“Sit back and go WOW!”

Summary

The Tony Kornheiser Show – “Sit back and go WOW!”

Episode Summary – Dec 3, 2025

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Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode, Tony Kornheiser and his regular crew tackle a lively slate of topics spanning sports, college football coaching drama, and current events. With signature irreverence and wit, Tony and guests Chuck Todd and Paul Finebaum analyze the Patriots' resurgent NFL season, the fallout from Lane Kiffin's jaw-dropping departure from Ole Miss to LSU, the intrigue around the College Football Playoff rankings, and more. The episode is punctuated by classic banter, memorable rants, and both heartfelt and humorous moments.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. NBA Chatter: Wizards Fan Loyalty & Clippers’ Troubles

• Tony bemoans the state of the Washington Wizards, lamenting both poor team leadership and the team’s lack of star power and effort. The low attendance at a recent game is praised as fan discernment.
  • “I applaud this. This is the discernment of the Washington basketball fan finally saying, you know what? I’m not coming out for this junk.” (03:04)
• The Clippers are called out for scapegoating Chris Paul and the issue of Kawhi Leonard sitting out frequently.
  • “He just gets a lot of money, doesn’t actually play. Sort of like Joel Embiid. Gets a lot of money, doesn’t actually play.” (04:23)

2. NFL: The Rise of the Patriots & Strength of Schedule

• Tony and crew dissect the New England Patriots’ turn-around, emphasizing how their high record may be deceiving due to an easy schedule.
  • “They have beaten the dregs of the league...And they are in a division with, you know, with two terrible teams, the Jets and Miami.” (05:35)
• Drake May and Mike Vrabel are praised but with caveats; skepticism remains about the team’s actual strength.
  • “Right now, Drake May has the best completion percentage in the league...But still, I have no idea. I have no idea how good they are.” (07:51)
• Lack of a dominant NFL team this year sparks debate.
  • “Is there a team that you think is a great team this year?...No. Because every time you think that they lose.” (08:39)

3. Must-Read: Olivia Nuzzi Book & Political Journalism

• Tony briefly recommends reading new political stories, remarking on how fascinating but overwhelming American politics has become.
  • “You sit back and you go, wow.” (09:31)
  • “There's no other word. It's just wow. Really. Wow.” (09:42, Chuck Todd/Tony)

4. NFL Week 14 Picks with Chuck Todd & Reginald the Monkey

• Picks segment features signature banter on the unpredictability of the season and spreads that seem off.
• Chuck Todd and Tony talk through several marquee games, with both expressing skepticism about trusting either the Cowboys or Lions as they clash in a crucial matchup.
  • “I just don’t trust Dallas. I mean, I would take the three also, but I don't trust.” (17:05)
• Humorous aside: Reginald the monkey, in character, delivers his own picks alongside absurd backstory banter (book signings, wine theft, ties to Al Capone).
• Notable running joke: The idea of playoff “elimination games” in Week 14 because of league parity.
• Chuck Todd:
  • “Which, neither team has done anything to make you trust them.” (17:10)
  • “I never trust Jacksonville. I mean, this is two teams. I'd really prefer to fade, but I will. I will take Jacksonville.” (19:44)
• Tony laments so many teams being ‘just okay’ or unpredictable week to week.

5. CFB Chaos: Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss, and LSU (w/ Paul Finebaum)

• The drama of Lane Kiffin’s sudden exit from Ole Miss to coach LSU takes center stage.
• Paul Finebaum explains why Kiffin is the “villain” of college football: his habit of burning bridges and never staying put.
  • “Every house he builds as he leaves, to go to another house, he incinerates the house.” (34:30)
  • “He just, he has the attention span of a 17 year old high school boy.” (36:24)
• Debate: Should Ole Miss have let Kiffin coach the playoffs? Tony suggests they’ll regret the decision if they lose early.
  • “If they lose in their first game, Mississippi, I think the people at Mississippi will have terrible regret because they will never know if they would have won with Lane Kiffin.” (38:14)
• Why LSU? Finebaum cites easier recruiting, LSU’s singular focus in Louisiana, and Kiffin’s own personality and alliances with Saban.
  • “LSU, in spite of the governor... It’s an easier job to recruit. It’s a standalone.” (39:26)
• College football’s lack of central governance allows for chaotic coaching changes mid-season.
  • “College football is tribal...and all they care about is their own league and their own TV contracts.” (41:09)

6. College Football Playoff Rankings Intrigue

• Tony and Paul Finebaum dissect the penultimate playoff rankings; find fault in how Notre Dame dropped and Alabama rose, questioning the committee’s reasoning.
  • “They always screw themselves up because they try to be cute setting up the last one—it never works.” (42:19, Finebaum)
  • “How is Miami not in the ACC championship game?” (44:44)
• The head-to-head debate (“Miami over Notre Dame?”) and the consequences of ACC and Group of Five results are discussed.
• The two predict that college football’s playoff will inevitably expand to 16 teams soon because current systems are too arbitrary and committee-driven.
  • “It is not decided on the field here. It’s decided in a boardroom, which is ridiculous.” (48:08, Tony)
• Paul: “We are going to 16 [teams] very soon.” (47:43)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tony Kornheiser, on Wizards attendance:
  • “I applaud this. This is the discernment of the Washington basketball fan finally saying, you know what? I’m not coming out for this junk.” (03:04)
• Chuck Todd, on NFL unpredictability:
  • “Which, neither team has done anything to make you trust them.” (17:10)
• Paul Finebaum, on Lane Kiffin:
  • “Every house he builds as he leaves, to go to another house, he incinerates the house.” (34:30)
  • “He just, he has the attention span of a 17 year old high school boy.” (36:24)
• Tony Kornheiser:
  • “You sit back and you go, wow. That’s really it. You sit back and you go, wow.” (09:31)
• Paul Finebaum, playoff selection committee:
  • “They act like they have just solved a cure for cancer.” (48:23)

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Content | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:03 | Start of real content: Prison meal joke & Wizards rant | | 04:30 | NBA and college basketball discussion | | 05:10 | Patriots: Are they really good? Strength of schedule breakdown | | 07:51 | Tony’s skepticism of Patriots' real strength | | 08:43 | No great NFL teams debate | | 09:09 | Political journalism: Olivia Nuzzi reference | | 09:31 | “You sit back and you go, wow.” – recurring theme | | 15:06 | Chuck Todd picks segment begins | | 26:44 | Eagles vs. Chargers and Philly's lukewarm momentum | | 33:56 | Paul Finebaum segment begins: Lane Kiffin & CFB playoff rankings | | 38:14 | Regret for Ole Miss if they lose without Kiffin | | 41:09 | Why college football’s mid-season chaos won’t stop | | 42:03 | Dissection of playoff rankings: Notre Dame, Alabama, Miami | | 48:08 | “It is not decided on the field here.” |

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Overall Vibe & Tone

• Tony’s signature blend of curmudgeonly humor and genuine sports fandom drives the episode; the interplay with Michael Wilbon, Chuck Todd, Chris, and Sean provides rich counterpoint and comic relief.
• The banter around Reginald the Monkey’s picks offers playful absurdity amid sports analysis.
• The Lane Kiffin coaching saga is treated with bemused skepticism and a sense of amazement at ongoing college football chaos.
• The show ends with a sense of unresolved anticipation around the ongoing college football drama and the parade of weekly NFL surprises.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This episode captures Tony’s blend of sports analysis, media savvy, and character-driven conversation. If you enjoy sharp takes, running inside jokes, and sports talk that’s as much about the absurdity as the outcome, “Sit back and go WOW!” is a peak entry in the TK canon.

Transcript

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hey, it's Tony. On today's show, we will get football picks from Chuck Todd and Reginald the Monkey. Plus, we'll talk to Paul Finebaum about the fallout from Lane Kiffin leaving ole miss for LSU. But first, let's keep the sales weasels happy.

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[Sean]

It's about.

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[Tony Kornheiser]

Previously on the Tony Cornheiser Show, Michael. Also last night, Michael made some. This was soup season. Michael said, I'm making soup, and dinner is soup and bread. And I said, are we in prison that we're having soup and bread? And then he said, no, you know, soup and bread.

[Michael Wilbon]

You got a full slice. Where's the crust?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Let me just say this. That that was so that was a minimum security prison meal. I mean, as. As high up on the chain as you can go. This is General George Washington, and you're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show. Today is Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday. Why do I bring this up? Because the full moon is tomorrow. Oh, the full moon this month is tomorrow.

[Chris]

Should be clear out as well, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I hope so.

[Michael Wilbon]

Give me advance warning. Thank you.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Everybody needs to take wake their kids up attention and make sure that they see the full moon. Full moon is deal. So I had.

[Michael Wilbon]

You're actually crossing off that note on your legal pad.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Love it. I'm crossing it.

[Chris]

First item on the list.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So I've been, you know, I've been talking about the wizards and how they try to lose. If they don't actively try to lose, they're certainly not upset when they lose. They're happy when they lose.

[Chris]

Came up a bit short last night, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Well, I'm not even talking about last night. Of course they came up short last night. That was on the road in Philadelphia. You know that they weren't even Competitive, you know, after the first quarter. But they won a game the other night against Milwaukee in Washington, and you would think that the opportunity to see Giannis Antetokounmpo might fill the stadium. Milwaukee's not a good team, but they used to be a good team. And Antetokounmpo is one of the three best players in the world. They had 13,000 people there, 7,000 empty seats. I applaud this. This is the discernment of the Washington basketball fan finally saying, you know what? I'm not coming out for this junk. I'm not coming out to see people I've never heard of before, you know, lose games because the administration of this team wants to lose games to get better draft picks, you know, and the only players, the only guy who's been any good all year is CJ McCollum and he has no value here at all and will probably be traded before the deadline. Chris Middleton and C.J. mcCollum. The only value is to bring draft choices, you know, and they allow this guy, Michael Winger to send this team straight into the toilet.

[Chris]

Well, you know, we're only on year three of the ten year build, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

With eight years, he wants an eight year deal.

[Michael Wilbon]

Trust the process. 13,000 people, it's hard to get there on a Sunday.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Why is that? You know, just, just. Okay, so that's, you know, so that to me is. That's a positive sign.

[Michael Wilbon]

When's the last time you went to a Wizards game?

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's a long time. It's years.

[Michael Wilbon]

I think it's when John Wall was teaching me how to Dougie.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So it's been a while for me too, since years. You know who stinks, by the way? The Los Angele Angeles Clippers. They stink. Wilbon is always telling me how Ty Lu is the best coach in the world. He's not. They're 5 and 17. They stink. And they just got rid of Chris Paul. They just said, go away. Now. We do, you know, we, we don't want you here anymore. They're scapegoating Chris Paul somehow for a 5 and 17 record. One of the reasons they have a 5 and 17 regular. Best player doesn't play that often. Right. Does he ever play anymore?

[Chris]

Oh, no, he doesn't.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Kawhi Leonard.

[Chris]

Kawhi Leonard.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, he doesn't play. He just gets a lot of money, doesn't actually play. Sort of like Joel Embiid. Gets a lot of money, doesn't actually play.

[Michael Wilbon]

Do you started watching college basketball yet?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I watched last night. I watched Duke Last night you see the ending. I did not.

[Michael Wilbon]

19 seconds left.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I did not see. I saw the kid made a three. I saw it this morning for seven.

[Michael Wilbon]

Before that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, and he made a three.

[Chris]

And then it was like a great stop after that or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, you know, those are good games. They're a little bit early for me, you know, in the season. I mean, I'm still involved in football. Which leads me to this, the notion of the Patriots. We talked about this yesterday on PTI. The Patriots have the best record in the NFL. They're 11 and 2. They were 4 and 13 last year and 413 a year before that. One was a Belichick year and the other was. Who did they have?

[Chris]

O.J.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Mayo. Was it a draw? Mail draw? That's right. Mayo, one year. And then they fired him. Correctly. Not because he's bad, but because Mike Vrabel was out there. They should have gone to Mike Vrabel early on. And they're 11 and two with Mike Vrabel. And the question was, are the best team in the NFL? And no, I don't. I don't know that they are. I don't think that they are because they haven't beaten anybody good. They have beaten three. This is a remarkable number I'm going to give you. They've beaten three teams who at the moment are above.500. Buffalo, which I think is 8 and 4, 8 and 4. Carolina 7 and 5, and Tampa Bay 7 and 5. Right. I think that, yeah, these are not powerhouses. People thought Buffalo might be a powerhouse this year, but they have not been a powerhouse. The other people that they have beaten have a combined record of 32 wins and 89 losses. They have beaten the dregs of the league. And they are in a division with, you know, with two terrible teams, the jets and Miami, who they still have another game with. They have the benefit of the fourth place schedule from finishing last in their division last year. And if you don't think that's important, look at the schedules that Philadelphia and Kansas City have had. They're monstrous. Yeah. They're so hard. And so you.

[Michael Wilbon]

So they'll have Buffalo 1214, which you'll learn a lot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Buffalo and Baltimore are the only two teams left that they have that you would think are pretty good. But Buffalo's not the great team that you thought it might be.

[Chris]

And that's in New England because that was a surprising win.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They beat them in Buffalo. Yeah, sure.

[Michael Wilbon]

You don't think they'll have the special teams Mistakes, though, that the Giants put up.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right. Well, a guy will stick his foot in the ground and there's no kick. What happens. Was that the Giants.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes.

[Chris]

Giants kicker? Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

KU was the kicker.

[Chris]

I couldn't remember his name.

[Michael Wilbon]

The golf related memes to this, where it's like you pipe a drive down.

[Paul Finebaum]

The middle of the fairway and you completely.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Fat wedge. Yeah. Just, just.

[Chris]

I've seen that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Really bad. Yeah, it's really bad. So they, they haven't played anybody. So when you get to the playoffs, you know, then you have to play good teams. Nobody's in the playoffs with a losing record except maybe the winner of some bad division like the NFC south or something like that. But even then it'd probably be the worst It'll be is 9 and 8. You're going to play winning teams. I don't. So I don't know how good they are is there. But I think the people in New England are thrilled. I don't think they'll care. Oh, I don't think they'll care if they lose in the first round. I don't think they'll care.

[Chris]

They look at that and they see the nightmare what's going on with Belichick and Unc and think they're happy.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We're so much better.

[Chuck Todd]

Happy.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And what the Patriots have, they have filled the two most important positions in New England. This may not be true of other of other cities, but the two most important positions in New England are obviously coach and quarterback because of Belichick and Brady for all of those years. And I'm not, I'm not suggesting that Drake May is Tom Brady. Please don't say I suggested that I'm not or that that Mike Vrabel is Bill Belichick. But right now, Drake May has the best completion percentage in the league, the most yards in the league, and the highest rating of any quarterback in the league right now. So right now, if you're looking for an mvp, Drake May is one of the people you land on. But still, I have no idea. I have no idea how good they are.

[Chris]

Is there a team that you think is a great team this year?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No. Because every time you think that they lose like the Rams and they go when they lose. No. So I agree with Wilbon on that. I agree with Wilbon on that. I wanted to talk at great length about a couple of stories in the Washington Post yesterday about a political journalist and now an author, a book author named Olivia Newsy. Is that how it's pronounced? Newsy? Nuzzy newsy name.

[Sean]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know, but I'm not going to talk about it because it's over my head and I don't understand it. But I was fascinated reading it. I really was fascinated reading. There's a bunch of stories and, And I would. If you have nothing to do, I would recommend that you read these stories. You know, she has a book out called American Canto.

[Michael Wilbon]

And some of this is a response to another memoir that came out weeks ago, the Cheryl Hines.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Cheryl Hines, that's right. Yeah. It's just. You go, wow. Just wow. What's going on? That's. That's really it. You sit back and you go, wow. I didn't. I didn't.

[Chuck Todd]

Wow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There's no other word. It's just. It's just wow. Really. Wow. So I recommend those things. That's. I, you know, I don't. I was going to talk at great length about something that happened in. In my family yesterday, but it's. It's ongoing and I'm not going to do it out of respect for everybody else. It's not bad. It's not bad. It's just that it would take too long and it's. It's ongoing. We'll talk about it somewhere down the road. So we will get out of here now and we will bring in Chuck Todd.

[Chris]

That's right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

When we return. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

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[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

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[Sean]

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[Tony Kornheiser]

We got this note from Brendan White. Says, I'm a musician living in New York City. I perform under the stage name Songs about Rivers. Not Philip Rivers, not Johnny Rivers. Songs About Rivers. I grew up in the D.C. area, reading and watching Tony, and your podcast always makes me feel like home. Tony's daily rants about the Nats bullpen are essential sounds of the summer for the die hard fan living in enemy territory. As an independent musician, it would mean the world to me to hear my songs played on your show. Passed along two songs, including my new single called Antipodes. I think I'm pronouncing that right. That was released last month. That's what we're hearing now.

[Chris]

Is it Antipodes or Antipodes?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Antipodes. I don't know. It's not a word I'm familiar with. But it's songs about rivers and it's very, very nice.

[Chuck Todd]

Lovely.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's very, very nice. Really is. Congratulations on such nice work. Plays in Chuck Todd. Chuck had 4 and 3 last week. Is at 45 and 46. If he gets. If he gets to Mount 500, he can do it with a 43 record. This Week's Football picks from Chuck Todd and Reginald the monkey are brought to you by fanduel. Make every moment more. So I'll just. I'm going to get to the games because there are some spreads that surprise me. We'll start with the Thursday night game. This might be the best game of the week. Dallas at Detroit. They're playing on Thursday, but they're on full rest because they both played Thanksgiving Thursday. So it's not. It's not one of those things where the traveling team is at a disadvantage, really. Dallas is plus three at Detroit. Dallas has just beaten both teams that were in the super bowl last year, the Eagles and the Chiefs. Dallas is, I hate to say this, the hottest team in the league right now. The Dallas Cowboys are. Detroit is not. Detroit is sort of reeling. Detroit's better than this, but they keep losing. Will you take the. Will you take the three for Dallas against Detroit?

[Chuck Todd]

This is a playoff elimination game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, I believe that.

[Chuck Todd]

I mean, you know, this is this whole slate this week. Fantastic. Yes, you look. It is. There is half the games and we, I think we're dealing with all of them seem to have playoff implications. I'm. I've been hesitant to buy into this Dallas business. I fear that I'm now playing catch up. Something's wrong with Detroit, right? Yes, there's something missing. I think. I think the problem is the current head coach of the Chicago Bears.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. He's missing. Ben Johnson is missing.

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Their offense is not as good and, and the coach Campbell's calling on the plays. I just don't trust Dallas. I mean, I would take the three also, but I don't trust.

[Chuck Todd]

I hear you. I hear you, but which neither team has done anything to make you trust them.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Nope, nope, nope.

[Chuck Todd]

It's kind of why there. That's kind of why that's a playoff elimination game in week 14.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So you'll. You'll take Dallas.

[Chuck Todd]

I'm going to take Dallas on the.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Washington, which is no good. Washington is at Minnesota, which is no good. There's a three point swing in this game. In 24 hours, Washington was giving one and a half on the road. Now they are getting one and a half on the road. I don't know. Is that. Does that mean that quarterbacks are going to play or not play? The guy who was on for Minnesota last week was horrific. It was just terrible beyond words. I mean, is McCarthy back or did they trade for Chris Paul now that he was dumped by the Clippers? I don't know. I don't know. What do you. What are you doing in this one?

[Chuck Todd]

There's no way I'm betting on the Vikings in that quarterback situation. They've scored six points in two games. Right. Like this is what a drop. In fact, Nigel and I were talking about this. Vikings and commanders.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Chuck Todd]

These were two.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Chuck Todd]

Serious playoff teams last year, like super.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Bowl contenders with different quarterbacks. This year for injury and for leaving in both, you know, in different cases. Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

Quarterback matters. Is that a position that's important?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, I think so. So you'll take Washington?

[Chuck Todd]

Excuse me? Washington.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Even though they stink. Okay. All right.

[Chuck Todd]

What are the Vikings?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, they're terrible. No, they're telling you.

[Chuck Todd]

That poor kid. I mean, how did that guy get into the NFL?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Just, you know, side door. I mean, he just walked in one day. The door was left ajar. Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Indianapolis is at Jacksonville. Jacksonville has a good record. They're not an impressive team. Indianapolis is fading. They've lost three out of four. They lost at home last week to Houston. I believe Indianapolis is. They're the road favorite in Jacksonville. There's a road favorite? One and a half. Do you think they. Do you think they recoup and come back to be a good team, or do you think they are going out down the drain?

[Chuck Todd]

All right. How good would you be with what. Does Daniel Jones have a fractured femur?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. I thought it was the tibia. He's got a broken leg. He's got a broke. But he's playing.

[Sean]

He's playing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Not ideal. No.

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah. And the problem there, and you've really seen it, is is they need. If he can't run, he's not. That's an entirely different offense.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. And the great running back is getting nothing now. He's getting three and four yards a shot, not 25.

[Chuck Todd]

Because everybody can just focus on him. They don't have to worry about.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yep.

[Chuck Todd]

Worry about Jones. I never trust Jacksonville. I mean, this is two teams. I'd really prefer to fade, but I will. I will take Jacksonville. Somebody has to win that division, I guess. But I'll take Jacksonville at home.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, Houston will win the division, I assume at this point, Pittsburgh.

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Pittsburgh stinks. Mike Tomlin said he agreed with people booing them. He said that Pittsburgh is getting six at Baltimore. Baltimore. I know everyone thinks Baltimore is still good. LaMar Jackson's last three games, no touchdown passes, three interceptions, two fumbles lost and eight sacks. He's something.

[Paul Finebaum]

Do you think he's hurt?

[Chuck Todd]

I mean, I'm curious with Locke and forward thinks on that. That's the behavior of a hurt quarterback.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Seems that way, yeah. You know, Pittsburgh six is a lot. Divisional game and maybe, maybe that last loss changes everything. But boy, Aaron Rodgers looks done. He looks done.

[Chuck Todd]

He does. I mean, the bloody nose, that felt like, you know, that. That felt like the last picture of your, you know, if this were Sports Illustrated were relevant again.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's right. That's right.

[Chuck Todd]

The photo.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's the ya.

[Chuck Todd]

Bloody nose. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mike Tomlin ought to go check to see if Penn State needs a football coach though. I'd be I were him, I'd be looking for an escape hatch on there.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, he'd be good.

[Chuck Todd]

I think it would be. He kind of needs a change of scenery.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Chuck Todd]

I think he'd be really good in college. He sort of fits the. You know and everybody loves him in that state and Penn State. I mean that's a great story but there's a. Basically an agent that's barring any coach from working for them. I mean it's, it's an ugly situation there in pen. Sorry for digressing there.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay.

[Chuck Todd]

But no, give me, give me, give me the.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Give me the Ravens Baltimore home team Chicago Bears. The second biggest surprise in the league. First biggest surprise is New England Patriots. The Chicago Bears are second. They are at Green Bay. Wilbon is worried. Wilbon would be worried if they were at the Giants because Wilbon is always worried. They're getting Sarah nine and three team. They're getting six and a half points in a division game.

[Chuck Todd]

They're the one seed if the playoffs ended today and they're getting a touchdown.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Six and a half at Green Bay. Where Green Bay by the way, the packers have lost. Oh, they look much better now, but they've lost a couple of times. That's a big number. This is, this is the only question in this game is do you, do you trust Chicago at all? It's got nothing to do with Green Bay at Chicago. Right. Chicago.

[Chuck Todd]

Well, I, you know, Green Bay is the type of team that just will win by a field goal if they need to. Right. They don't win with margin very often. And I have to say I'm starting to feel better about the Packers. You know, I was upset about that Panthers loss. Is the Panthers loss a bad loss now?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, now that they've got seven wins, it's not necessarily a bad loss. But at home. Yeah, I know, right?

[Chuck Todd]

Cowboys tie looks so bad now.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Nope.

[Chuck Todd]

You know, it's like one of those. You got to just wait till the whole season plays out. They didn't lose the Notre Dame. They didn't lose a Notre Dame of course would be a problem.

[Paul Finebaum]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

Look, I'm going to take the packers because my son is going to be listening and he'll be so angry at me if I somehow didn't take the packers here. I think six and a half is tough number. That's a tough number to Take that. This game is, you know, it's the. They need to just need the field goal. But I'll lay the points.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Truly a lot of points.

[Chuck Todd]

It's it, I think it's a three point game or a three score game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's just a lot of, you know.

[Chuck Todd]

It is possible that the Bears sort of. It's a welcome to the. Welcome to Lambeau maybe and Ben Johnson said a whole bunch of trash talk. I mean I think that's going to get a little bit of attention to from the team when he took the job in Chicago. So it could be a very fired up packers team.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. Houston, which has won three or four in a row. Four in a row. One with C.J. stroud over the weekend and three with Davis Mills, who did everything you'd want in a backup quarterback. They're at Kansas City. They're getting three and a half. That's a lot to me for Houston. Houston's got a great defense. And Kansas, Kansas City loses this, it's over. It may be over anyway, but if they lose this, it's over. We always say, well, their backs are against the wall, we want them. But I don't know, are they too.

[Chuck Todd]

Back of a playoff spot right now?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah, I think it's over if they lose this one.

[Chuck Todd]

I just don't understand how the Texans are. Are getting this many points.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's. I don't either. I don't either.

[Chuck Todd]

That's. It's one of those where the gambling you're like, what am I missing here? Why is that? Because even if Kansas City wins, right. It would be the typical three point. So give me all that. Give me that hook.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You take Houston, take Houston, not Kansas City. Which you never would have done last year or the year before. The year before, would you? And what would you do in this game? Yeah, I would take Kansas City because I'm a die hard believer in Mahomes, even though evidence tells me not to be. But I would. It's just as me. Here's another one. Philadelphia is at the Chargers now. The Chargers. Nobody has said a word about the Chargers in the last four or five weeks. They have a winning record. They seem to know what they're doing. Philadelphia, something is wrong. If you think something's wrong in Detroit, something is wrong in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a road favorite minus three over the Chargers, who will have, you know, no crowd there, nobody cares. But they've been a pretty good team. Not real good, but pretty good. Pretty good is the farthest I'll go. Philadelphia goes across the country. Who you got this Monday night?

[Sean]

Is it.

[Chuck Todd]

So the Eagles will have more fans there, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, I believe that.

[Chuck Todd]

But is that good for the Eagles?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, because they'll boo them.

[Paul Finebaum]

Booing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They'll boo them. No, they'll boo them.

[Chuck Todd]

I was talking to a friend of mine who's a big Eagles fan, and I said. I said, who you got? Who's the problem? The coach or Jalen hurts? And he's like, oh, it's the coach, Scotch, not Jalen. And I was like, wow, you're on team Jalen. I don't think everybody is. I think there's a real divide. Like, what's. Is it Jalen hurts his fault, or is the coaching staff's fault? Not putting Hertz in the right place, right positions. What say you? Whose side you got?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I am amazed at how ineffective, in relative terms, Saquon Barkley has been this year. And so I think if Saquon Barkley is not hurt, I think maybe the offensive coordinator needs to change something here, because they got a lot and they don't. Not only don't they score any points, they go three and out more than any team in the league. I don't understand that. I don't.

[Chuck Todd]

So he's the. He was the O.C. i think, was the one that got the. Fire him, right? There was a fire. That guy. Champ.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah. So I Give me the Chargers. I know I'm going with a lot of dogs, but I'm the. And I know the Eagles seem like even when everybody's fighting with each other, that's just when they start playing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. I would take the Eagles here. Me, personally, I would take the Eagles. But I'm not one game away from 500. I'm not. Nobody's keeping track of what I'm taking.

[Chuck Todd]

Two or three. You might be two or three games over.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, well, I don't know. I doubt it. All right, this is all good. Thank you, Chuck.

[Chuck Todd]

All right, my friend.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Talk to you next week. And if we just gave you Chuck Todd, that'd be more than enough. But we give you a monkey. See the monkey, he scritch, scritch scratching Watching his iPad Smoking and laughing Hanging with Bud Grant Tap, tap, tapping on his purple attache Nigel's going to the.

[Chris]

Zoo, zoo, zoo Reginald's got the fight.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Spy, too Sometimes he throws his poo, poo, poo Penny's had too much From Brandon Borzelli in Lebanon, New Jersey. One of the escaped research monkeys from Mississippi has been relocated to New Jersey to an animal refuge. In Forked river, the monkey has a new name, Forest, and is getting well acclimated to his new life. The news article included a bit of a puff piece about Forest day to day life. The interesting part was that he attended a book signing of Reginald's. Reginald apparently allows fans to bring an additional item to be signed when you purchase his new book. Urine specimens. What they are good for. The article included a photo of Forrest handing Reginald a high school yearbook for his sign. The yearbook was open to a page with a picture of Reginald playing water polo with Bud Grant against the crown. Apparently they won and they were knighted by the crown. Fantastic. Fantastic. What is Reginald? Reginald had a bad week. He's had nothing but bad weeks. 03. He's 14 and 25 on the year.

[Chris]

That was a tough one.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Stinks.

[Chris]

And the news doesn't get much better for Reginald. I went down to the National Zoo and I was very concerned to see that he was being questioned by several detectives. I wanted to talk to him about his relationship with the two wine thieves from Virginia.

[Chuck Todd]

Okay.

[Chris]

The thinking is that Reginald alleged, allegedly may have been the mastermind.

[Chuck Todd]

Okay.

[Chris]

They had a warrant. They searched the basement of his flat at the zoo. No wine. Just a few cases of Reggie bars and several crates of Yoo Hoo.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, so yeah. But right now, the great chocolate drink.

[Chris]

Right now he's free from the terrible. Reggie loves it. So, yeah. What are you gonna do? So he took a break. The police were kind enough to let me talk to him about these matches for a moment. First match we gave him was the Thursday one. Detroit at home giving three against Dallas. And Redwood showed me a lovely photograph of him at a highlight match alongside Joe Dumars, Steve Iserman and Mickey Lolich.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's right.

[Chris]

Tells me he got ties to the Motor City.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. Okay.

[Chris]

The next one we gave him, this is not a great match at all. The Vikings at home giving one and a half to the Washington football team. And this is a lovely picture Reginald showed me from his wallet. Him sledding on one of those big toboggans along with Tommy Kramer, Keith Millard and Anthony Cotter. Bud Grant, of course, cheering him on the sidelines with no shirt on.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know how he could not pick Minnesota. He has to pick Minnesota. He has to. Yeah.

[Chris]

And the final match we gave him was the Bears getting six and a.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Half as the number one believable, number one seed in the NFC getting six and a half at Green Bay.

[Michael Wilbon]

To be fair, there were worries that start the season 0 and 5.

[Chris]

So yes, they're fierce fears by certain people. Now, this was Reginald. Show me a picture not of himself, but of his grandfather having dinner with Al Capone. They ran molasses across the border together. Made a lot of money, those two did. So that tells me he's got ties to Chicago from way back when.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, of course I hope they lose. I hope they lose by 30 because it makes Wilbourn nuts. But six, the number one seed, and they're getting six and a half. It's like in college. That happens in college where home field is a big deal.

[Chuck Todd]

Wow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's just. Wow. This week's football picks from Chuck Todd and Reginald the Monkey have been brought to you by fanduel. Make every moment more and we will come back with Paul Feinbaum and try and delve into the Lane Kiffin situation and the rankings for the college football playoffs. I'm Tony Kornheiser. You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser Show. Does this holiday pattern seem familiar? You tell yourself to be thoughtful, then you panic at the last minute and end up buying a gift card. This year, skip the panic and give an aura frame. With aura, you can choose the photos that you know they'll love. Then you can preload them before they open it. And seeing their reaction will absolutely make your day. You can upload unlimited photos and videos straight from your phone. Personalize your gift with a message and keep adding new memories anytime, anywhere. Every frame comes in a premium gift box with no price tag. You can't wrap togetherness, but you can frame it for a limited time. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get 35 off Aura's best selling Carver mat frames named number one by Wirecutter. By using the promo code Tony K at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code Tony K. This deal is exclusive to listeners. Of course it is. Of course it is. You're listening. Yes. Excuse me. It's exclusive to listeners. And frames sell out fast. So order yours now to get in time for the holidays. Terms and conditions apply. Now I go off script. Michael got me one of these. And every so often do you see.

[Michael Wilbon]

The holiday card refresh.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Every so often, there are new pictures of the boys or pictures of Michael and Liz. Once in a while there's a picture of me and Michael from 100 years ago when I wasn't a Muppet. And this is a lovely gift, right? This is a lovely.

[Michael Wilbon]

It's honestly like a live fire where the boys just go up to the frame and they just pause, they rewind. They just want to see it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's just really nice.

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[Tony Kornheiser]

This is the Tony Kornheiser show.

[Chuck Todd]

Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Once again, this is Brendan White. But that's just his real name. He's a musician who performs under the stage name Songs about Rivers. I would have performed on the stage named Johnny Rivers and then I would have made a lot of money. I don't know. Like, do you go up to him and say songs? What's going on? I don't know how that works, but he's good.

[Chris]

It's very good, very talented.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And this is called Lake Mercer Stars. Isn't Lake Mercer? Isn't that a lake in Oregon? Am I making that up?

[Chris]

I would have to look that up.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know, Michael. If independent artists like Brendan White, who plays under the name of Songs about Rivers, I guess that's why he would have Lake Mercer in a song because it's so body of water. How do they send in their own original music?

[Michael Wilbon]

Send us your music by emailing it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

To Jingles Tony konisershow.com and it plays in Paul Finebaum. And Paul is very busy these days because of the College Football playoff rankings and because of Lane Kiffin. So I got to start. The bigger story is not the rankings because that's going to be settled down the road. The bigger story is still Lane. Lane Kiffin. Why is it such a big deal that Lane Kiffin has gone to LSU when a Tulane coach and a James Madison coach who could be in the playoffs, they're moving as well. Why? Why are we fixated on Kiffin and not these others?

[Paul Finebaum]

Well, Tony, I think because Ole Miss didn't trust Kiffin and I don't think somebody just landed from Mars. There's a reason not to trust Kiffin because every, every house he builds as he leaves as he leaves to go to another House. He incinerates the house. And he. I don't want to pick on the fine people at ESPN Films, but about two months ago they did a film that aired on the network that talked about the new Lane Kiffin, that this. And they went through all of his past chaos and crisis. But that was never going to happen again because he was happy and was going to spend the rest of his life in Oxford. And before we got to December 1, he had already done the same thing he always does. I think that's why he's so interesting. He's Tony. Without Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh, college football has gotten pretty boring from the head coaching position.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Paul Finebaum]

So he is it. I mean, he is the villain of college football. And he did it again. He has a. For those who don't follow this, he has one of the top teams in the country. The playoff is about to begin and he leaves. And he acts like he wants to stay, but nobody really believed it because they were afraid that as he was coaching in the playoffs, he would be recruiting players on his own team to go to their biggest rival. And I don't want to sound like I'm arguing in front of the Supreme Court, but there is precedent here. Not exactly the same, but he. In 2016, he took a job at Florida Atlantic while he was Nick Saban's offensive coordinator. He did such a bad job in the semifinals, which Alabama barely won against Washington, that Saban fired him the next day, one week before the national title game against Clemson, because it wasn't that he was recruiting Alabama players to Florida Atlantic. He was on the practice field during the practice, the day before the game, calling other players. He just, he has the attention span of a 17 year old high school boy.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, his reputation isn't good. Wilbon on the show called him a louse like three different times. I'm sitting on the show. Wilbot's calling this guy a laos. I don't, I don't know him. I knew his dad a little bit. I think he's a very good coach. And it leads to, I think, the most meaningful question, which is, do you think. And I know I'm confident he would have tried to steal players, confident he would have tried to steal coaches and bring them to lsu. I'm totally confident about that. But do you think Ole Miss should let him coach in the playoffs rather than hand it over to someone not quite as good?

[Paul Finebaum]

Well, let me make your point. Not quite as good. So you have Lane Kiffin, who is one of the top five Coaches in the country. The new head coach, his name is Pete Golding. You know who he is?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No.

[Paul Finebaum]

Nobody knows who he is. No, they picked him up at a quick mark and gave him the job. So that's really the issue. But I think he had. He had been so performative in trying to stay, and it finally. They just said, we don't want you here.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right.

[Paul Finebaum]

And we'll take our chances. And. And I think Kiffin's calculus was Ole Miss is good, but they're not. They're not good enough to win this thing because I'm not sure anybody is good enough to beat Ohio State. So he said, I'm getting out of here. I know I can win at lsu. And he was. What he. What he did that was so interesting is he essentially said, nick Saban told me to take this.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. He threw Nick Saban under the bus. Yes.

[Paul Finebaum]

Who had been on game day, sadly making a fool out of himself defending Wayne Kiffin. And Nick Saban's also on the payroll at Alabama for a half a million a year as the ambassador. So the ambassador to Alabama recommended that one of Alabama's biggest rivals now leave Ole Miss, which really isn't a rival, to go to their biggest rival, lsu. It's college football, Tony.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I understand that. My. My feeling is if they lose early, if they lose in their first game, Mississippi, I think the people at Mississippi will have terrible regret because they will never know if they would have won with Lane Kiffin. Now, if this guy Golding wins, you know, it's Steve Fisher and it's Bill Frieder. Okay?

[Paul Finebaum]

Right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But I don't think that's gonna happen. I think there's gonna be a terrible regret. And I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I would have let him coach. And by the way, I should ask this. Why did he take LSU and not Florida? Lsu. The governor's involved now in lsu. That's so dicey. Why would you do that?

[Paul Finebaum]

Yeah, he looked at it. It was internal. There were some people in Florida he just didn't like and relate to. And quite frankly, he. He wanted the Florida job last year. Two years earlier, he. He wanted the Alabama job when Saban left. And three years ago, he wanted the Auburn job. I mean, you're picking up the pattern here, I'm sure.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Paul Finebaum]

But lsu, in spite of the governor, in spite of James Carville divorcing himself from the program.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Burning his degrees. Burning his degrees. Okay.

[Paul Finebaum]

It's an easier job to recruit. It's a standalone. There's Nothing. I mean, Louisiana has LSU football and something called the New Orleans Saints.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right, Right. LSU is number one. Yeah, I mean, I get that, but LSLU has fired two different coaches who've won the national championship and fired Brian Kelly with a record something like 50 and 40. 15. Just said, get out of here. Get out of here before the sun sets. We cannot stand you. Does that not enter into someone's thinking?

[Paul Finebaum]

It should. By the way, they're also paid Brian Kelly $54 million to leave.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's true. That's true.

[Paul Finebaum]

Nothing serious, but that's almost everywhere right now. By the way, Florida has fired its last four coaches since Urban Meyer. So it was a Hobson's choice. I just think he. I think he let Saban influence him. And I think he also knows LSU plays Ole Miss every year. That, by the way, don't forget, on Labor Day morning, after the first weekend of college football, many of us were saying that LSU was the best team in the country. They beat. They beat Clemson. Garrett Nussmeier was going to be the number one draft pick of the Heisman Trophy. I'm not sure. I think I saw him on a milk carton yesterday.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Nobody knows who he is anymore, so.

[Paul Finebaum]

There was there also talent there, and I think that influenced Kiffin as well.

[Tony Kornheiser]

By the way, why is this movement allowed? Why doesn't college football, which is essentially the acc, the SEC, and the Big Ten now, why don't they say, no, you can't offer coaching. You can't offer these jobs while the season is still going on. You can't do this?

[Paul Finebaum]

Well, the reason is that college football is not as unlike the NFL. In the NFL, you have an owner and 32 billionaire. You have a commissioner and 32 billionaires. In college football, you have all these fiefdoms. It's tribal and, and. And the commissioners are in charge. The ncaa, everybody blames the ncaa. The NCAA has nothing to do with anything other than running the basketball tournament. So you have these five commissioners or four now, and all they care about is their own league and their own TV contracts. So they will not coalesce and come together on anything.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. All right, let me get to the secondary news. It will be the primary news down the road, but it's the secondary news today. And that is the rankings last night. They are. They are the penultimate rankings, not the ultimate rankings, but how did Notre Dame. The Notre dame beat Stanford 4,000 to 1. And how did they drop to 10 and Alabama rise to 9?

[Paul Finebaum]

I think most of the committee missed the game. I think it was at 3am in the morning on the west coast and this committee plays games and this ranking. They always screw themselves up because they try to be cute. Setting up the last one and never works. Alabama probably should not have gone up. And the guy that shows up on the TV screen said, well, Alabama had a really tough, hard fought win at Auburn. So did Kentucky, who just fired his coach. Yeah, not, not that hard a place to play.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I mean that's what I thought. Was that okay. It's a rivalry game and it's normally a close game. But Alabama was a superior team. But Notre Dame, Notre Dame, I didn't see why you would drop them now. They put Notre Dame in jeopardy and then they did. They moved Miami up one. This is under the heading of trying to be cute. Right. I mean if you look at this, please correct. You know much more than I do. Notre Dame lost two games early by a total of four points to better teams than Miami lost to. And Notre Dame since then has won every single game. And Miami did not lose early quite like that. I. And not only that, it's a television show and so more people would tune in if it's Notre Dame than Miami. I would not put. I know there's a head to head here. It's a while back and it was a one pointer. I think. I don't know that I would put Miami in ahead of Notre Dame. Can you see that happening though?

[Paul Finebaum]

It's possible. Notre Dame's first two games of the season were at Miami, which is a tough place. And then they had a home game against Texas.

[Chuck Todd]

Yeah.

[Paul Finebaum]

And they lost on the last play of the game. But the head to head seems to matter and I've argued it and I think I keep forgetting we're not in Little League anymore. It probably shouldn't matter as much, but it was three months ago. But the problem is, I believe this is the only sport of any where you have 12 people in a room deciding who plays for the championship. Every league, Every even professional league. Some of the divisions are convoluted when we get to the end, but usually you weed out the trash by the time we get to the serious stuff.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, I agree with that. I mean, I like the show. I think it's a very good show. I found it ridiculous that the guy who they interviewed yesterday said, yeah, you know, we'll see at the end. I mean that the tantalizing thing that Miami could now jump Notre Dame. But I would ask this, I mean this. And this defies everything. How is Miami not In the ACC championship game. How did that happen?

[Paul Finebaum]

Well, they had like a four way tie and the commissioner should have stepped in and said, you know what? Miami's in there. I don't care what you think.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Duke.

[Paul Finebaum]

If Duke beats Virginia and somehow that sounds like a basketball game from the 80s in the, in the ACC tournament final, it. Duke's not going to the College Football Playoff. There's somewhat of an autumn. You get an automatic bid as long as you're ranked somewhere in the top 16 or whatever.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, but the gang of five teams are going to be ranked ahead of him. Two of them will be.

[Paul Finebaum]

So. So the Duke winning the ACC will completely screw the league.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. They won't have a team in. They won't have a team in. And if BYU beats Texas Tech, I'm going to assume both of them go. BYU has to go and Texas Tech's going to go. Who does that kick out? Does they kick out Notre Dame? Right.

[Paul Finebaum]

Either Notre Dame or. And here's a wild card, let's say Alabama loses by 17 against Georgia. Even though they moved up, they could also move out and that would bring a whole nother situation into play because, Tony, I'm going to see the SEC championship Friday in Atlanta. These games are irrelevant, except they're big moneymakers for espn.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Paul Finebaum]

And the leagues. It's a showcase. It's a Super bowl of sorts. But if Alabama loses a game that, while another team that has two losses gets in. They didn't have to play the conference championship game. These conference championship games will vaporize overnight.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So. Yeah, because Alabama will then have three losses. Even if they lose by one point, Alabama will have three losses. There is as yet no precedent, I don't think, for a three loss team to be in there. But I mean, if Alabama were to get in with three, Texas would stand up on a mountaintop and start screaming, well, what about us? I mean, I think inevitably now we're going to 16 teams. I do.

[Paul Finebaum]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Paul Finebaum]

Steve Sarkeesian was on our show Monday. Not, not because he wanted to, because he was on there campaigning.

[Chuck Todd]

Saying that.

[Paul Finebaum]

You know, I mean, they lost that at Ohio State the first weekend.

[Chuck Todd]

I mean, they didn't.

[Paul Finebaum]

They could have played Mercer. Yep. And they would be in, they would be in the field right now. And they did beat three top 10 teams, which you let us know about 15 times.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. Yeah. And I understand he would do that. They got better as the year went on. I, you know, I don't know. It's very exciting. It is. I hated the idea of 12. I thought they should only have eight. Now I'm sitting here talking about 16, you know, because it's been, it's been a very good year. And the thing that the jeopardy, though, when you're in a conference championship, the jeopardy of then losing out on the playoffs while Oklahoma sits at home and Alabama is in jeopardy, I don't know about that. Right. I don't know if that's fair.

[Paul Finebaum]

And Oklahoma's really not that great, except they did win at Alabama.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Paul Finebaum]

So there's all these little trucks. And by the way, it was only 12 years ago we had two teams playing for the national championship. There has been progress made. But it's like every other sport, every professional sport, you see it in baseball with the added wild car. It's just we are going to 16 very soon.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. The difference in this sport, and you said it before, is it's not decided on the field here. It's decided in a boardroom, which is ridiculous. And I like the show. I like watching it, but I can't defend it. Right. I can't defend it.

[Paul Finebaum]

Well, no. And these 12 or 13 people, I mean, they're all. You have to be retired. And they take their jobs just a little too seriously, too. I mean, they spend three days watching football games and they act like they have just solved a cure for cancer.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. Yeah. Paul, thanks as always. We will talk soon because I love having you on the show. Thank you, Paul.

[Paul Finebaum]

Always a pleasure. Thank you, Tony.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Paul Finebaum, boys and girls. We will take a break. We will have email and jingle when we return. I am Tony Kornheiser with Black Friday.

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[Tony Kornheiser]

The Tony Kornheiser Show. He's got your emails and your notes. Sing it, Sean.

[Sean]

He'll read them for all you folks. Cause it's a mailbag. Yeah, it's a mailbag. If you drive a car.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No Subaru.

[Chris]

Try to fax.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, that won't do. If you went to camp, he might pick you. If you send free stuff you'll get right through.

[Sean]

Mailbag.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Thank you. Thank you. Before we get to the mailbag, let me just say, you don't bring me flowers, you don't sing me love songs. You hardly talk to me anymore when I come through the door at the end of the day. In the best moment I've ever seen on television, live television, at a Grammy awards show, two kids from Brooklyn, Neil diamond and Barbra Streisand, walked out from Opposite Wings singing that live. It's the greatest thing I've ever seen.

[Chris]

It's amazing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's the greatest thing I've ever. I don't even like the song. It's the greatest thing I've ever seen. Thanks to our guest today, Chuck Todd and Paul Fine Bound. Thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify and Audacy. If it gets showed through Apple, please leave us a review.

[Chris]

Can I say a kind word about Bethesda Bagels?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Sure.

[Chris]

Bethesda Bagels.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We love them.

[Chris]

You will as well. Just go to bethesdabaggles.com for the location.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We have them today. We're happy.

[Chris]

Yes. Very happy.

[Michael Wilbon]

Got the big locks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes, Big locks. Yep.

[Chris]

And you'll be thrilled.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Oh, also Lake Mercer. There's several Lake Mercers, but there's one in Oregon, so that's what I thought leave you had.

[Michael Wilbon]

That's one of Virginia.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. Steve Gardner writes Steve Fisher. Bill Frieder is a good referencing for outgoing incoming coaches entering tournaments with fascinating results in college football. Please consider Danny Ford's first game at Clemson was succeeding Charlie Pell, who was leaving for the University of Florida. It was an 1815 Gator bowl victory over Ohio State in 1978. Local bumper stickers read to hell with Pell. All aboard with Ford. That 1978 Gator bowl is more famously remembered as Woody Hayes last game. Yes, that game. Three seasons later, Ford coached Clemson to its first national championship, 22:15 over Nebraska in the 1981 Orange Bowl. Tim Cree, Fort Collins, Colorado. How about a rule that says if you fire a college football coach owing him money, you can't raise tuition at the university until the bill is completely paid.

[Chris]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Neil Ayervase, Inspector Tony in case you missed that, attention should be given to an event that, while much less noteworthy than that story about the theft of expensive bought expensive bottles of wine, may be connected. Local authorities reported that soon after the wine pilfering, a similarly outfitted felon stole several bags containing varieties of my dad's chips from the refugee Safe way. I'm sure that your sleuthing would no doubt connect the two events and conclude that care must be taken to determine the precise pairing of chips for an $18,000 bottle of wine. Tim Cree. Again. We have two from Tim Cree. Is that right? Okay, Tony.

[Sean]

Shh.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Come here. I just got back from Virginia. I need to return your cape. Give me a corkscrew. And you knew, shall we say perishables? Meet me at the bagel shop as planned. And I take only straight cash. Homie, don't try to goof me up. I got to split the states from Eddie. Eddie Madden, Merrimack, Massachusetts. Last week you made a reference to Gertrude Edley. She was the first woman to swim across the English channel on August 6, 1926. So it's almost 100 years. It was her second attempt. She was forced to vanquish her first attempt in the summer of 1925, when Ederly made her attempt at crossing a notoriously cold and choppy English channel. However, after 8 hours and 46 minutes, her coach forced her to stop out of concern that she was swallowing too much salt water. Ederly disagreed and fired him and replaced him with another skilled Channel swimmer. And you thought that coaching football at LSU was tough? Ederly entered the water at 7:08am covered in grease and a homemade two piece bathing suit. The one piece she wore a year earlier had held water and caused horrendous chafing. Her father had promised her a new roadster at the conclusion of the swim. And for added motivation, he called out to her in the water to remind her that the roadster was only hers if she finished. Edalie persevered through storms and heavy swells and finally, at 9:04pm Air. After 14 hours and 31 minutes in the water, she reached the English coast, becoming the sixth person and first woman to swim the channel successfully. Furthermore, she had bettered the previous record by two hours. Our support boat was packed with chicken legs, oranges and vegetable chicken soup to sustain her on her journey from France to England. She was described at the end of the swim as looking like a boxer because the water clobbered her face. She was all bruised. Her tongue had swelled up so much because of the salt water, she could hardly speak. She was also riddled with jellyfish stings. Eddily damaged her hearing during the Channel swim and went on to spend much of her adult life teaching deaf children in New York City to swim. The anniversary of her death was this past Sunday, November 30th. In 2003 at the age of 98.

[Chris]

Wow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I am aware of her. Yes I am. Wrote about her. Jacob Newbert in Iwakuni, Japan. I recently returned from Thanksgiving in the United States and checked into my hotel in Tokyo, room 511. I noticed there were no bathrobes. Not very good. The room however had heated toilet seats, so I guess there are some rooms worse than this. Thank you for the entertainment. Occasional insight being a fulfilled familiar voice and slowly changing my brain over the years so that I laugh at things like 511 Barry Snyder in Panama Just catching up on the pod and your angst about self driving cars is quite reasonable considering your disdain for Uber. I just picture you in the back of a self driving car screaming representative. Representative when it approaches the Bay Bridge. Stick with human drivers. P.S. tell Scott Lance yeah, it's not for me. No noman's out in them. No one sent me a picture. It's not for me. Tom Mule the Official Solstice Sunrise and Sunset Monitor the Tony Kornizer show and chuck and roxy387 I just wanted to remind you that starting later this week, the sunsets will be getting later each day. I don't want to be you to be surprised like you have been in the past every six months around either the winter or summer solstice. You mentioned on the show about how you don't understand how the sunrises or sunsets could be getting earlier or later before the 21st. While the shortest day of the year is on December 21st, the earliest sunset in the Northern hemisphere around the Washington D.C. latitude happens about two weeks before then around December 7th. Famous day the sunset will be sunset will be at 4:45pm By December 10th the sunset will be at 4:46 and continue to increase. Sunrises are just the opposite. The latest sunrise will be about two weeks after December 21st around January 5th at 7:27am hopefully you can start taking advantage of later sunsets. I will email email again in about six months. It's the sun rises that affect me because I got to get the dog out. That's right.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So you know I don't I end up walking in total darkness. Kevin Disher Bay City, Michigan the Lilly Hammer jacket is too warm for the schlep to Michaels, but you you got it.

[Chris]

Hold on. You got to read the title.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's Tony's Thanksgiving like a mellow J. Peterman catalog. The Lillehammer jacket is too warm for the schlep to Michaels, but you buried your cape after the pilching in Virginia. So the jacket it is you jaunts down the porch steps like a bon vivant and arrive on your son's stoop with wine in your hand and Mary in your heart. The door opens and out spills the smell of split pea soup, which reminds you of the Turkish prison you spent a week in for softly lifting a beige kaftan from its rack. Without the exchange of money, you feel slightly overdressed at tonight's table because some of the little people are sans britches of any kind. You eat, you sip, all is tremendous, then you leave. After all, it's not a formal dinner, not like at houlihans in the 90s. So you swim home before anyone can say John Cheever. You bounce up the steps like a tennis pro and enter the house saying, hey, sports fans like De Niro, the apple pie is attacked like a rabid dog. It's just brilliant. It's totally brilliant. Moose, an Australian living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada, as well as the Bears have been playing. You couldn't exactly say that it's because of the quarterback play. To be fair, he's keeping his turnovers low, which is an important thing in a modern game. That being said, he's on track to make two pieces of Bears history. If he finishes out this season by playing all remaining games, he'll be the first Bears quarterback to play every game in consecutive seasons since Bob Abellini from New Hyde Park High school on Long Island. 76 and 77 he's currently throwing he's currently thrown 2,722 yards in 12 games, which equates to 226.83 yards per game. Projecting out for the full slate would be 3856.17, which would make him the first Bears quarterback to throw for 3,850 yards in a season. Current Bears record is Eric Kramer. 19953830383816 Games People always talk about the Bears not having a 4,000 yard passer, but they rarely talk that the bar is much lower than that. Who is this from? Jake Hodesh. Jake from Cincinnati. We were on Thanksgiving break with the Florida with family in South Florida, land of the gated communities. Wilburn would feel right at home. Our youngest daughter makes friends easily. At dinner one night she tells us about this girl she's now friends with. Played with her all day, our daughter tells us. Goes on like this day after day. We wake up Thanksgiving morning and head to the starting line for the neighborhood Turkey trot. The little kids line up for the 1k and everyone else starts stretching for the 5k. A gaggle of kids on three wheel scooters appear out of nowhere. They are dodging and weaving, planning their route. My daughter follows them. For the next 30 minutes we find ourselves running and walking and jogging and dodging the kids on scooters. And then we are running and walking and jogging and picking up those same kids off the street. And then we are running and walking and jogging and stopping the three wheeler gangs from scooting onto incoming traffic. The scooter gang terrorizes the streets with a rhythmic drum beat of warrior cries. But they finish the race. A parade of misfits makes it to the finish line. Who is standing there at the finish line waiting for his band of misfits to come to him? The Warrior God himself. My daughter introduces me to one of the young girls on three wheels and lets us know this is her new friend. Max and I share a few quick pleasantries. Can we get their phone number, dad? My youngest asks. I take her by the hand. We go our way and the Warrior God heads off in the opposite direction.

[Chuck Todd]

Wow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Totally brilliant. From our friend Ed Butt. All of those littles are right. Microwaving bacon is the only way to go I still haven't done it. If you like crumbled bacon in your salads or the light I discovered a wonderful change of pace at a restaurant in Margaret River, Australia. They replaced bacon in my Caesar salad with crispy prosciutto. I googled how to make it at home. Real chefs would have me frying the slices over medium heat while pressing down with a spatula. I said nah. After a little trial and error, I learned that with my thousand watt microwave in Michigan. Three prosciutto slices between two paper towels are perfect after 245 in Colorado at altitude with whatever power this microwave is, 145 does the trip. Try it. You'll like it. Please tell Michael that while I was having Italian whites with my turkey this year, I hardly approve of his choice of Domain Serene. Unless, of course, Dave Spector has dropped a box of that on you. Then you go with Bells Up Titan Alex Lau, New York City Did I hear David Epstein said that he fit more than 100 guests in his Manhattan apartment for his Macy's Day Parade balloon inflation party, but he was still hoping a big would attend at some point. Mr. Epstein is a fellow Manhattan resident. I can confidently say that if you can fit that many people in your Manhattan apartment, you are the biggest. The only way you can get 100 guests into my apartment is if they were cockroaches or bedbugs, both of which, I'm happy to say, have never come to my apartment, invited or not. Lee Evans, Editor and publisher, Hickory Husker that's the Indiana Husker Book of Indiana High School Basketball Records. In addition to being a longtime follower of your show, I would consider myself pretty much of a peanut expert. By that I mean I attend a lot of high school basketball games here in Indiana. My go to is always a bag of peanuts. In all honesty, I thought every peanut was virtually the same. After hearing them advertised on your show, I decided to order from Virginia Diner. Holy Toledo, Tony, there truly isn't. They're great.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah, I got the holiday catalog.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There truly is a difference. You're not just barking when you say they're bigger, crunchy and full of flavor. That is all 100%. Thanks for the recommendation. Yeah, they're great. Yeah, legit. Brandon Borzelli around 4:25 Eastern Time on Sunday afternoon, there was an outage across multiple cell phone networks. At first the thought was there was something wrong with the WI fi, but some quick troubleshooting ruled that out. The other obvious problem could have been caused by too much online shopping or maybe a TV show that just dropped that everyone was waiting for. Then some test testing between family members phones revealed that it wasn't a complete outage just with the texting services. Very strange indeed. After some back and forth, a rogue message came inbound. At first glance, it appeared to be spam. Determined to get to the bottom of it, I opened the text. The subject heading was Richard Dent Text Group and the message simply said Best Record in the nfc. And one more from our friend, the organist Bill pitcher in Quarryville, Pennsylvania. I used to nerd out on TV themes in my early 90s high school days. News and sports especially. Lots of taping on the VHF and rewinding 30 seconds at a time. For my high school talent show, I planned to play a medley of TV news themes on the piano till my friend said it was boring because Nobody cares about 10 Eyewitness News. The solution? After two minutes of News Center 6 and CBS this Morning, I faded it out and banged those four notes of the Monday Night Football theme and we were off and rolling. Round Ball Rock, Sports center, the NFL and NBC All Time Greats. I capped it with Frank Vinci's 1992 NFL on CBS Theme Second Place Baby. I later made a 15 minute version to play at the post prom party. My date didn't mind because as you can guess, I didn't have one Yep if you're out on your bike tight everyone as always to wear white she.

[Sean]

May get.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Young girls that do get.

[Sean]

Bullied cause of all all the stress.

[Tony Kornheiser]

There'S no stress in the song you're an idiot.

[Sean]

You the golden R burn the sidewalks and try to wind you but I'm just God something else is on you cuz when this breaks are not that when I see you and I can't wait and the shadow of your hands. Rain and I'm blessed fully unaware of your apolog. I wish the Internet would just go down stay in our eyes at least of the time ground. Us you and I. Until you cr. And I can't wait any shadow of your. Cold.

[Chuck Todd]

It.

[Sean]

Photographs bring you right back to Virginia to sidewalk cracks a thin sounding tall marshall stack that we'd blow hourly wor On a night when you struggle to hold a tired body with a flourishing soul I'll endeavor to stay as strong as you are and live like light shown we make Mercer star. Lucky you showed us yourself where you come from and everything else I wish I could see you in the house where we blame till an hour we weren't alone On a night when you struggle to hold a tired body with a flourishing soul I'll endeavor stay as strong as you are Live like white sh make worser stars. All these soul cry I. Struggle tired body with a perishing soul all in stay strong as you are live like light shone from make Mercer stars Live like light shown make Mercer stars Live like light shone from make Mercer stars.