Believe in Darnold, Burrow’s Playoff Shadow, Week 18 Madness and Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

Speaker 1 It's the Bill Simmons podcast. We're going live on a Sunday night with Cousin Sal.
Week 17 was a little crazy, not too crazy. Week 18 is going to be crazy, and it's all coming up next.

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Speaker 1 We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I put up a brand new episode of The Rewatchables.

Speaker 1 Every Monday night, including tomorrow night, we are doing Friday Night Lights, the movie.

Speaker 1 I tweeted about this from the Rewatchables account because it's on Netflix actually for the next couple of days, but 20-year anniversary of this movie in 2024.

Speaker 1 And it's in the running for one of the best football movies ever. Some people think it might be first.
We're going to talk about that and a lot more on the podcast that's going up Monday night.

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Speaker 1 Coming up, cousin Sal and I live Sunday night. We're doing it.
Let's bring in Pro Jam.

Speaker 1 We just watched Washington Atlanta,

Speaker 1 and you lost your wise wager, which was you were 13 and 2 for the season.

Speaker 1 You had

Speaker 1 Washington 24 and a half under. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Which seemed like when Atlanta was about to score in the last minute, you were going to win it. And then Raheem Morris was like, how many timeouts can I take into overtime?

Speaker 1 Turned out he had the wrong answer, and Atlanta blows it. Rollercoaster route of the game.
Washington makes the playoffs. Atlanta is now in a lot of trouble.

Speaker 1 This is one of my favorite podcasts to do, heading into week 18. We have all our playoff scenarios, trying to guess the lines, but Atlanta is going to be kicking themselves all week.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was all, well, first of all,

Speaker 1 I have too much shit going on, right? I had the under 24 and a half, but I also have Tampa Bay to win the South.

Speaker 1 So I'm rooting against Atlanta, but rooting for Atlanta to stop Washington and rooting for Raheem Morris to get his brain out of his ass.

Speaker 1 Like those tech, those skip timeouts is just, of course, you want 22 seconds with one timeout is better than seven seconds and two timeouts. And then he takes one before.

Speaker 1 And then like you have a tired defense, except for one drive. They were on the field the entire second half.
Start calling your timeouts then too.

Speaker 1 Like get them a little fresh so that Dane Daniels isn't running for seven yards. But yeah, it was congratulations.
We have a lot of Washington fans, friends in our club here, but I don't know. Not

Speaker 1 A weird win, a weird win for sure.

Speaker 1 Well, our favorite Washington fan is Chang because we were on a text with him, and Chang gets so mad during these games that I told him I would do a Patreon subscription for Chang's text during every Washington game.

Speaker 1 He was so mad. It was a lot of fuck this team.

Speaker 1 I hope the guy makes the field goal. We're losers.

Speaker 1 He's out of control. I think he's going to send

Speaker 1 poison noodles over to Dan Quinn or something. I don't know what he's he's up to, what he's capable of.
So the timeout, so they get, they get basically to midfield. There's 40 seconds left,

Speaker 1 or 35 seconds left, whatever it was. They had two timeouts left.

Speaker 1 And it was interesting because Brady, who I thought was good today during the Vikings Green Bay game, he was talking about this timeout, the exact timeout scenario at the end of the first half.

Speaker 1 And he was saying how when he'd like to do it, if he had two timeouts left with under two minutes left, he always thought of it as take one timeout in that one minute to two minute mark, take the second one somewhere between 30 and a minute, and then save that third one for the kicker.

Speaker 1 And I was thinking about that as I was watching Atlanta just completely mangled the same situation and just basically take two timeouts into 12 seconds left in the game. They didn't do that at all.

Speaker 1 I think if they called timeout, I think they would have kicked a field goal and scored. Well, here's the thing.
Everything's situational, right? So Brady's theory is right.

Speaker 1 Add to it, you got a rookie quarterback there on the road.

Speaker 1 Might want to just get him a couple of plays, stop the clock anyway if you're not sure and you have a kicker who can't make it from 35 so you want to get it closer than than you even got it so what everything points to calling a timeout with like 35 seconds left and they didn't do it for some reason i was thinking about you during this whole like fourth quarter because you you've been so hot and you've had some luck with these wise wagers and lots of i've been hot on million dollar picks like we're doing great and i and This had gotten to the point where I was like, Atlanta's going to somehow win this game 27-24.

Speaker 1 And we're going to to be like, how did Sal do it again? How did he pull this out? And Atlanta's driving down and seeing what's going to happen.

Speaker 1 Then it, then the other way, Washington had the ball and they're driving down, they're driving down.

Speaker 1 And it felt like they were setting up for the, they were going to go for it to win the game on fourth and one and not get it. And then Atlanta would either play for the tie or do whatever.

Speaker 1 But I think the,

Speaker 1 if I could speak broadly, and I think you had Atlanta plus four and a half on something you were saying before the podcast was upset.

Speaker 1 There's favorites winning and covering, and then there's favorites winning and covering like cincinnati did and like washington did today like when you're well how about how about everyone in week 17 bizarre that's what i'm saying like there's all that and then there's crazy covers like this where the neither cincinnati nor washington deserved it except for some craziness that happened in overtime and some uh that bad brain farts from coaches bigger picture the favorites were 14 and one

Speaker 1 in week 17 wednesday thursday saturday and that's why we're not too upset that's why we're That's why we have our chin up there.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, there were some very good, some very good money line parlays, all kinds of plays. 14 and 1 near the, at this point of the season for favorites,

Speaker 1 if I had said to you heading into this week, somebody's going 14 and 1, favorites or underdogs, I just would have assumed underdogs, right?

Speaker 1 This is right around the time of the year when weird shit happens left and right, but that's not what happened.

Speaker 1 Atlanta, who's somehow kind of still alive, it feels like they went to Pennix, what, three weeks too late? Four weeks too late. Even though he's up and down, he's still way better than Cousins is.

Speaker 1 I was going to send this to you, and I'm like, maybe this is an overreaction, but when he was like flying in the first half, I was like, man, if they had put him in like a month ago, they might be fighting for the one seed.

Speaker 1 Maybe that's a little strong because of their schedule. Yeah, yeah.
But for sure, they might have had this NFC South locked up. Yeah,

Speaker 1 they would be at 10 wins already.

Speaker 1 I think it's fair to say Cousins probably cost them three to four wins by being unable to move. What's weird, though,

Speaker 1 we're in this weird situation where Atlanta Penix, I think, is the starting quarterback. I don't know if he's ever going to be an all-pro or anything, but he's clearly pretty good.

Speaker 1 You know, he's, he's at least on that, I think has a chance to be on that Bo Nix level, maybe one notch higher. He's older.

Speaker 1 But you also can't praise Atlanta for this

Speaker 1 because they spent $100 million on Kirk Cousins and destroyed their salary cap.

Speaker 1 So, like, like, if you're, if you're talking to GM, Terry Fontena, who Lombardi always used to make fun of, and be like, Terry, great Pennex pick.

Speaker 1 You almost can't say that because the pick was so illogical when he did it. And I was thinking today, like, imagine if they had taken, um,

Speaker 1 if, if they had spent that free agent cousins money on like one other defensive player or two defensive players, whatever. And instead, they put off the, and this is what happens.

Speaker 1 You end up losing this game in OT because your defense can't do anything. This is what we were saying in April when they took Pennex.

Speaker 1 If you're going to spend all that money on Cousins, use the eighth pick on a defensive player. Or if you know you're going to take Pennex, use the free agent money on a defensive player.

Speaker 1 And they didn't do either. It's a little different, what I'm about to bring up, but it's kind of what San Francisco, like, you really want to praise everything they did.

Speaker 1 They after what they spent on Trey Lance. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't money, but draft capital and might have won the Super Bowl if you had some position plugged in on defense against Kansas City.

Speaker 1 And now you're paying the price. But yeah,

Speaker 1 there's some odd stuff going on. I mean, I know you like your quarterback.
I feel like you'd need to see two or three years out of these guys.

Speaker 1 In Sam Darnold's case, seven years, but at least two or three.

Speaker 1 Sam Darnold, the most emotional Twitter video during the season we've seen all year. Sam Darnold coming back late to the Vikings locker room, and it turned into like a sports movie scene.

Speaker 1 I was waiting for explosions in the sky to play in the background.

Speaker 1 Playoff picture. And we'll talk about, there's so much shit to go through.

Speaker 1 I feel naked not knowing the schedule. You and I love, we love the playoff schedule, right? Well, I want to guess this.

Speaker 1 We love the week 18, and we're like seven-year-olds waiting for Santa to come down the chimney. We just, I keep refreshing.
I don't see anything.

Speaker 1 I see the Jimmy Carter, Jake Paul fight is rescheduled, but I don't see anything on week 18 yet. This is terrible.

Speaker 1 We're on this text thread with our cousin and a whole bunch of people. And anytime a super old celebrity dies, it's always like, what was the cause of death? And we do.

Speaker 1 Jimmy Carter, my favorite president, by the way, but anytime it's 100, like, what was the cause of death? Anyway,

Speaker 1 NFC playoff picture, Washington is at least the seven seed, right?

Speaker 1 Possibility they can sneak into six seed, but Green Bay would have to lose to Chicago. But we're looking at two seed Philly versus seven seed Washington, which I'm not happy about if I'm Washington.

Speaker 1 3-6 is Rams Green Bay. I'm super happy if I'm Green Bay playing the Rams, the way their offense has looked.

Speaker 1 4-5 would be Tampa, Minnesota, which is an awesome game, or Atlanta, Minnesota, if something funky happens a week 18.

Speaker 1 AFC,

Speaker 1 it looks like we're going to have Buffalo versus Denver, unless Denver completely chokes it, but kids Carson Wentz, and we'll go into all those scenarios in a second. Baltimore against the Chargers

Speaker 1 and then Houston. Pittsburgh.
And I didn't tell you I was going to do this. You're going to be mad, but I already made guesses for the round one schedule, and I'm going to throw this at you.

Speaker 1 Oh, don't do that yet. Yeah.
No, I'm doing it.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm going to go to the next one. Not even the Shakyas game.
There's a lot of Shaky quarterbacks that belong in the Shakyas game, but I think we're on the same page with that. Well,

Speaker 1 we texted about the Shakies game, which if you haven't

Speaker 1 seen or listened to our pod before, it's the first game on the Saturday of round one.

Speaker 1 Our knockout league that we're in, the loser used to have to buy pizza for everybody else for the first game, and we would do it at Shaky's in Santa Monica, which we made plenty of jokes about.

Speaker 1 Is it still open or no? I think they closed it after we stopped going. I think we were probably the only one.
That was like the last thing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So anyway, Pittsburgh, Houston is the most, I would say that's like a minus 1,200 favorite to be the Shaky's game

Speaker 1 with the way Houstons look, with Russell Wilson. I don't see how it's not the Shaky's game.
I'm trying to think who else it would be. All right, you're going to give me all of them? Go ahead.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, these are my guesses. And you tell me, I'll rip through them and you tell me.
I mean, there's a Monday game game in there. You got them all.
You're right. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 So Saturday night is going to be Amazon.

Speaker 1 And I think that's Green Bay Rams. And they keep it in L.A.
Al Michaels is super happy. It's like a 35-minute drive for him.

Speaker 1 Amazon in L.A. Amazon is in L.A.

Speaker 1 So I was going to Green Bay Rams for that. And then Sunday, Denver, Buffalo.

Speaker 1 The Chargers versus Baltimore, and then Washington, Philly as the Sunday night game. But you could flip that and you could make Washington, Philly, the Fox game with Brady

Speaker 1 and then Chargers, Ravens, Sunday night. And then my last prediction:

Speaker 1 Bucs

Speaker 1 versus the Vikings in Tampa Bay, Monday night, Monday night football. Oh, Monday.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What are your thoughts? The only thing with that is, I'm not ready.

Speaker 1 I'm not, I feel like

Speaker 1 I didn't prepare. I tell you to prepare.
I'm going to throw this at you. Well, here's what could throw it off.
I really think the Chargers want want that five seed now.

Speaker 1 I think they're going to fight for it. They're in a good spot if they get that five seed.
Of course, you want to go to Houston now.

Speaker 1 By the way, if they get by that, I know the Chiefs, we're going to have to praise them. We have to.
But that's not a bad

Speaker 1 deal for Harbaugh. They played him twice.
They lost by two. They lost by seven.

Speaker 1 What a thing that would be for Harbaugh to go into Kansas City and win. I think that's the ideal spot for the Chargers.
So I think that would throw off a little.

Speaker 1 The only thing I would say about a Saturday night, I think they like an outdoor game there. They had the Chiefs Dolphins.
So I'm not sure what that would, I know that doesn't agree with Al's,

Speaker 1 you know, habits, but what would it pay? We got to look out for Al.

Speaker 1 So Chargers, to get the five seed, the Chargers would have to beat the Raiders, and Pittsburgh would have to lose to Joe Burrow and Cincinnati. Yeah.
And that's the path.

Speaker 1 I wanted to, I was going to do this later, but I'd rather just throw this at you right now.

Speaker 1 And I know the Ravens aren't going to tank week 18, but if you're the Ravens, just fundamentally looking at this big picture, we're trying to make the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 If you're the Ravens, would you rather be the five seed or the three seed?

Speaker 1 Because if I'm the three seed, I have a home game against almost definitely the Chargers

Speaker 1 unless it's either the Chargers or Pittsburgh home game.

Speaker 1 And then round two, I'm going to Buffalo if I'm the three seed. I'm going to Buffalo unless Buffalo shockingly loses.
If I'm the five seed,

Speaker 1 I play play Houston,

Speaker 1 which, and I'll be favored and I should beat Houston. And then unless there's an upset, I'm going to KC for round two, who hasn't played a meaningful game in a month.

Speaker 1 And if your goal is to make the Super Bowl, I'd rather, we always talk about this. I'd rather catch KC in that round two game when they're a little rusty.

Speaker 1 So I know Baltimore is going to try to win. I know it's better to be at home, but you could argue it's a better path for them to be the five seed.

Speaker 1 Well, first of all, we'll go over the lines in a second, but maybe this will clear it up. And there's so much speculation.
The Saturday games games are out and there's two of them.

Speaker 1 Were you right? You had guesses on this. I had one right.

Speaker 1 It's Browns, Ravens, and Bengals, Steelers. So

Speaker 1 the Ravens are first. The Ravens are 130.
I don't know why they're doing this, actually.

Speaker 1 It doesn't benefit them. So the Ravens are 130.
The Bengals Steelers are five. These are Pacific times.

Speaker 1 If the Ravens win and they should, then the Steelers could lose and the Chargers do get that five. And we're talking all different things here.

Speaker 1 Well, you have for the Steelers, Bengals game, Bengals trying to keep their playoff hopes alive. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Steelers trying to either be five or six, but you want to be five. So that game actually becomes meaningful.
So that's probably why they did that. Oh, I guess so, right.
Yes, they would still try.

Speaker 1 Yeah. All right.
Yeah. I mean,

Speaker 1 is it so meaningful that you would want to not rest? your starters for the following week? That's always a thing. I don't know.
When we think it's meaningful, it usually isn't.

Speaker 1 well who to me who is the worst playoff team to you other than the afc seven seed

Speaker 1 because i think you could make a case it's the rams

Speaker 1 and the rams are going to be the three seed but if i'm green bay i'm a hundred percent delighted to play the rams in round one

Speaker 1 the rams can't score 20 points anymore and they got i thought dominated by the cardinals on saturday night i can't believe we had to sweat out that la la parlay like that that was yeah it ended up coming down to kyla murray whipping a 130-mile-an-hour pass off his tight end's head that bounced up in the air for an interception.

Speaker 1 But the Rams did nothing offensively to win that game.

Speaker 1 And I would want to play them over anyone except the AFC 7 seed, I think. They are a bizarre team.
I mean, it was four weeks ago, they scored 44 against Buffalo.

Speaker 1 And then the next three weeks, they scored 44 combined. And Cooper Cup.
Feels like they ran out of gas. Cup commits mass murder on fantasy owners all over the nation.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 yeah, I think they did kind of run out of gas. I don't know, McVay, that was some questionable calls by him, but you're right.
Like Tyler just, he did his thing. He got too excited.

Speaker 1 He's now 13 and 29 straight up in November, December games and 1 and 17 in the division. Jesus.
Saruti just texted us that.

Speaker 1 And you know what? I did a shitload of research for this podcast. I really thought I was prepared.
Sometimes I missed this. Green Bay is not guaranteed to be the sixth seed.

Speaker 1 It could actually be Washington because Washington wins a tiebreaker. So if both of them win, Washington is going to be the sixth seed.

Speaker 1 Oh, watch out. I got Washington if they win.
Oh, yeah, because they have the win now, right? They're the same record. Yeah.
All right. So, so, who's going to try?

Speaker 1 Well, if you're Washington, I mean, first of all, they're going to have a lot of fans at that Rams game if it's Washington at the Rams.

Speaker 1 But if you're Green Bay, that's a disaster. You go from, you know,

Speaker 1 so people didn't know how much that Minnesota game meant today. It actually meant a shitload because it's different to potentially playing the Rams or playing

Speaker 1 Philly who's the two seed. And you're going to have a 13-win team as a wildcard.
I don't think it's ever happened before. Right.
Oof.

Speaker 1 The Vikings. Let's talk about that Vikings Packers game.
It's a good one. A lot of people love the Packers.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It turned into an everybody believes in us, nobody believes in us situation, which I didn't fully know on Thursday, but by the time we got to sunday i was betting on the vikings and that line was moving that line was the most erratic line of the year it was minus one and a half plus one and a half even back to minus one and a half by game time it was even which is i think what what three times this year we've had an even line at game time yeah so now we we know now that i guess they have something to play for with the six seed five seed but really compared to minnesota they didn't have as much to play for right and minnesota is fighting for the one seed they have the better record they were a one and a half point favorite when we did guest the lines.

Speaker 1 Then it moved to Green Bay, like you said, is favored. Then Minnesota settled in.
And I'm like, I'm staying away. They gave us six free money line wins going into Sunday, which was insane.

Speaker 1 But why is this, why is everybody taking the Packers here? And, you know,

Speaker 1 I can't do a lap because they won by two points, but I think they did.

Speaker 1 It was perfect what they did because I think all these NFC North teams are able to catch up. They're eventually going to get to 25, 28, 30 points.
But the defense played great for for three quarters.

Speaker 1 They really did. Like Flores had them, like Cashman, Shaq Riffin, Van Ginkle.
They're all locked in step. And KOC did a great job with 220 left, bleeding the clock.
We'll talk about it.

Speaker 1 He did it better than anybody's done it, really.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's coach of the year. He has to be.
It's crazy that Harbaugh completely rejuvenated, rejuvenated the Chargers. Made chicken salad, chicken.

Speaker 1 Hold on, I'm going to get this right.

Speaker 1 Made chicken salad out of chicken shit. Good.
Yeah, I did it. I nailed it.

Speaker 1 And he's not going to win coach of the year. You think like where that team was last year, all the stuff he did for them.
They had some injuries, too. It wasn't like it was like the easiest season.

Speaker 1 And he has no chance.

Speaker 1 JJ Dortham was supposed to be a guy. Yeah.
Well, so KOC, I think he gets it. The Packers,

Speaker 1 you have their five losses. Two against the Lions, two against the Vikings, one against the Eagles.
And this was everybody's Super Bowl sleeper.

Speaker 1 It'd be nice if they beat one of the top three teams in their division one or conference once.

Speaker 1 I'm also not positive. I really like Jordan Love, and I think he's good in spurts.

Speaker 1 And I've watched the game that they played today, I feel like six times in the last year and a half, where they kind of suck. He misses a couple throws.
They're a little erratic.

Speaker 1 All of a sudden, they're behind. And then they do this furious rally with like a quarter left or half a quarter left.
And then the score, they played this

Speaker 1 exact Minnesota game happened already in the first month of the season where they were way behind, rallied back, and the final score, they lost by two. This was not a two-point loss.

Speaker 1 Minnesota dominated the game. Field goal kicker missed two field goals.

Speaker 1 I just felt like

Speaker 1 this was a double figures win that it will say they won by two. Yeah, I agree.
Yeah. And they pressured him the whole game.
And Green Bay couldn't really pressure Darnold, right?

Speaker 1 So that seemed like the difference. The one thing I'll say is I wonder if Watson really makes a big difference for this offense.
I think he does. Yeah, like him not being there.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 It was some nice spots in there. Jaden Reed's a fun player, but he'll disappear for like quarters at a time, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, he had a one-reception five-yard game a couple of weeks ago, and today it took him a while to get going.

Speaker 1 I thought it might be a double tight end game for them. Oh, yeah.
Like just being more physical.

Speaker 1 Like Brady was really bullish on. them riding Jacobs and he's comparing McCorey Dillon and all these different running backs.
But the Vikes played great and darn, they've been underestimated all year.

Speaker 1 I really regret on Thursday not going all in on them because I think they're really good.

Speaker 1 I think they could absolutely beat Detroit. I could absolutely see them in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Watching them today, I was thinking because I felt that same way watching that Cincinnati game. And I had Denver plus seven and a half in that one.
So I actually ended up hitting it.

Speaker 1 Since he's so scary when they have the ball and they just need eight yards or it's third and eight, it's third and six. It's second and 10.
And they have those two receivers.

Speaker 1 And it just feels like anytime Burrow wants, he can hit somebody for eight yards on and out or he can hit them down the sidelines or across or whatever. I think Minnesota has the same thing.

Speaker 1 Those two receivers, when they really, really need to complete a pass, they can find one of those guys, it seems like. Sam Darnold doesn't seem like he's going to blow a game.

Speaker 1 The coach doesn't seem like he's going to blow a game. The defense seems like it's going to play.
good enough for long enough. I don't think like going forward,

Speaker 1 are they going to be an underdog at any point by more than two points or three points? I don't think you can make it. Who would deny the inner Detroit? No.
No, no way. Well, we'll see.

Speaker 1 You should have said today they should have been at least like a one and a half or two point favorite. And the market said otherwise.
I just think people,

Speaker 1 Sam Darnold, three years in the Jets, two in Carolina. He was on the Niners last year.

Speaker 1 And I just think people are slow to come around on this, but he's been making, he's been doing this all year really consistently. And I said last week to you, I felt like

Speaker 1 when I really needed to make a play and that came from behind game last week, I was like, I think he's going to do it. Like,

Speaker 1 I believe he's going to make the play. I felt the same way in this game today.
I just felt like he was going to come through.

Speaker 1 He has one shaky throw a game, but I think you can say that about literally any quarterback in the week. Yeah.
I don't think it's fluky at this point.

Speaker 1 I think we can move on to the next argument, like with, oh, J.J. McCarthy, keep him or trade him.
Like this guy, you're not going to have results like Sam Arnold put out there.

Speaker 1 And it's not, it just feels feels different from the team two, three years ago, whatever it was, where Cousins won every game by one score. It's just something about it.

Speaker 1 Like, yeah, this guy fits in this offense and it's going to work for a little bit. Yeah, Raheem, not Raheem Morris, guy who took two timeouts into the overtime.

Speaker 1 Our friend Raheem, who's on the Ringer Sunday pregame, he had a good tweet about this one score.

Speaker 1 win-loss record, which has become a really fun way when we talk about teams after the fact or during the season. Is this real? Is this not real?

Speaker 1 And the theory is like if you're 8-1, 9-1, 10-1 in one-score games, there's something fluky about that. We've talked about this a lot for years.

Speaker 1 And there was that Cousins Vikings here a couple years ago when they just had crazy luck in one-score games, but we knew they weren't good.

Speaker 1 I don't feel that way at all about this Vikings team. I think they're legitimately good.

Speaker 1 And I actually think they shouldn't have been in as many one-score games as they were because they just had these dumb games that all of a sudden in the last five minutes, the other team scored

Speaker 1 whatever. So, I, to me, they're not like to me, they're a legitimate, uh, awesome contender.

Speaker 1 And I, I think you could make the case.

Speaker 1 I, I, I think I would bet against them in any against any NFC team.

Speaker 1 Wait, say that again? You would do, I think, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, I screwed up. I think I would bet on them

Speaker 1 against any NFC team. I like them the most.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 I think so too. It's really tough.
That coach just showed me so much. When two minutes, 20 seconds, Green Bay has three timeouts.

Speaker 1 Almost anybody just runs it into the line three times, and you have to treat it like you're losing the game at that point. That's exactly what he did.
The next four plays, three of them were throws.

Speaker 1 None really like to Jefferson or Addison or like Hawkinson. Like it was like all just like nice plays, but they made it nice and easy.
And Darnold's just so comfortable in that situation. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the second down, it was like second and nine. Jefferson was cutting across, and Darnold just whipped it.

Speaker 1 And it was, it was a great throw, but it was probably four receivers in the league can get that extra like split second of a step and also make the catch in traffic.

Speaker 1 And then the game ender, they ran the classic fake, everybody runs to the left. Oh, the quarterback circles around to the right, lofts over the screen pass.

Speaker 1 It's one of the best plays. I almost turned into Collinsworth when I watched that.

Speaker 1 Oh, I just love that. I just love when teams do that.
Bill, you know, there's only one Lamar Jackson, but there's another one here with Michael Pennington. Maybe even a third one with Jaden Daniels.

Speaker 1 And the referees are Lamar Jackson. Everyone's Lamar Jackson.
I can't believe the J.J. McCarthy thing is even a question at this point.
There's no way. Darnold's their quarterback now.
This is done.

Speaker 1 It's a wrap. It's like this is Brady Bledsoe multiplied by 17.
Brady Bledsoe, even heading into the playoffs, was still an argument. There's no argument anymore.

Speaker 1 Whether they keep McCarthy for a year and just, you know, keep him as a backup and then figure out what to do.

Speaker 1 But considering the quarterback class is pretty shaky beyond the top two, I feel like they could get like a mid-first round pick for him or a late first rounder or high second rounder.

Speaker 1 That's somewhere in like the 15 to 35 range, right?

Speaker 1 Well, the best part is teams like the Giants dropping out of the top two cornerback slot, right? Yeah. And

Speaker 1 who may have have to trade up to get like a J.J. McCarthy now? The NFL playoffs are almost here.
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Speaker 1 iPhone 11 or later required. All right, switching gears.
There's some big questions left.

Speaker 1 Can the Bengals make the playoffs is one of them, which I think everybody wants just as football fans because Burroughs has been so great this year. The scenario is this.
They have to beat Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 Denver has to lose to Carson Wentz and the Chiefs. And the Dolphins have to lose to that hot garbage Jets team, who was just a complete train wreck of an embarrassment until

Speaker 1 Tyrod Taylor came in in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 1 And now, granted, it's garbage time. Buffalo, they won the game.
It's a wrap. Tyrod Taylor, all of a sudden, it was a little like the Panix Cousins thing.
He could move around. He was making plays.

Speaker 1 I think they'd be crazy not to start him next week unless they, if they want to protect their pick, which is probably like top seven, top eight at this point, you play Rodgers because he's just, he's, he's a sunk cost at this point.

Speaker 1 But if they played Tyrod Taylor, I could see them beating Miami. I mean, Miami was, you know, it does seem like Tua is going to play next week.

Speaker 1 Cleveland's so bad, and Thompson Robinson is so bad. Miami, like, they had no choice but to win that game, but the Jets could beat them.
I'm trying. So then it comes down to Carson Wentz.
Yeah, so

Speaker 1 obviously they put all these games together. Chiefs, Broncos, Chargers, Raiders, Dolphins, Jets.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Those are the late afternoon games. Yeah.
So I think you're right. I have no idea with Tua.
Well, you and I were like, what the hell's going on, JJ? Johnsre Skampki, big Dolphins fan.

Speaker 1 Give us a heads up about Tua. We don't find out until Thursday.

Speaker 1 He may not play again. So you might end up with a garbage match like that.
But it was so fun watching Tyrod being better than A-Rod. Really, really great.
Unbelievable. Rogers was just

Speaker 1 horrible. I had, I did a 13-pointer, which I think I lost three legs of.
It was my one losing bet today, other than this last one at the end.

Speaker 1 Rodgers was so bad, and it was so hopeless from the moment it was like, I don't know, 12-0, 19-0. It was just that you just knew it was over.
Doesn't seem like the teammates like him that much.

Speaker 1 Wilson, there's stuff about like, if Rodgers is back next year, please trade me. That stuff's starting to float around.

Speaker 1 And it'd be really funny if Taylor came in and the Jets were awesome next week. My idea.

Speaker 1 Let me read a couple of Rodgers things. First of all, he goes in there.
He's supposed to go for his 500 touchdown pass. I'm like, oh, this is going to suck.

Speaker 1 Not that they'd stop the game in Buffalo, but

Speaker 1 he's going to get 500. Devontae Adams is like, I'm playing.
I want to be there. I want to catch the 500.
I'm like, shit. Instead, he sets the sack record.
He's the most sacked quarterback of all time.

Speaker 1 And my favorite of all, it was early in the first quarter, maybe middle of the first quarter, third and one, driving right to left. He rolls right.
And he's got nothing but daylight.

Speaker 1 And Romo even's like, run it. And Romo doesn't do that.
He does a lot of what people might think are annoying things, but he wouldn't like, he definitely blurted it out when he didn't mean to.

Speaker 1 He had 15 yards of daylight, maybe too scared or whatever to take off. He fires the ball at his receiver's shins and then yells at the receiver.

Speaker 1 And the receiver's like, oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention.
Me and the other receivers are watching thought you'd walk the ball into the end zone here.

Speaker 1 But 1.2 QBR today, the lowest QBR in a game since Davis Mills, 0.8 in 2021. Good job by you, Aaron Rodgers.
You ruined Peter Schrager's season.

Speaker 1 I didn't do it. Our guy Schrag's.

Speaker 1 There was a tweet that had over 3 million views at the time of this taping by somebody on Twitter named Stake Friend.

Speaker 1 He said, Jets getting Aaron Rodgers is like finally banging your high school crush when she's 40 and has four kids. That's great.
It's over 3 million views at this point.

Speaker 1 Lost in how bad Rodgers has been is how bad Jeff Ulbricht's been as the Jets interim coach. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Today they had 16 penalties for 120 yards. That's like, that makes the Patriots look like well-behaved by contract.
He's horrible.

Speaker 1 One thing we've learned this year is that the interim coach isn't necessarily this magic elixir because the Bears are way worse. Yeah.
Right.

Speaker 1 The Jets, I think if they had had Salah,

Speaker 1 at least with Salah, their defense was better.

Speaker 1 We were enamored with the Clogger for a minute. And then that's a rather hard to say with the Clogger.
Yeah. But

Speaker 1 yeah, rough Jets season. I feel bad for the Jets fans.

Speaker 1 One thing with the Bengals.

Speaker 1 I think they're about 16 to 1 if you put those three possibilities together to make the playoffs.

Speaker 1 If you're KC, do you lose intentionally to Denver? Is the question somebody texted me today that I thought was intriguing. I don't think teams lose intentionally in the NFL.

Speaker 1 I guess you could play like your third string QB and not give a shit, but they're just much better off if Denver is the seventh seed than Cincinnati, I think.

Speaker 1 Well, let's think about this. Wouldn't they want Cincinnati to play Buffalo? I mean,

Speaker 1 I think they want Buffalo out, right? They're not going to play both those teams.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you're saying so that beat Denver to try to get Cincinnati into the seventh seed? Yeah, I think so. You don't have to, you're not going against Cincinnati in the first round.

Speaker 1 So you're going against one of those two teams. I think they'll slap Cincinnati around if they get, if they have to go to Arrowhead.
I mean, that's a flawed team. We like rooting for them.

Speaker 1 I think you could have it both ways, like we said. Like you, we could talk about how bad they are and how they can't get out of their own way and also not want to meet them in the first round.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, their defense is pretty awful. It was interesting because that game feels like it happened 100 years ago and it was yesterday, but

Speaker 1 I don't think Sean Payton covered himself in glory yesterday with some of the calls. Right.
Some of the clock management, just in general.

Speaker 1 And that's something I've noticed over and over again with him, where people seem to think he's this,

Speaker 1 you know, like he's this, like, kind of what we were talking about with Kevin O'Connell earlier, but instead, it just feels like,

Speaker 1 I don't know. Dave, were you happy with how he coached yesterday? No, I don't know.
I was a little confused, right?

Speaker 1 But I think people wanted him to go for the two-point conversion at the end of regulation. Well, he needed the tie, right? Yeah, so they needed the tie as good as a win.

Speaker 1 Tie was as good as a win, so it didn't make sense to go for the win because in overtime, overtime, a tie would have won it. And also, Bengals kicker sucks.

Speaker 1 He was probably factoring that in that, and that, too. So we'll go to the next one.
And Chase Brown got hurt. And Chase Brown got hurt.
And also, they went three and out in Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 So they had the ball, Denver, with a chance to win with a field goal. They did twice.
They had two series in overtime.

Speaker 1 And they were just, they had that second and nine, or it was like second and seven. They ran the wide receiver screen.
The guy got tackled for two in the first series.

Speaker 1 Bo Nix tried to throw it deep for some reason, didn't get it. It was weird.
I just felt like they could have run the ball on Cincy all day. They ran the ball for five yards a carry.
It was a bad one.

Speaker 1 I mean, I felt the same with it was a very similar game to tonight's, right? Like, you know, Bijan Robinson could have run the ball and they could have done that.

Speaker 1 And I thought it was like one of the luckiest covers of 2024. Maybe tonight changed that, but I don't know.
Cincinnati is a weird team. Like, Burroughs, great.

Speaker 1 And like you said, like, they have that pitch and catch thing going for seven yards. Like, no one's going to, like, you know, Higgins is going to get Juan Soto money next year.
Good for him.

Speaker 1 Lucky from the Patriots. There you go.

Speaker 1 MVP race, at least when I checked at this

Speaker 1 a couple of hours ago, Allen was minus 300. Lamar was plus 250.
Yeah. And Burrow and Barkley were 15 to 1.
And the thinking was if Burrow somehow got

Speaker 1 the seven seed for the Bengals, he has to be in the MVP consideration. I just don't agree.
Burrow's eager to win now. Yeah.
Oh, he's 30 to 1. I don't know.

Speaker 1 You can't lose eight times in a season to be the MVP. That's absurd.
It's dead money. Yeah, that's a waste.

Speaker 1 I think it's got to be Josh. I think it's fair to say, all right, whoever gets the seed, the two seed, could be the, I mean, it can't be Mahomes.
His numbers don't support it, right?

Speaker 1 So it's got to be the Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson and give it to whoever has a two seed at this point. It's tough.
There's some stat stuff that's a little more favorable for Lamar.

Speaker 1 I test was a little more favorable for Josh.

Speaker 1 I would say the infrastructure of the roster is you'd probably want Baltimore is a little bit more.

Speaker 1 Buffalo had a lot more uncertainty heading into the season.

Speaker 1 I don't really know.

Speaker 1 Crack your brain when you hear like Josh Allen broke Thurman Thomas's record for like the Bills touchdown rushes. Like for someone who watched football and loved it and got in college in the 90s.

Speaker 1 Like, what the fuck? Really? He really did already. Like, that's spectacular.

Speaker 1 I mean, right now.

Speaker 1 And I don't know if there's a 100% right answer. I like when people get so upset about it.
It was like when like we've had some NBA MVP things like this, too.

Speaker 1 Right now, I think it could really come down to something as stupid as Baltimore's five losses and Buffalo's three because it's really close.

Speaker 1 And it's just like Buffalo's had a better, they've had a better team. I've been a little more impressed with their season.
I think both guys are equally important.

Speaker 1 He doesn't have anything like Derrick Henry. He doesn't have the coaching infrastructure that the Ravens had.

Speaker 1 Even though McDermott is a top seven or eight coach, the Ravens have been doing this forever.

Speaker 1 I I would just have a slight edge to Josh.

Speaker 1 Saruti's asking the head-free head, does the head-to-head matter? Well, how Baltimore beat him 35 to 10 in week four. So that's a case for Lamar.
I don't know. I don't know the answer.

Speaker 1 Saruti, shut up. We've been doing this for like 37 years.
We don't need your help.

Speaker 1 No, it's a good question, but I think here's what matters more.

Speaker 1 They beat the one seed, right? Baltimore didn't. They were a total away from the same.
They have the only Casey win. Yeah,

Speaker 1 they have more wins and they beat the one seed. And you're not giving it to Momes.

Speaker 1 Another thing off this, off Josh Allen,

Speaker 1 I won our Keeper Fantasy League today. Yeah, congratulations.
I saw that. Easily, right? You know, it was an emotional time for me and my fans because

Speaker 1 we had Joe Burrow. We've had this league four years.

Speaker 1 I had Joe Burrow year one. We had this rule where you could keep him for a maximum of four years.
So he's been with my team the whole time. Oh, he's gone.
And then he really came through

Speaker 1 in the last game. And it meant a lot to me and my fans to watch him do that for my fake fantasy team and his fake teammates.
41.1 points.

Speaker 1 The question, though, about fantasy, is it possible to win a league if you didn't have Alan Lamar, Burrow, or Baker this year?

Speaker 1 Kind of feels like you had to have one of those four guys. Who did Tony have in that? Oh, you said Barkley, right? Did you mention Barkley? No, I'm saying one of those quarterbacks.
Oh, I see.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. Did you have it's because it was unusual Because normally we talk, we always talk about our quarterbacks don't matter that much in fantasy.

Speaker 1 And then this year, yeah, who did Tony have in our knockout league? Oh, Lamar Jackson. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I was just, I would love to know, like, percentage of leagues won by one by those four quarterbacks has to be like 80%.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's off topic, but I did see 50% of all leagues that had

Speaker 1 teams that had Barkley made the finals at least. I did see some kind of ESPN stat, but that's Barkley.
I know you're talking quarterbacks here. You're going to bid for how much will you bid?

Speaker 1 So I know now. Burrow, I need Burrow.
Well, I'm

Speaker 1 back. I can't know.
Four more years, Joe.

Speaker 1 I asked Craig Horobeck from the

Speaker 1 Ringer Fantasy show about who were the guys you had to have this year that seemed to be around the most titles.

Speaker 1 And he said the guys that tripled your odds of making the finals were

Speaker 1 JJ, Jefferson, Chase, Amon Ross, St. Brown, Saquon, Gibbs, Lamar,

Speaker 1 James Connor, and Brock Bowers, who was wasted on my shitty team in our other league.

Speaker 1 Well, just like whatever you paid for them or wherever you drafted them, whatever the return was was way higher than what you got. But Brock Bowers was a good example.

Speaker 1 Like, if you had him, like, he's going to be the number one tight end next year. Speaking of, forget that, I'm looking for him for,

Speaker 1 well, they don't have him, but he should maybe win MVP. I mean, that junk squad of quarterbacks have been thrown to him.
He's set records. He's made Aiden O'Connell look like a possible keeper.

Speaker 1 They don't need a QB.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's it. That's a good pivot.

Speaker 1 The Giants.

Speaker 1 So we have the Raiders who win two games in a row and completely knock themselves out of a possible Sanders or Cam Ward. I got to say, I didn't like Cam Ward leaving the bowl game at halftime.

Speaker 1 No? No, I didn't like that. Nobody's going to care.
Nobody's going to know. I didn't like it.

Speaker 1 I just don't think Drake May would have done that in North Carolina. I think he would have stayed.
I think he would have played both halves. I think.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 So the Giants are going to care, but go ahead. Yeah.
We had the Drew Locke game today. You can feel it immediately.
The Colts were in a coma. I don't know what happened to them.

Speaker 1 This murdered, I think, 80% of the teases and parlays that people made today because they'd already

Speaker 1 made all their bets that they'd already won. It's like, what do I do on Sunday?

Speaker 1 All right, I'll throw the Colts on something. And the Giants am I winning.
So now the Giants are four. Pats are one, Tennessee's two, Cleveland's three, and most important, the Pats are one.

Speaker 1 I was going nuts. I was going nuts.
Why? I was going nuts.

Speaker 1 What are you going to do with it? We're going to trade down. We're going to get a fucking haul.
I want to make that Carolina Bears trade. Let's do that.

Speaker 1 Let's get like, move back seven spots, get somebody else's first, get a player, get a second. Like, let's fucking cash that thing in.
I'm so excited. All right.

Speaker 1 I mean, this weekend went great if you're your quarterback.

Speaker 1 Well, you're not out on May, right? You, you have your quarterback. So you're going to trade it and you're going to get, you'll get something.
I don't know. I feel like I say good for the Giants.

Speaker 1 I really do. Like, I don't, I don't love the tanking talk.
I think it's a bad word. It should only be used for the NBA.

Speaker 1 This is one of the reasons, many reasons the NFL is infinitely better. But like, you know, half these guys are playing hard because they don't even know if they're going to be on the team next year.

Speaker 1 Like, Leak Neighbors is the only one safe. And Drew Locke gave him probably his best game of the year so far.
So, good for the Giants, earn your paycheck.

Speaker 1 I know it's easy to burn down the fledgling local tavern and collect on the insurance, but guys out there trying. I'd go for that every time.

Speaker 1 Counter, this Giants season was so depressing that it was kind of hilarious. That it was like, all right, we're at top, we're the number one pick, just two more games.

Speaker 1 And then all of a sudden, they have a fun three hours and completely ruined it.

Speaker 1 But you're right, this is the difference between football and basketball: you can't really tank when in a sport with like non-guaranteed contracts where they change half the roster every year. Um,

Speaker 1 I'm not saying like the GMs, the front office, and the players are on a different wavelength, I think, right?

Speaker 1 Like, it's not like that in any other sport, and I think it's because of what I said, like half these guys aren't going to be giants next year.

Speaker 1 So, they're just like trying to put together, you know, you think Tracy Jr. is definitely going to be re-signed by the Giants? Like, no, I'm going to try their asses off.

Speaker 1 If the Pats beat the Bills next week, I'm going to lose my mind. I just want you to know right now, they better, first of all, Gonzalez has a concussion, so don't play him.

Speaker 1 He's the best defensive player. Like, put him on the side.
I would not play Drake May.

Speaker 1 Sit him down for a week 18. Play Joe Milton, the third string guy.
Like, they have to lose this Buffalo game. And if you're Buffalo, I would want the Pats to beat us.
I don't want that.

Speaker 1 They're in our division. I wouldn't want the Pats to have the number one pick and trade back and get Mike Vrabel as the coach.

Speaker 1 This was a huge week for Patsman, Smanzo because there's real momentum now for like, hey, maybe we need an actual coach in a GM.

Speaker 1 Maybe he's gone. He's getting worse.

Speaker 1 Getting worse in every part of football over the course of four months. Maybe that was a bad sign.
Maybe that we fucked up the draft and free agency and did basically everything wrong.

Speaker 1 Maybe all that was a bad sign. And that we hit the ladder with this Drake May guy.

Speaker 1 I just don't like the losing and going crazy for the one pick. And it just, it's stinking thinking, Simmons, is what it is.
No.

Speaker 1 I feel dirty, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Speaker 1 Speaking of dirty, the Colts, four straight years of absolutely horrible, indefensible end-of-the-year losses or choke jobs, or like even last year where they had a chance to make the playoffs and they blow it on the fourth down, they had that 2021.

Speaker 1 They lost to Jacksonville when Jim Mersey's like, Yeah, Carson Wentz off the team. I don't ever want to see him again.
So it's four straight years of that.

Speaker 1 I think Shane Steichen's a secret might get fired after the year, guy.

Speaker 1 I have no inside info. I just think that team's looked pretty ratchet the whole year.
Like, I don't think they're well coached.

Speaker 1 I think they've underachieved.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he's on my, we always have that one surprise firing after week 18. He would be my leading suspect.

Speaker 1 Did he get an extension? I mean, because that's the key. That's the tell all that he's going to get fired.

Speaker 1 I don't think so. He's only in a two-year, he's in year two, right? He was a first-year coach last year.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah, this is second.
I'm thinking of someone else. Yeah, it might be the case that there just aren't enough new, good coaches out there.

Speaker 1 He might have been on the bubble and saved himself. But yeah, you're right.
They're pitiful. It's absolutely ludicrous that Mike Vrabo

Speaker 1 wouldn't be getting hounded by like five teams. Right.
Mike Vrabo, I think in 21, he went 12 and 5 with.

Speaker 1 This banged up Tennessee team, Ryan Tannehill, who I don't think ever started a full season again as a quarterback, A.J. Brown, who got traded after the year.

Speaker 1 I just always felt like that team was supremely, extraordinarily well coached. They always overachieved.
I never really understood how they were doing it.

Speaker 1 And I don't understand, like, if you're the Jets, the Bears, people are like, the Bears need an offensive coach. The Bears need a coach.
It doesn't have to be an offensive coach.

Speaker 1 Just somebody that will give them some sort of culture, which is what the past is. He's number one.
I mean, I think he gets to pick his spot.

Speaker 1 So if you were him, where do do you go like where do you i mean he could probably coach at unc now and steal that job from belichek if he wants my dream would be he was in the patriots hall of fame yeah and you think like you got drake may you have all this calf space and you have um the number one pick like that seems like the best job i don't know you go to the bears and your ownership's a complete mess and you're doing everything wrong and you've built this team that's uh you know this run and gun team to play in chicago in 10 degree weather

Speaker 1 i don't know i wouldn't want that job i the jets job's mildly intriguing they do have a lot of talent i just it's a woody johnson thing i'm not sure i'd want to work for him yeah that's a thing

Speaker 1 why who would you want well if if i'm him i i i think you stay out of the nfc north that's a disaster when you have 13 win teams making great point yeah why do you want to be in detroit and minnesota green bay and battle those teams six it's too long yeah it's too long so it's not a sexy team and you you you you can't be happy with anthony richardson at this point but I think you'd stay in any AFC South job that you can get.

Speaker 1 I mean, the bad divisions are still the bad divisions. Maybe Jacksonville.
Yeah, somewhere like that.

Speaker 1 So, Matt, a couple other short things I had for you.

Speaker 1 Mac Jones has as many wins this year as Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 1 Just pointing that out.

Speaker 1 I am 25 and 5

Speaker 1 season future over-unders, thanks to the Atlanta loss today. I need a Houston win and an Arizona win next week, and I would go 27 and 5.
Wow.

Speaker 1 Which we always have all these media accounts where everybody shits on anyone with a podcast or a column or a feature or whatever. And it's like this cottage industry.

Speaker 1 There's no like benevolent version of it where it's like, hey, this person did a really good job. Hey, Cousin Sal is 13 and 2 on Why is This Wagers? Good luck to him this week.

Speaker 1 We need like happy version of those terrible media accounts. I'm with you.
So get the ringer people to plug it in. 25 and 5 5 over unders.
Put that on some

Speaker 1 freaking billboard outside your house. You got my do it.
It's fun. 25 and 5.
We did great on the on the other futures, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 You beat me in that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I had two locks. I had Carolina under, New England under, three, and Green Bay over.
All those hits.

Speaker 1 So maybe we should tell people what to stay away from because we, we, I mean, we hit the mother load if the Lions get the one seat.

Speaker 1 And I, I specifically do because I got 26 to one on Chiefs Lions one seat. And so we,

Speaker 1 again, after how many years, still don't know how to hedge this. We got five to one odds, right?

Speaker 1 When we get to the Lions, let's talk about the hedge for that. You got it.
Got it.

Speaker 1 Dorian Thompson Robinson threw a pick today, no touchdown.

Speaker 1 Career, one touchdown, 10 picks. I was like, I wonder who else has done that.
I wonder what other president in NFL history have one touchdown or less and 10 interceptions or more.

Speaker 1 So you have that stat head on

Speaker 1 pro football reference. So I went up.
How many other people do you think have done that? History?

Speaker 1 Three. History of football.
Five. Five?

Speaker 1 Nobody.

Speaker 1 Nobody in the last 40 years.

Speaker 1 We had Stan Heath, one touchdown, 14 interceptions. Len Barnum, 0 for 10.

Speaker 1 Randy Hedberg in 1977, 0 for 10. It's like an accounting firm.
Who are these people? Wayne Clark, zero touchdowns, 14 picks in the early early part of the 70s nice and then rusty lish

Speaker 1 one touchdown 11 picks so he's done something nobody's done in 40s name that i mean rusty lish you deserve what you get if you're drafting a rusty lish i mean that's not that's collinsworth would have trouble with that one oh

Speaker 1 rusty lish or pass rush pass or rush yeah yeah yeah the dtr did He didn't see, did he seem right to you? I felt like something was off. No, he seemed hurt.
And I don't think

Speaker 1 I'm making a joke. That's what we say about the good quarterbacks.
Like, are we going to find out he was injured? No, I think he actually was hurt.

Speaker 1 Well, he's also not good. But he was one interception.
He had one fumble. He had

Speaker 1 three intentional groundings and a 20 QBR. And plus whatever you're saying.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now that's a team that is tanking. They want to get a top three pick.
They have a chance to get one or two.

Speaker 1 If one of those teams, if Tennessee or the Pats. So they're like, we're not playing Jameis again.
Jameis is too unreliable. He might actually win this game.
He might actually beat Miami.

Speaker 1 We can't play him.

Speaker 1 I don't know what their plan is. I mean, they're going to, they basically announced this week they're going to keep Watson for two more years.

Speaker 1 I mean, that deal just gets worse and worse.

Speaker 1 Last thing before guest lines, Greg Gumbo passed away, and they were talking about him in all the games the last couple of days. I was really bummed out.
I feel like,

Speaker 1 you know, especially people who grew up with the 80s ESPN, and he was one of the five or six people, right? It was

Speaker 1 him, it was Gail Gardner, it was Chris Berman, it was Tom Lee.

Speaker 1 We had the same six people for an entire decade, and then he went on, he kind of graduated, did all this stuff, he became a studio host. He original WFAN guy, too, in New York, right? Going way back.

Speaker 1 And then has a really important,

Speaker 1 he did the tuck roll game, aka the snow game for the Pats fans. He announced that one, but

Speaker 1 beloved guy by all accounts, and feels like he's been in our lives ever since we like sports. I was bummed.
And yet, like a dozen years older than I would have thought. Like 78, right?

Speaker 1 I mean, I know he helped himself. He looked young.

Speaker 1 But yeah, man, I would get very excited. I'm a big selection Sunday guy.
I write it down, even though they have the bracket right on the TV.

Speaker 1 And when you know, the Duke Blue Devils are the number one seed in the East Region. It's just like something cool and you could rely on.
And yeah, he'll be missed. Another great voice.

Speaker 1 Passed through a lot of great sports and sports moments. I was thinking about that whole ES Pan crew in the 80s that was like our lifeline to all this highlights and information back then.

Speaker 1 Right. And you had these people, and it was like the same way, like the local news anchors mean the most in your dad's house in the 70s.

Speaker 1 We had these six, seven, eight people that were just the people we found out what happened. And you really felt like you had relationships with all of them.
You know, Berman was like the funny one.

Speaker 1 Tom Lee was the serious one. And

Speaker 1 Bob Lee

Speaker 1 was,

Speaker 1 he was like the professor. And then Charlie Steiner showed it.
And it's just like, I don't know, Gumbo was in those.

Speaker 1 And when he graduated out of that, I was like, whoa, somebody hired one of the ESPN guys. It felt like we all kind of made it.
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All right. Guess the lines.

Speaker 1 Week 18. We're going to go in order of.

Speaker 1 Do you care

Speaker 1 so you know what the Saturdays are, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I didn't do it that way, though. I'm just going to follow the schedule I had

Speaker 1 because the biggest game.

Speaker 1 The NFC one seed on the line,

Speaker 1 that's going to be Sunday night, right? That's Sunday night. How can that not be? I mean, they saved it.

Speaker 1 I mean, honestly, if the Vikings lose that game, I'm not sure what NBC does and the league does with that game. I think they maybe have to stop with the everyone plays a division the last week.

Speaker 1 I think maybe just go with like the preseason, the playoffs from last year and try to mix them up and try to get lucky because now we see that like only one out of eight divisions or two

Speaker 1 in the AFC Nords case barely matter. But most of these are settled by week 18.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 I called Tom, Tom Meads Tom Lee, by the way. Yeah,

Speaker 1 yeah, yeah, it's good. I didn't mean to.
Rest in peace. Um,

Speaker 1 Lions Vikings.

Speaker 1 It's in Detroit.

Speaker 1 I'm giving this the tic-tac. So

Speaker 1 Lions minus one and a half against Minnesota for the one seed. I think this is a dead-even game.
You could even talk me into into Minnesota being favoring this, but I don't think it'll start that way.

Speaker 1 So I'm going Lions minus one and a half. All right, I have to now adjust because some of these have moved.
I said minus three. It's minus two and a half for the Detroit Lions.

Speaker 1 Interesting.

Speaker 1 I get that. And I'm telling you right now, I might get two more, and that's it.

Speaker 1 We almost shouldn't count this week. Much like they don't count week 18 in fantasy, I almost think we shouldn't count this for you.
I guess the Lions.

Speaker 1 And I'm not just saying that because I'm off by four points every game.

Speaker 1 Detroit does not need to beat San Francisco tomorrow. Right.

Speaker 1 The game somehow doesn't matter, even though week 18 matters the most, which is just weird. Cornaki was a little, little, he threw me a little bit.

Speaker 1 I feel like he made it like they did need that this game did matter. And then like, no, no, the 49 doesn't matter at all.
It 100% does not matter. Dan Campbell's doing the whole.

Speaker 1 We're playing anyone anyway. But I think that would be crazy to do that.
Sure.

Speaker 1 Week six, Detroit won 31-29. Yep.

Speaker 1 Somehow we had three two-point games that the Vikings were involved with against the Lions and Green Bay, which is just weird. Right.
Right. That's where the tic-tac comes into play.

Speaker 1 The one and a half. Got to get it the right way.

Speaker 1 NFC South.

Speaker 1 On the line, not really.

Speaker 1 Falcons win.

Speaker 1 They get the four seed.

Speaker 1 They're playing the Panthers in Atlanta.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 I screwed this up.

Speaker 1 Tampa wins. They get the four seed.

Speaker 1 Right. Right? Yes.
Tampa's up a game. They lose a tiebreaker if they lose a game.
So Tampa wins. They get it.

Speaker 1 Tampa loses. Atlanta wins.
Atlanta gets it because they beat Tampa Bay twice.

Speaker 1 Tampa is home for the Saints who stink.

Speaker 1 And Tampa's offense is really good. And as we discussed earlier, Baker Mayfield, fantasy MVP,

Speaker 1 at least one of them. I have the Bucs minus 10 and a half.
Oh,

Speaker 1 I'm going to beat you here. I had 11.5.
It's 13.5. Wow.
Think about that.

Speaker 1 We're going to have to.

Speaker 1 We're going to have to. Can you imagine if I told you in mid-August, week 18,

Speaker 1 the Bucks are going to be favored by 13 and a half against the Saints? What would you have thought happened?

Speaker 1 I would have thought the Saints named Spencer Rattler, their starter.

Speaker 1 Instead, the clogger as their coach. Yeah.

Speaker 1 God, that's so bad. This would have been so much more fun if Atlanta won today because we would have had all kinds of scenarios.
Washington would have to win. There was all different tiebreaker shit.

Speaker 1 We won our NFC South bet, by the way. So kudos to us.
Oh, good with the under. Nice.
Yeah, because they can only have two more. Two more.
Yeah. The highest,

Speaker 1 it could get to 28, so we made it by two.

Speaker 1 It wasn't even scary. When was it its scariest? I'm trying to think.
I guess when New Orleans beat up on Dallas

Speaker 1 a week ago,

Speaker 1 a week ago? Carolina started upsetting people, and it was like, holy shit. Like if Carolina won today and Atlanta, I guess Carolina was playing an NFC South.
Yeah, they're still.

Speaker 1 But if Atlanta had won, yeah, it got a little closer than I wanted. Falcons against the Panthers.
I have Falcons. This is in Atlanta.
I have Falcons by seven and a half against the Panthers. Oh,

Speaker 1 you got it exactly. I had eight,

Speaker 1 but it's not going to matter. Teaser?

Speaker 1 Well, I just worry that Baker does like he did today and has like 40 points up there, and Atlanta calls off the dogs. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 They're playing the same time, obviously, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm going to put the Washington game in this category too.

Speaker 1 No, I can't do that now because they lost. I need to put them in a different category.
Hold on,

Speaker 1 doing this on the fly here. Okay.

Speaker 1 Put them later.

Speaker 1 The problem with this is, and I'm going to show my hand here: a lot of these lines don't reflect when Thursday the coach says we're sitting everybody. And then the lines fly another five points.

Speaker 1 So just be careful, everyone.

Speaker 1 NFC West on the line, sort of.

Speaker 1 the Rams are minus two and a half against the Seahawks. Oh, no, that was my guess.
I screwed that up.

Speaker 1 The game is in LA, and I have the Rams minus two and a half over the Seahawks. I should have let you guess first.

Speaker 1 I had Seattle by one, and it's Seattle by two and a half. The Rams are in, right?

Speaker 1 The Rams are in. They're not necessarily 100% in yet.
No, they needed like one more team to win. Like 12 things had to happen.
No, I'm going to go through it.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's crazy what needs to happen for Seattle to win, for this game to matter. They need,

Speaker 1 oh, no, they're out. You're right.
Because they needed Atlanta to beat Washington. Yeah, Washington.
I think that was the last one. Oh, man.
Just because of that. I don't care.

Speaker 1 I'm taking that win. Yeah, take it.
Go. See what else we got.
I did all the work for... Washington winning, and then when Atlanta came back, I changed all the work.
And then

Speaker 1 Raheem screwed everything up. I was so excited to go through all the things that needed to happen in week 18 for Seattle.
That was like two things.

Speaker 1 It was actually pretty conceivable. They needed Arizona to beat San Francisco, Denver to beat KC,

Speaker 1 Atlanta to beat Carolina. All three of those things could happen.
Miami to beat the Jets. Still conceivable.
Chicago to beat Green Bay, not playing for anything. Not inconceivable.
Chargers, Vegas.

Speaker 1 Tampa beats New Orleans.

Speaker 1 Yeah. No, the weird one was the Pats would have had to beat Buffalo.
That's where the wheels kind of got. That's going to happen.
Jee-Ready. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. Playoff spot on the line.
Three teams, one spot.

Speaker 1 Broncos against the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 It's in Denver. Wow.

Speaker 1 I did Broncos minus seven and a half.

Speaker 1 You know, I said four and a half, and it was seven and a half. It went to eight and a half.
So you get it. Wow.
Man, that's high. I mean,

Speaker 1 I mean, I guess if Carson Wentz just plays with all second string, like the whole first string sits, then it's going to be tough. But that's a lot of points for Denver.

Speaker 1 It's a lot.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 I kind of like the Chiefs at that game. Yeah.
I like the Chiefs. And I don't know if I'm minding the Chiefs' money line either.
I could see them being like, fuck it.

Speaker 1 We're not playing for two weeks after this.

Speaker 1 We'll play Carson Wentz. Let's run all our stuff.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Because Denver is not that good. How many favorites have Vandel and Vegas gotten walloped on in the last year? I don't know, four months.
Colts today.

Speaker 1 There's a team. There's a team that's going to blow it for everybody.
There's a team. Could be them.

Speaker 1 Dolphins are home for the Jets. I'm sorry.
Jets are home for the Dolphins, but Dolphins need a win.

Speaker 1 And they need a Denver loss.

Speaker 1 And two of them might not play.

Speaker 1 Stu Puntley was like passable today, and people were excited about it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't see how this can be less than Dolphins by four and a half.

Speaker 1 All right, I got it exactly. It's two and a half.
Wow. But I was getting a headache thinking of these.
I really were.

Speaker 1 Who in the God's name would bet the Jets?

Speaker 1 Well, now, if they had Tyrod Taylor, I might bet them. They have a whole

Speaker 1 spite game. Snoop against Taylor.
I love it. By the teammates.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Steelers, Bengals

Speaker 1 in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 Since he needs a win plus Denver, Miami losses.

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh gets the three seed with a win and a Baltimore loss. Pittsburgh could drop to six if they lose and the Chargers win.

Speaker 1 I did Steelers minus one and a half. Wow.

Speaker 1 I did Cincey minus three and then Since he minus two and a half.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 Honestly, that's stupid. I'm going to bet the Steelers.

Speaker 1 No, don't bet the Steelers. I'm 100% betting the Steelers.

Speaker 1 The Bengals aren't good. The Bengals are eight and eight.
Listen, you cursed the Steelers three weeks ago when you

Speaker 1 named them. You named them the best team.
You cursed the Steelers and you cursed Drake May. I cursed everybody else in the league, but you cursed the Steelers and Drake May.

Speaker 1 I said three weeks ago, I said, what, four weeks ago, I said, I thought the Steelers were playing the best of anyone in the AFC. Pickens immediately got hurt.

Speaker 1 That bunch of their guys on defense got hurt, and Russell Wilson turned into Denver Russell Wilson. Yeah.
Like

Speaker 1 my words were hanging in the air. And all of a sudden, you go the other way, though, and you could say they just played three really tough teams in 11 days, and maybe they're still pretty good.

Speaker 1 Pickens played last week, well, on Christmas.

Speaker 1 It didn't matter. Russell Wilson, the defense is just average right now for whatever reason.

Speaker 1 Defense hasn't been good for like a month. If hustle and bustle isn't playing out of his mind, it might as well be anyone, the Steelers team.

Speaker 1 Steelers are home dogs, and they need the game and playing a team that doesn't have a good defense and has a pretty shaky coach, let's be honest. I know he made a Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 I don't think they start anyone, honestly. I don't think they care.
I don't think

Speaker 1 they don't care if they got two or a three. Yeah, I think he's like,

Speaker 1 give us the Ravens again. It's fine because they play at the same time.
The Ravens are going to be up 30 to nothing on the Browns. That'll be it.
Oh, no, they play the same day, but later in that day.

Speaker 1 Would you rather play the Ravens or the Bills if you're the Steelers?

Speaker 1 I think the Ravens, isn't that always like an 18-16 game for the most part? Yeah, and they've beaten them a few times. They beat them earlier this year.
They'll figure it out.

Speaker 1 Still lose, but

Speaker 1 AFC seeding kind of sort of on the line. Chargers at the Raiders.
Raiders are red hot.

Speaker 1 Chargers could get the five seed with a winner. Pittsburgh loss.
Stupid team. I have the Chargers favored by eight.

Speaker 1 I got to find this now.

Speaker 1 I had seven. Let's see where it is.

Speaker 1 I got to find it because they're all moving around. Five and a half.
So I get it. Wow.
Vegas owned us.

Speaker 1 Are you going to be this week? Feels like you're going to beat me. This is crazy.
I mean, I have some bad ones coming up. I always suck in week 18.
My fans were prepared for.

Speaker 1 I take it easy like the Chiefs. We could do this, Jacoby.
Hang in there.

Speaker 1 Ravens are home against the Browns. They get the three seed with a win.

Speaker 1 Cleveland clinches a top three pick with a loss. You can kind of guess where this game's going.
I'm going Ravens by 13 and a half. Okay.
I said 15.

Speaker 1 17 and a half. Wow.
It's the biggest of the year, right? Jesus.

Speaker 1 I mean, I can't even put that in a 13 pointees. What am I going to do with that line? You can.
It's fine.

Speaker 1 Like you said, the Browns aren't going to put up a fight.

Speaker 1 NFC

Speaker 1 sixth seed on the line, technically. Washington has the edge right now.
They are at Dallas, and the Packers are home for the Bears.

Speaker 1 Washington, I have

Speaker 1 minus

Speaker 1 three and a half over your Cowboys.

Speaker 1 You got it exactly. I thought it would be five.
It's three and a half.

Speaker 1 I had a small bet on the Cowboys with the over in that game, tease.

Speaker 1 Cooper Rush was awful. I mean, your team was awful, but Cooper Rush, like, why didn't they, why don't they, they just don't want to see what Trey Lance

Speaker 1 They've just given up on him. I think it's an absolute mystery.
I think maybe they want to trade him and they don't want to show how bad he is kind of thing.

Speaker 1 Oh, interesting. Like, they're hiding.
They don't have enough makeup, but did you see what the fans did to Jerry Jones today? I'll send you that clip.

Speaker 1 Like, I don't know why he ever goes to Philly, but the fans within earshot, they're like, keep doing what you're doing, Jerry. You're doing great.
You're doing great for the organization.

Speaker 1 And he's like,

Speaker 1 yeah, man.

Speaker 1 They're like sarcastic praising oh yeah and he's i don't know if he gets it or not but he's like yeah i try not to disappoint and it's like oh my god just get out why are you ever going there

Speaker 1 these old owners i mean what how old is jerry like he's in his 80s now right he's there i think yep like we have bob craft who's 83.

Speaker 1 that's what that's part of what like with the pats like i just feel like

Speaker 1 these guys are old how many years

Speaker 1 left do they have like why do they want to mess around like he we have the wrong coach in the wrong gm just like why do they want to leave? You're going to be 84 next year. I know.

Speaker 1 Other one for the six seed, Packers, Bears.

Speaker 1 The Bears coming off, I think, probably the worst televised national TV game of the year, the Seahawks, Bears game, just a complete atrocity.

Speaker 1 Packers can lock down the six seed, and I'm going to say Packers by 11 and a half.

Speaker 1 You get it. I was way.
See, this is one of the ones I was way off on. I said seven and a half.
It's 10.

Speaker 1 But again, this is another one. Like, Jordan Love can rest or he could play this game and stay at the six.

Speaker 1 What's the score?

Speaker 1 I don't know. One, two, three, four.
Two, three.

Speaker 1 Six to four, me.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we might still get this.

Speaker 1 I think you are going to get it. Bunch of garbage coming up.
We only have five games left. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right, so we tied them up.

Speaker 1 All right. Next category is top three draft pick on the line.

Speaker 1 The Bills are at the Patriots. The Pats clinched the first pick with a loss.

Speaker 1 Buffalo has clinched everything already. And yet, I think Buffalo is still going to be favored by five and a half, even with Mitch Trubisky.

Speaker 1 I went higher than that. It's amazing that you're going to win this and be off by so much.
I went Bills by six it's bills by one and a half wow so you get it mitch trubiski

Speaker 1 this has got to make

Speaker 1 one and a half in the game that you think for sure you're laying down in

Speaker 1 i'm i don't know for sure i we don't have a smart franchise i don't know what to expect

Speaker 1 But one and a half. Well, I mean, you and I thought five and six.
We ran a play.

Speaker 1 I mean, the Chargers game was one of the lowest moments in recent Pat's history and brought me back to, you know, the mid-70s when

Speaker 1 before

Speaker 1 things turned around, brought me back to like the late 80s. It was, there was a play, though.
First of all, it looked like Drake May got concussed like five minutes in the game, and then he came back.

Speaker 1 Then Gonzalez got concussed. But there was a play when Drake May he turned and it was like

Speaker 1 Douglas was coming around in reverse and it seemed like he was pitching to the running back, but he was pitching it to the wide receiver instead. But the wide receiver wasn't there yet.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the ball was

Speaker 1 pitching because I was wondering,

Speaker 1 like, I'm not being. I thought it was a play to the wide receiver.
Interesting. All right.
I feel like it was just like whoever's there, just taking.

Speaker 1 I think Douglas started, started going in motion too late, and it was supposed to be turned, flip to the wide receiver, but he was three feet back.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 that was awful. I mean, it was an awful game.
The crowd was booing. It was really depressing.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I mean, I I don't know. You love, I mean,

Speaker 1 he has three wins. Like, you could be excited about him, but he's been just bad enough that you're in the spot to get the number one pick.
So, something I love Drake May.

Speaker 1 The only thing that makes me worried is when he starts doing things like tiptoeing down the sidelines, spinning into like a guy going 30 miles an hour.

Speaker 1 It's like, please don't get hit anymore, Drake May.

Speaker 1 Eagles, Giants in Philly. Giants clinch a top four pick with a loss, maybe even a little bit better.

Speaker 1 Philly, nothing to play for. I'm going to say Eagles by nine.
Oh, all right, I get this. I said five and a half.
It's three and a half. Yeah.
See, I'm always bad in week 18. Look out for the Giants.

Speaker 1 Eight, two, five, and how many left? One, two. Three games left.
Okay, good. You got to sweep them.
You could do this. You could pull it off.

Speaker 1 Texans are at Tennessee. Tennessee clinches the second pick in the draft with a loss.

Speaker 1 Did they not cover again? I honestly don't know. Did the Jaguars win that game? They won by seven.
And they covered. So they're like two and 14 now? Yeah.
Two and 14 against the Spring. Beautiful.

Speaker 1 Great job. I have Texans by three and a half at Tennessee.
All right. I had Texans by

Speaker 1 one and a half, and it is, let me see, because these things change.

Speaker 1 I love how you have to check because I'm. I do have to check.
All these have changed. Tennessee by four and a half.

Speaker 1 Tennessee by four and a half. Tennessee by four and a half.
So I guess.

Speaker 1 Tennessee

Speaker 1 over Houston by four and a half. Yeah.
See,

Speaker 1 this is why this week shouldn't count. We are going to count it.
Damn right, we're going to count it, but it should count.

Speaker 1 What in the hell? Why would Tennessee want to win this game?

Speaker 1 Right. They don't have a quarterback.
Their quarterbacks are Will Levis and Mason Rudolph. There's two quarterbacks in the draft.
Why would they want to win the game?

Speaker 1 They're not going to sit everyone, right? The Texans are going to sit everyone, they're going to be calling guys off. Why wouldn't the Titans do that? Houston barbecues and stuff.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Two more games. These are in the category absolutely irrelevant.
Colts home for the Jaguars. I did Colts minus seven and a half.

Speaker 1 You're going to get it. It's five and a half.

Speaker 1 What did you guess? I said two.

Speaker 1 And this is

Speaker 1 Cardinals at home for the

Speaker 1 49ers. I need this one for my over-unders.
I need Houston to win with their underdogs, and I need the Cardinals to win, and I could go 27 and 5 with my NFL over-unders, which

Speaker 1 delight me to no end.

Speaker 1 Cardinals, I'm going to guess minus three and a half. I said Cardinals by two, and the Niners are favored by one and a half.
So I get that. What? What a win.

Speaker 1 Wow. What a great week.
You win this. Every year you win week 18.
I swear you've won for like 11 straight years. All right.
so now going into the playoffs,

Speaker 1 it's nine winning by one. Yeah, nine to eight to one, one tie.
It's the closest you've been in a week. Very exciting.
Well, you know what I do in the playoffs. I just completely crap the bet.

Speaker 1 So who do you have you thought about that Minnesota Detroit game yet?

Speaker 1 Well, we have, we have too much, we're too interested in actually trying to figure out who wins. We have to hedge.
We have to hedge. We have to hedge.
We have

Speaker 1 five to one, and we may not have the best on Detroit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and plus, we have a little.

Speaker 1 I mean, Detroit can win by two. You talked about all the games the Vikings were in that one by two.
We could take the points here. We should probably do it now.

Speaker 1 I'm really proud of us. I like it.
It's a great bet.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 We did it. I did more when I was in Boston on FanDuel.

Speaker 1 Just making weird FanDuel bets. That was one of them.

Speaker 1 Had some losers, though. On the old fan, I had some flyers on Houston to be the one seed.
I had a Green Bay to be the one seed flyer.

Speaker 1 The teams, so the five over-unders I got wrong, the two that I got wrong the worst other than the Jets was Minnesota was one of them. I had the under six and a half for them.

Speaker 1 And then we both had Jacksonville over.

Speaker 1 I think that was like, what, seven and a half, eight, something like that?

Speaker 1 And they were awful.

Speaker 1 And the Jets, those were the three that I was the most off.

Speaker 1 Tampa I didn't hit.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you just feel like some of these teams are going to hit a wall. I'm stupid.
I passed, like, I had the Browns over, I had the Raiders over, all these dumb, dumbass teams that don't even try.

Speaker 1 What did you think of this whole gauntlet we just went through with football? Because I actually got conditioned to it by today, just with all the games we had. Two Wednesday,

Speaker 1 one Thursday,

Speaker 1 three Saturday. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then a bunch today. And it was nice because because there was only two late games today.
I kind of liked it. I did a little power walk.
Really? Had the game on my phone.

Speaker 1 I just had Brady and Burkhart just walking around LA watching on my phone. Well, you could do that with the two in the late afternoon.

Speaker 1 Well, because I didn't Miami, Cleveland, I was like, I don't care. I'm out.
Yeah, who cares? But we had six games before Sunday. I think it's a little too many.

Speaker 1 I don't think you need a Thursday night game if there are two triggers.

Speaker 1 Right. Yeah.
And maybe you don't need three on Saturday because honestly, it ended up being okay. But we had Rattler O'Connell, Rudolph Mack, Rush Pickett, Flacco Lock.

Speaker 1 Those were four of the six games. Like Aaron Rodgers was going into the morning games, you know, early afternoon.
He was like the third best quarterback going into them.

Speaker 1 It was like Baker and obviously Josh Allen. And then like Aaron Rodgers was third.
So I don't know.

Speaker 1 Well, it led to a funny ringer Sunday pregame show where the calf the games are games nobody would have wanted to bet on in a million years. You just kind of had to come up with stuff.
All right.

Speaker 1 You want want to do parent corner? Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 1 Let's go.

Speaker 1 How's this go again? We say terrible things about our kids. Yeah, now, you know what? I'm going to say, I'm going to say a good thing.
It's like the last one of the year, right?

Speaker 1 And we're usually trashing on them, but I'm proud of my kids for all different reasons. Everyone's home, right? You have Zoe's home from school, Archie's home from school.

Speaker 1 They each did something that made me proud this week.

Speaker 1 Archie, for instance, the oldest,

Speaker 1 took his younger brothers out for a family portrait. And they all wore like ties and button-down shirts.
And they went to Sears or wherever the hell you go now and they paid for it.

Speaker 1 And they got, you got like wallet sizes for his grandparents and all different options. It was like three kids.
Yeah. And they're like all different fun poses, like a real Brady Bunch moment.

Speaker 1 He made his mother cry, like, which is a big plus. It's different from the way I make her cry.
You know, it's a little older. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Making Melissa cry is not chic. That's true.
So it's good that he made her cry happily. Exactly.
He has a different kind of tears.

Speaker 1 Middle guy, Jack, made an audio clip of our friend Brad screaming, and he plays it on a loop, and it's driven everyone nuts. So I'm proud of him for that.

Speaker 1 Like he replaced, it replaced Mariah Carey's song on the Spotify top 100. So good job by you, Jack.
And perhaps the winner,

Speaker 1 my little one, Harrison, we went to Florida for a couple of days. We had a visit Melissa's father.

Speaker 1 When you go, you go through TSA and the grown-ups have TSA check, and you do the grown-ups show their ID. And then the little guys,

Speaker 1 what they do is in a very stern way, they ask,

Speaker 1 what is your full name? And you have to say it. Like they'll point to the kid, you know, and he's put on the spot.

Speaker 1 And I swear, Harrison, without meeting a beat, beating a missing a beat, how's it going? Without missing a beat, the guy says, what is your full name?

Speaker 1 And he says, in a very, as deep a voice as an 11-year-old could do, he says, Creed Humphrey, Alabama. And I was like, you're my fucking guy.
I love it. That's the best.

Speaker 1 Now, it sidelined us for a couple minutes. Melissa was not happy at all.
And the guy is not a football fan, as you can imagine. He's like, I need your real name right now.
He's like, It's Harrison.

Speaker 1 It's Harrison. It's Harrison Icono.
That's my name. So we got through it.
But I was like,

Speaker 1 we're not came up with Creed Humphrey. I don't know.
It might be something he and his friends say because, you know, it's like the Monday night football thing. But good job by the three of them.
Wow.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 how many times per tears for Melissa in 2024, do we have a final count?

Speaker 1 Is it on wifereference.com? A lot, man.

Speaker 1 It's the age. I don't know.
You're going through it too?

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 more tantrums. Oh, tantrums.
Oh, I wouldn't mind the tantrum every now and then. Well, it's, it's, you know, the, the Zoe and, and

Speaker 1 just being in the same house. It's great.
Yeah, right. Wow.
It's uh, yeah, it's like, I mean, there's a lot of tears since this Brad recording has gone viral in the house, but other than that.

Speaker 1 Can you put the Brad recording like on Instagram or something? I think I will. I think I will.
It's pretty good. It's going to be a little out of context for people who don't know him, but it's good.

Speaker 1 My parent corner. So I had, I had Zoe on the last 40 minutes of my podcast on Thursday, and she did her teen culture awards for the last time because she turns 20.

Speaker 1 Both of our kids turn 20 next year, and they're not teenagers anymore. Have you? Really thought about that? No, I haven't.
Shit. Is that true? Come on.
You're still a teen at 20 now.

Speaker 1 No, you're 100% not a teen. I don't know what you are.
It's not 20. No.

Speaker 1 20 is 20 is that limbo year before you turn 21 where you're just kind of like, ah, I'm not a teenager anymore, but I can't legally drink either. What am I? Oh, man.

Speaker 1 So anyway, we went to the Clipper game on Friday. We saw the Clippers against the Warriors.

Speaker 1 You know, she wanted to see Steph Curry. It's great.
And then Friday morning, Steph Curry's not playing tonight.

Speaker 1 The NBA, just, it's like, I wonder what's wrong with the league.

Speaker 1 league well it's because shit like this because steph curry's in town and then he's not playing and you know we don't need to litigate that for the hundredth time but it was just kind of funny and she it's funny with your kids to go through the stages of the stuff that we've all like kind of litigated as sports fans for years and years where she's like i don't understand

Speaker 1 I thought we were seeing Steph Curry. Why isn't he playing? Like, how hurt is he? And we go, and it's like, well, they're playing Phoenix tomorrow night.
They played on Christmas.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but still, I don't, but he should play. I love it.
All these people are coming. All these people are coming coming to the arena to see Steph Curry, and he's not going to be there.

Speaker 1 What if he got it for a Christmas? I'm like, yeah, this is had a conversation for 10 years. This is one of the many reasons why the schedule should be 60 games.

Speaker 1 So Steph Curry would actually play in all the arenas. Right.
Anyway.

Speaker 1 But you're right. Yeah, I know what you're saying.

Speaker 1 So I really love the Clippers Arena. They did a great job.

Speaker 1 And my daughter had a great time. And the places, they really did it.
They figured out how to create this arena where they have good fans. It's loud.

Speaker 1 you feel like you're on top of the court the fans feel like they're affecting the game there's like

Speaker 1 going on in between everything yeah it's just cool and when you go to get like a drink or food or anything there's no tvs anywhere swipe he wants people in in the stadium

Speaker 1 so anyway third quarter timeout uh and zoe runs off to get a candy and the guy behind me taps my shoulder he's like hey

Speaker 1 Anyone ever tell you you look like Bill Simmons? And he starts laughing. He's like, hey, how are you? He's like, I'm a fan of the pot.
It's like, I didn't want to say anything.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 it could have been. Oh, that would have been exciting.

Speaker 1 So he goes, I didn't want to say anything until your wife went, but when your wife went to the bathroom. And I was like, that's not my wife.
That's my daughter. She's 19.

Speaker 1 And I was just completely

Speaker 1 for the rest of the game. First time somebody has thought my daughter was my wife.
So I really wanted to kill myself. That's all right.
Let's think about this. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's a huge compliment for you, right?

Speaker 1 I think

Speaker 1 there is no compliment to be taken from any aspect of this. It was it was a dark moment.
Well, if she if he had said grand if he had said granddaughter, that would have sucked, right?

Speaker 1 Granddaughter would have been tough. Okay, so uh granddaughter would have been

Speaker 1 not as bad. Wow,

Speaker 1 of course.

Speaker 1 I was thinking girlfriend would have been even more logical. Wife is like, what is this? Like, second child bride, Like, when she turned 18, her family commit to this

Speaker 1 soon to be not teen right now. Wow.
Oh, that's true.

Speaker 1 I could see Z looking like she's like 22, 23 to somebody, but yeah, but just like, I'm old. I don't know.
It threw me. But you're in LA also.
It's not in.

Speaker 1 It's an indictment of LA, right? If you had a Thunder game in Oklahoma City, like they would have gotten it right, I think.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're probably right. Good for you.
Congratulations. Was she did she laugh? Did she laugh about it? She was horrified.

Speaker 1 Just flat out, flat out horrified. Anyway,

Speaker 1 thanks to that guy.

Speaker 1 What did he say? Did he apologize? Or did you? No, he's like, oh, my bad, my bad. He did one of those.
Nice guy. But yeah.
Anyway, that's it for Parricorner.

Speaker 1 What else do we have to hit? What do you want to plug? What do we got? Against all odds,

Speaker 1 the fellas and I will be doing the college football picks Monday Monday night for the Tuesday and Wednesday games. It's fun.
Four big playoff games and ringing. What's your favorite playoff Sunday?

Speaker 1 You know what? I'm taking Boise to upset Penn State. I think that's it.
I think that's back. I like Jante.

Speaker 1 I think there's going to be an F you moment for the committee who has been told they've screwed this up. And god damn it, of course they have screwed it up.

Speaker 1 But I think they're going to be like, aha, told you this is going to be a good matchup. And so at least take the points.

Speaker 1 I'm excited for it.

Speaker 1 Casual college football fan, Bill, or likes the playoffs. I like that there's more teams, even though the first round of games suck.

Speaker 1 And Archie's going to the Rose Bowl because Oregon's playing Ohio State there. So it's nice and convenient.
So he's gone. Oh, no, it's Rose Bowl.
It's here. Yeah, Rose Bowl.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Couldn't have worked out better. So, how long did he stay for the break?

Speaker 1 He's here until the day after he leaves. The second? I don't know.

Speaker 1 When does your wife Zoe go back? My wife Zoe

Speaker 1 is going to Miami to see the boyfriend. Oh, yeah.
On

Speaker 1 the

Speaker 1 5th of January, 6th of January, somewhere in there. Because he's her, this is another thing.
Her boyfriend's turning 21.

Speaker 1 Oh, really? Okay.

Speaker 1 Interesting. Just, we're getting old, Sal.
I don't know. I don't know how to stop it.

Speaker 1 I just, I, you know, Sarudi's one of the producers, like, he, he's, you know, got this tiny kid, her whole life in front of her she's like barely and meanwhile we went through all these stages that sucks just sad how fast it goes i almost missed my flattest sprint i don't think i've ever run this fast i made it one of those things where they're about to close the door i had a sprint to the

Speaker 1 i think i i think i sprained like both my hamstrings i just sat in my seat and and cried for the five-hour flight he blew out your achilles yeah i was like

Speaker 1 how do you get this back it's all so you didn't have any wrestling tournaments or anything over the break no not yet No, we're good. We're good till next week.

Speaker 1 All right, that's it for the pod. Thanks to uh, Sarudi and Kyle and Gahau cuz

Speaker 1 good job by you, good job by you, buddy. Thanks to everybody, be back on Tuesday.

Speaker 1 the bruised liver

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