Alex Bregman, an Epic Week of NFL, and Buying the Bills' Urinals

Summary

Casuals with Katie Nolan — Episode Summary

Podcast: Casuals with Katie Nolan (SiriusXM)
Episode: Alex Bregman, an Epic Week of NFL, and Buying the Bills' Urinals
Date: January 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Katie Nolan and her rotating cast—Isabella (sports newbie), Chris (master editor), and Brady (down the hall)—debrief a wild weekend in sports, with a special focus on the NFL Wild Card round, college football playoffs, and the madness of the Bills auctioning off stadium urinals. They answer listener emails about mascots and mispronunciations, give their unfiltered thoughts on awards show betting, and share lively banter on locker room trades and media faux pas. Notable stories include an Isabella-powered parlay, mascot pants debates, and an in-depth discussion of the ups and downs of being a sports fan (Patriots and Red Sox included).

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Catching Up & Listener Mail (Voicemails and Emails)

• 00:45–09:28
• Quick banter about the Golden Globes and Amy Poehler’s podcast win.
• Listener conundrums:
  • Levi’s Aaron Rodgers “Britney with an AI” wife theory
  • Correct pronunciation of “Megan” vs. “Meegan” (Jimmy: “Chris and Brady have a much needed socially conscious, anti patriarchal worldview…” [06:00])
  • Olivia in Texas struggling to embrace the Spurs’ pantless coyote mascot.
  • Pantless mascot deep dive: “Most mascots, I think, don’t have pants, but they’ve got an oddly shaped body… [Spurs’] just looks like he doesn’t have any pants.” — Katie [08:04]

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2. Gambling in Entertainment & Sports

• 09:29–16:15
• Katie rails against gambling ads in sports and dissects the problematic debut of “live odds” during the Golden Globes.
• On Pandora’s box of betting:
  • “It’s bad enough that gambling has entirely taken over sports media … God forbid one place just not have any of that.” — Katie [11:04]
  • The absurdity of gambling on White House briefings and Gatorade colors.
• Chris notes that entities are trying to skirt regulation by calling betting “predictions markets.”
• Brady: “Right now, on that same website, you can bet on whether the Iranian regime will fall before 2027.” [14:01]

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3. NFL Wild Card Weekend: Game-by-Game Recap

• 19:46–56:36

A. Patriots vs. Chargers:

• Patriots win 16–3: Katie and Chris celebrate, Isabella’s parlay stays alive.
• Conversation about how “4th and 2” works (football basics for casual fans).
• Mike Vrabel’s bloody lip: “The broadcast needed to chill out with the slow motion close up.” — Katie [24:12]

B. 49ers vs. Eagles:

• 49ers’ injury hell, George Kittle out with torn Achilles, absurd substation-conspiracy.
• “Can’t measure heart.” — Chris [26:33], referencing Niners’ resilience.
• Terry Bradshaw only pundit to pick Niners to win.

C. Bills vs. Jaguars:

• Bills get rare road playoff win.
• Controversial kicker miss, “ball don’t lie” explanation.
• Viral press conference “question” (“You hold your head up, young man!”), sparks newsroom ethics debate.
  • Katie: “It was a really human moment … I thought it was cute.” [40:30]
  • Brady: “Journalistically, it’s fairly bankrupt. You’re in the room as press … gathering facts.” [40:52]

D. Bears vs. Packers:

• Bears win in dramatic 4th quarter comeback.
• Cheesehead/cheese grater traditions explained.
• Isabella’s accidental watching of a replay instead of the live game.
  • “It just seemed confusing. … They don’t care about the people who actually want to get into football.” — Isabella [47:47]
• Coaches Ben Johnson and Matt LaFleur’s real-life rivalry. Brady: “They just hate each other.” [50:56]

E. Rams vs. Panthers:

• Rams pull off clutch win after Carolina scores late.
• Katie: “You left too much time on the clock for Matthew Stafford …” [52:49]

Parlay Drama:

• Isabella’s random picks are 5/5; last game hinges on Steelers—offer to cash out the bet for $94 vs. risking for $300 payout.
  • “I say let’s go for the $300.” — Isabella [55:08]
  • “I don’t have anything to lose.” — Isabella [55:15]

F. Iconic Bills Urinal Auction:

• Bills sell stadium artifacts, including the infamous “piss troughs.”
• “It is as much like a piece of farm equipment as you could imagine.” — Katie [58:33]
• Brainstorming uses for an old stadium urinal: planter, “piss pickles,” etc.
• “What would you do with it?” — Katie [59:00]

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4. NFL Coaching Changes: Goodbye Mike McDaniel?

• 62:10–65:02
• Dolphins fire Mike McDaniel, interview Browns/Browns rumors swirl.
  • “If a head coach is fired and immediately becomes the number one candidate for any and all open offensive coordinator jobs, that is a head coach candidate.” — Katie [63:29]
• Host’s fiancé Dan (a Dolphins fan) reacts by stomping Dolphins merch post-firing.

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5. College Football Playoff Update

• 66:41–71:10
• Miami defeats Ole Miss; Indiana blows out Oregon, setting up Miami vs. Indiana in the National Championship.
  • “Indiana has been dominant this year, one of the greatest teams of all time in college football.” — Chris [94:34]
• Fernando Mendoza’s LinkedIn profile discussed; Chris investigates which athletes use LinkedIn, naming Derek Queen, Lindsey Von, Chris Paul, Steph Curry, and Lewis Hamilton.

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6. Major League Baseball: Alex Bregman Leaves Red Sox for Cubs

• 73:48–79:54
• Bregman’s opt-out and fans’ frustration dissected (especially as he replaced beloved Rafael Devers).
  • “They shipped him off. The fan base turned on him ... I want my guy. I want my Yankee Killer.” — Katie [78:04]
• Katie and Brady lament frustrating Red Sox management and fan relations.

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7. Other Notable Sports Stories & Side Topics

• 80:00–88:18

A. NBA:

• Trae Young’s trade to the Wizards analyzed; focus on high-usage stars’ value.
• Katie: “The Wizards aren’t doing enough to lean into their nickname … more wizardry and magic.” [82:41]

B. Odd Basketball Interruptions:

• Condensation at United Center delays Bulls vs. Heat; Benny the Bull drains a center-court shot, Tyler Herro refuses to participate, Asia Wilson works the crowd.

C. Scooter Braun’s Jealousy of Athletes DM’ing Sydney Sweeney: - “If you want other grown men to respect you, maybe go by, like, Scott.” — Katie [86:51] - Brady’s theory: Braun leaked the story himself just to remind everyone he’s dating her.

• Show jokes about sliding into Sweeney’s LinkedIn.

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8. What To Watch This Week (with Timestamps)

• 92:12–95:34
• PWHL Hockey: Ottawa vs. Montreal — Tue Jan 13, 7 pm EST on Prime [93:02]
  • “Chance to watch two of the best players, Brianne Jenner and Marie-Philippe Poulin.”
• Women's College Basketball: South Carolina vs. Texas — Thu Jan 15, 7 pm EST on ESPN2 [94:34]
  • “Two very, very good teams … check out that game.”
• College Football Playoff National Championship: Indiana vs. Miami — Mon Jan 19, 7:30 pm EST on ESPN [95:14]
  • “Let Fernando Mendoza know how much you appreciate his game on LinkedIn.” — Katie

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On sports podcasting in strange times:

  • “It’s a really tough time to do a sports podcast … Every day I wake up and go, we could—because it really feels like there’s a bunch of fronts that could at some point pop off and turn into one big world war, you know?” — Katie [15:29]

• On gambling in entertainment:

  • “For something like entertainment to become boiled down to odds, who’s going to win? What are the odds that this person wins… It just does not sit well with me.” — Katie [11:03]

• On the NFL’s wild card drama:

  • “These Bears just do not quit. You cannot count them out, even though I tried to…” — Katie [43:54]

• On buying a urinal from the Bills:

  • “How do you all not have pee fear? How are you all able to...” — Katie [58:23]

• On athlete LinkedIns:

  • “If you don’t have to be on LinkedIn, you should not be on LinkedIn.” — Katie [69:05]

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Episode Highlights by Timestamp

• 00:45–09:28: Listener mail, fun mascot/basics Q&A, pantless mascot discourse
• 09:29–16:15: Gambling “creep,” with sharp critique on betting in sports/media
• 19:46–56:36: NFL wild card weekend deep dive, Isabella parlay, urinal auction
• 62:10–65:02: McDaniel firing, coaching carousel
• 66:41–71:10: College Football Playoff, athletes on LinkedIn
• 73:48–79:54: MLB: Bregman to Cubs, Red Sox fan pain
• 80:00–88:18: Trae Young trade, Bulls/Heat condensation, Sydney Sweeney “DM drama”
• 92:12–95:34: What to watch this week (hockey, basketball, college football)

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Closing Notes

Guests Upcoming:
Katie teases a heavy-hitting guest lineup for Thursday's episode: director Joe Carnahan and Boston legends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, to discuss their Netflix film "The Rip" and Boston sports.

In Closing:
A vibrant, funny, and refreshingly accessible round-up of the week in sports, loaded with inside jokes, critiques of betting culture, and a perfect blend of expertise and casual hangout energy.

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Contact the Pod:

• Email: [e-mail]
• Voicemail: 646-810-0043
• IG/TikTok: @casualsthepodcast

“We love you, we mean it, and we’ll see you on Thursday.”

Transcript

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[A]

Hey, Isabella, did you see Amy Poehler won best podcast in the inaugural best podcast award at the Golden Globes? I did.

[D]

Congrats.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Okay. No congrats. Don't you feel like also like we got robbed? Oh, for sure.

[D]

Like for sure. I was like, where's the preview for us?

[A]

I know. What the.

[D]

Hey, they didn't do anything sports related. And I feel like if there is one to do, we're Golden Globes material.

[A]

That's so right. Although Amy Poehler did shout out Bill Simmons, which is sports and the he. Well, he's a guy that works in sports. Okay, that's fine. That's enough for her for a cold open to have as information on Bill Simmons. And then at the end of her speech, she said, mom and dad, you can go watch the Patriots.

[D]

I did see that. I did see that. That was so cute.

[A]

I didn't watch any of the Golden Globes because I had to watch the pates.

[D]

Eh, it's okay.

[A]

Did you see anything worth mentioning?

[D]

Uh, no.

[A]

Okay, let's start the show. Hello. Hello.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

Hello. Wow. Wow. Hello. Welcome to Casuals, the sports podcast. It doesn't care how much you know, we're just really happy that you're here. What a weekend of football. We've got to talk about crazy games all weekend long. We have a lot of things to get to. I'm Katie Nolan, your host. Joined today by my casualties, we have Isabella, our sports newbie.

[D]

Hello.

[A]

We've got our master editor, Chris.

[E]

Hi.

[A]

And then Brady is like physically here, but we put him in a room down the hallway. So Brady's here.

[C]

We have a one seat controller. So I am just down the hallway somewhere.

[A]

Otherwise, I don't know. Is that wrong of me? It just felt like it would have been weird to have you on as a guest and have you Sit in the studio. I didn't feel comfortable, so I said, brady, go find somewhere to do the podcast.

[D]

He got kicked out.

[A]

This feels more right and more natural. Is that okay by me?

[C]

Whatever makes you comfortable.

[A]

Perfect. Good answer. Good answer. We have a stacked show for you today. As I mentioned. I'll start by saying if you want to get in touch with us. Casualswithkatienolanmail.com Our voicemail 646-800-010043 on IG and TikTok. We are at Casualsthepodcast. Man, I think we've got a lot of NFL to talk. We have to update you on the College football playoff. Mike McDaniel. My. My. The. The Godfather to my children. The.

[D]

The.

[A]

My blood brother has been fired by the Dolphins and we haven't had a podcast since that. So I'm sure we'll have to talk about that. And just a bunch of other odds and ends that we need to get to to get everybody updated on what happened this week. In order to start, we like to clear out some of our inbox. I don't know if we have time for all of these emails and voicemails, Chris, but perhaps we should start with a voicemail because I don't think we've heard one in a while. Can we do that?

[E]

We can. We got an A voicemail from Levi from North Carolina. Let's have a listen.

[A]

Do we think that we maybe just.

[E]

All misheard Aaron Rodgers and instead of Britney with an I, he actually said Britney with an AI?

[C]

I'll hang up and listen.

[A]

Love you mean it. Oh, love you mean it. Levi.

[E]

Levi.

[A]

Okay, because we have been suggesting. I mean, I think Charlotte Wilder and her co host on the sports gossip show were the first to bring up this idea that actually they think maybe thesis theory that Aaron Rodgers's new wife is an AI chat bot. Because nobody knows.

[C]

That was my thesis. It was my thesis.

[E]

Yeah, but I think it was Brady. I will give him credit there.

[A]

How do you know they had it? How do you know you had it before them?

[C]

Because Charlotte said we adopted this. They adopted that from casuals.

[A]

I like to give credit to the women, so I think it would be.

[C]

Shout out, their new studios. Cool.

[A]

Anyway, it is cool. They do. We think that it's Britney with AI. That could be I. That's entirely reasonable to me.

[E]

Makes a lot of sense.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

The longer they go into the playoffs, the weirder it's going to be for her to not show up.

[A]

I know. We're going to.

[D]

That's why I'm rooting for the Steelers to win.

[A]

Guys, I cannot wait to talk about how the Isabella Parlay is doing. And we will be getting into that when we start talking about the NFL. What if we did an email from Jimmy? Do we have that?

[E]

We do.

[A]

Okay.

[E]

Can you read it?

[A]

Can you read it to me like I'm a baby?

[E]

I can try.

[A]

Thank you.

[E]

Jimmy says I simply want to back Chris up on his pronunciation for Megan.

[A]

Okay.

[E]

Case in point. How else would somebody else pronounce Tegan? Even if it was spelled T E G a N and M E G a N, it's still going to be pronounced Tegan. As a former resident of UNC in Chapel Hill and current Marylander, I feel a special affinity for the guy casualties, especially as a dad of two. Chris and Brady have a much needed socially conscious, anti patriarchal worldview that is typically absent from sports shows featuring male voices in any capacity. Your show gives me an opportunity to play a woman led equality minded podcast in the car for my teens to hear while driving to their sports practices and games. Truly refreshing. Thank you, Jimmy, for that compliment and thank you for backing me up on the correct pronunciation.

[A]

That's very sweet. That's very sweet that he's absolutely right and I love that. And I hope that you guys, you know, take that in and really let that sink in. It's very kind. He's. But we're wrong on the Megan thing. I don't know why we're. Are you suggesting, Jimmy, that every Megan should be named Megan? There's just. No, that's not possible. The Tegan thing doesn't make any sense because there is no well known name that is Tegan Tegan. So it doesn't make any. We know how to pronounce Megan. We can't go back and change everything.

[E]

I disagree.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Also, he had the data point of vegan sitting right there like it's an actual word.

[A]

Right, Right.

[D]

I've never heard the name Tegan like Tegan and Sarah.

[E]

Really?

[A]

You don't know Tegan and Sarah?

[D]

No, I don't think so.

[E]

Okay.

[C]

Her mid 2000s indie rock crates.

[A]

Wow. Someone's not watching. Heated rivalry, which we will get into because I started and omg. All right. I feel like. Do we. Let's give me Olivia and then we gotta move on. Let's do one last email from Olivia.

[E]

Okay. Olivia says, I recently started getting into basketball and I have a team I'm ready to jump into the fandom with, but having a hard time making the plunge for one Reason only. I'm originally from Dallas, but I've lived in Austin for 13 years. With San Antonio being only an hour and a half drive. My husband and I bought a mini season package to test the waters. I absolutely love the vibes and Wemby is a blast to watch, but I cannot get past the Pantless Coyote mascot. Is it just me, or does this dude need to wear pants? I'm all for mascots with no pants when it makes sense, but the legs are too skinny to pull this off. Will you help get the word out there to bully him into at least putting on some basketball shorts, or am I too late to the party and just need to embrace this?

[A]

Listen, you're not wrong about the pants. It's Olivia. The thing is, it's the basketball jersey that ends where a jersey should. And no pants. So it just looks like a. He just looks like he's smooth down there.

[E]

You know, it looks like he's intentionally Pantless rather than.

[D]

Oh, yeah, he does.

[A]

My issue has always been with his eyes. He's got really spooky eyes. And a couple years back, they had. I'm sure they always have had issues with, like, bats inside of their arena, but he was like. He would put on a Batman outfit and, like, catch the bats that were loose in the arena, and I just was so confused by it. Like, how did he have that ready? How did he know to put that on? Did they. Is the bat an industry plant? I had a lot of questions, but I had never really noticed or paid attention to his lack of pants. And look. Most mascots, I think, don't have pants, but they've got an oddly shaped body. Yeah, his body is normal shape. Like, if you look at gritty here, I mean, in this, he's got pants on because I've got him in his little floaty, but, like, he's got a wide belly in the middle. And so it doesn't just look like a guy with no pants on. Whereas the spurs mascot just looks like he doesn't have any pants on. I think basketball shorts would make a lot of sense.

[D]

I think so, too.

[A]

Yeah. This feels a little bit like. Just put some. Just put some shorts. What's. Why can't you just put some shorts on? Would it kill you to put some shorts on? Kids are here. All right, that's it for emails. The. Normally I do a yap. I say normally. Like, I've done one in a while. I haven't. But I did see something. I barely have any information on that. I Would like to kind of about. And that was the original idea of the yap. Like I said, I didn't watch the Golden Globes on Sunday night because it's Tuesday when this is coming up. We're recording on Monday. I didn't watch the Globes. I was watching the Patriots. But I got a text from my friend Andrea. She comes up a lot because she watched Tokyo Godfathers. Tokyo Godfathers, that's right. Chris's favorite Christmas movie and many other people's. Right, but famously yours. And she texted me and she said, hey, live odds on the Golden Globes. We are cooked. And I looked it up. If you did watch the Golden Globes on Sunday, on the broadcast they were showing the live odds, maybe bleep the company. Because I did tell myself when I was gonna have this conversation with our audience that, like, I don't wanna say the names of these companies. I hate these companies. They were showing the live odds for who would win every category. And there's just a number of issues with that. Number one, it was sort of taking away any of the excitement for who was gonna win in a category. Most of the time, it just predicted who was gonna win and then that person won. So why would you put on the broadcast?

[D]

I thought the same thing.

[A]

It was like a spoiler alert almost. Because it was like, yeah, what? And then secondly, what the fuck are we doing? This is. It's bad enough that gambling has entirely taken over sports media. Although here on Casuals, you will never hear a gambling ad. So long as I am in charge and allowed to say that we're avoiding gambling money, sponsorship, advertising, any of that. Because it just. God forbid one place just not have any of that. But it's bad enough that it's taken over sports, but for a. For something like entertainment to become boiled down to odds, who's going to win? What are the odds that this person wins and takes home this award? It's already strange giving out an award when it comes to art. I think it's something we've adapted to and we're used to. So award shows themselves aren't strange on their face. But to have those prediction models built into it and to be able to gamble on whether somebody will win recognition for their art, it just does not sit well with me. And I don't think I saw enough people. I saw some people reacting with absolute disgust. I just don't think I saw enough people reacting with disgust. Chris, you are our big movie guy. Did you watch any of the Globes?

[E]

I was watching the Patriots.

[A]

Yeah, of course. You're awesome.

[E]

Much prefer the Patriots to the Golden Globes. The only really award show that I care about even a little bit is the Academy Awards. Everything else just pales in comparison for me.

[A]

And I feel like the Academy Awards would never do this. I say with hesitation because I don't.

[E]

Know what it's gonna look like once it moves to YouTube, which it is going to YouTube very soon, next coup.

[A]

Isn't that crazy? Onto YouTube? Not that I'm even saying there's anything wrong with that. It's just I really hope they don't do what YouTube does 2029, when it gets rights to stuff, which is put YouTubers in it. Like, it's just like, I've had enough, Mr. Beast.

[C]

I thought you're gonna say that they. You will suddenly get people at the podium and the winner for best actor is. And then it'll cut away. Olive Garden's never ending pasta ball is back.

[A]

Yeah, they really do do that.

[C]

Unskippable.

[A]

It do be like that, though.

[C]

My biggest problem with the odds was that they are not. They're trying to be clever at the same time because they're not even calling them gambling. These things are labeled as predictions. Markets.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Which, like, okay, so we have a different semantic name for it now. You're skirting laws for the 45 minutes until somebody makes a new law. Like, we're not. This isn't clever. Like, it's not. Let's just call it what it is. I don't need a new word for this. I don't need to pretend that this is something new. This is just odds for things that aren't sports. Just betting on things. Betting on things you shouldn't be betting on right now. On that same website, you can bet on whether the Iranian regime will fall before the end of 2027.

[A]

Yeah. So just let's put money on. Yes. I just also. This is the. This is the world we live in now. I saw on one of those sites there was like, odds for how long A press briefing from the White House secretary was going to go. And when Caroline Levitt got close to the over under line that was set, she very quickly wrapped up the press conference and left. And it like, I don't know. I'm not saying that it was definitely because of that, but to abruptly, to the second end your press conference so that it. So that the under would hit is.

[E]

It's like we live in street shaving.

[A]

We live. We live in this world now where you have to go is that what's happening? Does somebody have money on it going short? Like, I used to worry when the super bowl came around. How are they not? How is. How are the people that know whoever is singing the national anthem not getting inside insider trading by being told by the anthem singer, hey, I'm gonna do a quick anthem. Like, how is that fair? How is. How are you allowed to gamble on what color the Gatorade's gonna be during the Gatorade bath, Somebody has to pour the Gatorade into the thing. They're gonna tell everybod. It's like that. You can gamble on how long the press secretary will talk for and she'll be aware of the under and. And hit it. It's like, I don't like the way this feels.

[C]

If it requires me laying money on it to get the under and make her talk less, I think this is all worth it.

[A]

No, I think we needed her to talk more. This was after we, I don't know, took over a country. Question mark, question mark, question mark. So I don't really fucking know.

[C]

Value per word.

[A]

Feels bad right now. It's a really tough time to do a sports podcast. It's actually a very easy time in the sense there's really good sports to talk about. And we have stayed very focused on the sports. But, like, in the background of the world, every day I wake up and go, we could. Because it really feels like there's a bunch of fronts that could at some point pop off and turn into one big world war, you know? Doesn't it kind of feel? No.

[E]

At least we got the pets.

[A]

At least we got those paints, baby. We're gonna talk about the paints. I will say Nikki Glazer really knows how to host an award show. My goodness. Very funny monologue. Loved her joke. She's just very, very, very good at that. She looked incredible. So shout out to her. All right, we're gonna take a quick break, and then when we come back, we got to talk about wild card weekend. And I need to tell you. I know I said we don't do gambling on this pod. There was an Isabella parlay this weekend that really, really might have been. I'll tell you more about it as soon as we come back from this break. This show is sponsored by Liquid iv. Dropping the ball before you score a touchdown at the goal line is a rookie mistake. But even rookies can be pros when it comes to hydration. Rehydrate with Liquid IV's energy multiplier. Sugar free hydrating energy. It's scientifically formulated to support physical energy, hydration, focus, mood and social stamina. Just one stick plus 16 ounces of water hydrates better than water alone. It's powered by Live Hydra Science, which is an optimized ratio of electrolytes, essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients that turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration. I love it because sometimes in the middle of the day you want a pick me up and you just want something that will hydrate you while also giving you energy. And that's when I turn to Liquid IV Sugar free hydrating energy. So rehydrate with better hydration and energy from Liquid IV zero sugar and zero crash tear pour live more go to Liquid IV.com and get 20% off your first order with code CASUITS at checkout. That's 20% off your first order with Code Casuals@liquid IV.com everyone deserves to be connected.

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[A]

Okay, we're back. Wild card weekend. First week of the playoffs for the NFL. The Broncos and the Seahawks have had a buy every other team played and what an incredible weekend of football. Let's start with the most boring game. It was the Patriots winning the Pates. Our Pates defeated the Chargers 163 in Foxborough Sunday night. They will now face off against the winner of Texan Steelers in the divisional round next Sunday. You, dear listener, know who that is? We do not. It's Monday here. We don't know who's going to win that game. Um, but if Isabella's picking is correct tonight, tonight's victor will be the Steelers. Um, Isabella. Heading into this weekend, we had her pick all of these wild card games based off nothing completely on the spot. So far, Isabella is five for five. She has picked all five winners. And the sixth tonight may be the most precarious. But Isabella, how are you feeling?

[D]

I'm kind of feeling like the fact that I got them right, it's making me more nervous because I'm like, no, that's what happens.

[A]

Yeah, this is exactly how a. It was very funny hearing her tell somebody else about this. And she goes, I guess it's a parlay. But this is exactly how parlays go. You get to the last leg and you go, I really hope so. Heading into the Patriots game last night, two nights ago, whatever. You get what I'm saying. Heading into the Patriots game, Isabella was 4 for 4. A shocking win by the 49ers. We'll get to in a second. And I got so nervous. I was like, it's going to be my team that screws this up. If anything goes wrong, it's going to be my team. Everybody was over the moon talking about her. Isabella has picked them all right. And I said shut up. I think I told every single one of you to shut up at some point over the weekend because I was so scared. But now I don't have to be scared anymore because the Patriots.

[D]

I wasn't scared.

[A]

I knew. You knew. You knew in your heart of hearts. Even though it had been seven years since the Patriots last won a playoff game and it was the super bowl in it was the end of the 2018 season, but calendar wise confusing. But it was in 2019, a huge win. Drake May finished as the Patriots leading rusher. He had 66 yards. He also threw for 268 yards and a touchdown. He had a fumble and a pick. So not incredible. But they ended up. The Chargers did not turn that into points. Like I said, they only scored three the entire game. What the Patriots did. And Chris, I know you were watching, you're a Patriots fan too. They really, really got pressure on Justin Herbert. I mean, he was taking beating by the end of the game. I was like, ah, just let him just.

[D]

He was what's called sacked several times. Yes, I believe five or six times.

[A]

Yes, something like that. They were. I mean he was getting roughed up and he. But before he was being sacked, it was pissing me off how often they were letting him run to get first down on like a 10 yard run where just nobody was anywhere near him. He would just take off running and get the first down. I was like, how many times are you gonna let him down?

[D]

Can I ask a rule question? Actually dying to know. Okay, so you know how like there's like. Okay, it'll say fourth down, but what is the. The number afterwards? Like when they say like 4th and 2, 4th and 4, like, what does that mean?

[A]

It's the number of yards they need in order to get the first down.

[D]

Oh, okay, okay.

[A]

So if it's like first and 10, they've got to go 10 yards to get the first down. If they go 10 yards, it'll be first and 10 again. If they don't, it'll be second because it's their second try to get a first down and however many yards. Let's say they get two yards, it'll be second and eight.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

Does that make sense?

[D]

Yep.

[A]

And if they get pushed back, if they get like sacked or something and go backwards, it can be like 2nd and 20. They can. It can be a bigger number.

[D]

Gotcha. So that's what that was on the Bills movie, the Hallmark movie. When they said go for four, Is that what that was?

[A]

No, I think that was the. Because they lost so many Super Bowls in a row. Wasn't that the.

[E]

I was still trying to figure it out.

[A]

I don't remember which part this was. That was a next. I wouldn't use that movie to teach you anything about football, if that makes any sense. Got it. But yeah, big game. The Chargers were held to 207 total yards. The Patriots win. Mike Vrabel got bloodied. Did you guys see that?

[D]

I did.

[E]

Oh yeah.

[A]

Mike Vrabel got excited and then got popped in the lip by Milton Williams helmet when they were celebrating. It was funny to see Vrabel, who obviously used to play for the Patriots. I think he really loves when he can connect with his players on stuff like that. And so seeing him go over and going like, hey, guys, check it out. And his lip was bloodied. But I will say the broadcast needed to chill out with the slow motion close up of Rabel licking that blood off his lip. He did lots of angles. I was watching that with my fiance. You almost got us in a fight. Please stop showing that man. Lick the blood off of his lip. Okay, I didn't need that. I do, but at least when I'm alone, you know, like, put it in my inbox, but don't put it on the. Speaking of Dan, who we love so much, the 49ers also won, as Isabella predicted. Dude, the 49ers are so hurt that a credible conspiracy theory arose and was immediately treated as credible because this team is always breaking. It's like they. I don't know what it actually is because it's been disproven, this conspiracy theory. A doctor has come out and been like, that's not how that works. But the theory was that the field and their practice facility are right next to an electrical substation. And that repeated and prolonged exposure to. To an electrical substation and whatever comes out of that could weaken your cartilage and your joints and your tendons. And as soon as I heard that, I went, yep, I buy it because these guys are always hurt. Case in point, during this game, George Kittle out. He's done for the season. He tore his Achilles. They are down to basically Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey and Juwan Jennings. And those three are somehow managing to get it all done. An incredible win over the defending super bowl champions, the eagles. It was 23 to 19 on Sunday, and they now the. The 49ers will go on to face the Seahawks on Saturday. Um, the Niners obviously are without Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, which is crazy. They're two best defensive players. I think during the broadcast they mentioned that the Niners are onto their seventh, eighth and ninth string linebackers. Just a depleted team that somehow, against all odds, managed to pull it off.

[E]

Can't measure heart.

[A]

Yeah, that's right. That was. Can't measure heart. Sometimes when he's got short sentences, that Australian accent takes over and you go.

[E]

I realized halfway through when I was saying that, I was like, this isn't working. This is not going to translate particularly well.

[A]

Can't measure heart. That's terrible. I'm working on it. It's terrible. Shout out Terry Bradshaw. The. You Know, a lot of people have a lot to say about Terry Bradshaw broadcasting. I even think I might have been one of them. No more. No more. Terry Bradshaw's the man. He's the only person who picked the Niners to win. On that pregame show, they all picked the Eagles. Terry Bradshaw pick the Niners. Shout out Niners faithful. Isabella, did you see the story about George Kittle? Got hurt, was carted off the field, was, you know, waving to fans and trying to keep his spirits up. At one point, somebody reported that they saw someone running into the locker room with a bottle of tequila.

[D]

No.

[A]

And it was later confirmed that I believe the owner. Somehow somebody had asked Kittle, like, you doing okay? What do you need? And he was like, a bottle of tequila. And so they went and got it for him and brought it to him in the locker room.

[D]

Sick.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, fair enough at that point. I mean, that guy's got a football shaped heart. George Kittle loves football and an absolute bummer. I had no plans for the Niners to win this game. I'm glad that they did. The only downside is that now Dan's delusion, he's like, we beat the Eagles, we can do anything. We've got to go beat the Seahawks. And so the sea. I was trying to tell Isabella during the radio show that Seahawks, Niners is like a big, big rival.

[D]

How are the Seahawks doing?

[A]

They're great.

[E]

Quite well.

[A]

Yeah, they're doing very, very well. And, you know, you had their defense all season in fantasy football, which you won, so, yeah, we're really kind of making an analyst in the lab.

[D]

You are.

[A]

You've got a football mind.

[D]

Matthew Berry, watch out. Or is he not an analyst? No.

[A]

That's good. No, he's. Yeah, he is. Right? I don't know. Job titles are kind of over at this point.

[D]

Tom Brady, watch out.

[A]

Nice. Hell, yeah. Yeah. Did you guys see Sirianni run down the field to yell at AJ Brown? Who has thoughts on that?

[C]

Neither one of them. Seems like a good hang.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Dude. I don't like Sirianni. I don't really have anything to base that in. I just don't like him. And just sprinting down the sideline to yell at your player. I don't know.

[D]

Yeah, like, mistakes happen, you know?

[A]

Yeah. A lot of mistakes.

[E]

Yeah. It might have been straw that broke the camel's back for Sirianni when It comes to A.J. brown. A.J. brown's had a bit of a tumultuous season.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Not necessarily on the field, but more off the field because he's been very vocal about the Eagles issues, especially offensively this season and don't think the coach has taken too kindly to that. And whenever A.J. brown doesn't deliver on the field, like when he had that miscatch. Yeah, that's when it all comes bubbling up.

[A]

It has been funny watching people analyze this game. Heading into it, everyone like trying to sidestep the conversation about how bad the Phillies offensive coordinator sucks. It's like an accepted truth. And you're hearing people go like, I don't know what it could be. It just seems the play calling is very conservative and confusing. It's just like the guy who got his house egged is. I feel like they were right to egg it. I don't know. Look, I'm no offensive coordinator. I'm not watching to go, oh, is that three runs they called in a row? Why would you call a designed run there? Why would you. I don't care like that. I'm a casual when it comes to the viewing of the football. But it the amount of people who are like the problem is their offensive coordinator in so many words, just a tough look. So I guess we'd be keeping our eyes and ears peeled for maybe them to move on from Kevin Petullo. But I don't know. I don't know anything. I have no insight.

[C]

You know who else I saw too much of on the Eagles sideline?

[A]

Hmm?

[C]

Big Dom.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

What's everybody's thoughts on Big Dom? Isabella? Big Dom rose to popularity. Who did he get into it with? Was that against the Niners? I almost feel like it might have been. Maybe Big Dom's like a. Is he their get back coach or does he do something else too?

[C]

He's their head of security.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

He's also, he's got a. A big title and he's also the guy who stands on the sideline and makes sure people don't stand too close to the sideline. And he's just always there everywhere. And somehow he caught a pass on the sideline and Tom Brady was thrilled by it.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I don't too much of this guy.

[A]

Big Don doesn't do it for me.

[D]

And according to the Google overview, it says that he is an American football employee.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Who is the senior advisor to the general manager. But then under his position, he's listed as offensive lineman.

[A]

No. No. Now this is why we're not using Google Overview anymore because it's never ever getting it right. I was watching a commercial for AI and them being like use AI to imagine if you could predict which player would actually be good and then only invest your resources into that one player. And it was like them using their AI. And I'm like, have you used Google? Their AI does not understand sports at all. AI will be like, yeah, he had 700 touchdowns. And you're like, that's not possible. He couldn't have had 700 touchdowns last night. That doesn't make any sense. Yeah, Big Dom is just a sort of a sideline character for them, but it falls into the same vein for me as Tommy Cutlets. It's very like, you know, oh, isn't this guy hilarious? And you're like, why? Because he's big and his name's Dom and he seems kind of cheerful or like he's. You know, I don't. What's the. What's the rub on this guy? He doesn't do it for me. I'm over it. No one's gonna. No one's gonna step up to defend Dom. Okay. Wow.

[C]

Chris, you're the last one with the chance to do it.

[A]

Chris. Nothing. Nothing. You're not into him either.

[E]

I don't care one way or the other.

[A]

Wow. Does not care. Well, we'll see what happens next. The 49ers go on to play Seattle, and I'm sure Dan will be totally normal about it.

[E]

Also, I enjoyed, by the way, being on a call with y' all at the end of that game so we could hear Dan celebrating. That was nice.

[A]

Yeah, I felt bad. We had something big come up. You guys will see on Thursday. Something big came up a little last minute. So we had a meeting Sunday night, and I was trying to, like. I'm like, when can I fit this in? I have the 49ers and then the Patriots. And so we tried to do it between games, but it came during the fourth quarter of the Niners game. So I said to Dan, I'm going into the room to take this call. If the juju shifts in a way that scares you, that you feel you're later going to go. You taking that call and leaving the room cost me a Niners playoff win. Come get me. I'll get off the call. We'll resume it during halftime of the Patriots game. And while we were on the phone, I just heard him go like, let's go, Ners from the other room. And. And they won. So thank God. Cuz I really would have hated to take the blame. I also do want to mention shout out Jason Garrett, who, at halftime of that game on NBC, said, no one better for that than Brock Purdy and CNBC, which I think he was trying to say CMC, which is Christian McCaffrey's nickname, but he said nobody better than Brock Purdy and cnbc. Um, okay. The Bills beat the Jaguars. I picked this game incorrectly. I thought the Jaguars were going to win this game. Not Isabella though. She picked Buffalo. And they won their first road playoff win in more than three decades, beating the Jaguars 27 to 24. Josh Allen found Brandon Cooks for 36 yards just before the two minute warning and then capped the go ahead drive with a one yard touchdown run. The Bills, Bears and Rams all won with touchdowns in the final two minutes. This was the first time in NFL postseason history that such a fashion decided three games. The Bills have been Owen five on the road in the playoffs under McDermott. McDermott was, they were saying, potentially on the hot seat. I know Adam Schefter went on Stephen A. Smith show and said there was a wild card team who if they lose might be looking to part with their coach. And I was kind of hoping it was the Bills and I was kind of hoping the Bills would lose and then I was kind of hoping they would get rid of their coach and bring in Harbaugh so that the Dolphins couldn't have Harbaugh at all and that this thing they did to my dear, dear best friend Mike McDaniel wouldn't work out in their favor. But alas, we'll have to see what happens there. The Bills had dropped eight consecutive postseason games on the road since winning at Miami in the 92 AFC championship game. That was there. The second longest active road playoff skid in the NFL. And now they will go on to play the well rested number one seed Denver Broncos on Saturday. Everybody watched this game. What did we see? What did we like?

[C]

I didn't watch those 10 yard tush pushes. It was cool as hell.

[A]

Isabella. I didn't watch this game. I don't know about that. No, that's okay. The Jags kicker missed a field goal. I mean we have been talking about him all season as this incredible like even like I think I saw a clip of Mina Kimes going into this game going, I hate to say the difference maker is at kicker, but it just is. And then he missed a field.

[E]

It was a ball don't lie situation. It was a, you know, coming into the half, questionable decision. It was reversed. Right. They initially said it wasn't a first down and then they reviewed it and it was a first down. I can't remember exactly the details a little bit hazy, but it was a questionable decision that led to the field goal in the first place. And so it was. There's a term for people who don't know, Isabelle. I'm not sure if you're familiar with ball don't lie, but that's sort of a situation where if a call is questionable, then the. The game will play out in such a way to even out the result so that whatever team benefits from the call ends up not making the most of that opportunity anyway. Does that make sense? I don't know if I'm doing a good.

[A]

I think it was a good explanation. It just is a complicated.

[D]

Yeah, like, I have to concept.

[A]

Yeah. It's basically like if there's a call that' made and everyone's like, that is the wrong call. And now this team has a huge benefit. Ball don't lie would be like they immediately squander that benefit. They, like, fumble or something. And it's like the ball is the ultimate, like, jury that they. The justice is in the ball. Ball don't lie. So it's like they didn't deserve that, and so therefore they didn't get it. The ball corrected the call. The main takeaway for me from this, this is what everybody was talking about after this game. There was a postseason post game press conference, obviously, as there always is. And Liam co. Duvall, first year head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, got a question from a reporter that really broke tradition with how things normally go in a postgame press conference. Let's play this clip and then we'll discuss. I want to tell you congratulations on your success, young man.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

You hold your head up.

[C]

All right?

[A]

You guys have had a most magnificent season.

[D]

Thank you.

[A]

You did a great job out there today. So you just hold your head up. Okay? And ladies and gentlemen, Duvall, you the one. All right. You keep it going. We got another season. Okay.

[C]

Appreciate it.

[A]

Take care. And much continued success to you and the entire team.

[E]

Thank you, ma'.

[A]

Am. Aw. I know.

[C]

Not a question.

[A]

Okay. I know. And people were really upset. I saw people logging on to go, hey, cute idea and all, but we are on a deadline. Reporters are there to ask questions, and you need to make space for those questions to be asked so that we can all do our jobs. Isabella, how does that make you feel?

[D]

I don't like that. I don't like that take. Because it's kind of just like they always all ask these same type of questions in these press conferences. So it's like, who cares if this One woman is just like, yeah, let's just give him some credit for his season and who cares? And he's thinking it so brave.

[C]

But at least follow it up with a question. Put a question on it because it's just frustrating. Just have a statement. Yeah, maybe that's pedantic, but just end it with like, like keep your head up.

[A]

Do you feel you did a good job?

[C]

Is Walker Little's hamstring okay? Like just add something to it. Give us some content.

[E]

Chris, again, I don't care either way, really. Chris is like, I really, I'm not going to concern myself.

[A]

Here's my thing. I'm, I'm with, I'm with the people who work in sports media obviously. And I'm not, I understand what they're saying that like if, because if everybody did that it would be nuts. But that's, it's not really a slippery slope. This was a first year coach who did an incredible job. I believe he's at least being discussed for coach of the year. He's got to be a coach of the year candidate for what he did for Jacksonville after a hard fought game that they lost. And look, I've watched a lot of post game press conferences. I watched a lot of coaches answer a lot of questions. I think I learned more about Liam Cohen from that than I would have about anything else he would have answered. Watching a coach have to take in support and like a kind hearted thought and compliment an empathetic thought about like, don't you dare hang your head. You did great. Keep your head high. You're the one. Duvall, like watching him take that in at a time when I'm sure he's very upset was really interesting to me. And like I said, I'm not saying everybody should do this. I'm not saying let's turn the post game press conference into everyone going like I love you, I'm such a big fan. But there was, it was a really human moment and just she didn't take too much time. She said what she had to say and then she got out. Yes. On a period, not a question mark, but just to see him be able to go like, thank you ma'. Am, thank you ma'. Am. And I thought I saw maybe a little, a little tear in his eye because that was very moving to be told like, hey, don't losses happen? Only one team can win so you gotta kinda deal with it. But don't stress, you did great and we love you. I don't know, I thought it was cute. I Was. I was, I guess, not surprised to see sports reporters online about it, but I don't know, I felt differently than they did.

[C]

Journalistically, it's fairly bankrupt. Like, that's not the job you're. You're credentialed there to do.

[A]

Yeah. I don't think she's a sports journalist. I think she's normally like an entertainment journalist. And I believe the two of them had a relationship from. She has covered him in ways throughout the season. From what I read, you really don't like it. I should have known you'd be on. Yeah.

[C]

You're in the room as press. Like, you are there to ask questions. You're not there to pat him on the back. You're not on his side. You are entirely neutral here.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You are gathering facts to tell this story.

[A]

Yeah. I just think I learned more. Sports is not good at getting emotions out of coaches. And I feel like I. I also.

[D]

Feel like they don't really give that much anyway.

[A]

Right.

[D]

Like they're gonna give the same three answers coaches always give at the end of a season or at or in any press conference. And so who cares if you just shake up this one environment and give a compliment and something you don't usually usually see? Not saying it has to be all.

[A]

The time, but like, yeah, definitely not all the time. It served the same purpose as like asking a question of like, how will you bounce back from this loss? Watching him kind of process the kind thing she was saying while also in the wake of a devastating playoff loss, watching that happen to his face. I'm telling you, I learned more than I would have if they said what happened on that fourth and whatever. It's like, I don't. I don't know. I can't go back and change it. So it is what it is. I thought it was sweet, but. Okay. Brady says no. So, you guys, we can't do that anymore.

[E]

Real quick, can I just clarify something about the decision leading to the field goal? It wasn't whether they were going to get a first down or not. It was whether they got the snap off before the half ended because they didn't have a timeout. Trevor Lawrence threw like a 20 or 30 yard pass and then they got to the line of scrimmage. They were trying to, you know, were trying to get the snap off before time expired. And it didn't look like they did.

[C]

Did, but that was tearing you apart inside.

[A]

I know. He's like, I got it wrong and I have to go back.

[C]

I know.

[E]

I just wanted to clarify that I was watching. Sorry, I just forgot the. The situation until about two minutes ago. And I've been quietly waiting for an opportunity to clarify.

[C]

So you shake it off. You dust yourself off. You're gonna be back. You're gonna be back.

[D]

You're the one, Chris.

[A]

You're the one, Chris. Okay. Is that. No. Of course, that's not all the games we have. Packers, Bears. Isabella's boy Caleb Williams pulls off a huge comeback against the packers exclusively on Amazon Prime. The Chicago Bears rallied from an 18 point deficit in the fourth quarter, I believe, to beat the rival Green Bay Packers 3127 in a wild card game Saturday night. They trailed 213 at halftime and 21.66 through three quarters, only to outscore Green Bay 25 to 6 in the fourth, on the way to its first playoff win in 15 years. This is the Bears seventh fourth quarter comeback victory this season. These Bears just do not quit. You cannot count them out. Even though I tried to in the car in the third quarter when Dan and I checked the score driving back from my friend Ashley's house, and it was bad. And I was like. Dan's like, it's not over. And I go, yeah, but it feels over. And then we got home and it was not over. We got home in time to watch the end, and it was crazy. The Bears will go on to host the Rams on Sunday.

[D]

Oh, no. They're playing the Rams.

[A]

Yeah. Your quarterback versus your wide receiver. How do you feel?

[D]

Well, I will have to side with my Caleb Williams.

[A]

Yeah, you think? Of course. I mean, what an incredible.

[D]

That's my guy.

[A]

Dan completely attributes Caleb Williams's season to you. He said Isabella was part of the reason he understood the assignment and the 49ers win. Yeah. I mean, truly. I asked him, he was like, I think the Steelers win tonight. And I go, why? What do you mean? We've been talking all weekend about that Texans defense and how crazy it is. And he goes, I'm in on the Isabella parlay. Let's talk about the sort of outside stuff of this game. The cheese grater situation.

[D]

I had no idea what it was.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

The entire. I was like, I'm gonna wait for someone on Casuals to explain this to me.

[A]

So the packers are cheeseheads because Wisconsin, known for its cheese. And oftentimes you'll see fans, Green Bay fans will wear big blocks of cheese on their head. Like a big. Yeah, I don't know. It's got holes in it, but it doesn't really look like it's got to be cheddar. It's got to be cheddar. But don't they normally. To make it look like cheese, take out little.

[C]

They do put the little.

[A]

Yeah, the little divots.

[C]

You know, that's never dawned to me that that's not actually Swiss.

[A]

Me neither. Till literally right now. And it's not really the best time.

[C]

Be honest with your cheese. Green Bay. Yeah.

[A]

But so the.

[D]

The.

[A]

From what I. There was an ESPN article I half read about how a company was making the. Tried to make those cheese heads, and the packers were like, you don't have the right to do this. And so they said, fine, we'll make cheese grater hats. And then they sold those to Bears fans. And that really caught on. And there was a Bears fan throughout the game who brought a cheese grater, which. Technically a weapon.

[D]

I was gonna say that is very.

[A]

Technically a weapon for anyone who's ever had that be their job in the kitchen while their parents are cooking and they go, you're on cheese duty. You would know. You can cut yourself on that thing. It's no mandolin, but it's similar. You're rubbing something up against essentially a blade to slice it. But anyway, a lot of. They kept cutting away to at least one Bears fan. There had to be more that was grating cheese throughout the whole.

[C]

He did make the smart move of going with, like, a hard cheese. It was like a parmesan, so it got like. It was flaking. It was kind of like a snow effect.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Whereas had he gone with a Wisconsin cheddar, it just would have been a blob of cheddar on the end of his grater. Like, this man knew what he was doing.

[A]

Yeah, he did. And yet nothing to catch the cheese as it fell. So he was just surrounded. Can you imagine having to go to the bathroom in the row of the guy who's been grating an entire block of cheese, and you're like, excuse me. Excuse me. Sorry. Excuse me. And then you have to step over a giant pile of pecorino Romano on the ground so that you can pee.

[C]

How many beers deep before you start.

[A]

Grating it into your mouth?

[C]

Do I. Yes.

[A]

3.

[C]

Do I lean over and say, hey, cheese guy, Just point to my mouth.

[A]

I'd go, hey, hey. Hit me in my cheese hole.

[C]

Because you know, he'll do it, right? He's there for the people.

[A]

I mean, the whole time I'd be doing that. What a waste of delicious cheese. I also saw in the post game, they had Caleb Williams and He took. They gave him a cheese grater and he did it. Aw. He did it. So I'm sure Packers fans are not happy about that.

[E]

Isabella, how surprised we are to hear that the Bears actually won this game. After the Bears packers game that you were watching ended up in a Packers 28 to 21 win.

[A]

Dude. Isabella texted on Saturday and said, guys, I have been watching what I thought was the Bears packers playoff game for the last 15 minutes. And it wasn't until a commercial ran for tonight's game that I realized I'm watching a replay of a game that has already happened from, like a month ago.

[F]

I was just.

[E]

From December 7th.

[D]

Yeah. You know what? I just.

[A]

It's.

[D]

It's not fair there. It's. They don't care about the people who.

[A]

Actually want to get into football because.

[D]

It just seemed like.

[E]

Was confusing.

[D]

It was confusing.

[A]

Okay, how did you get to the NFL Network to watch that game? Like, how did I. So I have YouTube TV, okay.

[D]

And I just saw. And I was already aware that the. That the Bears and the packers had a playoff game. And so when I turned on it said Packers, Bears, I was like, okay, let me turn this on.

[C]

It is the most logical place to go look for an NFL game.

[A]

Yeah, that's what I.

[C]

The network named after it.

[A]

The thing about this podcast is that it has helped me sort of shed the things I take for granted that I know about football. And it's made these things that, like you said, Isabella, could be hindrances for a new fan trying to get into the game. It has made those things really obvious to me. Whereas before, I wouldn't have noticed an NFL network. If you think about it, if you're new to the NFL and you go, I want to watch the big game, I'll start at the network named after the product. Of course, that would make sense. Whereas to us who are, like, way too well versed in how rights, media rights work. Well, they'd never put a playoff game on NFL Network. But why would anybody else have that thought? It's similar to. And I won't get too distracted on this, but I've now I've formulated a take. The Chargers and the Rams being the same colors in the same city and both being models of Dodge. Unacceptable. A Dodge Charger, a Dodge Ram. They're both blue and yellow there. When the Rams came out with that newer logo that is looks a little bit. And then the. Or maybe it was the Chargers, you come out with the one that's like, kind of looks like the Rams Logo. I have seen too many people in my life that are casual fans confused those. Those two teams, and I just can't believe nobody ever stepped in and was like, you can't both be the blue and yellow dodge team in la. It's not fair. It doesn't make sense, and it confuses people. Confusing, yes. So that and NFL Network. I'm making. I'm keeping a list of things I need to change for you to make. To make it more accessible, and I will someday get to those. Just probably not today, but I finally.

[D]

Got to the correct game.

[A]

Good.

[C]

The best part of Packers Bears, aside from the cheese grater guy, which is great because it reminded us all, yes, it's stupid to wear cheese on your head. Let's go ahead and grade it.

[D]

You know what was fun to see is that they kind of have, like, a. Like, a sweatshirt pocket in their jerseys, like, on the players. Like, they had, like, kind of like. What is it called?

[A]

The Kangaroo. Like a pouch. Yeah, like a little pouch. A little pouch for their hands.

[D]

So, yeah. Caleb Williams, when they were, like, in the huddle, he had his little hands in there.

[A]

Yeah. It's cold out there. They said it was gonna snow, and it did a little bit, but I think that was just grated cheese. I don't think it actually snowed enough.

[D]

Ooh, smelly.

[A]

What were you saying is the best part, Brady?

[C]

Ben Johnson and Matt LaFleur.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Genuinely effing hate each other.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And that is phenomenal for sports, especially two teams, the head coaches of the Bears and Packers, two teams that are rivals. They're old franchises. These are young guys, and they, like, they're about the same age. They're both successful. They both kind of have the same skill set. They just hate each other.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, Ben Johnson will go out in press conferences and say, I Enjoy beating Matt LaFleur. Twice a year. He's in his locker room shouting in front of the cameras, you know, fuck the packers. Over and over again. They asked him about it in his Monday presser, and he's like. They're like, is it personal between you two? He's like, yeah, I think it's a good thing to have a rival. I think it's good that this is a rivalry. Like, just be out in the open with it. It is fun.

[A]

It is fun. They shook hands, but it was very brief. And I did feel bad for LaFleur because it felt like he had his exit strategy in mind, where he was like, I'll shake his hand, but then I'm Going to turn to my right and I'm going to walk off right away. But when he turned to his right, Ben Johnson, who ran up to the handshake, ran to LaFleur's right. So he just kind of bumped back into Ben Johnson. And I was like, oh, that's not how you thought that was gonna go. You thought through it and it did not work out.

[C]

And they're Midwestern, so you just hear, oh, oh, oh. Let me just. Let me just. If I could just.

[A]

Excuse me. Oh, brutal. An absolutely brutal loss. I'm, I'm sad for packers fans. Losing Micah Parsons certainly didn't help. They had a great season and that. That sucked. What do you want me to say? And then, because we have to mention all of the games and the Rams game was closer than I think we all thought it was going to be, but it was the longest ago and I forget the most about it, so I'll just say the Rams have advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs. It's the second year in a row they've done that. After beating The Carolina Panthers 34 to 31 on Saturday, Carolina went ahead with only two minutes and change left in the game. It was too much time. You left too much time on the clock for Matthew Stafford, who did not in this game necessarily play at MVP caliber, but he did lead a winning drive, proving why he is one of the favorites. The beginning of the game, not so great for him, but they did win that game. Puka had a drop and then ended the game with like a ton of. He had a ton of yards and two touchdowns, I believe. So it wasn't really a bad game for them. It just was a. A slower start than they thought. But all those fourth quarter lead changes really set the tone for the weekend. So an incredible weekend of football that is over for the listener, but it still continues tonight for us as we wait to see who wins. Steelers or Texans.

[C]

Do you want to make Isabella's life hell right now?

[A]

Oh, my God, no. I've never wanted that in my life.

[D]

Thank you so much.

[A]

Imagine if I just said yes. Would we be friends still? I don't.

[C]

So you're five for five in the parlay. It means there's one game left. So I will split this with you. It's your picks. I'm happy to do it. We win $300 if the Steelers win tonight.

[D]

Wait.

[A]

Time out. Time out. You put these into a thing? You made a bet before this all? I didn't know that. We don't encourage betting in this show. And we would never, ever tell you to do it. But in this one case, Brady took it on his own. And we're not going to say where he did it or how or what.

[C]

But they were Isabella's ironclad picks, right? They were lead pipe locks.

[E]

It's not gambling if you know you're gonna win.

[A]

That's right. I don't know. So you put them all in a parlay, which for anyone who doesn't know, congrats. And I will say, I just want to say one last time, you do not have to bet on sport, on sports, to like sports. You can like sports without them. That's what I do. But a parlay is when you say these, all these different outcomes will all happen. It increases the money that you win because they all have to happen. So you can have what would be called six leg parlay, which is what you have. You have six games. You chose the outcome of. You can have five of those legs hit. And if the sixth leg doesn't, you do not get paid out for the parlay. That's to set you up for the question I'm imagining Brady is about to ask you. So do you feel, Isabella, that you have the information you need? Do you understand that? Yes. Okay, Brady, go ahead.

[C]

We have the option to cash out this bet. They will let you just not make it to the sixth game and take a much smaller winning of $94.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Do you want to cash out and split $94? Are you. Pedal to the floor. Take these pics of yours. Go six for six for $300.

[D]

I say let's go for the $300.

[A]

No whammies.

[C]

No whammies.

[D]

No whammies.

[A]

Let's go.

[D]

I don't have anything to lose.

[A]

I love that.

[E]

Yeah, that ain't her money.

[D]

Exactly. I'm like, I didn't bet this money.

[A]

Sorry, Brady. Man, I will be bummed. I will be bummed if you come this close. And it has to be, of course, that your last pick is the most like. I know, but listen, they got Aaron Rodgers. Anything could happen.

[D]

I mean, that last game, that was really like, whoa. They just kind of like, like randomly won for sure.

[A]

No, that's right. You're absolutely right. And that could. Look, if that's how it happens again, technically still counts as a win that Texas and we get closer to Britney. I know. We do need to. I want them to win so that they can go deeper into the playoffs so that we can have more opportunities to ask where the Is your wife?

[C]

Imagine if we get to Super Bowl.

[A]

Oh my God.

[C]

And Aaron Rodgers is playing and we're all just trying to find his wife in San Francisco.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

In the cloud.

[A]

Out there wandering around.

[D]

Or do they call it Carl?

[A]

Carl is what they call the cl.

[D]

That is right. Yeah, yeah. Shout out to me.

[A]

That's what they call the fog in San Francisco when Carl comes rolling in. And so it was a cloud. Cloud joke, you see, because Brady's cloud. That was very, very good. Very good stuff. You're welcome. Did we talk about everything in those games? Because there was just so much.

[C]

I think the one thing we didn't talk about was the biggest story coming out of Buffalo this weekend.

[A]

Which was what?

[C]

Not that they won the game. Not that Josh Allen was doing 10 yard tush pushes at the end because he fed his lineman 600 pounds of beef for Christmas. They're auctioning off their urinals.

[A]

Oh my God. I did see that. I did see that. So the Bills played their final. Unless they somehow play a home game for the playoffs at Highmark. They played their last game there. Said goodbye to the stadium. The Ralph, I believe it's also famously affectionately called. They're auctioning off every single piece of it because you know you can't. How could you not make money? How could you not bleed a fan base dry of all of their money as you make them pay for personal seat licenses in order to get season tickets to the new stadium? But I digress. They're auctioning off every little piece of that stadium, including the trough urinals. Now Isabella told me earlier when she looked at that she said I've never seen.

[D]

I've never seen that and I'm so sorry to anyone who has ever had to pee in such thing.

[A]

And that is all young male sports fans is that they have. It is a rite of passage. I from what I have heard and from what I understand to be a 10 year old and just consider how tall. Consider your height at a young age going to a game with your family. Consider to stand next to your father at this trough and every penis of every fan who's also peeing at that time and just pee into this the splashback zone. From this giant horrendous experience.

[C]

How stunned by how accurately you portrayed this scenario.

[A]

Because I've once I learned about it, it's kept me up at night. How do you all not have pee fear? How are you all able to.

[D]

Are there any dividers in it?

[A]

No. It is as much like a piece of farm equipment as you could Imagine it is. The closest I've ever pictured us to pigs is they just go like, line up, take it out and go. There is no way in hell I would be able to pee in front of all those people's. It's just. But now you can buy it from the Bills, an old p trough. What would you do with it?

[C]

Make a planter.

[D]

Yeah, good.

[C]

Grow cucumbers.

[D]

Probably don't want to be eating anything from the nutrients for compost, you know.

[A]

Wow, Brady, why cucumbers?

[C]

I say that, you know, just because I'm. It's what I'm putting in my planter this year.

[F]

Oh, okay.

[D]

Oh, I wouldn't put like edible things in there. I would put like, plants.

[A]

Good point.

[C]

I wouldn't.

[D]

Oh, God, I'm not eating any vegetable grown in a urinal.

[C]

I don't smell any flower grown in that urinal.

[A]

We all finally go to Brady's and we're like, Brady, this salad is amazing. What are the. Where do you. He's like, oh, yeah, I grow the cucumbers out in the piss trough from. From the Bill's old stadium. I think that's the secret ingredient.

[C]

They just grow piss pickles.

[A]

Piss pickles.

[C]

What do you think they're charging for one seat from Highmark Stadium?

[A]

It's gotta be like $10,000.

[C]

Oh, no, you way overshot that. Oh, it's just like one of the plastic uncomfortable seats of which there are 70,000 in that stadium. I would say 150, 800, $549.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, right in the middle. $10,000.

[C]

Pretty much the cheapest thing you can get. That is anything that looks like a piece of the stadium is a doormat that is like 2ft by 3ft made out of the. The turf on the field. And that's 100 bucks. And that actually seems kind of cool.

[D]

That's cute.

[A]

Yeah, that is.

[C]

Wipe my feet on like the 30 yard line as I'm coming in.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

All right.

[C]

This is where Eric Molds caught a pass.

[A]

And then where does that money go?

[D]

The mills.

[C]

Can we just pretend it's like orphans?

[A]

I would like to. I would like it to be because it's like, why do they get to profit off of selling stadium piecemeal?

[E]

50% of the proceeds go towards the county or go towards local initiatives within the county.

[A]

That's vague. Yeah. I also think they're getting help funding from the county for the new stadium while also charging. The whole thing's kind of a mess. But let's not get into it we have enough to talk about. Okay, so that's your wild card weekend, minus the game that we can't talk to you about. Next. I don't want to have to discuss this. Mike McDaniel was fired by the Dolphins right after we all thought he was in the clear. And it was saying, what changed? I guess Harbaugh being let go by the Ravens. The Dolphins seemed to want to make a move for him. So they fired Mike McDaniel and then they brought in a GM because, remember, they fired Greer in like, the, what, middle of the season and had an empty GM spot. And it's not necessarily a desirable job to go into a place that doesn't have a GM or a solution at quarterback. So I imagine in a move to make themselves look a little bit more desirable to the top head coach candidate on the market, a crowded market, I think a quarter of the league is looking for a new head coach. I think that's probably why they brought in AGM and fired Mike McDaniel. He's going to be interviewing with the Browns next week for the franchise's head coaching vacancy. I think that's according to Tom Pelissero. I also heard from friends of mine that that's the only head coaching interview they have planned for next week. That makes me nervous as fuck. I don't want to go to Cleveland. Look, I didn't like going to Miami. I didn't like having to root for a team that's in my division. But the Browns, I don't know. I don't know if that's necessarily what I'm rooting for. I will also say there have been rumors since this happened about Detroit needing an offensive coordinator and him going there or the Lion. No, there was somebody else. The Titans. He's interviewing for the Titans head coaching job. There's been a lot of offensive coordinator conversations. I know Eagles fans have been like, please, we want him. I think I heard Texans. I think I've heard Washington commanders. Here's my thing. I saw a tweet and of course, I don't remember who it came from, but somebody said you could really make the argument that if a. A head coach is fired and immediately becomes the number one candidate for any and all open offensive coordinator jobs that they are not an offensive coordinator, that that is a head coach candidate. It and that that person should be getting a head coaching job. Now, do I want that head coaching job to be the Browns? No. And so I'm kind of hoping that Mike would be fine with taking maybe a Step back to offensive coordinator for a season before he makes another push or something like that. That would be fine by me.

[E]

Goes to Cleveland to get the inside scoop on Shadow.

[A]

Right. And that's totally interesting and fine and fun. I just, like, there's been a lot of question marks around McDaniel, and I know, similar to the way people are quick to judge Caleb Williams. Isabella. Because he paints his nails. Feel like people were very quick to turn on McDaniel because he wears joggers and you can see his ankles or like, he's always, like, nicely dressed as opposed to the usual kind of slubby, traditional way for a head coach to dress. And so I feel like he's been unfairly maligned. And from what I understand, all of my friends who understand football and offensive coordinating better than I care. Two, he's got a brilliant offensive mind, and so I feel like he was in a tough situation in Miami that he did his best with. Turning the season around this year was an incredible move. Would be difficult for any coach, and he did it. And so I just would hope that wherever he goes, it is a more stable situation where he's able to prove and show everybody you were wrong about me. Just because I wear cool pants doesn't mean I can't also be a really good coach and run this offense. So a lot of stuff to pay attention to. I'm just excited. I can just have a. I could probably have that fall wedding if I. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's no way he's going to be without a job, and I don't want to hope for that. So he's going to be working. But for a second there, I was like, we could do it September. It's what I want. It's what I deserve.

[C]

Can confirm the dolphin statement about Mike McDaniel properly punctuated.

[A]

What do you mean? Oh, there was no, like, weird that.

[C]

Michael McDaniel is in a gulag somewhere.

[A]

Thank goodness. Thank goodness. Because I was really worried. Really, really worried about that as I had to be the one to tell Dan.

[E]

Aw.

[A]

Dan is one of those freaks that goes to the gym without his phone. He just, like, no music just is there to focus.

[C]

Raw dogging it.

[A]

Right. And sure. And obviously with it being January, he's going to the gym, as, you know, Crowded Gym. And I got a text from Nate Lee, the producer of Fan Service, my radio show on SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio. And he said, mcdaniel fired. This was the morning of. What was it? Friday morning or Thursday morning? Whenever it was. And I Dan came in from the gym. I stood at the door. He opened the door, and he, like, was like, hi. What's up, up? And I just was like, I have bad news. And his face was like, What? I said, McDaniel got fired. And he, like, walked right past me. And I was like, what? Walked right past me. Grabs the two pieces of Dolphins merch he was allowed to bring into the house as we are an AFC East Patriots household balloons. Grabs the two pieces of Dolphins merch, brings them back out to the hallway, slams them onto the ground, and stomped on them. So those are gone now, gratefully. And obviously, we are FTD in our house. Fuck the Dolphins.

[D]

Gotcha.

[E]

You know, I'm on board with that.

[A]

Thanks. So we'll keep. We'll keep an eye out for where Mike McDaniel goes, and we'll wish him the best. We have to talk about the College Football Playoff. Okay, so Thursday night, the Ole Miss Rebels. I don't know anybody who roots for them. I've never met a Rebs fan, but I'm sure they're out there. They lost, unfortunately, to Miami. So sad for anybody rooting for that team, but luckily nobody here was because they have a really racist past. And I just don't think that's something we would. As a lifelong Kansas State fan, that's just not. I wouldn't really. That's every man a Wildcat, you know, Not a. Not a Rebel. See that, Merc?

[D]

Say it again.

[C]

Again.

[A]

Ema.

[D]

Ema. Not ema.

[A]

I think. I think it's emu. So the. The Miami won. It was a sloppy game. Miami could not get out of their own way. Lot of penalties. But eventually they did go ahead and win. So Miami goes on to the finals, which are going to be in Miami. So, you know, I think we should all be just saying our prayers. That certain excited Miami fan doesn't absolutely die on the sideline. Michael Irvin. This is just a lot. This is just a lot. And he's really fired up. And boy, does he love Miami. But it's just like, I gotta. He's just. We gotta make sure he's. Keep him hydrated is all I'm saying. And then, of course, Indiana demolished Oregon in the second game on Saturday, the second semifinal game. Absolutely dog walked them 56 to 22. And that. I think they got 22, like end up time. It didn't really matter. It was a blowout. An absolute blowout. Fernando Mendoza went 17 of 24, 77 yards and five touchdowns. It was crazy, that game.

[E]

Five TDS 17 completions, absurd incompletions and five touchdowns.

[A]

Absurd.

[E]

So funny.

[A]

Absolutely absurd. But one thing I did notice in the broadcast, Chris, because we talked about this last week about athletes with LinkedIn profiles and I was like, I didn't think any athlete would be active on LinkedIn since they don't have to really go through that rite of passage. And you were like, I'll look into it and see how many athletes have LinkedIns. On the broadcast they showed us, Fernando Mendoza's LinkedIn profile makes the most amount.

[E]

Of sense in the world.

[A]

It doesn't.

[E]

It doesn't make for him. Absolutely it does.

[A]

Oh, what a boring if. If you, if you don't have to be on LinkedIn, you should not be on LinkedIn.

[D]

Sure.

[A]

Why would anyone choose to subject themselves to those big long, multi paragraph attempts.

[D]

To go, I am so excited to share that I won the 2025 Heisman Trophy. Thank you guys so much.

[A]

Brutal.

[E]

Pretty much.

[A]

But Chris, this helps. This is a good jumping off point for your investigation into players that have active LinkedIn pages.

[E]

Yeah, there aren't a whole lot, or at least not many that I could find. The best one was obviously Fernando Mendoza, who I like in his profile claims that he is student athlete at Indiana University Bloomington. That just makes me laugh. Some other athletes that have somewhat active LinkedIn profiles and by active they've posted at least once in the past 12 months.

[A]

Okay.

[E]

It's a pretty low bar to make this list, but that's what we're working with. Brady's boy, Derek Queen, my guy, former Terp and now Nuance Pelican. He calls himself a Pro athlete on LinkedIn and in his last post, and his only post came about six months ago and he said, I'm happy to share that I'm starting a new position as a professional basketball player at New Orleans Pelicans. Can't wait to touch down in New Orleans and meet the fans.

[A]

Are they, are they kidding when they do this? Are they being tongue in cheek?

[E]

I don't know.

[A]

I'm starting a new position as professional basketball player.

[E]

That's.

[D]

No, it's just that we're all taught that like maybe like the job, our jobs are volatile, so it's just like I always need to update my LinkedIn and make sure that I'm letting people know.

[A]

I'm happy to share.

[C]

I'm just looking for work.

[A]

That's very funny. Who else we got?

[E]

We also have Kelvin Beecham who plays for the Arizona Cardinals, who also won the Walter Payton man of the Year or is the nominee for the Walton Peyton man of the Year. He's listed as NFL athlete, doesn't have Arizona Cardinals in his bio, but just as NFL athlete.

[A]

It's okay to be embarrassed of it.

[E]

But most of his posts are in relation to all the things that he's doing in the community and his Walter Payton man of the Year honors, things like that. So he's keeping. He's keeping us abreast of all the information regarding that.

[A]

Okay, that's. And good for him. We give him a little soft clap for that. That's good. A little boring, you know, but. But good. But good. Very good and important.

[C]

I love that Derek Queen's page says highlights. You both studied at University of Maryland. I'm like, all right.

[A]

Oh, I should just. We've got a connection.

[E]

Are you second connection or third connection?

[C]

We're basically the same.

[D]

Make sure you invite to connect with him.

[C]

We both studied. That's almost halfway true.

[A]

Is there. It's not a faux pas to be on LinkedIn when you have a job. You're supposed to be on there when you have a job.

[C]

Well, it's not like you deactivate your profile once you get hired.

[A]

I mean, it feels like a dating. It should be like a dating site to me.

[D]

Some people will like, post though, like what you're working on at your job.

[A]

Yeah. For me, I'd be like, if you're on LinkedIn, you're actively looking for a new job. So I'd get out of here. You know, it's like, if I find Tinder on your phone, that's not going to be happy.

[E]

My favorite is when people actively have jobs, but they have the profile picture that says they're open, they're looking for work. And it's like, hang on. Yeah, I feel like you probably shouldn't. That would get you broadcast this. Maybe it's your current employees. Yeah, that seems a little bit strange.

[A]

That is tough. And yet there they are.

[E]

A couple of other notable profiles that I found nothing funny in their posts. They're all just very corporate and like, I'm pretty sure other people are writing it for him. Lindsey Von has a relatively active account. Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Lewis Hamilton. He is definitely not running his own account, but he. He has a lot of posts on his. Sloan Stevens.

[A]

Wow. Yeah, a lot of athletes. Imagine having to run an athlete's LinkedIn. Like, you don't even get their Instagram. They're like, and you can you do the LinkedIn?

[E]

You're like, I guess I Lewis Hamilton's bio says he is an entrepreneur, investor and F1 driver. F1 driver is third build to me.

[A]

That makes sense on LinkedIn. It's like I'm an entrepreneur. I'm here to make business connections. Also, maybe you've seen me behind the wheel of a very fast car. I don't know. Most importantly, I'm here about my business. All right, good. Thank you for that in depth analysis, Chris. I appreciate it. It.

[E]

You're welcome. I'm sure there are some others out there, but I was doing quite a bunch of research and couldn't find many more than that. So if anyone has any others that I've missed, let us know.

[A]

Casuals with Katie nolan gmail.com and then this news. I really, I keep trying to forget it because again, the Patriots won a playoff game. There was a lot of great football this weekend. I'm a college football fan now, so I've been paying attention to that. And so I just really feel like we, it's easy to forget that Alex Bregman, the third baseman who was brought in to replace the third baseman, we ran out of town in Raphael Devers has left the Red Sox and signed with the Cubs. Alex Bregman has agreed to a five year, 175 million dollar contract with the Cubs. He opted out after the first season of the three year, $120 million deal he signed with the Red Sox in February. The Sox are reportedly set to make a run at Boba Shet after losing Bregman. But I'm not gonna fucking hold my breath. I am so mad. This broke while I was making the aforementioned drive from my friend Ashley's house back home to watch the end of the Bears packers game. And I just was. I just am so mad. I'm so mad. It's not rational. I will never, I never really rooted for Alex Bregman. My feelings on this have been incred. Incredibly well known people have complained about me talking about it a lot about taking Raphael Dever's side. This just pisses me off. It pisses me off because they, they send Raphael Devers away. They say, well, he wouldn't play first base. Which like, well, because you told him in order to be dh, to divorce himself from the idea of ever touching his glove again. So to ask him a week later to play first base, I could see him going, I'm the highest paid player on this team. Why are you treating me like a utility player? Why can't I get some sort of respect from you? Then the Red Sox Were like, this guy makes way too much money, ignoring the fact that you are the ones who decided to pay him that much money, like a year ago. At the time, it was like a year ago. They had signed him to this big, expensive extension. And then they treat him like they paid him nothing. And then they go, he costs too much. So we're going to ship him away so that we can get money back that we can spend on someone else. They have Bregman, who they get in the offseason. They brought him in before they got rid of Des, obviously. But I'm just getting that timeline right for you. Bregman comes in, and I go from the cheater, the cheater from the Astros. I wasn't interested. Everybody was like, he's such a better third baseman. You don't know ball. Which I was like, it doesn't matter about knowing ball. I want my guy. I want my Yankee Killer. I want Raphael Devers, who I believe in his time with our team made it into the, like, top ten hundred home run hitters of our team, all time. And he liked to hit him against the Yankees. And that matters the most to me. A lady who loves the Red Sox and fucking hates the Yankees. That was my guy. And they shipped him off the fan base, turned on him. Not all of us, but a lot of people were like, he was bad for the locker room. An insane argument to make, especially when he immediately goes to the Giants and they rally behind him. He gets into a fight with a pitcher, and the entire bench is clear in support of Rafael Devers, a guy who'd been there for like, three weeks. They spread this rumor that he's like a locker room cancer, that he was the problem and that the money would end up being beneficial to us. And Bregman's gonna stick around for sure. Yeah, well, Bregman didn't stick around. He left. He went to the Cubs. Now he's making a ton of money for them. He's gonna forget he ever played for us. I'd like to. I'd like to forget he ever played for us. And I'll boo that guy till the day I die. I don't care if that doesn't make sense to you. He ruined my team. He kicked out my third baseman, who I loved. So now we went from having two highest paid on our team, third baseman, to zero third baseman in a span of a season. I'm upset. I'm upset. Brady, do you have thoughts?

[C]

My team signed Pete Alonso, so I'm just, like, having a good time. This off season.

[D]

I'm not.

[A]

I just don't understand.

[D]

Wait. That just clicked for me. It was Alex Bregman who replaced Raphael Devers.

[A]

Mm.

[D]

Oh, man.

[A]

Mm.

[D]

That's so annoying.

[A]

Mm.

[C]

And the front office just goes on and on for you guys about how, no, no, no. We have invested so much in guaranteed contracts over the last year, and they want you to believe that the team you're seeing out there is something different. Different than it really is. They want you to believe that they have brought in superstars when all they've done is purge superstars and brought in Sonny Grays and Wilson Contreras and then brought in Alex Bregman, let him opt out of his deal. They're not building something that you can get excited about. Even though they won 89 games, they had a good season.

[A]

They were in the playoffs in spite of themselves.

[C]

Right.

[A]

I also think it was, like, fan. This feels a little bit reminiscent of Kyrie in the sense that it. I believe there was, like, a big fan event yesterday at Fen or the day that it was announced at Fenway, and they, I think, announced it. Like, it was announced right after the fan event, which is like, yeah, you better hope, because people were not going to be happy with you. I'm just sick of ownership being like, look how much money we saved. Like, I give a about the money in your bank account. If you're showing me you're not going to spend it anyway. Why do I give a how much money you saved? Last season, the food service workers at Fenway either went on strike or threatened to go on strike or at least were approved to go on strike. I don't remember if they did or for how many games. But there's clearly an issue with money trickling its way down to the hands of the employees, the people that work there, as well as down to the hands of the employees in the players. So it's like all this money you're bragging about saving, are ticket prices going down? Is it going to be affordable to go to a game with a family? No, because Boston Red Sox fans show up and sell out all the time because we love baseball and we love this team. Would it fucking kill you to spend some of this money on people and then keep them around? Why do we keep chasing out these big players and letting them leave and go somewhere else? Usually the Dodgers just am like, what the fuck? You know?

[D]

I'm sorry.

[A]

Hey, it's okay. Thanks. Thanks.

[D]

You're welcome.

[A]

I can't get this mad when I have a turtleneck On. Yeah, I'm like burning up. Oh my God. Let's move on. Okay. We don't have a ton of time, but there's some weird things that happened I wanted to mention. So obviously the big basketball story is that Trae Young was traded to the Wizards. He's a four time all star. He played for the Atlanta Hawks and he was traded to the Wizards. Just a player trade. There was no draft capital involved in this, which I feel like is increasingly rare there when it comes to these trades. But it was just CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert. An interesting trade. Interesting to me, a person who pays less attention to basketball than the other sports. Because to me, Trey Young is a name that just a few years ago we were discussing like this huge star in the league and like building things around him. And then when I was hearing people discuss this trade, the conversations were like, well, Trey Young's career is over, so they're just getting rid of them and it's dead weight. They're shipping them off to the Wizards and the. And so I am curious to know, Chris, your thoughts on this trade and what it actually means in the grand scheme of things.

[E]

He's long been rumored to be on the out in Atlanta, so it wasn't a surprise when it dropped. He's obviously a player with immense talent. He led the league in assists last season. He's a fantastic scorer. But sometimes when a player requires that much usage in order to perform his best, then it's in the team's best interest to move on from him and build around their other pieces, which is what they've decided on doing. They have a lot of other good players that they want to rely more on other than Trey. If you have a look at the splits from when he was playing this season compared to when he wasn't. There were two and eight in games that Trey Young played and there were 15 and 13 in games without him. So there was obviously this. The chemistry within the team on the court operated better when they didn't have to go through Trae Young. It's a similar thing going on in Memphis at the moment with Ja Morant, a player with again, immense talent. But they're probably going to have to move on from him and not get a whole lot in return. The NBA is sort of an interesting beast in the fact that you only have five players on the court at the same time. You have to make sure that you're getting players who can operate within a system and aren't high usage guys who are Going to be detrimental to the rest of the. The players. And that's just. That's what Trey Young was. And in the end he got dealt for what was essentially a salary cap dump.

[A]

Yeah, I feel like the Wizards aren't doing enough to lean into their nickname. I feel like I'm not getting enough wizardry and magic coming out of Washington. And that's just a personal.

[D]

They're off to see the Wizard.

[A]

Yeah, something like that. Or even like something with. With like beards. I just feel like they're not doing enough like stars. Wizardly stuff.

[C]

Shooting shirts with really like wide sleeves.

[A]

Yes, yes. A bell sleeved shirt. I just feel like more could be done with the motif and they're really not even scratching the surface. So maybe Trey Young can help implement that. I don't know. The basketball story I care about the most. Did you see when the Bulls game was postponed on Thursday night? This feels like a nothing story, but please let me get there, cuz I. This shit is like a fever dream. So Thursday night there was a game that was supposed to be played between the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat. Kind of ironic, it was the Heat. It ended up being postponed because of condensation on the court at the United Center. So Chicago is one of the many, I believe, venues across sports that has their basketball team play, where their hockey team plays. I think most of them put the ice underneath.

[E]

Yeah, they just lay the hardwood on top of the ice.

[A]

It's a little more complicated than that, but it is basically that they. So that was. It was like a, I guess an unseasonably warm and humid day. And so that combined with the fact that there's a whole ice underneath the wood, it led to condensation on the court. They could not fix it. And so they delayed the game for a really long time. And then they ended up actually just postponing it. What was fascinating to me is that during that delay, when they're obviously looking for things to do, Benny the Bull, the mascot from the Bulls, challenged. So the home mascot challenged Tyler Hero, who plays for the Heat, to a shooting contest. And the first shot that they took, Benny shot from center court. He was at half court, back to the net, and one handed over his head, banged a shot, went right in.

[D]

Oh, wow.

[A]

And then Tyler Hero refused to shoot or compete at all.

[D]

I would say, remember, this is the.

[E]

Tyler Hero that famously doesn't believe in anything that happened before 1950.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Because that's when we invented writing things down. It was 1950. And so Tyler Hero doesn't even shoot. He basically is like, nope, I don't want to participate in this. Which is the correct decision, while also looking like, you know, scared. Money don't make none. Tyler, take your shot. You can't hit that. He's in a. It's a man in a mascot costume. He hit it. Then, as if that's not weird enough, the ball gets to Asia Wilson, I guess, who's there. And who sees a person in the crowd with an Asia Wilson jersey on? So she takes the ball and gives it and takes a picture with the fan who's, like, beaming because she's got this basketball. And then they don't even have a basketball game. It's like the biggest.

[C]

Most.

[D]

This does feel like a few.

[A]

So much stuff happened, except. Except the basketball game that everybody had gathered to watch. Such a strange little thing that I felt like would be funny to tell you guys about. This one's a big one. I want to make sure we get to it. Scooter Braun is reportedly frustrated with professional athletes because they keep sliding into his girlfriend Sydney Sweeney's dms, which he views as, quote, incredibly disrespectful. That's it. That's the summary. There's not more to that story. I just really would like to discuss us. Obviously.

[E]

Obviously going to happen.

[A]

Obviously athletes are going to slide into Sydney Sweeney's dms. This is the. This is what comes with the territory. If you want to date a sex symbol who's literally everywhere. She's in every commercial. Remember when she does hey, dudes, commercials. This girl is. It doesn't say no to anything. She's everywhere. She's looking amazing on the red carpet. I've seen a couple looks for hers in promotion of. What is it? The housemaid. Is that what the Their movie is called?

[D]

Yeah, I think so.

[A]

Where I'm like, Jesus, Jessica Rabbit. She is built like a cartoon character of sexy. Of course people are gonna slide into her dm, Scooter, and you know it's.

[E]

Gonna be much worse now. You don't. You don't say something like that and expect that it's gonna get any better.

[A]

Exactly. It's like Streisand effect. It's like, don't bring it up. Because now if I'm an athlete who wasn't doing it, I'm like, oh, we're all doing this. I'll do it.

[D]

This. Yeah.

[A]

Also, if you want other grown men to respect you, maybe go by, like, Scott.

[C]

Counterpoint. This is Scooter Braun putting this story out Just so that everyone knows he is dating Steven.

[A]

Because I do keep forgetting. I do keep forgetting. You're absolutely right. It keeps getting lost.

[C]

Make sure if no one knows. He's trying to make sure we have 100% coverage.

[A]

Yeah, like tomorrow, if it was. If somebody put the story in front of me that said Tom Brady announces he's dating Sydney Sweeney, I wouldn't go. What about Scooter Braun? I'd go, yeah, okay, they're dating, so that makes perfect sense. He's really.

[E]

What about Alex Sale?

[A]

Yeah, you're right. That would be the first question. Yeah, Scooter Braun.

[C]

Didn't he.

[A]

I'm not up on his lore because I'm not a deep swifty, but don't we hate him anyway? Doesn't he stink?

[E]

That's what I thought.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I don't, last I heard.

[A]

I guess I think more professional athletes should slide into her dm. That's just my opinion.

[E]

Any professional giving you the green line.

[A]

Any professional athlete I meet from here on out, I'm gonna go. And by the way, have you DM'd Sydney Sweeney lately? She might really be interested.

[C]

I also remember when I hit that shot. Hey, girl.

[A]

Didn't. Don't you want a man covered in hair who can make Tyler Hero tap out? Isn't that your dream, man? Also, there's no chance it's just athletes, so I'll just say that as well. There's no way every person from every walk of life isn't probably sliding into her.

[D]

Also, how did he get this information? Are you going through her phone or.

[A]

Is she going, you know who DM me today? It's totally crazy. Let me tuck my hair into my turtleneck and do my Sydney Sweeney impersonation. Yeah. You know who DM me today was so crazy. Like it. Yeah. Are you telling on them or is he going through your Instagram dms?

[D]

I know. I'm so curious.

[A]

It's really worth knowing they moved the DMS now to the bot. It's like I keep forgetting I didn't.

[D]

Update my phone because they moved her.

[C]

LinkedIn DMs to the bottom. Surprising.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

A lot of recruiting.

[A]

Yeah. Does she have a LinkedIn Sydney Sweeney?

[C]

She should.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Well, should she?

[C]

You know, as a. As an independent contractor, you'd think Brady.

[E]

Pop open for work.

[A]

Not Brady. Chris. Pop quiz.

[D]

Who.

[A]

Who was the. The viral ad for jeans? What was the company?

[E]

American Eagle.

[A]

Oh, man. I was kind of hoping to prove a point that, like, nobody even remembers what company the jeans were for.

[C]

Sorry.

[A]

No. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.

[D]

Is it?

[A]

I think I'm okay with it. It. Okay. All right, let's hit a quick break, and when we come back, Chris is going to tell us if we wanted to watch some sports this week, what we could watch. This is casuals. We'll be right back. Okay.

[D]

I have to tell you, I was.

[A]

Just looking on ebay, where I go.

[D]

For all kinds of things I love.

[A]

And there it was, that hologram trading card. One of the rarest. The last one I needed for my set. Shiny like the designer handbag of my dreams. One of a kind. Ebay had it.

[D]

And now everyone's asking, ooh, where'd you.

[A]

Get your windshield wipers? Ebay has all the parts that fit my car. No more annoying, just beautiful.

[D]

Millions of finds, each with a story. EBay Things people love.

[B]

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[F]

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[A]

Ah, dsw.

[D]

Birthplace of the humblebrag.

[A]

Here the shoes are so good.

[D]

No one would ever know how little you paid if you didn't go telling everyone that is. And with never ending options for any every style, mood and occasion, all at really great prices, we'll definitely give you something to brag about. So go ahead, stock up on fresh sneakers from your favorite brands or try those boots you always secretly knew you could pull off. Find the shoes that get you at.

[A]

Prices that get your budget at dsw stores or dsw.com and we're back. Oh, my God, I missed you guys so much. What a long break. Chris, it's that time of the year again where you tell us what we watch. If we want to watch some sports. What do we got this week?

[E]

I famously only do this once a year. So everyone listen in. Here is what you can watch if you want to watch sports this week, beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, I guess. Today. No, tomorrow. No, today. Today, January 13th. It's very confusing. Everyone, you got to understand. Today, Tuesday, January 13th, at 7pm Eastern on Prime, you can watch Ottawa versus Montreal and the PWHL. Again, this game is on Prime. And the reason why you should watch this is because you have a chance to watch two of the best players in the league. Ottawa's Brianne Jenner and Montreal's Marie Philippe Pullin are two of the best scorers in the league. They're both top four in the league for points and top four in the league for goals. So if you want to watch some of the best players in the pwhl, this is the perfect game to watch. And the fact that it's on prime makes it even easier to watch.

[A]

I don't know if this is an Australia thing. I believe it's Poulet.

[E]

Marie Philippe, is that. You're probably correct.

[A]

No, no. I just think that's how you say it in Australia. So as always, you get away with it.

[E]

Thank you.

[A]

Because it's just the way. Again, what?

[C]

Mariegan. It's pronounced Merigan.

[A]

While we're talking about women talkie, I will say, I don't know if everybody saw this, but go look up the highlight from. I don't remember who Minnesota was playing. I think it might have been Minnesota State, but don't quote me on that. Minnesota had an insane pass into a goal situation in women's college hockey that was absolutely absurd and I recommend you go look it up. Okay, what else can we watch if we want to watch sports this week? Chris.

[E]

Women's College basketball. Number three, South Carolina will face off against number two, Texas. This game will be on Thursday, January 15th at 7:00pm Eastern on ESPN2. Texas are still undefeated on the season so far in South Carolina. They only have one loss so far this season, and it was by two points against Texas earlier this season in the players era Championship and that was like a last second shot as well. So two very, very good teams, two teams featuring players that have the potential to go top 10 in the upcoming draft. South Carolinas Tenaya Latson and Medina Okot and Texas's Rory Harmon all protect all potential top 10 picks. So again, very high level, quality basketball. Two great teams with some phenomenal players. So make sure you check out that game on Thursday.

[A]

Yeah, that's going to be a really good one. What else? What's the last one we can watch?

[E]

We spoke about it before, but again, it bears repeating because it's such a big game. Next Monday, January 19, 7:30pm Eastern on ESPN. It is the College Football Playoff national championship game. Indiana against Miami. It has been a phenomenal season. At the start of the season, I think if you told us that it was going to be Indiana against Miami, I don't know who would have believed you. But it's been a terrific season. Indiana has been dominant this year. One of the greatest teams of all time in, in college football. So check out that game. Check out Fernando Mendoza and then let him know how much, how much you appreciate his game on LinkedIn.

[A]

Yeah, Adam. Adam's circle. Ask him to recommend you for a job. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe he has something nice to say about you. He seems to have something nice to say about everything. Technically, not to nitpick. Technically. Monday, January 19th is next week, but.

[E]

It'S Tuesday when this comes out. So it's within the week. I'm not going to be able to talk to anyone between now.

[A]

You didn't have to pull a gun on me. That was crazy. I was just saying. All right, guys, that's it for the podcast. Let's see. Brady, do we have a guest on Thursday?

[C]

We do. We have three.

[A]

Oh, that's right. That's right. We have Joe Carnahan, writer, director, who you may know from a bunch of movies.

[C]

And then he did the Gray. He did the A team.

[A]

Yep.

[E]

Smoking aces.

[A]

That's right. He's got a new movie coming out on Netflix called the Rip, and it's two stars. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Join us.

[E]

What?

[A]

On Thursday. Still not really, really feeling real to me in my brain. But we will have them probably for a brief amount of time. But what are you gonna do? Complain about that? Couldn't be me.

[C]

So give or take 31 minutes with those three. It's gonna be a good time.

[A]

We'll be chatting with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Like one and two on my. Yes, oh, sorry. Yep. And also him on the 1 and 2 on the list of like famous sports fans to me as a Boston fan. So we'll get to chat with them about their thoughts on Alex Bregman and and each other in the movie. Etc. So that's coming up on Thursday's episode. Still crazy. Still can't believe it. All right, and that's the end of today's don't forget, if you want to reach out to us, you can always do that. We have an email. It's Casual withth Katie nolan gmail.com Our voicemail is 646-810-0043. On IG and Tik Tok, we are at Casual the podcast. We love you, we mean it and we'll see you on Thursday. Bye. Mazda Once you discover the Mazda CX5 Mazda, it doesn't take long to get it. With standard all wheel drive, a premium interior and advanced safety features, it's an SUV that gives you more at every turn. It will have you saying Mazda.

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