“It Was In the Tank!”

Summary

The Tony Kornheiser Show — “It Was In the Tank!”

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

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Overview

This episode of The Tony Kornheiser Show delivers its signature blend of sports analysis, life musings, and gentle ribbing among regular guests. The conversation pivots from dramatic MLB and NFL recaps to the saga of Tony’s leaking toilet, while also offering betting tips and picks courtesy of James Carville and Jeff Ma. Esteemed guests include Jason La Canfora, who helps unpack a wild Thursday Night Football, and the show closes with listener emails, whimsical tangents, and more echoes of Tony’s idiosyncratic worldview.

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Main Segments & Key Discussion Points

MLB Postseason Recap & Insights

Start: 01:47–07:26

• Dodgers vs. Brewers Recap:

  • Tony highlights the Dodgers’ smart roster-building: “The Dodgers are the smartest team in baseball because they have money and spend it wisely.” (04:03)
  • Mookie Betts’ defensive brilliance and impact: “Mookie Betts backhands the ball, jumps in the air, turns his body around in mid flight and throws a one hop. Beautiful strike. Perfect to Freddie Freeman at first.” (03:37)
  • Sasaki’s closing performance: “Sasaki had a great outing… three outs, three up, three down, Dodgers win.” (04:32)
  • Dodgers built for the postseason, seen as likely to advance to the World Series.
  • Chuck Todd and Jeff Ma chime in on pitching performances and Dodgers’ consistency.

• Blue Jays & Mariners:

  • Recap of Seattle’s early lead and the bomb by Josh Naylor off Max Scherzer (05:12).
  • Tony compares Toronto’s power to the Dodgers, predicts a likely Toronto-Dodgers World Series: “Toronto probably has more power than the Dodgers…feels like they have this under control now.” (06:46)
  • Anecdote: Seattle stuck repeating history in the ALCS, unable to advance.

Notable Quote:

“The Dodgers are built for this. They are. And the Dodgers are better. And the Dodgers are going to go to the World Series.”
— Tony Kornheiser (04:13)

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NFL Recap & Thursday Night Football (“Old Guys Still Got It”)

Start: 07:27–13:01

• Tony and the crew riff on old players excelling: "It was a night for old guys... Rodgers and Flacco and Scherzer all over 40, all doing very, very well." (07:35)
• Quick debate: “Is Joe Flacco elite?” — Chuck Todd’s ongoing, tongue-in-cheek obsession. (07:48)

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Tony’s Plumbing Saga (“It Was In the Tank!”)

Start: 07:50–14:54

• Tony recounts a water usage alert; no visible leaks; plumber finds issue inside the toilet tank.
• The minimal-seeming leak could result in “hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on your water bill.” (08:31)
• Plumber fixes the tank; DC Water unsympathetic to his “evidence of repair.”
• Tony reflects ruefully on the unknowable intricacies of homeownership:

  “If I could be a plumbing major, why would I be an English major?” (10:23)

• Crew humorously analyzes gallons wasted by silent toilet leaks, noting running toilets can waste "anywhere from 60 to over 300 gallons per hour." (14:07)
• Tony’s bewilderment: “Am I using up water? If it’s spinning around, am I truly using up the water? It’s the part that I don’t understand.” (14:39)

Notable Moment:

"It’s not like a cascading waterfall of water. It is such a minor ripple of water, and it is causing this damage."
— Tony Kornheiser (08:46)

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Tony on Signs of Aging & Memory Glitches

Start: 11:02–14:54

• Tony worries about “signs of dementia” after blanking on an NFL name on PTI, then forgetting how to tie a shoe (obstructed by golf club).
• Jeff Ma gently reassures him, referencing Tony’s musical memory:

  “I feel your mind is a steel trap high…” (13:19)

• Tony, irrepressibly himself, pivots to Johnny Rivers lyrics mid-conversation.

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Music Break & Fan Mail

Start: 16:00

• Listener music submission: “Is it Coming Again?” by The Antics.
• Tony provides background on the artist and connections to show regulars (16:03).

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Jason La Canfora Segment – NFL Deep Dive

Start: 16:54–33:39

Bengals–Steelers Thursday Night Game

• Mike Tomlin’s woes on the road in division games: “He cannot win on the road away from home on Thursday night. He just can’t do it.” (23:15)
• Bengals’ surprising resilience and running game; Flacco and aging QBs performing well.
• Steelers’ inability to take advantage of Cincinnati’s weaknesses signals trouble.

  “If you couldn't take out Cincinnati, …I just think that’s a bad loss for them. Right. Don’t you? It's a bad loss.” — Tony Kornheiser (23:15)

State of the Bills & Falcons

• Bills’ defensive shortcomings, injuries, and forecasting a rough path ahead.
• Atlanta’s ascendance (“the defense is legitimate”) but skepticism on sustainability given historic inconsistency.

Dolphins Woes, Tua’s Leadership

• La Canfora critical: “Their football culture sucks…you gotta sell wholeheartedly…” (31:53)
• Suggests Miami need to offload Tua and build for the future.

Betting & Wannabet Plug

• Jason plugs his betting show, trades, and touts "three lobster nights" for big wins. Offers Tony exclusive swag (“I'm just sort of afraid if I wear it, I’ll be arrested…” — Tony Kornheiser, 19:14).
• Responsible betting versus “betting smarter”:

  “Use the L word, Lock. And there’s no such thing as safe or guaranteed. It is gambling. It is inherently gambling risky.”
  — Jason La Canfora (33:08)

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Picks & Gambling with Carville & Jeff Ma

Start: 34:04–47:21

• Recap of Carville’s tough week; his new picks (includes obscure college games).
• Tony and the crew chuckle at Carville’s penchant for “college games that nobody’s ever heard of.” (35:12)
• Jeff Ma discusses:
  • Explosion of coach salaries, impacts of the transfer portal (Indiana’s rise, Texas Tech’s recruitment).
  • Betting strategies: “So much of like sports betting has to do with how do you balance what you’ve seen short term versus like looking at a longer term perspective.” (41:04)
• Jeff’s picks for the week include UNC +10 over Cal, Oklahoma -5 over South Carolina, Akron +1.5 over Ball State, Colts +2 over Chargers, Atlanta +2.5 over San Francisco.

Notable Quote:

“The money trumps loyalty almost always. Like, money’s undefeated in this equation.”
— James Carville (42:39 via Jeff Ma)

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Mailbag & Listener Interaction

Start: 49:28

• Listener questions about Tony’s background bookshelf (the blue book behind him: “Midlife Metamorphosis”).
• Potato and apple harvest emails, the hazards of using homegrown “rock-like” spuds for seed.
• A callback to an old rodent-in-the-toilet episode, and speculation on whether it was the same toilet that recently broke.
• Lovely tangent on favorite song lyrics, sports trivia, and whimsical suggestions for a “Nigel and Reginald Stomp” for homemade wine.
• Tony closes with gratitude for musical submissions, personal stories, and the show’s running jokes.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Tony, incredulous at home repair:

  "It’s in the tank. It’s not even… it’s in the tank. It’s not going down. Right?” (09:54)

• On aging and memory loss:

  “I’ve reached that point in my life…where I worry about signs of dementia.” (11:02)

• Sartorial critique of Jason’s swag:

  “Why don’t you call my high school friend Donna Karen and have her design it? Because this isn’t. It’s not as pretty as. As it could be.” (18:15)

• On betting responsibly vs. betting honestly:

  “What I like most is you don’t say, we’re trying to teach people how to bet responsibly. I don’t like that you say bet smarter. Good. Let’s make the acknowledgment that that's what it’s about." (32:57)

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Segment Timestamps & Structure

• MLB/NFL Recap & Musings — 01:47–07:26
• Old Guys in Sports — 07:27–13:01
• Plumbing Saga & Life Talk — 07:50–14:54
• Memory, Music, & Aging — 11:02–14:54
• Music Break: The Antics — 16:00–16:50
• Jason La Canfora NFL Deep-Dive — 16:54–33:39
• Picks Segment: Carville & Jeff Ma — 34:04–47:21
• Listener Mail & Sign Off — 49:28–end

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, dryly humorous, sometimes self-deprecating.
• Tony’s rambling yet incisive style is buoyed by his rapport with guests and their willingness to play along (and sometimes push back).
• Quotes and stories often veer into tangents, but always circle back to sports or the show’s in-jokes and catchphrases.

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For New Listeners

This episode delivers everything that makes The Tony Kornheiser Show a cult favorite: deep-dive sports conversation, relatable life hassles, and the sense you’ve been dropped in the middle of witty, well-lived friendships. Whether Tony is dissecting a baseball playoff miracle or the existential dangers of a leaky toilet, the result is always engaging, affable, and unmistakably Tony.

Transcript

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hey, it's Tony. On today's show, we'll talk to Jason Locanfor about a wild Thursday game between the Bengals and Steelers. Along with the rest of the big NFL games coming up this weekend, we'll get weekly picks from James Carville and Jeff Ma. But first, let's do some commerce. Boys and girls, thank you for calling.

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[Tony Kornheiser]

Previously on the Tony Kornheiser show.

[Chuck Todd]

I started going out there. We had two tasks. Task number one, I had to change the timer lights to adjust for the upcoming daylight savings times.

[Jason La Confora]

All that.

[Chuck Todd]

Task two was to find the wine. I found four bottles in the bin. 66 carry bag.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, you need that bear because that gets you the discount.

[Chuck Todd]

I found it. Well, a discount at the store. Not if you're in D.C. i found two more bottles in various locations. You know, like on the Hidden, you know. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, not hidden on the rack. No. On the rack.

[Jason La Confora]

No, no, no. Not hidden on the rack.

[Maurices Announcer]

The Tony Kornheiser show is on now.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I still don't have the one. I have one bottle.

[Chuck Todd]

You get a bottle at a time.

[Tony Kornheiser]

One bottle.

[Jeff Ma]

Ration it out.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, I don't have the wine. All right.

[Chuck Todd]

We're wondering if someone went to Hopkask and Barrel and bought the last remaining bottle.

[Jeff Ma]

Oh, after they heard. Yeah, but they did.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It doesn't do me any good. Corn of the market. Right. All right, let's talk about a couple of things. Let's talk about the baseball last night because we have a football guest and we have football predictions. The Dodgers were being completely shut down by the Miz Mizarowski's rookies. What, 22 years old, did great for about four or five innings.

[Chuck Todd]

Five innings.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Then they finally built nine K's. Yeah. Which is a record for a relief pitcher in a world. Or any playoff game, apparently. Then they got to him in the sixth a little bit.

[Jeff Ma]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Walk a single, whatever. Then Tommy Edmond got a bloop single and they scored a run. So now it's two to one and Freddie Freeman is on third. And the new pitcher, Uribe. Do I have his name right?

[Jeff Ma]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Throws an Aaron pickoff to first. So they get a gift run. The dodgers are up 3 to 1 going into the seventh inning. And they're in the bullpen now. Tyler Glasnow did a great job. He's the third great Dodger starter in a row. Dodger starters have pitched something like 22 or 23 innings. And given up nothing, basically. Basically given up nothing. So one of the relievers is training and I hold my breath, you know, because I know this is.

[Chuck Todd]

He had a clean inning.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He did when I saw him.

[Chuck Todd]

No, no, the double happened before he came in.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, pop up. He got some people on strikeouts with wicked looking curveballs, actually. And then somebody else had great stuff. And then they go to Sasaki. And Sasaki, the first hitter of the inning, hits the ground ball to Mookie Betts. Mookie Betts backhands the ball, jumps in the air, turns his body around in mid flight and throws a one hop. Beautiful strike. Perfect to Freddie Freeman at first.

[Chuck Todd]

I mean, ballet.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, that. That's going to be a runner on first in the top of the night. And it isn't Mookie Betts. Another again. You know, there's a lot of teams that acquire sort of over the hill big name players and try to sell you that they've got a lot left. The Dodgers are the smartest team in baseball because they have money and spend it wisely. Mookie Betts being an acquisition. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Kiki Hernandez and Te. Oscar Hernandez and people like that.

[Jeff Ma]

You'd never trade a guy like that, would you?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, the Red Sox did so.

[Chuck Todd]

So didn't win anything there.

[James Carville]

Right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He's at shortstop. But he won. He won. Yeah, he's at shortstop and he's doing so good and he's doing a great job.

[Jeff Ma]

See the smile on his face after that?

[Tony Kornheiser]

He was so happy. Great player.

[Chuck Todd]

He's doing the postgame show.

[James Carville]

No.

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah. Just all smiles.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's who he is. And Sasaki comes in and shuts the door. So Sasaki had a great outing. The first outing in relief, a bad outing, the second, and a Great outing last night. Three outs, three up, three down, Dodgers win. Dodgers are better than Milwaukee. I understand that. Milwaukee had a better regular season and beat the Dodgers 6 out of 6. The Dodgers are built for this. They are. And the Dodgers are better. And the Dodgers are going to go to the World Series. And I suspect Ohtani starts tonight in game four. I don't know. I'm pretty sure Ohtani, that's his plan. He had a triple, a leadoff triple.

[Chuck Todd]

And then going into that, he did on field batting practice to try and get the good vibes back, and leads.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Off with that hit and then nothing more than that. But okay, these things happen in the other game. Once again, for the second night in a row at home, Seattle took the lead with a home run early. A bomb by Josh Naylor off of Mad Max, the warrior God.

[Chuck Todd]

Max Scherzer always gives one up early.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And when you looked at when the ball was hit and Scherzer turned around towards center field, there was a look at. Oh, boy, this is out of here. Immediately out of here. And then he settles down. And in the fifth inning, there's a loud out right to center, to right center, something like that. And then the manager, John Schneider, comes out to the mound and Max says, get out of here. Go back to the dugout, little boy.

[Chuck Todd]

I did my first rodeo.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's my ball, my game. Yeah, I know what I'm doing.

[Jason La Confora]

And Schneider take it home later.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Schneider later has this great quote. He said, I looked in his eyes, both colors, and I saw that he knew what he was doing. You know, Schneider was delighted. Yeah. And sure got an out and then was taken out after that. And Toronto did what Toronto does, not in the first two games against Seattle, but what they did against the Yankees. Toronto is very, very much like the Dodgers, except their pitching isn't as good. They score a lot of runs. You know, they. The Dodgers didn't score a lot of runs last night, but they've been scoring runs. The Dodgers know what they're doing. Toronto probably has more power than the Dodgers. And now it looks to me like a Toronto Dodgers series. The Seattle.

[Chuck Todd]

Do you think Toronto sweeps out from here?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I do. I do, at least. Well, they have the knowledge they're going home. Although that doesn't really mean much because in that series, only the road teams have won. The road teams are four and. Oh, in that series. But it feels like. It feels like they have this under control now. It does to me, anyway. And so we would have, I think, a Dodgers Toronto series. Here's a Small little factoid about the Seattle Mariners. This is the second time, I think they've been in the alcs. Both times they've won two games and not gotten any more. That's. That's it. It's like a James Franklin situation. Get so far, just can't. Can't get it. So those. You know, that stood out to me.

[Jeff Ma]

It is, in fact, Ohtani pitching.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's what I thought.

[Chuck Todd]

You know, that was Scherzer's first playoff win since game one of the World Series in 19.

[Jeff Ma]

Really?

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But he's been to the playoffs. Yeah, five different. Sixteen different teams, and it was a night for old guys. I mean, we'll talk to Jason about this, but. Oh, yes, you have Rogers and Flacco and scherzer all over 40, all doing very, very well.

[Chuck Todd]

But is Joe Flacco elite?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, we're gonna go back to that. It's just like 20 years old. Is Joe Flaccolin? Anyway, I started to talk about the water. You know, I'm going to do the water. I got these notes from the DC Water Alert saying I was using continuous water, hundreds of gallons an hour or whatever it is, you know, and I got to get somebody in to look and see if I have a plumbing issue. And I went around my house. I didn't see anything. None of the toilets were running. I looked in the toilets. They weren't running. I brought somebody over here after four days because they couldn't come. Yeah, I couldn't schedule an appointment. I could not get an appointment until Monday. This started on Friday. I couldn't get an appointment until Monday. And then Monday didn't show up. And so I had to wait until Tuesday. And they get here, and the guy looks inside the tank and says, this is running.

[Chuck Todd]

The first bathroom he tried, you found it?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, yeah, I sent him to that bathroom first. Yeah. But I. It's not like a cascading waterfall of water. It is such a minor ripple of water, and it is causing this damage that results in hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on your water bill. So I called the water company. I got somebody nice to talk to on the water company, and the. The plumber had said to me, sometimes. Sometimes if you show them the receipt from the plumbing, you know, that they give you a break on how much water you've used because you've. You've fixed it. And I spoke to Lisa, and she started laughing. No, no, not doing that. But it costs. It cost a lot of money to get the toilet fixed. It's worth it. Obviously, because down the road, you're going to just lose. You know, you just can't keep using this amount of water. But it's just another thing. I don't. It wasn't, you know, it's in the tank. It's in the tank. It's not even.

[Chuck Todd]

So the toilet surprises. I feel like if you have a faucet, it's always rated about how many gallons per minute? So you. Times, you know, times it out by the entire day, by a couple days. A toilet has to be a fraction of that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It just. Yes. And it's in the tank. It's not going down. Right.

[Chuck Todd]

It seems like it just holds onto.

[Jeff Ma]

The water and you can't hear anything. Yeah. You're like.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I couldn't understand it. I mean, I couldn't. Yeah. Look, it's okay. I can pay for it. Although it is going to be. Maybe it's a thousand dollars.

[Chuck Todd]

Right. But life lessons for all of us. Is this something that your plumber would say? Yes, this is expected to happen at the end of a lifespan of a toilet or some ring. And yes, it happens every $520 to fix the toilet.

[Tony Kornheiser]

If I. Why would I be an English major? If I could be a plumbing major, why would I do that? You know? And it's fine. They fixed it.

[James Carville]

Right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Because I haven't gotten another alert. So obviously it was fixed, but I didn't even know it was going.

[Chuck Todd]

This is in the category of money problems. I was worried this was going to be a much bigger issue with a, you know, something flooding outside of your house that you couldn't see. Something. Yeah, Water line from the street.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I went outside. I looked at all of that. There was nothing.

[Chuck Todd]

Because we feel like we always get these letters in the mail. It's like, do you want to ensure the, you know, the pipeline from your studio.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No running water. There was no. There was no running water.

[Jeff Ma]

And it was just very awful timing. Just when it happened, it was like right at the beginning of the long weekend.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

It's playoff baseball.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Anyway. Anyway, I've reached that point in my life, as everybody knows, where I worry about signs of dementia. Signs of dementia. Yesterday on the PTI show, I could not remember Dylan Gabriel's name. His last name. Gabriel. He's a rookie quarterback with the Cleveland Browns. Not a very good team. He beat out Shador Sanders. I had it. I just couldn't recall it. I knew what I wanted to say, that this is not such a big win for the Steelers because you're beaten. The Browns with Dylan Gabriel. And I got Dylan. I couldn't come up with it. And Kelleher whispers in my ear, gabriel. And I skit. You know, there's a sign of dementia. And then I started screaming, dylan Gabriel for the rest of the show, just screaming about that.

[Chuck Todd]

But question for you. When you find yourself doing the show with someone who is not Will Bond.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

Do you find it. You're focused on other aspects that you wouldn't normally do because you have such trust in him that maybe that's affecting your ability to pull out that name?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know. I think what's affecting my ability to pull out that name is it's not a very common name, and I'm an old person. And it's a warning sign. I had another warning sign yesterday. Two in a day. I was out. I was playing golf and my shoe became untied. My shoe was now untied. I bent down to tie my shoe, my right shoe. I bent down to time and I could not tie my shoe. I couldn't do it. I could not make the loop. I could not pull. Go around the tree, the thing through. I could not do that. And so I thought, this is it. Then it occurred to me, I had a golf club on, and I could not, with the golf club, manipulate the laces. So I took the golf club off and voila. There you go. I was able to do it. So that was not. That was not as bad as Dylan Gabriel for me. No. Because I could see I could still tie my shoes when my hands were free.

[Jason La Confora]

I could do that.

[Jeff Ma]

Can I just push back on the dementia fears for one moment?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, sure.

[Jeff Ma]

And say this to you. Standing on a mountain, looking down on.

[Tony Kornheiser]

A city the way it feels is a dog on pity. Yeah. That's Mountain of Love. Johnny Rivers. I can do all that. But that's not. That's not warding off dementia. That's just something that I remembered.

[Jeff Ma]

I feel. Your mind is a steel trap high.

[Tony Kornheiser]

On a mountain of love.

[James Carville]

Right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mountain of love. A mountain of. You should. Something. Your name used to be a mountain of love, but you just lost your name. Yeah, because he was going to get married and his girlfriend went off and married someone else.

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Why do you do that? Mountain of Love. Johnny Rivers. It's a remake anyway. Okay, so that's everything I had to say. I played 16 holes yesterday, no parse. And I still. I was okay. Line pants. I wasn't cold. Line pants. I just love.

[Chuck Todd]

I just love that every.

[Jason La Confora]

Every.

[Chuck Todd]

Every time you go out you make the active decision. You go up the hill after 15 and you look left and go, oh, no, no. I straight to 16.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I played 16. It's always a chance. You get a hole in one. I put the ball on the green but 50ft away from them and I three putt it. But still I was happy.

[Chuck Todd]

A quick search says that a running toilet can waste anywhere from 60 to over 300 gallons per hour.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. This is thousands of dollars. My next water bill. I fear. I have fears for it. And the water was useless to me.

[Jeff Ma]

Yeah, let's put in the toilet.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, but just came in the tank. This is. Doesn't it. Don't you have to flush the toilet to get the water from the tank into the toilet to leave the house?

[Jeff Ma]

You're looking at me as if I.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Would know, am I using up water? If it's spinning around, am I truly using up the water? It's the part that I don't understand. Now we'll get some emails on this. I've gotten a couple of emails already, so, you know, but I don't understand it. All right, let's. Jason.

[Jeff Ma]

That's right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Jason La Confora. When we return, I'm Tony Kornheiser.

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[Jason La Confora]

Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is. And these are the antics. This is a song called Is it Coming Again?

[Jeff Ma]

We played these guys last week.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, we did. Sent to us by Mark Tillman from Mount Lauren, Mount Laurel, New Jersey, home of Ron Jaworski's 27 hole golf experience, Ramblewood. And he said, we go back to the chatter days. I said this last week. He used to work with my golf buddy who I played with yesterday, Robin Buffalo. And he was a high school teammate of Eric Spoelstras in Portland, Oregon. He says in any event, please find attached some songs from a builder client of mine's son, Luke Meisenbacher Jr. Who is performing under the name the Antics. Permission is given below. And again, this is. Is it coming Again, it plays in Jason Lockin for. Before we get to the football stuff, we received a sweatshirt from Jason. We received a Wannabet sweatshirt.

[Jason La Confora]

It's a sort of 12 in existence tone.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's sort of a pale yellow and in the front is a football with a question mark overlaid on it. And in the question mark it says wanna bet? In the back it says something that may be filthy about corporate lines. I'm not certain. And Jason, I need to know who designed this? Who chose the colors? Who chose the design?

[Jason La Confora]

Me. I created the logo. The f. Corporate lines just sort of came naturally out of the ethos of the show. As we try to urge people, don't play these games the way they want you to play them. Don't go by the lines that would have been in the Agate page. Here we go dating ourselves.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Jason La Confora]

Back in the day with just this is the total and this is the number. And this is all put out there to make these books the most money possible. Move those lines the way you want them. Make them work for you. So, yeah, me and AI in a weekend created a lot of this.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Jason La Confora]

You don't like the little basketball as part of the question?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, Wannabe has a basketball and a football. Yeah, the bet. Yeah, I would just. Yeah, I would just know. I'm not. But I'm going to try and put it up on the PTI set. Unless people look at it and go, that's horrific. We are not putting it up on the set.

[Jason La Confora]

But I'm gonna give it gloriously.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I am gonna give it a shot. I would say that very much.

[Jason La Confora]

Appreciate that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The next time you want to design something, why don't you call my high school friend Donna Karen and have her design it? Because this isn't. It's not as pretty as. As it could be.

[Chuck Todd]

Well, Jason might have still been feverish when it was being workshopped.

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah, well, you know, I think we're. Do it yourself. We're a little punk rocks. I don't want it to look Too. Even though our corporate friends at Odyssey now have a stake in this thing. It's kind of, you know, we wanted. We are a little different tone, so didn't want it to look too polished.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. Okay.

[Jason La Confora]

If you watch the show, I think it looks better on the backdrops than it might on this. On the hoodies.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. I'm gonna try and get it up on the set again. There might be enormous pushback from everybody. I'm gonna try. I'm gonna give it a shot.

[Jeff Ma]

Well, we appreciate you sending it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Thank you for the sweatshirt. Because it's sweatshirt weather like this morning.

[Jason La Confora]

It'S a comfy hoodie. I will. I will tell you that everybody who has one. And again, very select few.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Jason La Confora]

Raves about it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm just sort of afraid if I wear it, I'll be arrested, you know, I don't. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. Let me begin.

[Jason La Confora]

I wanted to do was going to be like the Riddler.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Jason La Confora]

It's just going to have these question marks completely covering the entire hoodie. Well, then it was strongly urged to me that you will. You will be stuck with all of these, and no one will ever, like, even look at them, let alone put them on.

[Jeff Ma]

You look like that bloke, Matthew Lesko.

[Chuck Todd]

The car.

[Jason La Confora]

Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Ma]

Like, who I've seen walking around Georgetown before in the city.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Met him. I've met him. He wears that all the time. Or he did, if he's still alive.

[Jason La Confora]

I was going to rip them off. Full disclosure, our shows rundown and everything. Rips off PTI like, it's pretty. We just. We steal from you guys.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Fine.

[Jason La Confora]

Then I'm like, yeah, let me steal from, like, the science guy, too.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. It's not. You know. You know, it's okay. There are no original ideas anymore. All right. We start with the same question we start with all the time, which is what, if anything, did we learn from last night's game? So I think we did learn something. But I'll wait for you.

[Jason La Confora]

Some things. Well, we learned that Mike Tomlin when. When we got a lot of run out of this on my radio show. He bitched and moaned about the trade of Joe Flacco all week. He was onto something.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Jason La Confora]

He wanted. He wanted a piece of Browning and he didn't get it. And it certainly changed the course of what that game probably would have been signs that trade. I was absolutely flummoxed and sort of baffled by the inability of that Steelers D line. And I know they're a little long in the tooth and I know it's a short week, but that Bengals offensive line was undermining anything they could do. And was Browning certainly a part of the problem? Yes. But they couldn't run the ball. They couldn't throw the ball. They were the path of least resistance. They weren't particularly up for the fight. You could argue that no team was truly in game waving the white flag as much as the Bengals. The Bengals came into that game with a minus 80 scoring differential in the first half. They. They had played more snaps in the NFL trailing than anybody in the league. And that was not the course of that game. They got down early because they always do, and they fought back and they ran for 100 yards basically in the first half, which they couldn't run for 100 yards in a month. And Pittsburgh, who I thought would be all over an immobile quarterback and would tear through a bad offensive line, didn't really get a pressure, let alone a sack until the second to last Bengals drive of the game. They got absolutely brutalized up front and I didn't see that coming. And maybe Mike Tomlin did. And as much as you can look at that game and say, okay, Pittsburgh left the door open for the Ravens, I think, I don't know that Flacco can do this every week. Like he's there for better for a sprint and not a marathon. But if Joe Burrow could come back around Christmas, could flack, could they go.500 with Flacco and in a really bad division still be in the mix? Would pay for him to hand that baton to Burrow and then really to get a shot of energy at the end. And remember, this is a Bengals team that always stinks in September and October and is always good in November and December that like that might be enough. I mean, now he. Right. He's just played two games with a new team in five days. Now he gets nine days off. They can recalibrate Hendrickson. He stuck with them. You're stuck with him. He'll be back. Maybe that adds a little bite to the defense. I don't know, Tony. It certainly makes them interesting. It makes them, I think, again, a terrible AFC north quasi viable at the very worst. And Mike Tomlin cannot win on the road away from home on Thursday night. He just can't do it. And he definitely can't do it in the division. And he seemed to know that and he seemed to sense that and he seemed to sort of transfer his, his, his. His tension about that onto Brown's general manager, Andrew Barry, who obviously gave Joe Flacco to the Bengals.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a really bad loss for Pittsburgh, and I think the two old guys played very well. I think Rodgers and Flacco played very, very well. You. You look at their numbers, you would never think. They never think they were 40 and 41, but it's a really bad loss. I mean, Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's wins are against bad teams. And if you couldn't take out Cincinnati, you know, I just think that's a bad loss for them. Right. Don't you? It's bad loss.

[Jason La Confora]

No, it's terrible. And. And he really common. I'm a big Tomlin guy, but he got really perturbed when they asked him about his problems winning on the road. Short weeks. He got really, I mean, kind of over skis about that trade, which honestly, Mike and I love you had nothing to do with you. Like, people are not running their football teams, you know, with. With, you know, okay, here's what it does for us. But what does it mean for Mike Tate? Like, that's not. That's not how it works. It seemed to reveal some of his concerns about his team. And like, if they're not a defense that can bring it three out of every four weeks, then they're in a world of trouble. They still can't really run the ball that well. They've only got one receiver who can win anywhere in Metcalf, and, you know, he got. He had the big play early, the one explosive down the sideline, and he was basically shut out the rest of the night. Now the tight ends went off, but I don't think that's going to happen every week. No, it's a terrible loss for them. They have to put the division in a stranglehold.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The division stinks. It just stinks. So let me move on. Talking about teams in trouble, the Bills have now lost two games in a row. Is there trouble? Anything like the trouble with the Eagles? Is there? I don't mean that people don't like each other, but significant trouble?

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah, no, I think it is. It's not a good defense. It hasn't been a great defense in a long time, and it's. It's not even a good defense. Now, you could always run on them, and that was sort of, you know, built bacon of the cake, but they're going to score enough points that they're going to limit your willingness and want to even really try to run the ball. But I think you can now run the ball on them like in any down and distance to a point where you're. You're going to stick with it and you're going to keep that game close. And they can't get explosives on offense. They don't have any receivers who win downfield. It's very much think and dunk. And I think they're going to have to resort in the second half to more Josh Allen running and feeding Cook, which is fine, but I don't know that that equation's going to work come, you know, January, I agree. And February Milano being hurt devastates him. It's a bad defense with him. It's awful without him. And now they're beat up on the back end as well. You know, they never have really had pass rush. Bose is playing way more snaps than he should be. You know, Russo's a nice player. He's not a natural edge rusher. He's not a. He's not a game changer. So I think they've got issues on the D line and those are very difficult to overcome. And look, the Patriots are pretty viable now. So, yes, I, I think Buffalo's got a lot of work to do between now and the trade deadline if they're going to be that true super bowl contender that everybody fancies them as. I. I don't think the quarterback's going to have as good a year as he's had in some other years. And if the center is hurt, then, you know, the A gap's open for business as we saw against Atlanta. But no, I think they're a very vulnerable football.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, let me go to Atlanta. It's not a team I like. I mean, I've never thought Atlanta was particularly good, but they did win that game. And their defense is significantly better than it's ever been. Really? Are they any good? Is Atlanta any good?

[Jason La Confora]

I think they are. And I've been a conscientious objector on them for a long time as well. And even this week, I think everything I look at as I size that game up with the 49ers, it looks to be a really good spot for them. I think their strengths match up well against some of the 49ers weaknesses. The 49ers having to play their first full game without Fred Warner on top of all the other injuries, and given how much the Falcons can run that offense through the slot receivers and through running backs and the. In the running game and the passing game, it would seem to be something that people in that building could be Licking the chops about. However, if you study the Falcons, they can't handle historically, and by historically, I guess I mean the last 15 years or so, any success whatsoever. So they're managing to win two or three games in a row and cover two or three games in a row. It just hasn't been in their DNA. I think they can shake that. Their offensive coordinator, Zach Robinson still scares the hell out of me, but there's so many great pieces on that offense and the defense is legitimate. It's absolutely a legitimate defense and I think it's probably much better than that. But again, I'm a little reticent to give them too much praise or buying too wholeheartedly with that franchise, but I think they're pretty for real. I think that as long as they don't buy their own press clippings and they play their game, they're going to beat the 49ers. And I, I think it has the makings of, you know, a top eight defense in the NFL. And I do believe in Raheem Morris's ability to build the defense. The overarching macro level stuff about sustaining things and consistency and all that. We'll have to see. They've got a kicker problem, probably like a lot of the league. And again, I'm not sold that Zach Robinson is absolutely the best person possible for Michael Penix to develop under, but I think that the talent on offense will overcome a lot of that. So they're a dangerous team. I thought they'd beat the Bills. Did not. That outcome did not surprise me. I like them, don't love them. To take care of business against the 49ers and for Bijan to continue to see a lot of the ball, you know, conservatively, 110, 120 scrimmage eyes. I think it's more than that, but I don't know that I want to play it a ton above that. And I do think that they win that football, they should win that football.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay.

[Jason La Confora]

They should be able to bully the 49ers and I think they will.

[Tony Kornheiser]

One more question, then we'll get you out of here. And it's small, really. What did you make of what Tua said and what the coach said afterwards about it?

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah, if I am in the front office there, if I'm consulting for that owner, this now for me goes beyond, hey, let's trade some of these pass rushers. Let's trade guys who won't be here next year. I think you need to clear the deck so that and convince that owner that you're gonna have to eat money on that salary to move this guy. But we gotta, we, we gotta sell wholeheartedly and try to compete with the jets for the first overall pick or get close to it. Like, we gotta reboot our building. And it's, it's that guy. I don't think. And I've been a big. To a defender. I don't think you can keep him in that locker room. I think there's too much of a pain now, not just on the coach who sort of empowered him and, but between the concussion issues and between the, you know, is he a locker room rat? Issues and like the holier than now stuff that you just can't. He just can't seem to separate. He separates himself from the fray. And it's like, dude, you're the highest paid guy.

[James Carville]

You're.

[Jason La Confora]

You're the most empowered guy. Like, this is all on your watch. Like 90. 90. Boo. Boo. I'm telling on you. Like, I, I don't know any former player that I know of who's. Who's not looked at that and wanted to upchuck. I think it's a terrible look and I think it speaks to things that are above him from that head coach, et cetera. But they're in a bad way there. The whole culture thing gets thrown around too much. But their football culture sucks. And it was one thing to just point at Tyree Kill and say he's the bad egg. I mean, he got hurt three weeks ago. Like, he's not in any meetings. Like, he should have been gone in the summer anyway, if anybody there had a clue. But it's a bad contract and it's a player with serious medical issues. And you're gonna have to convince that billionaire that, like, it's addition by subtraction and it's a sunk cost. We ain't winning with him paying them all that money. So we made up the subsidize 40% of that contract to get somebody else to pay the other 60. Or. And that might be too conservative. They're a mess, Tony. They're an absolute.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's what I think too. All right, plug one a bet. Tell us. Tell everybody how they can make money with you and eat lobster.

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah, it was a three lobster night for Beltway Ben hall last night. Not for me. But we're a show. We're a team. So that's three we're putting on the bibs today. Tone. The Hanson brothers put on the foil. When we have a three lobster night, we get out the lobster, the mallets, crab mallets. Not really. And we put on our custom bibs and we share the wealth. So, yeah, we had three great, great days this week. A couple that just stood packed. I'm excited for the Premiership and the Bundesliga to be back. We're making a lot of money in those markets. On my Twitter feed at Jason Lockton for noon eastern every day, we have our show. You can go to YouTube and check us out there if you go to the website www.wannabetwithus. we're breaking down these games and giving you our best plays and trying to teach people to bet, to bet smarter. And we've got some merch that's not available to many people, but Tony's in the club.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I've got it.

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah. And we thank you guys for all your support. And let's keep eating.

[Tony Kornheiser]

What I like most is you don't say, we're trying to teach people how to bet responsibly. I don't like that you say bed smarter. Good. Let's make the acknowledgment that that's what it's about. So that's good.

[Jason La Confora]

Use the L word, Lock. And there's no such thing as safe or guaranteed. It is gambling. It is inherently gambling risky. There is massive risk that cannot be completely, mathematically mitigated for every time you go into your pocket, whether it's $10 or $25 or $50. And again, we try to tell people to be smart about their unit sizes. But yeah, it is. It is an inherent risk.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's good.

[Jason La Confora]

But we're still up close to 60 units since we launched on May 21. So there is that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There's lobster. There's lobster. Thank you, Jason. Talk to you next week.

[Jason La Confora]

Thank you, guys.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Jason Lock. And fora boys and girls, we will come back with James Carville and Jeff Ma. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

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You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Jason La Confora]

The Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The news is out.

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All over, over.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Town.

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That you've been see running around.

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I know that I.

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Should leave but.

[James Carville]

Then.

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I just can't go.

[James Carville]

You in a.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The great Hank Williams with you win again. Carville did not win again last week. No. James had a bad week. He was one in five, counting his double play that lost as he had. He had the over and it was under.

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He had one college game that was so bad, the Oregon State game, that Oregon State fired its coach. They fired his coach. Right. So he was one in five. Now he's 20 and 16. He's still better than everyone else.

[Jeff Ma]

So still leading the pack.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Still better than Chuck. He's still better than Jeff. He's still better than Reginald. But he took a. Took a hit last week. James is not with us this week. We don't know why. We never know why, you know, but he sent us his picks.

[Jeff Ma]

Did send us his picks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So we're going to go over his picks. And once again, he has college games that nobody's ever heard of.

[Chuck Todd]

The lines are a little blurry.

[Jeff Ma]

It took me a bit to look them up.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He's got Central Michigan at Bowling Green. Yeah. And he wants Central Michigan plus four against Bowling Green. I didn't know they were playing, but okay. Kent State is plus 26 at Toledo. He wants Toledo. He wants to give 26 points. Okay. He wants Toledo. He wants the Tennessee Titans. A bad team that just fired its coach.

[Jeff Ma]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Just fired its coach. He wants them to get plus four in the first half against New England.

[Jeff Ma]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So if that game is three or less, James is going to win.

[Jeff Ma]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Tennessee plus four only in the first half against New England. Only in the first half, though. I think New England's a good team now.

[Jeff Ma]

I think they found themselves.

[Chuck Todd]

I don't know about the entire game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He wants the Raiders plus 13 at Kansas City. Kansas City's just beginning to find themselves. He wants the Raiders plus their 13's a lot. A division game. 13's a lot. Yeah, it is a lot. And the Raiders won last week, I think.

[Jeff Ma]

Let me check.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I think they won on Sunday, but I could be wrong. He wants the New York Football Giants at Denver plus seven and a half. Denver is a better team than the New York Giants. The Giants are. I. You know, Jackson Dart. You know, I guess he's enamored with Jackson. Yeah.

[Jeff Ma]

Who's that running back? Scatter Boo.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Jeff Ma]

Ripping his shirt off.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. And doing backward cartwheels and landing. If he lands on his neck, kill himself. Raiders won.

[Jeff Ma]

Didn't they beat the Titans 20 to 10.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's why they fired the coach. And one more. He wants the Falcons at San Francisco. He wants to take the over on 47. Now the Falcons, as. As you just heard from Jason Lock and Fora, have a really good defense. Yeah. And 47. I don't know that I would do that. I don't know that I would do that. That I would take the over in that game. But again, let's go over it one more time. Central Michigan plus four at Bowling Green. Toledo minus 26 against Kent State, Tennessee Titans plus four in the first half only against New England. Las Vegas Raiders plus 13 at Kansas City. New York Giants plus seven and a half at Denver and the Falcons. And the 49ers take the over at 47. Those are James's picks. Jeff Ma is with us now. And in terms of full disclosure, when I say with us now, I mean, we're actually taping this last night at about 6 o', clock, but it's just easier for all of us to do that because Jeff's in California in bet. The process this week is. Was there anything that specifically stood out to you, or can I just go right to Kirk Signetti getting this unbelievable contract at $11.6 million a year, when at, at James Madison, he was making 677,000. This is in a space of three years. It's unbelievable. What are your thoughts on the amounts of money being paid to head coaches and assistant coaches in college?

[James Carville]

I mean, it's interesting, right, because they went from not paying players to paying players. And you would think, well, is there not enough money to go around for coaches? But coaches are getting paid even more. I mean, we had Jim Knowles moving over for what, $3.1 million a year for an assistant coach, which would have been kind of unheard of back in the day. And it's, it's, you know, it's. It's crazy to think about Signetti certainly. Like, I don't know if you saw the quote, but suppose that he said something like to a recruit, you may not know my name, but I win. Just Google me. And he, like, wins kind of everywhere. And it'll be interesting to see because he obviously is part of what we would call the new college football. He brought over a lot of recruits from James Madison in his first year and embraced the transfer portal. And you remember last week you asked, we talked about that game plus seven and a half, you know, and based on this year, they're one of the best teams in the league, you know, one of the best teams in college. And, you know, we had a lot of, you know, reluctance to believe that going into a game against Oregon. And they dominated that game. They did not just by seven and a half. They dominated it and looked like the better team on the field. And so.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And you took the seven and a half and you won.

[James Carville]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the world where, you know, we can just say, Oregon's just Oregon and Ohio State's just Ohio State and Indiana. Who's been what? I think, I think top 40 said the losing Is, you know, they have.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Lost more football games than any other college team. All time. Yes.

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah.

[James Carville]

And for him to be able to, you know, Indiana is clearly not, I mean they may not win the national championship, but they're clearly not just Indiana. And you know, they've done this in two years. Not even two years. What like a year you're in four games or five games.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, so here is the question that I have for you. He brought a lot of people from James Madison. There's no way that the Big Ten recruited any of these people that ended up in James Madison. Not even Indiana at the bottom of the Big Ten would have recruited these people. What does that say to you as someone who, who has to figure out point spreads, who you're going to take in a game? What is there a larger lesson here that he is bringing over people who would be two star recruits and not four and five star recruits and they're winning?

[James Carville]

Yeah, I mean I think it's a hard thing to see. Like there are teams like I think we talked today about the process about Southern Mississippi basically brought over Marshall's team and someone else brought over Sam Houston State's defense and all this kind of stuff. And so how do you as a better analytics person understand the caliber of this talent? And so much of like sports betting has to do with how do you balance what you've seen short term versus like looking at a longer term perspective. I mean we see this with, with baseball pitchers. Right. So much of betting baseball is modeling a pitcher's performance and if you see that a pitcher is all of a sudden doing better, you need to come up with a reason why. Otherwise it might just be variant. Sometimes pitchers velocity is up and that's a better predictor of their success or they've learned a new pitch in the off season. Those types of things can make you believe that that short term performance is real. But this is kind of like the science versus the art of sports betting. Like the art is like figuring out like why this short term performance might be believable.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, on Signetti's feels like a miracle worker and I'm sort of happy he's going to stay there. I mean, I think it's romantic that he would take this lousy program and he would turn it into something good and would not just cash. Well, he's cashing in, but he's not cashing in at Penn State, he's not cashing in at Florida, he's not cashing in at Florida State or Clemson. If those open you know, he's not doing that. It speaks to a certain loyalty, I think.

[James Carville]

Well, I mean, it's only been there two years. Who knows when he's actually going to leave and who knows how much money, like, the money trumps loyalty almost always. Like, money's undefeated in this equation. I think another interesting team that we've talked about a lot is this Texas Tech team. And one of the things that's interesting about this Texas Tech team, who, again, probably with Indiana, are the two biggest stories this year as national title contenders. Kind of not necessarily out of nowhere, but, you know, compared to where they were necessarily last year, they are the first, you know, Big 12 team that has really gone into the portal and grabbed offensive linemen and defensive linemen. And so their play on the line compared to other teams in the Big 12 is.

[Jason La Confora]

It's.

[James Carville]

It's going to be a big difference maker. And it'll be interesting to see how that plays when they go to the playoffs and play some of these SEC.

[Jason La Confora]

And Big Ten teams.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All right. All right. You were 3 and 2 last week, 17 and 15 overall, sitting in second. Carville still in first, though. It's a tenuous lead. He's only 20 and 16. What do you got for us this week, Jeff?

[James Carville]

All right, this is going to be a fun one. UNC plus the 10 over cal on Friday night on. On your network, I believe, like, this is going to be. This is a line that should only be about +5 by pretty much every metric. And I don't know if you'd followed unc, but there's some uncertainty going on in the coaching.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Really? I hadn't been aware of that. Yeah, yeah, been aware.

[James Carville]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So you're going to take. You're going to take Chapel, Bill. Yeah, yeah.

[James Carville]

In midlife. Jordan crisis. Yeah, I guess late life.

[Jason La Confora]

Jordan crisis.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay.

[James Carville]

But it is an interesting one simply because, like, you have to believe or fade the narrative, which is that Bill has completely lost it and lost control of the team. And the reason that I choose to fade the narrative is because, you know, maybe, maybe not true, maybe, maybe this is completely different, but there were lots of times early in his New England life that people thought he had lost control. When he cut lawyer Malloy, when he. All those types of things, like he's had bad moments in his life and hoping, rooting for age on this one that there's still something there.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, what else?

[James Carville]

Oklahoma minus the five over South Carolina. Was Carville the one that had the futures bet on the South Carolina.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Carolina. But more than more Than seven and a half, I think.

[James Carville]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Total wins.

[Jason La Confora]

Yeah, three.

[James Carville]

They're three and three right now. Oklahoma, a lot of, a lot of this is basically based on materials, health. If material is truly healthy, which it seems like he was last week. Even though they lost. I like them. Minus the five here.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. And you're not disturbed by the fact that Texas beat them much differently than I thought would happen.

[James Carville]

Okay, I'm going to take Akron. This is a special.

[Jason La Confora]

What?

[James Carville]

Sitting on your couch wondering. Wondering what to do and wanting to watch a Mac game on Saturday. Yeah. Akron plus the one and a half over Ball State.

[Jason La Confora]

The guy that.

[James Carville]

The guy the. We had a guy on. Not the process who goes by the museum. Mr. Peanut. Better. Peanut Better. And he talked about this game as a, as a place for Akron because of some, some suspensions and things like that. Their overall metrics are, are worse than what they actually are. And so there's some value here in them as a team.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You have no shame in betting on Akron against Ball State. There's no shame in that really.

[James Carville]

I mean if, if, if Carville.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's Carville's. That's where he walks. That's his forest. That's not yours.

[James Carville]

I wanted, I want to tread lightly into his forest and garden also.

[Tony Kornheiser]

What else?

[James Carville]

When I think the Colts plus the two over the Chargers talked about the Colts making me a believer. Obviously last week was not one of their best games, but they still pulled it off Chargers just to beat up on the offensive line. I mean they arguably should have lost Miami last week.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[James Carville]

And we know what you think of Miami. So. Yeah, you know, the Colts, you know, just needing basically to win to cover this. I like that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. Anything else?

[James Carville]

I'm going to take Atlanta plus the two and a half over San Francisco. The only worry here obviously is Atlanta on the road versus Atlanta, you know, land on the road versus Atlanta home. But I just think San Francisco is still too beat up and especially losing Fred Warner. It's big for their, big for their defense. So I'm going to take Atlanta.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You bet on Atlanta before. You bet last week on Atlanta against Buffalo plus four and a half and you won outright.

[James Carville]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like Atlanta and maybe it's going to be my, my detriment. They haven't played great on the road. But I also believe these home road splits are a little bit over overweight and at some point Pennix is going.

[Jason La Confora]

To figure it out.

[James Carville]

They have, they have some talent and I do think San Francisco is just, they're just too beat up.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is that all or you got another?

[James Carville]

That's all I got.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's it. Five this week. Okay. Thank you, Jeff. We'll talk to you next week.

[James Carville]

All right, thanks, Tony.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This week's picks with James Carville and Jeff Ma have been brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more and we will come back with email and jingle. And I am Tony Kornheiser.

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When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn [e-mail].

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Youm'Re listening to the Tony Kornheiser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Can I don't want to jump again. Can you believe that's just one guy? Can you believe that? Sound like an orchestra. It's Glenn Winters. It sounds like an orchestra style. It's remarkable. Fantastic.

[Jeff Ma]

Really well done.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's just fantastic. You want to do the Bethesda Bagel there?

[Jeff Ma]

Yes, Bethesda Bagels.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We love them.

[Jeff Ma]

You would as well. Just go to Bethesda Bagels.com for the location in the DC area nearest you. Then pop on in and you'll be thrilled.

[Tony Kornheiser]

All right. Before we get to the mailbag, let me just say don't you ever be sad Lean on me when times are bad when the day comes and you're down in a river of trouble and about to drown Just hold on, I'm coming. Hold on I'm coming. Sam and Dave. Another song. I know, I know all these songs. Thanks to our guests today, Jason Lock and Ford, James Carville, Jeff, Ma. Thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple podcasts Spotify and Odyssey of get show through Apple. Please leave us a review from Andrew Raines. He says the title of the email is Warrior God indeed. And he says thank you for the inherited love of Max Scherzer. Yeah, he's great.

[Unknown Singer/Poet]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And a haiku from Shad from Max Scherzer. The biggest moments when the chips are on the line. Max the warrior. Yeah, it's great. Kate Berggren. I'm sorry, Pat and Kate Lasher in the Albany, New York area. All right. Hello, Mr. Kornheiser. My husband, he is 72 and myself watch you every day. Here's a question on today's show you were in your home. There was a book behind you on the shelf that had a blue cover. And we think the title of the book starts with an M, about five or six letters. We can't read what the title of the book is. He has read your books and enjoys them. Could you tell us what the book is? Thank you very much for what you do. This is such a great email to me because we changed the set and we it's so wonderful people are paying attention. Love that. The book is called Midlife Metamorphosis. The readout is the Journey from Diet Culture to Radical Acceptance. It's by my friend Mindy Gorman Plutzer, Eddie's wife, and she's a dietitian and this is her book. So if you want to get it, she'd be very, very happy.

[Jeff Ma]

That's great.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Eric Spey in Godfrey, Illinois Dear Farmer Ron, Although my biology degree has more emphasis with humans than botany or plant genetics, I feel I need to point out something about next year's potato crop. I believe most farmers would choose seeds from a plant that display desirable characteristics for the future crop. While your small rock like potatoes might be genetically okay for seeds next year, there's a chance that you end up with a bumper crop of spud rocks at this time next year. Never mind that the spudlings are going to raise rot in a paper bag, slowly decomposing into tater goo in your cabinet all winter. Although I have to admit, it might be fun to add potato weevil to the list of moths, flies, and squirrels that have plagued the Cornheizer household. Sure, these pebbled potatoes might be the result of poor soil condition, having their heads chopped off by the lawnmower and other general neglect. But for a few bucks, you can walk into the store this spring and say, that's the potato I want. And give yourself the best chance at a nice baked potato next spring. That's convincing, isn't it?

[Jeff Ma]

I. I think so.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's convincing.

[Jeff Ma]

I think we want to get it. I didn't need convincing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, that's convincing. From Salvador Ortega in Whittier, California, where's the birthplace of Richard Nixon? It is, yes. Pictures of his apples. Well, morning, Uncle Tony. Second batch from my apple tree. Too many to eat between my two kids and a woman whom I'm related by marriage. So we share with the neighbors and co workers. Don't ask me what kind of apple tree apples they are. I will simply answer the kind you eat waiting for my permission and orange tree.

[Chuck Todd]

Interesting story. The other day on the difficulties of growing the beloved Honeycrisp apple.

[Jeff Ma]

Really?

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah, just to protect it because it's. It is more susceptible I think to pests and then to store it properly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So that's.

[Chuck Todd]

We're a long way away from the red delicious.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's from Alex Lau, our friend in New York. Sorry for my prolonged absence from the mailbag. Much was due to due to to the recent birth of my second child. A masculine child. Aiden James Lowe, 9lbs 3oz. Like his older brother Hudson. A big guy. Big guy, big guy. But just as much of it was due to the apparently unfunny emails I've been sending recently. If you're looking to send a gift, we'd happily take the potatoes, if you can call them that, from this year's harvest you can keep the Beaujolais wine for yourself. We're full bodied red wine drinkers in this house. I'd also take any and all parental advice from my fellow boys dad, Michael. As I'm still several years away from being a man. All of the recent agricultural advice has been useless to me as Manhattanite and frankly I'm not surprised. It's apparent been useless to you as well. A fellow city dweller and native Long Islander whose hands, like mine as an attorney, were built for paying for produce, not growing it. Charlie Burt, Springfield, Virginia the wine story helped me to realize your 2026 crop goals. Grapes. Can you imagine the great weekly segment? The Nigel and Reginald Stomp. Each week the guys stomp on the next batch of wine while making game picks special guest stompers. Wine could be Buster's Blush, Jeff, Ma's Malbec, Chuck Chardonnay and Carville's Cabernet which no one can read the label of, but they love the Cajun taste anyway. Bring on the feet. From Bret Hobbs in Linton, Indiana. The wine story was an example of how much chaos you can create in your family. I have stated in the past that Boone's farm is the cure for all your troubles. Their motto, Lower your standards, lower your stress. Yeah, Andy from Apopka, Florida. I can't be the only one who wondered if Tony's broken toilet was the same one that a certain rodent made his perilous final journey in. Am I? That is true. That was the toilet from the Flush the mouse that was. That was from Jim Cudahy in Locust Grove, Virginia. If the game of celebrities spotted. If the game of celebrities spotted on the golf courses as I offer this, I live on the first fairway of the otherwise unassuming Lake of the woods golf course off of Route 3, west of Fredericksburg. There's a photo on the wall of the pro shop of two guys playing golf that I never really paid attention to. One day, while waiting to check in, I had occasion to examine the photo. It turns out it's from a Pro Am in 1976. And the photo attached, yes, is from. Is a Flip Wilson playing with, wait for it, President Gerald Ford. Makes me wonder how history might have changed if Ford had spent his day campaigning in Texas rather than golfing in Virginia. From David Epstein in New York. Your closing lyrics Wednesday were from the Simon and Garfunkel classic the Only Living Boy in New York. Which had me wondering, which is greater, your encyclopedic knowledge of lyrics or your gift of being unburdened by memory? As you correctly pointed out, Tom is a reference to Art Garfunkel from their days as Tom and Jerry. But I'm wondering if you remember the subsequent lyrics are a reference to Artie appearing in the movie cat. Yes, cat's 22. I know that the part will go fine. He flies down to Mexico to film catch 22. Yes, I know that. The line I know your part will go fine is a literal reference to Artie's role as Nate Leon's in Fly down to Mexico, because that's where the movie was primarily shot. Yes, I did. Ironically, what the inspiration for the song may well have been may well have been the death knell for their relationship. Simon grew frustrated with Garfunkel splitting his attention between music and what appeared to be a budding film career, while Simon wanted full attention on recording sessions. As you know, the only living boy in New York appears on the album Bridge Over Troubled Water. And as great as the album is, it's probably still underrated. Other songs on the album include the Boxer Baby Driver, Cecilia and Keep the Customers Satisfied. Plus, the title track, one of the greatest songs ever. Yeah, I don't. I can't imagine it's underrated. No, I mean, I just can't really. Scott Dean, Catlin. Oh, Scott Dean in Catlin, Illinois. I'm sorry, you've talked about Matt Damon's potatoes and how about his apples? He grew potatoes on Mars, but here's proof. You can grow them in space, too. And there's a picture, an AI rendering of me on Uranus. Yeah, it's growing.

[Jason La Confora]

Happens.

[Tony Kornheiser]

John Stadola, Gonzaga College High School, 1965, Notre Dame, 1969. Today, as you had Chuck on, you stated, I will try and not talk too much because I think I talk too much here. Then after Chuck Todd said one sentence, you chimed in with, that's what I think. Many wives have been divorced for exactly this behavior. Jeff Alexander, Salinas, California. I seem to recall Major Winchester having a bottle of Beaujolais in an episode of MASH once before. Who knew you two had more in common than hairstyles?

[Jason La Confora]

That's funny.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And from Jeff Martin in Voorheesville, New York, which is in upstate New York. I just got a new power strip with 12 plugs. I'm not putting it in the kitchen, though. If you're out on your bike tonight, as always, do wear white.

[Jason La Confora]

Shut up, John. Big booty, you coward. You're the weakest individual I ever know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Big booty. Big booty. Big booty. Big Booty.

[Unknown Singer/Poet]

It's amazing what 10 years will do to a road. The base of my drive is a stress fracture zone. You can lay the asphalt throughout Last the memories the brick has gone bail and the mailbox is empty? The yard has been raised by a village of deer? The village is hundreds of miles from here? Where was the girl with whom I could drink wine? Her youth has been stripped away at the Rhine O oh, is it going again?

[Jason La Confora]

Oh.

[Unknown Singer/Poet]

Is it going again? The line has been cut and the vision book. I feel like I'm stealing a library book. Let's the love that we shed was enveloped in mystery and buried beneath all the shovels of history.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And.

[Unknown Singer/Poet]

Girl was right when we called her a B Turn off the light and I'll make my last B Went down to Mexico where I thought I he love I came back dyslexic to over.