Patrick Mahomes is Unstoppable, Dave's Mom Has a Mike Ditka Story, Film Nerd Showdown with Marc Sessler, Points Per Game with Geoff Schwartz

A few weeks ago here on Football America, we asked if we're watching right now the GOATs in the four major sports.

Last Friday, right after we wrapped up episode number 17, in which we debated which number 17 is ultimately better, Josh Allen or Phil Rivers, number 17, Shoey Otani, number 17, had maybe the greatest postseason game in baseball history.

It's a football show, but we do like the other sports as well.

And so we honor the greatest MLBer of all time.

It is clearly Otani now.

And we may also be guilty of turning our nose up or getting distracted by other pro football players.

We are looking at arguably the greatest quarterback, at least, in pro football history.

I hesitate to say Mahomes is the best football player ever.

I don't know.

Mahomes v.

say like Lawrence Taylor is on par with comparing Patrick Waugh and Mariel Lemieux.

They're both French Canadians who know how to skate, but that's about the extent of it.

Anywho, best ever in football.

Goats.

Even if you don't think Mahomes is the greatest QB ever, we can now all agree he's still good.

And that's bad news for the rest of the AFC.

Is this really going to happen all over again with the Chiefs?

All of a sudden, as much as we've tried talking ourselves out of KC, they look like the conference's best team.

Hate to go back to Mahomes' Thanos.

But he does feel inevitable.

And just imagine if Mahomes and his pals do get back to the Super Bowl.

That'd be four in a row.

And unlike the Bills in the 90s, they've actually won some of those games.

So get ready, everybody.

We can get distracted by Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, but number 17, Josh Allen better steal himself deep down in places he doesn't like talking about.

He knows Patrick Mahomes is inevitable.

Let's start the show.

Hi and hello, my fellow Football Americans.

Welcome to episode 18 of Football America.

We have much to talk about reacting to NFL Week 7, maybe some college football too, with our pal Jeff Schwartz, some points per game for you.

And also in his debut on Football America, one of my favorite fellas in the business, Mark Sessler from Heed the Call on his way.

He'll be participating in the jerk list.

Maybe some movie talk as well.

In the meantime, like I say, fellas, Gino and Mike, Mike and Gino, it is episode 18.

We have to honor the greatest football player to wear that jersey number.

Obviously, a short discussion required here today.

It's Peyton Manning, right?

This is, that's an easy one.

It's got to be Peyton Manning.

The only one I could even think that might be in his stratosphere is Justin Jefferson if you project his career out based on what he's done so far.

Yeah, you got to win a Super Bowl, though.

So it's easily.

Peyton Manning, even though he was a complete liability in that Super Bowl with the Broncos and Von Miller carried him to the finish line, it's Peyton Manning.

We agree Caleb Williams is not headed for the Hall of Fame.

He wears number 18.

Randall Cobb, Chas Joyner wore the number 18 for the Chargers.

He's a Hall of Famer.

Here's a crazy thing about the number 18.

Daryl Strawberry wore it.

One of my favorite things, it's sort of trivia, is in 1988 no one under the sun who watched baseball would have believed that neither daryl strawberry nor doc gooden would make the baseball hall of fame and yet here we are hey a guy who is in the hall of fame is mike ditka and i just learned before we get to sessler and shorts here that um

he's 86 years young, Mike Ditka, one of the legends in pro football lore.

And as it happens, I know somebody personally who grew up on the same block in Aliquippa, PA.

That would be one Michelle Zubasic.

You may know her best from my programs as Mo Damashek.

My mother, Mo, are you there?

I am here.

Hi, Slug.

Hello, how are you?

Good.

Would you like to say hello to Michael Gino?

And by the way, if anybody...

Hi, Michael Gino.

It's nice to see you again.

Hey, Mama Mo.

Mama Mo.

I like that.

I do too.

It's funny that Mo Mo, if you're hearing an echo, it's because old Mo happens to be in the room right next door to me here.

She came out to watch Jean-Claude Van Damaschek and his pals win.

Crespy, shout out to the Crespi Celts.

A program defining win against Salesi in the other day, but that's not what you're here to talk about, Moe.

Like I say, Mike Ditka

was and is your age, and you grew up on the same neighbor, on the same block that he did, but you weren't allowed to play with him.

I was not.

It wasn't a block.

We lived in a community.

It was like row houses, only not charming like row houses it was was a community called Ella Lynmar in Alaquippa Pennsylvania Lynmar

brought well yes right

they were they are still there still producing great football players but Mike Ditka lived like two rows down from me we had a community playground of course but it's the mid

40s 1940s so it's a basic playground slides swings but you weren't allowed to play with him no why why Why not?

Because one day I was hanging from the monkey bars because what else do you do?

Mike Ditka pulls down my underpants.

And I was not the only one.

Oh, no, there were other girls that he would do this to.

So I go home.

I'm crying.

I tell my parents.

As I remember, I think my father went down and talked.

I think his name was Big Mike too, Mr.

Ditka, who was like, what do you want me to do?

And I came home.

I was not allowed to be at the playground when Mike Ditka was there.

I didn't do anything.

But if I was there and Mike came, I had to run back home because who knows what would go on.

It's a shame you weren't available to give Mike Ditka's Hall of Fame introductory speech.

That would have been a nice tale to tell.

It would have been great.

But I moved when I was 11, so we had no further interaction.

So, bottom line, happy birthday, Mike Ditka.

Happy birthday, Mike Ditka.

Yes,

yeah, yeah.

Okay.

We ruined my fun, but yeah.

Say your goodbye to Mike and Gina.

Bye, Mike and Gina.

Good seeing you.

Bye,

all right.

What a treat.

Belated.

I held off on bringing this show, bringing this guy onto the show because he's one of the great delights out there.

And I thought we'd get a little bit maybe of a mid-season swoon, and he would boost our collective spirits.

You know him as one of the heroes from Heed the Call before that, around the NFL for many moons, Always delightful making his pages on social media and otherwise one of the most fascinating characters, not just in sports media, nay, walking the big blue marble, period.

He's my pal.

It's Mark Sessler.

What's the poop, fella?

How are you?

We are pals.

You've lifted me up beyond, I believe,

actual human acclaim.

It's always a joy to be with you.

You've come on our show many times and I'm happy to join you

at this moment.

It's always, it's a little bit of, have you say, like a little slice of heaven?

Well, you know,

we have gone back and forth, obviously, some deep dives on the AFC North.

My team remains the Pittsburgh Steelers.

You've been on again, off again with the Cleveland Browns.

I'd like to talk to you about that.

But before we do anything pro-football related, we're obviously getting into the jerk list in just a second here as well.

Gino and Mike, Mike and Gino preparing the statements that we will react to in just a moment here.

Meantime, you and I have been texting back and forth and so

along with our pal Dan Hanzus on the remarkable picture, probably the best picture of 2025 at minimum.

One battle after another.

How say you, has it lived up?

Did it live up to the expectations?

Hailed as nothing short of the best movie of the generation.

Let's start there.

Does it

standard?

I don't know what generation we're in, but like,

yes, because I think I mentioned to you that

i have this remarkable striking memory um i lived in washing washington dc at the time and their uh their train station had an incredible movie theater that was a wild movie theater it was wild it was just like the population would go in there and make a lot of noise and like um that's where i saw pulp fiction in 1994 that's where i saw

Legends of the Fall with a with a wild girlfriend.

I'll just mention that.

But like

crazy things happen in this movie theater.

And, like, um, not as wild as the, as, as the woman in Legends of the Fall who shares her bed with not one, not two, but all three brothers.

She does.

And, like, she's like, I'm a little innocent person that somehow, because I'm out in the prairie, I can do whatever I want.

Like, and we, and we're kind of sitting there, like, you know, we're postulating that, but like, um, but pulp fiction, I watched it.

The kid from E.T.

gets killed, right?

That's yeah, yeah, exactly.

The kid from E.T.

gets killed in the Great War.

She reacts to that by betting down with the beautiful Brad Pitt, pretty like a girl.

And then when that gets sideways,

she goes to number three, the brother with the limp, and then goes back to Pitt.

Is that how it goes?

A ne'er-do-well.

A hard one.

She rolls out on a train from the East Coast with Henry Thomas, who is Elliot from E.T.

Okay.

Then she is like, well, the other brother who is the little creepy, he's a little creepy.

Like, he's playing a role, so he's a good actor.

But like,

he kind of tries to woo her as almost like an adult figure.

And then Pitt's kind of like, I'm on a horse.

And like, I'm like, I'm Brad Pitts, so I'm like, I'm so ultra.

Just, he's dripping.

He's dripping.

He's beautiful.

That's when you realize, because after River runs through it, like, he goes and does Legends of the Fall and Brad Pitt's like, oh, we all understand.

Like,

even as guys we kind of love this guy

but women are just freaking out and like he's a beautiful beautiful actor and he's good and like

she naturally comes to him at the end and they have like a thing where they're in like I get the brothers out of sequence which which order they went in into her bed or she went in into theirs Yeah, I think Pitt came last and changed everything.

Then he disappears and goes and leaves for Europe for like seven years.

And then he returns like on a literally on a horse, rampaging towards their compound.

And she's out there crying as he returns.

So it's like, we get it.

We get what women want.

I've taken too many lovers from the same family.

What am I to do?

All right.

What were you saying about pulp fiction?

Because then we have to talk about Cliff Booth because Colleen Wolf was here one week ago, another mutual pal, and we had a very brief one-round Quentin Tarantino character draft.

and the standard for this draft was we have to do a different one at another day.

Me, you know, did she take both characters and the rest?

No, she took, and I think she aired, I said, which Tarantino character would you most want to hang out with for a long weekend?

And she took Rick Dalton, which I think is a mistake.

He's a boozy drunk, and maybe a good time, but the better time is Cliff Booth, right?

Well, he's a good time, but like, um, she's turning down Brad Pitt, like Colleen must have a lot of options if she's turning down Brad Pitt out of pocket for, oh, it's DiCaprio.

But, like,

no, I'm left with the third draft pick, which is like a disaster.

But, like,

I don't have a problem with her choice.

I think Rick,

Rick is an adventure.

Like, you don't know what's going to happen.

Cliff Booth's going to take it.

You got that flamethrower?

Yeah,

I might break that out for you.

Well, he might.

Well, that girl deserved it.

I don't think Colleen would, but, like,

you're left with a very strange third pick after the two of them, right?

Am I

wrong?

Like, that's hard.

That's what I'm saying.

We're not just talking about once upon a time in Hollywood, though.

You don't just have to choose from that.

You can choose any character in the Tarantino universe.

Mike Fuentes, who did you take again?

You had a pretty cagey choice.

No, I think, well, my original, when we were doing this whole dance, was I needed the parameters, right?

Because I wasn't sure because I'm like, Hans Landa seems like an interesting guy, but I don't want to hang out with

the Jew Jew hunter for but you're right that he's interesting.

He's interesting, but I don't want to hang out with him, you know.

So I think I ended up picking Mr.

White.

Yeah, Mr.

White from his war dogs.

That's nice.

That's cool.

That's noisy.

Yo, what do you want with the murderous Cretans?

Volatile,

volatile gunmen.

That's like, wasn't that funny?

Mr.

Blonde was the ear-cutting guy, right?

So I don't want him.

Clearly a psychopath.

No, well, no, that's, yeah, that would be a good thing.

Mr.

White had it like a little put together.

He just wanted you to be a professional, you know?

Yeah, so Mr.

White, yeah, you knew he would have a nail to spare for you if you wanted to smoke along with him.

That's about the extent of what he had to offer in my book.

Sessler, all right, it's your turn here.

Go ahead, make your choice.

I really did some research on this.

And also, we were filming this at a time when

there was some sort of insane Amazon-triggered internet meltdown where I couldn't research anything to, right?

Like everyone's, like they see, like

Christoph Waltz as Dr.

King Schultz and Diango Unchained, like

I think he's got this heart of gold.

He's fire.

He speaks with fire to his friends.

He's willing to go against society.

He's just kind of an adventurer and he's got knowledge and he's a gunman.

He's a wild person.

And like,

When I look through all the film library of Tarantino, it's like none of us picked picked a woman, by the way, which is kind of interesting.

But

this is the guy I'd want to hang out with and go to a bar with.

I want to swing through a tavern with two doors that whip open, right?

Like the door they cut open, like the old West doors.

That's my dude.

Like in Christoph Waltz, I live in Hollywood.

I walk

right down Hollywood Boulevard and I walk over Christoph Waltz's star all the time and I'm like, he deserves it.

Some of these people that buy these stars, you buy them.

You don't actually earn them.

You buy them like he earned it.

Like he is a beautiful actor.

And like

to play both characters that we name by him, that's kind of wild, right?

That's kind of wild.

And like he's a very versatile, incredible actor, but I thought he had kindness.

There's just something about him in that movie

that changed me.

And it's like, I don't think it was Tarantino's best movie, and that's okay, but one of his best characters shone through in that film.

I agree with both of the parts you just said there.

Yeah, Mike Fuentes.

Go ahead.

No, I mean, what is it?

It has to be at least top three.

Django has to be at least top three.

It's like in Glorious Bastards Pulp Fiction, Django.

How about shout out to the Christopher Walking guy in Pulp Fiction, his one scene?

At least he would have a lot of good stories to tell you.

It might be a little ponderous after a few hours.

Hi and hello, my fellow football Americans.

We interrupt football season ever so briefly to let you know the NBA season's about to tip off.

And so too does DraftKings' newest fantasy game.

DraftKings Pick Six is the easiest way to play for big wins with every possession giving you a shot at real money.

Here's how you play.

Just pick more or less on two or more stats and unlock the upside every game brings.

Pick six is available in Texas, California, Missouri, and more.

New DraftKings customers get $50 in bonus picks with just a $5 entry on your first pick set.

Don't just watch basketball.

Cash in while you're watching basketball.

Download the DraftKings Pick Six app app now and use code damashek that's damashek d-a-m-e-s-h-e-k play just five dollars get fifty dollars in pick six bonus picks make the call ride the upside in partnership with draft kings pick six the crown is yours Gambling problem call 1-800 gambler help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org in Connecticut must be 18 and over age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction pick six not available everywhere including new york and ontario void were prohibited, one per new customer.

Bonus awarded as non-withdrawable pick six bonus picks that expire in 14 days.

Limited time offer.

See terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos.

Listen, I could do this for the next few hours with you, but we have business to tend to.

It's time for this week's jerk list.

Gino Fuentes, Mike Fuentes are going to read us some statements and we will evaluate whether or not they're credible,

reasonable things to say out loud after NFL week week seven, or if they're knee-jerk over reactions.

Also, if we happen to mention a garden variety jerk or three, so be it along the way.

Start us off here.

I'm not sure who's up first.

Genoer might give it away.

I think I'll take it here.

Okay.

We can go through the trouble of going through the regular season, you know, because gambling, fantasy football, whatever.

But what we should do is just skip to the part where the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl.

Yeah,

I think, Sessler, we've done our best to avoid reality, but it all of a sudden looks like the Chiefs are the best team in the conference.

I love what you just said because it's been my response to multiple seasons in a row where it's like, look, I'm going to spend,

I'll be honest with the audience, I got divorced, okay?

Like football didn't play a great role in all of that.

And the Chiefs are just sort of toying with me left and right.

And it's like,

I'm doing all this work.

I'm not available for family and friends on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays if you decide to take a day for yourself, Sundays.

Last week, the Chiefs played on every single day but Tuesday.

So to your point, yes, they are here to destruct and destroy, and they will be in the Super Bowl.

So I completely agree.

Boy, that was a journey there.

I mean, that's a splashy headline that I would expect to see at the grocery store waiting to

get the bags filled up.

the chiefs ruined my marriage i like it i mean i well it's it's

part and parcel but yeah sure

next up mike fuentes uh mark are you familiar with dave's jenga theory

yes like that well certain things can be the thing that topples everything yes correct so the only real jenga piece with the 49ers through all these injuries is christian mccaffrey

hmm go ahead there

i'd love to know your theory Dave.

I kind of think so because it seems like they just survive.

They're survivors to me.

And it's like they're going to win 11 or 12 games.

They're survivors.

Do I find them thrilling?

Are they the version of the Niners we've seen before?

No, but it's like they kind of DJAF.

They're just like, we're going to keep rolling.

And if you get McCaffrey from

this past weekend, I think they survive pretty well, Dave.

I have to throw one in as far as this goes.

No, I disagree with that, as I've already stated here.

I think they have a ceiling on them that is lower than when they have Nick Bosa in there.

Even with Fred Warner out, Nick Bosa, to me, is what keeps them from winning two, nay, three games in January to get to the Super Bowl.

I just don't think that they're capable of doing that without Bosa and certainly without Bosa and Fred Warner now.

So a good team.

They're going to make the playoffs.

I just don't think that their destiny is a home game in Santa Clara for Super Bowl 60.

I will say this, though.

The thing that really drove me crazy about Sunday night football was, once again, I mean, for three and a half hours, we had to hear updates on, hey, CMC and Bijan Robinson are still pals and they worked out in the offseason.

Like, okay, great.

Great mention, great mention.

How many times over the course of the broadcast do we need to revisit that relationship?

Who cares at some point?

By the way, Pro Football, you're doing very nicely.

You don't probably need my counsel.

I try to give it to you best I I can to make pro football a little better than I found it.

This thing of the jersey swap, at the end of a game, you just played this important game for two NFC would-be playoff participants and the cutaways, are CMC and Bichon trading jerseys with each other?

Get a little WWE in you, would you?

Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Iron Shei got arrested burning tree and getting drunk driving around in a car together 25 years ago, but at least they did it in the privacy of a car they didn't do it out in the open do that in the bowels of the stadium do that out of our eye uh out of our eyesight we don't want to see you two uh playing grab ass with each other after we just spent three and a half hours hating one half of the of the equation anyway no i'm with you i've also found out that roddy roddy piper had a retirement match in wrestlemania and then quietly fought a match the next day in like deep north carolina to make more money It's like, okay, break my sixth grade heart.

Like, Junkyard Dog drove off a road in North Carolina and died or something.

It's like,

you know, and Mike.

Well, I remember, you know, it's the first time Hulk Hogan has slammed Andre the Giant.

He has slammed him like six times before.

You're right.

You're right.

That dirty giant.

I don't know.

I just think we got to throw them all

in one big barrel and announce this, Mike Fuentes.

You're all jerks.

There you go.

That's for everybody there.

Gino, take it away.

No,

they did exactly what we was expecting and hoping they'd do.

Okay, so that was Jamar Chase.

Exactly.

That was Jamar Chase.

So it's no coincidence that the word Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers, no D's in any of those names.

Because they have a lack of defense, Mark.

That's what he's saying.

There's no D's in those either.

I don't know if that's a separate or

is it a sexual?

Is it a sexual?

I don't think that's what Tito was getting.

I don't think so.

Maybe it was.

But you could go that route if you were.

I took it sexually, but like that's probably more, that's how I am.

But like

I believe in the Steelers a little bit more than I thought I would at this point

in the season, Dave.

And like that hurts me.

It has to come always, it's like a dollar.

It's like less change for the Browns, more change for the Steelers.

But like, I believe in Pittsburgh a little bit more than I planned to, and I, I think they kind of

are like F you to the rest of the league.

And maybe Aaron Rodgers is just a little bit better than we realized, and they might

they'll go to the playoffs.

Am I wrong?

Like, I believe that that's.

Well, first of all, where the Bills are concerned, I will keep saying it every time they're mentioned here.

Josh Allen is hoisting all those boats, including Sean McDermott's.

He is outmoded.

He is Donshula for the 21st century.

He is doing harm to the prime of his high-end future, his Hall of Fame-bound quarterback.

And he is limiting what that number 17 is capable of doing in pro football.

Where the Steelers are concerned, I mean, did you see Thursday Night Football?

I mean, the idea that Joe Flacco is kryptonite and it's cute for Mike Tomlin, first of all, he might be the personification of the sort of quarterback who takes down Mike Tomlin teams, which is to say mediocre and on the road.

That is a bad mix for Mike Tomlin teams.

And that's gone on for 18 years now during another guy who's bound for the Hall of Fame and Mike Tomlin.

But

I don't think it's adorable that his teams continue to struggle against these teams.

They shouldn't struggle against like Joe Flacco and the Cincinnati Bengals.

It's a weird kryptonite to have, sort of like Superman, as I've said many times before.

This guy is made of steel.

He's faster than a speeding bullet, you understand.

He can shoot lasers from his eyes.

And his chief nemesis is a bald guy who's smart.

Consider me unimpressed.

Now, Joe Flacco is an old guy.

At least he has some hair.

Maybe 2020 hindsight Coach T,

maybe

crying about another division foe in the Cleveland Bounce trading Joe Flacco, who again is an old, washed up man

to the Bengals shouldn't have vexed you on the level that it did, and it consumed way too much of your time.

Jamar Chase seemed to be studying the game plan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, which I bring up because Cam Hayward and other high-end defenders once again announced, they explained away what happened with

People didn't understand.

We have bad communication and

being in the right gap and all of that.

You're only pro football players making millions and millions of dollars.

There's no reason that you should have figured this out by NFL week seven.

Nay, you didn't figure it out last December and January.

So, this is extending an issue that is ongoing with Mike Tomlin's defense.

And keep in mind, he hand-picked these guys.

He is the one saying yes or no.

This is his scheme.

Don't blame the defensive coordinator, Terrell Austin.

It is not his scheme.

Keep in mind, Mike Tomlin is supposed to be a defensive whiz with a specialty in the secondary.

These guys, Joey Porter and Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey, hand-picked to stop not just Garden Variety wide wide receivers, but T.

Higgins and Jamar Chase.

And they just smoked them again off the right arm of an old man named Joe Flacco.

I think it stinks.

I think

I don't want to get hyperbolic, but I think after 18 years, it's time.

I really do think it's time.

If they can't make some hay come January with the formula that he wanted to use for this season, if it does not work with some legitimate success, and I mean a win or two come the AFC playoffs, then I think it's time to move on already.

We've seen this show too many times on the banks of the Three Rivers.

So

I'm going to say no jerk.

I think that's a perfectly reasonable statement to make, and I'm sorry I had to get up on my soapbox about that.

I think we loved the soapbox, didn't we, guys?

Matters Dolphins fans.

No, no, because you're 4-2, and you're complaining about your 4-2 team after one shock loss on a Thursday night.

The guy's like never had a losing record.

I'm begging.

begging like begging for the message

maybe they should have lost to justin fields and the jets in week one let me let me this is only delayed that the fact that they survived week one only delayed this reaction for like dave in 2017 you were telling me they need they needed to move on from tomlins it's like i'm just this guy didn't tell you that that's jive now that's jive now hit him with the blaster for spreading jive talk mark sessler's a jerk i didn't expect that to happen today but it did you did it to yourself i didn't try to be joe Philbin.

Okay.

Cam Cameron.

All right.

Who else have we had?

Oh, Juanstat.

These are all the things.

These are turning marks.

Yes, exactly.

Joe Philbin.

I forgot about Joe Philbin.

Juanstad is no fun.

Oh, my God.

You know, weird Pittsburgh connection there because he rode Rogers' coattails into a head coaching job he didn't deserve.

Okay, so

last one for me on the jerk list.

It's time for the media and Vegas to start believing that Daniel Jones and the Colts go in football games, I got them before kickoff at plus 115 money line.

That's crazy.

That's crazy.

Mark Sessler, you go ahead

and get that blaster ready, Mike Fuentes.

I watched them and I thought they were a well-coached team last year with major issues player-wise.

And Shane Steichen is a legit coach.

And Daniel Jones was sort of always like, can we, if we can get this guy healthy and rolling, like

every NFL coach kind of like preternaturally falls in love with this person as an idea.

And like he's doing it again right now.

And it's like,

I'm in.

Like this team is real.

Now, I do think it's the kind of team that's going to go, I've seen this before.

Tell me if I'm crazy, but they're going to go like

12 and five and make the playoffs and like lose a playoff game.

And then next year they'll be five and 12.

And it's like, what was that?

Like a seaship that floated away from us.

Like, it may be a mirage in the sense that it's not an everlasting thing, but like they are tapping into something special right now with the best running back in the league and a quarterback that's kind of like

having that one year.

He's having that one year with a coach that's very good.

And the defense.

And

as somebody said on, I think it was a podcast called Football America.

He was touting the defensive coordinator, Lou Annarumo, before the season, saying that he was going to do what Vic Fangio did in Philly a year ago.

And then, nevertheless, I feel like in the last minute or three of my life, somebody just said on the very same podcast called Football America just said, no one in the media saw this coming.

I think those were the words of Mike Fuentes.

Did I hear that right?

That he said, like, the media needs to get on board with the Colts, which is weird because I thought Mike Fuentes was listening when this hit before the season started.

And Dave Davisk, oh, yeah, that's right.

That's who said the Colts were going to win the division.

Where was Mike Fuentes?

I am in the media.

I am the media.

Mike Fuentes, you're a jerk.

Basically a friend at this point, but I'll get it to you.

By the way,

you better wear it.

You better wear it.

By the way, a 12-and-5 team that reaches the playoffs and loses in the first round, and then the next season it drifts away.

What does that remind me of?

Oh, man.

Wow.

Doesn't that remind you of

Campbell McClure?

It exists right now.

This is where we're at with the division.

I feel like I can drive to see it.

Wow, insane.

Before we wrap it up, unless, Gino, you have a gem that you want to get in here.

No, the only thing left was that jersey swap thing, and you stole my thumbnail.

Yeah, so we're good on that, so we're good to go.

I should give you one.

Well, good.

No, I never

did.

I had to make sure I belly ached about that.

I don't want to belly ache about Mark Sessler's divine opinions on cinema.

Let's do this one.

You can only watch one person's movies for the rest of your life, Quentin Tarantino or Paul Thomas Anderson.

You lose the catalog of the other for the rest of time.

Oh, so it's

what they've already created.

And going forward,

there will be blood,

Phantom Thread, Heart 8.

These are great movies.

These are great movies.

Are they really that ever watchable?

I feel like I don't want to watch There Will Be Blood Again.

I re-watched it in the past year a couple of times, and it's wonderful.

I think it's splendid.

I've seen it once or twice.

I think it's good.

I mean, I'll rewatch Moogie Nights.

I think that that was like...

That's an interesting take from Mike Fuentes.

You might be on the right track there.

I'll watch Boogie Nights for the final eight seconds of it.

I will say one thing.

It's weird.

Heart 8 is like...

Heart 8 is a really underrated early film from PTA.

But if you give me the catalog, like if you're saying going forward, Tarantino's like, I'm not doing anything anymore.

It's like, then I'm going PTA because there may be another

C field to him.

We don't know what he'll do.

but like i'm going tarantino for library like just because i know my actual habits from today um

i think he's

pta wouldn't be pta without tarantino that's that i think they're very different and they're very unusual but like um tarantino's library i could you could send me into i don't want to live on an island like by myself anyways that feels really stupid but like um do i have a v is it vcr tapes do i have a setup i don't know what's happening but like um i just uh i I, yeah, I go Tarantino.

It just, it's my natural reaction.

What about, but what's your answer?

Because that's more important to me.

I think Mike is right.

I think for rewatchability's sake, that's the tiebreaker with Tarantino.

They're both divine.

But Mark Sessler is now pondering whether or not there would be a plug in Wilson out on the deserted island to put his VCR into.

Why you would use that technology, VCR technology is curious as well, because you have to plug it in one way or the other i think i would at least want a laser disc player right i think you're right um i'd be like probably gone from sun poisoning in eight to nine hours and it's like we don't need to watch the whole library like he gone he gone

that's like me getting as i've always said like eh not that big a threat that i'm gonna get uh slowly digested over a thousand years uh like like hand solo if you drop me in the pit in the sarlac pit because like human beings die after 48 hours or whatever.

Like I'm going to miss the vast majority of the slow digestion.

Like I'm not, you're not real.

I mean, I don't want to die.

I don't want to get smothered, but I'm going to be a part of the thousand years of digestion after a couple of days.

Anyway, Mark Susser, I could talk to you for a couple of days without break on all matters.

Let's do it sooner rather than later at Musso and Franks, like Booth and Dalton did in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

He, the call, make sure you track him down.

Dan Hanzus, Connor Orr, the gravedigger, all the rest of it, dynamite stuff.

You'll be smarter just about you soon.

And me.

Yeah, I've been on there before myself.

Great stuff, Mark Sessler.

Thanks for the time, Pally.

All right, here he is, everybody, for his weekly review of what we just looked at all weekend long.

It's time for points per game.

With our pal from Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you and all things Fox Sports.

It's Jeff Schwartz.

What's happening, happening, fella?

And let me just say, picking up on what you tweeted out at some point over the weekend, the Holy War, best seen, all red uniforms against all BYU.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I feel like Saturday night was an all-time uniform night.

How say you, Jeff Schwartz?

Yeah, SC, Notre Dame, HitQs, Tennessee, Bama, so on and so forth.

Look, your lasting legacy on this earth might be getting UCL and USC to wear their home uniforms in the in the Victory Belt game.

I think UCLA has the best uniforms in college football.

I mean, obviously I'll pay for debate, but I think they do.

And you pair their uniforms with the stark contrast of different colors USC has, and it is beautiful.

The Holy War is fine.

It's fine.

Blue and red.

It's good.

But

the USC

UCLA game, Dave, special.

Special uniform game.

That's his two shows in a row where it's come up with college football performers.

Matt Leiner was surprised to hear about that, and he played for USC, and he gave me his thanks, and I accepted it.

Hey, Schwartz, I have a bunch of things I want to talk to you about, but very quickly, because nobody does the in-between of like talking college football and pro football and two distinct conversations better than you do it.

Explain this one to me.

Why the half stripe on the college football?

Like either,

like the pro ball is nude.

It has no stripes the pros don't need stripes but what do the stripes indicate in the first place and if you need the stripe then why isn't it all the way around what why the half-assed the the half-assed thing here so according to uh to the ai overview here the stripes are for visibility and they create a tradition that distinguishes them from professional footballs

I guess maybe when it looks better on camera with the slow motion shots you have,

do your eyes get better in the NFL?

College ball, their eyes are just not developed yet.

Yeah, it's like it's like a training stripe, but I don't know what it's training exactly.

And like I say, if it's needed, then do it.

Go all the full stripe.

Like the XFL, I think, has the full UFL, whatever they are.

Now they have the full stripe around the ball, right?

So

that's something unique.

Yeah, no, the balls are different size too, which is, look, I've made this point many times.

It's very true about college ball in the NFL.

They're not the same sport.

They are called football, absolutely.

So they use a different size ball.

The field goal post and the NFL are taller than they are in college football.

And the hash marks, so the field and the ball are two different sizes and they're set up differently.

Like they're not the same sport, Dave.

Not the same thing.

People confuse them too much as the same thing.

Not the same thing.

There are distinctions to be made between the two.

And

yeah,

the one thing I definitely like in college football better than pros is that when your knee or elbow or otherwise hits, you're down.

It's a weird, you can get back up thing that creates awkward looking plays.

I always think about the Super Bowl XLVIII

with the late Jacoby Jones sliding to catch the ball and then popping back up and then running into the end zone.

At minimum, it looks weird.

When you're down, you're down.

Take the guesswork out of it.

I like that, but I think the NFL, like, I like the two-foot rule in the NFL versus college.

There's a difference in the sport.

I think two feet down feels like you got to work a little extra harder for that catch.

I saw this this weekend.

I want to say, was it the Indiana game I was watching at Michigan State where like if you if you catch a ball, but your toe and foot hits first and it's and then and then the heel hits next,

it's not a catch, but it sort of feels like that's not the spirit of what a catch is.

Like he very clearly got his foot down, like the control foot down, but then his heel hit out on the exit of the play, essentially.

Like, I don't think a semantics.

I completely agree with what you're saying, right?

If you tippy-toe, but you're facing the sideline, if you tippy-toe, it's a good catch.

If you land on your tippy toes with your

butt towards the sideline, then your heels inevitably are going to come down, but that shouldn't remove the fact that you tippy-toed the sideline just like you did in the other direction.

All right, listen, I have a lot I want to talk to you about, as I just said there.

Starting off with this one:

Explain the New York Jets.

I mean, for real now.

You laugh all you want.

It ain't funny if you're a Jets fan.

I'm like, how can you, in a capped league, suck this bad in perpetuity?

Ownership, right?

I mean, it comes down to ownership, right?

I've never played for the Jets.

I don't know what it is about ownership, but something with ownership.

They don't hire the right coaches.

They don't have the right players.

There's not a buy-in mentality.

Look, I've been fortunate to play for for the Giants.

When you walk in the Giants facility, there's four Lombardi trophies that sit there.

And you walk in and you feel the winning.

Now, we didn't win when I was there, but you feel the need to win, right?

And ownership is there every day.

It's their job.

And I put other places that ownership's not there every day.

That doesn't change sometimes how you feel about the team, but it was important.

It is important for the Giants to win.

Like they're there all the time.

It's their baby.

It's their job.

I played for the Lions when the Lions weren't very good.

And you could feel the losing.

Like you could feel when it came.

We went from the Giants to the Lions.

You could feel, dude, Dave, we got booed in the preseason in the Lions on the first drive of the game.

We then went three and out and the fans booed us.

I remember turning to someone who had been there a while and was like,

am I hearing this?

Craig?

Like, yeah, like,

yeah, and I give Dan Campbell, I've said this many times, a ton of credit for breaking that stench of losing.

It takes an extra special coach to do that.

And then the Jets just have the stench of losing on them.

And, you know,

but they have like why it's weird as a, for instance, you know, what comes to mind obviously is Justin Fields, who I advocated for the Steelers to keep.

And now people are dropping me a line like, aren't you embarrassed now?

No, because it wouldn't have been the same Justin Fields that you're seeing with the Jets now.

And that's what I'm talking about.

The same human beings change the uniform and they stink way worse.

You know,

it's inexplicable that the players players who perform well across football America, if they have to put on that green hat,

they become empirically worse football players.

Correct.

And I think that's what it has to do with, man.

I think it's just like structure, support.

You're also the second team in the city for football.

You share a stadium, which again, I mean,

it was called Giant Stadium.

Now, obviously, the new stadium, it's not called Giant Stadium anymore.

Or I guess it was called, was it called Giant Stadium or everyone just called it Giant Stadium?

It was literally Giant Stadium.

Okay, literally Giant Stadium.

I mean, it's sort of what the Chargers have dealt with.

Like the Chargers play, and it's not their home stadium.

It's a Rams Stadium.

They're the second tenant there.

You know, the Clippers had this issue too.

They just moved to their own stadium.

They were the third tenant at Staples Center.

It was the Lakers, Kings, and then

the Clippers.

Like, I think there's all those things that matter to just the aura of your team and the Jets continue to have.

And then the last thing is the Capri pants.

The Capri pants on Aaron Glenn.

You know,

it's got to stop.

It's got to stop.

You might be onto something because Mike McDaniel wears those too,

and things aren't going well for him.

Don't ask Mike and Gino about it.

They're very down in the dumps about what's going on in Miami right now.

What is remarkable to me is that people, Dolphins fans, are still paying attention.

Shouldn't you have turned the TV off?

Like, the Jets are a different experience.

If you're still watching the Jets in the year of our Lord 2025, that's on you.

Things got real sideways with these Dolphins here this year.

I would have expected you to turn your TV off by then.

I'm fascinated by what you say, though.

So

about the stink in the facility.

So there are discussions among your peers.

This is way worse.

Like, man, I've been on the good side.

I've been in KC.

This place has no chance.

This sounds kind of, I know it sounds kind of silly, but like, you can just feel the difference, right?

Like, I'd imagine if you're playing for your Steelers, right?

You walk in that building and the expectation is championship or bust, right?

Like that's a firm expectation.

Other teams, it's like, I don't know, we'll see how it goes this year.

You know, like it's just, again, these are not verbalized, right?

But you feel, again, you walk on the Giants building, there's four Lombardi sitting right there.

I imagine you walk into Pittsburgh.

I've not been to the facility.

Actually, I was facility once.

I got on a tryout there once.

But there's, I imagine the six Lombardi's are right there, right?

David, you're sitting right there, right?

Like, you walk in, you feel the winning, you feel like you walk in the Jets facility.

What are they going to put up?

We made an AFC championship game banner, you know what I mean?

Like the

Namith's title, I guess, is hanging out there, but like it's just a different vibe.

And I'm not saying this is the reason you absolutely win or lose, but it takes a special coach.

Rex Ryan almost did it, right?

Like the personality he had, like he almost broke through that.

And it does just take maybe one breakthrough.

It takes one year where you go 13 to 4 and

you get to an AC championship game or you get to a title game, a Super Bowl, and it changes everything for you.

But that, I think, is a big thing when it comes to these bad teams.

It is interesting because now I'm piecing it together and, you know, I just say, well, they're always terrible.

But of course, yeah, Bill Parcells did turn them around for a minute and then Rex Ryan kind of kept the ball in the air there.

There's been some times where these teams have gone close, but not gone over the hurdle.

Yeah, they had a quarterback there.

I don't know what ever happened to him when Rex was coaching the Jets, but now there's another AFCs team that has a good quarterback again four or five years ago.

They had a guy named Tom Brady, then they swooned a little bit, but now they're back with Drake May.

How say you about these New England Patriots?

How far can they take this thing right now in this AFC?

Because as I keep remarking,

it ain't like the AFC is that loaded up.

I mean,

I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but the Chiefs are the best team, again.

I keep waiting for you to come on here and just like brag to me about your Colts pick.

You've just been very low-key about that.

I mocked you very, very with my face.

I mocked you.

Mike Fuente has already caught the blaster for pretending like he's never heard anybody predict that the Colts are going to be good this year.

He didn't say that.

He didn't heard me do it.

That's not what I said.

I said the media needs to start trusting that Daniel Jones can win games.

I never said, nobody said they were going to go do it because, of course, King Dave, everybody knows he picked up.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

I want my parade.

I made a prediction that nobody else made.

And then people are like, well,

why isn't the media paying attention?

My media was paying attention to it in August.

I'll thank you to do the same, Mike Fuentes.

You know what?

Taste the blaster again for this.

The Tamer.

I'm sorry you had to hear this, Jeff.

That was ugly.

Thank you for your apology.

I appreciate it.

We live in a society where every time you get something wrong, people tell you about it.

So you should be able to take a victory lap if you're correct about a prediction.

Back to the Patriots.

Yes.

It's been impressive.

Drake may, if you were to redraft right now 2024 quarterbacks, does he won?

I just went on

Shil Capatia's show with the ringer, and he asked this exact same question.

And I'm fascinated by the answers to this.

You and I did this, and I asked Matt Lynette the same thing, who's going to be the first quarterback taken in 26, but go back last year.

I don't know, man.

The thing with Jaden Daniels is

that just because he had the exceptional rookie season and got through clean doesn't mean that his body type is made for the long term.

So I, and, and we saw some signs of that earlier this year.

I, I do think Drake May's, you know, his body type

probably portends the best future, right?

For

you guys.

So the thing about Daniels, though, is that he was not ever hurt in college.

Like, I remember covering him as a true freshman, 175 pounds, Arizona.

That's the same thing you did.

Like, no way he survived He's been relatively healthy till the season where he got super he wasn't healthy.

He was healthy last season I mean Williams is getting better but Drake May man look I think that the the judge of these young quarterbacks is like do they get better every quarter of the season or every couple of weeks and Drake May feels like every single game every quarter of the season He's getting better and their schedule is set up really well Look we joked before the season you're favoring like 11 games like LOL 11 games.

What are you talking about?

They play the Browns now at home.

The Browns Browns aren't winning that game.

They play the Falcons at home.

The Falcons have looked so much different on the road than homie.

The Falcons lost the Panthers by 30,

then beat the Commanders at home, beat the Bills home.

And then last night, what was that against the Niners?

Like uncompetitive on the road against San Francisco.

Disappointing.

And then look, and then

the Patriots are at Tampa Bay.

That'll be hard.

And then it's Jets, Bengals, Giants.

And then it's Bills, Ravens, Jets.

They're right in the thick of this to win that division.

So,

yeah, I think they're for real, Dave.

I don't know how you can argue against that.

I do think now

I regret not putting him into the playoffs when you and I sat down and etched out the seven teams that were going to make it.

I got close with the Patriots, but just figured they were too collectively young, that it was going to take a season for them to mature a little bit.

And by year three with Drake May, they were going to take it.

The thing is, the rest of the AFC is just not impressive.

That's part of it as well.

Denver last, whatever that was yesterday, that was impressive.

But like I don't blah, I mean, the Chiefs jumped them as huge, it's big favorites now to win the AFC West.

Your Steelers feel like they're going to win, win that division, but they, the way I look at the NFL this year, Dave, is there's like four teams up top that are sort of the top of the league, right?

Like Colts, Chiefs.

I still think Buffalo is up there.

And I still do think like Philly is in that group of teams.

And there's like 24 teams that are 50-50 every week.

I don't know what we're getting from them.

And then there's the four Jets, Raiders, Titans, Dolphins that stink.

Like, that's what the NFL is right now.

I agree.

And by the way, as we wrap it up, the Raiders are the one that a lot of people were getting real excited about that I did not take.

I didn't either.

I didn't buy that at all.

The Raiders made a very, a very flawed mistake in the draft where

I've amended my position on this.

You can totally draft a running back in the first round or sign a running back, but you have to have everything in place.

That's exactly right.

It's a finishing piece.

It's correct.

Exactly to put it.

Trisha McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley.

It's a finishing piece.

You can't start with them.

The offensive line of quarterback are not good.

They don't have wide receivers.

Dave, they had three first downs in an NFL game yesterday.

Three first downs.

That means you just like fall into a first down.

You break a tackle and you get a first down.

She's got a penalty.

You get a first down.

Three, the entire game.

Yeah,

it's grim and just as pete carroll didn't get enough credit in the age of belichek and sabin his his

by age his peers he's also belichek is kind of obscuring how bad this is got has gotten in vegas for pete carroll because people were real excited about it when they got going there last thing they're down 21 nothing at halftime Out of the half, they interview him, you know, as they do, because those riveting interviews, too.

And he goes,

we have to run the ball better.

Like, you're down 21-0.

Sure, sure, run the ball better, buddy.

Give it to your high-end first-round draft pick then.

Maybe that'll get you in business there, coach.

All right, Jeff Schwartz, dynamite stuff as always.

Look forward to catching up with you one week from today.

In the meantime, go bet on them Hoosiers, right?

Laying 24 and a half.

I'll be on them this weekend, buddy.

All right.

And you know what?

There goes Schwartz.

Here we go, too.

Thanks to him.

Thanks to Mark Sessler.

We'll be back at the end of the week to get you right for NFL week eight.

Until then, thanks so much, fellow football Americans.

It's been a thin slice I have.