jalen Hurts

in the first half.

Chris Jones is absolutely...

I think he had a back-to-back sacks

on one drive. Yeah, it was pretty impressive.

He's a game wrecker. Are there any wide receivers

out there that don't have jobs

that they could pick up? I just like speculating

about that sort of thing. Terrell Owens.
T.O., bury the hatch with Andy Reid. Yeah.
Come on home. Get him in there.
Antonio Brown. Antonio Brown.
Yeah. Larry Fitzgerald, not retired.
Larry Fitzgerald, not retired. Yeah.
Antonio Brown and Jackson Mahomes hitting the town together. Yeah.
That'd be something. Justin Watson also might want to think about changing his number.
Yep. 84 is a tight end number.
It is. but as a guy that roots for a team that has exclusively single-digit and teen number receivers, I like to see a solid 81 out there.
I like to see an 82. Yeah.
What are you going to say, Hank? I think 84 can be a wide receiver number. I don't know.
Every time I see him, I'm like, is that a tight end? Oh, no, that's a wide receiver. Well, there's a pretty good receiver that wore number 84, right? Yeah, but maybe it's because he's a white 84.
Yeah, that's probably it. Yeah, that's probably it.
That's probably. And he's a little bit taller.
Well, if it's a white guy wearing 84 over six feet tall, that's tight end. That's tight end.
That's how our brains work. Yep.
Max, last thing. And I told you this this morning.
And this is just, you know, I want to have a real talk with the AWLs for a second. Obviously, last year I was rooting for the Eagles.
Last night, PFT and I took the Chiefs. Watching Max's video after, I love Max.
Max does an incredible job. I just want to say for the Max haters, I see what you're talking about.
I see what you're talking about. When I saw that video, I was like, I fucking hate this guy.
For a moment. For a moment.
Listen, I am not looking to make friends with the teams that I go against. Yeah.
That has never been my MO. You're either gonna love me or you're gonna hate me when you go into battle with me.
But it was funny just seeing it through a different lens and I was like, oh yeah, this guy fucking sucks. I snapped out of it.
I was like, I fucking love Mac. Both the videos were very funny.
I like this one right here. We're fucking back, baby.
Where's all the frog colors now? Where's all the frog colors now? What about the tweet on Travis Kelsey? Yeah, let's talk about that. You mean Max's Pornhub search? Yeah.
I wanted to bring that up. Philly Mays tweeted this out last night, 9.40 p.m.
Thisvis kelsey fumbled the ball right in the red zone yeah travis kelsey little boy little boy ass play what'd you mean by little boy ass play because we we texted you about that one max and then your reply was i stand by what i said you stand by little boy ass play i don't stand by little boy ass play i stand by little boy ass play yeah little little boy ass play you want to you're you're looking for little boy ass play like that was looking for travis kelsey with a little boy or yeah little boy little boy ass what college did you go to again max uh villanova v's up no what college do you root for sorry in football uh villanova is gonna be in the FCS playoffs. What about James Franklin? How many little boy asses have you looked up? Zero.
It's like a bitch ass play, like little boy ass play. Little boy ass play.
You guys are doing the wrong cadence. No, that was how it was written, little boy ass play.
No, it was a little boy ass play. Have you heard a little boy ass play they want to pass around to Max? No, that was a little boy ass play.
Have you heard from the FBI? No, but that was the biggest ratio in the history of Twitter. I did ratio you really hard last year, but I saw it.
I couldn't believe it. I honestly could not believe that you did that, Max.
They're going to steal our computers.

But that was a little boy ass play by Travis Kelce. Stop saying that.

Little boy ass play.

Little boy ass play.

No, you guys are doing the pause, which is making it different.

You said you wanted little boy ass play.

No.

There's no punctuation.

Little boy ass play.

Little boy ass play.

We don't do punctuation.

Another way you wrote it was you wanted ass play from little boys.

No, it was a little boy ass play. Like that Travis Kelsey, little boy.
He was calling Kelsey a little boy and just saying the play was ass, which means it was bad. That's what he was intending, but it did not come across that way.
Because you did use punctuation. You said Travis Kelsey, little boy, period.
And then little boy ass play. Yeah, that's where I was like, it like It felt like a search Yeah did you make me Google that No I just wanted to Travis Kelsey little boy Like when the guy that played Hank on Breaking Bad Just tweeted out sex gifts by mistake That's an awesome one So overall Max you gotta feel good You still have the gauntlet coming up But we're in the middle of it Yeah I know You're in the middle of it You have the rest of the gauntlet coming up.
But we're in the middle of it. Yeah, I know.
You know what I'm saying? You're in the middle of it. You have the rest of the gauntlet coming up.
You have Bills, 49ers, Cowboys, Seahawks, which is going to be tough. Yeah, but we're 2-0.
Yeah, what would you want your gauntlet record to be in the next four? Four. 4-0.
4-0. Would you be happy with 3-1? Every game must win.
What'd you say? Would you be happy with three and one? Every game is must win. Would you be happy with two and two if the two were the Niners and the Cowboys? If I could give you that right now.
Every game. Guaranteed.
I'm not falling into this trap. Every game is must win.
Okay. So you wouldn't be happy with two and two? Every game is must win.

Okay.

So if you lose a single game, then season's over.

See, this was always my argument, but you're not allowed to flip this on me.

I'm just asking questions.

Yeah, we just did.

It's what we do as a podcast.

One seed.

Okay.

Little boy ass play.

You don't want to see the commanders in the playoffs, Max. Commanders are cooked.
He just wants a little boy with some ass play. No, it was a little boy ass play.
Were you saying that Taylor Swift has a little boy ass? Oh. I think that's what it was.
No. I'm the only Swifty on this show.
That's true because you're in the doghouse. Not in the doghouse.
I am a Swifty too. Jake also in the doghouse.
I love Taylor Swift nah yes yes huh nah yeah huh no do so my son the other day asked to put on taylor swift in the car i almost drove into a median um okay it's good music it's good music it's it's perfect autumn music yeah it's like the soundtrack to fall that lumineers it's. It's Lumineer season.
Okay. Let's get to our Thanksgiving preview, and we'll include the Black Friday game.
So what we're going to do is we're going to do every single game, and then after each game, Hank has questions from the readers about Thanksgiving. Readers.
Listeners. Sorry.
Excuse me. From the AWLs about Thanksgiving.
So it's going to be a blend, and then we tell you when you can stop uh later on in the show if you have to work on friday which you should quit your job if you have to work we should also say that it's tuesday morning when we're recording yes so things are liable to change we're probably going to get some things wrong it's no different from any other show but it is tuesday morning yeah and we'll talk a little college football i'll i'll i'll use my hot seat cool throne with some college football questions uh so hi it's rigs from foreplay and you know what is back it's pga tour 2k25 that's right it's time to tee it up in iconic pga tour events the first look is a free-to-play demo experience of pga tour 2k25 releasing ahead of the full game launch players can experience the new swing mechanics get a look at upgraded visuals and start their 2k25 journey plus have all of your progress carry over to the full pga tour 2k25 game try pga tour 2k25 first look for free now on ps5 xbox series s and x and steam okay thanksgiving preview with some listener questions about thanksgiving uh we will start we have the first game the lions packers at lions the lions this has to be i think the most exciting lions thanksgiving game in probably since mary sanders yeah yeah probably since 1991 it's it's I'm very excited to watch this game. The Lions have always traditionally been the Thanksgiving game where you're like, okay, let's hope it doesn't go too bad for the Lions and we get the shot of a Lions fan in a Pilgrim hat sleeping in the second half.
It's going to kind of throw off everybody's schedule too because you're used to watching the Lions game and having no expectations for the Lions. yeah they're not really in playoff contention or anything like that so you can you can do your meal prep you can work on the turkey and have the lions game on the background i'm gonna need to watch this lions game intently yes and so i guess we're not eating thanksgiving my house till probably like 6 p.m because of that you gotta yeah you gotta watch the whole game gotta watch everything and if you're a lions this is this is a great weekend for you yeah because you get you get to get day drunk and excited on thursday for thanksgiving as opposed to like day drunk and depressed for the lions game then you have friday as a hangover day sober up a little bit rest saturday michigan ohio state get drunk and excited again yep and then sunday full day off sober up rest deal the hangover yeah watch football stress-free it's a perfect weekend yeah it is yeah detroit has finally found the perfect perfect weekend so as for this game uh i initially was like oh i kind of like the packers and then i remembered uh watching that entire packers chargers game that the chargers could have and maybe should have won that game going away, except that the Chargers.
And it made me realize, yeah, the Lions, especially how bad their offense looked for three quarters against the Bears, I don't think the Lions' offense will look that bad two games in a row. I think this might be a whomping by the Lions.
You think it's a whomping? What qualifies as a whomping? What do we determine on that one? I think it's like 17-plus in the NFL. That's a whomping.
Yeah, maybe even 14-plus. They're on whomp alert.
If it's 14-plus for early enough in the game, that could be a whomping. I think the Lions are that much better than the Packers.
I think the Packers are still coming along with their team. Young guys on offense.

Aaron Jones now out.

And the biggest mismatch in this game is the Packers' run defense is bad.

And Dan Campbell might just be like,

you know what I'm going to do for Thanksgiving?

I'm going to shove the ball down the Packers' throat.

I would love that.

Do turkeys have kneecaps?

That's my big question.

I say no.

Not on Thanksgiving.

They're dead.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, but they still might have kneecaps.
I would like to see Dan Campbell eat a turkey kneecap after the game. The Green Bay Packers are low-key not that great on Thanksgiving.
They're 14-20-2 all-time, which doesn't really mean that much because I think the last time they played was 2014. Yeah, the Bears beat them on Brett Favre night.
Is that real? It was a Thursday night of Thanksgiving. I'm almost positive.
Jake Hutler might not even have played in that game. When you look at these historic records, it's just fun to say because it doesn't really make that much of a difference, but it was always in the back of my head.
For some reason, I thought that the Packers always beat the Lions on Thanksgiving. I remembered seeing it more than it's actually happened.
I do like the Lions a lot in this game, too. I think the Lions are ready to roll.

They won a game that they should have lost last week.

They've got confidence going into this one.

And also, they have a lot to play for right now because the Eagles are going through that gauntlet right now.

And the Lions, if the Eagles had lost last night, the Lions win.

The Lions, would they be the one seed or would they be the Eagles have the tiebreaker?

I think the Eagles would have the tiebreaker. But they're close.
They are. The Lions have a very realistic shot given their schedule and the Eagles' schedule to end up as the one seed.
And the Lions are obviously playing to the Vikings' resurgence made the NFC North. The Vikings lost, so the Lions now are up three games on them.
But there was a moment where it was like, ooh, this is getting a little nervous. They got to keep winning to make sure the Vikings don't get any Dobbs effect where you're looking at week 17, 18, and you're like, wait, is the NFC North up for grabs? What's the verdict on the Lions getting the number one seed in the playoff, getting a bye? Because I think we've said, and a lot of people around Detroit have said, success this year for the Lions is winning a playoff game that counts as a way that counts as a win we need to establish that because if they get the bye then they play a much more difficult opponent in the second round of the playoffs if they happen to lose that at home we're still counting the bye as a playoff win yes okay all right good we're all on the same page yes so maybe the lions should try to get the two seats so that they can get they can get a home true a true win that'd be awesome and they would get two home playoff games we can definitely one we can definitely spin it into that they actually rather have the two seed yeah uh okay let's do a thanksgiving question guys on thanksgiving by the way jack harlow is the halftime uh show for this game love that we have jack harlow we have dolly parton in the commander the Commander's Cowboys.
That's going to be awesome. She's still got it.
She's awesome. She's still got it.
Dolly Parton might be- You don't even have to say would. No, it's implied.
Right. Dolly Parton might be- She should be queen.
If we had a queen in the United States, I nominate Dolly Parton. I would too.
I also have a Nerd Nugget. Or maybe Rihanna.
She's Slay Queen.

She is Slay Queen.

Dolly's just Queen Queen.

Nerd Nugget.

Sorry, Jake.

It's okay.

Got some help from the AWLs this week.

Shout out J.R. Howell on this one.

The Lions and Packers share one of the league's streakiest series.

One team has swept the other in six of the last seven years.

Week four, Lions 34, Packers 20.

Yeah, and they beat up on them.

Remember, that was Jared through an interception on the first play of the game, too. And you're like, uh-oh, the Lions might be struggling.
Last year was so awesome, that last week of the year. Yeah.
I'm counting that also as a playoff. Yep.
By the way, so Dolly Parton, Commanders, Cowboys, 49ers, Seahawks, who do you think is being the halftime performer? Macklemore. Kid Rock.
Steve Aoki. Oh.

Yeah. Okay.
Maybe he throws a cake

in someone's face. I think that's something he does.

Did he fall down the stairs at the Met Gala?

Yes, he did. That was embarrassing.
Yeah.

Well, Jason Derulo took all the headlines

because he fell first.

Hank, guys on Thanksgiving. Hey,

lottery ball geniuses, Big Cat and Hank. Thank you.

And also the idiot losers.

I'm wondering what you guys think about Turkey.

I think it's not even in the top five other dishes at the table.

My family disagrees.

Thoughts.

I love Turkey.

I love Turkey.

I love eating it twice a year.

I eat it every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It's one of my favorite meals.

I deep fry it though.

I don't like,

like if you bake a Turkey,

the breast especially gets really dry. Not that great.
If you deep fry a though i don't like like if you bake a turkey the breast especially gets really dry not that great if you deep fry turkey and do it right it is outstanding it's one of my favorite things ever i think there has been a pushback on turkey recently people doing steak for thanksgiving people doing like prime rib for thanksgiving i would say I love steak more than turkey.

Obviously, that's a no brainer.

But turkey on Thanksgiving is what you do.

You have to keep doing it.

If you start doing steak on Thanksgiving, it now diminishes steak like steak.

There's nothing better than a great steak dinner going out for a nice steak dinner at a steakhouse.

Keep turkey in Thanksgiving.

Let's not try to reinvent the wheel.

That's when you eat turkey. There's no other time really to eat turkey let's eat turkey yep we eat steak all year listen i i love turkey it's the ritual of spending all day preparing it cooking it and then carving it i love carving it too like you don't get that with steak at all it's about family togetherness you get to drink beers while you're cooking the turkey.
It's incredible.

I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday in the world.

Everyone hear dark meat over white meat?

Yes. Yes.
No. What?

It has so much more flavor. I remember the moment

when I was like 12 years old. I was like, what is this?

Yeah, thighs. You can eat the kind of

slimy, gross part. It's so much better.

The thighs, the oyster at the bottom

of it, that's the best part. I don't think you've ever had dark meat i like white meat better too hank you're not a combo guy you ever had dark meat sounds like you don't like dark meat no i just prefer white meat i don't think that you've had dark meat i've had dark meat no i don't think you have white meat's better with a bite like you if you get like the bite of the mashed potatoes and the stuffing with the white meat like it combos better like the dark yeah is the texture the texture you need to have here's here's my thing with the white meat if you're eating the breast it has to have some skin on it at the very least i can't i don't like doing just like a big fork full of pure breast meat but yeah you have it like with a bite with something else yeah but dark meat you don't need that have you guys heard of this one have you have you heard this one um leftovers are actually the best part about thanksgiving oh the left the sandwich the following ever everyone always thinks that they're like uh discovering this new thing called leftovers it's really just like yeah i'm fat i eat all day by the time we get to halftime of the night game i'm ready to eat again i want to i want to stand out on a soapbox and and pound my chest for stuffing oh i think we should eat stuffing way more frequently than we do it's the best the problem with stuffing i think is the name you can't eat stuffing and not be like i'm a fat fuck we call it dressing growing up right from the south you call it dressing stuffing is the the fat fuck it's essentially being like oh what am i gonna have for dinner donuts you you just know going into it it's called stuffing yeah so but yeah i agree stuffing i do cranberry sauce on everything i do gravy on everything it's the best um so we talk about the intro to that call referring to to Hank and Big Cat as being lottery ball geniuses, because there's been a discussion about that for the last 24 hours.
Yeah, I'd assume we were going to talk about it at the end of the show when we do lottery balls. I could do it now.
We can wait. Yeah.
That's what we call a tease in the biz. That's a nice little tease.
All right. Next game.
Cowboys commanders. Cowboys are going to fucking kill the commanders.
Yeah, do it. Kill me now.
Kill me now, Dallas. Like, just put me out of my misery.
Take Ron out. I'm almost – it's sad to say this.
Like, once the game starts, I will obviously be rooting for the commanders to win. But now that I have – I've got pre-nut clarity right now because it's a Tuesday and the game's not for another two days.
It would be great if we got our ass kicked and then Ron and Jack Dorio both got fired. That's what I would like to see because it's been depressing watching this team.
Again, we lost to the Giants. Credit to the Giants.
The Giants are not a very good team, but they're way better than we are. And so that should tell you exactly where you stand right now.
So I'm hoping right now in this moment that we get our ass kicked by Mark McCarthy, probably going to smash a turkey like it's a watermelon with a sledgehammer before the game.

And they blow us out.

Josh Harris fires Ron and Jack Del Rio,

and then we get to see BNME for the rest of the season.

That's what I'm hoping for. And so Sam Howell's better.

So the Cowboys have killed the really bad teams.

Yep.

They killed the Jets.

They killed the Patriots.

They killed the Giants twice.

They killed the Panthers.

Sam Howell's better than all those quarterbacks of the teams I just listed. The one thing that is in common, though, with those teams is bad offensive line.
Yeah. So I think that's the common denominator here that Sam Howell's going to struggle with is the Cowboys eat against bad offensive lines.
and I feel like this is also the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, if they got your number, and really the Cowboys in general at home, I think they've won 12 in a row at home, it does feel like they kind of play old school BCS football where they're like, we're going to run up the score and get some style points. Yeah, yeah.
Jerry wants to – Jerry might be like bonuses for everyone for every point over 10 that we win. It makes him look good in front of a national audience.
Jerry wants us to win big time. So, yeah.
Terror dome. If I were to bet on this, I would probably bet on the Cowboys.
I'm not delusional enough to think that the Commanders have a fighting chance. I guess everyone has a fighting chance in the NFL, but I don't see them winning this game.
Yeah. All right, Hank.
Sorry, or sorry, Nerd Nugget. Micah Parsons is the first player in Cowboys franchise history with 10 sacks in each of his first three seasons.
He's also the first player since 2007, Sean Merriman, to have 10 plus sacks in each of his first three seasons. You know what Micah Parsons needs? Max, maybe I'm missing this, but does he have like a signature celebration that he does? I don't, not that I know of.
I would like to see micah parsons do like his own signature thing to celebrate i think that would go a long way towards people recognizing how good he is because sean merriman had the lights out which was iconic yeah you're right we need it we need we need that you're right you're absolutely right hey boys this this one might be fake uh-oh my girlfriend wants me to come to her house for Thanksgiving. We're going strong, dating three years, may propose soon.
Only issue is that I kind of had a max situation with her brother and woke up one night in his bed. Oh.
Everyone was fucked up and I didn't... Did you kiss him on the cheek? I didn't want the brother to think I was banging his sister, so I slept in his bed.
At least that's what I think I did when I was drunk. i woke up in the middle of the night to the brother touching my lower back and butt oh softly but it was weird with his hand you gotta yeah you gotta be out i moved to my girlfriend's bed i haven't seen him since that day two weeks ago and he's bringing his new boyfriend of one week to their thanksgiving because the boyfriend is canadian and doesn't do thanksgiving how do i get out of this? Do I tell my girlfriend? Did I get molested by my girlfriend's brother? Love you guys.
Thanks for bringing a great pod. You're kind of sending mixed signals here.
I think it's about provocation. I'm saying he slept in the guy's bed.
I would if I were that guy, I'd be flattered. Yeah, I actually think now that we have the wrinkle that it's the boyfriend is gay.
I think that's fine now yeah like you you slept in his bed like it it would be it would be weirder if that was how he came out of the closet being like i accidentally slept in his bed and he made a move on me right because then it'd be like the whole family like what the hell happened you yeah you shouldn't have been in that bed i would be like still got it yeah there's it makes no sense He was just trying to do some little boy ass play. He's been, that's facts.
He said he was dating the girl for three years and he didn't want the brother to think he was banging his sister. That's kind of weird.
Yeah, that is kind of weird. They've been dating for three years.
I think he probably knows. And he was like, at least that's what I think I did when I was drunk.
Sounds like there might be more to the story.

Sounds like this guy might be embarrassed because he thinks maybe he came on to the brother.

Things got out of hand.

And then he's trying to act like that never happened by blaming it on that guy.

Sounds like the brother's trying to take down the whole family.

Or sorry, this guy's trying to take down the whole family.

This would be a great way to do it.

Okay.

Yeah, that's an interesting thanksgiving just bring up politics just get everyone off off the off the uh trail here it's like who you guys voting for uh okay before we do the last two games the barstool golf time app makes it easy for golfers to find the best tee times at the best prices stop searching all over google for your next time. Start searching multiple courses in your area from one app.
It's annoying to have to create accounts for each individual course to book online. Just make one account with us at Barstool Golf Time and book all of your tee times.
Plus, the new reservation sharing option allows you to take control and book tee times for your entire group. Earn golf time rewards every time you book or leave course reviews.

And then you can redeem those rewards for free Barstool Golf Merch in our store.

Download the Barstool Golf Time app now.

Start earning those rewards and booking those tee times.

Barstool Golf Time app now.

Next game, night game.

We got 49ers Seahawks.

I kind of want to see Drew Locke on Thanksgiving.

We might get it.

I think Chino's going to play. Me too.
But we don't know how healthy he's going to be. My only note for this game was that we got two interesting uniforms.
Niners wearing the throwback whites. Okay.
And then the Seahawks wearing their neon greens. Ooh.
Which I think that plays at night. On Thanksgiving? Yeah.
Kind of wake you up? Yeah, it plays at... It's almost like a smelling salt for the end of Thanksgiving? Yeah.
I think the Niners are all the way back. And I think it was as simple as Trent Williams and Devo Samuel were out.
Pete Carroll owns Kyle Shanahan. Shit.
You're right. Don't forget that.
You're right. I think this is going to be a better game than people think.
You know what? I would really love to see those neon green Seahawks uniforms at night in Seattle, in the rain, Pete Carroll chomping like six things of gum. Look with his hair slicked back, smiling like slapping guys, doing low fives left and right when they're coming to the sidelines.
That's what I'm mentally visualizing when I this game and if that happens i'll be very happy this is also a prime dk gets into sometime some type of fight or argument on the sideline or on the field a standalone one yeah there's going to be a dk cam you see him before before their last game when he went up to the ref he's like hey just so you know i'm going to block my ass off but when you when you blow the whistle, I will stop. Just so you know, though, I will be blocking hard until that point.

I like that because when you see DK just abusing defensive backs,

it looks like it should be a penalty every single time.

But when he does it before the whistle, it's actually not a penalty.

He's just rough as fuck.

Yeah.

Throw you around.

So he has to let people know, hey, I'm going to be playing football.

It's going to look bad, but I'm going to stop playing football when you blow the whistle. Yeah, play to the E in the whistle.
I like that. Hank.
Nerd Nugget. Oh, Nerd Nugget.
The 49ers have won nine consecutive regular season games against the NFC West, dating back to week 18 of 2021 season. Okay, so that kind of goes in the face of the whole Pete Carroll owns Kyle Shanahan thing.
Yeah, but we stick with it Okay We don't care We'll just go with it Kenneth Walker's out We pick our own narratives I just remembered Kenneth Walker's out He is out That's going to be big So they got Charbonnet And I know that Geno's optimistic to play But he missed part of the game against the Rams He had to come out of the game And it's a short week There's no way he's just way he's just magically a hundred percent yeah I'm with you now I I want to see Drew Locke I would like to see Drew it just would be a nice uh like by the end of Thanksgiving everyone's full you're kind of sick of being around your family Drew Locke is the perfect quarterback to come in to just start a discussion and be like hey yeah this guy wait like you know wait. You can turn to one of your family members and be like, wait, watch.

Drew Locke's going to do some fuck shit.

Yeah, here's a fun thing you could say.

According to Von Miller, Drew Locke threw the most impressive incompletion

that he's ever seen in training camp.

Yeah, okay.

We got a very long drive between two families,

so we will unfortunately be missing actual dinner time when it's getting served. What's best way to approach the leftovers when we get there how does that work out where you go to two thanksgivings missing and you're missing both just pick one you got to have one dinner and then arrive for the leftovers go to the other one for christmas yeah you can't miss both dinners yeah that's i i i think you have to go if you if you're going to miss both dinners, you got to go heavy appetizers.
Like a divorce situation? Yeah, you got to go heavy appetizers the first one. Maybe stop for a burger.
So burger place is open. Yeah, they're open.
Yeah, they might be open. They do close a lot of shit on Thanksgiving.
What burger place would be open? It sounds like a husband and wife, let's go to your folks' place early, and then we'll go to my folks' place late, but we're not going to have Thanksgiving. So instead of- But just pick- Yeah, I agree.
It's a terrible plan. Because now you're going to have two families that are mad at you.
You got to go to hers. You got to eat dinner at hers.
Yeah, and heavy appetizers. Heavy appetizers to start.
Yeah. Because I always, I mean, cheese and crackers, I tap out early.
And I find my strength again. But cheese and crackers, I go, I'll just sit there in front of it and just be like eating all of it.
I'll eat a whole block of cheese on Thanksgiving. What's your move? Mine is, first thing, I'll have like a glass of white wine to start.
And then I'll have some crackers, some cheese, maybe a couple grapes. Yep.
And that i start switching over to beer then it's beer time baby i like to do i like to crack open a coors light uh at the start of the lions game i once once i see the turkey once i start getting the turkey ready to be cooked when i see meat now it's time for beer yeah now it's time for beer yeah uh okay last game we'll do the black friday game dolphins and jets i said this on sunday i'll say it again uh i think the dolphins they have been taken out of fraud watch for me i think they're very much for real and i think they will kill the jets we have tim boyle it's tim boyle time that's i okay he might be better than zach wills can he handle the bright lights of the New York media? Shout out to New York media. We won again.
We destroyed Zach Wilson. Yeah.
Zach, it's funny when you watch all the different clips of Salah over the last year, year and a half, talking about Zach Wilson after a game. He said the exact same thing after every single game.
Yep. There's certainly some plays that I think if you ask he would he wished that he could have done better uh there's a lot of plays though that we all wish we could have done better but yeah zach listen he's trying we saw a lot of good things during the week and he'd be the first one to tell you he needs to improve and we believe he can improve and he said that for about a year and a half yeah and it never happened yeah and now it's tim boyle time and their their lack of a plan at backup quarterback has i mean it's not going to get held against them because the story about this whole season is just aaron rogers got hurt first game season kind of a wash anyways but they they knew what they had in zach wilson going into this year and they had absolutely no other plan and then i think they decided to ride with zach to try to keep the locker room together.
And in reality, that probably drove the locker room further apart because week in, week out, you've got guys that are playing their ass off on defense that know that the guy that's playing quarterback is not giving them a chance to win. So I guess credit to Salah for not getting a complete mutiny in his team and for finally making the right choice.
Yeah, the only positive spin zone I would have for the Jets to go to Tim Boyle is that you saw in the Bills game, and this happens for NFL teams where if the quarterback and the offense is really, really bad, there is a definite point where the defense will, I don't want to say quit because I don't think they quit, but it gets so tiresome because the Jets' defense has been great all year. But they also know going into a game, if they give up 10 points, they lose.
So that pressure gets so intense that you have this breaking point where it's like we can't – you're asking us to play perfect football every single game. We cannot sustain that.
Every unit has off game so that would be my only spins under the jets then maybe the defense buys back in a little bit because it's like tim boyle maybe he can do something on tim until tim boyle sucks and then you see it again where it's like the defense is what the fuck what are we gonna do they might go back to zach wilson yeah actually the worst thing that happened the jets this season was zach wilson playing really, outplaying Patrick Mahomes in that Chiefs game. Yeah.
And then they were like, wait, we might, let's give him another couple months here. That was it.
That was it. Sorry, memes.
That was the moment. PFT, I have a positive note for you.
Okay. We had the anonymous player poll on The Athletic today.
Worst stadium in football, not FedEx Stadium. Let's go.
FedEx Field. FedEx Field, not the worst stadium in football not fedex stadium let's go fedex field fedex field not the worst stadium met life voted the worst stadium that's unreal they said the turf you could have said it's boring did they do this poll before you couldn't shower there after the game last yeah i think i don't know but let's just go with it it was enough of a margin it was enough of a margin of victory for you uh it was 18.4 for met MetLife Stadium.
FedEx Field was 13.9%. I love it.
So that's pretty good. That's a win.
MetLife does suck. It does suck.
It stinks. It's blah.
The entire area around it. I don't like stadiums that are shared between two teams.
Yeah. You don't get the full vibe.
Yeah. No, it feels like you're just always like a weekend.
You're a weekend guest. Yeah.
Yeah. It's like, I'm not home.
I can't kick my feet up. They're going to change everything in a second.
It's Airbnb. Yeah.
All right, Jake, Nerd Nugget. Since the start of 2021 when Robert Salah took over as head coach, the Jets are one of two teams that have thrown more interceptions than touchdown passes with the Panthers.
Also, the Jets have benched Zach Wilson in back-to-back seasons and replaced him with quarterbacks from Eastern Kentucky, Tim Boyle, and Western Kentucky. Oh, that's a...
You didn't want to call that Nerd Nugget of the Week? It's coming. Okay, because that's in the running for Nerd Nugget of the Week.
It might be. Also, this is revenge of the two hands.
I want the Dolphins to destroy the Jets at MetLife. Still, for people who don't know, one of the funniest stories that jake was upset about but i think it's very funny when he went to the game with billy jets dolphins last year is after two got concussed and jets fans were mocking jake by doing the two concussion hands hilarious revenge i don't think this moment i don't think it's a funny move that they were doing it it's funny I think that Jake seeing that and getting like a permanent scar is very funny I'm going to say it was a funny move I don't know NFL fans are savages I don't know when you go to a game all bets are off well, well, we'll talk about it with Florio, with Tua.
He had a nice nugget when we get to Florio. That might be the nerd nugget of the week.
Yeah, that might be. Florio might have dropped it.
Okay, Hank. Thanksgiving question.
Is it really a proper Thanksgiving dinner if people don't talk about the current political and economic state of the world? Turkey or ham, cranberries, or sweet potatoes? Turkey. Turkey.
Wait, what is the question? Turkey or ham? Cranberries or sweet potatoes? I don't think that's... Cranberries or sweet potatoes aren't...
You can have both. I usually have both.
Yeah, that's not an opposite. It'd be sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes.
I take sweet potatoes over cranberry if you're asking one or one or two i think i would take the cranberry because i like cranberry on everything it's the only time i have a cranberry also good for urinary tract yep it's a fact uh okay let's do our picks and then we'll get to hot seat cool throne so everyone's got to do one pick of these four games so we'll do three picks this week give us the standings yes so for the opening act we we have Max at 13 and nine. Jake at 11 and a half.
Two points. Yeah.
Max at 13. Jake at 11 and a half.
And memes at 10. So memes one and a half behind me.
For the main event, some separation. Big Cat 13 and a half.
PFT 13. Hank eight and a half., no, Hank.
That's not good. 8.5.
But this extra pick could help him. I got a question for you.
When we broadcast this, is it going to be broadcast on PMTV or is it going to be on Viva TV? What do you think, PFT? I think, well, you might be the one that's the star of it so it might be we would rename it diva tv for you you walked into that that's a good one thank you i was wondering where you're going with that he just walked you right down the line you were fucking you know you were you were uh i was dribbling him dude to dunk you were in the car with sylvio what's her name Adriana yeah that's what you were? You were. I was dribbling him.
Dude, dude, dude. Dunk.
You were in the car with Silvio. What's her name? Adriana.
Yeah. That's what you were.
PFT was Silvio. You were Adriana.
Hey, where are we going? Take this exit rate. Why are we getting off the road here? That was what you just said.
It happened to you. How are you feeling about your bets? I feel bad.
I was driving last night, and I kind of, you know, last week when I heard the record, I was like, damn, I feel like I'm probably going to lose this.

And then Sunday I checked the scores, realized I went 0-2.

It was like, that's not good.

And then for whatever reason, yesterday when I was driving, it kind of really set in.

Yeah.

And I started to have a panic attack.

Yeah.

Yeah, PFT and I have been pretty consistent.

Like we've been, I don't remember many 0-2. I feel like we pick up a point almost every week.
I go 1 and 1 a lot. Yeah.
I'm not going to talk about it. I think I'm just going to, you know, we'll maybe film some stuff for a vlog to be determined later.
I do have somewhat of a plan. Okay.
It's going to be a train wreck, but I'm... You're not out of it, though.

You're not out of it.

I feel like I'm out of it.

I'm going forward prepared to do the stand-up,

and I'm just going to plan to do the stand-up.

Okay, so...

Somehow win.

It'd be a choke by both of you guys.

Who's picking first here, Jake?

I think Memes said it's him.

So it's Memes, then Hank, then me, all the way around?

Okay.

Sure. Memes.
Memes had to catch his flight So it's memes, then Hank, then me, all the way around? Okay. Sure.

Memes.

Memes had to catch his flight.

Did he text you his picks?

He said he was going to text one of us.

But he said he wanted the Cowboys, so let's just give him the Cowboys.

So he's taking the Cowboys.

Cowboys minus 10.5 against Washington.

He didn't text that, though?

Max, he said he wanted the Cowboys, right?

That's all we have.

Yeah, the only thing he said was his first pick was Cowboys.

Okay, so he's got the Cowboys, right? That's all we have. Yeah, the only thing you said was his first pick was Cowboys.
Okay, so he's got the Cowboys.

Hank.

Hank, you have the second pick.

You should be able to get this.

I haven't got anything.

Okay.

Do I fade myself?

Do I trust myself?

I don't know.

Do I fade myself?

Just go.

Packers. Lions.
Packers.

Lions.

Packers plus seven and a half.

And Big Cat takes Lions, so this is huge.

This is huge for the competition.

Just so we're clear.

I was going to do that every once.

Just so we're clear, no matter what you were going to say,

I was going to say Lions because I do like the Lions a lot.

Got it.

I was not.

Oh, yeah, sure.

We started the preview. I said I love the Lions because yeah packers should have lost the chargers yep also to be fair we don't we didn't start secretly submitting until like four weeks to go also hank that's good for you you want me to pick opposite of you he's just thinking worst case scenario yeah right it's an easier way to gain ground it's easier way to gain ground if you win this and I lose it, you have gained a full point.
Hank's on tilt right now. He is.
I'm going to take the over in the Niner Seahawks, 43 and a half. Love it.
Love it. Jake? I'm going to take the Dolphins, minus nine and a half.
Okay. I will take the over in Commander's Cowboys.

Okay.

So those are our picks.

That's 48 and a half.

Those are our picks for Thursday.

Let's get to – let's do Hot Seat Cool Throne,

and then we'll get to Florio.

And after Florio, if anyone has to work on Friday,

you can stop there and hear our weekend preview. Before we get to Florio part of my cheesesteak has just unleashed a menu that will have your mouth watering in no time hold on to your taste receptors because we're introducing the stars of the show the chicken bacon ranch cheesesteak the irresistible chicken tenders and the famous monumental big cat combo whether you're a cheesesteak aficionado, a finger food enthusiast, or simply someone who values the art of comfort cuisine, this menu has something for everyone.
Order now on pardonmycheesesteak.com. Also available on Uber Eats.
We have perfected the cheesesteak, pardonmycheesesteak.com right now. And just so we're clear, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I'll say it.
When you order Pardon My Cheese Steak, when you get a great meal from Pardon My Cheese Steak, obviously, this shouldn't be like breaking news. We do make money, but we share it with everyone here.
So it's something that we all share in, producers, everyone, equal. So pardonmycheesesteak.com go right now also available on uber eats all right hot

seat cool throne hank my hot seat is anyone that actually believes snoop dog was off the smoke yeah yeah i had i had cool throne he gave up smoking weed or he said he said i gave up smoke last weekend and then uh surprise it was a marketing stunt yeah it was a great stunt it for a smokeless fire pit, I think.

But he, I mean...

Which kind of looks cool, but smoke is kind of fun part of a fire pit where you smell it. Yeah, smelling like a fire afterwards is one of the best parts.
Did you see Joe Biden's birthday cake? Yeah. With the 81 candles on it? It looked like the thing that Snoop Dogg was advertising.
That was insane. It was a funny picture.
But uh but yeah i mean snoop dogg saying he quit smoke was like legitimately headline news for like two days yeah he quit like what 15 years ago you remember that no he was like i i kicked the habit and then he went on some talk show and he's like i thought you kicked it he's like yeah kick back back on yeah uh and then my cool throne is covert operations oh absolutely love move. Shohei Otani said he's going to be doing secret meetings with teams, and it will be held against them if it leaks that the meeting happened.
Oh, I like that. I like that.
Shohei to Michigan? I love that. Yeah.
I love that. Like when you have, when you're, you know, that recruited, that sought after, you have all the power.
Why not just be like, I'm going to meet with you. And if you say something, like it's never happening.
This also is great. Because then it gives him like an out to be like, I would have came, but you leaked it.
And it's great too, because if a reporter reports on it and then Shohei doesn't go to that team, we can all blame the reporter. That's huge.
Yeah. And if you're a team that's not in the Shohei running, you should just leak that you took a meeting with Shohei.
Oh, the only reason he's not coming here is because somebody leaked this. Yeah.
Ooh, I like this. Okay.
PFT, your hot seat, cool, Toronto. My hot seat is Greg Berhalter.
Ooh. The coach of the U.S.
Men's National Team. Out? He should be out.
Yeah. Hot seat, Greg.
He lost to Trinidad and Tobago. Oh.
Can't do that. We actually did do that in 2018.
That's why we didn't make the World Cup. It was the second leg of the Nations League quarterfinals.
We all know that tournament very well, intimately. But we beat them 3-0 in the first leg, so we ended up advancing, which means that we did qualify for Copa America.
And then the U.S. national team, after we lost 2-1 to Trinidad and Tobago, they tweeted out, like, we've qualified.
Great job, but you just lost to Trinidad and Tobago. He's won 4-5 in games played in CONCACAF outside the United States.
He stinks. We brought him back.
He doesn't get along with any of the best players on the team. Fire Greg.
Fire him. Yes.
Do it. Get him out.
Do the right thing. Get him out.
This is the golden generation. Get him out.
And Greg's screwing it up before our World Cup. Yes.
But we do have a good scapegoat in case we don't do well in the World Cup. And that's Greg.
Yes. Are we? Yeah, we're automatically entered, right? We are entered.
Oh, yes. We can't.
We're going to qualify. Yeah, we're going to qualify.
Congratulations. Congrats to the United States for qualifying for the World Cup.
Although I am saying, this is when soccer should succeed in America in this World Cup. Our players are good enough, and Greg's going to screw it all up.
Yes. Okay.
Your cool throne? My cool throne is going to be Snoop Dogg smoking weed. He's still doing it.
Nice. Okay.
My hot seat is Jim Harbaugh and Ryan Day. We should talk about this game for a second.
It is probably the biggest game. It feels like the biggest game in college football in a very long time because of not only the playoff implications, Big Ten title, but everything that is going on with this rivalry.
I'm so excited for Saturday if Ryan Day loses I don't know

he's

he's gotta be

I don't know why he's got to be, I don't want to say he's going to get fired because he's obviously won a lot of games at Ohio State and he had them. He almost beat Georgia last year, which sounds like loser talk.
But holy shit, would this be emasculating for him? It'd be great. It would be great for Jim Harbaugh if they can beat Ohio State in this game.
They asked Jim Harbaugh, like, talk about the respect that you have for Ryan Day and the coaching staff at Ohio State. And he just straight up said, you know, we're doing everything that we can to prepare for this game.
It's a big game for us. Like, completely ignore the question.
Yes. He hates Ryan Day.
Ryan Day hates him. I want to see Lou Holtz doing the gritty if Ohio State loses.
That would be great. This is Lou Holtz's Super Bowl.

Yes.

If he loses this game.

Jim Harbaugh also said the team is in one piece like his mom's bathing suit.

That was a Ted Lasso joke that he stole.

Got it.

Yeah.

I saw that going around.

I stopped watching after the first season.

I did too, but I saw other people that had watched it that said, hey, this is actually

just word for word, bar for bar, a Ted Lasso joke.

Damn. I thought Harbaugh was working on a nice tight five.
I thought he'd have his own material. Yeah.
The other news in college football, obviously Jordan Travis getting hurt. That sucks so much.
Now we have the debate. Can Florida State be kept out if they're undefeated? I don't think you can.
I think that would be, one, you have Cardell Jones as a point of a backup quarterback, third string quarterback. So maybe Florida State has to beat Louisville 59-0 in the ACC championship game like Cardell Jones did to the Badgers.
And it stinks because I had Jordan Travis actually as my Heisman Trophy winner, but I don't think that you can give it to him now. So you have to go to Jaden Daniels.
Jaden Daniels would be the only logical choice.

You're making a lot of sense right now.

They won't leave out an undefeated Florida State.

I'm pretty confident.

And if they do, everything's a mockery.

That's bullshit.

Because it doesn't matter who's starting quarterback.

If they win all their games in a Power 5 conference,

you're essentially saying games don't matter. You're just playing the whole thing on an Excel spreadsheet.
We're like, who's the healthiest? Yeah, I agree. I agree 100%.
If you look at Florida State and you play the game of, well, I don't know if their quarterback now is as good as the one that we saw win all those games, then you're not actually about football. you are deciding a loss for florida state i

also think for all the hand-wringing we're doing about the college football playoff because you have the whole texas alabama problem i think it will all get sorted out i think georgia will beat alabama which will then eliminate alabama and texas so texas is weirdly rooting for alabama yeah it's their best win it's their best win uh so it'll be georgia florida state big 10 champ Pac-12 champ.

That feels like the easy way.

The crazy thing would be Georgia, Florida State Big Ten champ, Pac-12 champ That feels like the easy way The crazy thing would be what happens if Alabama wins If Alabama beats Georgia in the SEC championship game I think they would still keep Georgia in No, I don't think so It depends on what everyone else does But I think it would be pretty tough to keep Georgia in if you had an undefeated Washington, undefeated Florida State, undefeated Ohio State, or Michigan. You can't.
Then there are completely... Yeah, there's different variables.
So any of those teams could also lose. Right.
But the major monkey wrench comes into play if Alabama beats Georgia. Yeah, if the Pac-12 beats itself alive, if Texas catches another loss, then yes, I would agree.
Georgia and Alabama would probably both be in with Florida State and the Big Ten being the other two teams. Yeah.
But yeah, I'm rivalry week. Nothing better.
I wish that Texas and A&M were playing on... I know.
Did they play on Thanksgiving usually? Thanksgiving night, yeah. They should have played on Thanksgiving.
We got the Egg Bowl. That's going to be nice.
The Egg Bowl. And also, credit to Washington and Washington State for figuring out a way to do the Apple Cup.
Yeah. So they're going in the future.
They're going to continue to do the Apple Cup into the future. I love that.
We need the Civil War, Oregon and Oregon State to continue as well. Yep.
It should be a great game on Friday. And then my cool throne is journalism.
So obviously last week we made some headlines. People were flipping out about Carissa telling a story she'd already told before.
And again, not saying that she's just making up stuff willy nilly, essentially saying if she couldn't talk to a coach or if she knew the coach, if the coach said something like, I'm not going to answer your question, but your perfume smells great.

Right.

And she knew the coach.

She would use a cliche to update.

And everyone was like, how could you do this?

How could how could you?

It's an affront to journalism.

It did make me laugh a little bit on Monday night.

And this is no fault of Lisa Salters, because she's told what to do in terms of what they

want her to report on when she they broke down to her and she gave an update on where taylor swift is yep that was very funny yep so journalism you got to make sure i keep it i think the people that were most upset about the chris the thing were other sideline reporters right that want to stand up for their profession profession as they should yeah they should i understand that point of view but i think for the majority of football fans you're like well okay this doesn't really make that much of a difference it just became a very quick topic where everyone's like carissa is just making up lies and that's so not clearly not what she's doing uh but yeah it's the internet people are gonna get mad about everything they get mad about literally everything so it happens uh jake your hot seat My hot seat is Bill Walton. He was what the kids say are on one last night, late night at the Maui Invitational.
He had a handful of interesting quotes, including commenting on his play-by-play partner's recent loss of his father. He talked about, he said, have you ever done that? Still there with a vibrator and then with the ice pack on your shoulders.
So he was just being Bill Walton. Yeah.
At the Mount Invitational. That's kind of what you get when you get Bill Walton.
Yeah. You know, like he's going to do stuff like that.
I wasn't surprised to hear that. You get the good and the bad, you know? Yeah.
He gets loose with it. Yeah.
Bill Walton adds color to college basketball. Big time.
Big big time big time let bill walton cook definitely i'd like to get him and al michaels in the booth together that'd be great that would be a mind meld yeah it would be incredible um my cool throne is black friday you have a huge sale on the barstool store 20 off are we allowed to talk about the specific yeah things that we're dropping plug it up yeah you know i'm gonna grab something okay i'm gonna grab some of it yes plug god here to report uh we have a six pack of part of my take ping pong lottery balls i actually used them for a promo yesterday so i had to open it but they're on that uh shelf right above you guys so it's the five most notable numbers in part of my take lottery ball history we have six we have eight we have 17 1869 and then the sixth ball is a part of my take logo so you can use it for uh beer pong you can use it to play ping pong and say you're the best in the office you can use it for lottery ball drawings uh hank has an ornament of the now r. green couch.
Oh, that's sweet.

Yes.

So Billy and I's green couch is still alive via ornament.

Billy sat on every single one of these.

So it's got that real flavor to it.

Yes.

We also have a t-shirt.

I don't know.

It might be in the studio somewhere.

What are you guys decorating that studio, Jake?

Yeah.

Get it going.

Should I bring my wall of credentials?

I have it hanging up in my apartment.

Literally anything.

Yeah.

Bring your wall of credentials.

Okay.

I'll see my wall of credentials. No, we're going to end up putting merch.
We got to figure out the camera situation. We'll talk after.
Okay. We also have a t-shirt.
We said two weeks ago. Yeah, it's been procrastination over here.
We have a t-shirt of a lottery ball machine in a Heisman pose with a football. It's a lottery ball mascot.
Love it. Let me see if I can.
It might be out there. I think the corduroy PMT hat that PFT is wearing is the best.
I love this one. This might be my favorite hat we've ever done.
It's like the Chicago flag part of my take. Which just plays anyway, even if you're not trying to rep the Chicago flag.
Because it's a great flag. it's a great design yeah that's that might be my favorite part of chicago and i like a lot of parts super super comfortable also we did do a deal with uh 47 brands we have some new hats hank's wearing it right now just cover just cover this happened they're so they're the best hitting uh fitting hats i'm wearing actually a 47 brand right now and the uh i've got a we've been wearing them since the summer.
Jerry Ward, also Robbie Barstow. I wore them during the Ryder Cup.
PFT's been wearing it. The navy blue and tan part of my take hats got a lot of comments about when those are going on sale.
That will also be black. Nice.
Still blue coffees is 20% off. If you want to be a member of the Still Blue Coffee Club, that's also the membership.
Yearly membership is 20% off. If you're watching on YouTube, it's the Heisman.
I guess not really Heisman. Oh, I love it.
Lottery ball mascot holding a football. I love it.
I love it. And ugly sweaters.
Yeah, ugly sweaters. Everything.
Everything's there. Your friend.
Tiff's sweater is popping off. Your good friend Tiffany.
Yeah, her sweater's great. It's her saying that motherfucker's not real to Santa Claus.
Dave won't be counting that sweater towards revenue. Well, yeah, he was hating on her, and he was like, yeah, she doesn't sell merch.
It's the seventh best-selling ugly sweater. Wow.
Look at you. Let's run those numbers up.
Step it up. Isn't the sale running longer this year? And Tiff hit me up yesterday, and she asked.
She was like, I need one of those Just Cover hats. Oh, love it.
Yeah. Love it.
Good. Send her one.
Might have to hand deliver it. Might have to.
Might have to. Okay.
Let's get to our crazy uncle, Mike Florio. And then, again, if you are working on Friday, you can stop after Florio.
We'll talk about all the Sunday's games. So, yeah.
I'm sorry for anyone who has to work on Friday. So before we get to Florio, it's time for our interview with Mike Florio and shout out Body Armor.
Body Armor helps us stay hydrated throughout our interviews with the biggest guests in the world, packed with electrolytes and no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or dyes. Body Armor hydrates the best athletes in the world and, more importantly, us during interviews.
Buy Body Armor today. Visit the Body Armor Amazon store or retailers nationwide store retailers nationwide available in stores nationwide head on over to body armor store on amazon and get yours today with body armor the best drink out there so here he is mike florio okay we now welcome on a very special guest one of our favorite guests it is mike florio from Pro Football Talk.
You can see him on the cock every single morning. You can also see him on NBC for Sunday Night Football.
We thought in the spirit of Thanksgiving week, we should have our crazy uncle who's got takes that firing out of his, you know, every side of his mouth on to talk some football and catch up. So, Uncle Mike, it's great to see you.
Let's get into it. Let's get some takes going.
First of all, you call me one of your favorite guests. And I hear from you guys as often as I would hear from you if you actually were my family members.
Right, that's how you treat family. Exactly.
Once a year. At most.
Once a year. Mike, I've been texting it out there about like once a month to the group, like, hey, we chef Florio on at some point.
And then everyone's like, yeah, you're right, we should. And then we forget it.
And then we just forget. And now we invite you on for Thanksgiving.
Right. We love you.
That's why we don't have to text all the time. Are you fake freezing? Oh, okay.
Okay. All right.
All right. Mike, we love you.
Mike, we love you. That's why we don't have to text all the time.
Are you fake freezing? Oh, okay. All right.
Mike, we love you. Mike, we love you.
I love you too. It's just nice to hear from you more frequently than during Thanksgiving week.
Okay. So Mike Florio, not our uncle, our Jewish grandmother.
Got it. Okay.
I never hear from you boys. Go ahead.
There's a fine line between Jewish grandmother and Italian grandmother. That's true.
A very fine line. They are one in the same.
All right. So I want to get into it.
I want to talk everything in the NFL. I want to start with my favorite current Florio take thing that he is on.
It is the Bengals. It is the Joe Burrow hand injury.
It is the class action lawsuit against the NFL.

Tell us where, like, you want to sue the NFL.

I know you do.

No, look, your boss is already going to sue them.

That's true.

I still can't figure out whether or not it's real or it's a bit.

But this whole legalized gambling industry has tentacles that the NFL needs to be concerned about. And I've been sounding that alarm.
And here's why. I don't want to cover the lawsuit.
I don't want to have to go to court and sit there and watch it all play out because it's very simple. If you're going to make millions from legalized gambling and you're going to have an injury reporting system that is flawed that is broken that isn't enforced and somebody eventually hides an injury and it makes a difference and Thursday night's game was the biggest example of it we have the video that the Bengals posted and then deleted of Joe Burrow with the wrist wrap the arm sleeve whatever it was he wasn't wearing it as a fashion statement and then he suffers the season ending injury the next night.
If it traces back to whatever he was wearing that wrist sleeve for, and they hid that injury, that's the kind of thing. And we see people file crazy ass lawsuits all the time.
This one isn't all that crazy. If I bet on the Bengals and the Bengals hid that information, that would be very relevant to me believing the Bengals could cover the spread or win the money line.
That's exactly the kind of thing that could cause someone with legal gambling to do something about it. When it's the days of illegal gambling, you can't do anything about it.
You can't do anything about it. You're going to sue over losing a bet that was illegal anyway.
But now that it's everywhere, not everywhere yet, but now that it's legal in so many states and the NFL is making so much money off of it, they've got to enforce that rule or they're going to end up in a massive lawsuit. It's just a matter of time, guys.
You said that you would hate to have to go cover this lawsuit. You don't want to go to court and cover this thing.
You actually would love to do that. Let's be honest.
That was a lie. be really good at doing that too i i always say like when when things get kind of when they it hits a lull in the nfl and florio starts like doing uh like the the fan fiction that me and hank talk about where you're like oh what if this happened or this happened or this happened like you can you know you wander a little bit you stray you're entertaining but you stray sometimes but when it comes to like stuff, that's where Florio starts cooking.
So I actually think that you would love to see this lawsuit get passed.

Agreed.

You may be right.

Yeah.

And Mike, the crux of your point is it's not even like –

obviously there's a gambling side of this because of the legalization,

but how many teams do you think in the NFL are not telling the truth

on the injury report?

And do you – like are you auditing it every week? I'd imagine every week you're like,

I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, But how many teams do you think in the NFL are not telling the truth on the injury report?

And do you, like, are you auditing it every week? I'd imagine every week you're, like, basically watching all, like, the beat reporters trying to figure out exactly who's lying and who's not lying. It sounds like the worst job in the world, but I think you're up for the task.
No, but I'm not doing that part of it. I just wait for the obvious issues to arise.
It's like when you watch an Eagles game and Jalen Hurts doesn't have the burst that we're used to seeing. And then he shows up in the second half wearing a brace on his knee.
And we go back and look and see if a knee injury was ever disclosed for Jalen Hurts. And then we hear he's had a knee bruise for weeks and he's never been on the report.
That's something that makes you say, why do you even have this thing if you're not going to have obvious injuries on it? And just last week, just last week, Doug Peterson, the coach of the Jaguars, told reporters that the offense has been limited because of Trevor Lawrence's knee injury. And Lawrence himself said last week to reporters, the knee's getting better, et cetera, et cetera.
We hadn't been on the report in three weeks. And I asked the league about it.
And their answer was to say to the Jaguars, hey, put him back on the report. If they don't enforce it, teams are just going to say, hey, we've got a strategic reason to keep this information secret, especially as it relates to quarterbacks.
I'm extra sensitive to it as it relates to quarterbacks, because those are the guys that make the game go. And if you've got a quarterback who has an injury that is hidden from the general public, that is betting their hard-earned dollars, to use Dave Portnoy's line, my hard-earned dollars are being wagered legally on this.
And it's not on the up and up. It's a problem.
It is a major problem. And it's no different than, you know, when you're buying and selling stocks, you want all the information that's out there to help you make your decision.
You don't want lying. You don't want inside information to be misappropriated.
It's the same idea once it turns legal and becomes this massive multi-billion dollar industry. So if you're hiding quarterback injuries, that's a problem.
And that's mainly what I'm looking for, quarterback injuries that are being hidden by the teams. Yeah.
And $500,000, I think that was the bet, right? Yeah. That he made.
He could have bought 500,000 barstool sports with that amount of money. So that is, that's a significant damage there, Mike.
I think a jury, a jury would be sympathetic. Mike's a silent protector.
Yeah. Follow the rules, people.
Follow the goddamn rules. You remember Brady, the Patriots used to put everybody on the injury report like every week.
And and it's like it's way easier to say everyone's hurt because in the nfl why not just do that i was talking to somebody about that i was talking to devon mccourty about this the other night at the studio at nbc why not just list everyone why not overdo it when you underdo it it becomes a problem and the reason brady remember when brady was on the injury report every week with the right shoulder Remember that? The reason they did that was because he would have ice on his shoulder after the games, and reporters were like, does he have an injury? Why isn't the injury disclosed? So the Patriots was like, well, fuck it. We'll put him on every week with a shoulder so you quit asking us why he has ice on his shoulder.
He has ice on his shoulder because his shoulder is sore because he threw 40 passes. That's why he has ice on his shoulder.
So they just put him on the injury report as probable every week with the right shoulder so they quit asking the question. Why not just do that? Just put it out there, and then they quit asking you the question.
Yeah. Mike, I have a question about the health of the league overall.
So scoring's down. Tom Brady actually did an interview, I think, on Stephen A.
Smith's podcast last week or yesterday, saying that the league is mediocre right now and it's not what it used to be. Is this a concern for the NFL or do they just say, hey, we don't care because we know that we own Sunday, we own Monday, we own Thursday, people are going to watch no matter what? Or are they saying in the league offices like, hey, the product maybe is dipping a little bit.
Let's find a way to make it better. I think generally there's a concern, guys, because whenever scoring is up, they flood my email box with statements and press releases thumping their chest at how scoring is up.
Biggest weekend since 1973 and this, that, and the other thing. They're always bragging when the scoring is up.
So I think they prefer scoring to be up. But the reality is viewership is up.
The metrics are the highest they've been since 2015. So we are still going to watch.
We have the virus. It's not being cured.
We want football. Think about this week, all the standalone games, Monday night, three on Thursday, Friday, Sunday night, Monday night.
And people congregate in the multiple millions to watch these games, even if they're not good. The three games on Thanksgiving Day have a chance to be horrible games across the board where you have a great team against a not great team in every game.
And you know what? We're still going to watch.

We're still going to turn it on,

and they're still going to be able to say

the ratings are the highest they've been since 2015 or thereabouts.

A little disrespectful to the Seattle Seahawks with that comment.

I just want to say it for the Seahawks fans because they're –

They got swept by the Rams.

Yeah, there's a chance the Seahawks get blown out with Geno's injury.

I wouldn't say they're not – they're a good team.

The Seahawks are a good team.

We can say that. They're a good team, but right now, when you consider they've been swept by the Rams, Geno's hurt, and their next four games are 49ers-Cowboys, 49ers-Eagles.
They could be 6-8 after 14 games. Yeah, that's very true.
So it's hot stove season, hot seat season in the NFL. Which coach do you think is the first to get fired? i think your guy ron rivera will be out as soon as friday if they get blown out i'm that's what i'm hoping for can i kill me kill me dallas put me out of my misery mike can i ask a question about the ron rivera thing and i want you to tell me uh all the other coaches but is there ever a team that says are we want a tank and ron rivera is actually bad so shouldn't we keep him well i Well, I think it's just bad for the overall culture you're trying to instill.
This is something Sean Payton explains. You should never deliberately try to lose because it infects the organization at every level.
Every organization should be about winning, winning, winning all the time. But if you just organically lose and it improves your standing in the draft, so be it.
You embrace it. I think the opportunity is there for Eric Biennemi to get an opportunity to show what he could do as head coach.
And it's more data for Josh Harris and company to consider as they plan for 2024. And Sims made the point this morning on PFT Live, if they didn't play Thursday, Rivera might've been fired the day after that debacle against the Giants.
So maybe it's Black Friday becomes Black Monday for Ron Rivera, and he's out the day after that Thanksgiving game. Or it could even be Black Friday.
They might just fire him on Friday. Black Friday is Black Friday maybe.
But I agree with you. I think that if we were to fire or keep Rivera around, yeah, he a great job of tanking I think but I've heard from a lot of players and a lot of a lot of people in the league that have said if you show improvement at the end of a season that carries over into the next year where you actually have some belief that at least you're playing hard and if there's no better chance to give Eric Bien-Ami a like actual game like study him and how he how prepares for a game, how he operates during a game, how he handles all the press conferences, all that stuff that goes along with being a head coach.
Give him a trial run right now because I don't think that Josh Harris would want to just hire Biennemi as a head coach without seeing any of that going into next season. I think he's going to want to do a full-on coaching search, which brings me to my next question.
Wait. Wait for – Hank.
Hank was grabbing the breakfast that I just ordered for everyone. Have a seat.
Have a seat. Thank you, Buket.
Yes, because he was nervous going to get the breakfast that he wasn't going to be here for this question. Oh, I thought that Hank – Oh, I know.
I can already tell you the question. Wait, yes.
I thought that Hank would be nervous because sometimes he's not a lot to eat on this podcast. Well, that – he probably ate one.
Did you eat one? No, I was literally like I did the like put it in my mouth. Then I saw your text.
Yeah, I was like, get back in here. We're going to get back to Mike Flory in a second.
He's brought to you by Morgan and Morgan. It's the holiday time.
I want everybody out there to be safe. All right.
There's so many ways you can get around safely. Don't drink and drive.
Get an Uber. Get a cab.
Have a friend drive. Morgan & Morgan will have your back if you happen to be in an incident with somebody else that runs into you.
Morgan & Morgan is the power of the people in your hands. 35% of all fatal accidents occur between 6 p.m.
and midnight. People age 25 to 34 have the highest amount of drivers involved in car crashes.
People aged 15 to 24 have the highest rate of emergency room visits due to car accidents of all age groups. And Morgan & Morgan is America's largest injury law firm.
They have over 100 offices nationwide. They have more than 800 lawyers.
With over $15 billion recovered for over 300,000 clients, Morgan & Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation. They've been fighting for the people for over 35 years.
Submitting an injury claim with Morgan & Morgan is so easy. Entertaining clients is hard.
Submitting an injury claim with Morgan & Morgan is easy. Winning the PMT lotto is hard.
Submitting an injury claim with Morgan & Morgan is easy. Moving to Chicago is hard.
Submitting an injury claim with Morgan & Morgan is super easy. Parking your car in a parking lot without running into a pole is difficult to do, but submitting an injury claim with Morgan & Morgan is easy.
If you are ever injured, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. The fee is free unless they win.
win for more information go to for the people.com slash pmt or dial pound law that's pound five two nine from your cell phone that's for the people.com slash pmt or pound law pound five two nine from your cell this is a paid advertisement and now here's more mike florio all right so it brings me to my next question, Mr. Mike Florio.
Everyone get comfortable. Get comfortable for this one because you and I are aligned, I think, in our fan fictions.
That a lot, there's a lot of reasons why Bill Belichick to the commanders makes sense in my head. You've got a new owner willing to spend a lot of money.'s close to annapolis he's very close with navy

a lot of good lacrosse in the area looking to restart the whole franchise maybe even rename the franchise seems like he's done in new england they leaked that information about the contract hoping they could get a trade done tell me that bill belichick to the washington commanders is actually a thing that could happen.

First of all

let me just comment if i may on this whole fan fiction thing that hank started i think hank's

the reason why i'm only on once per year hank's got a problem with my fan fiction so when you

text once a month bring florian hank says no fucking way hank let me speak to you directly

on this concept of fan i like this all the crazy shit that happens in the NFL, all the crazy shit that happens, and we react to it after the fact. My job, part of my job, is to say, hey, folks, here's where all the dots are right now.
Let's try to figure out the crazy shit that might happen because we know crazy shit's going to happen. So if we can get of it and inform people and prepare them for it right i'm willing to throw the dart if it misses the board if every once in a while it hits the bullseye so you can call it fan fiction if you want i call it doing my job boom yeah but who else yeah but like that's like saying your your job is a fan fiction writer so like we're both we're both correct his job is to report on the term it's informed speculation based upon information that's available to me and 23 years of seeing all the patterns all the shit that's happened yeah i've been living this every day for 23 years i've seen all the crazy shit that's gone down i'm not sitting around making this up i'm trying to project where the ball is moving based upon where the ball has been for the past generation.
You're a lawyer, Mike. You know all the technicalities and ways where you can say things where you're like, oh, well, I was just saying this might happen.
It's a possibility. I'm not saying it's going to happen.
No, I share what I hear and I couch it accordingly when we have hard news. You also take some liberties with.
No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
I want to just stop for one second. Mike had the line that everyone should look for is informed speculation.
That is what Mike does. Informed speculation.
Which is fine. It's speculating, but also being informed.
And it's good for the league. Yes.
And it's good for us as football fans. Because guess what? It gives us stuff to talk.
I mean, what the fuck else are we supposed to do? Yeah, Hank. to do yeah hang on what's gonna happen you you need to get clicks on your website so you make stuff up to get people to click that's fine whoa whoa screw me for trying to make some money no i have no problem with that it's like what are you guys trying to do i work at parcel i know i know the game i know the game you need me on that wall he also said he does said do your job? Yeah.
Bill Belichick. Mike Florio might be a Belichick disciple.
You're taking offense to what I say, but I just see it's a respect thing. It's like.
Because what you say is offensive to me. Yeah.
People are going to click this article and it's like, yeah, it makes no sense. You don't sound respectful when you say it.
Look, there's an avenue and there's a market. As I've proven

over the last 23 years, there is a market for analyzing what is going on and what it could mean. And sometimes what it could mean is obvious.
Sometimes, yeah, it's a little bit out there, but we have seen so much stuff that happens that after the fact we say, holy fuck we didn't see this coming see i'm trying to prepare people for the things that could happen yes and this whole belichick thing flows directly from that the things that could happen based upon what has happened and based upon where it looks like things are moving hank can we maybe say instead of calling florio fan fiction say, maybe say he's got semi-informed speculation. You're an informed speculationist.
Yeah, informed speculationist is good. I got no problem with that.
That fan fiction suggests that I'm just sitting around saying, what crazy-ass shit can I come up with for clicks? Let me see what I can make up for clicks that's not what i'm doing there's enough stuff going on you don't need to do that there's enough dots to reasonably connect based upon what's out there then to have to go back to the lab and say what could we what kind of story can we create out of nothing what all right but what if we did this hold on what if we started football erotica? Right. That would be fair, right? Yeah.
Just, yeah. In fact, in fact, speculation sounds like it sounds legit.
It sounds so legit. I like it.
I like it a lot. And, Mike, I've been a fan of yours.
I like it when you informally speculate on things. Hank does not.
Don't let Hank try to tell you, like, he's trying to backtrack a little bit. There's some vitriol behind Hank, and I think it comes from the fact that you have reported some bad things about his New England Patriots.
Hank, can I just say this? I'm sorry to interrupt you, son. Son, I'm sorry to interrupt you at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
But Hank, go back to 2015. Yes, go back, Hank.
I was the only fucking guy that called bullshit on it from the get-go. It was bullshit.
It is bullshit. And you would have called that if you were a fan of any other team other than the Patriots, you would have said, oh, it's more Florio fan fiction about the Patriots and the Flakegate.
I was behind you 100%. When you were handcuffed in the lobby at 345 Park Avenue, I was behind you 100%.
And this is the thanks I get. No, Mike, I think these guys are trying to divide us.
I'm not a hater per se. I just try and call it like I see it.
Sometimes I think you are an informed speculationist, and sometimes maybe you're like, there's a 2% chance this could happen, but you still report it, and the article appears in a way where it's like, this is going to happen. No, it doesn't that that's on you for not reading it the right way but comprehension does come in play here hank is not a world-renowned smart person mike i think i figured out exactly why there's this disconnect between hank and when he looks at a headline and he gets mad about the headline and it's attributed to you i read up, Hank.
I think it has to do with the new, how do we say this, aggregation industrial complex on Twitter, on X.com. I'm not going to name the accounts, but there's like five accounts.
We all know who they are. They basically just grab the most inflammatory things that they can find, pull out a select quote from an article.
They might all be all be run by the same person I don't know I would actually like to get them all on a round table in the same room and talk to them about how they do their job but I think Hank he sees like a retweet of NFL rookie watch and it attributes something to you and then he's like here goes Florio again with the fan fiction I think your hate is more directed towards those accounts than it is towards our dear uncle, my internet father, Mike Florio.

And you.

Yeah, you for sure.

Why me?

He definitely is.

Part of this is you.

A lot of me.

How much do you hate those accounts, Mike?

Like the aggregation accounts is you.

Yeah, you aggregate and then bring it to Hank.

Yes.

I do not.

You're in-person Dove climbing for Hank. I just tell him facts.
I'm sorry that Hank gets mad about facts. Those accounts drive me crazy for a couple of reasons.
First of all, for most of them, we don't know who the hell they are. We don't know who they are.
We don't know what they are. We don't know where they are.
And they have no real accountability because they're not backed up by some employment interest. You know, you don't have people who are trying to keep their jobs.
So they can be wrong about whatever. And I think they're about taking whatever they can and maximizing engagement from it, maximizing retweets, maximizing likes, maximizing anything separate from whether or not they're serving their audience by telling the audience the truth.
And I have always been very careful dating back to the day we went live, November 1, 2001, to explain what I'm saying and why I'm saying it. Are we reporting actual news? Are we reporting based upon, and not even reporting, are we just spitballing? Are we saying this is what we're hearing, but we're not really sure whether or not it's true? We try to make it clear for the audience.
And look, it's on me to put the words down that allow the reader to digest it and understand it, but it's on the reader to understand and not warp and twist. And I'm not saying you do this, Hank.
I'm just saying it's on the reader to not warp and twist what we've actually said. These bot accounts on Twitter will just take whatever they can and amplify it in a way that is calculated for maximum engagement, even if they're deliberately or accidentally in their zeal to create maximum engagement.
They rush to a conclusion they shouldn't because they get so blinded by that that they ignore the truth. We always try to dabble in the truth and inaccuracy

our duties to our audience and i take that very very seriously i am always and every day 100

honest with our audience on what we're saying why we're saying it what we're hearing and when we

fuck up we don't run from it when we killed terry bradshaw we immediately admitted that we have not

killed terry bradshaw this is this is the point of the thanksgiving dinner where it's like wait

Thank you. When we killed Terry Bradshaw, we immediately admitted that we have not killed Terry Bradshaw.
This is the point of the Thanksgiving dinner where it's like, wait, has Uncle had too much to drink? Why is he pounding his fist on the table and screaming at us? I like the aggregators just because it puts all the aggregation in one place. That's the only reason I like them because they're wrong all the time, but I like to see it all in one one place hank you had a question for mike yeah mike i i really do you know i don't i don't want there to be beef between us i i uh you took a lot of thanks to me if it can't be you beefing on me and me saying nothing if you're going to take shots i want to have a chance to let you beef back right that's fine it's two to be you took offense to me calling you fan fiction writer which i thought was honestly just a fair representation of what goes on would you take offense to me saying you do choose your own adventure blogs i choose my what choose your own adventure like the little books that you have a little kid where you can flip to page 10 oh if you do if you go this way you flip to page 25 choose your own adventure like you hear a little a little sliver of information and then you choose your own adventure and go from it, take it from there.

It's just a matter of trying to figure out what's going to happen based upon what currently is happening. So if there is some factual development that could point to something else down the road, whether it's the news that's out there, an announcement from a team, a report from someone.
You know, Big Cat, you mentioned earlier the reporting from a week or so ago about Belichick's contract that I think is specifically calculated by the Patriots to put everyone out there on notice of the fact that if you want this guy, you got to go through us. You're not just going to get him.
We're not going to fire him. We want the phone to ring.
We want to trade him. I think that that is the kind of stuff we do.
We take the reporting from the people who can't say what it really means because it'll piss off their source if they do and pull that thread and help people understand what's really behind it. So it's all part of a broader effort to take what's out there and guide people.
That's what it is. It's a, it's a map.
Yeah. We do as a map to where the treasure might be buried.
Mike Florio informed speculation isist, we're going to find out why. That should be your tagline right there.
Because that is, you're trying to find out why. You're trying to find the why.
Mike, I was thinking about this last night, dawned on me. This has to be the weirdest, or maybe not weirdest, but the latest we've been in an NFL season where I don't think we know who the MVP is because no one has really been that out-of-this-world good.
Do you have an inkling of who? I mean, it's Lamar, it's Patrick Mahomes, it's Tua. Miles Garrett.
Miles Garrett, Trent Williams. I mean, they're really good when he's on the field.
Who do you think should win MVP?

Because don't you think this year is a little weird that there's not one guy who's completely – Max is shaking his head that it should be Jalen Hurts.

He has not played –

A.J. Brown.

A.J. Brown, he's saying.

Okay.

A.J. Brown had one catch for eight yards.

Jalen Hurts is the betting favorite to win the MVP right now.

Jalen Hurts played better last year.

He's the betting favorite to win the MVP right now. Okay.
All right. Can let jalen hurt you answer the question max max thank you max i've got one of the votes and i don't know what the rules are or aren't nobody's ever sent me a pamphlet on what i can and can't say about the deliberations in the process and it's not like we all meet and talk about it we each just put in our ballots there's 50 voters we put on our ballots a few days after the season ends.
Here's the way the MVP, in my view, has evolved, especially now with only one top seed, one buy per conference. Used to be the one seed and the two seed had a buy.
Now you're going to have the one seed to have the buy. I think once the season ends and we know who the teams are, AFC and NFC, who have that top seed and who have that bye.
The most valuable player who has helped secure that most valuable position going into the postseason, NFC, AFC, top seed. The best player, the most impactful player, the most important player from those two teams, I think become the de facto finals.
It becomes a team award, yeah. And Miles Garrett is a legitimate MVP candidate if the Browns end up coming out of this morass in the AFC, where everyone's got three losses.
Jaguars, three losses. Dolphins, three losses.
Browns, three losses. Ravens, three losses.
Chiefs, three losses. Whoever ends up being the one seed, if it's the Browns, who else? Who else would get your MVP vote from the Clevelandveland browns there's nobody else miles garrett stands out among the rest so if the browns end up with a one seed and he doesn't even have to get within a sack or two of the all-time record if the browns end up with a one seed he's their mvp candidate and it would be in the nfc if it's the eagles jalen hurts yeah if it's if it's the 49ers who the hell knows christian mcca probably Lions yeah I mean Christian McCaffrey or Brock Purdy Trent Williams yeah if it's the Dolphins will Chris Sims cry if it's the Dolphins how is it not Tyree kill yeah that's true it's a good point how is Tyree kill not more valuable than Tua Tonga Valoa which guy is more responsible for them being the one seed if they're the one seed I think it's Tyree kill and i know sims does as well if it's tyreek hill but that's what it's become unless there's some guy out there who has just a crazy ass season like adrian peterson in 2012 when he made a late run at the single season rushing record and he beat out peyton manning in his first year with the broncos when they were the one seed in the afc it takes something like that And that's why, here like that.
Here's another point too. They just started last year.
It used to be one vote per voter for MVP. Now you rank them one through five.
And I can see a situation this year where like a CJ Stroud gets enough second place votes that he gets enough total points to overcome whoever gets the most first place votes because he could be second person on most of the ballots and maybe if you make him first and he could end up he could end up pulling like an inside straight and winning mvp that way that would be lame what about the the lions you were about to say who would be on the lions i don't know i mean would you really vote jared goff yes yes yeah in fact yes he's my front runner right now yes he played bad against the bears the bears defense has been better well i'll get it this way guys if the lions end up with a one seed i think whoever ends up with the one seed in the afc their candidate is more viable whether it's lamar jackson patrick mahomes tyree kill or miles garrett or trevor lawrence i think between trevor lawrence and jared goff i'd be more inclined to go trevor lawrence to anon will remember that you just will not say his name it's like poison on your mouth i don't put me in that same category with chris since i love to him and to him hey you know what we had an item over an item of fan fiction over the weekend hank that i hope you saw on all the injuries to quarterbacks this year there are only five starting quarterbacks who

have been unscathed no injuries during games no presence on the injury report and tua is one of

the ones who has made it this far without being injured in a year where every quarterback virtually

has been injured one of them ones that's cool uh you actually didn't address the previous question

though bill belichick where is he coaching next year oh we never got a chance to have the conversation look the first report that came out october 29 on nfl network about his contract like they acted and look i i need to be careful how i say this but i think i've said it in. I mean, they kind of made a bigger deal about it than it was because it was incomplete information, lucrative multi-year contract.
And I think it was calculated by someone close to Belichick to get everyone to stop talking about Belichick possibly being fired during the season. That's what I think.
I don't know that. Informed speculation, that's what I think.
Then three weeks later, same reporter, same network, we hear that, oh, it was a brand new contract covering 2023 and 2024. And oh, by the way, the Patriots aren't inclined to fire him during the season because they'd like to trade him.
So now we have a different, and I think that's Patriots version that's put out there. So whether it's the commanders, whether it's the Buccaneers, whether it's the Panthers, whether it's the Chargers, anyone out there that wants him knows you got to work with us.
You got to deal with us. You got to give us something we like before you get him.
So guys, what I believe is happening and what will happen, fan fiction, choose your adventure, informed speculation, whatever you want to call it. I think what will happen behind the scenes over the course of the next six, seven weeks, they'll work out a deal.
If there's a deal to be made, it's going to be worked out quietly between the Patriots, wherever he's going to end up and Belichick. And then after the season, the dominoes will be lined up.
And it's just a matter of flicking the first domino at the right time. And it'll all fall together the way that we won't know until it happens.
But it's happening now. So the teams to watch that I mentioned, Buccaneers, Panthers, Commanders, Chargers, those are the four I'd watch most closely.
And of those, the one that I think is the most fascinating is the Buccaneers. And JoeBucksFan.com and Ira Kaufman, I don't know if you guys have ever had him on.
He's excellent. He's been covering the Buccaneers forever.
He's a firm believer that this fits the MO of the Glazers. Go out and hire a big name, put butts in the seats.
They can't get people to come to the games now they don't have Brady. Go after Belichick, put in the seats if he wins he wins if he doesn't he doesn't we're going to make money in the interim by filling up our state i don't know if i don't know if a coach fills up a stadium like that there's it could generate some excitement i guess but what once you start if you lose then right people aren't going to come out you're right you're right it's also charismatic figure it's not like nick saban right it Right.
You're not going to see the coach. You're going to see the idea that the coach will make the team good.
It also feels like a little desperate. Like, if we're looking about – if we're thinking about, like, a relationship, you break up with somebody, your girlfriend moves to a new city, and then you move to that new city later, and you're like, hey, I'm here too.
Yeah, it's kind of fun. Like, that seems – it seems like a weird move for Belichick to follow in Brady's footsteps.
Agreed. I agree.
And look, it's got to be a place he wants to go. And I know some folks out there think it's going to be the Chargers because why? They've got Justin Herbert.
What was the thing that Bill Belichick needed to be successful? He needed a great quarterback. He hasn't had a quarterback since Tom Brady left.
And wherever else you would go, you're hoping like you hope Sam Howell becomes the guy in Washington. And he's shown signs that he could be.
But Justin Herbert is the one guy that you look to and say franchise quarterback who is caught in a dysfunctional situation. Maybe that's where Belichick would want to go.
But the other side of it too, how much power is an owner going to want to give him? Do you put guardrails on on his personnel authority or do you let him just run everything like he has in new england and i would say that it's belichick the gm that has been the bigger problem than belichick the coach so like do you force him to bring back scott pioli or try to hire nick casario one of the two guys that was with him when he was putting championship teams together and at the end of the the day, it all goes back to quarterback. You got to have a quarterback.

You got to have guardrails on Belichick's GM powers.

And then you just got to let him go do his thing, which is coach a team,

arguably as well as anyone has ever coached a team in league history.

It also feels like Belichick has lost a little bit of, you know,

for the longest time he was ahead of the curve because he was like,

it's all about positional flexibility.

Get these guys who can play multiple different ways. You know, your linebackers can be on the line all this stuff uh now it feels like the league is like you need just fast guys you need freaks you need these like guys who are you need three or four guys that are better than everyone and if you don't have that you're not going to be in the conversation I had a question though Florio so you Chargers, and there's another name for the Chargers.
And I want to know what you've probably dug in the legal part of this. Is the NFL going to try to suspend Jim Harbaugh if he tries to go back to the NFL? Well, and this gets back into the fan fiction.
What? What was that? Hold on. Time out.
Time out. Hank? Just so you understand.
Go ahead. That was something I hadn't heard before, and I'm sure Mike will explain.
Well, they did it to Jim Trestle. What the reason would be.
They preemptively suspended it. Yeah, they let Trestle – Trestle couldn't jump to the NFL.
And here's the key, and it's about reading tea leaves and understanding how it all fits together. When the media outlet owned by the NFL, people don't realize – like a lot of fans don't realize that NFL Network owns and operates or the NFL owns and operates NFL Network I think they just think it was licensed or something the NFL owns it the NFL operates the NFL calls the shots on how NFL Network does its business and when they come out and say on a Sunday because it's always on on a Sunday, Sunday Splash Report, as Sean Payton calls them, when they say that the NFL might duplicate whatever punishment the NCAA imposes on Jim Harbaugh, that tells me the NFL is thinking about it.
It wouldn't be on the NFL's network if they weren't thinking about doing it. They have no basis for it.
There's no rule he would have violated. It would be a clear antitrust violation.
It would be collusion. It would be illegal.
But what's Jim Harbaugh going to do? Sue? That's the thing. They did it to Jim Trestle, and he just took it.
And so I think what they did, they put that out there at a time when owners are thinking about, who am I going to try to hire after the season? You drop that turd into the punch bowl, and you think, I better think twice about Jim Harbaugh because I don't want to hire a coach that's going to be suspended the first six, eight, 10 games, whatever of the season. So you shy away from him.
See, I look at it as kind of a clumsy effort to blackball him, to keep him out, to scare teams away from hiring. He was a big Kaepernick proponent.
It's kind of like what they did to Kaepernick, you say the right thing at the right time and you scare your teams away from hiring kind of like i you know he was a big kaepernick proponent it's kind of like what they did to kaepernick you say the right thing at the right time and you scare your teams away from doing business with the guy i believe they did it to kaepernick and they could be planning to do it to hardball it doesn't it doesn't make any sense at all from a legal standpoint like there's the nfl is not college football how do you punish somebody for a violation not of a law but of kind of a nebulous rule in college football that you haven't even been convicted of yet? How do you punish somebody for that at the next level? Make it up. This is what they do.
And this is why they hate me. And I really don't care.
It's like they can't hate me more than they already do. They make it up as they go.
They decide what they want the outcome to be. And then they work backward to come up with something to justify it.
And if someone sues them, fine. We'll just bury you in paperwork.
We'll drag it out as long as we possibly can. We'll try to force it into arbitration that we control.
They do whatever they want to do. It's one of the realities of having that much money and that much power and that much influence.
They do whatever they want to do. So if they don't want Jim Harbaugh back, he's not going to be back.
And if there's a price to pay on the back end, they'll fight like hell to avoid it. But if they have to do it, they'll do it.
That's where it comes from. There's no rule that supports it.
But if they want to do it, if Roger Goodell wants to do it, he'll do it. I like this Florio.
He stands on the side of justice. Yes, Hank, he just took you to school there.
You had never even thought about it. Florio is the one who's doing informed speculation here and being like, this could absolutely happen.
You guys ask me the question. Yeah, do you want to say sorry? In this case.
In the Harbaugh case? Yeah. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't.
I don't need an apology. I just wanted to understand.
This is how we do what we do. This is how we do it.
This is what guys do. We inform speculationists.
Finding out why. Again, I'm not trying to start a beef, Mike.
I do like you. I thought that was very interesting.
What you just described about starting at the end and working your way back sometimes feels how you write articles. Thank you.
You're not trying to start a beef, though. You're not trying to start a beef, but I question the very way you do your business.
I'm not trying to start a beef. You just make stuff up, as what Hank said.
Listen, I stand on Mike's side. Just a couple of breadcrumbs for you to think about, Mike.
Michael Rubin, good friend. Josh Harris, good friend.
Robert Kraft, think about that. Josh Harris also went to business school with, I think, Kraft's son, I believe.
Correct. You're correct.
Yeah. Let me tell you, I wasn't looking for this.
Somebody that I know, that I've known for years, that works for one of the teams, said to me via text, whenever we first mentioned this, maybe a few days before, because I pondered what to do with it, watch Belichick to the commanders after the season. I believe it's going to happen.
So when somebody who I've known for years, who works for a team, tells me that, I mean, what's the point of being labeled an insider if you don't use the information you get from the people who are with the teams? And if this is what people in the business are talking about, we tear down that wall and share it with the audience. That's an example of don't know what the fuck's gonna happen but it's interesting to me that somebody i know and somebody that i trust is saying watch bill belichick to the i think hank's bitter because i just kind of made up that report at the start of october and then other people started reporting it so hank was just mad at at my previous just makeup of a report but it's actually real.
What about the other side of it? Vrabel to New England. What are the chances of that? Hey, this is one where somebody else I know and somebody else I trust.
The email came through on the 4th of July. Something to think about.
Something to think about. Post Bill Belichick, will Mike Vrabel end up as the head coach of the Patriots? They put him in the team's Hall of Fame this year.
Now, the understanding is that the job has been promised, and I don't know how binding the promise is, but the idea is Gerard Mayo is the successor to Bill Belichick. Whether or not this thing has gone so far off the rails that they just want to eradicate everyone connected to Belichick out of the building, that's a possibility.
But there's all this talk about Vrabel's job security in Tennessee. Look, the question isn't, should the Titans be thinking about moving on from Vrabel? The question is, should Vrabel be thinking about moving on from the Titans? I think the Titans are kind of sneaky dysfunctional.
And the only thing keeping them from being a full blown hot mess is Vrabel. And there may be a point where he goes to the owner, Amy Adams Strunk, and says, I just think it's time for me to go back to New England.
I mean, I'll stay if you want. I got a contract.
I don't really want to be here anymore. I don't feel like this is working.
If we can work something out. And wouldn't it be funny if whatever the Patriots would get in a trade for Belichick just becomes whatever they send to the Titans to try to get Vrabel.
But Vrabel's definitely a name I've been watching since July 4. And who knows what's going to happen? I don't know what's going to happen.
Nobody knows what's going to happen. But the reality is shit is happening behind the scenes now that we're never going to know about until it ultimately unfolds.
I love it. I love it.
All right. Rapid fire, Mike.
Ready for this? First rapid fire, give me your Super Bowl and Super Bowl winner. I said Chiefs 49ers before the season.
There's no reason to change that now. And if the 49ers keep their nucleus of key players healthy, the 49ers win.
Okay. Coach or player surprise retirement? Wait.
You're going to chastise me for fan fiction, and you want me to pull out whoa whoa whoa whoa i find when i have ever chastised you for fan fiction i know you're i know your vibe i like your vibe yeah i i i haven't thought about surprise retirements i haven't thought about surprise coaches walking away um i i't thought about it. I'll give you one.
Okay. Travis Kelsey.
Yeah. Yeah.
Look, the guy is thinking about his next career. Right.
Clear. Right.
He did all that. But before Taylor Swift, hosting Saturday Night Live, there was a long article in Vanity Fair or GQ, one of these magazines where it's clear he wants to be an actor.
He wants to be a star and make a shitload of money. And more power to him for doing that.
You've got to know when to make a transition. And when the window's open, you've got to jump through it.
And it may be that the window for him is never more open than it is or will be after this season. So I can get behind that.
And he's looking a little bit older. And also, maybe you know and also maybe you get taylor swift maybe they get more serious and she's like hey i want you know i want you to be able to walk around with our kids and your knees hurt your head hurt just something just something that's your fan fiction yeah that's my fan fiction uh my rapid fire question why did solid wait so long and did he lose the locker room by waiting so long to bench Zach Wilson? Well, I think Aaron Rodgers is the guy at the heart of everything that has gone wrong with the Jets this year because after he gets injured, he starts talking fairly quickly about coming back this year.
And I think it kept the Jets as a practical matter from even seriously considering an upgrade. Not that they were going to trade for Kirk Cousins, but you can't trade for Kirk Cousins if Aaron Rodgers is planning to come back if you get to the playoffs and say, hey, Kirk, nice job.
Go sit your ass on the bench. I'll take it from here.
It doesn't make sense to bring in someone who's going to make the team a playoff contender and then contend with the idea that Aaron Rodgers is coming back. So I think because of this notion that Rodgers wanted to come back, the Jets felt like they had to stick with Zach Wilson and hope that the defense would carry them and hope that Zach Wilson would develop into something he's never been and hope that they could hold it together long enough.
I was told by someone that I trust deeply about the Jets situation a week or two ago. The latest for Rodgers to return is week 16 against the Commanders.
They have to be seven and seven or eight and six for it to matter. And I just think it's done now.
After Sunday against the Bills, Zach Wilson to the bench, Tim Boyle in, it's done. They've thrown in the towel.
I don't think Rodgers is going to come back and he's going to be able to say, Hey, I was ready to come back. I did my part of it.
The team just didn't do their part of it. And then they load it all up again for next year.
And I think Sala comes back because of that. Joe Douglas comes back because of that.
They're not going to want to upset the Alpacar. They're going to go even more all in.
They're going to go get Devontae Adams, or at least they're going to try to next year. More all in with Aaron Rodgers.
Hope he can stay healthy at 40, going on 41, and see where it goes. So I think Salah's safe.
I think Douglas is safe. Rodgers, I think, is more of a problem in all this than anyone has ever said, and they're going to try to do it all again next year.
When Rodgers said, I'm going to try to come back later on this year, that was like dad's going to the store. He's going to pick up cigarettes and milk, and he'll be be back so just behave yourself for a while because i'm coming back and i don't know if he ever actually thought he was going to come back and play i think it was mostly like hey let's see if i can just make these guys play hard because there's a chance that i might come back in their own heads that's part of it look that's the glass half full side of it he's trying to give these guys hope give them give them a reason to fight, give them a reason to hold together, not in fight.

That's one of the things he said.

Don't point fingers at each other.

I mean, he's had some good messages for the team.

But I also think that this is his way of staying in the spotlight.

I don't think he can resist that.

Make it about him.

Be the center of attention.

Get people to listen to everything he says.

Get people to talk about him and think about him

and what could be if Aaron Rodgers come back.

What could have been for the Jets this year if they had just played well enough that Aaron Rodgers could have come back like Walt Frazier right is that the guy was it Walt Frazier who was the guy that came back Willis Reed Willis Reed Walt Frazier Willis Reed they know who we mean Willis Reed the new age Willis Reed that's what he could have been the Willis Reed didn't have a very good game that game remember he scored he scored, I think, the first bucket, and then that was it. People forget that.
It pumped him up. All right, my last question, Mike.
Roback question, RHOBACK.com, promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase.
Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com, promo code TAKE.
Also, before I get to my last question, please, everyone, Mike is an author. He's an acclaimed author.
He has a new book out for Christmas. Fan fiction.
Fan fiction. Do support him.
We love Mike. Seriously, he has done a lot for us in our career.
We've actually done a ton for him and his cool factor. So please do support Mike.
If you like to read, nerd, go buy Mike's book. It's very, very good.
He sends me all of them. And you've never read one of them but Mike listen I'm doing the plug right now that's friendship I don't read if I read I would read that Father of Mine was very good go buy Father of Mine too did you read it? I didn't read it, but I know people that have read.

My dad died, so it was like I didn't want to dive into that whole thing, Mike,

if you want to bring that up.

But, no, I heard other people say it was a great book.

Like Bill Walton over here.

Mike, last question.

What's the big Mike Florio story?

What were you going to say?

We didn't get to finish the pitch. Oh, no, we finished the pitch.
What's the name of's the big Mike Florio story? What were you going to say? We didn't get to, we didn't get to finish the pitch.

Oh no, we finished the pitch.

What's the name of the book?

Also, also just so you know, when we do these like pitches on the show, little, little industry trick, we cut it after.

So we don't actually put this in the podcast.

Okay.

I'll keep that in mind the next time you invite me on.

No, I'm just kidding.

What is the book called?

Here it is.

The book is on our way home.

It's a Christmas tale that I wrote a couple of years ago throughout the month of December. It's an idea that I'd had for 10 or 15 years and I just started writing it right after Thanksgiving, had it done before New Year's.
We posted it a chapter at a time on the website last year, like an advent calendar, like every day we put up a new chapter. People really liked it.
So I thought this year, let's print it up. Let's make it available.
$3.99 for the e-book.

$9.99. You can have this for $9.99 at Amazon, $9.99.
It feels good. It weighs about a pound.
It looks good. My nephew, Anthony Zech, did the cover.
Very well done. It ties into the story.
And it actually is good. If you ever would happen to accidentally read it, it is really good.
And every penny I make goes to our local animal shelter, the Humane Society of Harrison County. I'm not making a dime off of it.
In fact, for the first 10 grand I make, I'm just going to put it in pre-tax. I'll pay the tax on it.
I don't care. I want to support the animal shelter.
I've got a dog now. When you guys were here seven years ago, you said you need a dog.
I took it to heart yeah you got a dog i love my dog i love dogs i tolerate cats the cats benefit too i love dogs so every penny we make goes to the humane society of harrison county it's a good book and here's the thing buy like 10 of them and give them out for christmas gifts all right i'm done all right uh so max make sure you cut that cut all that and also mike i did read one of your books. I read Quarterback of the Future.
Yeah. That was a great book.
Mike, listen, I know you love your dog, and that's great that you're doing that. And so people should go support it.
Please do support Mike. We do love Mike very much.
I do. I do consider him a good friend.
Last question, Mike. Ready? Yes.
What's the big Mike Florio story that you got? Maybe you've already written a little bit about it it's something bigger coming down the line what are we what are we cooking up what can we get the people thinking about big picture NFL big picture well I mean this Belichick thing has been yeah we've been through that yeah and and I really I really look people People think I hate the NFL. They ask me, do you hate? Why do you hate the NFL? I love the NFL.
I've been a fan for 50 years now. I discovered pro football December 23, 1972, the moment the Immaculate Reception happened.
We were the only house in the neighborhood that had that game for some reason. They used to black out the games, whether they were sold out or not.
And we lived within the 75 mile bubble of Pittsburgh, but we were pulling a station from out of the bubble that nobody else had. So we've got the house full of grownups and they all lose their shit when Frank O'Hara scores.
And I just kind of had this aha moment that if it can make grownups act like little kids, there must be something to it. And that was when I was hooked.
And I've loved the NFL for 50 years and NFL films and John Facenda. And I hold the league to a standard that I just wonder whether the current stewards are concerned enough about all the shit that can drag it down.
And I keep coming back to gambling and all the different ways the money grab they're making for gambling can hurt the league if they're not careful. That's my big concern.
I really don't want it to come to fruition. I don't want it to bring down the league.
I don't want there to be some agency out there that has oversight of pro football and maybe changes things in a way that will be bad for the fans. I want the league to be able to continue to govern itself, but it needs to do a better job of it or it's going to have problems governing itself in the future.
That's the big thing I'm watching. And whatever label you want to put on it, whether you think I'm up to something or I've got some agenda, I don't care.
I want the NFL to be great. And I wonder whether the people currently running it are the best ones to make it as great as it can be.
It's a good point. You're like the guy that was trying to blow the whistle on uh on bernie madoff and nobody listened to him and you're like hey look into this look into this i appreciate that mike you're looking out for the greater future of the game that's right and it sounds like i mean it sounds hokey but it's true it really is true i'm i'm afraid of what this whole gambling thing can do to pro football if they're not careful and all they're doing i think is grabbing money and they'll worry about the problems you're right you know no you're right like i mean i love to gamble but it's definitely there's some sides to it that people have not thought out long term i agree so we agree my last question you have a larry fitzgerald jersey on the wall behind you we were talking about this a couple weeks ago did he retire is he actually did he file paperwork is he retired the paperwork doesn't matter he hasn't played in like three years he's done he.
He's done. He's done.
He's not coming back. Are you sure? It's weird that he never said like, hey, I'm done playing football.
He's done. He's not coming back.
Are you sure? I am sure. I am sure.
No fan fiction to be had here. That was a gift that NBC gave me the first Christmas season that we were together.
And the only Christmas gift NBC ever gave me. It's a signed

Larry Fitzgerald jersey and it's been hanging up there for years. And I've got a great Lawrence Taylor jersey that I need to frame and put in its place.
For my 56th birthday, Chris Sims got me a number 56 Lawrence Taylor jersey. And you should see how he signs stuff.
It's like he's written a whole essay down the letter and he says you know three super bowl two times super bowl champion nfl mvp and at the very bottom he writes a bad motherfucker oh i love it love it he tried to fight hank when he came on our show because hank was like talking to the mic lawrence talking to the mic and he gave hank this look like i will kill you and hank was like fair he backed off he is he's he's a bad motherfucker all right well mike thank you so much we'll put the link in uh can we pin the link to his book in the youtube yeah we can all right so let's do that so everyone please support mike mike we love you um happy thanksgiving we're thankful for your friendship and uh yeah all the best and your family. Guys, I appreciate you all very much.
Hank, happy to have talked through our beef a little bit. And we'll continue to write fan fiction and hopefully keep you entertained.
Yeah, I think in the Thanksgiving analogy, this is like I'm like the college student fighting with the older uncle. But then at the end, we kind of come to a fair...
That's what Italians do. They like to hash things out.

Like Tommy DeVito. You do that thing

right there. Yeah.

That was my favorite tweet of yours. Italian Americans

like me should be less far

fascinated with the Sopranos and far more

fascinated with the brilliance, quiet,

resolved, steady hand of Italian American

Tommy DeVito. That was

your tweet. That's it.
A real hero.

I forgot about that one. Well done.
Very well done. Yes.
Alright right. Thanks, Mike.
See you later. Thanks, guys.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Mike Florio is brought to you by Pizza Hut.
Pizza Hut may not have invented pizza, but they made it famous because nobody loves it like they do. From the legendary thick and comforting original pan pizza to the original stuffed crust that taught you how to eat pizza the wrong way, Pizza Hut has been cooking up delicious pizzas and iconic recipes under the hut and delivered to your door for more than 60 years.
It's too good not to share. Whether it's a team celebration or just a casual get-together with friends, Pizza Hut's large pizza offers a convenient and enjoyable dining experience for everyone involved.

I love stuffed crust pizza.

Stuffed crust is the absolute best.

No one out pizzas the Hut.

Order now at pizzahut.com.

Okay, Sunday.

Sorry for everyone who's listening right now on Friday.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

I'm just going to go straight down the line.

Again, we're recording this on early Tuesday morning. Saints at Falcons.
I have a theory. I think the Falcons are going to be good this little second half of the season.
Second wind. After the bye.
I think it starts right now. We're going back to Desmond Ritter, partially because Taylor Heineke's hurt.
I think the Falcons are too talented and too, I don't know.

They're going to figure it out.

I think they're going to win the NFC South.

I think it starts on Sunday.

The defense should be good enough.

Yeah.

They can figure it out.

It's just, can Desmond Ritter stop turning the ball over inside the five-yard line?

I think they won the bye.

I think they needed the bye right now.

They're looking up.

They're like, okay, look, NFC South. Saints are in the lead right now at five and five we have everything in front of us we win on sunday we take it from there we got uh you know another game against the saints we got another game against the bucks and panthers so this is the falcons go time so the question is which coach do you trust more do you trust arthur smith arthur smith do you trust dennis allen do you trust more? Do you trust Arthur Smith? Arthur Smith.
Do you trust Dennis Allen? Arthur Smith. Do you trust Todd Bowles? Arthur Smith.
Or do you trust Frank Reich? Arthur Smith. One of those coaches is going to win the division.
Well, not Frank Reich. Not Frank Reich.
Yeah. I can say that.
Yeah. Well, are they officially eliminated? I would say they're officially eliminated.
They should be, but they're not yet because that division sucks. I guess they could- Iith they could get to eight wins i've seen i've seen more promising things out of arthur smith that than out of those other coaches this year yes yes i agree so i i think it starts now i think the falcons start now i'm high on the falcons no real reason except for the bunch of names that they got it's gonna be quite a hangover to get high on the falcons and get let down the falcons have a lot of names that i recognize yep uh okay and also the saints are we getting jamis i don't know i i i would doubt it i feel like they're probably going to go out back to car derrick car is going to just be uh the knight from uh what's it called monty python yes it's only a flesh wound and they're going to just keep throwing out der Derek Carr with various injuries being like we have no other option you know what James is just saying they're like dude I'll chuck it I've gotten I've become more sympathetic to Derek Carr after Josh McDaniels got fired and you go back and you read the retrospects on everything that he did to that franchise how he lied to Derek Carr about a bunch of stuff just treat him like dog shit essentially I've I've started to appreciate Derek Carr seems like a very nice guy yeah very good teammate he kind of got the raw end of the deal in Las Vegas I've never thought Derek Carr is a bad guy like him I just don't really want to watch him play football anymore yeah I would rather really all it comes down to and especially not if he's in front of Jameis yes there are other teams that I could tolerate Derek Carr more on but if you you see the really fun option right behind him, it's like you've got to go with this guy.
Just should have traded for Jameis. Nerd Nugget.
Do-do-do-do. Nerd Nugget of the week.
Oh, Hank. Hank winced.
He winced hard. He's loud.
Sorry. Falcons head coach Arthur Smith has started 4-6 for the third time in three seasons as the Atlanta head coach.
He has gone on to win the 11th game in each of his first two seasons to improve to 5-6. Okay, so it starts now.
Shout out Jayhawk2233. Mr.
Consistency. Yeah, and he's gone 7-10 for his first two seasons.
Okay. Might be the new Jeff Fisher, 7-10.
What? That's slanderous. Well, we love both.
We love both. Jeff Fisher went to a Super Bowl.
So Arthur Smith, future Super Bowl participant.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, next game.

Steelers at Bengals.

Matt Canada fired this morning.

Congratulations, Steelers fans.

I'm very happy for you.

Except for maybe the elephant in the room.

Kenny Pickett's our friend, but now there's no excuse.

This big cat is the unlocking of Kenny Pickett.

We're going to go unlocked it's Kenny season this is similar to someone in mainstream media like ESPN or Fox maybe getting fired or leaving ESPN or Fox, well, I can't wait till I get to go independent and I can say fuck a bunch. And then you hear them and you're like, this doesn't really work.
I get uncomfortable, Trey Wingo, when I hear you say the S word. Yeah.
So I'm rooting for Kenny. I want Kenny to succeed.
But there is no more excuse for Kenny because there was a lot of Matt Canada is doing this to Kenny.

I think that you can never say one side gets all the blame.

Kenny has not played well.

He has to play better.

But the excuse is now gone.

Kenny has to show up.

I don't know whose call this was because I don't know if Mike Tomlin would have done this in the middle of the season.

It doesn't seem like his M.O. to fire a coach like that.
this might have come from above this might be a rooney decision um i think it had a lot to do with one play in particular in their last game against the browns do you remember do you remember when study pft i love this do you remember when uh when i think it was i think it was their running back he got tackled by three Browns on what looked to be a screenplay, but they just threw a screenplay to Warren and he didn't have any blockers for him and had two defensive backs and a linebacker that just ran up and tackled him. And I remember Jerry in that moment was like, what the fuck? What play was that? And then you go back and you watch it and you're like, I think Matt Canada just wanted his guy to get killed on that play.
There's no real explanation for it. I like that.
It's a good deal because I do remember that play and it made no sense. Here's all the OC, the new OC.
Who is? Do we know what his name is? Can we we find that uh the new oc for the steelers you basically just have to sit down and just circle the middle of the field and be like kenny we're gonna have you throw it here too yeah yeah because they were just it was all screen passes it's all on the sidelines or just like like back shoulder pat fryer moved five yard out that was like their shot play. And every now and then they'd throw George Picken back shoulder like 15 yards down the field.

Yeah.

The offense was bad.

And you have to be super happy if you're a Steelers fan because this is what you wanted.

Again, there's pressure on Kenny now.

We have to just admit it.

Like, he has not played well.

And again, we're rooting for him.

But he has all the pressure because you had the issue with Matt Canada.

He is now gone.

Kenny Pickett has to perform.

As for the Bengals, I don't know. I feel like they might rally a little bit behind Jake Browning.
It's a lost season for the Bengals, which sucks because it just is a reminder even with a franchise quarterback. All these things are so fleeting.
I've had bad thoughts about the bad thoughts about the bengals with joe burrow that uh scare me and it's the idea that what if you knew it was a good old days when it was a good old days because teams change and when you miss a full season uh with a super bowl caliber roster that's scary that's scary for for a bengals fan yeah because now thinking window. Right, exactly.
Now you've got window talk that you have to deal with.

These things are fleeting.

These things only have certain time shelf.

Maybe I'm going to be proven really wrong about the Bengals.

I think they have a good enough roster to be frisky.

Yeah, no, I do too.

I don't think that it's just Joe Burrow.

And you also get the benefit of Jake Browning.

He might not be good, but he's got really good receivers to throw to,

so he will be better than bad. All right, watch this play.
Watch this play. All right, I'm watching the play.
Who's the OC of Jake Browning. He might not be good, but he's got really good receivers to throw to, so he will be better than bad.
Alright, watch this play. Who's the OC, Jake? So, no official announcement, but Tom Palacero says they're expected to have running back coach Eddie Faulkner take over with quarterback coach Mike Sullivan handling play calling duties.
Eddie Faulkner. Watch this play.
There goes Warren in motion. And they throw out to him.
None of these guys block over here. None of over here they've got a tight end it looks like he's a big white guy with numbers in the 80s so I assume tight end and then you've got two other receivers out there three defensive players it's bad and it's bad and he catches the ball it's the most shocking play that I've seen in a long time yeah and all the receivers the receivers are running go routes right past the blockers, right past the defense.
And then all three guys come up and tackle him for about four yards. So we got a new OC.
All right, Nerd Nugget. 315 quarterbacks have 500 pass attempts since the merger, and only one has thrown a touchdown on fewer than 2% of their attempts.
Kenny Pickett. Okay.
1.9%. Shut up.
That's ludicrous via NFL on CBS. Okay.
Unlocked. Kenny's unlocked.
That's what we have to go with right now. You have to, if you're a Steelers fan, playoffs are a real possibility.
Like, there's a good chance that if you string enough wins together here that you'll be rolling into the postseason. You have to think, Kenny Pickett unlocked.
And the schedule is nice because you have two games now against the Bengals with no Joe Burrow and you also have a game against the Cardinals and Patriots on deck so the Steelers yeah they gotta win they gotta win Sunday might be a must win okay next game Panthers Titans nerd nugget the Titans have played fewer games against the Panthers than any other team in the league. They've only played six.
They're tied 3-3. They've played at least 12 games against the other 30 teams in the NFL.
Okay, that was our Panthers-Titan preview. I figured that was coming when you started.
Yeah, I like it. That is a sneaky underrated.
We talked about this earlier in the year, like what two teams never play each other. Titans-Panthers never play each other.
But you don't think about that because they're so close and their color scheme is kind of similar but yeah yeah yeah all right well okay enjoy that yeah bucks cults bucks cults uh i'm also very high on the cults i think the cults are going to be sneaky in maybe the playoff picture they definitely will i think cults bills one of those two teams is going to get in i think yeah and so um this is a bad spot for the bucks in the fact that they just went west coast got their ass kicked by the titan or the niners lost i don't know if any of these guys are playing

because injury reports haven't come out but levante david jamel dean and charlton davis

all got hurt the bucks secondary was already suspect they've now potentially lost three

starters for this game so they go west coast could kill the Niners, get a bunch of injuries, back home to Tampa, then up to Indy. Indy's coming off a bye.
That's a huge rest advantage for Indy. Yeah.
Yeah. It's a home game in Indy, meaning we have tickets for it, so we've got to give away tickets.
Do you want to do the worst Thanksgivinggiving setup that you have yeah the worst thanksgiving arrangement that you're personally dealing with yes if you're a colts fan yeah um if you're if you're dealing with grossest plate grossest we could do grossest plate yeah yeah or just like worst combination of family and travel yeah that you're dealing with this week okay so so submit it and we'll give away four tickets pmT intern at barstoolsports.com. I have a nerd nugget for this game, Jake.
Yep. This is the first time in NFL history where two quarterbacks are playing each other whose first names are both occupations.
Ooh. Baker.
Gardner. And Gardner.
Wow. Whoa.
How about that? I actually don't know if that's true, but I just said it. I mean, it's got to be true right those would be the only what other quarterbacks have had occupation names Cop O'Neal yeah I don't know paint well that's first name Peyton no I was trying to workshop something maybe Jackson nevermind okay I like it it's a Okay.
I like it. It's a nerd nugget.
Yeah, it's a nerd nugget. That might be a nerd nugget.
Nerd nugget of the century. Imagine if there was a quarterback called Cop O'Neal.
Started for the Jets in the 70s. Cop O'Neal.
He's your dad's favorite player. He loved him.
Okay. Next up, Patriots Giants.
Henry. Yeah.
I actually think the Patriots are going to win this game. Probably.
I think it's Tommy DeVito having the best day of his life. Patriots off a bye.
I don't even know. Bill Belichick said when asked about who's starting for quarterback, he said, I've told every player to be ready to go.
I've told every player to be ready to play.

So they might not even play a quarterback because I think Bill Belichick will scheme something up to beat Tommy DeVito himself.

Let's go wildcat all day.

I'm a big Will Greer guy.

We go way back.

I wouldn't hate seeing him get a shot.

Why not?

You know, this is the last week's game against the Commanders.

That was the first time a Giants quarterback threw three touchdowns in a game since 2018 whoa that's not good that's i i also say daniel jones i do love devito doing the italian finger celebration that's that's the touchdown celebration i've seen a long time yeah so i was thinking about mac jones this week hank and actually this i'm being i'm being honest this is not an insult i mean it compliment. Go on.
I think Mac Jones could be a very good long-term backup quarterback in the NFL. I think everything that he does well as a quarterback is exactly what you'd expect from a Chase Daniel type of guy.
It's just when he gets pressured, when the blitz comes, he shits all over himself. I feel like we talk about backup quarterbacks a lot in this show and what it takes to be one and i just don't think uh you know a top recruit alabama starting quarterback drafted starting quarterback those guys don't usually transition well to being a backup uh jalen hurts was a great backup quarterback we're talking about backup to starting mac Mack Jones is starter to backup.
Yeah.

Very different.

Yeah.

Right.

Well, so was Jalen Hurts.

He was to his backup.

That's backup to starter.

I'm saying it's hard to go from starter to backup.

No, he went starter to backup.

Jalen Hurts went starter, and then he backed up Tua.

Got it.

Still.

In that one game.

Yeah.

Then he transferred.

Oh, no.

He was there for a full season, right?

Yeah, that's right. That's right.
In the SEC championship. Yes.
Yeah. But he's still transferred.
He's still transferred after that. I don't see it.
Okay. Okay.
I was just trying to think of something nice to say about Mac Jones. That's nice.
Seems like a good backup quarterback. He could be.
I would not hate having Mac Jones as a backup quarterback. He'll get a chance as a backup somewhere.
Yeah. That's for sure.
But, yeah, I think you i think you might win this game hank you excited no you don't want to win i don't care full tank full tank full tank why not what we're the we're this far in yeah you might as well what what is winning do yeah did anybody get to the bottom of cave on thibodeau's sack celebration he did last week where he drew a heart and then he appeared to open up a jewelry box

because it looked like he was doing an engagement on the field.

And I knew that the commanders were bad.

I didn't know that we were proposed to your girlfriend during a game bad.

Yeah, because you got to plan that before being like, we're going to win this.

I'm going to have so many sacks today.

I don't even think it was his first sack.

Yeah.

I think it might have been his second sack of the game and he pulled out the ring box.

But I didn't see any reporting about it. I think he might have gotten engaged during the game last week.
Whoa. it might have been his second sack of the game and he pulled out the ring box but i didn't i didn't see any reporting about it i think he might have gotten engaged during the game last week whoa he might have uh did we do nerd nugget no late credit to spend ct 23 for the last one last week giants quarterback tell me devito through three touchdown passes he's the first giants qb to three throw three passing tds in one game since december 22, 2019.
Daniel Jones versus Commanders. Rookie season.
I thought it was 2018. Both Commanders.
Yeah. But I did say that nerd nugget about five minutes ago, Jake.
My flight's delayed. Sorry.
Okay. Jaguars, Texans.
This is a great fucking game. Yeah.
This might actually be TV1. Whoever wins this game is winning that division.
That's my prediction. It's like, I'm so excited for this game because you get this chance to see which team is really, really for real because I'm going to go even further to PFT.
The winner of this game, they might be a Super Bowl contender. Dark Horse.
Little Prisco. Imagine if the Texans made the Super Bowl.
It'd be crazy. It'd be nuts.
It'd be crazy. I mean, this is going to be a great, great game.
And I said it on Sunday. I'll say it again.
The Texans, they get credit for me and my eyes playing the Cardinals, beating the Cardinals with like a C-plus game. And their defense was able to make some big stops and pick up CJ Stroud throwing three interceptions like you're I think we know now that CJ Stroud's the real deal he's not going to have three interceptions every game so the Texans are a really good team they're just a really good fucking football team so when was the last time a rookie quarterback made the Super Bowl was that Big Ben probably when they went what like 15 and one and ben didn't really do much or was he second that might have been his second year i think they made the super bowl in his second year he went 15 and one i believe because he came in uh like halfway through the season or after a couple games because of injury that was not his rookie year that was not his rookie year.
I think he went 15-1 in his rookie years.

Yeah, but they did not make the Super Bowl.

But yeah, I wonder when the last time a rookie quarterback made the Super Bowl was.

But yeah, I do think that whoever wins this game is going to win that entire division.

Yeah, I'm excited.

Nerd nugget for this game.

I'm looking that up right now.

I think it was Big Ben.

No, Big Ben, I think, went, I think his first year he didn't go to the Super Bowl.

2005.

That's what we were just talking about yes he was a rookie in 2004 i think you might need to take a timeout cj stroud is just one of two players to be a top two pick in the common draft era and have a winning record through 10 quarterback starts alongside Andrew Luck.

Yeah, Big Ben 2004 was 13

and 0, but did not win

the Super Bowl. That was the Patriots who won the Super Bowl.

Yep.

You want to time out? Yes.

Okay. Let's skip the next nerd nugget.

Okay.

Unless it's good.

Browns, Broncos.

Oh, jeez. All right, Rams, Cardinals.
I'll skip it, but actually, no. Just timeout.
Timeout, timeout, timeout, timeout, timeout. We'll do Browns, Broncos, and you'll skip it.
I have a question for you, Big Cat. Yeah.
Is this Sean Payton's best job coaching? Yes. Yeah? Yes.
I love that we're having this conversation we we took a shit all over sean payton for the first four games oh yeah five games of the season um but somehow some way the broncos are are fun they they're good yeah like i think they are actually a good football team and yeah i think they're gonna win this game i think they're gonna be six and five this is another sneaky game that will be huge for playoff implications uh when you get to the tiebreakers if both these teams end up in that 9 10 win category yeah this would be this would be massive for the broncos uh if you're a browns fan you just gotta keep hoping dtr can can continue to not fuck up too much joe flacco joe Listen, I'm not a Browns fan. I do have a future on them.
I'm hoping for Joe Flacco just for my own personal legacy. He's played well in Denver.
That's true. Has he? The playoff game.
Yeah, the playoff game. Yeah, where he released in that one pass.
Did he play for the Broncos for a minute? He did, yeah. Yeah, that's right.
I thought you were talking about Flacco. I was only talking about him on the Ravens against the Broncos.
So it's a revenge game. This is Joe Flacco revenge game going back to Mile High, his old stomping grounds.
I can't believe that the Broncos have put this thing back together so quickly when it looked lost. It's also just a nice sign that even if your team looks like they're in tank mode, just string a couple wins together.
I wouldn't know what it feels like, but if you can string a couple wins together, it's got to be a nice feeling. They had the worst defense in the history of the NFL about, what, a month and a half ago? Yeah.
And then all of a sudden they're beating great teams week in, week out. I think the Broncos are good now.
Yeah, I do too. Okay, we're going to skip the Nerd Nugget.
Timeout's still on. You're good, Jake.
It's okay.

Jake put his hands to his head.

He just suffered a

terrible, terrible loss. Hey, Jake, I love you.

You're good, Jake. You're doing a good job.

You're doing a good job. Okay.

Rams-Cardinals.

This, Rams

got to win this game if they want to be.

They're at the line in the

sand in their season where,

and there might not be any Cooper Cup,

Thank you. But this, Rams got to win this game.
If they want to be, they're at the line in the sand in their season where,

and there might not be any Cooper Cup.

If the Rams win this game, they now are like, hey, we can maybe go to the playoffs.

If the Rams lose this game, pack it in, it's over.

Yeah, they've got draft picks.

So you can, for the first time in a long time, the Rams fans can think,

should we be tanking right now?

I know it's a completely foreign experience to go through for you guys. but if you lose the...
I would actually be thinking about tanking right now

already if I were the Rams. Yeah.

Because they don't look good recently.

I

think they're still going to win this game, though.

And hopefully they'll get up to

eight wins this season. That'd be great for some of us, but

I don't think they're a good team.

I don't think that they're a shitty team, though. That's the thing.

I don't think that the Rams are amongst the worst of the worst teams in the NFL. Yeah, not the worst of the worst.
If Stafford's not on the team, worst of the worst. Yes.
I'm also just happy that Kyler's back. He is more fun.
This is a late slate game. We have four games in the late slate, and this one will be a fun one to be like, oh, shit.
Kyler, ball down five he's got to try to make a crazy play yeah i love it when teams put a qb spy on kyler because they don't even approach him to try to tackle him yeah it's like please just don't run past us try to funnel him out of bounds yeah which he'll do yeah he'll do that yes uh all right nerd nugget redemption thank you gonna take advantage of the second chance the cardinalsinals have not beaten the Rams at home since November 9, 2014. Part of my take was still more than a year away from existing at that point.
Wow. That's crazy.
That's a good Nerd Nugget. Long-ass time.
Thank you. Also, remind Big Cotton PFT to bet Rams-Cardinals tie.
That's our preseason chat. Cardinals tie.
All right, thank you. Thank you.
Very cool, Jake. Rams-inals tie.
Got to do it. All right.
Chiefs Raiders. Could the Raiders stay in this game? I think they could.
I don't know. I feel like this is – if the Chiefs had won against the Eagles, I would say bet the Raiders.
Maybe it's a get-right game. It's a get-right game.
It's a score points in the second half game for the Chiefs. Must score points in the second half.
Yeah, 100%. Similar to a must-compete.
Must score points. So if the Chiefs lose this game but they score 20 points in the second half.
That's good. That's good.
That means the progress. I'm going to count that as a win for the Chiefs.
Yes. I don't know.
I think the Raiders can stick in this game. I don't know why.
It's's stupid Tom Coughlin is advising Antonio Pierce on how to coach a team oh no I love that you got to be careful Antonio Pierce Tom Coughlin will just find one of his buddies to be hired instead yeah probably yeah uh all right nerd nugget for this game last week Raiders running back Josh Jacobs surpassed Marcus Allen for the most rushing yards by a Raider Raiders running back in their first five seasons 4401 he's really good very good they just need to give him the ball all the time all the time and also maybe pay him a little bit of money yeah that would be that would be nice as well we're going to get back to the weekend preview in a second it's brought to you by pepperoni i love pepperoni blake loves pepperoni it's his favorite treat in the entire world he knows all his tricks the sit the stay the wave he knows it all he does it all for the pepperoni i love thanksgiving blake's going to be having some delicious thanksgiving pepperoni treats we got the food the football seeing family getting to spend time with your dog this thanksgiving pepperoni original beef flavor will be what blake will be eating give your pup a treat that has a taste and smell as irresistible as what's on the table your pup is your bff so give them a treat that they'll savor all thanksgiving long go to pepperoni.com find a bag near you that your bff will be grateful for this thanksgiving that's p-u-p-p-e-r-o-N-I.com. Find a bag near you.
Okay. Bill's Eagles, Max, Gauntlet, game three.
Yep. Love it.
I'm going to be flying during this game. Oh, that's bad planning.
And it's bad planning. Max, if they lose.
And I'm already panicking about it.

That's bad planning.

You're going to get a lot of shit, Max.

What airline?

I know.

What airline?

United, they like don't.

I've already talked.

Oh, no.

You could have said any airline and Jake would have been like, ah.

Well, JetBlue and Delta usually have TVs these days.

I've already talked to my brother.

My brother is going to be giving me text updates during the game. I'm nervous about not being able to watch.
I feel like that just puts me at a disadvantage. Yeah, big-time disadvantage.
You're not there for your team. You called this a must-win game earlier.
It's not even a must-watch game for you. Oh, wow.
No, it is a must-watch game. No, it's not.
You're 0-1 on must-watch games. That's not true.

Flying on a Sunday?

You got to get that first flight out of town.

I know.

I know.

I fucked up.

You can change it.

Probably not.

Karan, what?

Karan Butler.

I took a Karan Butler and Rebecca O'Reilly before.

They're not bad.

Ryan Gomes is 265 pounds coming out of high school.

Can't take everyone.

Yeah, fucked up.

Fucked up.

Max, it's not good. It's not good not good.
Yeah, no, no, no.

I'm nervous. Do you even like the Eagles?

Nope.

I have a hot take for this game.

I think the Bills are going to win.

That's another must win for the Bills.

I think the Bills are going to win two out of their next

three, which are at Chiefs,

at Eagles, at Chiefs, versus Cowboys.

I think the Bills are going to make

the playoffs.

Everything that could have gone wrong to start their season went

Thank you. three which are at chiefs at eagles at chiefs versus cowboys i think the bills are going to make the playoffs everything that could have gone wrong to start their season went wrong back against the wall i think the bills are going to get back in the conversation where this could all sound so fucking stupid come monday morning where does stefan digs land in this is he is he happy to be on Bills or is he trying to get out? Diva watch big time.

The biggest Diva watch.

Yeah, I don't know.

There's no real reason for me to think this because the Eagles are the better team.

But maybe it's as simple as Josh Allen having his guy Ken Dorsey fired.

He's got to be like, all right, this is on me.

Kind of like we were talking about with Kenny Pickett. This is on me.
I have to i have to take care of the football i like joe brady though i do yeah i just i got a nagging feeling and the eagles coming off a big emotional win on monday night football weird week with thanksgiving but every game is in a much like this is the gauntlet like this this isn't that was no like look ahead or well no you're off a bye against the chiefs yeah and sirianni said like i'm not going to do the thing where i just say it's another game like he acknowledged that this monday night game yes in kansas city was huge super bowl rematch yeah but but that was your super bowl i think like a letdown game is when you're playing like uh i understand i'm just saying that's it's an emotional It's an emotional win. And it's in Philly.
Okay. You're not even going to watch the game, so what do you care? I'm going to be locked in through my brother.
You know what? Max, if Max's brother is listening to this right now, I would actually like you to not text him updates and we'll take care of it i that's that's not gonna happen pft and i got you max we will take care of the updates we got this you know we're gonna watch every game we got this you will i won't trust a single thing that max's brother please max's brother please do not text him updates. Actually, no, yeah.
If you're texting.

Yeah.

No matter what, I just want the AWS to know that no matter what, don't be tweeting fake

updates about the game to Max during the game.

Don't do that.

We can't have that.

He needs to be locked in.

Don't tweet him fake updates.

Don't tell him things that are not right.

Don't do that.

Thank you.

Thank you, listeners. Don't be mean.
Thank you, listeners. Okay.
I got some breaking moves. Oh, breaking moves.
Wisconsin will open the 2027 season against Pittsburgh in Ireland. Oh, let's go.
2027. Oh, my.
They are going to. Should we go? Yeah.
They're going to drink.

Let's go.

Right.

Jake, put it on the list.

We're going to go.

Future year.

Yeah.

No, we're going.

We're going.

We're going.

Ireland does not have enough beer for the good people of Wisconsin.

I know that sounds crazy to say.

If it's week zero 2027.

How old will it be?

42.

I'm thinking about my kids.

I think my kids will be of age to

actually be able to waste money

on them going to another country.

You don't want to do it when

they're really young. We should probably get there

8, 6, and 4. We should probably

get there a couple weeks early to golf, Hank.

Yeah. Okay.
Grit Week Ireland.

Yeah, we're going. We're going.

That's huge.

Alright. Huge.
Hank's buying flights right now. He's looking at courses.
We will be there. God damn it.
That's going to happen so fast. It's going to be summer 2027.
And he's like, wait, we said we were going to go to this game. When did we say we were going to go to this game? I love it when they scheduled the home and homes.
Now they're in like 2042. It's the best.
It's the best. All right, Nerd Nugget.
The Bills defense did not allow a third down conversion against the Jets last week, forcing New York to go 0-11. It's their first time since 1987 preventing an opponent from converting a first down on a third down.
Wow. Okay.
Last game, Ravens Chargers night game, Sunday night. We do get the flex season is upon us.
I hope they start flexing out uh monday night as well because i think i saw most of the monday nights are actually good yeah the the chiefs are playing the patriots which will suck but they'll probably won't flex out patrick mahomes i think there was a titans in there titans dolphins maybe yeah yeah that's tough but then again it's the dolphins which is fun to watch either way ravens chargers, Brandon Staley, his seat could not be hotter. I just think the Ravens...
The spot says Chargers, but everything that's going to happen on the field says Ravens because the Chargers now don't have Bosa. Their defense already sucked.
Chargers linebackers are atrocious. Middle of their defense is really bad.
Feels ravens will run they'll be able to run crossers with zay flowers and odell beckham all day i think the ravens are going to kill mark andrews might come back by the end of the season so he might not be out uh for the rest of the entire year which would be great for the playoffs you just need him for the playoffs in for the playoffs um but without him i actually like the. I think Mark – like, obviously, we talked about it on Monday's show.
He's not as good as Travis Kelsey. That's obvious.
But I think he means as much to this offense as Travis Kelsey does. This Mark Andrews might be as good as this Travis Kelsey.
Yeah, I would say so. Yeah.
Like, right now. Right now.
This Mark Andrews with the devastating foot injury is as good as Travis Kelsey with his tired tongue and fingers. Yep.
Yep. Got it.
Agreed. But no, I actually, I know I've sworn off the C words for a very long time.
I think I'm back on the C words this weekend. Okay.
Four and a half point, dogs at home, Staley back against the wall, no Mark Andrews. I don't know.
I'm an idiot. I should not be doing it.
I can feel myself being a moron right now. A lot of football is going to happen between then and now.
I'm just going to go with it. I'm going to go with it because maybe I'm being contrarian, but I just, I don't know.
Maybe it's just the logos. Maybe I still expect too much.
You know what it is? It's time for the universe to write itself. They need to win this game by three points,

and that way the Chargers under Justin Herbert

and as a franchise in total will be back to 500.

Yeah.

And with a three-point win,

they'll have the exact zero points point differential.

Perfect.

That's what happens.

Three-point win for the Chargers.

Book it.

All right.

Nerd Nugget.

The Chargers have lost five games this season by three or fewer points no other team has lost more than two such games yes we did we talked about that on sunday that's a crazy stat five versus two yeah crazy crazy five of their six losses uh okay picks picks we don't know what the standings are because we had thursday football we all did a pick for thursday football earlier than the show But let's get into the picks So because memes went first Hank will go first now? I don't know what to do with memes as picks here We don't have them Can you text him? You want to call him Max? I have them Alright great Hank Give us a. Hank needs to win.
Find a win, Hank. Bills, plus three and a half.
Against the Eagles. I wanted you to take the Eagles.
Bills right in your face. I'll take the Colts.
Colts, minus two and a half. At home against the Bucs.
PFT.

I'm going to go Atlanta Falcons, minus one. At home against the Saints.
Spicy. I'm going to go with Steelers, minus one at Bengals.
New offense. New offense.
Kenny Pickett's back. Unlocked.
He unlocked. Yes.
I am going to go Texans.

Texans.

Plus one and a half.

Love it.

Neams has two.

Neams is going to go with the Titans.

Okay.

Against the Panthers.

We had a great preview of that game.

Yep.

And he's also going to go Bucs-Colts over.

I don't know. against the Panthers.
We had a great preview of that game. Yep.
And he's also going to go Bucs-Colts over.

43-and-a-half.

I was going to go with that.

I like that one.

Colts are always over.

Okay.

I am going to go with the Chargers-Ravens over.

Ooh, I like it.

I like it a lot.

You have 46-and-a-half. I like it a lot.
We have 46 and a half. I like it a lot, Max.
Okay. I'm going to go with Giants-Patriots under 33 and a half.
Yeah, that's going to be a gross one, I think. I'm going to do it.
Bears-Vikings over 43 and a half. Oh, I like it.
I was actually looking at that one as well. Yeah, Monday night.
All right, I'll go Rams-Cardinals over 44.5. Hank, finish us off.
I will go Steelers-Bangles under 34.5. Nice.
Okay, those are our picks. Good show, boys.
Hope everyone has a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. Now, would we like to talk about the lottery ball machine, Max? Ballgate.
Ballgate. For those not on Twitter, what happened? Go ahead, Max.
You were the one who was collecting the data. You weren't saying it, but other people were saying it.
Yeah, there were other people saying it. I want it very clear.
Max never said it. I didn't say any any of this although he did slip up because he's so dumb when we were arguing in the studio he was like i think you did i was like what why did you say i know that that may or may not be no that definitely happened you can't you can't you were trying to do my bit back to me which i respect but you can't even hold yeah you come on it was good it gets heated the moment.
You get heated in every moment. You're just a heated guy.
You run hot. You run hot.
Little boy ass play. So, Max, you want to explain to the people what happened? Yeah, we basically established this lottery ball is different than the last lottery ball because the last lottery ball, you would click a button and then you would just let it would play it would go around for a couple seconds and then automatically it would take a ball this one you physically the person pressing the button physically has to pick a moment of when the ball comes up every other time this year big cat has turned his head not true no not true those screenshots i i don't care.
Max didn't care. Max didn't care.
He's just collecting all data, but he also went back and watched every episode. Well, it sounds like a good investigation, but he's not the one investigating because he's talking about other people.
At the start, when we got the lottery ball machine, I think we did specify when we did the first rep that you were to look away when you pressed it because you have a button that press select okay correct so in all the other ones you you click the button that that gets the machine going you turn your head you turn back to make sure that your finger is on the right button and then you turn your head again and then you click the the the the picking button that like sucks it up okay use your words. So the one that you won, you looked the entire time, and there was no looking away.
It was the first time that you had looked the entire time. Late Sunday night, forgot that I was supposed to look away.
That's my bad. Yeah.
So other people on Twitter brought this to this to my not you not you and it has nothing

to do with me and herits alliance that has you just i was just shaking your boots i was sharing

i'm terrified of the alliance of other people i need to get in this alliance i will admit it now

i mean now it's not even a real alliance what are you talking about there's an there's an asterisk

hey do you think i did it i saw you do it yeah i got the button i got the number you saw him do what

Thank you. not even a real alliance what are you talking about there's an there's an asterisk hey do you think i did it i saw you do it yeah i got the button i got the number you saw him do what he saw me get the number and can you put your headphones on okay max so here's the thing we tried to recreate it because it's not easy to do the numbers the balls move very so fast like and i tried to what number it is and i try i, I'm going to try to pick 64.
And Max, you witnessed me do this. I selected the button and I got 63.
Okay. Which is, I don't know if that's an interesting data point or not.
No, it's because you saw a number inside the circle that looked like 64. 63 is close to 64.
Now, I don't believe that Big Cat was able to select a number like that's it's very very hard to do correct but i also know that if anyone else had done what big cat that's fair big cat would be the one leading the charge being well no i wouldn't i would be listening to other people say it like max did yeah yeah all right so can i speak yeah okay so uh i'm being 100 honest when i say i did not see the number and then hit select i was it was a late sunday night i was dazed and i'm just like blankly staring at the lottery ball machine but i love jim harbaugh jim harbaugh showed this this uh max and pft much like cry Ryan day. Excusism is rampant in our world where if you don't win, it's not like, hey, we lost.
It's we got to find a way to claim someone else did it wrong and cheated, and we have to make excuses for our own failures. It's a sad state of where America is as a country.
I wish I could stop it. I'm only one man.
I wish I could stop the type of behavior that Max and PFT are projecting right now. I just had your back and I said that I don't think that it's possible to.
Okay. All right.
So just Max, I'll take you out of it. PFT.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Max? All right.
You're right. You're right.
PFT. PFT is right.
I just heard Max say it. All right.
Now I'm telling you what I heard other people say. What camera am I looking at? I want to look at the camera to the people.
That one. Okay.
What Max is displaying right now is everything that's wrong with this country. This country is probably going to falter in the next decade or so because of people like Max.
Max is an excuse guy. Max is a loser.
If he loses a game, instead of saying, I lost the game, he says, oh, well, they cheated. They did something wrong.
I have to find a way out of this. There's no way I could lose.
It's pathetic. It's cowardly.
And it's disgusting. It is exactly how this country has completely gone to waste.
If I could run for president right now, I wouldn't. I'd say, I just hold a poster of Max and be like, don't be like Max.
Make America not Max again. That's what we need to do.
Make America men again. Make America men again.
So here's what I'm going to do. Because Max has muddied the waters and be such a crybaby loser coward, I will say right now, I'm fine with not taking the win.
Because that's what you want, Max. You want to make excuses.
No, let me finish. I want an asterisk.
Let me finish. Max wants excuses when he doesn't win something.
So guess what? Much like Jim Harbaugh, I'll say, go ahead. That's fine.
I don't win. Hank, I'm out of the club.
They want to drag me down. They want to make a mockery of this whole thing and cry, be like crybabies.
I thought we stood this podcast i thought we were men unfortunately we're boys and i'll play your little boy ass game right now so i will take away the the the winning 71 and guess what because i'm such a man and because i believe in this great country i will win it without looking at it before max does okay so here's that was a great speech thank you thank you um thank you i i do love run through a brick wall i i love you're gonna make yourself run through yeah well the brick wall is just max and it's fat fuck all right so as as an impartial observer to this entire situation i was behind the times when i found out about it i came in here max gave me the entire rundown which again he didn't say but other people were saying um i don't believe that Big Cat actually was able to select the ball. The balls move very quickly.
But on this podcast, we do have precedent for button pressing scenarios. Wait, what's that? What happened with that? Max forgot to press the button for this podcast for the first time in seven years.
A loser coward. So given the loser coward punishment,

I think we should enact a similar punishment in case Big Cat happens to press the button

while looking at the lottery ball machine again,

which would be two years and a soul patch for Big Cat.

That's fine.

Okay.

That's fine.

I have to look at it while pressing it

and then also get it.

No, I'm saying you cannot press the button and look at the ball at the same time. But it would have to be me getting it as well.
That would be automatic two-year soul patch. Because, again, it was Sunday night.
I'm fucking dazed. People can believe.
I think people who understand what it means to be a man, to stand on something, what America used to be, will understand that when I say I am not able to select when the number is coming, know that I was not cheating. I was literally just dazing and looking at this thing at midnight on a Sunday after a long weekend.
But I think what you're saying is fair, but it has to be if I look and I get the number, then it's automatic. If you look at our and anyone gets them, that's fine.
I would say there might be that there might be. I'm fine with that now.
And I'll never look again. And again, when I did look, I offered Max to sit down in my chair and try to try to get the number exactly again.
Coward loser. Everything.
Communism. My counsel told me that was not communism.
Like all the bad things that, you know, in this world, Max was like, no, pedophilia. All these things Max stands for.
And he wouldn't sit in the chair. I saw your tweet last night, Max.
Yeah. It was a little boy ass play.
Yeah. You love pizza.
Interesting. Mmm.
Mmm. I think it's innocent until proven guilty.
Thank you, Jake. But that's fine.
You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take all, because I love the lottery ball machine. I love this thing.
I think it's a very fun wrinkle that our show has. I'm surprised Boston hasn't stolen it yet.
I love this lottery ball machine. I don't want it to be corrupted by losers, cowards, babies like Max Delentine.
And cheaters. Agreed.
Max making a mockery of this whole thing. He sullied it.
He sullied it. You were making a mockery.
No, no, no. I was not.
Big Cat's giving some great speeches here. For the record.
I'll keep going with speeches. He would be on the complete opposite side of this.
Yeah, of course. I agree.
He would be a loser. Max would turn you into a loser so fast.
I'll tell you what wouldn't happen though. If Max was on the other side, he wouldn't

strip his own title away.

I'm showing, I'm leading from

the front. No, no.
It's showing that excuses

him will not stand in this country.

And I will start from scratch

and start with zero wins. Max, you can't.

And I will win it without. You can't let him take

a win by taking a loss. I did.
You know that, right?

71 does not count. I'm at

zero. Jake, update the log.
I'm at zero.

Jake, let's take a vote.

No, I'm... Thank you.
win by taking a lot i did know that right the 71 does not count i'm at zero i perfect update the log no jake well let's take a vote no i'm no yeah vote vote vote no let's take a vote my own title i think that was a great great speech and i know that you believed every word of it i stripped my own title i think that we should vote on and no i think this is what max wanted punishment should be that if if you pick the machine and it gets on anybody you know we already established then you get that. Also, interesting data point.
We filmed a little interview for the PMT documentary afterwards. And the guy that's putting it all together, he was like, I'm going to try to do it.
And he tried to get 50 and he got 49. He got one off.
And I was like, that is really interesting. But that actually has nothing to do with it because it doesn't look like it.
Memes tried to get three and he got like 58.

So I am zero.

I'm at zero.

No, I'm at zero.

All it says is that you would increase your chances of getting it.

Okay.

And I'm telling you, I was not looking at the balls being like, I got to press the button at this exact time.

Okay.

All those in favor.

I was not staring at the balls trying to press the button at the exact time i'm telling you the honest truth and again i'm at zero and max no this is a this is a bad again uh hold on let me speak for we gotta vote this is a bad lesson to the people i feel bad for the awls because this is proving that the cowards and the babies and the losers like max excuses them does win i think we gotta vote how bad it is i how bad it is. I think we got to vote on this.
I think that's the only way to do it. That's my wish.
Hank, please vote for me for zero. Jake, please vote for me for zero.
Don't. No campaigning allowed.
Agreed. I've already given.
All right. Does Big Cat's Lotto Machine count in the final standings? All in favor.
Wait, it's either count or doesn't count. No asterisks.
That's the vote. My vote is asterisks.
You can't vote asterisks. It's either counts or doesn't count.
There's no asterisks. You can write in, right? All right, fine.
Go ahead. I'll write in that.
So you vote asterisks counts. PFT, you vote counts.
I vote that it counts because I tried to simulate it. It's way harder than you think.
It's basically impossible to do. It was interesting, though.
I just want to say I'm going to vote that it counts, but it's interesting. be hard if i was able to do it i would have done it already and i would have made sure hank never got it that would have been a fact uh who votes that it does not count strip it from the record jake what's your vote i think it counts all right i know what you're feeling as someone who's done something on camera that's really hard to do people want to say it's fake j, it's really frustrating.
The vote's in. The vote's in.
You can't change the vote. It's a tie.
So it sounds like asterisk. No, it is.
You voted asterisk. Jake, please change your vote.
I'm asking you nicely. I would like to start at zero.
I don't want to have any clouded. You deserve this.
You were hard for it. I don't deserve it because he's muddied the water.
I don't want there to be any controversy with the lottery ball machine.

I love this lottery ball machine.

I don't see any controversy.

You won.

I understand.

But Max has muddied the water with all the people that he's thrown in there.

I'm asking you nicely, Jake.

Please vote for me.

I want to get it again before Max does and then be like, fuck you, Max.

I will literally face fuck him.

Memes gets the deciding moment.

Think of the moment, Jake. Think of the moment.
I will literally face fuck him. Memes gets the deciding moment.
Think of the moment, Jake.

Think of the moment.

I'm going to text memes.

Jake, think of the moment.

Please, I'm asking for your vote.

No, I don't deserve it.

I don't want it because Max has ruined it for me.

I don't want it.

Then you should do a self-imposed ban.

No, I don't want it.

All right, fine.

I'll get on your side.

No win.

All right, great.

All right.

Hey, Big Cat, you ever got this?

No, I haven't, Max.

Hey, Max, are you a loser, baby, coward, crybaby? Yes, you are. That's fine.
Everyone who's listening right now, I just want to say again, stand on the right side of America. Don't let the Maxes win because this is happening.
Every small town in America is having Maxes pop up and make crybaby excuses for every little thing, every little hardship, and that's how we lose. You want China? China's coming.
For the record, it was... China doesn't make excuses.
It was other people that... China doesn't make excuses.
Alright, numbers. 18, 20, 71.
Off 20 fucking bangs this. Evan has 56, Shane 10.
Does memes have... Memes usually goes 3, right? No, but he didn't say 3 yeah he didn't he's not here memes gets 74 oh I must have looked I must have looked I can't wait to get it before I feel like Dan I might release a Dan Gilbert comic sans remember when he said report being like they will never win a title he was wrong yeah he was wrong, but you get the point.
Remember when you said that the Eagles were going to lose because I brought together justice? No, I said there was bad vibes. Yeah.
It was bad vibes. Karma.
Ball don't lie. Everyone should, again, I was awoken last night to realizing the AWOs who think Max is disgusting and annoying and talks too much.
And I saw it for a moment. I do love him.
I don't think that's true, but I at least hear you now. You're a herd minority.
This is a classic case of Max being a crybaby loser. Did it with the turf in the Super Bowl.
You're going to do it again now. Much like the Michigan-Ohio State thing, we need to find out who discovered this.
Was this what Twitter account? Someone on was it max's brother i can give i can give credit to the first person who brought this to my attention also john rich was really he had a he had a great uh tweet about it what do you say he i can pull that up he said not a this was after the memes test because big cat was like, this proves that I didn't do it.

Not a conclusive test.

Would have to run thousands of tests to know if a competitive advantage

is gained from choosing a ball at the top of the pile.

Could Marshall Big Cat pick correctly every time?

No.

Could he improve his odds from 1 to 100 to 1 to 50?

Maybe.

Great point.

Okay, so I would love to do a test.

I will do a test.

He said thousands.

Thousands.

I'll do thousands. What do I got to do? Oh, yeah, this guy.
Actually, we should have Hank do that in the box. Hanks and Max, you guys should do that in the box.
That's one of your things. Sean what? Sean Spellbrink.
So he is the king of losers and cowards and crybabies who make excuses in this world. He is the king of justice.
He is the king of justice. I think there will be a lot of people who realize that I've been nothing but forthright in this investigation, in this entire thing, and they'll be like, I want to stand with a guy like Big Cat who wants to make America great again.
It's just a coincidence. It was a hell of a coincidence and very interesting that you have done it.
I do agree. It was interesting.
That's all I'm saying. No, you were saying more than that.
That's all that was. You take things the way that you want.
You were saying more than that. You were saying more than that.
When I saw Max yesterday, when he brought this to my attention, he had the biggest smile on his face. Yeah.
And you know when Max gets excited, he starts to, like, itch his balls? Yeah. He was doing that.
He was like, oh, you got to see what's going on with this smirk. Yeah.
because he found an excuse for being a loser. It was just an interesting observation that Sean Spellbrink brought to the table.
Okay. And then everyone else who also saw all of the data.
A lot of people were on my side. A lot of people were on my side.
Let's get a poll. Okay.
A lot of people were on my side. No.
Yes, you were. Max.
Most people are on my side you max is doing the thing like when clay travis does like a who's ever going to vote for in 2024 and it's his twitter audience max of course my twitter audience is your your loser your loser twitter audience is going to be is going to be like yeah max we didn't lose let's make excuses i think what we have turf in the super bowl this is actually what we should do we should have max during the the live stream where he's locked in a box with hank they should have to do the lottery machine and if max gets it and tries to get it within the first 50 choices then max it's wiped off the board and we never talk about it again well it's already wiped off the board it's already wiped off the board i'm at zero if you can't if you can't get I'm wiped off. It's already wiped off the board.
I'm at zero. If you can't get it, then it pops back up.
I'm at zero. What do you think, Max? I feel like that would be good for the live stream.
I'm going to get this number before Max, and it's going to be the best day of my life. It'll be better than all three of my children being born.
That's a fact. But what about when I get it before you? I will smash this lottery ball machine over your head

and I'll try to find some excuse

like you and be a crybaby

alright that's the show

thank you everyone for listening to my presidential speech

I will be running soon