Eagles Spit Takes, Week 1 NFL Picks, and a Possible Clippers Scandal With Joe House

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All right, we are recording this part.

It is 12:20 Eastern Time.

We had a Cowboys Eagles game that went on forever forever because there was a lightning delay.

I kind of lost track of everything.

The game had no flow.

All of a sudden, it seemed like the Cowboys might win.

Does Dallas win this game with Micah Parsons?

I'm going to start there.

Not to do first takey, but their defense looked good.

Wow.

Their defense looked good.

Well, it looked good in the third period.

You know, we had a post-light hockey game.

Yeah.

Post-lightning.

But they were flying around and hitting guys.

The first half, they looked terrible.

Yeah.

But I was thinking like they could have stolen this game and they were one guy short.

And then CD Lamb, obviously,

big drop down the stretch.

Here's the one guy short.

And this was the criticism of the team building in the offseason.

They attempted to address the running back room and they got half of it right.

But Miles Sanders put the mother effing ball on the carpet.

At the Eagles 10-yard line, and that was the difference in the football game.

In the third quarter, when neither team had stopped the other, we hadn't seen any punts up to that point.

Each team was scoring at will, and Miles Sanders put the ball on the field.

That's a replacement-level running back.

And that's what happens team building-wise when you're not, you know, building with a serious eye.

So, that would be my criticism.

Or when you're not paying an advertising company, it's a circumstance and salary cap.

Not that anyone did that, not that anyone did that.

Oh, boy.

Oh, boy.

It's 24-20 third quarter.

Dallas is kind of driving third and like 22, and there's a huge late hit on the Philadelphia safety on the tight end on a pass that's already incomplete.

And it feels like Dallas is going to take the lead.

And there's real energy because the Eagles look a little lethargic on offense.

Sanders fumbles the next play.

Lightning delay.

And then we have this NBC crew that we've poked some fun at.

on some Barris pods, now forced to fill for like a solid hour.

This was not on the agenda.

Jack Collinsworth is like, Wait, I have to, is this like a podcast?

What's going on here?

Uh, and they had the other crew, and it was just not great TV.

I moved over to the U.S.

Open.

What'd you do during the lightning delay?

Just eat, no, I slept.

I knew how long this is gonna take.

Grand the quick shut I poor Terico slept also.

He couldn't remember the name of the Eagles quarterback.

He called uh uh Jalen Hurts

Prescott about six times after the

the rain delay.

Yeah, I mean, neither of us are in any position to really make fun of people for forgetting names or doing malpropisms.

But after the sixth time he called Jalen Hurts Prescott, even I was like, we're not on TV.

Yeah, this is tough.

It was a very even game, though.

Like, look at the numbers.

Yeah, it was a, you know what it was?

It was a classic dumb week one game.

Sure.

I learned nothing.

I don't know what was going on with the Eagles' offensive line.

Jalen Carter, we haven't even talked about that yet,

gets thrown out first.

We have, you know, defensive, you know, star defensive lineman from each team.

He immediately evened the score

in that regard.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Maybe he felt bad for the Parsons trade.

So he spits in Dak Prespott.

So they get a guy hurt on the opening kickoff.

And as they're carting the dude off, Jalen Carter spits on Prescott, gets thrown out.

We don't see until halftime this video, Prescott kind of spitting toward

direction, yes.

Yeah, I don't know if that warranted the spit on the chest that she didn't gross.

It really didn't.

I mean, you know, it's like Prescott was violated enough.

One's a penalty and one is not.

I mean, they're saying that Carter might face additional,

you know, penalties.

Yeah, on the spong spit scale.

on a scale of zero to Bret Hart hawking a Lugie on Vince McMahon

in the Montreal screw job match, which is the most disgusting spit anyone's ever spit at anyone else.

This was, I think, about a four.

I think if he'd aimed it a little higher and gotten some of the neck, that maybe gets that to like a single.

I'm glad he didn't.

I'm glad that he basically put it right here, but I would still, would you think about a jersey change at that point?

I'm not sure.

I did wonder, did somebody run out with wipes?

I didn't see the, you know, the aftermath, but I'm surprised to hear you say that you didn't learn anything because to me, immediately what strikes the eye is how competent Dallas is on offense when Dak Prescott is the quarterback.

Like it's radical how competent their offense is.

And Pickens and CD,

that's a problem.

I mean, you know, they'll figure out holding on to the ball.

You know, the Pickens is going to have one dumb penalty a game,

but they can get vertical and Dak is happy to throw the ball down the football field.

I mean, I thought that Dallas offense, especially the script on the first drive, was magnificent.

Now, they did get to take advantage of the offensive line, being able to push around the Eagle front without Carter, and they were able to establish the run with Williams, but I thought it was a pretty masterful script.

Schottenheimer was in his bag, and Dak Prescott is a badass.

I think that's fair.

So maybe I was discounting it a little because the Eagles had already lost a few guys in free agency and they lose, you know, one of the

12 or 13 best defensive players in the league.

I don't know where he ranks, but Carter is certainly the best guy in the Eagles, and he's out before the game even starts.

And it just felt like it felt like it tilted the Eagles in the wrong direction.

I wrote down

to your point: Dallas looked a little discount Cincinnati-ish to me.

Okay, not quite burrowed Chase Higgins,

but

in the vicinity of a reasonable impression of them, and I thought Dak was

slinging it around.

You know, there were a couple good Pickens plays.

They get a big pass interference with Pickens too, so that doesn't count in the stats.

And then Lamb's wide open on

that long pass.

You know, of course, if you flip it around the other way, the Eagles dropped at least two interceptions.

True.

Did all that stuff.

I also thought,

let's be honest, like, how many hospital balls did Dak throw?

At least five.

Poor Ferguson.

Follow the macro.

He was just leading people into

it's like watching Steve Grogan in the 70s.

But Dallas goes touchdown, touchdown, field goal, field goal, no punts in the first half, and they're trailing.

Not a good sign.

Well, I mean, it's kind of according to script.

We anticipated that the Dallas defense was going to be vulnerable.

And it took the first two periods of the game for them to kind of figure it out.

Third period, they were pretty good, though, to your observation.

They were flying.

we had three game three three portions to the game she said tries to at this point and then we had the the third quarter and then we had the rain delay and then we had you know the fourth quarter calling the period i think i think the eagles um they seemed a little thrown off um after the tragic death of aj brown oh wait i'm being told he's he was alive for four hours i mean where was he did he play was he hurt where was he they they it's it's amazing they they they stuck with the same script.

I mean, they had one completion

of eight yards or more until they finally got one down the field to Jahan Dotson

for a 50-yarder.

But, you know, look at the attempts, the completions, and the total yardage for Hurts.

Hurts threw the ball less than 25 times, completed less than 20, and ended up with about 150 yards

of passing.

The bigger I keep going?

Can I give you a theory?

I'm listening.

I think they might have Milton Burled this one.

Okay.

Okay.

They got at Kansas City in week two, Rams, week three, at the Bucs in week four, Broncos, week five, and then at Giants at Vikings.

So just good defenses across the board.

This, to me, feels like how much can we pull out of the zipper and still get the P in the urnal?

I don't know.

Kind of a game.

You can't lose week one, though, to a divisional opponent.

I mean, I feel like.

I get it, but do you think they were ever like really worried they're going to lose?

Because the way they coached in that game, I thought was pretty strange.

Dallas had the ball with three minutes left and men were.

Did you feel like there was urgency on offense for the Eagles?

I did not.

No.

And

it was like, oh, let's run this cool play.

Oh, here's this formation they won't be expecting.

They were like the most miscellaneous position offense I've ever seen.

Especially

just the most boring version of the Eagles you could possibly get.

For sure in the fourth quarter.

That's absolutely the whole second half.

Okay.

And I thought if Hurts hadn't busted some plays with his legs, you know, so basically some broken plays that didn't work, you know,

I don't know.

I just thought it was weird.

But this is why, again, I'm trying not to say I learned anything from week one because we do this in week one every year and these teams are going to be radically different.

I do have a couple of questions for you, though.

I had the Eagles over 11 and a half wins.

Did you have them over or under?

Over.

Or right at it.

Maybe I might have to pick it up.

I think we both had a whiff over.

It was either 11 or 12.

I mean, I don't want to misrepresent it.

Well, I had over.

I'm wavering a little after watching that because

I just didn't think their front seven looked as fierce as it used to.

And I didn't think their offensive line looked that good.

We can't possibly have an opinion on their front seven without Carter.

I mean, you know,

he's too important.

I get it.

I just like watching that team today.

I was like, man, 12 and 5 with the next six games they have, especially.

I just.

Well, the reason.

I don't know if I would go over after watching what I watched today, but again, it's a week one over here.

Yeah, the reason that you would say, you know, right around 11-ish with some regression from last season is because

it takes time for new bodies on that defense to get the Fangio scheme.

And that's just, you know, we've seen it so many times everywhere he goes.

It just takes a minute and they have tremendous turnover on defense.

It's like six new starters.

So as a Washington Seawards fan, you didn't watch that game and go, oh, doors open this season.

I think we can catch these guys.

I need to see the Washington defense first before I have an opinion on what Washington is capable of.

I mean, I'm not worried about the offense.

This is like a sober house.

Maybe we should have thrown some shots in here.

It's a reasonable, reasonable house.

It's money-making time.

We are squarely in the mode of time to go try cash some tickets.

I had Dallas tonight, and I said Dallas on the show with Cousin Sal and Dubundo.

I'm happy That was too many points.

It played out just like the way you said, a dumb week, one game.

But these teams were close.

And Dallas showed us, this is one of my favorite bets of the entire preseason was Dallas over at seven and a half.

That team is at least an eight-win team with that offense.

You kidding me?

With that offense.

Eight and nine?

Okay.

Somewhere between six and nine, but I would probably lean toward the six, seven range.

I think at the very least, when they're getting a lot of points like that, they're a backdoor cover team waiting to happen.

Sure.

Okay.

If they were up 11 in that game with five minutes left, I just would have assumed they were going to come down and score.

But I do think they're very similar to the Bengals.

That was one of my big things that I thought might be the case heading into the season, and that's definitely the case now.

I'll say this.

Their offensive line might be better than the Bengals because Dak had time and they established the run.

it's not i mean but you know if you're going to compare him to the bengals

yeah dak through for we're making it seem like dak was um

tom brady in 2007 he was 188 yards for no touchdowns

but um pass interference and a couple drops that probably could have been a little bit better next question for you do you think the giants after what you saw today can can the giants have a chance to definitively have the best defense in the nfc east i guess we'll find out on Sunday after we're looking at.

We'll find out.

We had that in our threads

on paper.

It's apparent.

And the way that these two defenses played, again, the Eagles without Carter, so it's not really appropriate as a measure for what that defense is capable of.

By the way, they might be without him in week two.

Fair enough.

The whole spitting,

spitting fiasco.

Dallas has their next,

what do they got?

They have, oh, home Giants, at Bears, home Packers.

It's their next three.

That feels like a one and three.

That's a tough start to the season.

Yeah.

Next thing I have for you before we get to all of our picks and everything else we already did.

The taunting thing.

I just got to get this off my chest.

So every year they have to throw one dumb new wrinkle with how to affect the style of play.

I almost feel like so it can be a conversation point for people like us and for people watching the the game on social media.

They want to like tweak one thing and make it weird and make people go, wait, what just happened?

And today it was the taunting where I think it was, who's it, Nolan Smith?

Good tackle.

Did a, did like a bodybuilder pose after a little flex.

And it was a huge play because I think it would have been like third and 12, third and 13.

Gets the taunting.

Nobody knows what's going on.

And

And about a half hour later, the Eagles get the fumble recovery.

And I forget who got the fumble, but he leads everybody into the end zone so they can do a choreographed 15-second tush-push celebration.

And it's like, so on the one hand, I can't taunt anybody.

I can't do elevate in any way, any sort of aggression.

On the other hand, take 15, 20, 25, 30 seconds to taunt the entire team with some sort of goofy celebration.

What are we trying to do here?

Which way are we going?

Get somebody who knows what they're talking about on that's not me.

But my instinct is that their taunting goal is to not have guys in the face of other guys.

And that Nolan Smith was too close, too proximate to

a Dallas guy because they're trying to lower the temperature.

They don't want, you know, hand-to-hand combat.

But I mean, that's just a dumb theory.

Football?

Like, isn't that what's supposed to happen?

You have a hit, you do something, and then you kind of

let it out.

It's a rule for nobody.

Like, who is that?

What goal are we serving with calling a penalty on the Nolan Smith play?

Like, in whose interests

are we asserting that this is outside the bounds of conduct that's desirable?

Yeah, by the way, this was a game that had multiple big fights in it and a guy spitting on the quarterback of the other team.

So I don't know.

The ship might have sailed.

I don't know what they're trying to do with this, but I feel like that taunting thing, it's going to swing a game at some point in these first three weeks and people are going to lose their fucking minds.

Properly so.

It's going to be like fourth down, two minutes left, big play, you know, some sort of dumb taunting thing, all of a sudden a second fourth down and they convert it.

It's the worst kind of penalty because it is 1,000% in the judgment of the referee standing there to make a quick, snap assessment as to whether or not it rises to the level of a foul.

And that's the worst.

Because there is no bright line.

Nobody watching tonight's game would say, oh, he crossed the line.

We don't even have to have a debate as to whether or not Nolan Smith crossed the line.

He didn't.

We've seen that football play 10 million times.

It's perfectly within bounds.

Nobody's upset.

Good job by him with the tackle.

Good job by him celebrating.

Can we just play football?

No, we're going to have these judgment calls by these guys who are coming from

bad angles, bad,

trying to make a judgment.

And it's going to, like you say, it's going to tilt the outcome and it's going to make everybody lose their minds.

He would have been better off leading his teammates over to the side and performing the macarena with them.

They would have been like, this is great.

Hey, macarena.

That's a penalty.

Penalty on you.

Penalty on you.

You're a bad musical choice.

Flag on you.

All right.

Well, we didn't learn that much today.

We did learn, though, that that was too many points.

And it's something maybe that we should consider going forward.

We talked about a couple of the higher line games, but just in general, week one, clumsy, weird, awkward, new guys in new places.

Nobody's practiced enough.

And just let's be careful out there.

We are going to take a break.

And then House and I are going to bang out the week one slate in the first batch of Ringer 107 picks.

I can't wait, House.

Let's go.

Let's go.

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House and I, we just talked about Eagles, Cowboys.

We have now traveled back in time, Marty McFly style, to break down the rest of the week one slate.

You were on the, man, I loved you and Dubundo and Sal on Ringer Gambling Show on Wednesday.

I was power walking around L.A.

It was 130 degrees.

And little, little young Dubundo, it was like watching a little kid at the Thanksgiving table with his uncles, just being so excited.

The vibe was great.

I just loved it, house.

That's so nice of you to say.

I'll say, for me, it felt like the three of us have been pals for, you know, 30 years.

Like then, the bundle fit in seamlessly.

It gave a nice energy to the oak, old guys, me and Cuz.

But yeah, man,

the thing that the three of us have in common, dirty gamblers.

I mean, we are going to get 50s on these Wednesdays.

That's what the only idea I sent you guys was let's get weird.

The last segment should just be the weirdest bet you actually might make during the week.

And we're going to talk about a ton of bets.

right now.

So we're in this Ringer 107 contest that it's going to be our show against the fantasy football show the thursday ringer gambling show the friday ringer gambling show and then shio capatia solo unibommer style on friday it's just on his pod i love it um and we're picking five games a week and then 17 games during the playoffs it's 107 picks total we are apparently favored on fan duel to win this contest house with good reason i mean i'm giving a standing ovation to fan duel they understand

old wise guys just doing great um we're gonna go through the whole slate.

And I want to initially go through the stayaway bets because there are a few of them.

What we did was House and I, you're going to have one.

I'm going to have two.

And we're going to agree on two.

And that's going to be our five.

One of those is going to be a parlay.

But I really, this gives us a chance to go through the entire suite.

And there's some stayaways, but there's some, I'm really surprised how much I like the slate.

Do you find as you look at it, and maybe we've just been staring at these teams for four or five months, but I feel like I have a really good handle this week.

How about you?

So I totally agree.

One of the things I found myself doing this week was reconsidering some of the, I had strong conviction at the beginning of the week.

The line started like too, like too strong.

Well, this is the concern.

Some of the lines started moving in the direction against the sides that

I liked.

You know, the price got more expensive.

So I was like, damn it.

I don't, if everybody is betting in the direction that I want to go, like the Ravens went from underdogs to favorites over the course of the week.

There was a half point added to the Jags and the Panthers over the last couple of weeks.

There's more, more examples.

Everybody is on the Giants.

That line is all the way down to five and a half.

It was seven earlier.

I can't believe that.

That was going to be one of my picks.

I thought we were going to be able to get Giants plus seven and a half.

And now it's like basically under six.

Yeah, it's five and a half right now on the FanDuel Sportsbook.

So I got nervous.

And as a result,

when we have this conversation about what we end up with, I just went back to some of the hits, man.

I'm like, who can I trust?

What quarterback and coach can I trust to get the job done in week one, Bill Simmons?

I'm so excited that we're going to be aligned this year.

I did million-dollar picks for a while.

It was fun.

The figures were confusing.

I felt like at any time I could game the system.

This is just pure.

We're doing 107 picks and we want to get to 60 wins.

Where are you going?

I want to go 16, 47.

I would take 1647 right now.

Would you?

Really?

It's an incredible outcome.

What do you mean you would take that?

Of course you would take that.

I'd really take 65 and 42, but 60 and 47.

Buddy, that's an amazing outcome, 60 and 47.

I'm shooting for the stars.

All right.

No reason not to.

All right.

Stayaways.

I have six.

Browns, Bengals.

The Browns are in Cleveland.

That just made you like spasm and hit your mic.

Browns are in Cleveland.

Bengals notoriously suck in the first two weeks of the season.

I'm not sold in their defense.

Neither are you.

Browns plus five and a half.

There's a lot of good home underdog division.

You know all the bets.

The home underdogs at home for week one are like 23 and 7.

I'm not taking the Browns.

I just crossed this one off because if I had to bet, I would take the Browns.

I'm crossing it off.

So you agree with that, correct?

Totally fair.

And I do agree.

I think the one thing that

especially counsels in favor of caution is what if the browns defense is like the defense that they had at home in 2023 right remember that and the browns know the bengals they give the bengals a hard time there are a lot of reasons to in favor of the browns and yet we're not betting on the browns in week one just not gonna betting the browns if there was a bet i'm just not betting on the browns i'm not betting on joe flacco nothing

If there was a bet I would do, I would do like an alt

high Bengals, like Bengals Bengals winning by like 20 plus.

Okay.

One of those.

I get it.

The Bengals just blowing them out.

And it's like 35 to 7.

It's like, oh, the Bengals, here they are.

But I'm not going near that.

I feel like if you're going to do that, do that or bet the Browns on the money line.

That's one of the ends of the.

Stay away from this straight up.

Next one is your team, the Washington Seawards.

They're playing the Giants.

They're home.

The line has moved two points.

I love the Giants.

Now I'm scared.

There's some not positive the Giants are 100% healthy for this one either.

And there's a lot of people in the bandwagon.

It's one where I like the Giants going, being better than people think.

I have Washington being worse than people think, but now I just feel, this feels silly now.

I don't know how your team's giving less than six points.

Right.

And, you know, I've said on this very podcast that I am very afraid of this particular matchup.

Jaden Daniels was good last year against the Giants, but Washington beat the Giants last year by three points and by five points.

And the three points was in week two when the Giants did not have a field goal kicker.

And as a result, had to go for it on pets.

I forgot about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's the reason that Washington won that game.

I would probably do money line plus 220 Giants in the under,

45 and a half, some sort of parlay if I played this game.

I think it's an official stayaway.

I don't like how many people are on the Giants.

Next one is Colts Dolphins, which is just automatic as a stayaway.

I don't want to bet on the Dolphins.

I don't want to bet on Daniel Jones.

The Lions one and a half that the cousin I called the TikTok zone.

Yeah.

Tyreek Hill, there's some obliques with him where he's limited at practice.

Again, I don't, I want to see, this is one of those where I want to see both teams.

I want to know what's going on with the Dolphins debacs.

I want to know what's going on with their offensive line.

I want to see, is that Ollie Gordon going to be awesome for Miami?

I want to see, how are they going to use Daniel Dimes?

Is Tyler Warren just going to be awesome?

Are they going to be able to throw the ball?

Um, I'm probably not going to see a lot of it because I don't know if this is making a multi-view for me.

Maybe watching the highlights, yeah, like a good one for the highlights.

This is a stayaway, correct?

A thousand percent stay away.

My lean would be Miami because I think that Schraeger made a nice point, a nice observation.

Not only the nobody believes in this, which is funny, but what they're returning on defense in terms of front seven, Jalen Phillips and Chubb, whatever condition they're in, they're healthy this year at least, you know, whatever they have in the tank.

I mean, that's formidable.

So, uh, but I think you're right.

Let's just stay the F away from that game.

I'm going to bold all these leans, and maybe we'll find out a couple weeks from now that we should have done the leans instead of the actual picks.

This next one

almost made the cut for me.

It's the Falcons plus one and a half against Tampa.

And Tampa is a team you and I both like, but Tampa's just really banged up.

It's another one.

It was two and a half all the way up until this week.

And now everybody's looking at Atlanta getting points at home in a divisional underdog kind of situation.

And it's down to one and a half.

I lost my enthusiasm for it.

I like Atlanta in this game.

I do too.

Cousin I talked a lot about how wait on Tampa, let them stumble a little bit in September with all the injuries they have, and then maybe bet on them for division

Columbus State weekend range.

I just don't want to bet the Falcons, and I kind of want to see them.

Pennix has started four games, and he didn't play in the preseason.

And Raheem Palmer's been all over the quarterbacks that didn't make any appearances in

the preseason, and what the historical numbers are in terms of that.

And that lines up for another sort of basis for staying away from this game.

I mean, they come out rusty.

Those quarterbacks tend to come out rusty.

No No left tackle for the Bucs for this game.

Worfs is out, but I think he's come back for week two, unless something changes over the next couple of days.

And then the right tackle for the Falcons gone for the year.

Right.

Too many red flags all over the place.

Plus, NFC South is just complete stayaway.

Rams, Texans.

This is now Rams minus three.

There's been some Rams money.

And I think it's because The Texans have had some, like Kirk looks like he's going to be out.

Nobody knows what the Texans running backs.

And it feels like Stafford's playing, and it feels like the left tackle for the Rams is playing too.

My lean would be the Texans, and especially with the points, because I think their defense is the best unit in the field, but I don't want to bet against McVay.

Another stayaway.

Well, the reason to bet against McVay is, you know, historically, he and the Rams have had slow starts to the season.

So if you wanted to talk yourself into the Texans, I was prepared to bet the Texans.

I have bet bet the Texans already in a teaser.

I had the Texans and the Broncos in a nice teaser.

Of course, teasers are too expensive over the course of a season to make it worth your while, but I bet it, you know, over the over the summer.

And I prefer the Texans side, but this injury situation, too many unknowns.

Let's just watch them play football.

Stafford, I feel a lot of kinship with an old guy with a bad back.

Do you think he likes seafood and sparrows?

We could invite him out.

He's in L.A.

He can have a seafood tower with us.

It just sounds like he should be sitting when Chris Chen finally invites you to play at Bel Air.

Just Stafford just sitting there at 4 o'clock talking about how much his back hurts.

Unfortunately, he's the quarterback of the Rams.

Yeah.

There we go.

Staying away, but very interested in that game.

Yes.

I think that's one of those where I really want to watch.

Both sides, both units, because I think

both teams have some upside as a possible contender, especially the Texans because their defense.

Every fantasy league I'm in, I had the Texans defense.

Yeah, I love that.

Texans defense for sure.

That one, also, look at the total.

It's 43 and a half, and I'm still fine with under on that game.

Me too.

So you're leaning Texans or Rams in that game.

What's your Texans, Texans, Texans?

Yeah, me too.

All right.

So we have all the same leans.

And then the last one is Jet Steelers.

Not only is this a stayaway, I don't even have a lean.

You could walk me in any scenario.

If I I had to actually, I wish there was a way to bet on this on FanDuel.

The Steelers winning, but somehow not covering, I feel like is in play.

I think the Cousins South special is in play.

I don't know what to expect from Rodgers at age 42.

I don't trust Justin Fields at all.

Veron Tucker's out for the Jets now.

I don't even have a lien, House.

Do you have a lien?

I do.

And I almost put this in the mix.

And the reason for that is because I do feel like I have a good feel for what the best unit on the football field will be.

And it's the Pittsburgh Steelers defense.

And the Pittsburgh Steelers always arrive.

Tomlin always arrives at the beginning of seasons prepared.

They don't like they like week one last year, they were getting points on the road at Atlanta.

That was one of my favorite bets of the entire season, 2024, week one, Steelers getting points.

And we made some money.

early in the season riding the Pittsburgh Steelers because they show up.

Defense, their defensive unit was ahead of all of the other offenses that they faced in the early season.

And that's what catapulted them to that 10-win total and put them in the playoffs.

I like that unit against this Jets team, against a quarterback that they know, against a brand new head coach.

So those were the reasons why I was willing to do something with Pittsburgh.

But the line moved.

Like, why did the line, why did it go from three to two and a half?

This Pittsburgh has been favored by three all summer long, all the way up until this week.

and now it's two and a half.

I don't like that.

I want to know somebody tell me why that looks like.

I'm nervous.

Yeah.

Why is the line moving?

Just sit tight.

Just sit there.

Anyway, I'm staying away.

I understand.

If there's a play, it's probably Steelers and under.

Sure.

Something like that.

Steelers adjusted under, where you bring it up to like, you know, 49 points or something crazy with the Steelers minus two and a half.

I mean, literally, we might see 90 combined rushes in this game.

The two teams might combine for 90 rush attempts.

The only thing that worries me, and this is why I barely even had a lean, was the Jets were so dysfunctional last year,

not only from a coaching standpoint, but the Rodgers situation.

And I have like some of the stuff I've read about Aaron Glenn.

And I just wonder, is this a coming out of the gates?

And they're just pounding the ball and they have some identity.

So I don't want to find out.

There's still talent on that defense.

That's the reason why I feel like it's okay to stay away.

JJ is all over the Steelers.

So that's another reason.

That's another reason to lean the Jets.

Come on, bro.

That's a low bro, bro.

I have to get out of them.

Four that almost made the cut

and still might make the cut for all we know.

Packers Lions.

Packers are minus two and a half against Detroit.

That line bumped after the Parsons trade.

There was a really interesting quote today, House, from Parsons about

how he was in in the locker room getting treatment and almost the entire team was in the locker room.

And he was really like thrilled.

And he's like, I've never been part of a team where you could have said that.

Just seems energized.

And then there was some other stuff about this is why they got him.

They wanted to pull him out of a relatively dysfunctional situation, put him in this infrastructure around good people with a great coach and, you know.

just watch him blossom.

I could see him going nuts in this game.

You and I are both short on the Lions this year because the coach and coordinator changes and the offensive line stuff and the fact that they had such a good year last year.

Something's holding me back, house.

Well, there's some wide receiver injuries with the Packers.

Yeah, that's one thing.

Parsons, getting an injection, made me a little nervous.

That's another thing.

And I don't know why the Lions are not three.

And I think that's the number one thing for me: that it's just two and a half.

I don't know why somebody would take the Detroit outdoors in Lambeau with blessed of a lion.

I can't quite get there.

And

I thought I was going to have the Packers in ringer 107.

I was like really, really convicted on it for most of the summer.

And now,

no.

Well, here's a couple of things.

In the first place,

Dan Campbell has been excellent against Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers.

He's six and two.

The Detroit Lions have gone into Lambeau and beat the Green Bay Packers the last three years in a row.

Wow.

So that's how Dan Campbell is six and two against Matt LaFleur.

Now, there are extraordinary numbers about the way that the Packers under LaFleur start the football season.

He has a great record, one of the best records in the entire NFL.

He's like 90% the last six years or something.

It's really good.

It's in that vicinity for sure.

Here's why.

And by the way, the look ahead line on this was Detroit minus one and a half.

The Detroit, well, let me say it.

No, No, no, no, that's wrong.

I'm sorry.

It was Green Bay minus one and a half.

I'm sorry.

I misstated that.

It was more exciting when it was Detroit minus one and a half.

It was Green Bay minus one and a half.

It's gone up a point, a full point, right?

I am concerned that this is Detroit trying to tell the world,

don't make that mistake of forgetting about us.

They still have a ton of talent on both sides of this.

Is it like a borderline?

Nobody believes in us, Case?

It's just a game in this game.

They're like, they see all of this this chatter about green bay people like us saying we're happy to have our green bay futures green bay to win the nfc north green bay to make the playoffs green bay to make a deep run green bay with with a speculative tickets on the super bowl speculative tickets to win the nfc conference fans go to the game and they're like this is it the super bowl run starts here right and then all of a sudden detroit's up 10 nothing Exactly.

Yeah.

And I'm with you.

So we're both like, there's something about this game that just feels a little stayaway-ish.

I'm all the way convinced to stay the FOA.

I just want to really enjoy the game.

I mean, the other thing to remember is that Detroit last year, its hallmark was its physical play.

And if you look at like, especially the first eight games of the season, after teams played Detroit, their next games, they went out and got their asses blown off the football field.

So we need to remember that going in.

But for the just that toughness factor, when Detroit has all of its defense, all those guys ready to play, let's just stay away from this one.

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Raiders, Pats.

This has fallen to Raiders plus two and a half.

Gonzalez isn't playing this weekend.

I don't know if it's been officially announced yet, but he is not practiced.

It's clear that something bad happened with that hamstring, and he's going to be out at least for week one, I think.

That's soft.

And

it's really changed how I feel about this Pats team because he's the best player in the defense.

And I think if there was a case for them, especially early in the season, it was going to be centered around their defense doing stuff, Henderson playing right away, Diggs being able to play, which seems like it's going to happen.

And I just, the Gonzalez thing scares me a little bit.

Now, the Raiders don't really have like a receiver you necessarily have to shut down.

It's Bowers.

Yeah.

And that wouldn't have been his job anyway.

But

I don't know.

I haven't liked some of the vibe and some of the stuff I've heard the last couple of weeks about how the Pats have no depth,

how they're a little younger than people realize, how having this much turnover is hard.

I still have them in the playoffs, but it's the one I feel the worst.

Well, because I picked it a week ago.

I know.

You have to say it by it.

It's the one I, it's like I can change it now, but it's probably the one I'm the most nervous.

The season hasn't started yet.

No, I'm going to, I'll ride with it because their schedule is so easy.

I mean, they used to be the team that was part of the easy schedule for other teams.

It's weird to say this.

I think whoever wins this game gets the seventh seed.

Wow.

And I can't believe I'm saying that for week one, but I have one of these two teams definitely in the playoffs.

And

I like the spot for the Raiders.

They're going to come in.

They're going to move the ball.

I have no idea if their defense is going to be any good.

I have no idea if the Pats are going to be able to block Max Crosby.

But I think the line is around right.

And I think ultimately it's a stayaway.

I think a month ago, I would have said Pats, week one.

I am betting them.

Well, I'm glad because

you're not requiring me to try and talk you out of the pats in this game

for all the reasons you just mentioned.

I think this is one where let's just sort of see how this shakes out.

Because, you know, here's the thing.

I don't know the answer to coach and quarterback.

Which coach and quarterback do you trust more,

you know, in this week one?

Well, here, the thing with May, and I was watching, it was interesting in the fantasy leagues I was in, fantasy drafts, like basically a $1 guy.

I don't think people are expecting a lot from him.

I thought he was incredible last year for how bad his receivers were and how bad the line was.

And he's running for his life every series.

And he was a rookie.

He had the worst coaching staff.

And I think I'm probably way higher on him that there's a chance he comes in this season and he's just incredible.

If I had to do anything in this game, I would probably tease the Raiders to eight and a half.

Okay.

But we're not doing that for Ringer 107.

And I want to root for the paths.

So good.

Okay.

This next one, Cardinals Saints, you threw down as one that you had a lot of interest in.

So make the case.

Cardinals minus six and a half at home against the Saints.

It's the Cardinals are at New Orleans.

Cardinals at New Orleans.

And I knew that.

There's another one.

I think the line is it five and a half.

Oh, it's six and a half.

It stayed at six and a half.

Okay.

Cardinals at the Saints, who everybody considers to be the worst team in the week.

So this is, you know, for the Cardinals, their coming out party for everybody that's invested in the idea that there is a step up for them, that Jonathan Gannon, this is the year that defense, especially with his acumen in terms of scheming,

they haven't had the personnel necessarily that fit the Gannon mold.

They're supposed to have it this year.

And the offense was a top 10 offense by a lot of advanced metrics last season.

Kyler, over the course of the season,

they had a legit chance to make the playoffs.

Do you ever feel good about betting on him ever?

Never.

I try not to bet on the Cardinals.

But in view of what we have all come to believe about the Saints, now here's the thing with the Saints and the reason why I'm glad you steered me away from them.

They might have a decent defense.

The defense was not an abject disaster last season, and especially at the beginning of the season.

But on the offensive side of the ball, they still have a bunch of of dudes.

It's still Rashid Shahid.

It's still Olave.

It's still Kamara.

It's still, you know, Taysom Hill in that combo.

It's still a terrible quarterback.

It seems like their offensive line is better because I bet them six weeks ago to have the worst record or be under three wins or whatever.

And it does seem like the new coach bump, the nobody believes in us factor, the fact that not one person is even considering them to do anything.

And because they have the the worst quarterback situation of

the league, everybody's like, yeah, they're going to suck.

But they did seem like they hit on their left tackle.

Thanks.

It does seem like they have a bunch of guys back and they got rid of Dennis Allen and that fucking terrible coaching staff.

And

the draft pick, that rookie has a

multiple effect, a multiplying effect in

moving that the bum who was one of the worst left tackles in the NFL over to guard where he has less impact.

The thing with Rattler is like,

they only averaged 12 points with him at quarterback.

But look, all those guys were hurt.

Kellen Moore, you know, with his acumen.

Now, Kubiak did his best, we would say, last season when they came out and went back-to-back games with only 40 points.

But it fell apart because of the injuries.

Nobody had

worse

luck injury-wise than the Saints last season on the line, on the offensive line.

So week one,

Saints home voodoo just looming, right?

We've seen it a bunch of times.

I think everybody is going to pick the cards or throw them in a tease

or put them in an elimination pool.

They're just put them in a money parlay.

Just throw the cards in.

They're playing the Saints.

It'll be fine.

And meanwhile, the Saints are at home, which makes me nervous.

And how many times has Kyla Murray completely fucked a parlay or a tease-up?

I can't think of maybe Trevor Lawrence.

But Kyler Murray kind of corollary.

Out of all the under 30 quarterbacks, who has destroyed more parlays and teases?

Who's let you down more?

Like, I wouldn't go near this game.

Yeah.

If I did anything, I would bet Saints Moneyline because I feel like...

Remember Bengals Pats last year, week one?

Right.

The Pats beat the Bengals 16-10.

It's like, whoa, who saw that coming?

There's going to be a who saw that coming this game or this week.

And I think it's either this one or the next one we're going to talk about, which is Denver, a line that has climbed out to minus eight and a half at home.

Everybody's on them, including me.

I have a staggering amount of future bets on them.

They're playing Tennessee, rookie quarterback on the road.

There's a million stats about a rookie QB first start.

Go against them straight up.

The spread bets aren't great.

Denver's defense, they run it up at home.

They have 14-plus win victories from last year.

They had a bunch of them.

There's all these signs.

Just throw them in a tease.

It'll be fine.

I'm not as worried about this one because I really believe in Denver.

There's a spot when we do the Ringer 107 that we could potentially put them in, but the line is so high.

Like, House, did you think about Tennessee plus eight and a half?

No, I did not, but I would not bet Denver at eight and a half.

It's too many points.

It's the point that you just made.

It's way, way too high.

There's not a 10-point difference between these two teams, especially the only thing that, you know, council's in favor of confidence in Denver is what if Callahan is the same moron that he was last year.

Because I, I what if their special teams are off or what if the coaching's bad?

Yeah.

I've said it before.

I, no team was, was less prepared, worse prepared week in and week out than the Titans.

And that's how they went 2-15 against the spread, an all-time historical low mark mark against the spread because they were just ill-prepared week in and week out.

And I was dying to pick them as the seventh seed because of the schedule because I really think Cam Ward is going to be potentially a special QB.

I just, the coach, he's going to all of a sudden be a good coach.

He was awful last year.

Awful.

The staff was awful.

The game management was awful.

The special teams was awful.

Awful.

It's just going to be better.

I don't get it.

All right.

Now it's time for a special part of today's episode brought to you by NFL Sunday Ticket

on YouTube TV, our friend.

If you're an NFL fan like me and House,

you got to subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket.

Get every game, every Sunday, all in one place.

You can watch up to four games at once with multi-view.

Also, I would highly recommend just subscribing to YouTube TV because then you get your own local games.

Like you get Washington.

I get the LA games here and you can put that in the multi-view.

I have good news, House.

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All right, House.

Here's what we got.

We're going to do the one o'clock games on the East Coast.

So that's 10 o'clock Pacific time.

We have eight games.

We're going to figure out a multi-view.

Tampa, Tampa, Bay, Atlanta, Cincy, Cleveland, Miami, Indianapolis, Carolina, Jacksonville, Vegas, Pats, Cards, Saints, Steelers, Jets,

Giants, Washington.

So I think our teams have to be in it.

They're still Giants-Washington's in.

By the way, I can't wait to watch Giants Washington.

Home run, Vegas, Pats, home run.

Those are two good ones.

Carolina Jacksonville to see the points and the Travis Hunter piece.

I'm literally shocked that that's the first game that I was, I thought I was going to have to convince you that that's one for us to watch.

That's one that's going to be.

It's going to be in Ringer 107 for us too, but it sure is.

I want to see the Travis Hunter piece.

I want to see

your boy Trevor Lawrence with Liam Cohen, an actual genuine article, a guy who understands modern NFL offense.

The average depth of target for Trevor Lawrence was over nine yards last year.

Nobody stood back there and took, just got blasted because they're running down the Epping football field.

They can't protect that man.

And Liam Cohen turned around Baker Mayfield's career.

Baker turned it around on his own.

But what Liam Cohen did.

Save this for ringer 107.

Jacksonville, Carolina, three.

What's your fourth one?

Is it Tampa, Atlanta?

Is it Steelers Jets?

It's just a rock fight.

We can't have both the AFC South and the NFC South.

I don't think that's

Cleveland.

It might be Cincy Cleveland for me because honest to God, I want to see those.

It's just like Fantasy Borough.

Okay.

And I would want to see those defenses.

I want to see those defenses, both of them, both the Browns defense and the Bengals defense.

So we'll go Cincy Carolina, but then keeping Arizona, New Orleans back pocket for back pocket.

And let's go to New Orleans where it's 10 to 1.

The Saints are leading.

Anyway.

That is,

thanks again to YouTube for crowning me their chief multi-view officer with every game, every Sunday at your fingertips.

Choosing the ones that deserve a spot on your multi-view screen is serious business.

That's why they made me the CMO.

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Okay, Ringer 107.

It's time.

It is brought to you by Fandule, our friends.

We love Fanduel.

And we're going to pick five games.

And again, we're competing against all the other shows.

Fandle made us the favorites.

You have one pick.

I have two picks.

And we're going to agree on two.

And

I'm going to give you the the first pick.

And I think I know what it is.

It's involving the Chiefs-Chargers game.

What is it?

It's a true story.

I already tipped my hand in view of the slate and some of the considerations we've just gone through about games we decided were stayaways.

Let me have the coach-quarterback combination that I trust the most.

This is a divisional matchup on a neutral field.

The Kansas City Chiefs have owned the Chargers over the last handful of years, especially Mahomes and Andy Reid.

And Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid don't lose in week one.

The only loss that you can point to, they're five and two against the spread, six and one

straight up in the seven seasons with Mahomes as a starter.

They lost that Detroit game in 2023, but Chris Jones was out for that game.

And I think he's holding out.

Yeah, Chris Jones was holding out and Travis Kelsey was out as well.

So

what I'm really buying here, though, is this Chiefs team loaded up for this season.

It is, I think, a good

argument that this is the best receiver room that Patrick Mahomes is going to enjoy in, what, three seasons, four seasons at least?

I would say for week seven, it will be.

He's got no rights.

I understand, but still, Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy, that's better than quite a bit of what they went through last season.

Zombie Kelsey, Pacheco's back.

Yeah.

Offensive line's better.

Schraeger talked about it when he was on the pod earlier this week.

There's some,

oh, wait,

you don't think we're the guys anymore?

You don't think Mahomes is in the top spot?

There's some little swagger.

And neither of us like the Chargers.

Neither of us like the Chargers.

I think we both have Chargers under bets and no playoff bets.

I know I do.

I think you do too as well.

Losing their left tackle

before this season.

Probably the second best player in the team.

Not great.

They said they're starting Hampton, which I thought was interesting.

I thought they were going to split time, but maybe it seems like they're going to try to get, and they're probably going to try to run on the Chiefs.

Best of luck.

One of the best run defenses in the NFL.

Here's why I'm with you, and I'm glad you picked this one.

When we did guest the lines on Sunday, I picked Chiefs by six, even though it was a neutral field.

And Sal laughed.

That's a lot.

Who's betting the Chargers in this game?

Fair point.

Fair point.

I think the Chargers,

you couldn't get me to even sniff them until it gets to plus six.

Chiefs minus three is a fucking miracle.

What a great first ringer 107.

Let's back Patrick Mahomes.

I was talking about how Josh Allen might have taken the conch from him this year as the most reliable QB in the league, but

let's back our guy.

He's not chubby, Pat, but he's doughy Pat?

I don't know.

I wouldn't.

He's a little doughy, right?

Is he?

Is he doughy?

I don't think so.

I thought he was taking shit for being doughy.

oh you know who that was it wasn't him it was your new wide receiver debo samuel

i forgot

i forgot i'm gonna say it was debo samuel debo's these nuts is what we're gonna have i'm gonna

running as four nine

nuts is what you're gonna get on a platter how chiefs do an unnecessary shot at debo but yes chiefs minus i set you up for it too i was excited about it you did Chiefs minus three over the Chargers.

That is our first Springer 107 pick.

Congratulations for getting us on the board.

Only 106 more to go.

My first one should not be a surprise to anyone who heard all the pods during the month of August and beginning of September.

The Seahawks are home.

They're playing the 49ers.

They're underdogs, which is fantastic.

It's a team that I am really bullish on, that I have NFC West bets on because I thought the odds were out of whack.

They're five to one.

I have them as a playoff team.

I am a huge Mike McDonald guy.

I am not scared off by the fact that they seemingly went sideways at QB and probably a little backwards with receiver.

I think with the, with Kubiak in there, with this zone blocking offensive line with the two running backs, Zach Charbonnet, I tried to get in every league that I had.

I only got him in two.

JSN, I think, has a chance to be one of the best eight receivers in the league.

And I really, really believe in their defense.

I think they could have a top five defense, special teams.

And then you have the Niners who already have some shakiness with the receivers true right

uh they have kidle and mccaffrey healthy they have a little chip on their shoulder but they have a ton of turnover they have a bunch of like rookies and guys have never been in this situation i'm kind of stunned that the seahawks aren't favored and so if i'm getting plus two and a half i'll probably in real life play the money line but we're not doing money lines for a ringer 107.

uh I'm on the board with Seahawks plus two and a half, and you're making faces, and I don't feel aligned with you at all.

Yeah, I hate this pick.

Um,

I would prefer that this be a stayway that we sit back and watch.

Nobody, there's nobody in any of the analytics community that has the Seahawks offensive line ranked any higher than 29th.

You can't find somebody who takes that, looks at that offensive line objectively, looks at their performance last year, looks at the duress that Geno Smith was under all season long, and

puts in the forecast ahead of time that this offensive line is capable of protecting Sam Donald.

And the one thing that's going to be

four worst ones: the worst.

Houston, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, and Miami.

The worst offensive.

I don't think Houston's worse, and I don't think Miami is worse either.

I don't think either one of those are worse.

We will see.

The one thing about Sam Donald that we know for sure is that he's bad under pressure.

And if there's any possibility that he had top of class time to throw the football, he had on early downs last year, three seconds on 47% of his drop, three seconds or more, which is why he threw the football 20 yards down the football field in that Minnesota Vikings offense and ranked at the very top of class for those deep passes.

He's not going to get any of that with this offense.

And they're going to have to set up the run.

So we're going to need that Seattle offensive line who was bottom three in the run.

So you're violently against this.

I said I hate the pick.

Who would you sub it for then?

You mean in terms of what's on

what's remaining?

Like some of the ones we talked about.

Like, would you put Falcons plus one and a half against the Bucs in this spot?

I like that way better than I like this Seattle Central.

We're a team this year.

Okay.

I'm going to be talked out.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Because here's the thing.

Now I can't lose.

Because if the Seahawks win,

you can rub it right.

I'm going to fucking murder you.

I understand.

All All day.

I accept this.

I accept it.

I will accept it.

The only thing that

you got murdered on for more this summer than if Seattle wins this game is the Frozé disaster when you were here with Jacko.

Well, some would call it a disaster.

Some would call it a gigantic success.

That was an all-time performance by me.

You can say anything to the contrary.

A couple weekends ago, you and Jacko come for the weekend and we did, we filmed a rewatchables that's going to run at some point this summer.

true story

and we hung out the whole weekend it was great and we were making a concerted effort to see each other every year because at any point any of us could be dead at this

50s god only knows what's going to happen to us um

so my wife decides she's going to have a dinner party on friday night with 16 people we blow it out and she she's really excited about this froze machine she bought she's never made the froze and we're sitting in the back and she's making the froze and she's doctoring it.

And she leaves, and House is staring at the Frozé machine.

And Jacko and I are like, No, House, don't do it.

And he's like, I mean, it's right there.

There's Frozé in it.

Why can't I have some?

She wanted us to try it.

She encouraged us to sample it.

Now, just set the stage properly.

I came out on that same Friday.

I was up at 5:30 in the morning on the East Coast, flew out so I could get there in time.

Hear the excuses for us to do the rewatchables, had a marvelous time, and then it's time to let our hair down.

And we go out to the back bar, it's a great setting.

The sun is, I mean, you know, it was perfect California weather.

And the froze.

I thought the Red Sox beat the Yankees.

Well, you enjoyed that part for sure.

Poor Jacko.

And the Frozé, she's like, you guys go ahead and try a little because, you know, she'sn't that forthcoming about the you guys go ahead and try.

I think she was like,

she was encouraging.

Yeah, she's like, I think it was like, if you want to try a taste, not drink all of the froze.

Don't tell everybody the story.

The thing wasn't freezing to her liking.

It wasn't getting frozen enough.

So she was like tampering with the little bench.

And so she leaves to go get ready and do a whole bunch of things.

And House goes over and takes this huge thing of froze, takes a sip and goes, there's not enough alcohol.

It was frozen enough.

Yeah, there's not enough alcohol in this.

Goes, grabs a bottle of vodka.

pours a shot and a half of vodka in the froze.

It's just a floater.

Throws down the froze.

Jacko and and I are just like taking it easy, having like a vodka and soda or something.

You love the froze.

You go back, have a second one.

You

have vodka in it.

You throw that one down.

Now some people have showed up.

And I'm starting to get a little worried about you because,

you know, whatever.

I can tell when you're, I was like, is he tired?

Is he tipsy?

The food comes out at like 8 o'clock, 8.30.

You're eating pork.

Again, we were sitting outside at 4.30 in the afternoon.

That's when we sat down outside.

All right.

So, you're eating food and you disappear for like 10 minutes.

And I think you go to call your wife.

Like, this is like we're 30% in in the dinner party at this point.

And I say to Jacko, where's house?

And Jacko goes,

I don't think he's coming back.

I was like, what do you mean?

You know, I don't think he's coming back.

Johnny does.

So you went back and you went to make a call.

And somehow you just were like, I need to go lie down and you were done.

I had to make a gigantic ice water.

Yeah.

I wanted like, you know, I was like, oh, the food was amazing, by the way.

I don't remember all the chef's credentials, but the pork was effing secreto.

The butcher made me a little secreto, which is like a choice, you know,

the secret.

uh bit like a beautiful piece of wine but i had to go get some uh some ice water to refuel i was enjoying the company everybody's company the friends were out.

You know,

I could tell them how good the froze was.

So you're gone, you're gone for an hour.

I go sit down is the problem.

I sat down with the ice water.

And the next thing you know, I look up and, you know, a half hour has gone by.

And I'm talking to everybody.

And like, I don't know, like maybe 45 minutes, an hour later, like, I don't think house is coming back.

And they're like, where's Joe?

So now Carrie's like, what?

He's gone.

He was barely here.

And Jacko goes, well, he was drinking the froze, which she knew, and she got mad.

She'd already yelled at you about how you had drank too much.

I forgot the whole first batch, but you did.

I didn't know that that was the you know, it was, I thought there was then we tell my wife he was he was drinking the froze and he was pouring like two shots of vodka in it.

And she goes, Wait, what?

I put so much booze in that, you just can't taste it.

So, you were having like quintiple froze.

So, froze house.

Now, we're calling you Jose.

Frozé House just

was out.

You threw like four innings.

You didn't even get 15 outs to be official for a winner or a loss.

I think I had 11 strikeouts in those four innings, though.

They were quality innings.

Well, legendary story.

A lot of Frozé jokes.

Anyway, as bad as Frozé House was, you talked me out of the Seahawks.

And now if we get fucked on this, I'm going to give you more shit than the Frozé thing.

So

we're putting Falcons Bucks in there.

that's what we're doing i'm fine we both like the falcons right

yeah i you know

i just think it's a bad spot for the bucks with uh with the receiver

you know the the new offensive coordinator a couple receivers missing igbuka in his first game even though we all love igbuka

um

man man i'm gonna be really mad at you okay so second pick falcons plus one and a half third one we both like this one the bears i love the bears bears plus one and a half monday night uh i'm in on them to be over on their win total i'm in on them actually to be a playoff team i'm in on ben johnson i'm in on everything i've read i love the moves they made this summer i liked how they beefed up their weapons and uh jj mccarthy on the road on a monday night in chicago Shades of that Arch Manning OSU situation.

And

I just, I'm surprised by the line.

I got to be honest.

Bears plus one and a half was surprising to me.

And I wonder if it's going to flip on Monday.

Do you see the Bears being minus one and a half on Monday?

I do because I think there's enough skepticism about, you know, Ben Johnson and his first game and his impact on Caleb.

Like there was a healthy skepticism built up against Caleb.

And Caleb kind of earned it, but really it was a disaster of a situation.

The thing that made me so bullish on Chicago was the bit, I'll confess it right now, on hard knocks.

When the Bears and the Bills played each other and we saw Ben Johnson, you know,

in kind of game mode, I was just so impressed.

And honestly, it was the diametric opposite of the previous season when I knew to fade the Bears because Abra Flues was a goddamn douche the entire hard knocks.

I couldn't believe like.

Who hired this guy to be a head coach of a football team with the number one draft pick rookie quarterback?

So it went exactly as folks might anticipate.

But I really like this Bears team.

I think their defense, especially.

And the thing that we'll see out of Ocano and

Minnesota is they're going to run.

They're going to try and run the ball.

Like, get your Jordan Mason futures now, get them all lined up, hit rush attempts.

You know,

for the Vikings, you're talking about the Vikings, yes, because the Vikings are going to run the football.

They're going to try and run to protect that kid and have him not having to stand back there and throw the ball down the field.

But I like

the

Bears run defense under the circumstances where they get to anticipate that the Vikings are going to.

Now, I'm that don't mean that disrespectful to O'Connell because O'Connell is going to mix it up.

By the way, no Jordan Addison in this game, right?

Adam Thielen coming from Carolina.

Um, I just like the spot, I also like the Bears and a tease, which we're not going to do, but uh, I thought the Bears as a tease was a taste one.

All right, the two we agree on.

So, we have Chiefs minus three, Falcons plus one and a half, Bears plus one and a half

Ravens

at Buffalo.

Buffalo, a team that I picked to make the Super Bowl.

And yet,

we both like the Ravens in this game.

And there's a bunch of reasons for it.

There's some revenge factor.

Mark Andrews, the prop queen talked about this on Ringer Gambling show today.

By the show, amazing.

By Monday.

the Mark Andrews stuff, everyone's going to bet on him to catch a touchdown.

Like, it's just going to be

almost like the all-time redemption story.

I don't think it's going to be like that.

But

the Bills stuff, the secondary issues for them

really makes me nervous.

Right.

And you talked about it yesterday with the Cuz about when they signed Jordan Poyer and it just feels like they're scrambling for bodies and it's week one.

I think it means maybe a little more to the Ravens to be able to go in there.

This was one I had penciled down as a win for Buffalo for a while, but if they win this one, I hate betting against Josh Allen.

This would be a Josh Allen throwing everybody on his back game.

But I just like, I like the spot for the Ravens.

Yeah,

we're in lockstep.

I mean, the thing, the reason to be nervous is because the Bills have lost two home games in three years.

Like the Buffalo Bills don't lose at home.

Why are we doing?

Why are we doing this?

We're doing this because I think the Baltimore Ravens have the most talent on both sides of the football of any team in the entire NFL.

And the Ravens are my pick to win the Super Bowl this year.

That's, but that's, we don't need all that hyperbole they do have

even with the injuries and and they're here's the cautionary note the way that the ravens establish their offense and get lamar free is they play all this this heavy personnel which is either two tight ends or more pointedly patrick uh ricard the fullback so isaiah likely their number one protecting tight end.

He's out and Patrick Ricard is also out for this game.

So they're they're not going to be able to play out of that heavy personnel.

This is a shout out to Warren Sharp, who did a nice job setting this up.

I do think yet even they're in, even though they won't be able to run out of that comfortable personnel set, that formation that they like, I love their weapons across the board.

I think Lamar showed us last season, especially in that playoff game, that they can get vertical.

Like they lost that game by,

you know,

they sabotage themselves.

It was self-sabotage.

And it was Mark Andrews and it was the turnovers.

They just, if you can, if they don't have the unforced errors,

I don't like the Bills defense.

I think that defense is going to be a real vulnerability all season long.

The thing that saves the Bills, and the reason why I think you're on the right path in terms of having them go far is their schedule is amazing.

They're going to be able to manage their schedule.

If they can get any health at all on defense, they can go on a run for sure.

But this game won week one, Baltimore.

That's why the line went from Buffalo favorite to Baltimore favorite.

Yeah, so this is 4.46 Pacific time on a Thursday now.

If you Google Buffalo injuries secondary, the AI overview is not flattering.

And then you go to the news stories and the headlines are: Bill's injuries at cornerback pose problems.

So what about the Bills secondary?

Cornerback concerns mount.

Bill's injury-riddled secondary faces tough tests.

Bills suffer another injury and already depleted secondary.

They they have both starting quarterbacks, Benford and White, look like they're out and they're having safety issues.

And it's just like, I,

no thanks.

No, thank you.

That's right.

FY, we were trying to be nice, but if you're going to bet on Lamar Jackson in a big game, you want to do it in September.

Sorry, Mallory.

It's true.

Well, they did start off 0-2 last year, the Ravens.

I'm just saying, this is regular season Lamar.

I wouldn't want to do this in the playoffs is my point.

Yes, agreed.

See, now people are going to bet.

Lamar didn't have anything to do with them losing last year.

He did.

The Margaret.

He was awesome, in fact.

He was awesome.

Lamar was awesome.

Why are you so nervous about Lamar Backlash?

I'm not.

I just had a, I was treated to an amazing crab feast with our buddy Warren Sharp at his house because Jimmy Seafood up there in Baltimore sent down all these crabs because of our respect for the Baltimore Ravens.

I would never do anything that would get in the way of a crab cake.

How about that?

I'm in a guillotine league, not the one we're in, but another one with

my friend Casey.

We had the fourth pick

and we took Lamar Jackson.

Awesome.

Great job.

I don't, and it was like 12 picks too early.

I don't think so.

But by the time it would have come back to us, I just don't think you can win a guillotine league unless you have Lamar, Josh, or Burrow.

in the first couple of weeks because those are the only three quarterbacks where you know what you're getting each week.

I know I'm getting a big amount of points.

Anyway,

I'm excited to root for him in this game because I'll have gambling, I'll have fantasy interest, all that stuff.

Last one, we agreed on this one too.

And I don't know how we're going to play yet, but we both really like the Jaguars against the Panthers.

The Panthers not only have, I think, the worst defense in the NFC, not only has them, there been a very strange Bryce Young revisionist history.

Like

I was driving to a haircut today and I was listening to Mad Dog Russo with Troy Aikman and they were talking about how, and by the way, I love Mad Dog.

They were both talking about how good Bryce Young was in the second half of the season.

I was like, Am I missing something?

I remember him being okay and having a couple good games, but now we have reached Bryce Young, it was awesome.

Like, I just feel like people get amnesia, as I keep saying, with what happened last year.

Bryce Young was definitely way better.

We felt good about it, but he's in a situation now where his, they traded Thielen, Coker got hurt.

Uh, Tet McMillan, his number one pick, has a hamstring thing.

I don't even know.

Is he going to be, we're going to be

in the heat potentially.

I don't know how many downs he's going to be able to play.

So I don't know if they're going to have the receivers.

And then conversely, the Jags.

I said this to Sal on Sunday.

This feels like a classic.

Jags look awesome.

You laid out the Liam Cohen case earlier.

the weapons and like oh my god the jet whoa what do we have and i could see them just blowing out the panthers so how do we want to play this is my question because this is we in with the ringer 107 we have wiggle room with one pick where we can do a tease we can do a parlay um

we can parlay an alt under we can go all kinds of directions so we can basically the two things i mailed you we can take the jags money line because i don't like the hook

you can take them straight up it was three and now it's three and a half that's this is another one

So we could take the Jags money line and parlay it with the over of 37 and a half.

And that's minus 117.

The rules of ringer 107 is it could be a parlay.

It has to be minus 120 or better.

The other one we can do is we could just parlay the Jags with the Broncos and do a money parlay, Jags, Broncos,

and

just

hope both teams win.

And that is around this same.

What is your preference?

Or a third option would be just suck it up and go Jags minus three and a half.

Right.

out of those three choices, my preference would be to just ride the Jaguars minus the three and a half.

And not worry about the backdoor touchdown at the end of the game.

Like the

alt total down to 36.

Where was it?

37?

Is that where you?

Yeah.

So, I mean, this is one of my favorite overs of the week, which is.

you know, the Jags unleash with Cohen and Trevor Lawrence.

They're trying to make a statement.

Remember last season, they looked pretty pretty damn good against Miami.

And then Travis Etienne fumbled the goddamn football going into the end zone.

And Miami, you know, took that game away.

But the Jaguars were, I honestly think that that sabotaged their entire season.

They became that team that fumbled away

opportunities to win games all season long through dumb, boneheaded kind of stuff.

I

don't think that the Carolina Panthers defense has improved enough.

There are stories that say they've stabilized.

They're not going to be as bad.

I just don't think that they've improved enough.

And the Jaguars

weapons, those are Cadillac weapons across the board.

And I like that offensive line.

I think if

Cohen and Trevor Lawrence are on the same page about getting rid of the goddamn football within a couple of seconds after snap, it's a formidable offense.

They have the skill guys there.

Thomas is going to have a huge game, I think.

So

I'm not afraid of the three and a half, to be honest with you.

Well, did you see that they're going to play Hunter a bunch at wide receiver?

It looks like boing.

That's the sound of a boner.

Is that what it sounds like?

That's what it sounds like.

Our other option is we can go straight up on this and we can do for our parlay, Falcons plus three and a half with over 35 and a half points gets us under as our parlay bet.

That would be minus 116.

We could move the Falcons up to plus three and a half over 35 and a half.

I don't want to bet a total with Michael Pennix.

I don't want to have anything to do with the total in that tampon.

So let's just do the so you want to do the straight ups.

You're not worried about the hook.

I think in week one, let's just be,

you know, let's be bold.

There's no reason to be like sniffing around.

Oh, how can we find a combination that's going to protect?

Let's let

we doing all that?

We've done the hard work all season, all off season to get to this point where we're finally ready we know what the priors are we know what our our thoughts are we've bet all the futures you and the cousin sal did futures for hours ask me this ask me is there any chance tennessee is going to go in denver and beat denver

it would and the sports book would would make two billion dollars so that would be the reason why because the books will make so much money if that happens.

But what's the how do you get there?

How does Sean Payton and Boeing?

Jag's money line, Denver money line, that could be our fifth pick.

Jags money line.

We don't have to worry about the hook.

Denver just has to beat a rookie QB and

son of Brian Callahan, whatever his name is at home.

I mean, they just signed Boniti to an extension and everybody looks so happy.

Everybody in that Denver situation

is really going to lose in week one to Tennessee.

Come on.

What are we doing?

I just want to be on the record.

I am confident in the Jaguars laying the three and a half, but I'm fine with the idea of doing Jags Denver money line.

That's fine, I don't have any problem with it.

All right, here we go.

Official Ringer 107 picks.

We have no losses yet because the season hasn't started.

Chiefs, minus three in Brazil against the Chargers.

Back in Mahomes and Reed, we're back in the infrastructure.

We're shorting the Chargers.

Yeah,

Falcons plus one and a half

at home at At home.

Against Tampa.

We're investing in Michael Pennix.

We are worried about the Bucs receiver issues, new offensive coordinator.

And we want the Bucs, we want to back them starting in October to win that division.

But right now, I have a little rockiness.

House talked me out of the Seahawks.

We went with the Falcons.

Bears, plus one and a half against the Vikings.

We're all in on this Ben Johnson Revamp Bears roster.

Iberflues, the Iberflues bump.

Yeah.

To competent coach from Iberflues.

And J.J.

McCarthy on the road has some March Manning parallels in Ohio State.

Ravens, minus one half against the Bills, really because of how banged up the Bills' secondary is in early season Lamar.

And then last but not least, after a lot of haggling, Jaguars money line against the Panthers.

We think the Jaguars have a chance to blow out the Panthers, but we'll just grab their money line and we're going to put it with the Denver money line against Tennessee.

And that is under minus 120.

So that fits for the Ringer 107 parameters.

Good luck to us, House.

Best of luck to us.

I'm not going to forecast what I think is going to happen this week.

I don't want it to be thrown up in my face by our competent competitors, but I like our slate, Bill Simmons.

I like our slate more than I liked you against the Froze two Friday nights ago.

I won.

It's a whole batch.

Your wife's mad at me.

The Frozé was saying they won.

Your wife got mad at me.

That's Ringer 107 brought to you by Fando Sportsbook.

And don't forget to check out Ringer NFL Fantasy Football, Thursday Ringer Gambling Show and Friday Ringer Gambling Show because that's who we're competing against.

One more break, and then I want to talk quickly about this Kwai Leonard thing.

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All right.

So, House, a couple of days ago, I was talking to Zach Lowe because he had returned to the States, and

we were saying how boring this NBA summer was, that nothing had happened, that it was the driest NBA summer we had had this entire decade.

We had really no international basketball, we had no Olympics, we had no bubble basketball,

just nothing.

And then all of a sudden, the Ballmer thing happens.

Pablo Torre, who was on this podcast

couple weeks ago, I can't remember how many.

The journalist, Pablo Torrey.

Yeah, he journalisted it up.

He sure did.

This was a great story.

Out of this.

Great job.

He really did.

Good job by him.

This crazy story about Steve Ballmer and this company that, what was it called?

Aspiration?

I had never even heard of this company.

It was a big Quipper sponsor.

Ballmer had invested in it.

There was money being

spent on Kawhi Leonard's services that he was not really rendering.

And it was just a lot.

He had the option to render services.

I guess he declined to render.

It was a lot of breadcrumbs.

It was a whole heaping cup of breadcrumbs.

And it confirmed at least uh

the story we'll find out if it's true or not because the nba is going to investigate i'm not saying the reporting wasn't true i'm saying the actual is there did bomber actually launder money through this thing to pay kawaii leonard which is what the nba is going to investigate

um

it confirmed a lot of stuff that we've always felt was going on both anecdotally

and whisper stuff and just

this is a whole world of the NBA that they would rather we didn't talk about.

I've talked about it anecdotally on my podcast a few times about star players being allowed to use the team plane for their own purposes or being allowed to stay at, you know, an owner's beach place for two weeks with a bunch of their friends.

Like, there's a lot of nooks and crannies in the CBA.

The league just does this.

They're like, we don't want to know.

We don't want to know.

You and I won't name names because this podcast is

too popular.

I felt like I could get away with it in some other form, so I did name names.

But things like,

you know, a couple big star players landing in a city where you really have a hard time figuring out what the attraction was for those two players.

But looks like there's some might be some investment vehicles, maybe outside of the United States of America, where there's some wink-wink investment stuff.

An inside, you know, sight line of sight on some investments in foreign jurisdiction, teams that you know figure out a way there's there's some star players with documentaries and who knows you know where the economics go with with that kind of thing just that kind of stuff all kinds of businesses there's a lot of ways to do this and this was always like with tom brady and and craft with the patriots for the last basically 10 years with tb12 running you know and having a whole facility right next to gillette stadium and there was always

always uh people wondering um

And look, I think any league is going to be like, we kind of don't want to know unless you force us to try to have to find out what we should know.

In this case, the Clippers came out pretty aggressively saying, especially from a bomber standpoint, that this was not true.

And they, you know,

I thought what Cuban said was interesting and it...

It backed up something that I thought

because I read all the stuff and, you know, the way it was all laid out, it was pretty damning that there was more than a smoking gun here.

This was so sloppy

that it almost makes me think,

I kind of just can't believe everything I know about Balmer, how shrewd of a businessman he is, how thoughtful he is about everything, like even how they did the Intuit Dome,

every piece of that place he put so much thought into.

And I just think he's like a really honest guy.

He's not like a cut corners old billionaire who just fucking does whatever.

He's really on it.

And all of this that was laid out was the slappiest shit I've ever seen.

And I'm just like, I just can't believe he was this dumb.

That's, that's kind of where I've landed.

And maybe, maybe he was this dumb.

So if we wanted to, but I can't believe he was this dumb.

Yeah.

So the, the, the way to get to where we are right now and trying to answer the ballmer question is, do you really think that the 50, what was the investment that he made?

Wasn't it

the investment in this?

I don't want to go.

We don't need to go into the middle of the moment.

Well, it just wasn't enough money

for it to necessarily be something that he, his own self, is sitting down and looking at the investment thesis.

Now, I'm not suggesting that he didn't do his diligence, but he entrusts quite a bit to a whole

cadre of people in his support system.

And this could be one where somebody in his support system said, I see a pathway for this investment here.

And, you know, by the way, now I'm not suggesting anything necessarily nefarious out of his investment team and connecting the dot with Kawhi.

That could have come later.

But this thing was attracting celebrities.

They were trying all kinds of celebrities.

Look at the list of creditors.

The Boston Red Sox are a creditor.

Like whoever

the brain trust was behind this Ponzi scheme, those people

had access to, you know, big swinging dicks.

And I'm not suggesting anything about Ballmer himself missing here.

To me, the plausible explanation is his investment team was swayed.

They saw that the other investors were other teams, other celebrities,

that kind of thing.

Not that dissimilar from the crypto thing

that turned out to be a fraud with all of the...

Well, and that's another thing.

The crypto and the Bitcoin is another way to take care of people, and you wouldn't even know it happened.

Interesting.

Interesting.

It's uh

it's the, it's the, it's the sleazy side of the league, and it's existed for a long time, and it's always been whispered about and talked about in all these different ways.

And this is one of those where it's like, see, see, this shit does happen.

But you really have to believe Balmer, who is a super smart guy, just completely,

completely fell asleep at the wheel.

And maybe he did.

But my reaction was like, wow, this is some of the dumbest shit I have ever seen.

If this is true, like, what are, because what's going to happen is they'll get,

they'll probably, the contract will maybe even be nullified, who knows, but they'll be fined at least as much as the Joe Smith thing.

They'll lose at least 45 first-round picks.

It may be fine.

Maybe worse, right?

Because the other problem is the other owners are pissed.

Right.

Because they got him at, you know, a slight, slightly less than market value right you know it's just yeah and then the other piece of this this was

kind of discussed at the time i remember talking about on my podcast but everybody heard about kawaii's uncle uncle dennis oh yeah that had his hand out that whole free agency and to every team that talked and um was kind of unlike any other person that any team had to deal with so and then there was some somebody reported about how the Toronto owner had said how this guy tried to make me arrange all this money.

So it's just a mess.

And I'm sure Adam Silver got through the summer.

It was like, this has been great, man.

We figured out this EuroLeague thing.

We squashed this.

We have a hard Maverick Saudi thing.

We have a hard salary cap.

We've put in a hard salary cap.

Matt SBS seems like he's threatening to be confident.

I got 4.25 billion for freaking Portland.

Like we're the expansion's not happening anymore because we're all making so much money.

We're doing great.

What a great summer.

I'm just going to relax this week, but these next couple of weeks, I'm just going to be somewhere tropical or in the sun or in some beach house.

And then this comes down with Balmer, an owner that everybody likes.

So

I have no idea what's going to happen.

An innovator.

Yeah.

But Pablo's team, like, you know, because Pablo has a staff.

Yeah.

They broke this shit down.

They found documents.

Like they

just did an awesome job.

And I don't know how it plays out.

So if you had to bet,

if you had to bet,

does this lead to like a Joe Smith type situation?

Or is there some sort of explanation?

If I gave you those two choices, there's some sort of explanation that gets them out of this, or it's going to be more like we are slapping your hand really, really hard with a bamboo stick.

There's no explanation that gets them out of this.

They are going to be punished.

I think there is an explanation.

I think that Ballmer will be sufficiently distanced.

I do think the most plausible explanation to me is somebody and his investment team found this thing, was persuaded, let's put in the chunk of money that they put in.

And then somebody said, oh, look, they're doing celebrities.

Kawhi, hey, look, man, you could get in on this.

This is going to be an easy gig for you.

And Ballmer is going to have sufficient sort of prophylactic, there'll be layers, right?

You won't find communications.

You won't find direct communications.

Ballmer is like, please tell Kawhi that he can get $30 30 million free dollars if he agrees to to to you know sign up with the with this the dumb ponzi screen scheme tree tree farm whatever nonsense one of the weird things was this was two years after his initial deal right so doesn't time the 2019 piece and then uh the other thing that

like if you're going to say that this actually did happen it's so much money to give to kawaii leonard

If it was like 5 million, you'd be like, all right.

Yeah, this was a Ponzi scheme.

These guys were idiots.

It was 28 million.

And then there was a report today that it might have been even more than that in stock, like another 20 million.

So then when you see that, you're like, man, this looks bleak for Balmer.

Like, I think he's going to have to come out pretty hard if this isn't true.

Well, it's true.

It happened.

He invested the money and Kawhi definitely got the contract and definitely got money from it.

And I think that's enough.

For the league's perspective, who cares what the explanation is?

It happened, but we're putting money in it.

And Kawhi got money.

If he didn't know anything about this, and this is, there's some sort of accident or whatever.

It's not an accident.

He's got to come out really hard and be like, look,

this was not an end around to give Kawhi Leonard more money.

I swear on my kids' lives, like, whatever.

No, no.

You have to go hard to try to prove that this is true because this is going to haunt him for the rest of his career as an owner.

It is.

Well, what was it?

Who is it?

Glenn Taylor?

He's the one that ran the

terrible owner.

This guy owns the Clippers.

He's trying to fight the Lakers in LA.

By the way, the Lakers can't stand the Clippers.

They couldn't be happier about this.

And the funniest thing of all this is, guess where the All-Star game is going to be this year?

The epicenter of the NBA?

The Intuit Zone.

Wow.

That's awesome.

You coming?

Should I get the Frozé ready?

Immediately.

Yes, I'm in.

I'm all the way in.

We'll just be recovering from the Super Bowl.

Okay.

All right, House.

I'm glad we talked that one out.

I'll see you next Thursday.

Hopefully the Ringer 107 went well.

And if Seattle covers and the Bucs beat the Falcons.

You can blame me.

No, just turn your, I would just put your phone on mute.

I would turn your notifications off.

On Sunday?

Yeah.

Maybe I'll do that anyway.

Maybe I'll just do that anyway.

Thanks, House.

Great to see you.

Thanks to Gahal and Eduardo as well.

Don't forget about new rewatchables coming on Monday.

It is a one for us with me and Chris Ryan.

And you can check all the rewatchables we've done on Ringer Movies.

You can check out House on Sunday

on the Ringer pregame,

which I think we moved to 11:30 this year.

The cast is back.

We're going to be doing it on our YouTube channel on the Ringer Gambling Show, Ringer Gambling YouTube channel.

And I can't wait.

I might even pop on.

I might even have a

might even have a pick for everybody.

House, good job by you.

Thank you.

Good job by you.

I wanna see them

when I waste some limits there.

I don't have

a feelings with them.

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