The Voodoo Steelers, NFC South Comedy, an Eagles Theory, Guess the Lines Round 1, and Jaylen’s Crazy Year With Cousin Sal

Summary

The Bill Simmons Podcast

Episode: The Voodoo Steelers, NFC South Comedy, an Eagles Theory, Guess the Lines Round 1, and Jaylen’s Crazy Year With Cousin Sal
Date: January 5, 2026
Host: Bill Simmons
Guest: Cousin Sal

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Episode Overview

This action-packed episode dives into a bizarre slate of NFL games leading into the playoffs, focusing on the unpredictability and outright comedy of the AFC and NFC South, the mystifying staying power of the Steelers ("the voodoo Steelers"), what went wrong for the Ravens, a theory on the Eagles’ odd Week 18 decision-making, and a robust lookahead to Wild Card Weekend including classic “Guess the Lines” with Cousin Sal. Simmons and Sal also debate end-of-season awards like MVP and Coach of the Year and sprinkle in some broader sports commentary, gambling stories, and parenting confessions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Mystique of the "Voodoo Steelers" (03:19–14:07)

• Steelers Dissected: Simmons and Sal react in bewilderment to how the Steelers "just find ways to win" in ugly, improbable fashion.

  • Bill Simmons: “The voodoo Steelers. The garbage Steelers. The what the fuck Steelers. What are they, Sal? I don’t know how they do it. I honestly don’t.” (03:17)
  • Cousin Sal: “They don’t lay down if they’re around in the fourth quarter. It’s a mess. They’re a hard out for sure.” (11:58)

• Steelers-Ravens Drama:

  • Two Ravens safeties colliding opened a window for a key Steelers play.
  • Simmons calls it "a bizarre game" with the Ravens blowing their playoff chance due to missed kicks and lack of offensive rhythm—another cold-weather January disappointment for Lamar Jackson.
  • Ongoing skepticism about Lamar’s big-game credentials: “The problem is, his parents named him January Lamar and they did it sarcastically. So he never really had a chance once the calendar turned.” – Sal (10:47)
  • Pittsburgh’s improbable playoff entry analyzed; their “Steelers special” bet hit again: Opponent to win the first half, Steelers to win the game, “only hit in week one and week 18.” (08:35, 08:41).

2. NFC South Farce & Playoff Fallout (14:07–26:15)

• NFC South Comedy: Both hosts marvel at the division’s ineptitude—three 8-9 teams, drama over tie-breakers, and the ludicrous ways teams clinched or lost playoff spots.

  • Sal: “Literally nobody wanted it.” (14:42)
  • Coaches and GMs losing their jobs right after big moments—”The Falcons win, and they celebrated by firing their coach and the GM right after the game.” (15:33)

• Carolina's Playoff Nod: The Panthers (8-9) snag a home playoff game, a source of much comic banter for both hosts.

  • Debate over whether incentives or wink-wink deals could be given to other teams’ quarterbacks to change outcomes (“Probably no part of that's legit. Really?” – Simmons, 16:57)
  • Playful riffing about hypothetical Panthers “division title” gear for the Falcons, had the tiebreaker ping-pong swung further (17:15–17:39)

• Awards Chatter:

  • Sal lobbies for Ben Johnson as a Coach of the Year longshot, arguing he "did the worst-to-first thing" with the Patriots.
  • Recap and debate of who deserves MVP, with bracketing of May vs. Stafford (see “Awards Debates” below).

3. The Eagles Theory & Resting Starters (26:15–31:07)

• Simmons theorizes the Eagles may actually prefer playing on the road, given their “fan base hate” and “awkwardness when things don’t go well.”
  • “Is it possible they just don’t want to play at home because their fans hate them—even though they won the Super Bowl last year?” – Simmons (29:34)
  • The Day of the Backup QBs: Detailing how no one stepped up with one big game to “steal the bag." Critique of Trey Lance: “I’m willing to say that was a bad trade. Three first rounders for Trey.” – Sal (28:40)

4. Wild Card Preview & Playoff "Guess the Lines" (31:07–84:31)

a. Parody, Parity, and Nobody Believes in Us:

• Multiple home underdogs on Wild Card Weekend for the first time in recent memory.
  • “We've done three games and they're all home underdogs. This is the fucking playoffs where the higher seed should have an advantage.” – Simmons (74:03)
• Deep “manifesto” rationale about how the playoff field is unusually wide-open, with no team universally trusted to win two straight games.
  • “Is this the least confident you are as a bettor going into the playoffs? …I see major flaws in all these teams.” – Sal (31:07)

b. Game-by-Game Line Guessing Highlights:

• Rams at Panthers (Shakies game): Line guessed at -7.5, actual line is -10.5 (64:12)
  • Simmons: “I know I sound crazy. I don’t mind this Panthers team.”
• Bears vs. Packers (Sat night): Stunned to find Packers are 1.5-point favorites on the road; gives the Bears “Nobody Believes In Us energy.” (66:29-68:12)
• Bills at Jags: Both find the +1.5 spread tiny, with Sal noting, “I like the Jags a little bit” and predicting sharp gamblers will lean that way. (72:22-73:28)
• Steelers as Playoff Mainstays: “There’s just no scenario where the Steelers are going to be favored in this game… Texans minus two and a half in Pittsburgh” – Simmons, with Sal in disbelief. (82:00–83:02)
• Line Guessing Dynamics: Several discussions about the historic rarity of four home underdogs in the playoffs and whether these lines reflect the public’s or bookmakers’ lack of trust in “better” teams. (84:31–85:13)

c. Playoff Team Evaluations and Matchups:

• Multiple segments ranking how much they trust various QBs (e.g., “Is Sam Darnold outside your top 3 QBs to trust in this playoffs?” – Sal, 53:10)
• Steelers’ ability to generate “horseshoe up the ass” wins; skepticism about both Bears and Eagles as favorites or trustworthy home teams.
  • “If you play their schedule a few times, you get some 8-9 results…” – Simmons (68:17)
• Anticipated league/TV-preferred Super Bowl matchups (Rams/Bills, Bills/Eagles), examining playoff odds and longshots (61:01–62:38)

5. Awards Debates – MVP & Coach of the Year (33:23–43:32)

• MVP Race: Swirling between Stafford and May. Stats and recency bias versus overall impact and narrative.
  • “Anytime you could lead somebody to a five seed, you got to send them the hardware.” – Simmons (34:53)
  • On May’s dual-threat ability: “He’s led the league in completion percentage and yards per attempt.” – Simmons (36:01)
  • Notable discussion on whether Stafford’s cushy situation or May’s all-around play is more valuable.
• Coach of the Year: Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel, and Mike McDonald cases discussed, with particular emphasis on analytics and team turnaround narratives.

6. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Steelers Magic: “It’s like throwing meat over the cage to the lion. This is all they need. This is how they live.” – Simmons, on the Steelers being playoff underdogs (83:02)
• On Announcers/Tri-booth Broadcasts: “Their usage rate was both Westbrook 2017—like, whoever was over half court got to shoot, but the announcing version of it.” – Simmons, riffing on too-chatty analysts cluttering a broadcast (21:16–22:44)
• Classic Sarcasm about Bad Divisions: “The only way the NFC South can get more ridiculous...” – Simmons, imagining Falcons celebrating in Panthers’ division title gear (17:15)
• Parenting Tech Anxieties: “Now you just pull your phone out… My wife is just like, well, I can’t go to bed until Ben comes back… he’s right in that zone of should I still be worried when he’s out?” – Simmons on parents’ tracking apps (97:20–98:36)

7. Parent Corner (90:11–101:52)

• Sal: Shares the comedy of being stuck at a supersized fishing store with his son for an hour and a half, faking a nap in a tent while his son browses lures.
  • “I zip myself up in the tent, lay down on the cot in the tent, and watched whatever bowl game I was losing money on. You let me know when you’re done.” – Sal (92:42)
• Simmons: Discusses the challenge of letting go as a parent, with his 18-year-old son coming and going late at night, and the dilemma of whether to stay awake or just trust him.
  • “What is the right age to let go?” (97:20)
  • Amusing side-notes about using apps like Life360 to track their kids in real time.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Steelers-Ravens Recap & Voodoo Team Talk: 03:19–14:07
• NFC South/Carolina Joke: 14:07–26:15
• Eagles Theory/Backup QBs: 26:15–31:07
• Parity Playoffs / Home Dogs: 31:07–44:31
• Awards Debates (MVP, COY): 33:23–43:32
• Guess the Lines, Wild Card Previews: 44:31–84:31 (detailed per-game guessing, with lively debate and season context)
• Parent Corner: 90:11–101:52

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Tone & Language

• Breezy, sarcastic, classic Simmons-and-Sal banter.
• Irreverence toward NFL parity and coaching failures.
• Generous with self-deprecation (“You didn’t hedge? I went raw dog.” – Simmons, 85:53), inside jokes, gambling misery commiseration.
• Frequent use of colorful but not explicit language (e.g., “horseshoe up their ass,” “turd sandwich”).

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Final Takeaways

• Unpredictability reigns supreme: No dominant teams, multiple home playoff underdogs, and outright comedy in the South.
• Steelers lore continues—no one trusts them, yet no one wants to face them.
• The MVP debate captures the struggle to weigh narrative, stats, and circumstance.
• Simmons’ unique theories (Eagles road preference, “Nobody Believes In Us” energy, playoff mythology) punctuate the fan experience in 2026.
• Parent Corner grounds the episode with relatable humor about modern parenthood and sports fandom across generations.

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Classic Quote Summary:
“This is the fucking playoffs where the higher seed should have an advantage...” – Simmons on the 2025–26 NFL playoffs. (74:03)

“They don’t lay down if they’re around in the fourth quarter. It’s a mess. They’re a hard out for sure.” – Cousin Sal on the voodoo Steelers (11:58)

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Recommended for:
NFL fans, bettors, award-race enthusiasts, and anyone who enjoys sports talk that blends sharp analysis with a heavy dose of comedic commiseration.

Transcript

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Apple Watch. So how's that New Year's resolution looking? You going to crush the gym? You're going to inch into Quitters Day territory? What's your plan? Because that's a real thing. The second Friday of January. It turns out most of us, we throw in the towel by then. But not this year. Not if you got an Apple Watch. Apple Watch keeps you locked in. You've got the daily movement and activity rings, achievement streaks, goal tracking. It's like having a coach on your wrist. So if you're on the edge of giving up, don't. This is the year we quit quitting. Let's do this. Apple Watch made to motivate you. Find out [e-mail] AppleWatchSerieseries 11 iPhone 11 or later required. The Bill Simmons Podcast, brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. We are also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I have a new rewatchables coming for you on Monday night. It's going to be a mailbag. We have not recorded it yet. We're actually recording it tomorrow. I want to do it as late to when we're actually putting up the podcast as possible. I hope you checked out the 50 most rewatchable movies of the 21st century that we did last week. Got a lot of commotion for it. It was pretty funny. It played out exactly how I thought it was going to play out. I had a great time doing that pod. I'm glad people enjoyed it. We might have two rewatchables this week. I think that's in play. We might have a movie coming up on Wednesday, too. I'm going to have a podcast on Tuesday this week as well as on Thursday and then Sunday coming off of Pat's Chargers. Yikes. Round one, which will be available on Spotify as a video podcast on all platforms, as a podcast. And then the video will be on Netflix as well. So stay tuned for that in a week. Just wanted to remind you on that one. And coming up, cousin Sal and I talk about just. I'm not going to say bonkers. I'm not going to say crazy. Just a bizarre day of football. Bizarre. Two days. So it is all next. We're going to take break, bring a pearl gym, and then cousin Sal. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by fanduel. Fanduel's got it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live. They have your way. Go check out your way. You can build the bet that fits your play your way. Plus don't miss out on the NFL playoffs. One of my favorite times of the year all month long. Download the FanDuel app or head to FanDuel.com BS to get started. Get ready for the playoffs. Let's go. Must be 21 + President select states 18 + in D.C. kentucky and Wyoming Gamble call win 800 Gambler visit rg-help.com, call 888-789777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut. All right, Sunday night just watched these Steelers. The voodoo Steelers. The garbage Steelers. The what the fuck Steelers. What are they Sal? I don't know how they do it. I honestly don't.

[B]

The wait around for the top two safeties to butt heads and you know, join the blue tent Steelers so you can complete a pass. I don't know what the hell that was.

[A]

The every time you have a big play in the first three quarters it's going to get called back with some sort of penalty or we're going to get some sort of garbage something and then it all comes down to they finally goes against them. They miss an extra point and it seems like the Ravens are going to knock him out. And then guess who misses the kick. The Ravens.

[B]

Yeah, Tucker. They got it. They got to cut that Tucker dude.

[A]

No, no, I knew that Tucker was going to backside him.

[B]

That was on pace for such a shitty game. That was going to be like a 1412 game. And then like I think like what happened with the safeties colliding that opened up some some pass opportunities for Rodgers and and I think like Lamar had what he had completed like four passes before the wide open as a flowers. I mean Mike, you could throw a spaceship or run that through that zone. Is that secondary get a hold of Aaron's by Waska. What was that?

[A]

Yeah, they had I think Lamar. I wrote that Lamar had six passes in the first two hours of the game. It was like four for six. It was like 7:30 at night. Pacific time. Ends up flowers finished with four for 138 both of which were in the fourth quarter. I had all these notes about January, Lamar, cold weather Lamar, this is just him just haphazardly going back and throwing it off somebody's hand. And then he came to life like he always does. Only this time it actually mattered and it looked like he was going to shed his whole thing. Rogers comes back down, leads one last great sports movie drive. It seems like he was going to shed this whole washed up thing and then the Ravens are going to win and Then they don't. Now we have Steelers in the playoffs. That's the worst part. South.

[B]

What? This was for the playoffs?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, my God.

[A]

In the playoffs.

[B]

Now we have to see them again. Yeah, I know. And I'm not sure I'm ready to bet against them. They might have some life in them. This is so nuts. Like, I don't. I don't. You know, with those two safeties colliding, they both had a better opportunity at the ball than Rogers, than the Steelers did.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So maybe that's.

[A]

Maybe.

[B]

I don't know if that's by design or what, but. Yeah, man, he just kept throwing and throwing it and I'm not sure what the play of the game was like. Lamar scrambling, getting away from Watt. The first touchdown to Flowers was remarkable. That passed a lifestyle. Breaking the.

[A]

Breaking the sack. Yeah, yeah. The. The. Was it third or fourth down? It was third down. That was fourth down.

[B]

That was fourth. That was it. That was the play.

[A]

And of all the guys likely who's always involved in some sort of Ravens plot, usually for the worst, it's usually his foot on the end line, him fumbling a pass, him dropping a pass. I don't know if he did this, but dropping it going over the end zone. Texans at Steelers is our game now and we'll do guest alliance later. So we have Rams at Carolina, Patriots, Chargers, Texan, Steelers, Bears, Packers, Eagles, Niners, Bills, Jags. But the Steelers get Metcalf back.

[B]

Right?

[A]

That was the crazy thing about. You look at like, Adam Thielen's out there and Tariko or Collinsworth, one of them is doing the whole thing about, well, Rogers. He wants guys at the line of scrimmage, smart guys who are ready to play off him and what he's going to do. And I'm like, Thielen was completely washed up. If that's what he wants, you're in trouble. This is not a good thing to want. And yet in the second half, it actually worked and they were moving the ball. It did help that he knocked out two of the Ravens guys at the time. Same. Same time.

[B]

He wants guy. He doesn't want guys leaning into the crowd, picking fights with fans with like pom pom heads or something like. Yeah, I thought for a while, I was like, wow, the Ravens are only going to advance now because of the Metcalf thing, and they're going to owe that fan like, crab cakes for life or whatever from Baltimore, so.

[A]

Oh, right.

[B]

That was. That was just. That was something else. Like, it was.

[A]

It was.

[B]

It Was so boring for so long that they harped all the brotherly shove. The two brothers going at it. And then the mother gets involved like, oh, my God, this game is so bad. We have to watch him. And then it really. I can't believe how it opened up.

[A]

Yeah. If you picked a quarterback to look like he was just throwing a turd sandwich for two hours and then was going to pull three of the best plays of the year out of his ass, you would have said, Lamar. If you're going to pick a guy who was going to throw a pass that wasn't near his receiver, that then got two. Two safeties colliding and both having to get carried out of the game in a game stoppage would have picked Rogers. Everyone was online. Isaiah, likely he had to be involved. Derrick Henry looked unstoppable and then didn't have the ball for an hour. You know, DeAndre Hopkins, that classic Lamar play where he lofted it to him and Hopkins didn't know he was supposed to move. And they're looking at each other.

[B]

It's cold.

[A]

The Steeler fans are going nuts. TJ Watts feeling the part where he'd been stabbed in the. In the chest. It was really playing all the hits and the best guy in the field was Gainwell.

[B]

Yeah, right. He's unstoppable. But, yeah, I mean, I wrote this down like TJ Watt, like two weeks removed from a collapsed, punctured, mutilated lung, playing professional football in 30 degree weather. It makes me feel like such a pussy. I wrenched my back leaning over to grab the Uber Eats bag of falafel left at my front door. This guy's playing football like, this is. This is what it's all about. My God. And the steel special hit for the second time this year.

[A]

Oh, it did.

[B]

It only hit in week one and week 18. Opponent to win the first half, Steelers to win the game.

[A]

I had for Ringer 107. Just a typical day for me where I had the Ravens money line tied to the under of fifty and a half and it was what, ten to seven for two hours?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then all of a sudden it turned into the Chargers Dolphins playoff game. So this is weirdly the worst possible outcome if you're the Ravens. I'm going to talk about the Steelers in a second. Lamar was just special enough down the stretch there that you can't be like, yep, can't win with them. We've. We've maxed out. We got to trade them. Like in basketball where Trae Young, John Morant Lamello ball. There are some of these guys that just feel like they've run their course with their teams, and I didn't know if Lamar was heading toward that. And I felt like if this was a stink bomb today, where we were texting third quarter on our thread about, like, would you bring Huntley in? Sure. Like, if Lamar's not going to move around, if they're not going to throw with them, like, what's the point of playing Lamar? So anyway, he's great in the fourth quarter. Now you have to rethink that. But maybe there's a Harbaugh decision to be made. Harbaugh was going in the last 30 seconds of this game. He had all three timeouts left. Right. Did he think he was taking them in?

[B]

OT did the opposite of what Pittsburgh did, using them all within 4, 8.

[A]

Minutes left, Pittsburgh was just burning them left and right. But. So I don't know. For the Ravens, such a weird season. We kept waiting for it to come around, come around, come around. Then it finally seemed like it did, and now they're out of the playoffs. I'm watching it as a Pats fan going, man, if they win this, you know, they could absolutely knock out Houston, who I don't want to see get rid of them in round one because I want to play the Ravens. They don't have a pass rush. I feel like we can out think these guys. And now they're out, and now the voodoo Steelers are in. If I'm Houston, who would you rather have wanted to play, Baltimore or Pittsburgh? After watching that game, I think whoever.

[B]

Had the momentum, honestly, to be honest with you. I mean, Pittsburgh could be a tough out. They really can and we're not. We don't know that Houston's going to score a bunch of points next week. We'll talk about it, you know, later. But yeah, I mean, as far as Lamar goes, it's, It's. It's a dumb comparison. Maybe it's not Kyler Murray. It's not like, all right, Arizona saw what he was their franchise quarterback. Now he no longer is. They can move on from him. Not going to be a lot of bickering about that.

[A]

No. No tear shed.

[B]

No, no. For sure. But Lamar was definitely headed that way. You're going to keep him around. There's. There's no. The problem is his parents named him January Lamar and they did it sarcastically. And so he never really had a chance once the calendar turned.

[A]

Yeah, I did forget until the game was starting. I probably should incorporate this, but that it was January and that it was cold.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Two things you're thinking about in the third quarter when it doesn't seem like he complete. Complete a forward pass. I do think this is one of those games that if they played it 20 times, I think the Ravens probably win 16 of the 20. Right. It felt like there's a version of this game where they're just up 20 to 3 in the second quarter where there's not. Henry has that first long run. There's a block in the back where the guy blocks him in the front. They call block in the back because first time I've seen that call year. And it just felt like a bunch of those moments where they couldn't kind of get over the hump. And then Pittsburgh, as soon as Hamilton, who's the best guy in the defense, goes out, Pittsburgh starts moving. You got to give them credit, though. They've won a few of these and they beat some pretty good teams. You know, like they beat the patriots in Week 3 in a game that we turned the ball over five times, including one was the guy who's about to run the end zone.

[B]

They don't lay down if they're around in the fourth quarter. It's a mess. They're a hard out for sure. But, yeah, I do wonder about Derek Henry again. His usage towards the end. Not great.

[A]

He magazines. What did he end up with? So he had 20 for one. 26. Yeah.

[B]

He's got to get that magic number is 25. I know. They had three gigantic plays in there, so you can't kill him too much, but. And it's the kicker. It's the January. What's the kicker's name? He's got the January. January loop.

[A]

You can't. Can't shake it. Should we do the preemptive. Everybody's going to do this about one o' clock tomorrow on Twitter.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Of. Leave Tyler Loop alone. If you're on social media shitting on some football player that you don't know, that says more about you than him.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

Just do this now. Get that over with.

[B]

I mean, it does say more about me than. Than him, but I'm. I'm going to say it anyway.

[A]

He choked. It's a tough one. I. Listen, there are 12 seconds left. They had a timeout. Right. I didn't feel comfortable with how long that field goal was.

[B]

No.

[A]

Did you. That guy's. This is his first year in the league. They're like, yeah, we got it. Just like, let's. Let's bring him out. Pittsburgh is notoriously a scary place to kick, especially for posing kickers. It's cold out, crowd's going nuts. Incredible amount of pressure. There's a playoff spot on the line one way or the other. I want to get closer. I can use my timeout. I'm getting 10 yards closer. Doesn't care.

[B]

We're too spoiled. We see the, the Jags kicker, little. The kick like the blast 67 yarder, and it's like, oh, everyone should make 44. But that's not the case.

[A]

Gainwell, eight catches for 64 yards. Nobody else in. The Steelers had three. So Ravens win. I mean, I'm sorry. Steelers win. You should watch the Ravens go home and the Steelers get to host the Texans. Who, I don't know. I felt a lot better about them three weeks ago. Definitely. Why are they giving up so many big plays? I thought this defense was like, oh, my God, Houston's defense. It's like, really? Are we sure? I know, like the game today, it didn't mean that much, but it didn't mean nothing either because you wanted to be the 5 seed. You wanted to play one of these teams.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they were giving up big plays to Riley. Riley Leonard.

[B]

Yeah, I know. I, I, maybe I give them too much credit here, but I think they were scoreboard watching a little bit. So once Jacksonville was up early, 28. 7. In fact, it's probably the only smart thing I did today. When Jacksonville went up 28. Seven. I live bet the Colts, plus 14 and a half.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

They were down 10. So I don't, I guess that's how you're supposed to gamble and not take jackhole teams like the Bengals on moneyline parlays all the time.

[A]

But they, we have it coming for them.

[B]

But yeah, no, Houston was a, a much scarier opponent a month ago.

[A]

Well, the other four seed. So we had. Nobody really wanted the AFC north and Pittsburgh finally just took it. Nobody really wanted the NFC south either. Literally nobody wanted it. We had three, eight, nine teams in some sort of weird tie. And of course, it had to end in the dumbest way possible. Where Tampa beats Carolina in the rain yesterday. Fairly convincing. It was 1910 garbage. Backdoor touchdown at the end. And then we have the Falcons today holding off Tyler Schuck. And nobody, literally nobody. I don't know who was on the Saints. I had them on a smaller tv. I don't know who was catching the ball for them. Juwan Johnson caught a couple. I don't know who the other guys were. He's Making plays over and over again. He keeps hanging around, hanging around. But the Falcons win, and they celebrated by firing their coach in the GM right after the game.

[B]

That was it. Yeah, I think the. Right.

[A]

So Carolina's gone to the playoffs is the point.

[B]

Carolina's in the playoffs. Raheem Morris is out. And I think he was out when they lost to the Jets. I mean, had they won that Jet game, they would be in the playoffs and the jets would have the number one pick.

[A]

What week was that? That was the 27, 24 game.

[B]

Yeah, that was. Might have been the cousins BL had a shot at the end. That was in MetLife.

[A]

And I mean, they had like six of those. Coop missed the one in the week one. They. The Pat game. They missed an extra point. They had a bunch of those.

[B]

Yeah, I just.

[A]

And they had terrible special teams, and you could always count on them. Do something stupid. So it looked like today they looked.

[B]

A good Monday night against the Rams. They looked so good. Then they beat Tampa in that crazy Thursday game. And then before the game, you hear they announced that Cousins has the flu. He's had the flu since 2021. I guess that's why he's so bad.

[A]

No, but the flu was running through the Falcons. That was it.

[B]

I. It was just so weird. I. I don't know. We talked about it on our thread. Like, if you're the Bucks owner, can you give Tyler Schuck an incentive to win? Can you pay him 500 grand extra? All we did was talk about incentives. All. Well, Hunter Henry gets over four and a half receptions, but they give him 500 grand and, like. And I get. It's like, shaky. But if you say, hey, do a voiceover for my foundation and win the game and I'll send you 500 grand, I think it's legit. If you did that and said, I.

[A]

Would say probably no part of that's legit. Really?

[B]

No part.

[A]

Yeah, I don't think so. It feels like a gambling. I mean, there could be definitely in. In the Trump world, we could have like, bitcoin just getting transferred. Nobody knows. So you can do it that way. Yeah, I. We actually got an email from Mike from Mar Vista.

[B]

Is this true?

[A]

You know, we really did. If I'm the NFL, I absolutely have Panthers division title hats and shirts ready for the Falcons for right after the game. Why would the Falcons say no? That's the only way the NFC south can get more ridiculous. So the Falcons win. They go into the locker room and they put on the Panthers t. Shirts. Instead of pouring champagne on each other, they're pouring like ripple on each other. But they should have considered that at least.

[B]

Yeah, that wouldn't have been bad. Yeah, that was such a weird.

[A]

Such a weird.

[B]

I don't know. In Tampa, a lot of people didn't think they deserved to win Saturday anyway. I mean, I, I had them and they. That was a bad backdoor cover. But they got a lot of calls to. To get them even into.

[A]

Oh my God. It really did feel like it was. That one was called in by the league. There was the rip off the helmet play. It was a. There was an offensive PI. Which has become the hot call this year, I think.

[B]

Yeah, for.

[A]

For. What the fuck Text for our thread.

[B]

Right, right, right.

[A]

It's like, what was that? You're not. You're a tight end. You're not allowed to push off 1.1yard off the line. So they finished with 3, 8, 9 teams. Chris Myers, who I felt bad for because he didn't get to partake in The Panthers do. Winner, winner allegedly gets that home game on Saturday. But they put him on Falcon Saints. So he's vicariously was. The Panthers were living through him, so I thought that was nice. So Ted McMillan became the huge rookie of the year favorite after this game, even though he was even with Tyler Schuck, who was awesome today. There's no award stuff left except for coach of the year, which is down to Vrabel versus Mike McDonald.

[B]

What do you mean there's no award stuff left?

[A]

Well, I mean all the other ones are decided except for mvp. MVP is going to go down to the wire, but like offensive rookie of the year defense, like all that shit's kind of wrapped up except for MVP and coach.

[B]

I was, I was looking at coach of the year and I know your boy variable. Like take me. Why. Why is Ben Johnson 60 to 1? He did the worst of first thing. They're a two seed like the Patriots. He not only brought his team far, but he destroyed the Lions. So I think he gets.

[A]

He should get two votes.

[B]

He did it with his shirt off. Like the Lions is good.

[A]

Yeah, I like that. I think more people were convinced that the Bears were going to be a lot better this year than the Pats would be. One of the things.

[B]

What were the over unders were they, weren't they?

[A]

So The Pats were 4 and 13 last year and they were 14 and 3 this year. So the 10 win leap is pretty good, I got to say. Like we were texting about it all week. I just Think may him not winning MVP would be nuts. We'll talk about that later. Good for Abel. I could see the Mike McDonald case. That team was a one seed. That team beat everybody. That team was number one in DVOA. That team came through in big games down the stretch. They had a bunch of different small but really hurtful injuries that never seemed to bother them. So to me, it could be either of those guys. And honestly, Liam Cohen would be in there too, for me. I don't know why Vrabel's the convincing favorite, but we don't understand a lot of.

[B]

There were like five. I don't think they'll ever be as many.

[A]

I think we're down to three.

[B]

Well, now Shanahan's out. Shanahan was out.

[A]

Shanahan's out.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, we used to spend hours the dissecting Shanahan's career. Maybe we should go back to that because it is spectacular how he's like, what's the big one? He's like one in 38, went down seven or more points.

[A]

He hasn't had a comeback since 2017.

[B]

Unbelievable.

[A]

Yeah, he's down more than seven. He's never come back. Listen, everyone's talking about how great their offense was. They scored three points on Saturday night.

[B]

Right.

[A]

They didn't have Trent Williams, but they, you know, they had basically everybody else. So Raheem Morris gets fired, which means we now get to live out warm. Wins over Raheem Morris in real life next year with whoever the Falcons coach is.

[B]

Oh, eight, nine.

[A]

Now we literally get to live out warm. I thought yesterday that Panthers Bucks game was just awful. Yeah, it's. It was raining. Neither quarterback was good. They both threw picks. They had the three man booth.

[B]

I just. I didn't like that.

[A]

How many? It's 20, 26. And on Saturday we had a three man booth and we started the second game with. I could feel it in the air tonight, like, what year? Give me the year when I could have neither of these things. Neither a three man, three man booth. Orlovsky and Riddick are just in a death, death contest to see who can talk more. Is there a split second of silence? No, I got a point. I'm gonna say something I've never heard. Their usage rate was both Westbrook 2017. Like, both of them, it was like whoever was over half court got to shoot. But the announcing version of it, Chris Fowler is doing play by play. I think he said 50 words the whole game. They're just diving in, jumping over him. Like, who Wants that. And I like Orlovsky. I just don't understand that broadcast at all.

[B]

I interview him every year, maybe twice a year, probably not at all after this, after this whole thing.

[A]

But I blame the producers. I don't blame the people in the booth. Nobody wants to hear people talk during a game. They wouldn't for 100% of the game.

[B]

You don't have to do that Kirk Gibson home run, Vince Gulley thing where you're silent for two minutes. But Rick and Olofski, they would not shut up. There was so much chatter. You might as well put a mic in the mezzanine and listen to 50 fans discuss the game. And I do, I like those guys. I do. But it really was like. It reminded me of like twin 7 year olds coming home from trick or treating and trying to show you how much candy they got. At the same time it's like, all right, all right, I want another time. That's fine. Like neither waiting for the other to keep quiet.

[A]

That's a good analogy. And it once again proves that. The three man booth. So good example this year, Stan Van Gundy, who I thought was bad in the three man booth last year on TNT, because every three man booth is bad. There's been three exceptions in 60 years, right? Like literally three. The college guys, the McGuire, Dennis Miller. Not McGuire. No, it was Billy Packer. Yeah, what was that booth? Billy Packer, Al McGuire and Dick Ember Rafford.

[B]

Oh, and Ember Eggburg.

[A]

That was good. There was probably one good Monday Night Football booth over there at some point. And I can't even think of what the third one was. You don't need three people to announce a game.

[B]

Cosell and those guys. Yeah, but that's, that was the 1970s.

[A]

We didn't know any better, but. And then it's like anytime anybody wants to get serious, they're like, we have Buck and Aikman, we have Collinsworth and Tirico. They put Van Gundy on Amazon this year with Ian Eagle and he's been great. And guess what? Because he's not fighting for air with the other guy during the course of these games. I just don't understand why they don't see this. They feel like if there's one more person, it feels like a bigger game and it just makes it more cluttered and it makes it worse.

[B]

So that game deserved no announcers.

[A]

Honestly, they should have got silent. Remember the early 80s when they had the no announcers game?

[B]

Yeah, that was great.

[A]

It was like Jets, Dolphins.

[B]

It was the perfect and you know what they did? They, what they featured was graphics. Because before then you wouldn't see a score check like every 20 minutes, like every 20 real minutes. This time they had to without the announcer. They had to put graphics up. And then they're like, hey, this isn't bad. Letting the, the viewers know what the score is and how much time is left.

[A]

So most time the three man booth is like being at a coffee place working on something. And this loud table sits down next to you and everybody's talking and eventually you're like, I'm going to, I'm going to move to the other part of the. But this is football for three hours. So anyway, Carolina makes the playoffs. They're hosting the Rams, who were asleep for an hour and a half today and then finally got their shit together against the Cardinals. There was one point where the Cardinals were winning or then they lost the lead. Then they completed yet another long pass. There was some bogus, I don't know, legal block penalty or something that called back a long play. And then the Rams finally got their shit together and that's it. But we saw that game and the Panthers beat the Rams in Carolina. I gotta be honest, I don't mind the Panthers. Like, I think they can stop their front. Like they can kind of stop the run. Like you can't run the ball down their throats. Their games are always a little more low scoring. And the problem is Bryce. And every time you talk yourselves into them, Bryce does Bryce stuff, and you're.

[B]

Like, ah, fuck, listen to me, this is not a good team. Don't bet the Panthers. You could say you don't mind them. Please don't bet them. They had the worst.

[A]

I'm not. I didn't say I was going to bet them. I said I don't mind them, all right?

[B]

Oh, you don't mind them being in the playoffs?

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I think Tampa would have been a worse playoff team because I actually really felt like they were fraudulent.

[B]

You know, what weird about them, but not September. October version of Tampa was better than most teams we're going to see next weekend, wasn't it? And they really didn't have a reason to fall off. Egbuka passed away, I think, in October. That was sad.

[A]

To the point when he was involved in a play and I forgot he was on the team. The guy looked like he was Jerry Rice in September.

[B]

Yeah, but listen, Carolina had a worse point differential than the Giants. They don't belong either. And that spread's going to be pretty high. But we won't give it away. But we need a freebie. We need a freebie for sure.

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Apple Watch. So how's that New Year's resolution looking? You gonna crush the gym? You're gonna inch into Quitters Day territory? What's your plan? Cause that's a real thing. The second Friday of January. It turns out most of us, we throw in the towel by then. But not this year. Not if you got an Apple Watch. Apple Watch keeps you locked in. You've got the daily movement and activity rings, achievement streaks, goal tracking. It's like having a coach on your wrist. So if you're on the edge of giving up, don't. This is the year we quit quitting. Let's do this. Apple Watch made to motivate you. Find out [e-mail] Apple Watch Series 11 iPhone 11 or later required another. Nobody wanted. Nobody wanted the two seed. This was the weirdest subplot of the day in the nfc where the Eagles were like, you can have it. We're not even going to play Hertz. And some of our guys, like, we don't care playing Washington. They're going for a draft pick anyway. We're. We're just going to show up and we'll probably win anyway. And the Bears were like, well, we don't really want this either. We're going to play this Detroit team that's playing for nothing, and they're going to dominate us for two hours. And there was this moment where Detroit was clearly about to lose and Philly had the ball. But Tanner McKee might have been the worst quarterback performance we've seen in the last four or five weeks. Could not complete anything and just seemed completely out of sorts. And then Philly ends up losing.

[B]

This was the day to do it for those garbage quarterbacks. Like, hey, you could get a nice bag here, nice contract just with one performance. We see backups every single week. You know, there's already talk about Malik Willis going to the hall of Fame and stuff, or at least getting a.

[A]

Big, oh, yeah, he's like a real asset now.

[B]

No one really stepped up. Quinn Ewers did for a minute, but really, no one. No one. And it's. It's like, then Josh Johnson's like, hey.

[A]

You like, hey, it's not that bad.

[B]

And it's like, because you're so used to crap all the time, and then Josh Johnson's out there. It's like they gave you prison food, but they poured a one on it. It's like, all right. So a little better.

[A]

It's a little better. I don't mind that the worst version of this was Trey Lance.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Who even if you were doing the Trey met. Trey Lance's a problem. Twitter video of like his best plays. I'm not sure you could get the 30 seconds. There was like two good scrambles and he might have completed one eight yard pass. He's just not accurate. I don't understand how he was the third pick in the draft. Well, also did he become inaccurate?

[B]

It's interesting they traded three first round. I'm willing. I know you got to let these things breathe and develop, but I'm willing to say that was a bad trade. Three first rounders for trade.

[A]

Is it too early?

[B]

All right, maybe I'll wait 26. I'll wait a couple more years. He did have that preseason game where he threw five interceptions. So I'll wait a little bit.

[A]

You guys talked about this on the Ringer gambling show Friday. But I'm just throwing in my two cents. If Purdy doesn't happen for them, does that trade get everybody fired?

[B]

It would have to, right?

[A]

How do you come back from that? Or is like just Mac Jones is their quarterback for the last couple years or they're just always able to grab some mediocre guy and turn them into something decent.

[B]

Yeah. But they wouldn't win double digit games in that tough division every year. That was miraculous. My team would have been so famous.

[A]

Trade for sure.

[B]

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how they did it.

[A]

So I wrote down, I'm trying to figure out what the Eagles were thinking. Is it possible they just don't want to play at home because their fans hate them even though they won the super bowl last year? Wow. They're like, we're better off on the road. The energy when things don't go well for us in the first hour, like, fuck it, let's get out of Philadelphia. We're better off than any other stadium.

[B]

Yeah. At least if our fans. If everyone's going to hate us, we can get on a bus afterwards and leave and have that. The comfort of that. Yeah.

[A]

The awkwardness of our family in the stands as people are chanting you suck at different players.

[B]

But honestly, what are what they do? And there was a point with like a minute 43 left, the Lions are lining up for a field goal. They're clearly going to beat Chicago. And so Philly gets the one seed if they win. So they drive in the tie. I'm like, you could put Herz in there and Brown and everybody know, like.

[A]

They could have been warming up on the sideline. Yeah.

[B]

To get the two seed, like, at some point it's gotta. You don't wanna go to Chicago. You don't wanna do it. I'm pretty sure it's not 1963. Someone could tell Sirianni in the headset that the Lions are lining up for a winning field goal that could give you the two seed.

[A]

Well, meanwhile, the Bears couldn't score 17 points at home against a dome team that was missing half of their team and had already packed it in. Not a great time for them either.

[B]

Jared Gotcha was wearing oven mitts to throw the ball. Like, I don't know. He just did a good job.

[A]

There's a bunch of full home teams in this round. One that I don't think anybody's afraid to play. My team might even be one of them with the. With the schedule we played. But I don't think this is one of those. Oh, no, we got to go there. I don't think anyone's feeling that way.

[B]

Is this the least confident you are as a better going into the playoffs? Because it sure as shit is for me. I mean, I know you might say because Mahomes isn't in there and a good version of Joe Burrow and ever, but I really. I see major flaws in all these teams.

[A]

Yeah. Cause he would. We'll go into the. I don't know what the Rams line is yet. I somehow didn't see the lines. I mailed you them four hours ago because I was worried I would see them, but I didn't see them. But you would figure. Rams, Panthers, first game of the day. Everybody, their brother, their sister, their uncle, and all of their grandparents are going to be teasing the Panthers or putting them in a money parlay.

[B]

The Panthers. I mean, the Rams. Yeah, I think so.

[A]

Yeah. That instantly gets my. Gets my dander up. But playoff manifesto wise, you're taking Bryce Young against Matthew Stafford. It violates like, three of the 17. Playoff manifesto wise.

[B]

I'm just saying, like, to win two games, like, who are you really confident to win two games? Not really. There's no one team.

[A]

I feel good about the Chargers matchup for the Pats. I do feel like that was the best team for them to play.

[B]

I know you do.

[A]

So they have them and then Jags playing the Bills. And the Jags are probably playing the best out of anyone in the AFC right now. Of teams that have actually. Yeah. I think the Pats have Played really well too, but they really haven't played anybody. But you got Josh Allen playing the Jags. You have Josh Allen against Trevor Lawrence. That's a really tough one to be like. Yep, it's Trevor Lawrence. I trust everything I've seen. I'm going to pick him against Josh Allen. But there's a scenario where they either get this pretty limited Bills team around two if they get past the Chargers, or they get a Jaguar team on the road that I wouldn't trust either. So it lined up pretty nicely for the Pats. It probably lined up the worst for the Broncos as a one seed. Where you.

[B]

It lined up nicely for any, everyone because the, every other team is fine, you know, not great.

[A]

I think that's with the Broncos. Like you don't play in round one, that's great.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But then round two, you play the worst team that's left, which is almost definitely going to be a 5, 6, 7 team. And those are all teams that might be scarier than the two, three, four teams.

[B]

Yep, you know, exactly.

[A]

Or at least the five, six teams.

[B]

I'd be scared if anyone came to play me if I was Denver. I mean you're, it's, it's uncommon that they score north of 20. Just look at, look at the slate. Whether the game matters or not.

[A]

The MVP battle.

[B]

Let's do it.

[A]

I looked at the odds. Have the odds changed at all? This was a big topic all week. Now it's going to become even a hotter topic. Stafford. Oh, Stafford's up now. He's minus 150. Drake may plus 120. I don't know what to say anymore. I mean they're, they're playing the three win Cardinals. They're throwing it, they're throwing it on inside the five yard line. They're just trying to get Stafford touchdowns. And everybody likes Stafford and he's a great guy and apparently that might be enough for him to win because he's a future hall of Famer and this will help. I always thought we should just pick the person that deserved the award. You seem that to get Stafford.

[B]

I did too. That's why it should be Stafford. By the way, shame on you for not betting over two and a half touchdowns for Stafford because of course that's what they were going to do today. Right. It was an embarrassing thing. They didn't want to lose three in a row going into the playoffs. So they were going to keep those guys in as much as they could. And there was the prospect of playing the Panthers or the Bucks. But we could go back and forth. I'm going to say this, I'm going to say I think it's close. And now that I said that we're going to go at it like the other one. Like murdered the, the. Our. The other sister. I don't.

[A]

I think it's fine to have an opinion either way.

[B]

Well, it's close but that's why I thought it was crazy to crazy overreaction led by you and your Boston beanie cap last week when maybe went nuts on the jets and you know Stafford had a subpar game against Atlanta. It should be the whole year, shouldn't it? And that's why it's close.

[A]

But go ahead. Let's say anytime, Anytime you could lead somebody to a five seed, you got to send them the hardware. He got to the five seed. Do you think he would have been.

[B]

A five seed on the Patriots or you think that he would have gone 16 and 1?

[A]

The strength of schedule thing has already been debunked.

[B]

Has it?

[A]

Yeah, because the, the. There's all this stuff. If you go by epa, May actually played harder defenses this year than Stafford did.

[B]

Uh huh.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What do you say? You, you have like top 16. You look at the.

[A]

Well, they always talk about like strength of schedule. It's like you're. You're just playing the other team's defense. Yeah, right. But you May's not out there on. He's not playing linebacker too. The defenses that he played versus the defense Staffords played was pretty even. And nobody seems to factor in the Puka Nakua part or the fact that he has a better offensive line or the fact that May actually can scramble and use his legs. Do you know he's fourth in rushing this year for QBs? He's rushed for 38 first downs. He's great. He's led the league in completion percentage and yards per attempt. I just like. I would ask everybody if you switch these guys, what are the records of the two teams like? Just go to that Stafford's not worse.

[B]

Than whatever your Patriots ended up. He's not. It's fine.

[A]

Is Stafford walking in week eight? Have you seen our offensive line?

[B]

I don't know. I would ask people if your guy lost to the Raiders, the worst team in football, should you be even eligible?

[A]

All right.

[B]

Count week 17 times five. That's what we should do.

[A]

How many teams have led the. How many quarterbacks have led the league in yards per attempt and completion percentage in the same year? How many quarterbacks have done that?

[B]

Is it Just. I don't know how many. Three.

[A]

It's two. It's 2001 Kurt Warner and 2007 Tom Brady. MVP. MVP. So we're just gonna throw those out now?

[B]

I mean, I. I think there's only one guy who's thrown for over 45 touchdown passes who hasn't won MVP. And it was like it was breeze. But in all of history. But. And two weeks ago, Stafford threw for 4:57 and three touchdowns against that Seattle defense that you were jerking off to yesterday. So I don't. I don't get it. You had nine touchdowns versus the Jets. Why'd you have to tell people I jerked off to the Seattle they were gonna find.

[A]

Hoping that wasn't gonna come out.

[B]

Going to find out.

[A]

Listen, Drake was going to win the MVP until this tweet for me. Matt Stafford blew the MVP in the two games versus Seattle. Especially the MNF disaster in Atlanta. I don't care how many TD passes he has thrown. Congrats, Drake May. That's from Skip Bayless. That was the moment Jake May lost the mvp. It's over. Damn it. Why did he have to get involved?

[B]

He didn't give it to Shador.

[A]

I'm shocked.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Shadorked her for 111 yards today. Yeah.

[B]

In your defense, I will say playing on the road during the Shakies game could be a strike against Stafford. That might be a disqualifying factor. Yeah.

[A]

I don't know if Vrabel is the coach of the year. And if you said it's Mike McDonald, I would be like, there's great arguments for him, too. I don't feel the same way about MVP. I will say this about Vrabel, beyond the 10 wins and the culture stuff, and, you know, he brought in a lot of the players, which I don't think you should necessarily get credit for as the coach. He's also the front office guy. I don't think that should count. Two things he did in the first part of this season that I think really mattered. I'm going to get emotional here talking about Michael Briebs.

[B]

Let's do it.

[A]

Not really emotional, but Ramondre Stevenson had that game against the Steelers. Five turnovers in that game. Somehow the Steelers win 21 14. And all the Pats fans are like, let's wave. Ramandre Stevenson. Enough is enough with this. He's been fumbling this. It's never going to get solved. Right? Give this guy a suitcase. Get him the fuck out of here. And Vrabo went out of his way to be like, this is our running back. Like, he's just got to take care of that. He's got to take better care of the ball. We're not quitting on him because he fumbled. That's ridiculous. Like he's going to do better. We believe in this guy. Same thing happened with the kicker, the rookie kicker they had who missed a kick in the Miami game. Vrabel brought him back out to make the game winning kick because he was like, this is my guy. I believe in you. Like, he. There's something about him that really makes the players believe that he believes in them. And they all talk about it. And I don't know, I think it's a really hard place to get to as a coach. So that. That would be my case for him.

[B]

I think it does seem like he's caring and whatever. Like, you know, that's good guy to have around and the players believe in him. But I also thought he looked at the schedule and said, oh, my God, you see who we have to play. Don't worry about it. You can miss seven kicks in the next two weeks. You could fumble five times. Next three, we're okay.

[A]

We play the Raiders. It might have been.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Will Campbell said. I interviewed him after the game today and he was. He was talking about how great he was and he was like, I never want to play for anyone else.

[B]

Wow. Yeah. What a cycle.

[A]

Did a great job. We went from having one of the worst coaches we've ever had on any Boston sports team last year to having a guy where the guys on the team were like, I never want to play for another human being.

[B]

Do you feel people are hating you guys a little more now? You think you're getting there?

[A]

No, I don't think anyone takes. We haven't beaten anybody, so you gotta have to. Who's the most hateable of all the seeds? It's not New England. Jake has pissed anyone off yet.

[B]

I know. That's. That's something else we're really missing.

[A]

You know, I don't know.

[B]

I feel like your coach is arrogant and you.

[A]

I mean, it's probably Philly because their own fans hate Philly. So that's. They probably have the most people that hate them.

[B]

They won last year.

[A]

Yeah, they won last year.

[B]

Couple potential felons on your roster, but yeah, there isn't.

[A]

There isn't. There isn't that one.

[B]

Yeah. The root against. Mahomes. Root against. This one.

[A]

Root against.

[B]

I mean, Lamar would have been fun too.

[A]

I got to say, I genuinely hate the Steelers they drive.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

He's just. The Steelers in general. And the fucking way they win games drives me nuts. I can't wait to see somebody drive a stake in their heart, Michael Myers style.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Matthew Stafford, 131 yard passing touchdowns this year set the record.

[B]

All right, fine.

[A]

So Nobody's ever had 14 he passing touchdowns.

[B]

Look, Tom Brady thrived on a one yard pick from the. From the two for years and years.

[A]

You.

[B]

You didn't. Never said a word. It's fine.

[A]

Puka Nuku, 166 targets, 129 catches, 1715 yards, 10 touchdowns, 666 yards after the catch and it felt like 1200 Adam 789 yards, 14 touchdowns. Right.

[B]

I don't know what to say. Someone's got to catch these balls, right? He's got good players.

[A]

Can I praise myself really quickly before the air? One of my worst takes was that I thought Treveon Henderson could be like rookie Jamar. Oh yeah, Jameer Gibbs. And then he was terrible for five weeks and it vaulted into the pantheon of dumbest things I ever said.

[B]

Do they compare statistically? Oh, no.

[A]

945 yards for Gibbs rushing. Henderson finished with 911. 10 rushing TDs for Gibbs, nine for Henderson, 52 for 316 receiving for Gibbs, 35 for 221 for Henderson.

[B]

Really? About that close?

[A]

It's pretty close, yeah. And he. He got better every month and really was starting to work in traffic. But I don't think he's Jameer Gibbs. But at least I don't feel like he needed anymore Russian.

[B]

Can we go back to real quick? Oh, what are you going to do? This is more. I mean. No, what are you going to do more?

[A]

I just had some quick stats. Do you know who won the rushing title?

[B]

Who won the rushing title? This is. It wasn't Derek Henry. Oh, was it Bijan?

[A]

It was James Cook.

[B]

Oh, cook.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. 1621. Do you know when the receiving title.

[B]

I don't know. Why? Was it JSN?

[A]

It was. I thought it was Puka. JSN.

[B]

They were very close last week.

[A]

1793 was his winner. So who's our fantasy player of the year? It's McCaffrey.

[B]

Still, I think it's still. I think he won a lot of leagues. But I want to do. I do want to say something about Nakua and I feel like all the catches he makes are like if our fathers watched Those in the 70s, they'd be like this. This is the best thing I've ever seen. And I'm like, dad, he had 10 better than that this year. That catch you just saw. And he's like. And they would never believe me. But these guys, and especially Nakua is now able to go up in the air and just grab it with one hand and kind of, I'm not going to say push off, but create enough separation with the other hand that it's an easy interception. It is spectacular to see. Like, so when people say, why do you love football? It's the same thing over and over. It's like, no, I can watch that a thousand times. I still don't know what I'm watching.

[A]

I feel like he's the best skill position player we watched this year.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I thought JSM was awesome. But when you throw in his blocking and just you always feel his presence in the game and then he always has two. Holy shit. Plays every game. Like it's kind of amazing. He doesn't have 150 yards a game. It feels like he should.

[B]

The catches are insane. The way he lunges for first downs, like extra yardage and stuff. I don't feel like JSN does that quite that much. But he's spectacular.

[A]

I like that he's a little, little kind of out there too. I feel like we've been missing that lately with our NFL players.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like we didn't have enough weirdos there for a while.

[B]

Especially with the white.

[A]

You guys should go on the podcast and just say really crazy stuff. That starts a two day news cycle quickly. Some of the other games. Broncos, Chargers. I just can't describe how bad Trey Lance was. I actually felt like that was a winnable game for the Chargers. Did the Broncos offense have a touchdown drive?

[B]

Did they have a touchdown drive?

[A]

I don't think they did.

[B]

Oh no. Cause it was a defensive start or.

[A]

Maybe until the very end of the game.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. I, I, I looked at that line. A trey lance minus 1:40 to throw an interception. Mike, this isn't a guy that throws. You know, he come throws four times a game. If he has to throw 25, he's going to toss one up. He should have had four today. He had one, right?

[A]

Well that was the bet. The Purdy Bryce Young will both throw a pick. Was the bet of the weekend.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

I don't think anyone was offering that. Giants Dallas Giants win again. What is it that in their last, in their last three years they've won half of their games in week 17 or week 18? There's some stat that was going around today that they Screwed up their pick. Your team got a better first round pick, but you don't have it.

[B]

We don't have. We don't get it. I thought, I don't know who that's more embarrassing for that win, the Giants or the Cowboys, but also good for the Giants. I know you hate this, but that's the spirit of athleticism. Just go out there and win games played on the field. Simmons, one of your worst takes, spreadsheet. Why is this a bad take? You had, by the way. You had seven. The seven bottom teams. The bottom seven teams. Four of them won. Yeah. One of them. The other ones. One of them was Arizona, who hung for a while. One of them was. Who was the other? Oh, Cam Ward, who was up 7 nothing before he got hurt. And then one was the Jets. I'm proud of those seven. I'm proud of this league.

[A]

I think it's easier to do when there's no consensus number one pick and you don't really care where you land in the top seven. Probably.

[B]

Okay, remember that for the NBA, because I don't know who everyone's going nuts for this year.

[A]

What's your final grade for the Cowboys season? Probably don't do the Quinn and Williams trading over again. If you're. Would you do a redo on that one?

[B]

I hated a lot of it. I really did. I don't know. I didn't enjoy maybe two or three games. C minus. I mean, imagine they could have. It's so hard to get to 500 with 17 games. And they could have been eight, by the way. They could have been five and one in the division had they beaten the Giants. Imagine we were 5 and 1 and didn't make the playoff. That would have been so. I'm glad they lost.

[A]

So you finished 7, 9 and 1. Yeah. What was the over. Under. That's. That went under.

[B]

It was eight and a half. They were.

[A]

Oh, wow. Yeah. Then we have. What else? What other games that. Oh, Colts, Jags. They ran a double fake punt. Never saw that before. That was the highlight. Did you see that?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Did a fake punt. It worked. And then they lined up again to punt. And the Tech. The. The Jacks had 12 guys in the field, were completely confused, had to call timeout, and they were like, yeah, I.

[B]

Wish they would have put a camera on Riley Leonard. They were like, all right, well, you know, this is where I come out, right?

[A]

Yeah. That's a strange game. Browns, Bengals, we have talked about. It's just this was the one. I would have won everything today. For the actual bets. And this was the one that I had tied to one awesome tease that would have won except for the fact that the Bengals, they're down 12 to 6 in the second quarter, and the Browns have 27 total yards. And we're just texting each other like, of course. Why didn't we see this? Joe Burrow looks like he's not even bothered. Looks like he's about to go have brunch. Like he's trying to figure out if he wants eggs Benedict or a waffle. The whole team looks like they can't decide which one of them wants to quit on Zach Taylor the most. They have Higgins and Chase, who are making 30 million combined. None of them run pass routes for more than five yards. They just run outs down the sidelines. Nobody's over middle, nobody's deep. It's like they don't want to get anyone hurt. And yet they're still winning the game. And terrible kickoff as usual with them. And the Browns have to go 30 yards. Shedeur finally puts together two plays. Browns get a field goal. Browns win the game. And during all this, Miles Garrett became our sacking.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it was just an egregious loss. And I thought he was going to be the first coach fired, but it turned out to be Raheem Morris.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, maybe by a few hours. I mean, I was steaming mad for a long time after this game. This game killed. Because you're right, the body language was awful for both quarterbacks. Like Joe Burrows. Like Joe Cool. Joe too cool to be playing this game. Week 18 didn't care. And then you have Shador who, like, you know, converts their third first down of the game, two and a half hours in, and somehow finds the camera. He's like mugging to the camera. What is going on with these guys? Yeah, but since he was happy to have like three possessions in the second half, there was no urgency, there was no nothing. So they were either going to go ahead at the end, you knew they weren't going to make the two point conversion. And I think you made the best point where you have. You're paying these guys all this money, and this guy has to get rid of the ball in two and a half seconds because he can't dodge, because.

[A]

They can't block anybody.

[B]

Listen, I'm not trying to. I don't want to be emotional here because they lost me a lot of money. He's not in my top four anymore. I don't know who's in the top four.

[A]

I'm out as well. Yeah, yeah, he's that for me as well. I thought he had a terrible year. I didn't understand any of this stuff he was doing as, like, the leader of the team. It was just very strange behavior. It was more NBA than NFL from him. This is like the kind of shit people do in the NBA when they're trying to get traded. I didn't get it. I mean, Cleveland wins the game. Sanders is 11 for 22 for 111. Their top rusher is 10 for 32. Their top receiver was one catch for 23 yards. They punted five times.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they got two defensive touchdowns. Right.

[B]

Somehow they had the ball the whole second half. But yeah, 12 QBR for Shador today, 18 on the year, which is the worst of any Browns quarterback ever. Can you imagine be having the worst QBR of any quarterback ever? So they're obviously, they're going to move.

[A]

On from him pretty tough. They. I mean, if you're making the case for him, I guess he lost some weapons. He lost Judkins near the end of the year. And I'm done.

[B]

Fannin was out. Sure, that's fine.

[A]

But Garrett's our new sack king. I liked when he kind of complained about the direction of the team. After nine months ago, he signed the Giant extension with that team or whatever he did it. It's like you knew what team you were on. This is a quarter century of just them being schmucks. What did you think it was gonna be different when you signed the extension? You took the money. You don't get to say anything. It's like when The NBA takes ESPN's money and then they complain about ESPN the way they cover the league. It's like, you keep taking their money. You don't have to take their money. But Garrett's like, just shut up, dude. You took the money. You can't say anything now. I think he's.

[B]

I think it's all lip service anyway.

[A]

He.

[B]

I mean, he was so happy. That sack record is basically. Is the super bowl for him, honestly. And he got it and he knocked it out, and his parents were there and everything, but they really probably should have let him get the record, like, in the first quarter and get it out of the way then maybe just.

[A]

To try to win the game. Yeah, they would have sat a little bit. I don't know.

[B]

What a disaster.

[A]

He was a maniac in the fourth quarter. I mean, he was like. It looked like somebody in a video game turned off the offsides penalty.

[B]

Oh, yeah, it was lined up Middle linebacker was trying everything he could to get free. But no, I mean, with that 2.5 seconds and burrow getting it out in less than that, you're going to throw interceptions. If you have to throw it that quickly, you're going to get balls tipped at the line of scrimmage and the fricking Browns are going to run it back and you're going to lose that way. So I don't know what happened to him.

[A]

Vegas Chiefs, I guess, was the Senior Bowl. Looks like Pete Carroll's is going to be gone. That stuff's starting to leak out. So once they were locked into their pick, they didn't care. Chiefs didn't care. I don't even know who won the game. Seahawks 9 are Saturday night. So I. I threaded the needle on this one. I went to the Celtics Clippers game. Yeah, but that felt like the Seahawks had the game in hand when we were in the car. Right. I'm still watching it before the game, but it was a pretty dominant performance by Seattle. I actually felt like that's another one. They played that game 20 times. I think they probably win convincingly. Fifteen of them, right?

[B]

No doubt. And I don't know, I was nervous because you love Seattle. I love Seattle. Darnold had like, a million and a half dollars in incentives to gain in this game. He went against, like, the team that was like, 29th in pressures. They had no sacks, you know, last in sacks. I was like, oh, my God, he's going to be able to do what he wants. Trent Williams is out. I was like, I'm too high on Seattle. I got to check my blood sugar here. And it was like a miracle. That was 10, three and a half. Like, they should have had, like, 30 points in there. So, I mean, 28 wins for Darnold is really. You can't really. We like to make fun of him. And if you looked at our text chain, it was probably unfair to Darnold.

[A]

But please, no, please don't look any of our text chains.

[B]

Is he outside the top three quarterbacks you trust in this playoffs?

[A]

He can't be right. That I don't trust.

[B]

That you trust. Like, you'd say Josh Allen.

[A]

I don't trust Sam Darnold at all. Can you make a different list? I think the moment they play a good defense, I don't think the Seahawks fans trust him either.

[B]

That's what he wins.

[A]

He knows when he's playing the Niners defense, it's one thing, but I do think there's a scenario where he's playing a good defense where you're just not going to feel good if you bet on them or you're rooting for him. It's just shaky enough at all times. I get it 28 and 6. But that niner, that was one of the reasons I love the Seahawks so much in that game. Because the Niners defense is so bad and then they don't have Trent Williams. I actually think so. And this might have changed, but this was the case five hours ago. The Niners are 22 to 1 to win the super bowl, and I don't necessarily think they're going to win the super bowl, but I think those odds are a little out of whack just because of what happened the last two weeks. They're going to get Trent Williams back, their receivers are going to get more healthy, McCaffrey is going to get more healthy, and, you know, I don't know. They could beat anybody.

[B]

That defense is what scares me.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Like we told the score on them, you know, only touchdowns. Like I said, Seattle should have scored as much as they wanted. Really, that, that's what, you know, it was going to be a nice little thing if they were going to play all their games at home, but again, that's like not a team I would bet to win two games. So they play the Eagles, but they're.

[A]

Playing the Eagles, who, you know, can just go in a coma offensively for two hours and then it's not like they're going to be coming up with any tricks. Yeah, you know, I mean, maybe that's another one where I wouldn't feel good about throwing the Eagles in a tease. Before we do the playoff stuff, got an email from a guy named Kilton.

[B]

You haven't read emails in like 24 years. I know, I've been going through the thing.

[A]

Well, it's good we're trying for something cod, he said. Not really a mailbag question. Pretty much just to thank you for giving guys something to make friendships over. One of my best friends from college became my friend because I told him to guess the line for a Giants Rams game while we were waiting in line for a bar. He called me cousin Sal and we discussed your pod for hours. Rather than chasing women, we still keep in touch weekly, including me sending Joe, not House. This is his friend Joe, a picture of the shaky pizza mug I found in my fiance's grandparents cabinet this Christmas. Nice for a mailback question. Could you give us some sort of time travel to what you thought of D. Rose after the 2011 playoffs? Thanks for bringing guys together. BS Go Bears. We like Derrick Rose. That's our answer. Anyway, thanks.

[B]

Yeah, thanks.

[A]

I thought Derek Rose is going to be one of the best, best players of his generation.

[B]

Of course. Yeah, he was. And college was dominant in Memphis. Yeah. I mean you'll speak more about Derrick Rose than I can. If someone called you Cousin Sal again though, I think you that deserves a punch right in the chin, right in the kisser.

[A]

I wouldn't take that from anyone. Playoff blueprint number one buys Denver and Seattle. They put out the schedule and we knew what the shaky's game was going to be. It was no surprise.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It was like knowing who's going to win the Oscar two months ahead of time. It's like the lady from Hamnet. It's like guess what I'm announcing now. She's going to win best actress.

[B]

Right. But this is kind of an A list theme they're getting with the Rams. Right? Like because it kind of had to be. It's weird that it's on an AFC south team, but I understand why it isn't. But they're getting a like a blue chip team in the Rams. A lot of people think could win it.

[A]

Well, it's interesting.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because Steelers, Texans normally would be the shakiest game.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But I think when there's an 8, 9 playoff team, you throw all the other rules out. I think that's just automatic Shakies. I don't know if they've ever deviated from that over the years. That's probably the start. Shakies. It's just they go hand in hand. We've seen eight and nine teams win this. Right. What was your favorite of all the shaky games? I was thinking mine was the Tebow game when he threw the 80 yard overtime pass to win.

[B]

That was a good one against.

[A]

And then created midfield for five minutes.

[B]

Yeah, eight, nine. I think that was my favorite.

[A]

We actually watched that at Shakey's.

[B]

Beast mode was a Shakey's game.

[A]

Beast mode was a Shakey's game. That was a really good one. That was probably the most entertaining Shake his game.

[B]

Yeah. Otherwise it was a lot of Matt Schaub and a lot of. A lot of bad stuff.

[A]

What's the was Trevor Lawrence, Herbert, whatever that comeback was. Was that a night game?

[B]

That was a night.

[A]

The Shake his game.

[B]

Yeah, I was out. I was out to dinner.

[A]

Because normally the key to the Shake his game is it's Matt Schob and you can't remember one thing that happened.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Somebody went 20 to 10.

[B]

So this is going to be. Yeah, you could. For the most part. This is going to be a lousy game.

[A]

Probably going to be.

[B]

Yeah. They, they, they put. Also, they wouldn't. If they can get Aaron Rodgers at night, they're going to do that.

[A]

I just don't think it's the surprise to me. I sent my guesses to you in the morning. The surprise to me was I thought for sure Pat's Chargers was going to be the Saturday night game. The Pats have usually been Saturday night. I don't know if they have a deal with Kraft or whatever. They made Bears, Packers Saturday night on Amazon. Then Sunday goes Jags, Bills, Eagles, Niners, cbs, Fox. Yep. And then Chargers at Patriots Sunday night. And we're doing a live podcast. The first one we're doing on Netflix.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Is right after that game. It's like they're trying to kill me.

[B]

So do you think that's fixed? Do you think the league fixed that?

[A]

I don't know who fixed it. Do I wish the Patriots were playing right before we did a live podcast? I don't.

[B]

Oh, this would be great.

[A]

I was really looking forward to this Saturday. Should I just have, like, a therapist in the room? Like, sitting in the chair over there, like, just kind of.

[B]

I like it. Yeah. Have a lot of therapists. I don't think one's the one.

[A]

I don't know if there's been a. I don't know if we've come on live. Cause we've only been doing this for a couple years where we've been live podcasts where you could see us. I don't think we've had a huge Pats game. We had, like, the Bills Pats game in, like, week six, whenever that was. Right, right, right. But this is like an actual, like, real stakes game.

[B]

Oh, and you're so. You're so. I'm not going to say convinced you're going to win, but this is the team you wanted to face a month ago.

[A]

I don't know if I. I don't know how much to trust this Pats team, but, yeah. Do I want to play the team that's missing their left and right tackle? I do. And as the quarterback who has his left hand in a cast, it sounds pretty good.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know who got waxed by Jacksonville5 weeks ago? Like, that would. Would have been my pick. But I don't know. I didn't feel comfortable against any of these teams, so I just don't want to end up on a chalkboard for The Chargers.

[B]

I know. Oh, Netflix. It's going to be good.

[A]

I will say I don't ever remember the Pats losing the Chargers. I know it's happened. I just feel like we've had their number over the years. It's been one of those teams we've consistently beat.

[B]

Just set it up. Just set it up. I like it.

[A]

I put that on the chalkboard and then Monday night, Steelers, Texans. Yeah. Just guaranteed that. That's a weird game. You can just lock that down now.

[B]

Yeah, I would. Yeah. I mean, what about now? You would rather have Chargers than Texans? That's close.

[A]

I think I rather. If you think Chargers going west coast to east coast. Chargers with a pretty shaky offensive line. I think their defense is good, though. They can run the ball. They have a couple good receivers. You know, it won't be an easy game, but it's a game that Patriots, a 14 and 3 team, should take care of business at home.

[B]

I love it. I'm so psyched for this. This is going to be good.

[A]

But it's a young Patriots team. Sunday night could be cold. I don't know who that helps. I don't think that helps the Chargers necessarily. If you're thinking about home field advantage, if you had say Patriots, Jags, Pittsburgh on a Monday night, Bears on a Saturday night, Eagles, Carolina on a Saturday afternoon, I would say Steelers would have the kind of the biggest home home field advantage of all those. Right?

[B]

Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. I mean, it's not the Eagles. They didn't even want to play at home and we saw what they did. It's not going to be the Jags. Yeah. I was wondering what do you think the desired super bowl matchup for the league is and for NBC who holds a game. I think there's a lot of league.

[A]

It would be. Wouldn't it be Josh Allen versus the Rams or Josh Allen versus the Bears?

[B]

I. I still think Bill's Eagles. I think you get the defending champ in there. I think that's a number one.

[A]

Really. Does anyone like watching the Eagles? They're the champs. Something about ask everyone to meet this week. If they enjoy watching the Eagles. Somebody else don't enjoy them.

[B]

Yeah, but watching them get beat would be fun.

[A]

So you think Rams, Bills, playoff odds. Seattle and the Rams have the best odds. Plus 440 and plus 490 to win the Super Bowl. Denver's three at plus 850. SOS Philly at plus 850. This is on FanDuel Buffalo's 10 to one, New England's 11 one. Houston's 12 to one from a conference bet. New England plus 460. I mean they're so good at pricing these odds now. I don't think any of these are worth it. The only way it's worth it is if you're going nuts and you're doing like, you know, niners 10 to 1 to win the conference or something.

[B]

That's pretty crazy that the Rams are plus four. They're so close to the top there and they have to play the extra game. Therefore 90, Seattle's 4:40. And ideally they would play each other in the second round unless there was a further upset in there. That's, that's giving the Rams a lot of credit or they're just giving them a win automatically.

[A]

Don't you feel like you can throw the ball on the Rams?

[B]

Yeah, I feel like you could do a lot.

[A]

I think every, every playoff team in the NFC can throw that would be able to throw the ball on them. I think so. Denver's plus 280 to win the conference, not worse. So two games. So that would be, let's say first round. They're the one seed if let's say all the favorites win except for the four or five. So Houston at Denver is probably in the four to seven range.

[B]

Well, they'd have to be a pick em for both games for +280 to be worth it, right?

[A]

Yeah. That's why they, they figured these out. I feel like we had such better stuff here 10 years ago.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Need the Chiefs back AI ruined gambling. All right, guess the lines. Round one.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Can I clinch the season tonight?

[B]

Oh, I think so.

[A]

I'd like to do that. I don't need enough tension. I have enough tension next week. All right.

[B]

You went in 10 to eight and there's only two or three more weeks after this. There's three. So you can clinch a tie at least.

[A]

Rams, Panthers in Carolina, the Shakies game. I'm happy for the fans of Carolina. Not a lot of good times with Carolina the last ten years, right? I have the Rams favored by seven and a half. All right.

[B]

I haven't looked. I had plus eight. It is now ten and a half. So I edge you out there.

[A]

Oh my lord.

[B]

I guess they just can't make it. They're not letting you do the two team teaser thing with them. It's a little bit high.

[A]

How many double digit underdogs have we had in round one?

[B]

This does feel like Beast was Seattle. New Orleans was nine, I think.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Not too many times.

[A]

I thought that was higher. I thought that was like nine and a half.

[B]

Oh, really? Yeah. I mean it was nine and a half. It was right in there.

[A]

I'm telling you. I know I sound crazy. I don't mind this Panthers team.

[B]

They can run by that. You don't mind watching them or you would. You would actually take them.

[A]

I don't think they're as bad as like the 8, the typical 8, 9, NFC South. Like. I thought a lot of stuff went against them in that Tampa game.

[B]

Did you see that fighting come back?

[A]

The fleet flicker was bad in the playbook. A couple of their receivers get open. I don't mind that tremble. I think tmac is like a legitimate stud now. You know, you always wonder why they just don't chuck it downfield. But the problem is Bryce could just completely shit the bed and you have no chance. But I don't know. I don't think their defense is that bad.

[B]

I mean they beat them already.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So they beat him by three and now they're getting ten and a half. That is a big number when you look at it that way. But this is.

[A]

Just fired the special teams coach couple. Couple weeks ago.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They still give up big plays that Wilson got open on them three times today. Got wide open down the field. Yep.

[B]

Look, I thought they'd look a lot better these last few weeks. They haven't. But maybe the playoff Rams are different.

[A]

So you're putting the rams in a three team, 10 point where we're going.

[B]

Here with the college stuff. Hopefully I'll need it to just win and that'll be that, but I doubt it.

[A]

All right, next game. Bears home for the Packers. I think the packers are going to get a lot of momentum as a popular underdog pick this week. Be my guess, because I don't. I think everybody's appropriately scared of the Bears. I don't think this line gets to three, even though it's in Chicago. Even though the packers are missing a few people. I had Bears minus two and a half.

[B]

Okay, I said Bears minus one and a half. I think they're going to lean heavily into. It's hard to beat a team three times. It's packers minus one and a half. That's really dumb. Wow. That's really stupid.

[A]

Oh, my God. Oh, that changes everything. Now the Bears are eligible for Nobody believes in us.

[B]

What?

[A]

What? Is anyone believable?

[B]

What does this mean from the Packers? When was the last time they played a Good game.

[A]

Like a. Holy shit. Shit.

[B]

That's a lot. Yeah, I'm looking at that. Right, Right. Wow.

[A]

Well, we have two. Nobody believes in us teams already, as you know. That's the strongest force of round one.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

And when you compare this season to 2008, which is a very smart thing to do because it's very similar in a lot of different ways, including that we don't seem to really have a dominant team. All hell broke loose in round one in 2008 and we had same situation. So we have two home home dogs in a row and I think there's another one coming with the Steelers, maybe with the Bills too.

[B]

I mean we're going to see lots.

[A]

Of four home dogs here.

[B]

It'll have been three weeks since he played or more. Three weeks.

[A]

Three weeks. What's the Jacobs they rested so he's probably mostly healthy.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

No Parsons. Yeah. Watson is back. Is there safety going to be back McKinney or is he gone? I don't think he's gone. We have to watch the injury report.

[B]

Yeah. I don't know why. I mean is this like everything have to do with what the Bears did today?

[A]

Damn. I love the packers as a dog, but now I'm a little nervous.

[B]

Well, now you have the Bears on a teaser. There's no doubt you're doing that.

[A]

Getting the Bears are very good and that they're like the Steelers where they've had the horseshoe up the ass team. But they've, you know, you could play their schedule a few times and get some eight, nine results, I think.

[B]

Yeah, well, I think.

[A]

And I'm not sure about their defense at all. Like that Niners game last week. All the yards and all the points they give up to the Niners who a week later scored three against the nine against Seattle in a must win game. Right.

[B]

I mean they must be pissed though. I know you say don't nobody believes in us but. And I don't know how many players follow gambling. I'm sure they all do. They're all going to know they're an underdog to a team they beat twice. That's going to piss them off. So let's see how how they react.

[A]

The players don't follow gambling, but they all know what an underdog is.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And then that means. All they know is that means people don't believe they can. More people believe they can't win than can win and then they grasp onto that. So. Oof. By the way, Packers Bears in a playoff game. How many Times does that happen?

[B]

Not a lot.

[A]

Since we've been alive, does that happen less than five times.

[B]

There was that NFC championship where Cutler was hurt. Right. And that was a disaster. Like, the packers just rolled them. But, yeah, it hasn't happened a lot. I. Listen, I prov been proven wrong. This rivalry has come back to life. Both the regular season games are great. Now we have the Saturday night showdown.

[A]

Well, I couldn't have been more right with my question. How many times do you think they've played in the playoffs?

[B]

Oh, somebody jumped in.

[A]

I just went on Statmuse, which normally redirects you to, you know, some sort of Turkish trafficking site since we've been born.

[B]

Or is that. What is that?

[A]

How about ever? I'll give you ever.

[B]

Well, the way you're saying it. Six.

[A]

Two.

[B]

Really?

[A]

1941, the NFL Divisional game. Don't remember it. I'll give you. It's Green Bay at Bears. I'll give you the line of. I'll give you the Bears. Bears minus five. Who do you have?

[B]

The Bears win, like 63 to 14 or something.

[A]

314.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. And then 2011, the Rogers ends up.

[B]

Damn, that was that long ago.

[A]

They've never played a playoff game in Green Bay. Both games were in Chicago. That's nuts. These teams have been in the NFL for the entire time.

[B]

They've played twice, ducking each other. I mean, maybe that's why the Bears blew it today.

[A]

I was wondering if both the Bears and the Eagles were afraid of playing the packers and that's why they were doing their shenanigans. Whether they'd want to admit it or not, Were they more comfortable playing the 6 seed?

[B]

This was such a terrifying. Like, did you have a headache by the end of today? Like, we're trying to figure out which coaches are putting which players in. And these line. I mean, we did that pregame show and like, JJ's like, all right, this line opened at 7, and this morning it was 10, and now it's 13. Raheem, what do you think? Why do you think that is? And he's like, cause people are losing their minds. I don't know. There's no. Like. And then Josh Allen plays for one play, and then he's gone. It didn't matter because trubisk. Like, I. I just. I can't even.

[A]

I'm so glad you brought that up. I forgot to mention that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

My least favorite move in sports, the person who keeps the consecutive game streak going by playing one play, which was started by AC Green when He broke his nose or something and he missed two weeks and he would just come in for a second and then come out to keep his streak going. That's not a streak.

[B]

That wasn't even A.C. green's most remarkable streak.

[A]

But no, it was the second most remarkable streak. I don't like when people do this. Yeah, that's all right. Next one. Bill's Jags. Are we going to have three straight road dogs here? This is in Jacksonville. The Bills have to be favored as well as the Jags have been playing. I don't see a scenario where they're not favoring Josh Allen in a playoff game over Trevor Lawrence and the Jags. I think this is in the tic tac zone. I have Bills minus one and a half.

[B]

I thought it'd be Bills two and a half. I just don't think you would get people to bite on anything less. You were right. It's Bills by one and a half.

[A]

Oh, I got one.

[B]

Yeah, you nailed it.

[A]

So you're up two to one on me.

[B]

I like the Jags a little bit.

[A]

I like the Jags a little bit.

[B]

I don't really want it. I would love a great quarterback to still be alive in the second round. But they're going to be able to run on Buffalo.

[A]

The Jags have played well for real for like 10 weeks. Tough spot for the Bills.

[B]

I don't know that Lawrence has to do a ton.

[A]

Which. Which out of these six games, which one do they rig for one of the teams? Oh, I think this would be a candidate. Bill's Jags.

[B]

All of them. Yeah.

[A]

Let's get Josh to the next round. Maybe the round Bills win this then they would be play either the Patriots or the Broncos in round two.

[B]

Yeah, they have. They have everybody.

[A]

I'd be scared if I were the Jags. Start complaining about the whistles now. Just talk to the Panthers fans about that Bucks game yesterday.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Man, that's just a bad line. Every sharp that we know is going to think the Jags are they probably Raheem will be Raheem on gambling show will be like I have my formula Jags Favorite by 2 1/2 on my model. Everyone's going to have their model with the Jags favorite.

[B]

So see they could was I was half joking when I said at a protest I'm going to make every line of pick them because nobody deserves to be favored in these playoffs.

[A]

But when they have two of them that are basically pick they threw it.

[B]

Tic tac at us the last two games. And you still can't get over it. Like Green Bay, Chicago's one and a half and Jacksonville, Buffalo one half.

[A]

Stymie, I mean this is all you need to know about the 2025 playoffs. We've done three games and they're all home underdogs. This is the fucking playoffs where the higher seed should have an advantage.

[B]

Yep, no doubt.

[A]

Okay. I think we're finally going to have a favorite here. It's the Eagles and the Niners. This was actually the one. I had the most trouble with this because you could have told me this was going to be six and a half. And with the way the Eagles have looked, I just couldn't get there. Especially with the offense and the backdoor potential and Shanahan and I just don't know what to make of this Eagles team. So I went with Eagles minus three and a half.

[B]

Yeah, you nailed it. It's three and a half. I thought, I thought two and a half. I guess the Niners. I should have gone higher. I probably wouldn't have gone higher than three though. But the Niners did not look good.

[A]

I think if you're the Niners defense, this would be the number one team you'd want to play in the playoffs other than the Panthers. Really A team that just does the same thing. Every drive moves super slow. You know, just they, they, they'll probably shoot themselves in the foot at some point. You might be able to get off the field and then you can get McCaffrey out there and try to have these big drives. Like I'm really comfortable in this game if I'm the Niners. With that said, I could see them losing 40 to nothing.

[B]

The coaching battle's similar, the quarterbacks are similar. You don't know what you're going to get from Barkley. Barkley versus McCaffrey. It's really kind of great on paper.

[A]

It almost is a gambling stay away. But I think putting the Eagles in a tease. You go Rams. 10 point tees with the Rams.

[B]

There we go.

[A]

And the Eagles. And maybe our next game get the Eagles to plus six and a half.

[B]

Not bad.

[A]

So out of the ones we've had Rams, Packers, Bills, Eagles and Pats and stuff, what is the blowout game? Who wins by 25 points out of these six? If you had to say right now, by the way, you can change your mind in five days in the Marine, but just blind right now. Who's the 48 to 20 round one win?

[B]

Well, I mean the easy answer would be Rams because the spread is so High.

[A]

And the potential in Carolina though. I wouldn't do that.

[B]

It could be though. We're just happy to be there factor a little bit. I don't. I don't think so, though. I think you're right. I think Bill's Jags and I could see it either way. Honestly.

[A]

That was my pick. I could see Jags 44 to 28 or something.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's just a lot of points.

[B]

Right. Okay.

[A]

Two games left Sunday night. I get Collinsworth for this too.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, Mike. Patriots home for the Chargers. I almost put this in the Vegas zone, but I really don't think people respect the Pats that much against better teams. And I went with Patriots minus three and a half.

[B]

I said Patriots minus three. You have now won three in a row. Guessing exactly.

[A]

Oh, okay. Three and a half. If that line moved, which way would it move?

[B]

I think towards Chargers. I already think it's rich. I don't know. Have you earned that?

[A]

I think it ends at three. I think it ends at three.

[B]

What's your ideal weather for this one?

[A]

Freezing.

[B]

Freezing cold.

[A]

Herbert's not sure of his hands. He can't even feel his left hand so far.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Really tiny bit of rain. Yeah. You might get it.

[A]

Little wet cold.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Although the Chargers have been living in it here in LA for the last week, getting ready for this pass. That's true. Because the weather's been awful here. Man, what a world. The Pat's hosting a round one Sunday night game as three and a half point favorites as a two seed. Can't believe it. Four and 13 last year. It's like 2000 up down the stretch when they could have gotten the number one pick and ended up with the number four and somehow it all worked out. Can't believe it.

[B]

So happy for you, really.

[A]

Thanks. I knew you'd be really happy. Plus we have an MVP candidate in Jaylen Brown.

[B]

Is he a defensive end?

[A]

I can't. We. At the end. I got to talk about Celtics corporates. All right. And you just gotta give me like three minutes. Okay. Texans at the Steelers.

[B]

So I can only tie here. All right.

[A]

I just can't. I got to look again and make sure the Steelers in the playoffs. Hold on. Let me check the standards one more time. Did they really win the.

[B]

You saw that kick at the end.

[A]

Just looking.

[B]

No.

[A]

I got to check one more.

[B]

Zay Flowers. How did he do it?

[A]

Oh my God. They went 10 and 7. They were plus 10. 397 points. 387 allowed. Just unbelievable. How Is that team in the playoffs? How did they win 10 games?

[B]

I don't know. They. They.

[A]

I got to go through this.

[B]

Laid down against the Browns, the. The Ravens were 1 in 5 and were favored to win the division.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's been the craziest roller coaster ride you can imagine for the AFC North.

[A]

They won Week 1. That ridiculous jets game. 34, 32 2. Week 3, they beat the Patriots by seven with five turnovers, including one where the guy was running in the end zone and fumbled. Week four in Dublin, they beat the Vikings by three. That was stupid, right? They beat the Colts on November 2, 27, 20. I have a vague memory of that one being stupid. We might have lost money on that game. They beat the Ravens earlier in the year. 27, 22. Ridiculous. They won that crazy Lions game 29, 24. And then they won this game today. Like, seven of those could have gone the other way.

[B]

They beat the Ravens twice like that. You just never would have thought that with Lamar coming back. Right? That was going to be the. Be all on the. Okay, how much of the Ravens going to beat Pittsburgh by 30. And they just hung and stayed and missed kicks and here we are.

[A]

I don't know. How can you bring Harbaugh back after that with what's happened the last like seven years? Like, at what point do you just have to do something that was your hot take.

[B]

Did you make that official or was that just on a text chain?

[A]

No, I had that like two, three months ago.

[B]

Well, you said, what's the biggest Monday surprise?

[A]

Oh, horrible. Yeah. Yeah. I thought whoever lost this game was not going to be the coach of their team next year. I thought it was like a legitimate ratty. Roddy Piper, Greg the Hammer Valentine, dog collar loser leaves town match.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And it might be poor Roddy, but thing is, if they fired Harbaugh, the Giants hire him five minutes later. Right?

[B]

Well, I had this. I had a similar idea for Tomlin. This kind of screws it up a little bit. But my hot take for 20, 26, I had three. Tomlin goes to the Falcons. Raheem Mars getting fired was part a of that. And then I thought like, he got like, all right, he could win a division at 7, 8, 9, 7 and 10. He wouldn't have to be crucified like he is in Pittsburgh and he probably wants out anyway. That was one. Number two was you will have pizza before February 9th. I know you're all no. Carved up. That was my second hot take in 26. Hobins draw the number three was that Baron Trump is going to fight on the UFC card on the White House lawn this summer. On the other card.

[A]

That'd be amazing.

[B]

Yeah. They're going to get old enough. He's 7 foot 4. They're going to get him a fight against, like, a groundskeeper, and that'll be that. Yeah, he'll win.

[A]

I actually, I was at the little club where the Clippers game is for the game, eating a hot dog without a bun with mustard on it, and I was like, I really hope somebody doesn't take a picture of this to Sal. And you're a bit upset.

[B]

You got to stop with this. Your weight hasn't fluctuated three pounds and two decades.

[A]

I feel. I feel better mentally. You do.

[B]

You look terrible.

[A]

Thanks. Texans at Steelers. There's just no scenario where the Steelers are going to be favored in this game. So I'm going to start there. Wow. I forgot to guess this game, so I'm doing it on the flag. It's not going to be over three. I think it's going to be Texans minus two and a half in Pittsburgh.

[B]

What a comeback for you. What a comeback. You lose the first two, you're. You're rattled. I said Pittsburgh minus one. Maybe I was. I don't know why I was. You thought Pittsburgh was going to be.

[A]

Favored just by one?

[B]

No way. I just didn't think you can make it, you know? Houston. This is Houston's first playoff game on the road. All those shaky games they hosted. So this is the first. Yeah. Isn't the first wild card playoff game or what?

[A]

Whatever.

[B]

Yeah, it's that. It's three and a half. This line. Now you're scared.

[A]

Well, it's just. You're just setting the Steelers up to do what they do.

[B]

I know.

[A]

This is like throwing meat over the cage to the lion. Like, this is all they need. This is where they. This is how they live. So they breathe. Today was the classic Steeler. I mean, they played all the hits today. And so did the Ravens. Run up the middle stuff for three yards. Play action pass and second down tipped at the line of scrimmage. Terrible third down pass, punt. That was like the entire Raven season. Then all of a sudden they become this fun team and you're like, where was that team? Right. The whole time, both of them, Zay Flowers running downfield. Anyway, that line's too high. The Texans should not be favored by that.

[B]

The Texans are going to score, so their team total for 39 and a half is probably 2118. This I don't know if they're supposed to score 21, 21 and a half points. Wouldn't you like the Steelers at this.

[A]

+3, + Metcalf comes back. Yeah, that's big. The Steelers. Do you think they have the plays in the playbook where they're like, all right, we're. We're going to run the friarmouth play where he's in the back of the end zone and the guy is draped all over him and I'm going to throw it to him over his head, but he's going to flail up like James Harden and flail into the guy and the refs will be dumb enough to call this on two.

[B]

All right, just run straight for the goal post and throw your arms there.

[A]

Turn around and do the James Harden into five guys move and they'll throw a flag. Don't worry about it.

[B]

Meanwhile, that was the smartest thing the Ravens could do because then they went for it with two seconds left in half and a terrible play flipped it left.

[A]

Texans minus three and a half. So we have four home underdogs out of six teams. Yeah. And the two teams that are favored are the two seed Patriots that haven't done anything in the Eagles who've been half asleep since January or February whenever they won the Super Bowl.

[B]

Yeah. When was the last time we didn't get a home team favored by four or more in this round?

[A]

I don't think. Ever? No, I'd love to. Our guy John Ewing's usually good at this. I'd love to know if we've ever had a playoffs where no home team was favored by four points.

[B]

Let us know, John. Otherwise we're gonna have to go to Stat Muse and then that's going to be embarrassing. Yeah.

[A]

Might end up in Turkey.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[A]

Unbelievable. God, I. Do we bet next week. Maybe it's just a complete stay away next week.

[B]

No, we have to bet. I just. The Bengals really screwed me so much. I would have had nice tidy.

[A]

You were very upset today.

[B]

I was so mad I couldn't even.

[A]

Say some mean things about Joe Burrow, by the way.

[B]

We.

[A]

We.

[B]

We didn't even talk about how we handled our great bet of like four teams to come in last place and the Saints were the only one giving us trouble, and so we hedged it. You didn't hedge it?

[A]

No, I. I rode the Falcons. I didn't hedge. I went. I went. I went raw dog.

[B]

Holy crap. Really? Kirk Cousins with the flu, you went?

[A]

It wasn't phased. We had almost three to one on our bed. I was like, I'm raw dogging the Falcons.

[B]

All right. But me, hench and House went plus three and a half. I mean, when the hell is that going to happen? We never middle anything.

[A]

Oh, you middle.

[B]

That was perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great. Oh, I didn't so incensed. Yeah. Because I was so mad about the Bengals. Nothing mattered in life after that. Oh.

[A]

Because normally you're more excited about a middle.

[B]

I know. I couldn't. Look, we could talk money, but it was a big difference.

[A]

I had. We did a bad job on over unders this year.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But I don't feel that bad about it because our best picks all did really well. Patriots, Broncos, Seahawks.

[B]

Had the Jags to win a division.

[A]

You had the Jags, I had the Bears. We were both shorting the Washington.

[B]

Right.

[A]

That was the big one, but the one that killed me and prevented me from. I did really well in the futures, especially on airplane runways in Boston, in Chicago and Indianapolis, which I'm convinced that they give you extra time. But the case.

[B]

Wait, who gives you extra time? The airline.

[A]

I think the airports are working with fanduel and everybody else. Yeah. They're like, can you just stay. Just stay on the Runway for 10 extra minutes. We look like we have a couple live ones.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Taking Runway bets. Yeah. It's so funny. I have a whole bunch of Runway fanduel bets. But they won the collector's convention in Chicago.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I hit all them. I had Bears over. I had all this stuff, but the one that killed me was the Chiefs. I had the Chiefs tied into a couple awesome ones like the Patriots and the Eagles to win their divisions with the Chiefs. Like, shit like that. And the Chiefs, the most reliable bet that we've had for the last seven years, just finally shit the bed.

[B]

Well. Cause that's what we. That we call. What that. We call that the kcd. Like a cd. Like. Yeah, they're six to one. Mahomes is six to one or seven to one. Ride those in the next five or six years, it's going to cash. I think we have to walk away from that, though.

[A]

I had some other. I had some player prop stuff that was bad, like burrow passing yards and some of the other ones. But the stuff that we did the best on was the last place stuff. Yeah, like that. Like we. We had all those teams pegged like Tennessee and the Saints and.

[B]

Yeah, those were done. The Browns, right. Those were done like a month ago. Although the Browns were ended up close with Cincinnati.

[A]

I just go Figure. But the two south divisions just murdered me this year. I think I went like 1 in 7 in the 2 South Division.

[B]

We had under.

[A]

I think I got every team wrong.

[B]

What do we have under 33 wins.

[A]

We lost that South. Yeah. I think I had the wrong over under on every team in the south. And I think I might have had. I had Houston over. I think I went one and three in the AFC side.

[B]

I stand by the Bucs. I still think if there's a week 19, I think they're going to sneak in somehow.

[A]

Yeah. What a weird thing for them. They celebrate the win, but they didn't win anything. Then they have to watch flu ridden Kirk Cousins going against Taylor Schuck with no weapons and then get dick teased for three hours and then end up.

[B]

So that was a win for the league.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Cause they got the extra game that mattered. I mean, they're constantly searching for games that matter. In week 18, total win for the week. They had to put the Tampa Carolina game, whether it was a clincher or not, in that early slot Saturday.

[A]

Well, that's why. That's why people were crying about the refs yesterday. Because it was in the league's interest. Right. Tampa to win because it set up a better scenario.

[B]

Speaking of one thing we didn't hit. I know this is going far afield at this point.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Did LaFleur down 16? Nothing with the spread at 13 and a half. Call timeout with a second left to kick a field. Effing feeling a field goal.

[A]

He sure did.

[B]

Sixteen, three. Oh, my God. Oh, boy.

[A]

This is a weird thing we've seen head coaches do where they don't want to get shut out.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

It's something about the shutout leaves them uneasy. But it was one of the three shakiest gambling moments of the year because.

[B]

You gotta go 16, 8 there and then 16, 16. I know. With one second left you can't do that, but you have to score a touchdown. That's nuts. Good luck to him.

[A]

Today's Parent Corner presented by Greenland 2. Migration. If you love this disaster hit film in 2020. Well, the end of the world was only the beginning. Gerard Butler and Marina Baccarina are back for the sequel. And we're going to talk about that after we finish. Parent Corner, Greenland 2 coming soon. My guy, Gerard Butler.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Den of Thieves had the most iconic Benihana scene in the history of Benihana. What do you got for Parents Corner? Parent Corner.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Don't have.

[B]

Did we change it to Parents Corner?

[A]

Oh, just stumbled I know. I'm already nervous about Pat's Chargers being live next week. Why are they doing that to us?

[B]

Would you.

[A]

Could you have been live after the Romo game?

[B]

I thought you were kidding. Live. No, I was hiding in a movie.

[A]

Could you have been alive after the Robo game?

[B]

You're sticking a microphone. I'm in the row sobbing in a movie theater. In a amc. Yeah, I have a couple things that are not great. It was my son Harrison's birthday, like, Tuesday. Turned 12. And the kid loves fishing. He loves fishing. I don't know where he gets it. His friends love fishing. We have a pier not far from us. They go all the time. They went today in the rain. He blew off watching football with his old man to go fishing with his friends. Whatever, Fine. And so there's this giant, like, a bait shop. I can't even call it a bait shop. It's like a big five, but for. For fishing. But it's like five times the size of a big five. It's called Bass Pro Shop, and it's an Irvine, and that's where he wanted to go. It's about 40 minutes away. So we take him on his birthday. And I like Irvine, by the way.

[A]

Great sports location. It's my number one used sports location.

[B]

Great sports complex.

[A]

Weekend stuff. Always stuff to go. Good fields. They have that nice outdoor mall. Thumbs up for Irvine.

[B]

The mall's awesome. The Bass Pro Shop is fine, but not for an hour and a half. Not for someone like me. And we get there, and I'm like, all right, this place is huge. But a lot of it's hunting crap and boats that I know he's not going to buy. And, like, giant knives and everything. We were there for 90 minutes, and I was like, you've got to be kidding me. I can't. I just can't do it. And he's buying lures. Like, you need, like, three lures. And he, like, had a. He had a gift card to this place.

[A]

And he's really, like, exploring right in.

[B]

There and talking to everybody. And the guy, well, this is better for carp. And if you're going to hook a. You know, if you're going to hook. You know, just in case you hit a stingray. Like, they're talking about all this crazy stuff.

[A]

Oh, stop it.

[B]

After an hour, I didn't. I'm. I'm like, I'm done. So I'm. They have these giant tents that they also sell. I zip myself up in the tent, lay down on the cot that was in the tent and watch whatever bowl game I was losing money on. And I was like, you let me know when you're done. It was like 45 minutes after that when he, he finally was ready to, to cash out.

[A]

You just vegged out. They didn't say anything to you?

[B]

No. I was like, let's see what happens here. It's not like sitting on a toilet in a Home Depot. But I wasn't like, like laying in a tent, so it was nice.

[A]

Did you get stink eyed by any?

[B]

I did check before I unzip to see if anybody was watching, but no, it wasn't too bad.

[A]

See, these are the kind of stories when people talk about how technology is ruining everything. 20 years ago you couldn't have done that. You just would have been wandering around the store like you were in a coma. Now you just pull your phone out and you'd be like, go ahead Harrison, take an extra 40 minutes. Your mistake though was not having cousin Jimmy go with you. I feel like he would have gone on that trip.

[B]

He did want to go, but he couldn't. He couldn't make it there. Yeah, he actually. Yeah, you're right.

[A]

I actually think you just should. You should have just taken him. Never had him go, paid for the Uber. Had them go just. And have Jimmy do all of it.

[B]

You're right.

[A]

I think he would have done it. He's that weird. I mean he's a very strange guy.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I didn't, I wouldn't think like a major celebrity would go spend the Saturday in an Irvine fish shop, but he would have.

[B]

By the way, he's a Critics Choice Award winner. Jimmy Kimmel Live. Congratulations tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Critics can be very critical. So that was the thing about.

[A]

That was the critic's choice.

[B]

Yeah, he was the choice of all the critics. So nice job. Aaron Rodgers won too. So I guess it's a give and take. But what are you going to do for Aaron.

[A]

Did Aaron Rodgers. Oh, he won the football game. I was going to say, is he winning a critic choice for the Ayahuasca documentary?

[B]

So anyway, he ends up with 40 lawyers. So that was that. The other thing, real quick.

[A]

Can you tell us how much much everything costs?

[B]

It's like 275 bucks. And he had like 100. He had like 150 and gift cards and stuff. Yeah. But we hit Korean barbecue afterwards so it was fine.

[A]

But anyway, you have to do this stuff because there's a whole Hermosa beach teen, teen gang scene. That's pretty crazy. You got to make sure he doesn't get. Get in with some ruffians. Yeah, you're right. To make sure you keep your father son relationship.

[B]

I move. What's. Out of all the six places you live, what's the. What's the nicest neighborhood that I can go?

[A]

Like, not have to worry about that spot. I think you're fine.

[B]

Well, what it doesn't have where we are is a Steelers bar where my son Jack is just getting back. 17 years old.

[A]

Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. That was a big win for Jack.

[B]

Jack.

[A]

Congrats to Jack.

[B]

I could hear him stomping around still, so.

[A]

But anyway, I'm surprised he hasn't crashed a pod.

[B]

I keep checking because it looks like it's going to be close, but that was going to be a sad night for him. And now next Monday night, he'll be out on a school night. Very weird. But, you know, I'm stupid. And every year I go through, like, my favorite new person I met in 2025.

[A]

I do the same thing. I have a winner as well. Yeah. Oh, no go.

[B]

You do know I asked Jack and he rattled off like 30 names of these people in this bar that he goes to. So like 30, like 50 year olds. He's 17, so that was interesting.

[A]

So he counted down from 25 to 1. They were all over 35 years old.

[B]

He knew it. Like, I was about to ask him. He really say them all. Are you ready to give yours?

[A]

You.

[B]

You want to give yours?

[A]

No, I'm not ready.

[B]

Oh, you're not. Good.

[A]

I pretended I was. Do you have one? Oh, I. I can do one. I feel like every year I've made a friend.

[B]

Yeah, it's got to be someone you met for the first time in 2025. And it can't be over. Zoom.

[A]

Oh, it has to be somebody I. I actually literally met this year. Yes. Yes. I need more time to think about it.

[B]

I would narrow it down from mine to the guy who both fixed and broke our stove three times before he was rounded up by Ice.

[A]

No joke.

[B]

And didn't see him.

[A]

Oh, no.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, that's not great. But that's horrible. He was a nice guy. And then secondly, I would say Seth Meyers, who's a big fan of this podcast.

[A]

Did you not know Seth Meyers at all?

[B]

Never met him. Never met him.

[A]

Seth Meyers is a great guy.

[B]

You've had him on the podcast.

[A]

Big win today for Seth Meyers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Good job by him.

[A]

Good job, man. Now I have to. I gotta think I have an answer next week. I really want to think about this.

[B]

Who's new with the ringer that you met?

[A]

I gotta think about this. I know I don't want to have the wrong answer. And there's a couple people that I met, but that I thought was this year, but it was probably last year.

[B]

Really? Okay.

[A]

All right. My parent corner. So I have some parent stuff for you about when is it time to let go? So, like, Ben's 18 now, and it's been break, and he's always going away, like, driving away. He's going, I'm going bowling with my friends, going to see my girlfriend. It's 12:30, you know, don't know when he's coming back. And my wife is just like, well, I can't go to bed until Ben comes back. And I'm like, really? You can't? He's 18 now. He could legally just leave. He's not even legally required to live with us. Right. What is the right age to basically be like, I'm just going to bed. I hope he's here the next morning. Because I was thinking about when I was in, like, after high school, college range, and I just went out and it would always annoy me when my parents are like, when are you going to be back? Or my mom would be waiting up in the kitchen. I'm like, the fuck? I'm 20. Why are you up? And that's. And Zoe, like, can do whatever and, you know, Zoe's almost 21. But Ben is 18. It's like he's right in that zone of should I still be worried when he's out? Right.

[B]

It absolutely depends on the kid. Like, we have friends whose kid, if they went out, they should be sitting on the porch all night long and waiting and making sure that Ben is.

[A]

Not one of those kids.

[B]

Ben, I don't think is one of those kids. Do they wake you up when they get home anyway? Not. Not tap you on the shoulder and wake you up, but them coming through the door.

[A]

Does that mean Murph usually makes a point of pretending that he's guarding the house for five seconds. So that kind of wakes you up.

[B]

I see.

[A]

I'll roll over and go back to bed. My wife will then be up watching Heated Robbery or whatever the hell she watches. Right, right, right. Yeah.

[B]

I think you're good with Ben. I think until I give you a.

[A]

Reason not to, that's been my case. But my wife's still very hands on. And yeah, I don't. It's hard for me to. And she's checking on Life 360 to see where he is.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

This is crazy.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

My.

[B]

My son is now 20. Went back up to Oregon and we were watching. He has a 14 hour drive and it was like, you know, the conditions aren't great. And she's watching, like a video game. Just like watching him on We Do Find my Not Live three Life three six. I'm like, all right, you gotta let him be. He's just driving. He's like, oh, he's 66 miles an hour.

[A]

You think that's too fast?

[B]

I'm like, just, please, just let him go.

[A]

He tapped hard three times.

[B]

Exactly. He passed the Costco. What do you think that's about? He loves the hot dogs there.

[A]

It is definitely the start of some pay per view movie that I'd probably rent where somebody's watching their kid on Life360 and they're just doing a straight drive and then all of a sudden the car goes right and just keeps going, right? Yeah, right. And they are like, oh, my God, where's he going? And all of a sudden he's in, like, Nevada, right? Or Sacramento or something. Yeah, that's a kernel of something.

[B]

I had a similar thing with the Game Changer where you could watch your kid. You could watch like, a cartoon version of your kid, like, playing baseball. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Hoping he gets a hit. You find out after Harrison had gotten.

[B]

By, hit by a pitch. And it says, batter hit by pitch. And so I'm like, all right. And I'm waiting and then like, one.

[A]

Minute, two minutes, five minutes passes.

[B]

Five minutes pass. I can't get a hold of Melissa. I'm like, I don't know if there's like, a cartoon ambulance about to come on the screen and, like, pick him. I'm like, fucking throw the next pitch, please. Please. I'm like, finally. The next pitch was. And he was okay.

[A]

But yeah, that's Cartoon Ambulance. They gotta add that. Why not? Yeah. So, yeah, so Ben's out. We never see him until we went back to college. And my wife and I, we went to south the Clippers last night. We had a great time. She's watching Heated Rivalry. She banged out all six episodes this weekend. I guess this is just what happened. I'm just glad we still like hanging out with each other. She watched all six episodes of heated robbery in, like, 20 hours and sobbing at the end of the sixth one.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Yeah. Do you know this show?

[B]

No, I don't. I don't know.

[A]

You literally haven't heard of Heated Rivalry.

[B]

I've heard of it, but I don't know. She's sobbing. I should like this. You should like this. I mean, you picked Devil Wears Prada as your number one. What the hell?

[A]

What happened to you? We're not the audience for Heated Rivalry. It's my wife and her friends who have all devoured this, and they've been talking about it for a week, and it's a phenomenon on hbo. Max, does your wife know about this?

[B]

Yeah, she does. She was talking to friends, but I didn't think. I got a lot of. Now that the bowl games have settled down, maybe I'll watch some of this stuff.

[A]

Oh. From a TV standpoint, this is the worst time for us to jump into anything. There's too much football.

[B]

Yeah, I know.

[A]

And there's basketball. There's gonna be all kinds of trades. Today's Parents Corner. Again, I see parents in the cockpit. Well. Cause they missed. They did a typo. Today's Parent Corner presented by Greenland2Migration. Where were we? That's right. The sequel. Five years after a comet strike devastated most of Earth. Not unrealistic. Right now, the Garrity family is leaving the safety of their bunker in Greenland in search of a new home. And it's a disaster film. And it's my guy, Gerard freaking Butler. What else do you need? Green Lane 2 Migration, in theaters January 9th. Rated PG13. This would have. The other thing I would have done for Parents Corner. It's not really a parent, but I went. So I went to Celts Clippers last night. This has been. I don't think I've missed a Celts Clipper game since I moved here. I think this was like my 23rd or 24th game. And the Clippers have been playing well, right? They had Kawhi Leonard. They've. They've kind of climbed back. And it's actually. I've been sending you the Pacific Division odds because I do feel like there's a chance they could get back into it. And the Celtics have been playing really well. They're three and one on the road trip, and it would have been a nice one. It was going to be a hard game. I think they were one and a half point underdogs. Jalen Brown didn't get player of the month last month. He's been awesome. He's like 30 points a game. I said on Tuesday, I think he's the first Timo NBA guy. Kawhi is playing great. So we first play of the game. I said to my wife, like, Jalen's got like the fricking like Usyk kind of look on his face. Like, this is like he's going to battle. Like this is going to be really fun. He's going to go at Kawhi. He guards Kawhi the whole game. Shuts him down. He scores 50 points. He goes nuts in the second half. He's like, he's become, other than Shay, probably the most reliable mid range scorer in the league. He's really in year 10 has gone up a level and kind of breaks the Clippers spirit. There's probably 7,000 Boston fans there, maybe 6,000. They've designed this arena for Clipper fans. It's Clippers, Clippers, Clippers. There's a wall. It's like Ballmer's creation. There's all these Boston fans and they're chanting, let's go Celtics. Ballmer was so fucking pissed.

[B]

Really.

[A]

He was doing this looking around. He was watching little kids play on his lawn who weren't supposed to be in the lawn. He was. He's doing this and Jalen's just romping on them, trying to get to 50 points and gets it. And it was honestly one of the best road games I've seen a Celtic play in person. He was unbelievable. And it's a really weird situation because Tatum hasn't played this whole year and Jalen somehow went up a level. And I don't really know what happens when Tatum comes back because Jalen's averaging 30 a game. He's been awesome. He's been. They're a half a game out of the two seed and then Tatum's going to come back. So the good version of this, he's. He just comes back and you give him the Sam Houser minutes and he's on minutes limit and he's just going to shoot threes and rebound and play defense and be completely additive. But he's kind of coming back to somebody else's team and I don't know how it's going to play out.

[B]

Do you think this is a snoopuntley situation here? Like maybe Tatum, maybe January Tatum sits.

[A]

Maybe we don't need to see January Tatum. Well, we did win a title with.

[B]

The old, I guess the old way of doing it that was so long ago.

[A]

Like, obviously Pippen was the. Was the comparison in this when Jordan went to play baseball and Pippen was great. He took the Bills to Bulls to 55 wins. Jalen's been better than Pippen was that season. Like he's every night he's 30 plus points I think he's probably. I saw his fanduel odds. What is it? I thought. I couldn't believe that they were as high as they were because I would have him. I think Maxi's the other one. I'm not allowed to bet on this.

[B]

He's 80, Jalen's 80, Maxi's 200.

[A]

Yeah, see, that's the other Jalen and Lucas plus 450.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Like, to me, Cade Brown, Maxi in some order and out at Brunson, fifth and SGA first. And I wouldn't have Luca in the top five. Like, that's crazy to me.

[B]

Yeah, but don't. Anyway, don't give these out. And then you're gonna vote for Shay anyway.

[A]

Don't.

[B]

You shouldn't do that.

[A]

No, I'm just saying the public perception of what's happening and maybe it'll become a story this week about how good Jalen's been. Cause they're, you know, they have a pretty easy schedule. Next five games, they play Denver. No Jokic, they play the spurs, no Wemby. Everything's at home. And there's a chance they could be like 27 and 12, 26, 13 with no Tatum. And they traded Jrue Holiday. They have no Porzingis. They have no Horford. Like, this is fucking crazy what's happening. They started out own three. This is a nuts story. But I don't think Jalen's got enough credit for how great.

[B]

But it's baked it. That number's baked into the fact that Tatum's coming back. And then they're going to have to share the team. If Tatum was out, if he comes out.

[A]

Yeah, that's true. I mean, part of the thing about how well they've been playing is they have the luxury now of keeping them really being careful when Tatum comes back. Like, even when he comes back. Like, you're on a minutes limit. You're going to play seven minutes a half. Like, we're going to ease you back.

[B]

Like, Ohtani didn't have to pitch until. Yeah.

[A]

And just be like, hey, come in and be like the most awesome version of Sam Houser for a month and kind of get your sea legs. But I. To watch somebody go up a level in year 10. I haven't seen this before.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

At least for basketball. It's really unusual, like, for somebody who was already really good to then now be one of the best 7, 8, 9 players in the league. Like, did not expect this.

[B]

I like that ballmer thing. I mean, that. That people. I don't Know, people know what that arena is like that into it. He's got it all tricked out. It's a weird place anyway. You have to basically, like, you have to live through your phone and that thing. And he might have. He might have locked it up on you guys. He presses one button and you guys will be like, no.

[A]

He definitely had a meeting afterwards, trying to figure out how this can never happen again.

[B]

Really.

[A]

He's so crazy, in a good way about having everybody focused on the Clippers in the game. Like, even when you go in the, you know, wherever to go piss or go get food, there's. There's no TVs. Like, there's noise. Right.

[B]

You gotta get back to your seat.

[A]

Yeah, they. He. Everything is driving people back into the seats because he wants as much noise as possible. But. But the south side were just really, really good. It's a really, really tough team. I don't know. I wasn't. Between this and the Pats, this is about as good as it's been for two teams at the same time in a while.

[B]

And your Red Sox are right there.

[A]

It's all good. Red Sox, not right there. How are you feeling about the Mets?

[B]

I don't right now. I don't.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's not good. We're not. We're not the Dodgers. That's how I feel about the Mets.

[A]

My God, it's 10:25. We got to wrap this up.

[B]

Hell, yeah.

[A]

Let's get out of here. We were talking about fishing and the Celtics and the Clippers. What do you got to plug this week?

[B]

Nothing. I don't have time. The ringer gambling show. Check it out. All week long. It's a lot of fun. It's right here on YouTube. We are not abandoning YouTube altogether. Got all that ringer gambling content on there, and it's going to be fun. Good times.

[A]

And we have a big week next week. We got two ringer Sunday pregame shows on Saturday and Sunday before the games. And then we're going live on Netflix next week.

[B]

Beautiful.

[A]

This will be our last journey on YouTube. I don't really have any fond farewells or anything for YouTube. We're still going to be putting up shorts and clips on my channel, but the live video. And by the way, you can still watch us on Spotify if you don't want to watch us on YouTube. We will be on video on Spotify. Please don't forget that part.

[B]

Good stuff.

[A]

Watch us in one of two places.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

But if you want to watch us on Netflix. We'll be there as well.

[B]

They are putting your head up there. I went to watch the Ricky Gervais thing and I see a silhouette. I got suggested you're looking like Ellen DeGeneres circa 2008. But whatever, it's a plug.

[A]

DeGeneres. They should give me like something where I look like I'm an erotic thriller from Columbia where it's like me and some secretary and she's got like.

[B]

Yeah, right. Yeah.

[A]

I'm going to tell them to sexy my thing up, make it seem like it's a more provocative show.

[B]

I want. You're going to go all Chappelle, Dave Chappelle on the on sports right. Next week. That's what we're going to just go nuts.

[A]

Yeah, I'm going to try to lose my mind. All right, cuz. I'll see you in a week. As always. Good job by you. Good job by you, buddy. Thanks to Cahao and Eduardo as well. Thanks to everybody for listening and watching. And I have new rewatchables coming on Monday. We got a mailbag coming tomorrow. So stay tuned. And for that, I will see you in a couple days. Must be 21 plus on President in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + on President D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Game problem called 100 Gamble or visit rghelp.com, call 888-797-777 or visit ccpg.org Chattinconenetic or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-550 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 877-8-HOPE NY or text Hopeny in New York.