The Chiefs Break Buffalo’s Heart, Philly Rolls, and Guess the SB Lines With Cousin Sal

Coming up, the last edition of Guess the Lions with Cousins out. We're going to talk Super Bowl.
We're going to talk conference finals. It's all next.
This episode is brought to you by Intuit TurboTax. Taxes was waiting and wondering and worrying.
It's almost like how in the old days of fantasy football, we used to have to tally the scores on a Monday and then the commissioner would just mail them out to everybody and you'd wait three days to see if you won. Those were the old ways of doing it.
Now taxes is matching with a TurboTax live full service expert who gives your taxes their undivided attention. They can file your taxes as soon as today.
And while they do, you get real time updates on their progress, meaning you can get back to what's important, the game. Now this is taxes into a TurboTax.
Get an expert now on TurboTax.com. This episode is brought to you by Loom by Atlassian.
Feeling stuck is the worst. We were all feeling it during COVID, right? Just staring at the same walls every day and the same people unable to really go anywhere.
Just being in a funk. Well, if you're feeling stuck at work right now, too many meetings and hunting down teammates to get approvals, there's an easy fix.
Get unstuck with video messaging from Loom by Atlassian. With Loom, you can record your screen, your camera, and your voice to share video messages easily.
Using video helps you and your team save time and stay connected, even when you're working across time zones. So now you can delete that novel-length email you're writing instead.
record your screen, share your message faster with Loom. It also has editing and AI features to help you record once and get back to the work that counts.
Unstuck your process, projects, and teams with video communication from Loom. Try Loom today at loom.com.
That is L-O-O-M.com. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network.
I do have a new Rewatchables episode coming for you on Monday night. Can't wait for you to hear it.
You can also watch it on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel as well. Coming up on this podcast, Cousin Sal is joining me.
We did this live on YouTube, which you can follow if you want to. And the Bill Simmons YouTube channel, please subscribe.

We are going to be breaking down the two games today and what's coming up in the Super Bowl.

And I have a very action-packed parent corner for you.

So it's all next.

First, our friends from ProJip. All right.
We are on YouTube. Cousin Sal is here taping the BS podcast after another magical NFL playoff game.
Sal, I've had the worst weekend and I can't wait to talk to you about it. This game reinvigorated me.
It poured a Red Bull and a coffee and a giant line of cocaine into my body. I am ready for this podcast, baby.
All right. Okay, so good.
That means you took the Chiefs and I had them too. But just as an emotional hedge and then you look back, I'm like, oh my God, I have so much money on this team as an emotional hedge.
It's going to be emotional the other way when I have to explain to the family we have to move if the Bills win. So, wow, what a game.
Do it every game. Do it every year.
Who cares? Yeah, so there's going to be a lot of stuff over the next two weeks about Chiefs-Eagles. We had this already.
The Chiefs are back. Come on.
Here's where I've landed. And I feel like I've been here for most of my life, but really, especially as I get older, I really like true greatness.
Like I really appreciate this Chiefs team. I bet on them.
I really wanted them to cover the bet, obviously. But I also really like the fact that every once in a while in sports, you have this measuring stick, not just for the sport, but for all the sports, right? Like I hated the Yankees in the late eighties, you know, late nineties.
I hated that team, but I respected the shit out of them. When Arizona beat them in 2001, it was like, this is momentous.
Wait, the Pats were able to get that in the mid10s. Philly beat them with Foles and Peterson.

It was like, this feels momentous.

I think you need teams like that.

When the Warriors lost in 2019,

you need teams every once in a while that are truly great.

And then you see how everyone measures up.

And they did it again.

I don't know when this stops.

Of course you do.

Yeah, you don't want parity in everything all the time everywhere.

I think if you ask people honestly, they would want Washington and Buffalo to have advanced today, right? So that wasn't going to happen because everybody wanted it, right?

But other than that, I love that the Chiefs are in it.

Mahomes is great.

And we saw the greatest quarterback of all time in Brady.

And now we're possibly seeing his greatest successor in Mahomes.

And that is exactly why I hate when people lead with,

oh, the referees screwed them all.

No, I don't like the negative stigma because that then football could turn into your crappy sport. Sorry, the NBA and where everybody's talking bad about it.
And like, hey, we're forgetting the fact that we're seeing Mahomes and he's the greatest or close to the greatest. Stop that talk.

Buffalo doesn't get the two-point and Casey gets the ball down

one fourth quarter and you're just going

Mahomes is taking this down.

He's going to score.

He's going to get the two-point and they're going to be up

seven. I was already mentally in the

stage of if Buffalo then

gets the ball and scores the TD, will they go for

one or two? The Chiefs hadn't even done anything yet. You just knew they were going to go down and do it.
I mean, the Mahomes thing, just big picture. This is now five Superbowl appearances before age 30.
He's 20 and three in the playoffs. He's beaten Josh Allen, who I think along with Burrow, but I think Allen over Burrow and probably over Lamar, Allen's his number one rival.
He's beaten them four times in a row now in the playoffs. In the playoffs, yeah.
And he just feels like that Brady versus Mahomes, that first playoff game that the first playoff loss Mahomes had, Brady beats him. And then it's like he just handed a torch to him.
And he's like, all right, go ahead, take it. And now it just feels like the Chiefs became the Pets.

Yeah, he handed the torch

and Mahomes, I think,

played a little game with the Bills.

Like, look, we don't turn the ball over.

We haven't turned the ball over since November.

There's been like 280 turnovers in the NFL

and none of them attributed to the Chiefs.

So what do they do?

They fumble, it's recovered,

but they're offsides, the Bills, so it doesn't count. Like two plays later, like, alright, we're going to give you one more chance.
This is it. And even this isn't going to matter.
And they fumble. And that was the only turnover of the game, right? And still, they couldn't get it done.
Because you got the Chiefs with the ball last. And that's what's going to happen.
Well, you have on the flip side, Buffalo. Allen comes out.
First drive, he throws two picks that get dropped. Right.
Allen fumbles twice, pulls back both of them, recovers both of them, including on that fourth and one. I did have a moment where I thought to myself, maybe this doesn't happen.
Because I remember in the Pats-Eagles Super Bowl, which I sadly watched with Nephew Kyle, even in the bitter end, I don't really remember what the score was, but the Pats did get the ball with like a little over two minutes left and they're on like the 20 and we were all like, we're winning this. And then when Brady got stripped, it was, it was so shocking.
It was like, oh my God, somebody beat us. That's, there was a moment in this game.
It was when Buffalo was driving, wondering if they were going to go for two or not. And thinking like, what happens if they go for two, they get it? And Casey, just something weird happens.
And all of a sudden, they're punting. And they're down one.
And Buffalo has a chance to just run out the clock on them. But that's the thing.
Casey's avoided this. They say, what did they say? 17 straight, one possession wins?

Yeah.

That's a crazy stat.

And because of that,

when they're driving at the end and they're minus 146,

I'm crazy about the numbers,

as you know.

Yeah, you were texting me

during every time out.

I don't know what the hell

to do with the numbers,

but I'm wild about it.

I just love it.

And it's minus 146.

I'm like, wow,

that's suspiciously low

for this team that's going

for a three-peat

and never loses one score games. And then they were minus 154 when they had the three-point lead and the Bills were driving or whatever with that last possession there.
It is just amazing what the hell they've done. And I look at the numbers, I'm like it doesn't even really add up with Mahomes and his stats and how they keep winning.
He didn't have an incredible game.

He ran for two touchdowns.

He only threw for one.

The team stats were pretty even.

How did the Bills outrush them

by just 12 yards?

I don't remember a ton of...

It felt like 200.

And my cook wasn't in the game

on a couple of big plays.

I do think McDermott...

By the way, they found out he's Bill Burr's brother. I didn't even know this.
Oh, is he? Yeah, isn't that something? I didn't hear them announce that. Yeah, yeah.
He got outcoached. He got bailed out, I think, early when they scored on fourth down.
But he was outcoached, and Spags wasn't going to let it happen twice in an hour. Yeah, this was a weird game because Lombardi, shout out to Lombardi, always used to talk about the middle eight, the last four minutes of the first half, first four minutes of the second half.
The Chiefs have the ball and they're driving down in the last four minutes of the first half. They get that crazy, worthy call that we do this all the time.
I still don't understand the rules of football and I watch football. Neither guy had possession and the ball touched the ground and it just seems like that's a dead play.
Nobody gets it. And they're back at, they should have gone back to the 20 instead of the five, whatever.
Right. So they score and you start going, wow, this could be a blowout.
They're up 21, 10. They stay, they stopped the Buffalo here at the end of the half.
They get the ball, the chiefs at the start of the thing. Well, they didn't stop them.
The Bills scored, but they didn't get the two. But I'm saying before the Bills went down, it felt like the Chiefs were going to blow the game open.
I got you. Yeah, yeah.
Right. Buffalo comes back down.
He hits Matt Collins in that touchdown. It's 21-16.
Now, all of a sudden, the Chiefs get stopped at the top of the... So they actually lost the middle eight because then Buffalo came down and took the lead.
Yeah they still won the Chiefs somehow. Yeah, it was weird.
Yeah, you're right. Because the Chiefs got the ball in the second half.
Is that what you're saying? Yeah, I thought they were going to get last possession in the first half. First possession, second half.
You score both times. You're up 28-10.
It's a wrap. The Bills had the ball.
It was interesting. It really was.
let's put everything in perspective. With that play that hit the ground and should have been called incomplete, it was holding on Hamlin.
He mugged Kelsey, backpacked him, jumped on his back. So it would have been first down at the 20.
Maybe the Bills don't have enough time to drive back and get the six. I don't know that the Chiefs score either.
But before everybody points to, oh, the Chiefs got lucky again. No, that turned out to help Buffalo.
That's what I thought. Because if the challenge had been overturned, you're right, they probably don't get the ball in the first half.
Right. And that was the one real mistake that the Chiefs made was leaving Hollins open on that one play.
Hollins ended up having two big plays. His over-under for catches was basically, I think it was one catch.
It was around even. It was like minus 130, something like that.
If I'm Buffalo and I leave this game, do you leave this game going, how did we not win that game? Or do you leave that game going, we're just like three plays short every time we play this team. We have the fourth and one, the QB sneak, where Allen actually gets stuffed.
Who knows if he actually got stuffed or not, but they call that KC ball. You have the Kincaid play where, I don't know, that was the fourth and five.
Spags caused the blitz. You knew it was coming.
Allen makes a great, just to jump up and heave it toward Kincaid was great. But they had that wide shot of it and it seemed like the ball was almost like spinning.
It was almost like when a baseball, when they hit the pop fly that just has some weird thing to it. And Kincaid dropped it.
And I'm sure he's going to take shit tomorrow, but I actually thought that seemed like a pretty tough catch. Did you think that was a drop or a catch? It was rough.

There was traffic around him. It was kind of

like a moon ball, you know, and

he's got to catch it at his feet. Probably

should have grabbed it, but in that

situation, like that's, he was running

for his life and he's just trying to get

good positioning on that ball, but

It's the kind of play that a D-back

drops over and over again. Yeah.

Like the tip play at the line or the

flutter and it's, oh, I can't believe he dropped

that. But Kincaid was on offense.
But to answer your original question, the Bills are looking at this like not that we're three plays away, that they should have won the game. They're done losing to this team, right? They already beat them in the regular season.
They're not like us where we could rationalize it and be like, well, they just can't beat them at Arrowhead. It's a different beast.
They know deep down they're just as good and they can't take it. This is a demoralizing loss.
I mean, after a while, you do maybe believe that you can't overtake the beast. Yeah, I don't know.
Well, there's the what more do we have to do factor, right? They won the turnover battle. They outrushed them.
Mahomes had fewer than 20 completions. Right.
You know, I don't know. They scored 29, and they became the first team to give up over 30 to the Chiefs.
Weird. Well, so the Chiefs have the ball after the two-minute warning, the Bills don't get it, and the Bills need to get a stop.
Did you think they were going to get the stop? Because I did not. And as it turns out, they had two chances to get a stop because the Bills scored.
They got the first down on second down, but the guy stepped out of bounds. So now they had this fresh set of downs.
And each time the Chiefs were able to get the 8-9 plays. Conversely, Buffalo had a bunch of chances to make a big play on a 4th and 1 or a 4th and 5, 4th and 3, and there was a couple they didn't get.
So I would assume that would probably be driving them crazy too. They did get that when they were down, what was it, 7 when they got the 4th down play in the end zone to Samuel.
Yeah. Which was a nice play.
That was big. I didn't think they were going to get that one.
McDermott needed, sorry, Spags needed to dial up what he did for the very last Bills offensive play for that fourth down play because it came out of a timeout. They had a timeout and then one play on third down and then that play.
So that was bad for the Chiefs defense. But I'll tell you, you're right with the short yardage.
And I think we watched almost three and a half hours of quarterbacks plunging on fourth and one today between the two games. The most fourth and ones it felt like ever in the history of the league.
I like that they don't make it sometimes. I really do.
Like maybe teams, I don't like it like when we were growing up in the 70s and 80s where

it was a fourth and one attempt

on offense every six weeks or something.

But I don't know.

Just be a little more creative on the

fourth and ones. Cook wasn't even in the backfield

for a lot of those. So Buffalo

missed two points, right?

Two two points. Then they

missed a fourth and short.

And you would think with Allen, they would be the most devastating team in the league with any fourth and one, fourth and short. Two point, which was, I don't know, one of the legacies of this game.
It was kind of shocking not to see them get certain plays. I felt like the Chiefs were slightly better just because I felt like their defense, I trusted their D a little bit more to maybe get a stop when they really, really, really, really needed it.
Even that, you mentioned that spag splits on the last play, that fourth and five. This goes back to what I was saying earlier about how fun it is to have a team like this, that we have a real history with it.
We root for these NFL teams and the entire team changes over in two years, or you have these teams, like, look at what's going to happen to the Cowboys and they haven't even made the Superbowl, but two years from now, I don't know. We lost the connection.
What did you say? Two years from now, are Dak, C.D. Lamb and Prescott all going to be on the team? Probably not.
You know, and that's usually how it plays out. I know.
You're right. You're right.
But in this team, same infrastructure. It's Mahomes.
It's always some cast of running backs and wide receivers with Kelsey. They always have a decent line.
Chris Jones is always there. Andy Reid always is doing some funky plays that seem like they're going to work.
And then Spags, every time they need it, seems to dial up the perfect blitz. That blitz on Allen was a great call.

I was waiting for it the whole game,

and it didn't seem like they could find it.

Then they found it.

That's what they needed before the last score.

But you and I, I think, thought we were texting.

We thought this game was over, like you said.

I did.

I thought when it was 21-10,

I thought they were going to blow it out.

Well, because they were picking on that Elam guy.

Like Romo said, it was like, cover one, single safety, it's just going to be the stop route all the time with Worthy picking on this. Right.
Yeah, so. By the way, Romo crushed Brady today by 35 points.
That was the biggest blowout. Yeah, Romo, I thought, that was about as good as he's been in a few years.
I thought he was all over the game, spotting stuff, spelling stuff out, telling us what was going to happen. With the Buffalo piece, the defense had a couple injuries, and it was pretty, I don't want to say flimsy, but it was okay.
Never like a great defense to begin with.

It reminded me a little of what happened to Washington today.

Washington probably would have lost anyway,

but when it came out over the weekend

that they were losing their run-stopping defensive tackle.

Yeah.

You can kind of pass the point in overturn,

and it felt like they're secondary.

I just didn't trust the people they had.

That poor Benford got two concussions in a week, it looks like. You and I haven't mentioned Christian Benford or the Ron Payne at all over 23 weeks.
Yes, no, ever. Yes, you're right.
And those arguably were the two biggest, you know, one, you know, neither, both for not being able to play. And yeah, Benford actually got out with the second concussion, we think.
And it was like the first series.

Yeah.

But you have these things where you've already decided

mentally where you're going in a game.

And it's already like, if you're taking Washington,

it's a pretty flimsy case.

It's like, they're not going to turn the ball over.

Jaden Daniels is going to go up a level.

He's going to be able to match Philly

and Hurts is going to kind of suck.

Like that was the case.

The other case was Philly's going to run all over them.

Washington's not going to run out turnovers

and Philly's going to blow them out.

If you want to see the video, please click on the link to the link to the link to match Philly and Hurts is going to kind of suck. That was the case.
The other case was Philly's going to run all over them.

Washington's not going to run out turnovers and Philly's going to blow them out.

You could see the two cases. It was like, I like the Washington

case more. So I took that one

and then you find out their run stuff

was done

when I didn't really like their run defense to begin

with. It's like a 15-yard difference

when he's out.

It's like, oh, this isn't he's out. This isn't a great

sign. We'll talk

about that game later, but Philly was also great.

The Buffalo thing,

this might have been their best chance.

I'll say this.

I still think Baltimore might have been

the best team from a talent standpoint.

I watched in this game,

I guarantee the Ravens,

the Ravens fan watching this game today, I was texting Mallory about it and she's like still sick. Yeah.
Because you watch what was working against the Chiefs. The Ravens were better at pounding the ball, running the ball, being physical and they had a better defense than the Bills and I'm sure they felt like, shit, if we'd just gotten in there, we could have beaten that team.
But they didn't. I mean, we talked about it last week, how important stupid, but how important turnovers are.
And we'll get to it in the Philly game, which absolutely dominated the discussion. But yeah, if the Ravens don't turn the ball over, it's a different story altogether.
And maybe if they get a home game, too, against Buffalo. Does it seem like football is just now about the turnover battle who wins, how you did on fourth and one and fourth and two, because there's so many of them now.
And the variance of those is huge. And did you just avoid having a massive fuck up? Yeah.
And it seems like in a game like this in Buffalo, all season was kind of pulling off games like this and their luck finally ran out today. And I know the Buffalo fans last week were pissed because everyone was dwelling on how Baltimore blew the game.
And they're like, well, we also won the game. We didn't mess up.
We didn't make mistakes. This game, they made some mistakes.
Yeah, well, that's why I took the Chiefs. I'm not going to take a lap because I recognize whoever had the ball last pretty much went.
The last six minutes are going to decide this game. But when I was thinking about it, I'm like, wait a minute.
I'm going to go against the Chiefs, who, like I said, haven't turned the ball over since November, and they're trying to repeat, and they're in Arrowhead and have a chip on their shoulder against Buffalo who beat them in the regular season. No freaking way.
It's a point and a half. The line was too low.
I think if it was Chiefs by three, it was a different thought process. But the one and a half, how can you not? We did this last year.
You had the Ravens too last year, right? Yeah. In the AFC title game.
And that was my never again moment. I was just like, as long as they're...
That was three and a half. Yeah.
As long as the Chiefs are the Chiefs, it's just not worth it because they're going to figure this out year after year. So on the plus side for Allen, before we get to

some of the negative stuff,

that pass he threw to Matt Collins

before halftime

was fantastic.

The list of

QBs who can hit that one

with the speed and the accuracy that

he hit is not... It's basically him and Drake

May.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I lost consciousness for a second

there. You're serious.

That was a joke. It was him, Drake May, a couple others.
But he hit that one. He also had that big drive to give them the lead in the third quarter.
He had the other comeback drive when it was 29-22. He brought them down again, and scored.
And I was thinking like, because I don't blame this loss on Allen in any respect. He's in that zone now that I'm not sure you want to be in as a great athlete.
And I would call it the Tommy Hearn zone. Where you're awesome, you're memorable, you're a generational talent,

and yet you're the other guy in the sports movie over and over again.

How do you get out of that?

How do you snap out of that?

Hearns was in all these great sports moments

and he lost most of them, but he was still great.

He's one of the best boxers I've ever seen in my life.

He was a one-on-one, nobody like him,

six foot one, 147, crazy punchy power. He fought everybody.
And yet his legacy was like, he lost the Leonard fight. He lost the Hagler fight.
So how is he different from Lamar then in that respect? Because they're pointing the same fingers, right? I think Lamar is a little bit of a different case because he's kind of come up short in these big moments. Allen's

had these moments like

in the 13 second game.

He's Roberto Duran? Who's

Lamar?

Drake May.

No.

Who is Lamar?

I feel like Lamar's story hasn't

I want to, I'll answer

that next year

I'm not quite ready to label him

I want to say one more

it's tougher

what boxer didn't come through every time it mattered

I don't know

I don't know who that is

but no the point with Josh

is like they've lost games

where he was really good in the game

I thought he was really good in the game today

yeah

if you're a Bills fan you're like man Josh has to do more

I'm them. Yeah, I think the Bills fans, at least early on, I could see they're very upset with the coaching staff.
Because when you can't blame the kicker, when you can't kill the kicker, it goes right to the quarterback or coaching staff, and it seems like the coaches are getting. We should, real quick, shout out to James Cook.
I mean, that was a spectacular, spectacular play on fourth and two. By the way, good job.
Another great play by Josh Allen, flipping that to him on the quarterback option. With some speed.
Sometimes the toss is too soft. That one kind of whipped it to the point that Cook might be like, whatever.
But it kind of had to get there then. Yeah, and for him to be able to stay horizontally and bridge on his hand without the elbow falling and extended over the goal line with the other hand was really one of the better plays I've seen all year.
We've had a real resurgence with good running backs. This position that everybody thought didn't matter, and then you look around, it's like Barkley and Jameer Gibbs and Cook and going down the line.
It seems like it's more important than it used to be. Back to the Alan-Tommy Hurts thing for a second.
The sad shot at the end when the team's running out the clock and they cut to the guy losing QB and just sitting on the bench with that deer in the headlights look. It's a tough one.
You don't want that to be legacy. In a weird way, from a career move standpoint, I actually think he gains human interest stature because now he's come so close, and he just can't get over this.
Next year's Chiefs-Bills game is even more interesting. This year's game was so interesting.
Kyle Brandt did a Rocky IV mountain parody with him as Sly and Mahomes as Drago, and I don't even know what next year's version of that is. Right.
Oh, maybe it's Clubber Lang then. Lamar.
No, no. Lang won a title.
Yeah, I don't know who Lamar is. Yeah, I don't know what you do with Josh Allen.
That sucks with the cutaways. You need more cutaways of his fiance, right? I mean, he's losing that battle too, Taylor Swift.
But yeah, he's playing as well as he can and just can't beat this team. Well, and then there's the Buffalo piece of it too, right? So it's always lingering with the Bills game.
Even it's 29-28. They had just scored a touchdown.
They have all this momentum and there's Bass and I'm sitting there going, I've watched Bass miss this. You're watching the PAT intently.
It's like, it's the Bills. I've seen Bass miss this.
I'm not positive this is going through. I'm thinking about Casey minus one and a half, minus one.
And he made it. But the baggage of the Bills is another thing.
There's some franchises like the Lions, that playoff loss they had two weeks ago or last week. It was last week.
It feels like January has been 75 days. That playoff loss they had, they haven't had a lot of those because they're never in the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the Bills have had, it feels like 100 of these. They're racking them up.
They got to get this game at home.

I don't know.

Maybe with Pete Carroll in the division, the AFC West,

and some of these teams getting better, you know,

the Chiefs won't go 15-2 or 15-1 going into the last week.

I think it's a hard ask, though, Sal.

I know.

Because you have, you look around the AFC,

and there's just a bunch of teams that feel like they're poised

to maybe jump up a level, or teams that had bad luck in. Like what are the Texans going to look like next year? You know, even in their own division, what could the jets be better next year? If they, if Aaron Glenn turns out to be a good coach, could the Patriots be next year's Washington? Keep my fingers crossed.
Could the chargers make a jump up? Could the Broncos like you go on down and it's just, I think the AFC is just going to be better next year. And I can't wait to pick all the over-unders correctly with you again.
You did such a good job. Yeah, you did.
But the Chiefs, as I run my mouth on this whole thing, they went through the whole thing on the road too last year. So I don't even know what matters.
Well, you know, they lose Rasheed Rice before the season. He's just a non-factor.
This guy who seemed like he was going to be Mahomes' number one target. They're able to patch together.
Smith-Schuster was so bad in the preseason for the Pats. It was like, can anyone take this guy from us? And then he's making big plays today.
Hopkins, who really didn't do that much today. Kelsey, who looked like he was 55.
But then Worthy becomes the key guy. This number one pick that they really shrewdly traded up for.
Their drafts, the way that they've nailed the drafts, this is the difference between them and what happened in the second part of the Pats dynasty in the late 2010s when they just started missing drafts. The Chiefs are getting Karlaftis.
They're getting McDuffie. They're getting Worthy over and over again.
They're nailing guys who are playing big roles in these playoff games. And that's how the Pats, that's why it ended.
The 16, 17, 18 drafts, they just weren't getting people and that was it. Yeah, thank God.
I will say the one thing

we skipped over with Kelsey.

That's another thing the Bills would be like, oh my

God, we held that guy to nothing.

He had 14 straight games with

75 or more. 14

straight playoff games. He was invisible.

Two catches for 19 yards

and they embarrassed him most of the

game and still couldn't get it done.

It's a lot of rough moments there for the Bills. Yeah, they felt...
What was their rushing passing? So they did... They ran the ball 32 times.
32 to 22, I think. Yeah, they ran 32.
Oh, 32, 34 attempts. 34 passes, 32 carries.
Yeah. And the Chiefs were 35 carries, 26 passes.
Did some really, did people look at this box score like 75 years from now or assuming the earth hasn't melted yet and be like, whoa, that game, that seemed pretty close. Right.
Travis Kelsey, what, he did nothing? What did the Bills win by? Oh, Mahomes and 18 completion? Well, then Hollywood Brown had that huge brain fart on the play when he was open and didn't realize he was standing out of bounds. Right, yeah.
That's another thing with the Chiefs. Hollywood Brown was supposed to be their big...
Right. You know, this big guy that helped them out.
Yeah, he plants his right foot directly out of bounds on a ball that should have been catchable. Yeah, I don't know.
They keep finding little things around the fringes like the kick returner made a couple big plays today. These guys, they are always able to locate them.
It's its own skill because that's the biggest way you can lose these things. Pacheco and Kelsey, 43 total yards.
How much would we pull back on our Chiefs bet if we had known that was going to happen? Well, don't you think part of it is everybody and their brother had the Kelsey over? Yeah, that is part of it. I think that was that and Dallas Goddard were the two.
Dallas Goddard hit his, but those two seemed like they were the... They gave everyone free Barkley money, and then they're like, no, no, no, we got to figure something out.
So one other thing with, so we'll be talking about the chiefs going for the three Pete. And I was going through looking who's three repeated in the last 50 years, which is half a century.
That's a long time. Jordan's bulls twice.
The Chicago B Lakers, the late nineties, Yankees, the Canadians for four in a row in the seventies. And then theers, four in a row in the 80s.
And that's really it, unless you want to count the Comets in the first four years of WNBA. This 3P thing, especially in the age of parity, the Pats never did it.
I can't believe the Pats never did it. I mean, I looked through it too.
Obviously, they haven't. And the Steelers.
It was the Eagles game. And the Niners.
It was the Nick Foles, Doug Peterson game. Yeah.
But out of Cowboys, Steelers, Patriots, Niners, it's shocking that there was no three-peat. It's shocking that the Bears only won one.
We didn't do a three-peat in a game where Brady threw for over 500 yards. Yeah.
Like, think about that. That was how we didn't get it.
But this is fucking hard. And you have these games where it's like, they tipped our pass to the wide open guy on a fourth down.
We missed the two point where the guy was, his foot was out of bounds. We missed the field goal at the end of the first half and we needed those.
There's so many things to get that right for three years in a row. It feels, in a league with a salary cap, feels impossible.
Do you really? Mahomes is great, but it's not like Mahomes was like, you know, throw everyone on my back. I'm going to carry us all through the season.
I don't even think he was one of the three best QBs this year. But he's Mahomes.
There were 15-2. There were 15-1 heading into the week that they sat everyone.
And he wasn't even a top three or four consideration for MVP. That's insane because his stats weren't Patrick Mahomes-esque is the problem.
But as a Patriot fan and one of the few teams that have had two-peats, how much are you rooting for? It's not like 72 Dolphins are thrilled and do the champagne toast when a team loses, but are you rooting hard? Because I've talked to some people who have been part of a two-peat and are rooting hard against anyone having a three-peat. Yeah, it's an interesting one.
My dad really doesn't like when the Chiefs do well because he wants the Pats to be better historically than the Chiefs. My thing is whatever the Pats did, that's what they did.
The Chiefs belong to this different generation and if the Chiefs win three like if the Chiefs win three in a row it doesn't diminish what the Pats did but I think other Pats fans are like really need the Chiefs to lose need the Bills to come through it depends on your perspective on it I personally was more I'm probably leaning more toward it would be cool if the Bills never won and we were like the last good AFC East team but I'm more spiteful. Oh wow.
Yeah that's pretty specific. Yeah If the Bills never won and we were like the last good AFC East team, but I'm more spiteful.
Oh, wow. Yeah.
That's pretty specific. Yeah.
If the Bills never get one and then now with Vrabel and Drake May and $130 million in cap space and whoever we get number four and all of a sudden we can try to take the AFC East from them. I'm in that mindset.
But you're trading that for Mahomes could eventually pass Brady as the greatest effort in every conversation. You're willing to put that up for debate? So much is left for him to do that.
Brady won seven. Brady beat Mahomes twice.
Brady had the Atlanta game, which is the greatest feat probably any quarterbacks pulled off in a game. There's a long way to go.
If he four peets, which he's a game in a season away from doing, then the conversation becomes real. I don't know.
I'm with you. The Bill Simmons Podcast brought to you by FanDuel.
Every pass, every play, every prop. It's Super Bowl 59.
All of it is happening on FanDuel. You can bet on America's number one game with America's number one sportsbook any single way you want.
Spreads, live bets, over-unders, player props, special props, so much more. We will be doing our special Super Bowl prop episode with Cousin Sal on the Sunday before the Super Bowl.
So get ready for that. You can make the Super Bowl even sweeter.
New customers can score 200 bucks when you make your first bet. Just place a $5 bet, and if you win, you'll get 200 bonus bets.
Download the app or head to fanduel.com slash BS and bet with FanDuel, official partner of Super Bowl 59. Must be 21 plus in present in select states or 18 plus in present in DC.
First online real money wager or only $5 first deposit required, bonus issued as non-mortemable bonus bet, which would expire. Seven days after receipt restrictions, buy receipt terms at sportsbook.fandler.com.
Game problem, call 1-800-Gambler or visit rg-help.com. This episode is brought to you by Vrbo Private Vacation Rentals.
With V Verbo, you always get the whole house so you and your fellow fans

can cheer on your team in peace.

What's worse than watching a game

with somebody who's not rooting

for the same team you're rooting for?

Nothing.

But that's why if you book

a vacation house with Verbo,

you know all the people in your house.

They'll be friends.

They'll be family.

Ideally, they'll be the ones

who also root for my teams. Plan a winning vacation.
Make it a Verbo. Eagles, Washington.
Seems like so long ago. I wrote down, Daniels kept trying to throw on a Superman cape and his teammates kept pulling it off.
That's my half of my take of the game. The other take is the Eagles are really talented and just had more talent all over the place and actually played really well.
I thought Hurts was good. They used A.J.
Brown correctly. Barkley was incredible.
Their defense made a couple, you know, yet another punch fumble play, a couple stops when they needed it. There's a different version of this game without a couple of the turnovers that I think would have been really fun to watch if it was the Washington within a score with 10 minutes left with the ball, but instead it became an absolute blowout.
I don't feel terrible about picking Washington, but you knew in the first quarter it was a bad pick. Well, except for that first drive, they did everything you could ask for them, right? So for Washington, my big thing was Philly's going to run the ball.
When Deron Payne went out, I'm like, this is going to be a disaster. And especially because Washington has won time in possession the last two times.
I think it was 34-26 last week against the Lions and 36-24 against Tampa. Maybe I mixed those two up.
But they're not going to win that. They're not going to win time and possession.
It was dead even. I was a little bit wrong about that because it was dead even time and possession.
But that first drive, you must have been excited when he's converting fourth and twos and fourth and threes. Then we settled for a field goal.
That sucked. But I also don't know why they went for a field goal.
They were surviving fourth and threes all the way down the field, and they have a shady kicker. Yeah, it was like Dan Quinn ran out of plays.
I was really surprised they went for it. I know the book probably said it was a wash, take the points, all that stuff.
But the longer they're on the field, the longer the Eagles' offense isn't on the field. Right.
And then Barkley crushes their spirit three plays later. Barkley gets it.
De'Ami Brown has the punch fumble. Eagles score again.
Washington's about to punt. I thought it was the most obvious.
I swear, I'm not just saying this. I was watching the line because I was like, this is the most obvious fake punt situation I've ever seen because they know if they're punting it back.
And I'm watching it. And I was watching the whole play develop.
And I'm like, oh, they're doing it! As it was happening. And the Eagles were completely blindsided, which I didn't really understand.
But then they ended up settling for... I thought that was a great throw.
They only had one guy to cover two guys. Yeah, but...
Oh, man. It was such a good throw.
I think that... It was.
Because it was like two tight ends going out. And he had to judge the way the middle linebacker.
And he just shifted towards the guy on the right. And then he completed it.
And it was a good throw and everything else. But yeah, they should have been a little more prepared.
But kudos. And they only got three out of that, right? That made it 14-6.
Yeah, I wrote down. It was 14-6.
Washington had run 30 plays. And Philly had won seven.
And Washington was losing by eight. and then Elliot missed the field goal.
McLaurin scores. It's 14, 12 and Washington goes for two, which I didn't understand at all.
Even though like, I don't understand how you're not going for the fourth and three, but then you're going for the two. It's second quarter.
Who cares if it's 14, 13? So they don't get that. And then you start doing the math.
14-12. Uh-oh, this is going to be a two-score game soon.
And then Philly made a couple big plays. Like A.J.
Brown had that big fourth and five catch. I thought Hurts was good.
Like if Hurts had shown what he showed today in previous games, I probably would have taken Philly. But we hadn't seen it.
For sure. I mean, we saw how successful he is

with this team in the playoffs

when he throws for 130 and 140 and 150.

And this one, this is the anomaly

or I don't know, the outlier game

because what did he throw for this?

He threw for...

He was over 200.

246.

Yeah.

And a couple big runs too.

Running for three touchdowns.

So I was like, with that field goal miss, I was like, you're playing right into Washington's hands. I feel like with this team on third and six, they should run every time on third and six or third and five.
They're going to go for it on fourth and one or two and make it. Instead, third and six, the one thing he can't do is get sacked and he did.
And then what's his name? Misses the field goal. And that was, I was like, all right, they're back in it.
But yeah, it was just too much firepower eventually. 20-12, under two minutes left, and the guy fumbles the kickoff and gives Philly the ball back.
Now it's 27-12. It's 2012, minute 44.
I feel like that could have gone down, gotten a field goal, and it's 20-15 halftime. Right.
Instead, it's 27-15 halftime. And then Philly gets the ball and they stop him top of the third quarter.
But then just kind of flamed out. They got the three and out and then Philly got the touchdown.
That was that. And then right when it seemed like Philly or Washington might be able to drive down and get the super fun cover, Eckor fumbled.
Right. And that was that.
I thought Daniels was a winner in the game regardless. I thought he was really, really good.
And a couple of... The fact that they put that team together with duct tape kind of got exposed in one of three.
Great season for them, though. It's such a tough spot, right? A rookie just can't...
Especially in Philly. To go to Detroit and Philly and do that, and be down an offensive lineman.
Four straight road games. Yeah.
They lose their best guard, and they lose their run stuff for going into Philly. And yet, I kind of needed a seat from Philly.
I wasn't positive they had it. Like, just in general.
going to do weird shit? Well, Hertz was good, but then you hear about him showing up in the knee brace and I started getting PTSD from the Tyson-Paul fight. I'm like, oh, Tyson showed up with a knee brace and I lost a lot of money.
I don't know. Maybe this isn't a good idea.
Then they have this weird center situation where one guy's got the knee brace and the other guy has a bad back. Right.
And Brady kept talking about it because I think he knows how important the center is because he played QB. That never really mattered.
Yeah, especially with the tush push and everything. I hate that we have to say tush push.
My God. So do we need to ban this play? Or is it just not going to be until somebody breaks their back in a tush push And then they're like, we have to ban this play? Like, is it, or, or is it just not going to be until somebody breaks their back in a tush push? And then they're like, we have to stop this.
Somebody was seriously hurt. So I want to know what year they brought it back.
Cause it was bad, right? You couldn't pull a guy. You still can't pull a guy right forward, even though they don't call it a lot.
And you, there was a time when you couldn't push it. So, uh, you, you couldn't push.
So I So I don't know. It doesn't jive with the current rules about like, all right, we don't want guys hitting each other's heads in the wedge and we want safety.
We care about physical safety. Yeah, also it doesn't look like a football play and it's boring.
And then they have a little problem on their hand with what Washington was doing. I think the whole world that wasn't rooting for Philly was like, good.
Keep hitting them.

Keep getting the personal foul.

And then the ref admonished them and was like,

we're going to spank you. There's going to be a

spanking that goes on here. If you do it

again, we're going to give them a touchdown.

So you give them the touchdown so we don't

have to give them a touchdown. It's so weird.

So would you get rid of it?

Because Buffalo tried a couple times and it didn't

work. I'm the wrong guy to ask.
I hate

it. I don't like it either.

The team I hate most uses it

Thank you. So would you get rid of it? Because Buffalo tried a couple times and it didn't work.
I'm the wrong guy to ask.

I hate it. I don't like it either.
The team I hate most uses it most effectively, but I don't like it. Someone's going to have to get hurt, though, I think.
I think that's the problem with this, right? Eagles big picture, do you feel better about them than you did a week ago? Or do you feel like Washington

outkicked its coverage

and gave a valiant

underdog effort, but this is what happens.

This is the March Madness team that

made the Final Four.

Now they're playing UNLV in

1990 and it's Larry Johnson and

Stacey Augman. They're going, uh-oh.

Alright, this is running out now.

I like that. You're such a college basketball fan.
I's the last time I care. It's a little of both.
Definitely Washington, the Cinderella thing, it came to an end, but I do feel pretty good about Philadelphia and the trenches there. And they could, you know, I'm not saying I'm taking Philly, but they could present problems like Tampa Bay did to Kansas City in that Super Bowl,

where Mahomes is just running for his life.

And there'll be one highlight where he's horizontal to the ground, completing a pass. But otherwise, it's a long night.
So they were excellent. I mean, would they have 229 on the ground? They average like 6.4 a carry.
well Saquon who's if they win the Super Bowl I think will go down as

the most popular Philly athlete, just moving into that, basically taking the Bryce Harper spot, but in the pantheon of guys that the Philly fans love. He was 15 for 118 in three TDs today.
The touchdown was spectacular, the first one. Last week, he was 26 for 205.
So in the two games, he's 41

for 323 with

five touchdowns. And

it's like, you remember in the late

90s when Terrell Davis

was just ripping off these crazy

postseasons with the stats.

You go back and you look and you're like, holy shit.

That's why he made the Hall of Fame

for those two years. And this feels like a very

Terrell Davis-y.

Yeah, he should start saluting.

And the question you posed earlier,

did he do a good deed for all running backs

or just for himself and Derrick Henry?

I mean, it's a tough decision for GMs the rest of the way.

But he did make a difference.

I mean, the Eagles are much better because they got Barkley.

And he only had, like you said, 15 carries.

That's bizarre.

They could have had another 100 yards if he had another 10.

His rookie season, I think I said to you on this podcast

that I thought he was the best running back I've ever seen.

And we fought about it.

And then it became a clip that got...

No, we just argued about it.

I was like, this is the best running back I've ever seen.

I'll send out the... It's somewhere on Twitter.
And we cut a social clip about it. And then when he hurt his knee and then he was in the Giants and it became one of those like, oh my God, that was one of my worst takes.
But now I think I'm back in it with the take. Like what running backs that you've seen in your life...

I guess the one thing with him, the pass

catching, he even dropped the one today. The pass

catching's a little iffy with him. I still have

Peyton as the best running back I've ever seen.

Only Barry Sanders, Peyton,

and for a small stretch,

Terrell Davis, like you brought up.

I don't really think... Yeah, Terrell Davis is in there.

I still think for one game, Emmitt

has to be discussed

seriously if it's like

22 degrees outside

and I need a running back

who will rush the ball 35 times today.

Who's your pick? I'd probably take Emmitt.

So I guess it would depend. Terrell is still

the most dominant

running back on a good team I've seen.

Just felt like it was six yards every time.

Peyton was the best all-around just special running back. But Barkley's...
Wait, it's a little video game-ish with him. This is a crazy year.
I know they're not going to give him MVP, but 2,000 plus? Is he going to get 2,000 in the playoffs also? I don't know. Could he get to 2,500 for the regular season playoffs combined? Oh, I think so.
Yeah. That's in there, right? Well, no, he'd need like 150.
And what's interesting is he gets screwed because of the one-yard plunge by Jalen Hurts, right? He had three of those. Otherwise, like Barkley would probably have like 30 touchdowns.
Oh, shit. I forgot that they played.
What did he have in the Green Bay game? Oh, 25 for 119. Yeah, so he's...
So he's been over 100 in the three games. Even the two or three before that, the last regular season games, he was spectacular.
So he'll get over 2,500 combined. Yeah.
So who's your number one running back ever? Is it TD? Well, I don't know. I mean, just from what I've seen...
I think we missed a lot of Walter Payton's greatness, right? But I'll trust it. And if we want to keep going back to Jim Brown.
I mean, he wasn't on, I promise you, he wasn't on on the East Coast more than twice a year for his entire prime. But you always, the clips are amazing.
The NFL film stuff was amazing. And then the way everyone talked about how he's the best blocking running back ever.
He's the best pass cut. He checked all these boxes that nobody in that era was like that.
Tomlinson hit some of that stuff too. But I was...
The Peyton stuff is the most fun NFL films to me other than Barry Sanders. For sure.
But short yardage is so important now. I would say Davis and Barkley over a Barry Sanders.
But Barry Sanders was spectacular in his own right, too. Well, my Barry Sanders take, I've done this before, but my Barry Sanders take is probably in your wheelhouse.
I'm probably in the minority, but I would rather have Emmitt Smith than Barry Sanders. I'd rather have the four, five, six yards a pop

than the guy who every once in a while can run for 70

but was always looking to break the big play.

I've had a million arguments.

I used to get him fistfights over this

when I love Emmitt more than Barry Sanders.

And I don't think anyone has as many carries

for negative yards as Barry Sanders,

but there was something.

I mean, you just go by.

SportsCenter highlights were so important back then. So we have Jalen Hurts in the second Super Bowl, which is twice as many appearances as Matt Stafford, Drew Brees, Dan Marino, Aaron Rodgers Wow We have Nick Ceriani in the Super Bowl where it looked like he was going to get fired in September and early October and since then I think they've lost once against Andy Reid who is now 28 and 16 in the playoffs in his sixth Super Bowl.
And starting to really legitimately breathe down Belichick's neck. And his breath smells like barbecue.
This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. As the weather gets warmer, it's time for lighter meals, right? You know that Whole Foods Market has just what you're looking for.
Great everyday prices. The yellow low price signs help you save money every day without compromising the quality you expect at Whole Foods Market, like low price responsibly farmed Atlantic salmon or no antibiotics ever ground beef or boneless skinless chicken breast, plus much more throughout the store.
Wherever you see yellow at Whole Foods Market, you know you're saving money. Save on the best of spring with great everyday prices at Whole Foods Market.
This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. During the season, every baseball team plays 162 games.
It's a true test of endurance. It's not enough to have a hot month or two.
You need sustained dominance throughout. Well, the same is true for your small business.
It's not enough to have a great Q2 or even a great year. You want year over year growth that starts with better hires that'll be there for the long haul.
To find those hires, use LinkedIn. LinkedIn has strong hiring data and insights that you won't find anywhere else to help pair you with the best candidates from unique skills and interests to the connections you have in common.

Based on LinkedIn data, 72% of small businesses

say that LinkedIn helps them find high quality talent.

LinkedIn also lets you go beyond people

who are actively applying in a given week.

171 million LinkedIn members aren't actively seeking jobs,

but they are open to new opportunities.

That's a big pool to miss out on if you're not

hiring with LinkedIn. Find your next great hire on LinkedIn.
Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash Simmons. That's linkedin.com slash Simmons to post your job for free.
Terms and conditions apply. Let's do Guest Alliance because Guest Alliance is brought to you by hookah and bond die nine their new daily trainer bond die nine what was your favorite bond die uh i like seven i thought it jumped the shark around after that now it's back bond die nine okay that's one they've had guess the lines you already won you won your first title yeah i gotta say um my team has noticed a lot of a lot of talk with this win and now we're rededicated for next season oh i made a nice little breakout clip of it and yeah i don't know what the nfl could do about 10 years in a row and i i just sheepishly accepted my trophy and just kept my head down that was my fans shouldn't have done that you won once and you're talking a lot of shit.
So next year it's on, baby. This is a big freaking deal.
And I don't know that, like I said, the NFL has a problem because now this is a waste of a week. I don't know what they could do scheduling wise to make this interesting with me having won the title.
But. Well, you know, it's really annoying.
The NBA. I agree.
Has their trade deadline. The Thursday of Super Bowl week.
Oh, really? When it should either be this week or next week. Like, just for content, the NBA just shoots themselves in the foot over and over again.
I've never seen anything like it. Right.
Like, why would you have your trade deadline during Super Bowl week? It's so fucking stupid. Are they announcing it in the parking lot of media day? Like, how close are they getting? How much attention do they need?

I don't understand it. By Thursday,

everyone is either

at the Super Bowl or talking about the Super

Bowl. I just don't get it.

I don't understand how they screw up shit like this.

It doesn't matter.

You think Jimmy Butler's going to the Dodgers?

Yeah, they get everybody.

Guess the lines.

Chiefs.

Eagles.

And I'm going to say

Thank you. everybody.
Guess the lines. Chiefs.

Eagles.

And I'm going to say

it's in New Orleans. I'm going to say

Chiefs

by two and a half.

Okay. I said I've not

seen it yet. I swear.
I've said

it has to be one and a half

because every line

has been one and a half this year. And I'm going to say the Chiefs are favored.
And so now let's look. I pulled out my starters, by the way.
Joe Milton made that guess. Yeah.
Well, you should have. It is one and a half.
Of course. It's the biggest practical joke in sports gambling.
Chiefs are favored by one and a half. Why did the football scores get so weird? We never had 29 versus 29-29 in the fourth quarter.
It never happened our entire childhood. Everything's weird.
The Lions are weird. Everything's weird.
And not only that, I was like, oh, 29-29. All right, the one and a half isn't going to come into play.
And then you, me, and Hench, we listed 10 ways the one and a half can come into play. Oh, the Bills can miss the extra point.
Oh, the Chiefs can go for two and miss. Oh, yeah, I forgot.
It's the NFL. One and a half.
That's it for Guess the Line. That's not it for the Bondi 9, which delivers peak plushness for everyday miles overhauled from top to bottom.
They've increased the stack head and added a new premium foam midsole to deliver that soft, resilient ride that's become synonymous with the Bondi.

Everybody Bondi, visit hookah.com, H-O-K-A.com to learn more about the Bondi 9.

Wow, they got everything up already.

What's everything up?

Tell me.

Let's talk about it.

Barkley over under.

Oh, let's do a quick tour.

You want to guess that?

For our fans on YouTube.

Yeah.

On the YouTubes. Barkley over under.
Can I guess some of these? Yeah, do a quick tour. You want to guess that? For our fans on YouTube.
Yeah. On the YouTubes.

Barkley over under.

Can I guess some of these?

Yeah, do it.

Barkley over under.

I'm going to say 85 and a half.

No.

What is it?

114 and a half.

What?

Yeah, he's crazy.

You just read his stats.

I can't give that to Freeman.

He's playing the Chiefs.

I mean, Cook almost had that, right?

What did James Cook have today?

I don't even know.

It was 70, 80, somewhere in there.

What else do you want to see?

James Cook had 85 yards.

Yeah.

Why was that a bad guess?

1-14 is a lot for the Super Bowl.

That means you're probably winning if you rush for 1-14. They can't give him 15.
They can't give him the ball 15 times. Plus, the Chiefs can kind of try to jam the line and make him flirt at Devonta Smith.
I dare you. I'm betting the under.
Okay. Do they have Mahomes rushing attempts yet? Because that's my favorite bet.
Oh, okay. You got to be careful with this, though.
He had 11 rushes today. That bet hits every single time.
Mahomes in the playoffs rushing attempts is the safest prop in sports. I'm not seeing rush attempts yet.
Oh, wait. Yeah, I do see it.
Okay, what do you think? I think they jack it up to five and a half because it keeps hitting. Oh, they jacked it even further.
Six and a half. I still like it.
The over's a plus, but we'd like this bet more than Mahomes' rushing yards, right? Because of the kneel-down factor. He takes gigantic...
The kneel-down factor kills the rushing yard thing. They got to figure that out.
But you get three free. We didn't talk about that moment today when the official was slapping Washington with the newspaper because they kept jumping off sides.
And he's like, if this happens one more time, we're awarding a score to Philadelphia. So what would have happened from a gambling standpoint? Who gets the score? I don't know.
Oh, right, right, right. We were trying to figure that out.
Just team? Is there a way we could have bet on this? Could we bet on this at the Super Bowl? No player on Philly scores a touchdown. Yeah, the scolding score.
Does the center get it? I'm not sure. That's good because it's like an own goal kind of, right? Have you ever seen a ref say that before? I didn't even know that was...
Not even close. I feel like they made that up.
Yeah. It's not a lot of brotherly love being sent that way.
One other

play was that the measurement, and again,

the Chiefs won because they're better and everything else.

The measurement

on that fourth down where the

line judges... The two refs? Yeah.

Wildly different.

And they just don't measure anymore.

They don't take those chains. They're embarrassed of the chains.

Why don't they measure? So they guessed and then that guess has to be conclusively overruled to change. Like, measure it.
Put it down. First of all, there's not a chip in the ball.
I think the ball wasn't hitting the hash mark and the chain was actually on the hash mark. Exactly the hash mark.
So they knew it, just missed it. Interesting.
All right. This is a $500 billion league.
Put a freaking chip in the ball. Like it's one thing if the guy's knee is down, but if we're really just measuring to see where the ball, the furthest the ball got, I think we could do that.
Wow, you're a put a chip in the ball guy? Well, what are we doing? The chains. Do you get along with the, make the goalposts hires guys? Do you guys have meetings together or are you like rival gangs? It's a big meeting.
It's also an AA meeting. So yeah.
Bringing chains out there like these guys are surveyors in the 1650s. It's so stupid.
So what do we have for the over-under? Can I guess that one? Oh yeah. Sure.
That's easy. That's right there.
I mean, not easy. 49 and a half? Now I lost it.
49 and a half is exactly right.

You know what?

I'll give you a win for this week.

I'll give you that win for that.

I got one.

Yeah.

So the two games today went crazy over.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, over by 15, 20 points.

Usually, there was a lot of dialogue about,

well, Eagles, Washington.

Each team will only get seven possessions.

They'll be these slow games. It was like, nope, that's wrong.
And then KC Buffalo, just they kept moving the ball up and down the field. And last week, was it the over four and out? No, Chiefs, Texans went under.
But we had Eagles, Rams had 50, Bills, Ravens had 52, and the Lions commanders had 76. So yeah, you had like five out of the last six go over in cold weather most of those games.
So a super bowl rematch there's not a lot of those either pat's giants was probably the most famous one of this century but we've had some other ones when we were growing up steelers cowboys was like an exciting rematch i think i get the feeling people now don't like rematches as much like the casey philly and we We've already done this. I wrote it in the Jalen Hurts thing.
People like to complain. Better than Mahomes thing.
Yeah, like Buffalo or Washington being in there would have been content fodder. Right.
But I think this is a really good game. It's great.
And first of all, Fox is delighted. The NFL is delighted, right? Because you got Hurts, you got Barkley, you got Mahomes, you got Taylor, everything.
If the Rizzler shows up again, I don't know. But I think the casual fan probably is bummed about this matchup a little bit.
No question. I think maybe Cowboys Chiefs would bum them out a little more.
But other than that, I think this is right up there. My son, who follows football on TikTok and through YouTube shorts, he watched most of the second half with me.
And at one point he turned to me and said, Dad, isn't every football season the same? Oh, no. Like the Bills come super close and then they lose.
The Chiefs make the Super Bowl. They play somebody from the other team.
It seems good. Then the Chiefs win.
And I was like, nope, you're wrong. I'm going to lie to you right now.
Nope. The answer is no.
That's not true at all, son. Every season is way different.
There's no chip in the ball. Of course it's the same.
Yeah, no. Jaden Daniels, you never know, son.
Right. Jaden Daniels last week in Detroit.
You shocked the world, son. Yeah.
McDermott's not going to blow this game.

Well, you could just tell him that

every year he could rely on

a great AFC title match, right?

Like seven of the last nine

have been seven points or fewer.

Decided by seven points or fewer.

My son, I always impress my son

by predicting what plays are going to happen.

I've been playing a lot of Madden lately.

I'm like, oh, empty back.

I think he's going to,

and half the time.

That's how predictable

some of these plays are, though.

I think it's actually a bad sign if I'm on my couch and I can figure out where the ball's going half the time. Like the, especially on those swing screen passes, you can kind of see.
Do you do that when you're watching the games? Do you try to predict what they're going to do? Sure. Yeah, yeah.
Everyone wants to be like Romo in that regard. I just can't.
Romo doesn't do it anymore. Yeah.
I think he's, you know, I don't know because people are assholes and they're like, we don't want to hear what's about to happen. So stop circling the screen.
I don't think he was told to stop, but I think he's just like, forget it. The one I got wrong, I would have bet my life on.
It was before the Samuel touchdown when Buffalo tied it. Yeah.
It was like third and goal from the five. I would have bet my life that Allen was going to do the QB draw on that play.
Going to take off. Yeah.
Yeah. I just think it's been so obvious.
They've been relying on it to the point that I think even they realized they probably can't do it. Can I ask you when the shotgun from the one started? Well, listen, you know that's my...
You know my least favorite plays are fourth and goal or fourth and short, fourth and one, the QB not over the center. To me, you're just throwing away an advantage.
Who started it? Did it start in college? Was it Vince Young or Tebow? It wasn't that long ago. It wasn't in the 70s or 80s.
I really feel like it's century. It's the cousin of

it's a tie NBA game with

under 10 seconds left and they do

the ISO where then the guy does a step

back three to win the game.

But it was a tie game.

It's like we just need a basket. You don't need to

do your step back 27 footer.

Same thing for the

shotgun snap. I don't understand it.

I don't know.

I also don't understand

why Mahomes doesn't sneak,

which we always talk about.

Right.

He's got hurt that one time

like five years ago.

Like they can't sneak them anymore.

It's kind of like they can't.

He can't just like lean down

and burrow in and go for half a yard.

Yeah.

Although I'll say that fourth and two

where they rushed up to the line

after a timeout and he rolled right.

It's like, wow, this guy's got it, man. This is why it's so freaking hard to beat them.
It's really impressive. We have two weeks to talk about the Super Bowl on your podcast, on my podcast.
People are going to be in New Orleans, a whole bunch of things. You have a new Cowboys coach.
Oh, we could skip. We can go right to parent corner, right? We don't have to talk about this.
You hired Marty Schottenheimer's son, Brian. They are related.
I had a feeling. I wouldn't say Brian was a red-hot coaching candidate, which might be a good thing or a bad thing.
He's the kind of guy I would have expected, oh, the Patriots have hired Brian Schottenheimer as the QB coach for Drake Mann. I'd be like, good hire, veteran.
He's your head coach. I don't understand it.
Why didn't you hire Cliff Kingsbury? At least he's from Texas and he's young and you could make excuses for the first job. It's like maybe he didn't get along with Kyler Murray.
I don't understand Brian Schottenheimer at all. I don't understand it either.
Nothing against the guy. I'll give him a chance.
I hope he does well, but I really think Jerry Jones is fucking with us. I mean, the way he's even introduced him.
He's like, ah, he was known as a career assistant. It's like, yes! Great, Jerry! That's what we're all thinking.
Career assistant. That's what he said.
He's not just Brian anymore. He's the head coach.
I'm like, you just don't care about us. You don't care about this team.
This is just a joke. I kind of want to enter the fan trend, you know, the portal.
I really want to get into the portal and pick a different thing. Like what Joe House did.
No, look at the Washington fans this year. You got to keep, you got to stay with your, stay with the marriage.
Joe House. Stay with your bad, unhappy marriage.

Kate watched the Washington team

until they switched ownership.

And now he gets a seat in the luxury box,

courtesy of Washington.

I'm like, all right, I'll do that.

Why can't I just watch from afar?

This is disgusting.

Brian Schottenheimer, like you said,

wasn't on anybody's list.

It's like in fantasy,

if you're doing a snake draft

and someone drafts like,

um,

in the seventh round drafts,

like,

uh,

like Ray,

Ray McLeod.

And you're like,

all right,

wait,

hold on.

I'm still looking down my list to cross.

You're making the joke.

I got to get to page 12.

Keep going.

Got to keep going.

Like there's something to be said about at least going through the motions and

interviewing a Kellen Moore or Jones broke.

What's like,

is it possible he doesn't have as much money anymore? he paid Mike McCarthy to the last minute of the contract and then just let it expire. Then he's obviously trying to save money with this coaching hire.
Really weird. He's an actor.
There are better versions of this guy out there. Maybe the land man thing.
I think he said that. He's like, I'm an actor.
I can fall back on that if the team's bad. And the team will be bad.
So that's just nonsense. Well, it was an interesting one because the Jets interviewed, I think, 230 possibilities for their head coach.
And I don't even think he cracked that list. And they were interviewing people that you didn't even know were still professionally working.
Yeah. He's our guy.
He's been in the building three years and they still

have to interview him. The fact, the funny part is that they actually interviewed him.
Like,

yeah, I think you know what you're getting with him. It's fine.
But, uh, I'm so fun.

Does the interview start like, Brian, what went wrong with your career?

Why are you still here, Brian? Why did it peak five years ago? Uh, conversely, I'm on a,

I'm going an absolute high with the Patriots again. Why not? Vrabel's putting together this awesome coaching staff that's like the complete opposite of what we had last year.
We have all these overqualified. We have Doug Maroon.
Doug Maroon almost beat the Pats in a round three playoff game five years ago. He was a good head coach.
I'm really pumped. I really feel like I think the Washington thing has given all the Pats fans so much energy that it's like, they did this in a year.
They hit the quarterback. They did all that.
So now I'm going to be more into this NFL draft than I was last year. It's so funny how Washington has affected other teams near the bottom, right? And it's the exact opposite effect on Dallas because now we have Jaden Daniels in our division for anywhere from next year to the next 12 years, right? And we celebrate.
He even took a win today, I felt like. I thought he was, you know, he maybe a couple passes were a little low, but for the most part, like his poise and the way he kind of kept them at, that two-point conversion he had was great.
I just thought he had so much fun watching him. He's very, very cool.
It's very cool. Never freaks out through a couple bad passes, but it's to be expected.
I mean, how many weeks are you going to do this for? Well, the cool thing for us selfishly, just like for the Sundays where we're trying to watch all these games at once,

we just want as many fun

QBs as we can get. And now it seems

like at least May and

Daniels are two more

to the list. Hopefully Caleb can get there.

You know, hopefully

Herbert will take

some sort of leap. Hopefully the new Jacksonville

coach will resuscitate Lawrence. We might get into a situation where half of the teams have a fun QB.
Wouldn't that be something? Yeah. What if J.J.
McCarthy's good? Fun QBs and... Dax coming back? And bad coaches shut up.
What's going to keep guess the lines going for another 17 years? Well, the one thing we know is we're always going to have bad owners and bad coaches. By the way, the Celtics, here's a little tidbit.
The Celtics, it was the first round of the buyers that they had to cut down all the prospective buyers. And like, I don't know, five people made the first round, four or five people.
One of the people was the Eagles owner. Really? Jeffrey Lurie, who's apparently from Massachusetts.
So he was, he was, because there's been a couple like, hmm, I wonder who these guys are. And there was a couple I couldn't figure out, but that's, that's one that.
Do you like that? Do you like one that, I mean, that happened with your Red Sox too, right? Isn't there like the whole, so the precedent is Josh Harris own the, own the Sixers and then bought Washington's football team. The Cronkies own the Nuggets and he owned the Rams.
So there's been a couple of NBA NFL things, but I mean, I always thought the Eagles were one of the best run football teams, right? So if, if, uh, if he bought the Celtics, that's a decent outcome. There's a couple of decent outcomes in this.
It's so funny how there's only like a few owners. There's only a few quarterbacks to get, and there's only a few coaches.
If you don't get them, you're kind of screwed. Yeah.
And you're way more likely to have a mediocre to bad coach and a bad owner. Alright, anything else before we hit parent corner? Did you hit the sad point of the season yet? Oh yeah.
Where you're just going to like wrestling tournaments on a Saturday and thinking about how you have no games on a Sunday? That is pretty sad. I told you, when you can't make a three-team teaser unless you use the over-under, that is a milestone.
That's the official sadness day. Really bad.
Really sad. And after next week, after we do our prop podcast, that'll be sad too.
It's a step. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra.
Michelob Ultra is a superior light beer and the ultimate trophy, win or lose, you're bound to enjoy the ride with a good beer in hand. Michelob Ultra, crisp, refreshing, only 95 calories, a superior light beer, no matter the game, sport, or season, superior is worth playing for.
So sign up for our Ultra Quartzsite at MichelobUltra.com slash Quartzsite and you can enjoy some of these games with a nice beer in your hand. Enjoy responsibly.
Copyright 2025 Anheuser-Busch Michelob Ultra. Registered light beer.
St. Louis, Missouri.
Must be 21 plus to order alcohol. Alcohol available only in select markets.
This episode is brought to you by Max. The Emmy Award winning series Hacks returns this April.
The new season follows Debra Vance making a move from her Vegas residency to Hollywood showbiz. Tensions rise as Debra and Ava try to get their late-night show off the ground and make history while doing it.
Starring Gene Smart and Hannah Einbinder, Hacks Season 4 is streaming Thursday, April 10th, exclusively on Max. Don't forget to check out the official Hacks podcast on Spotify.
Parent Corner, you go first. All right, I'll go first.
Speaking of wrestling tournaments. So yeah, wrestling season's coming to a merciful end for me.
And so that's my middle kid. And my youngest kid has travel baseball and rec league basketball.
So Saturday, I have to go from Jack's wrestling. Rec league basketball? Yeah.
Oh, he's all over basketball too. It's fun.
It is fun at that age. Yeah.
I'm running around. So Saturday, I have to go from Jack's tournament to Harrison's basketball game.
I'm going to catch just the end of his basketball game. So I walk in there.
It's the fourth quarter. And I see my wife's there.
And the game, it's 18-17. And she's talking to this woman seated next to her.
And I have no idea who the woman is. And I mentioned that.
I was like, wow, the gym seems tense. And my wife's like, yeah, the refs aren't calling anything.
These kids are really going at it. And then she goes back to talking to this woman that I don't know.

So, and then it's clear to me, I'm like, well, she must be guessing that the refs aren't calling anything.

Because she's not watching a second of this.

And so I'm starting to get annoyed.

I'm like, it's 18-17 with like two and a half minutes left.

Like Harrison's taking shots and he's playing defense and everything.

But anyway, okay.

So she's still talking to this woman. There's eight seconds left.
We're up by three. The opponent inbounds it, dribbles down the court, runs down the court.
And just before he pulls up for the three, Harrison hard fouls him. Before he goes into shooting motion.
And I was like, that's freaking smart. That's like one of the smartest things.
The announcers must have loved it. The announcers loved it.
The gym did not love it. The referees didn't love it either.
And everyone's like, oh, oh boy. But now there's like 0.6 on the What was the hard foul? Was it like a shove or was it like a karate chop? Right, right.
Shove to the chest. Maybe a little elbow.
Kids are off balance. This is great.
Way before the shot. Definitely before the shot, but he saw that the kid was about to

pull up. And there's .6 on the

clock and there's like no, it's not

a shooting foul and they're just going to inbound

it. And the ref like mildly

scolds Harrison much like the refs did

to

sorry, who played Philly today

or already lost.

Washington when they were jumping off the sides

over and over. But he's like, game's over.
And so that was it. And everyone's like, oh, man.
Oh, boy. All right.
So I was like, oh, geez. I can't wait to high five him in private later.
Like a small fist pump? Yeah. And then the kid who he shoved is like crying after the game.
And I say, and I'm like, now I'm by my wife and this woman. I'm like, oh God, look at this.
This kid's crying now. And she turns to me and mouths, that's this woman's son.
His name is Bob. I'll say Bob because I don't want to say the real name, but that's off by one letter.
That's Bob and this woman's son. I'm like, oh shit.
Now she's looking at me. And so now I have to eat shit a little bit.
I let a minute pass and I go up to her after the game. And I'm like, hey, I just want you to let you know.
Bob played a great game. And she's giving me a look like, yeah, I saw you walk in with four minutes left in the game.
Don't give me this crap. You didn't even see him play.
Oh, you made it worse. I made it worse.
She didn't say that, but she gave me that look. But anyway, talking to Harrison afterwards, I'm like, look, you're not supposed to fail.
I was like, Dad, we lost a game like that last week. I wasn't going to let him get the shot off.
That's my boy. That's good hard-nosed stuff.
I like it. That's it.
So I'm the jerk again. You know, so 10 and 11, Harrison's 11.
Yeah. Those are really emotional ages for boys' sports.
There's a lot more crying than I was ever prepared for, like in the baseball and the basketball. Kids really melt down.
Yeah. It made me think how funny it would be funny it would be if like we did this as adults.
Like if it was like in the game today, like Don Kikade drops the pass, he's just sobbing on the sidelines. When did they grow out of that? At age 12? We do like 12, 13.
Well, what's interesting with basketball from 10 to 11, which makes it even more intense at 11, they start, they start calling double dribble a lot and And they start calling travel. And you can play backcourt defense.
So it gets pretty rough and stupid. Yeah, 10 and under, you couldn't play defense until we crossed half court.
Yeah, because I was visiting our cousin Jimmy yesterday in South Bay. And I called you to see if you were around.

And I just heard whistles in the background.

And I'm like, oh, I forgot.

On Saturday, you just drive around to different sporting events.

My parent corner.

So my wife went away for a couple of days with some friends.

She still lives here.

It's not a Michelle Obama thing.

And I was left alone with me and Ben and the dog, Murph, who, if you've noticed, has not been really on Parent Corner all year because he's four. He really has blossomed into a great dog, mature, no accidents.
We have no gates in any of the rooms in the house, anything like that. Well, my son had a friend over and they made a cake.
And it was a female friend. And he left the, you know, there's the frosting.
Left.

I think he left the frosting on the counter,

but maybe not enough distance for Murph not to get it.

So I come home on,

on Thursday and in the,

in the TV room,

there's just the remnants of something. And it's like white.

It almost looks like somebody spilled cocaine powder.

And I'm like, what is that?

I'm smelling it and it just smells like icing.

And I'm like, oh my God, Ben.

So now I'm on Murph Watch.

Nothing's happening.

Nothing's happening.

And then Saturday morning, the apocalypse.

I noticed him sneak away a couple of times.

Usually he's always where I am.

Right.

If I'm home.

And I noticed him sneak away a couple of times. Like, that's what, where Murph, where are you going? He's like, I'll be right back.
It was a poopocalypse. My office that I'm in right now, multiple shits.
I can smell it. Our living room, which we had a gate so that nobody could go in there.
That was a dog for months and months. And finally, we don't need the gate.
It's ugly. Murph never goes in there.
double shit nobody could go in there that was a dog for months and months and finally like we don't need the gate it's ugly murph never goes in there double shit on the on the rug in there

um the the uh what was the other place oh and then the tv room like ruined the rug that like so

like three different shits um and i had already closed the doors for it so anyway i we have this

machine that i would recommend anybody has a dog who likes to shit in their house

Thank you. Um, and I had already closed the doors for it.
So anyway, I, we have this machine that I would recommend anybody as a dog who likes to shit in their house, this water tank machine where you can scrub it and it picks the shit up. And I saved two of the rugs, but I haven't saved the third one.
And, uh, and he ruined it. And so last night I was like, I, so I didn't have a good night's sleep Friday night.
And I'm like last night, I'm like that hopefully the shit's done. I lock all the doors he's locked in, in our bedroom.
There's no rug for him to pee on the bathroom doors, clothes or poop on bathroom doors, clothes. There's nothing he can get to.
And I'm like, now I can just get a good night's sleep. We've got the pod tonight with the two games.
Like I just want to be like rested and prepared. Fall asleep at one o'clock.
Like 2.45, I just hear him circling around in the room, which means he has to go. So bring him down.
It's pouring rain. Goes out.
He does whatever. Comes back.
Towel him off. Hour and a half later, we repeat it again.
5.45. Let's do it a third time.
And now I'm up. And I've been up since 5.45.
So I don't know what I look like. But three shits.
And I haven't told my wife because she's away. And so I guess if she hears this, this is how she's going to find out.
So who will get in person? Well, did you reprimand your son or no? Oh, he's like, it wasn't my fault. He shouldn't have jumped on the counter.
I'm like, no, it's 100% your fault. If you leave something on the counter, like if you left poison on the counter and he ate it and he died, is that his fault or yours? He's a dog.
He has an IQ of 20. So I've been mad at him all weekend.
Right. And just like, I've never picked up this many shits.
So it was, he had never shit in the house and then it was like a year and a half of shit saved up. Jesus.
Just dropping him everywhere. So anyway, Mer's back.
What, they make a wedding cake? What the fuck? How much ice did he eat? I don't understand. And then I was like, do I have to take him to the vet today? Yeah.
And I'm like, I'm not fucking taking him to the vet. The games are about to come on.
If he dies, he dies. I was like, Rocky.
It was like Drago. It's Creed.
He dies, he dies. But it was just like, and I actually felt bad for him because last night I just, I was like, I'm not even bringing him in.
Just stay outside for two hours. And then I kind of forgot about him.
I was watching a movie for Rewatchables.

And then I remember,

I heard him barking,

came back down,

I brought him in.

And he was like,

so emotionally destroyed.

Yeah.

You left me out there.

I didn't think you were going to come get me.

So anyway,

it's been a rollercoaster weekend.

And I've had,

I think,

three hours of sleep. Wow.

Can I say something?

You said-

The lesson is don't get a dog.

No, yeah, yeah.

Wait on a dog.

Or at least get that rug cleaner for sure. You said that the dogs have an IQ of 20.
This sounds like a smart dog. Like when you say like the dog left the room to do all this, he knew.
He knew. Like that makes me think sometimes that dogs are smarter than humans.
Like he had the wherewithal to be crafty enough or embarrassed enough or whatever it was to do it in another room for just temporary. It's almost like

a cheating spouse

where it's like,

I'll be right back.

I just got to go to the bathroom

and then they're on a phone call

in the closet.

I thought you said

she went away with her friends.

Oh, the dog.

The dog.

The dog.

Yeah, yeah.

No, he's like,

I'll be right back.

Just going to go get some water.

And it's like,

he's like,

what rug?

I haven't had shit on yet.

So anyway,

I'm looking at our chat. What are they saying? Chris Schemmer says, I love how Bill still contends he's never done blow.
I have never done cocaine. I swear on my kids.
I'm not even positive I've been in the same room with it. I'm very virginal with cocaine.
I'm not going to ask you if you've done it. I've not done it.
And I had the opportunity because I had gambling money once to loan my roommates who were dealing it money. It's like, you give me $150 and you can make $600 by the end of it.
I was like, I don't know why I said no. But I didn't.
It was starting Goodfellas. I wasn't even doing that.
No. Yeah.
So anyway, Murph ruined Murph ruined my weekend. Yeah.
And it looked like, uh, the two bets were going to ruin my weekend. And then the chiefs came through, which brings us full circle.
There we go. Can always count on the Kansas city chiefs to save your weekend.
Especially when they're the second team. I thought Romo was outstanding today.
I want to mention that as well. Really good.
I really thought he did a great job. Romo.
We were in rough shape with him a couple of years ago. It just didn't seem like he was putting in the work, but it feels like he is.
Well, I like it because even last week, a little tiny bit wishy-washy. I was like, oh man, is he just not a cold weather announcer? But no, he came back.
I think he did cocaine. I think that's what it was.
That's it for Parent Corner. That's it.
So next time I see you will be next Sunday we're going to be doing our annual Super Bowl props podcast I love that there's like 150 up already it's not even Monday this is terrific it's amazing we always used to have to wait right until the second week I have a quick NBA thing for you you know we had that Pacersers bet? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell everybody what that is.
Tell me. No, we did.
Well, it's Pacers over, Minnesota under, Sacramento under. We did like four weeks ago.
Now it seems like Sacramento might screw us because we need them to be under 42 in. I think the Pacers are about to make a little run here.
I'm just talking about from a gambling standpoint next couple weeks. I like when they have other guys back.
I just think there's something interesting about them that I've been monitoring. I have all the teams in each conference.
And I think Golden State's on the flip side. Did you see the stack Golden State is 1-20 after the third quarter when they don't have a lead? To me, Golden State, if they don't make a trade, this season's a punt.
What did we get the Pacers at? Oh, we're going to hit that one. We got it at like 41.5.
Okay, so it's 46.5, but you wouldn't double back on it, would you? That's too much. Oh, for regular season wins? Yeah.
What's their record? That doesn't matter. I don't know.
Their record is... They are 25 and 20.
So 47, they'd have to go 22... 22 and 15.
22 and 15? Yeah. That's pretty good.
That seems like it comes out until last week. Yeah, at least.
Well, we already have that. Yeah, I was just wondering.
I mean, so I don't even know how you play them at this point. What more? 46 and a half is high.
So we definitely hit that one. Golden State is 41 and a half now.
And unless they do a desperation trade, that one might be going under. The only other one that I think, I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Lakers look good in that Celtic game.
I know. And then they look good against the Warriors.
And I'm starting to wonder if maybe they found a little something because there's a physicality to them. I wrote them off.
I thought they should have traded Anthony Davis and it's only two games. I'm not zigzagging, but I'm just watching them because I saw a team in that Boston game in person that just seemed like they were figuring out an identity that I didn't think they had and then they did the same thing against Golden State.
This was a tough stretch. Like this physical team.
Yeah, like they the next four games or they in that four-game run that was going to be tough. And I bet them to make the play-in.
I'm like, oh, they're definitely going to get in the play-in because you could do that on Fandle. I'm like, now they're minus 220.
Oh, you think they could actually make it? Well, now they're minus 225 to make the playoffs. Yeah, they're seven games over 500.
Right. And I wasn't even considering them potentially being good until those last two games.
Because they're defending way better than they did. They have enough shooters now.
Gabe Vincent's giving them something that he was not giving earlier in the season. So I don't want to plant a flag on it yet, but I might have been wrong about them.

Well, I thought for sure,

once they let Bronny go to the G League,

I'm like, that's a mistake.

They're going to regret sending that generational talent

somewhere else.

And who knows if he even comes back if they want him.

No, Bronny's the best thing that happens

to go into Laker games now

because people want to see him,

but usually the game's over.

So I took Hench to the Laker game. We got out of there.
We were out of the garage in like 30 seconds because it was the easiest time to leave. Yeah, Lakers are up 20.
Usually people are fleeing, but everybody kind of wanted to stick around. Nice.
Everyone just wanted Hench to leave, I think. Oh, he was in rare form.
Yeah, the only other one is Cleveland

I was thinking about this for next year

that team that starts out super hot

yeah they're ridiculous

and then around the 40 game mark

they're huge favorites in every game

but they relax a little bit

and they lose a couple

and I want to remember that for next year

Atkinson is minus 470 for coach of the year what would they have to What kind of claps would they have to have for him not to win it at this point? Wow. What's crazy is the Thunder coach is 30-1, and that guy's doing an amazing job.
He lost Holmgren for the whole season, basically. Yeah, but he won last year, though, right? I mean, I'm all for the guys that get votes, but I don't think they give it two years in a row too much.
Joker at plus 230 for MVP on FanDuel seems like really good odds. As you know, I'm not allowed to vote.
All right, you promised me you'd get the vote. You give the vote.
No, but I'll tell you, here's why. Because first of all, it's only game 45.
Second of all, there's really only two candidates right now. But Denver's a four seed now.
You can't win the MVP unless it's either a shitty year or you're a top three team. They're probably going to be a top three team in the West, which puts him in play, and he's having this historic offensive season.
It's at least an argument. So that's the hedge on Shea? Because I have Shea, SGA, because of you, the house, and Rosillo.
I got like plus 350. Now he's minus 350.
Oh, when we were telling people early. Yeah.
Yeah. If you're just talking value.
Yeah. It's a two-person race.
There's no one else. I would be really surprised.
Oh, man. I mean, Giannis is 120.
Yeah. Everybody's triple figures.
Anybody else? No, it's those two. So if you wanted to hedge it, I would hedge it with Jokic.
The rookie of the year is funny because all of a sudden, Ware on Miami became the favorite because he was good for two weeks. That's how bad.
I still think Castle plus 310 is probably a little. I have Sarr from the beginning of that year.
Yeah, and then most improved. That one always changes right around mid-February.
All of a sudden, people get excited. Same for defensive player of the year.
I think six man's a little more open than Pritchard being minus 170 because he hasn't been... Just looking at those odds, Amon Thompson who's been incredible, especially lately.
He's eight to one. Yeah.
He's, he's having a, I think a more impactful year than Pritchard is. Well, the pitfall is.
You can argue Thompson's the best rocket right now. I mean, remember Westbrook was a big favorite.
Oh, not Westbrook. Who'd they make? Was it Westbrook? Was it six man? Did that make sense? Like a few years ago? And then like, it became a starter and then odds went away.
So that's what you have to avoid. Which one of those top four can be getting the starting lineup? What do you got to plug? What do I have? Against All Odds a couple times this week.
Through the Ringer with Tate Frazier. Cousin Sal's winning weekend at the end of the week.
Frontier Wireless blows and their customer service reps are fucking liars. That's it.
Bye. See you next week.
Are you doing content with Tate this week? Yeah. What do you want me to ask him? Is he focused yet on Charlotte trading for Curry? That was always his dream scenario.
Oh, interesting. I don't know.
He's all about Belichick. I don't think Golden State's ever trading Curry, but Tate's dream was Golden State was going to become mediocre, and at some point the move was just to cash in Curry during the last stretch of his career.
What does that look like? He goes back to Charlotte. First round pick? First round pick? He grew up there.
The number one? No, I know, but what do they have to give up? I think Lamello's in it. Yeah.
I don't know what the trade is.

I don't know what the trade is.

I don't know what the trade is.

What a great trade.

Anyway, ask Tate.

See what he thinks.

All right, I will.

All right, thanks to Kyle and Gahal.

Thanks to Sarutiv, though he's not here.

You can watch all of our stuff on YouTube.

Please subscribe for us.

And then I got a new rewatchable.

It's coming to us.

So that's the podcast.

Sal, congrats on the guest alliance title again

good job by you

good job by you buddy

and good job by the Chiefs

thanks everybody Feel everything On the wayside

On the blue side

Never on saying

I don't have

Must be 21 plus

in President Select States

for Kansas in affiliation

with Kansas Star Casino

or 18 plus

in President DC.

Gambling problem?

Call 1-800-GAMBLER

or visit rg-help.com.

Call 1-887-897777

or visit ccpg.org

Thank you. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com.
Call 1-887-897777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here.
Visit gamblinghelpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-887-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.

This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn.

During the season,

every baseball team plays 162 games.

It's a true test of endurance.

It's not enough to have a hot month or two.

You need sustained dominance throughout.

Well, the same is true for your small business.

It's not enough to have a great Q2

or even a great year.

You want year-over-year growth that starts with better hires that'll be there for the long haul. To find those hires, use LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has strong hiring data and insights that you won't find anywhere else to help pair you with the best candidates from unique skills and interests to the connections you have in common. Based on LinkedIn data, 72% of small businesses say that LinkedIn helps them find high quality talent.
LinkedIn also lets you go beyond people who are actively applying in a given week. 171 million LinkedIn members aren't actively seeking jobs, but they are open to new opportunities.
That's a big pool to miss out on if you're not hiring with LinkedIn. Find your next great hire on LinkedIn.
Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash Simmons. That's linkedin.com slash Simmons to post your job for free.

Terms and conditions apply.