The Around the NFL podcast. Struggles through the pressures of fatherhood, but still.

Looks great, baby.

From the Chris Westling podcast studio, it's Around the NFL. I am Dan Hansus. I got heroes here. Greg Rosenthal, Mark Cessler. It is Wednesday. That could only mean one thing. 10:51, club in the house, Colleen. What's up?

Hey, guys. Hi. I left my house today and immediately texted Dan with the GPS ETA, which was just about 10:51, as was he. So we're really aligned.

Right on money.

Your precision is incredible to Greg and I.

Consistency too. It's just, it is. That's it. Consistency and accountability. 10:51 club forever. Okay. How's everybody doing? Midweek show. Hump day.

I thought it was Thursday when I woke up, so I don't have much.

Same day, sure. That dance spilled water all over the place.

Colleen's days just feel lighter. They feel better.

See, I have the opposite feeling. With me? Yeah, just a sense.

Of dread. Is it the homicide division?

The sweatshirt that I'm wearing? The Philly homicide division hoodie is, I guess.

Hanging over things. With a great catchline. They came up with a great.

Catch line there. Our day begins when yours ends. I got a buddy down.

Oh, my goodness. I think it was morose.

It's accurate.

I mean, often. I'm in the Christmas spirit.

Does that mean they work at night or does it mean what I think it means?

There's a grim reaper, literally, as part of the logo. They're never off the clock. Yeah.

Like when your day, meaning your life journey ends.

Yeah. What was that?

That's when they started. You can die, by the way.

Maybe that would be a good slogan, too. Then, Mark, maybe you get some residuals.

On it. Let's say you're allowed to and then we'll probably handle it if it seemed nefarious.

Yeah, Detective Murray will be on the case.

We care about you and we care about who you were.

All right. Coming up today. Nfl-odd couples. How about that?

What.

Are some pairings in our league that, on the surface anyway, don't make sense or not what you expect? Good one. Good said coming up.

I think Greg came up with that.

But he did. Good job.

The pressure is on Greg to make it sing.

I choose not to accept that pressure.

We also have a bunch of previews to hit because we have a Thursday Night affair, Chargers and Raiders. I see in a rundown you sent out, Greg, you had L. A. X-l. V. Is that because the charges are already ready to fly home? Hey. There you go. Got it.

Greg enjoys when he does the rundowns, and we think I'm glad you do because you wake up and they're there. There it is. There's always an insane spelling mistake and one of the things that he's done. Where is.

This rundown that you guys are talking about?

Am I right? You're on there. I think you have access to it on Slack. You can always do it. I know you don't check, so I texted you.

Oh, the potential news. I got that.

First, though, let's start by getting caught up on where we're at. Flacko on fourth down and three. Playclock is at five. I don't know if they're going to snap it. Playclock is at two. They do. He rolls right. He throws the middle. That's wide open. Down at the 25, at the 20, 15, 10, 5 touchdown, it's David Bell. What a call. Oh, my goodness. They forgot to cover David Bell. It was the parting of the Red Sea, Jim. David Bell, who has been searching, yearning, desiring to get into the end zone in the National Football League. Well, Desire no more, my friend. His first career touchdown and couldn't have come at a bigger time. What a gutsy call and what execution. Flacko, DeBell, and the Browns are up two scores. Oh, what a call. By Jim Donovan, Nathan Zegura, WKRK, Cleveland Browns Radio, on Side Kicks are cool, though, too.

I mean, Dan, you have to be the most annoying person I've ever met because you've been sitting on this for 48 hours. Multiple people have reached out and said, We like the anti-direction you took to go with an on-site kick.

Nobody, no one reached out to you. Zero people show me.

Who reached out to you. I will spend time and get it to you. But this is so important to you that you just keep going. What a manufactured joke. You just keep going. It's so.

Important to you. It's so great to hear that call because David Bell, what a moment. What a.

Moment in the game. Donovan and Zagurah bring the energy. It's great to see Donovan back in the mix. Absolutely. He's a legend in Cleveland. No one on Earth is saying that it's not a good play call. No one is saying they didn't do a good job.

Also, watching that video of the.

Call is so fun.

I don't know if I've ever really watched a radio call or a broadcast call like that in the booth.

It's awesome. You were actually asking for the Nachoku call, though. That was the.

David Bell call.

So many options. That was the last touch on it. I'm not saying this to be annoying, although my competitive spirit got a little offended when you said, Dan's the most annoying person in the room.

But now I.

Like Dan. Is that play eligible? Because it wasn't on the show, and yet when I heard that call immediately, I thought that should probably be on our top 10 calls of the year long list. I think it's eligible. It's now been played on.

The show. I've done my best to examine these different calls from a grape round to win. It's on.

The call.

What if we- Put it on the list, Eric. I'm making the call.

Put the on-site's kick on the list. Let people decide.

We're going to keep that one out. That's dustpan. Yeah, figured. All right, we can move forward with that now.

We're good now. Now we're good. Okay, we're good.

Not good. Not good.

At all. The people that didn't listen to the recap show have no idea what.

They're doing right now. What are.

They doing? You're not wanted here anyway then. Actually, pause it, go back, listen to the recap show, then recap.

How rich would this opening segment be if you went back and listened to that part of the show, if not the whole show.

There's a lot of tasks.

-caught up on the Sunday flagship show. Come straight to our show and away we go.

We're back in. I like a pod with directions.

Demands.

Justin Herbert is done. Bad news. This is bad season. Bad season for Herbert. The Chargers. The idea of Los Angeles football, getting some juice. No, bad, bad, bad, bad. He is going to undergo surgery on his broken finger. They are playing on Thursday night, obviously, so we're going to get east and stick.

Yep, we are.

Go to Colleen, who is the anchor of NFL Networks coverage when the Chargers face the Raiders. There's that. Then there's the general question around the future of this team. Herbert and Brandon Staley probably played their last game together as coach and quarterback. When we see what the future is, I assume it's Herbert leading the way, Mark. But I feel like this organization has a lot of unanswered questions as they head into the offseason.

Yeah. I wonder by Friday afternoon if the coaching staff hasn't been largely whittled down. It just seems like a really real possible possibility at this point. With Herbert, it's like, there's no question he's the future. There's no question that this is a good roster in a lot of ways. They're mystifying because of how underachieving they've been. But I don't like the situation for Herbert in general, where we're looking at his fourth quarter. It's going to have this fourth new offense to learn him. This was pitched as like, Herbert and Kelly Moore, who are friends that did, I think, car commercials up in the Northwest. It's a real bonding experience. They're like pals. All offseason was like, We're really going to tailor this around Herbert's strengths. It's like, none of that looked to happen at all. It was the.

Herbert's worst season. Some of it, though, is like, so we say it's a shame that Herbert can't get that continuity. But if him and Kelly Moore take off and have a big year together this year, then probably none of this is happening. Well, the injury you can't control. But this is where I get a little bit frustrated with the Herbert experience and where he's seen. You can't just tell me because Mike Williams got hurt this year that the Chargers offense is where it is. This is a team-wide issue and the quarterback has to be a little better, too. I just think that's what I mean. I still believe in Herbert, but just a lost year for Los Angeles.

It always is a lost year for Los Angeles. This is the constant theme with this team. Ever since I started working at NFL Network, it's like In every offseason, I love The Chargers. I'm all in on all of the moves that they've made and all of the way that they set up their team, but especially with Justin Herbert. It's just such a shame because it just feels like they're just wasting his career at this point. He's young, he's in his prime. He should be among the top quarterbacks in the League with the Joe Burrows and the Mohomes and everyone, and even the Trevor Lawrencees and Josh Allen. But he's just not because this team can never put it together.

Wait, the Chargers wasting the prime years of an outstanding quarterback's career? What? Exactly. I really loved Mike Sando's article in The Athletic this week that was saying that it shouldn't just be coaching records, there should be owner's records, and they put up the owner's records. -you could never be talking to me out there. -right. That's where you see the through line. They didn't know what... They wasted Drew Brees, by the way, a charges quarterback. They wasted Rivers, who still had a great career and everything. I don't think they're wasting Herbert, and I don't think this year was a disaster for him, but his best year was 2021. I think even Herbert, big fans like myself would say, his best year was Staley's first year. Only his second year in the league. To then have your next two years be worse than that individually and as a team is quite disappointing. The only thing I'd push back slightly on is like, is this roster that talented? I am very curious how this goes in the offseason. The core players that they have, they all seem very up in the air to me. Kylio Mack, Joey Bosa, I think might be gone.

Irwin James hasn't had a great year. Certainly, the line didn't play as well. Mike Williams and Kenan Allen are both good players, but where are their future?

There could be a lot of change. It just reminds me a little bit of when the Cowboys made a switch at defense coordinator and Dan Quinn came in, and all the same players got a lot better. I think there is talent on the roster. I mean, for me, they have spent... Only two teams have spent more to form their defense capwise. They're number three behind Buffalo and Pittsburgh, and they're one of the worst defenses in the League. That's rough.

In other news, big news, the NFL is always looking to expand its reach internationally. We will be heading... Well, I don't know about we, but that'd be cool. We better know. We being the NFL will be heading to South America for the first time. The NFL has already played games each year in the United Kingdom and Germany this year. In 2024, it will be Sao Paulo, Brazil. The League announced on Wednesday. The date and time of the game and the teams that will play it have not been announced. It was chosen over Madrid, but I would imagine Madrid is in line as well. That comes on the same day it was announced at the Super Bowl in 2027, which will be 61, will be played here at SoFi Stadium.

I saw the West Coast Super Bowl again. The international expansion is afoot. You get Brazil, which was news to me that they're the third most popular. It's the country where they have the third most amount of NFL fans behind the US and Mexico. Wow, that's surprising. It's partly because it's a lot of people there. But we've heard from our fans in Brazil, and obviously there's a language difference. But the English speakers, we have a lot of listeners. We had a... Remember they sent us uniform. I forget who it was. It was a uniform. I still have that in my closet of a Brazilian football team. That is very exciting. It was part of an announcement that they can now do up to nine international games as of 2025. That will not be next year. Technically, the Wembley Stadium-Jaguars game does not count as part of the series. How does that work? I didn't know that because basically they do it every year. They're saying, You take that out of it. On top of that, we can now do eight a year. In the past, it had been four a year, and part of it is just a scheduling thing.

They're now saying, well, instead of making you give up a home game with that 17th game every four years, now we can do it every eight years, now we can do it every four years. It's happening, and I think the idea, Mark, I'm curious what.

You think-Is to kill at least three of us in.

The room. To just have that early window, because they also even said publicly that they might go up from eight. I think the idea might be that early window, 6:30 on the West Coast, 9:30 on the East Coast of the US, is just a new window. That's like... Maybe at some point, that's a weekly game because the numbers, it all make sense. The 16.

Games go from eight to 16. I appreciate the enthusiasm in your voice, Greg, over this development. It causes me slight anxiety, but I would say that if they, and I hope that they send us to Brazil. We do have a lot of people down there that listen to the show. The same way that we built a bridge for Gaudell and his friends over to Europe, we can build one to South America.

The bare hands. Yeah, shout out to Picsx. Com. I don't know what's going on on their website because I can't read it. But they got 10,000 followers and they said, just book the live show right now. I like that tweet to us this morning.

You guys are really driving this. Let's try to do that. You're driving the international expansion and you should be proud of that.

These are the hands that built the international expansion.

-that's it, brick by brick.

Well, Henry plays a role as well. Do you think we.

Would all return from Brazil if we went to Brazil?

The answer is no.

Wait, I'm sorry, what would happen?

Why would return to the United States if they sent us to Brazil?

Well, sounds like.

It would be a good time. Just saying, it sounds like a nice book end.

They got to go big with the teams they send there, too. I wonder if that's.

Cowboys, maybe. Well, what's the main fan base?

Well, I read that the Dolphins-I.

Don't know anything about it.

The Dolphins, you know how different teams have... Dan doesn't want to go.

They own-Well, I'd like to return. I would go.

Why wouldn't we return?

That's what I.

Just said. Yeah. Mark's saying he would choose to stay. He wants to disappear.

I'd like.

To watch it off of this. -i like to watch it off of this. -stay for three months and see what real life is like. That could be anywhere. Pounding back home eight hours. The game in it, you're on a midnight flight an hour later to come back to L. A, grind around.

The streets. We're never sure if you're going to even get on the flight back from Indianapolis for the combine.

It's still my favorite.

We'd wait three days for you in Brazil, Mark, and then we'd get shook on a plane to LA and we just have to move forward.

I don't think anyone would complain. I'm saying it seems like we could pack in a couple of extra days in America after the game. Absolutely. Oh, well, yeah. I'm done with that. They always got us out eight minutes after. It's like you're rushing in a taxi with your bags to the airport.

You got another show to do. The thought of a 6:30 AM kickoff window on the regular.

I mean, it already... There was five this year, right? Yeah. It is on the regular.

It's.

Happening. I do.

Like a home. Doing the pre-game shows for that on the West Coast is selfishly from my perspective. It is tough. I'm not.

Going to lie. I mean, there's a lot of complaining going on about this game.

I'm.

So excited. Maybe we should just cancel the whole thing.

It's over. We're turning the car around. We're going home.

Get Cadell on the phone. There's too many entanglements. In other news, I'm just going to keep tracking this because it's fun, the MVP odds race in Vegas, Per Draftkings, Doc Prescott has now jumped ahead in the race. I have some data points here. Doc, after his big game in Prime Time against the Eagles, is now at plus 150. Purdy's odds actually went up as well, but he drops behind, Doc, at plus 185. Lamar's at 4.75, Hertz at plus 650, and then Tyreke, my home's deep distance at 1,600, and CMC gone at 4,000 right now. It could be turning into, and these things change quickly, but in Vegas, they're starting to point to is this a two horse race between Doc and Purdy.

Things do change quickly because there's, what, four weeks left of the season? I think four weeks ago, deck was something plus 3,000. I always remember the year. I hope everybody got in on that. It was like, Vick or Tom braided. Vick or one of Tom Brady's best seasons ever. Then literally with three weeks left of the season, and then Tom braided became the first ever unanimous MVP. Even though there was even with three weeks to go, but Vick got hurt and had a couple of bad games in. It's all about that closing kick. I think Lamar still has a pretty decent chance here.

I think there's a pretty big drop off to Hertz this time around.

Yeah, well, especially with this stretch. It's all about the narrative and what recently happened. But every single.

Cowboys-ritz never made sense there. I never thought he made sense there because to me, he was getting outplayed by too many quarterbacks this year. Even though he's really good. He's like a top five quarterback, top six quarterback.

He's also hurt, whatever's going on with him. But every single cowboys fan I talk to is like, no, Jack was will never win this award because of Daq Prescott. What are you talking about? I don't understand. The Cowboys lead every conversation ever.

If anything, he'll win the award because he's a cowboy.

I don't know. All right.

Finally in the news.

This would be the third largest and create one long transcontinental flight home for the chargers. Meanwhile, Jacksonville can set their.

Sights likely on.

Kansas City. Here we go for the win. Got it, but there's a flag down. There's a.

Flag down as everybody's running out onto the field, but.

There's a penalty mark in. Outside, defense, number 26.

And they call it on the defense. That's the end of the game.

That is unbelievable.

That was the call from Al Michaels with Tony Dungy of last year's wild card game between the Jaguars and Chargers, a game that the Jaguars wiped out. What was it? A 27-nothing, was that game?

Yes.

That might be the last call Al Michaels ever makes at a playoff game because it emerged yesterday in a report from, of course, our guy, Andrew Marshana, The New York Post, that Michaels, 79 years old now, will not be on the air when... Bbc has a prime time availability or has a playoff game availability. He was in line to, like last year, call one of the playoff games, and it came out that they're going to actually use their college guys, Noah, Eagle and Todd Blackledge. They sideline Al. This was a surprise to Al because in an earlier conversation with Marshand about a month or so ago, he had no idea that that was even a possibility. I'm sure he's furious about it. This is the way, Mark, this whole insider media reporting business with these guys, it's a ugly way for Al Michael's legacy to be wrapping up here with being told he's banished and being reported this way. But I felt it was noteworthy because we've been talking about Al and how he's not quite the same in.

The last couple of years. Yeah, I think anyone can see that Al Michaels, who for as long as we've been alive, has been the A number one legend. His career are largely pristine. He does it all. You don't get guys like this that announce every sport and have an ability to do it all really excellently. It made me think when I saw this, nothing ends well half the time. It's hard to be the person, the rare person that your final moment is, Payton Manning in a bad season walking out with a Super Bowl title. It's tough when your job is to be enthusiastic, to bring fire, to be on that call, which was so lackluster and got so much attention and there was confusion. Age affects all that. It's like you're finally starting to see the dotting up of age and how are you the center of this call, of this game, this moment? It's not been the same, Al Michaels. I still think, though, when you hear him in interviews and stuff, there is this thing to him that no one else has. I hate it for him because he's been in our lives and in our ears and on our television sets for the entire time.

The crazy part is, NBA actually has more playoff games this year. They have three on a white card weekend. One of them is just on Peacock, which is the most... They've never had three games like that. So yeah, something goes on. It is sad. He hasn't been set up well at Amazon. Listening to watching some of the college football playoffs, I was like, Oh, this is fun, seeing Kirk Herb Street excited about a football game. It really bothers me. This is the number one sport, and I know college football and the NFL is the same sport, but it was the same reason why I always didn't like Kostas on NBA. It's the number one sport in our country. You got to have guys that it's their number one sport. That's a Herb Street side point, but it had been on my mind. I think it hasn't helped Al out, but also the schedule hasn't, and he hasn't helped himself out. I think it's deserved, too, but it.

Just sucks. I think you definitely should have Al on the call while he's still around. I disagree fundamentally about this, and I think it's not a nice thing to do for a guy who's absolutely still capable of calling the game. I also want to.

Say just like-I just mean there's better guys out there like Iain Eagle, Kevin Harland. A lot of guys to me, there's enough guys way ahead of Al that it's like, those guys should.

Be on. But then don't do that. The problem is now we're all talking about it. Let him do the playoff game and then you make your offseason changes.

It might be a personal thing, though. There's things that we don't know that often affect these things. You know what I mean? You said about walking away at the right time. I think ego is part of that, too. John Madden did it perfectly. But you got to be really looking forward to that next part. You got to be just ready to give all that up, and it's a lot to give up.

Even when he's not excited about the games, though, it's still Al Michaels, and you still have that comfort in the familiarity of watching so many games with him over the years.

I'm not saying that I and.

Eagle.

Is not the better choice or whatever at this stage, but when you... Al is only going to be around a couple more years doing this. As someone who's grown up with him, I'm perfectly comfortable giving him that playoff game and letting him enjoy it. Like you said, make that change if you want after the... I don't know, I just don't like the way it was handled. I don't like that if that was his last game, they gave him Dungee. Dungee was more the problem than Al on that telecast. Al got dragged into it. Dungee was brutal. He was so boring and dry. Whatever.

I don't know why they thought that was going to be a good idea in the.

First place. We're definitely getting text from our friends here, the business on this one. I like it.

That's what's happening in the news. We'll be right back. Hit some odd couples. All right.

Welcome.

Back. Listen.

I love the sting. I love a sting.

The sting has been a regular part of the.

Show since we were.

Last on it. I know, it's great. Yeah, it just feels a little more official.

When you have it. I like it. The production value, all the bells and whistles, you guys are doing great.

Let's hit it again. It's so fun. Just hit it again. Thanks, Colleen. All right, welcome back. Around the NFL, NFL, odd couples. Okay, what are some unlikely bedfellows? How about that? Greg, this is your brainchild.

You get us going. Well, I really give Colleen credit. We're on a text thread and she sent us the Trenchent update yesterday with the headline Looks like Kevin Costner and Jewel really are a thing, which was news to me. I didn't know there was news about that. I clicked on the link. There's some pictures. Pretty surprising.

Now, I said this because I know that Mark has always really enjoyed Jewel. When I first moved to LA in 2014, I lived across the street from a karaoke bar called The Gaslight. Jewel famously had been there.

Singing before. In disguise, I believe.

Yes. Mark told me about that and I never forgot about it. Now, anytime I see anything Jewel related, I have to send it out. Now, there hasn't been a lot lately.

But this one definitely counts. Well, she did have an NFL connection, once dated Charlie Whitehurst.

That was weird.

Former Seahawks in...

Down in Rocky Top.

That was a bit of an odd couple. I would say Jewel and Costner are definitely an odd couple. Look, I owned the CD, Pieces of View back in the day. Who didn't? I was trying to... I was thinking we should think of some NFL odd couples. You had Pieces.

Of View?

I did. I did. I think it was part.

Of-what an achievement. It was a massively...

That's.

Interesting. I didn't know many teenage guys that had Pieces.

Of View. I had pieces of View. I was not a teenager, though. But it wasn't just for...

They burnt out.

Seasons of exam. It wasn't just for girls or something.

I was a freshman in high school. I think I got it as part of that. You remember you get the eight CDs from Colombia? Sure, for a penny.

I think that was one.

Of them.

For one penny, by.

The way. Let me pump the brakes a little bit here.

First.

Of all, Jewel isn't just for girls, but I follow music pretty closely and I know a lot of people that love it. I've never seen a guy that had pieces of you in his jewel case. I just.

Would like to point out she sold over 30 million albums worldwide.

Who will Save Your Soul? Boolish Games?

I mean, she's a classic.

I'm not really a bad song on that album.

I'm.

Surprised by your take, Dana. Yeah, I.

Don't like it. What's my take? What's my take?

I'm taking.

Down Jewel. I love.

Jewel Singles. You said a guy would never have a Jewel. That album in her in what case?

I said I never met somebody, a man that had Jewel's CD.

Maybe they just...

This will be now turned around to me being some type of massage andthis asshole. I'm just telling you from my human.

Experience, I've.

Never known another man in my college years or my high school years where I saw the CD.

I think the numbers would say though, they did own it. Now I do. They did own it, but their own internalized misogyny and their fear of you, they didn't tell you about it. They were ashamed. Congratulations. Let's come out. Let's come out. The Sun, Jewel fans. We're taking over 2023. Just everybody.

Give themselves a round of applause for being so open minded.

Jewelheads.

Who is the Jewel? Kevin Costner couples in the NFL? That's what I asked, and I'm going to start with someone that's maybe around Jewel's age. I don't know how old she is. It's Joe Flacko, him being back in our life with Kevin Stefanski. To me, it was the first thing that came to my mind, and I think you could even extend this to Joe Flacko and Mark Cessler as an NFL-odd couple. The Browns fans, writ large, finding themselves in 2023, rooting for Joe Flacko, the same guy who ripped their hard out for so many years, dominating them with the Ravens. All this cross-pollination and these two guys and Kevin Stefanski having a quarterback that is going to make some mistakes, but also will just throw the ball to where Stefanski wants to open receivers. It's a rare couple, and you see couples out there like this that look alike. Something Joe Flacko was asked about this week. He was saying that last week.

I'm a.

Guy with.

A beard.

I could shave it off and.

Look.

Completely different tomorrow. I probably should.

It's.

Just playing into.

The fact that I'm an older quarterback.

If I shaved this off, it would probably take five years off. I love this.

His accent is so good. It reminds me of home.

I love it.

Oh, yeah. Right. Auto Bar, New Jersey.

They're around the same age, The Fansky and Flacko, a couple of years apart here.

It.

Is. That's a great one. It's a moment in time, and we'll see where it goes. But I think they're a pretty legitimate team, although they have some injuries. I think Stephanski loves showing, I am a good offensive coach. I think Flacko has helped him. He has been good. He's brought out the best in his unlikely partner.

They've lost three offensive tackles. They just lost another one. I don't know how deeper into the NFL, free agent circles and stuff you can do to solve that. But it is a little different than the... Big Ben was 26, 2, and 1 against the Browns. A largely probably the most hated opponent for Browns fans around, just because of how he'd like to stick it in their face. Flacko was never that way. That's all I'd say. I mean, he also was 18 and 3, the second best record to the point when he won in Cleveland.

Wait, he was 18 and 3 against the Browns and you're saying it wasn't that bad?

No, I'm saying compared to.

The big bet.

Everybody was beating their rounds of that. 18 and 3 is crazy.

I would just say personally, as much as this taste I had for the Ravens, it wasn't like Flacko based so much. There's a bunch of other knuckleheads on that team that drove me not to.

It's just crazy, though. If you had said this before this season, it's totally crazy.

It's a totally odd sight, but I would say he's done a nice job of in his stuff, like in the locker room last week. He is very happy to be there and there's a different field of Joe Flacko, and he's been a different athlete than we saw on the jets.

I disagree with that.

Well, at least he looks fresh.

To me. He has a better offensive line around him. I think that matters a lot. I mean, he could throw. He could always throw. I like it. I'm enjoying seeing him this way. We'll see if he keeps up.

It's just so to see him in a Brown's jersey. Joe Flacko being a Brown is the most 2023 on-brand thing for the NFL. All of the different quarterbacks that we've seen. I think this week, when nick Mullen starts and when East and Stick starts, it will be 57 different starting quarterbacks this season.

-that is problematic. -that is problematic. Including 10 rookie, which is...

But they've been some of the more fun quarterbacks, actually.

They have. Actually, East and Stick had one gorgeous through the other year. Colleen, I want to hear yours because you said you had five.

Okay. You got.

To choose.

This one, I cannot stop following all of the, like everyone else right now, but I'm completely in love with the DeVito family and Tommy DeVito and everything that they have following them. For me, the odd couple is Tommy DeVito and the rest of the NFC East fans because I know that I'm not alone in this. I feel'I felt so strange watching Tommy DeVito and almost rooting for the giants on Monday night. It felt super wrong, but there was something exciting about it at the same time. Just like having been in New York last week. I went over to Brooklyn. I got some pizza. You guys know I love sandwiches. I feel like I essentially grew up Italian because that's just our family is not Italian, but we act like Italians and we love everything about Italian Americans and Italians in general. This story is so fun. I'm currently trying to convince the network to send me to the giants, Eagles game on Christmas Day, so I can tailgate with the Davitos because I really, really want them to do The Seven Fishes in the parking lot. Do it.

The Seven Fishes. Look it up if you don't know. I have a take on that, I think, because Eagles fans hate the giants and.

Vice versa. Yeah, it's more so than the cowboys.

They have to play them twice here down the stretch.

They are playing twice, that's right. But I think part of it makes this Davido thing so fun is that it's also a safe thing because you know Davito. If Davito was actually the guy that was here to save the giants, you probably would be more afraid of him or like, Oh, God, they found somebody that's amazing. But instead, he's more just like this 2023 fun-found story that you know is probably a moment in time. It's like, Oh, I root for this guy. He's not.

Really good. The giants are bad, so it's not a threat. It's not a threat.

Now, if you were battling for first place right now and he was actually balling out on a high level, I think it would be a little different, maybe.

A little different. A little different. It probably will feel different if the giants beat the Eagles on Christmas Day.

Yeah, you might feel a little.

Different then. But in the lead up to it right now, my heart right now is with the Davitos. Very nice. And the agent, the.

Whole thing.

The agent is-I hope he's been busy. I hope he's been doing his job.

That's all I'm saying. The agent? Yeah. I mean, he's got a lot of jobs. You're kidding.

Me, that guy? I hope he's getting.

Up early. He's got waste management. He's got tow trucks.

Obviously, he became a big story immediately on Monday night. Then Tuesday, he was everywhere and doing media and everything. Then I clicked into his Instagram. Sean Stalato, is it?

My agent was with them that night, too.

That's funny. There was an Instagram post from, I think it was months ago, and it was like, Welcome, Sean Stalato, to the Boston Italian American Hall of Fame. I'm like, What am I missing here? Is this guy a well-known person? This is before any of the DaVito Mania.

Hall of Famer.

The Italians go. Can't take away. He's obviously done things in his career. He's a Python.

I.

Know that. I mean, that's established. I'm just curious what his other successes in life are besides the Italian.

If that's not good.

Enough, fine. Some under the radar, I imagine.

Don't worry about it. All right, Mark.

I want to double back on something we were mentioning earlier with this, which is the chargers. I have been doing some research and I would like to file a report on the Chargers. Okay. Not every coupling is just like, Hey, one person and the other person, we're having a great time. We live in a multifaceted universe now. Big time. I look around the League and I look at The Chargers and I spot a polyamorous relationship on the rocks. It started with an era of adventure. They always do these things. There was so much to like a star quarterback in Justin Herbert, a bright young new thinking coach in Brandon Staley, Joey Bosa, Derwin James, talented bodies on both sides of the ball, all living together and sharing meals and passion and one shared vision of love on a grand scale. People say we can't live like this, but they don't the charger said to themselves. But then little attachments and jealousy started to form. Some became self-interested, and internal questions began to rise, asking if this polyamorous arrangement, Herbert, Staley, Kelly Moore, Tom Tolesko, hes Mike Nune and Allen. He always banged up Mike Williams.

An ownership group that left its fan base to whither in the San Diego dust, was functional or a fantasy. Right now, I imagine them all gathered in the living room of their large group home, talking about why they began this love experiment in the first place to live in a way nobody thought possible, to cast off the old petty toxic qualities that ended all their relationships prior, but it's just not working. It was just a phase in life, an exploration of boundaries, a time they'll never forget. But the breakup is overt and imminent. I hate.

That for them.

It has to end, though. A lot of exploring. It can't go forever.

Yeah, but they thought it could. They thought that they could have this lifestyle that everyone said, no. This is why most people don't do it. This is why it doesn't work out. They said, Uh-uh, no, look, watch us. Now they're in this situation where...

Everyone thinks they're different. Everyone thinks they're a special little flower.

Right, it's like... It's true.

This is what you learn at the end of every multipart docuseries about a cult. But the Chargers were hoping for eight episodes and they only got three. It just shortened down. Tough.

Real tough sitch. But it's weird. We didn't ever got the honeymoon phase with this team. That's so true. They're just all sad the whole time.

The honeymoon phase is in a.

Train camp. They did win a bunch of games to make the playoffs. At first, at the end.

It was over before it started.

All right. I went Connie here and I took NFL odd couples to mean something a little bit different, but this.

Will work. Okay.

The odd couple for me is the Kansas City Chiefs and them being in cahoots or in the role of the bad guys.

This has not happened before. It's interesting. This is new. This is after a Sunday in which Patrick Mohomes and Andy Reed both got after the officials and bemoaned how they're being targeted or failures by officialiating are happening over and over again. This comes from a team that's had nothing but monumental success for years. Do you have, to my homes' credit, when things calmed down and he realized that I should probably hit the accelerator a little too hard. He spoke to the media with regrets about how things played out. This was yesterday. Yeah, obviously, you don't want to react that way. I mean, I care, man. I love it. I love this game. I love my teammates and I want to go out there and put everything on the line to win.

But obviously, can't.

Do that.

I mean, can't.

Be.

That way towards the.

Officials or.

Really anybody in life.

I'll.

Probably regret acting like that. But more.

Than anything, I regret.

The.

Way I acted towards.

Josh after the game because he had.

Nothing to do with it.

That's The Drive, Otisy 610 sports radio he appeared on and said that, You know what? Good. That's fine with me. I love my home as the player and I think he's a good guy, and him saying that I don't carry any ill will at all toward him.

However.

I just think you heard so much vitril toward them and the reaction to that that people are just sick of the Chiefs. This is a team that hasn't won less than 11 games since 2015. Patrick Mohomes, as everyone knows, has never played a road game in the playoffs. They're always a top seed. The last five years for the Chiefs have gone AFC title game, Super Bowl win, Super Bowl loss, AFC title game, Super Bowl win. The regular season record in the Mohomes era entering the season, '64 and '18, Mohomes obviously multiple MVPs, multiple Super Bowl MVPs. Andy Reed, the head coach was a guy that you rooted for because he never got over the hill, never got over to the mountaintop. He's done that now twice. In general, there's this vibe that everyone is okay with the Chiefs getting their comeuppants because they've gotten some calls over the year themselves. Listen, I remember that Jeff Sunday Night game. I was mad about that game. It was like, Why do the Chiefs always get the calls? It was like, It always used to be the Patriots. How about the Eagles and the Super Bowl? That makes sense too, that there's a growing sentiment like, Enough of these guys.

Well, it's like when I was watching Patrick Mohomes at the end of that game, I thought to myself, That is the reaction of someone who is not used to losing. It was all over the place. He was so furious and I could not stop watching. I wish that there was more camera shots of him. I wanted security footage from sides of buildings to see every single shot of him because we're just not used to seeing anything really negative with this team then really face any true adversity and any real flaws come out. Now we are, and it makes it easier to be like, well, let's see more. What happens now when you put even pressure on them? Will they break under it?

I think about that 11 and 5 Patriots team that started 0 and 2. Bellichick was on the rocks. When they went and beat the Rams in the Super Bowl, vast amounts of the country were delighted by that because they had been that team that were on the outside and they were lovable winners. It was a great time.

The Rams were a superpower at that point.

They were. It's just post 9/11. It was just like something felt pure and great about it. The next year, they don't make the playoffs. It's like, they're not bothering us. But then they go win two straight Super Bowles and.

Everything starts-But even that 2003 year, people weren't sick of them then because they weren't expected to do.

It that year either. But 2003, they had not made the playoffs. The Chiefs have been as close as we have to the next dynasty. They've been perfect. Even Last year, it's like, Oh, my homes has a high ankle sprain. Then he's like, Oh, I'm going to have my greatest rushing game in the playoffs. It's like whatever adversity they faced, by Sunday, they overcame it. This is a different place, but it's just exhaustion in sports. We're always craving. If you're a Leicester achieves fan, you want a new story. I think it's tough for Tony Roman to say the same stuff about Patrick my homes over and over. It's like, show us someone new. Tommy DeVito is a fascination because it's like, no one expected this human being to be in our life.

They hate us because they ain't us. No matter who you are at the top, it's going to be like that. The Chiefs are a great test for it because they are about as likable. In the end, Andy Reed is still going to be the guy moving his fingers trying to get those little nuggies. You're not going to not like Andy Reed. You're going to.

Love him. The Holmes is a nice guy.

The next day, he's apologizing. Even Tom braided, when you really pull it back, was a tough guy to truly hate, but he was easier. He obviously had the flakeate and all that stuff, but in interviews and stuff. But the Holmes is even more difficult, I think, to dislike.

Oh, yeah. The Patriots were perfect for the role because they were great for longer. They were in multiple scandals and Belichick is Belchick. It was everything wanted to, everything made sense, so they were easy to hate the chiefs. Not as easy, and yet I feel like these people are starting to...

You just get bored. Just want something new, especially after last year.

Who wants to go? Who's got another one?

Okay. I'm only going to go a second time, right?

This is it, Greg. Make a count.

The speed what round are the ones they had? Allen and Diggs, I think, was a fun one because that thing is still going on. That's weird. Mike McDaniel and nick Fanjo would be a classic buddy cop thing where it's the young, wisecrack and the old curmudge-region coming together to do a great coaching job. But I'm going to go Jake Browning and Zach Taylor just showing us like, they're not just guys that were made by Joe Borough and they're making each other better. It's like a couple where maybe neither of them caught your eye and then suddenly they're out together and you're like, God damn, they're both pretty hot. This is a totally different... Wait, what? I'm sorry. I don't know. You mean physically? This is a different Bengoles offense completely than it was with Joe Borough. I know it's not going to last like this, but the numbers are the numbers. Two of their three best offensive games of the year, really their two best offensive games were by Jake Browning. They weren't by Joe Borough. That is pretty crazy. By EPA, Per Play, by Yards, everything like that. They've actually done better in the last two weeks than any Borough game this year, except for the 49ers game.

No one's saying obviously that they can stay at the level or anything like that, but I give Taylor a ton of credit because instead of it being Borough's offense where it's five, everyone's spread out and I'm just going to figure everything out and I'm the coach ultimately, it's back to what Zach Taylor came from and this matchup we'll get into it. But I just wanted to point them out, especially this is a great matchup for it because he's part of that McVeigh tree and it looks like those teams. It's way more play action. It's much more under center. It's screen game. You know what? It's helping some of the people around them do their best. Again, it's not a long-term thing, but I really admire the way they've adapted. Those two specifically as a couple because Brownie is playing great. We thought he was an example of, Oh, these garbage backup quarterbacks that don't deserve to play. They knew something, and Zach Taylor is showing us something with what they've been doing.

This is the year where a lot of coaches have had to deal with this. Some have survived, like Shane Stiken and Gairdner Menchou have survived. This pair have survived.

They've survived with terrible, not terrible, but poor quarterback.

This is great. In contrast to I can think of a couple of teams where you lose your starter, it's like curtains. It's total curtains. There are a couple of coaches that were hired to develop quarterbacks. Dayball is doing that right now. I'd say Stefanski's done it where you're in the mix, it's working. You're interesting if you're not in the mix because you haven't gone total, thought some jets in my quarterback.

Then you did it a different way, which I guess I didn't... They've done that under Zach Taylor. They've closed strong. They've adapted during seasons. I'm pretty surprised to see them putting up 400-plus yards and 30-plus points back to back weeks. It's pretty wild. Against decent defenses, too, not against trash bag teams.

Anybody else want to throw one out?

I have a quick one, and I will keep it quick. We went down David Tepper Avenue with a lot of vengeance and a lot of fire, and I get it. -vengence? -well, just like...

-i.

Thought it was fun. No, no, no. But just like, I mean, the whole football world was.

Like, it was-Also, the branding is important. What?

Tepper to be talking. No, I mean, we, I think, would handle it in a ginger, in a formative way. But I would say this, I think in that conversation... All right, just get it. In that conversation, one name never came up. I never really heard this person's name come up at all. It makes me wonder about the coupling of David Tepper and Scott Fitter. Because Scott Fitter is one of the more anonymous general managers around. I guess we can say he has no power. Maybe Tepper is just doing everything fine, but I don't think that's the case. Scott Fitter is 13 and 34. He made the trade to bring Bryce Young. I know it wasn't just his pick, but he is the guy on the phone negotiating a trade that looked pretty ridiculous to me. He went and got Sam Darnell, that didn't work. Pj Walker, that didn't work. He brought Cam Newton back in that weird little dose of time. That was weird. Baker Mayfield, who's gone to Tampa to be functional, melts down there and they cut him mid-season. It's been totally chaotic. It's been an absolute nightmare visually. It's optically one of the worst teams in the league.

Their future is strange. It's going to be tough to get a coach and no one brings up the fact that they have a general manager that has done nothing correct.

Is this an episode of Fetter or Be Better? Well, it's a sad situation, Mark.

I just think he's skated by and why has he never bought up? I see the.

New Trent, Balky, because I feel like Balkey a few years ago was getting all the heat and no one wanted to work with him and it was difficult. Now it's this.

Here's my take. Nowhere's my take on Fetter or Be Better this episode.

Fetter.

Probably has the worst life in the world right now of any NFL figure. After what we were heard was happening with poor Frank Reich getting called into the office and just getting buried every Monday morning, maybe there's a reason we're not hearing from Fedar. Maybe he's in a dung somewhere.

It doesn't rhyme quite as easily, but it is Federick. This feels like a pilot that...

Fitter is in a dark place.

Right now. Federick'd be better. I don't think it's making it to Season 1, I think. The one or anything. To one in.

Trying to spin.

Off.

Sorry. Well, he could land somewhere else and then we could reboot it. Good app, though. Good app.

That's good.

Anybody else?

You guys already hit on the homes. The homes and his receivers was one odd couple, Belichick and Losing. But also, Robert Kraft and Meek Mill is one that they are always, it seems like they are at events together. That is an odd couple. They have been on the jet together and they seem to genuinely enjoy each other's company. I would just love to be there for a conversation between the two of them because I bet it would be hilarious.

I do wonder if Robert Kraft was just a day-to-day ham and egger, like a barber shop guy just cutting people's hair. Does Meek Mill care about him? Is there might be something else.

I'll check if a barber, it would be interesting.

Because he has the worst haircuts. I don't think if Meek Mill was cutting hair that Robert Kraft would be particularly interested in it. The power... It goes both ways.

Power magnet. I want Robert Kraft listening to Dreams and Nightmare. That's what I want to be present for.

By the way, odd couples, teenage and 20-something men having pieces of you. I will say I think I had jagged little pill, Alanis. I had that. Yeah.

They seem very different to me, but that's a step in the right direction, I guess, if that's what we're.

Trying to do. Well, again, it's not the right direction. I don't know. I can't rise to your guys' level of understanding.

No one's making a judgment. You didn't have it. I can't get there.

This is the biggest thing you've.

Ever been on the planet.

I can't get there, Greg.

But why does Alanis more than-We.

Didn't say anything about your teeth. We just said we.

Had it. I can't get there to where you are, Greg, but I'm just saying I think I had Alanis.

That's all I'm saying. I didn't have Alanis, but I was a big Liz Fair guy. I don't think she's stuck, but I had a Tori Amos.

Album for sure. I've seen that as well.

I've seen it. I just hate that Dan hates Jewel. I just don't.

Know why. I had Tori Amos.

Amos. You would see some Amos. Yeah.

My brother went to a Tori Amos concert and he was somehow in the second row and he told me that she spent the entire show not out of attraction, staring right into his eyes. What? There was a little bit of anger in some of her music. I think she would like...

Maybe he looked like an ex or something.

She'll pick one person and focus on that. I've heard of.

That, yeah.

I.

Think you do that at our live shows.

At our live show, I can't see anything. It's just like, and also a lot's happening.

Vanessa Carlton, was she in that time?

That was a little later, I feel like II bought tickets and attended. I don't know which year it was, but it was definitely whenever Liz Fair was there, the Lilith Fair with my girlfriend. Wow. Yes. Wow. I think it was probably '97.

Please find pictures. Someone must have a trophy of them. You deserve a trophy.

I'm just fine. I just want to share it.

The world's most comfortable man, Greg Rosenthal, went to Lilith Fair too, and had the Jewel CD. Anything else you want to add to your resume, your CV?

That's about it. I think Sarah McGlocklin was running that thing.

She was.

You know who was there? Great album. Missy, Elliot. Because I remember when she walked by... She was at the Little Fair? Yeah, when she went by, you could touch her inflated outfit. I remember she came up the aisle and you could touch that. I don't care.

Let's please move on.

That Sarah McGlocklin album that had the building a mystery. Bangers all over that one. Yeah.

Riddled with Also.

Lilith Fair. We're all... All right. Where are we at? Are we good with this? Please.

All right.

Yeah, we're out of here. Let's finish up with a fun way to hit these previews because we got four to hit. There's a Saturday triple header. That's starting now. We have Thursday Night Football. Eric, do you have like... How do we do it? You want to clock it? Is that what we want to do? Three minutes? Is that what we want to do?

Three minutes is good.

Three is fine. All right. How about this? Just so we have a little bit, let the person set it up and then start the clock. Let's start with Thursday Night Football. Let's go in order here time-wise.

Greg. I feel like I want to donate one of the minutes to a different game. Is that allowed? We already talked to Herbert.

Yeah, do your best. Here we go. Chargers, Raiders.

Go ahead. Okay, so we got East and Stick starting against the quarterback to be named later. We think... No, it is Aden O'Connor. One last time. I guess that would be where I start. If he doesn't play, Antonio pierce has indicated maybe they'd go back to Jimmy Garapolo, despite the risk that they would be taking injury-wise and what that would mean for their contract.

Wait, why?

I don't know. Because he wants to win.

The game. Wait, the same ownership that benched car for the same reason, isn't it?

That's a good point. Maybe it's just idle speculation by the reporters.

Raiders are in a murky spot. That's not a...

I mean, it is the same ownership. I think they want to win. Aoc versus Easton Stick, big time. East and Stick had a couple of dimes. He also had some terrible throws in.

That little-Jimmy G is also like Mr. Glass. The idea of Dericard is one thing. If you tried to kill Dericare, you can't do it. People have been trying to do it for weeks now. But Jimmy G is like, That's a real roll of the dice. For what cost? I don't know.

I don't know. They're both five and eight, so they're technically not eliminated.

I think if you're Antonio, Pierre, this matters a lot. I think he has a chance to not hopefully just be a token.

Head coach. Yesterday hurt. I mean, last week hurt.

But still got time. It did, but they've been a better coach.

But he's a.

Defensive coach. Right, and their defense was good, but they've been a better team. I don't know. At this point, both teams are drifting away. How about if you're the chargers and you're thinking about even next year, Quentin Johnson came off a game where he had 91 yards. They were going to go off two big catches late, but show us what you can do for the next month. Nothing matters. The pressure is off. The pressure is off. Just go, like a couple of these guys, we know you're going to be there for the next coaching staff.

Nothing does matter at this point, especially for the chargers. Their offensive line is also a disaster, so I was looking to see who the backup is to East and Stick, and it's Max Dugan, Dougan.

Oh, yeah, the TCU National Championship guy.

Hopefully it doesn't come down to that, but watching Max Crosby, who was hurt in that game. He still is coming off a knee injury, and he played well in that game. I think he had two sacks. Now, he hasn't practiced all week either, but going up against East and Stick, I don't know, guys.

Dash Jacobs might miss the game, too. There's a thought that maybe they'll sit some of these guys at some point, but not yet.

And Devante Adams, who's one of my favorite players to watch in the League, it's just sad that he's just being wasted right now. He had some comments this week that it was embarrassing what happened to three-nothing loss. How long did it take him to get over it? I'm moving past it. I'm not over it, but I'm past it for sure. I think he's going to add a lot of intrigue to the offseason because I think it makes so much sense for them to trade him. It's going to give them a premium draft pick, and it's him at age 31 or whatever it is, going to a contender and unlikely a quarterback who can get him the ball. He's, I think, in his final games as a Raider 2. Anything else?

Rogers Raiders. Guys, you can watch the Thursday Night Game Day kickoff on NFL Network. We get started at 6:00 PM Eastern. It's a two and a half hour.

Pregame show. There's another odd couple you and.

Steve Smith to talk about. I love Steve. Steve's the best.

Two and a.

Half hours.

Yep.

All right. All right, let's move to Saturday and a games from the Vikings, Pangles. It's a good one. It's an important game for two playoff hopefuls who lost their franchise quarterback, but they're in different stages right now. It's good that you brought up where things are Cincinnati and the optimism. But I also think that's interesting to keep an eye on because the Vikings lost cousins to the Achilles. They trade for Josh Dobbs who balls out for two weeks. Expectations go way up in Minnesota. Then they crash down to Earth and Dobbs to the bench now. Nick mold starting. Now that overflowing praise that was once reserved for Dobbs, that's been shifted in some way to Jake Browning, who has balled out for two weeks to raise expectations in Cincinnati. Now he has to see if he can make it go more than a couple of weeks and help take Cincinnati to the playoffs.

This game is huge for the Bengals. Obviously for the Vikings too, mathematically. But the Bengals are going to walk into a buzz saw after this. It gets tough. They are seven and six. They're exciting and they're very intriguing, like a wildcard option. But they have Pittsburgh on the road after this, then Kansas City on the road, then the Browns to close out the season. Jake Browning is not out of the woods on any front, but I just find them, watching the last two games, it's like, we've lost all these teams. We've lost all these storylines and narratives and quarterbacks. One of them just got revived, came out of the grave and is not just marching slowly towards us, but sprinting towards us. That's why the Bengals are fascinating to me.

But that's my point. Just a little bit of caution because two game sample sizes are still small. I've been hurt now by the Vikings and Sops, who is so much fun, Greg, and now he is ancient.

History on that team. He might be the third quarterback this week. It is going to be nick Mullins, who can operate the offense and has been in the offense, frankly, for multiple years. They brought him there in a trade to be the backup quarterback. He would have been the quarterback, not Josh Dobbs, if he wasn't on IR at the time. I get going to him. I still like the Bengals here because their defense has played well the last couple of weeks. They've had a history of really improving late in the season. Their screen game has just been insane. I do feel like the Jake Browning has shown a little more sustainability in terms of the way they're running their offense, but he's playing a very difficult opponent. Viking sixth in DVOA now defensively, first in points allowed since week one. The Vikings. There was a quote last week from Aden O'Connor, which I think applies here, which he said they just make it so difficult to do our normal stuff. This is like an ultimate test here for how hot, Brownie is. A nice little assignment for our buddy Chris Rose, who's on the call for NFL Network.

There's five games here. I'm going to be a company man, but this is a fact. There's five games this week that have two teams with winning records against them. We got three in a row on NFL Network. They locked out with the.

Schedule here. I like that Zach Taylor is not only coaching the team, but now he's coaching the fans as well. Oh, yeah, do we have that? Do we?

I do challenge.

Our fans. We got outstanding fans to drink one more drink and rush in the stadium and be as loud as you can humanly possibly be when Minnesota's offense is out there and help our guys.

That challenge is one that I would accept if I was there.

Did you encourage.

Binge drinking there? It's also a 1:30 PM game. Let's go.

Get up early.

Get loose.

It is like the counter opposite of Sam Weiss telling the fanbase to settle down and stop throwing garbage and items. Yeah.

Classic Weiss. Zach Taylor. Then also, nick Mullen, throwing for more yards in the fourth quarter relief effort that he had than Dobbs did all game. That game was such trash. Let's see a little bit of something in this game from them, please.

God.

Justin Jefferson is back.

That's great. Please, God, please, Vikings, win this game because if you don't, the team of ATL becomes a.

Team of ATL.

No. Well.

We can't have that.

No.

Can't.

I think they're going to lose this game, but they'd still be in the playoffs. They'd still be.

The seventh place. The second time the Vikings did that to us under the team of eight.

To 11. I think then they can rally, but I think this is a tough spot. But who knows? You know what?

Fool us once.

You can't do worse than-Fool us twice.

Which will twice can't get fooled again.

All right, next game. The Stealers and the Cults. Mark, tee it up.

All right, I prepared a little... I like how you did this because I made a little pre-game show. That sets the table for you.

Excellent, a feast.

Let's try this. If Colleen Wolf ice skating alone at the rink in quiet darkness before school did not dream of feeling a perfect score at the Horsham, Pennsylvania ice gate Fiesta, then the sliding doors nature of this life would not allow Colleen to be here today to tell us that Mitch Trubiski was a nationally televised disaster against the Patriots less than a week ago. If Greg Rosenthal had not toiled by lamplight in his teenage bedroom, crafting lines of rebellion for local Massachusetts, Emo sensation Delaware, he would not be here to inform you that Pittsburgh is the first team in NFL history with a winning record to crumble in back to back outings against teams sitting a full eight games under 500. Ouchie. If Dan Hansis were not once in a parked car, his 10th grade gal pal Rachel Hayne St. Clair sitting shotgun listening to Z-100, Night Soot from the old Coaltown steaming up in the valley below. He would not be here right now to suggest that TJ Watt and Alexander Highsmith are both a little banged ahead of a skirmish between two seven and six teams that absolutely matters to human beings who care about the AFC playoff race.

Clock it.

Two winning teams. Well done. I like the pregame show.

I don't believe in either one of them.

Colleen said that. Colleen is.

The game show of... I can come on you, pregame show. I know Steve Smith would want to hear more like that. Come on over.

Hey, we have a lot of time. Two and a half hours, so if you want to come by and...

The times to start? You don't get invited on anything, let's be honest. We're in our safe space here.

That's about it. This TJ Watt story has gotten surprisingly little attention that he got clocked in the face to start that game. Then days later, one of the most respected coaches in the league has asked if he even undertook a concussion test. Mike Tomlin's straight-faced answer in front of the mic was, I assume so. He didn't have an answer for that four days later. If this was four years ago, this would have been the raging story we're all talking about. But everyone's sick of blowing it with concussions. He had to change his visor to a tinted visor during that game. This is one of the superstars in the NFL, and we're doing so wrong by them. I shouldn't do the people have given up because we are the people. It's crazy to me, and I hope the NFL comes down on this a little bit. I doubt he's going to be in this game, which is quite a big deal.

At the moment that the player says, I'm okay to play, but I need a Tint advisor because the lights are an issue for me after that hit I took to the head, someone has got to be thinking bigger than we need to win this game tonight. That obviously wasn't happening there.

In this same match-up, there was a hit that Gairner Mince who took last week where when he got up.

He.

Folded to the ground. Oh, my God, that's right. I don't know. I think it just seems like I get you on where Tomlin should have been four days later, but during the game.

That's not common. But that's on the NFL. That's on the spotter, that's on the whole system, which it really feels like it's taken a step back for the first time, and since we've covered it.

The Steelers, in general are just completely self-sabotaging at this point with the back-to-back losses against really bad teams. I know traditionally, even when Big Ben played there, that was always their thing. They would lose to bad teams after beating up really good teams. Now they're in this race where they can't afford to lose because they're racing for the wildcard, Pittsburgh, Houston, the Colts, they're all in it together, which makes it a fun game here.

Yeah, I think the Colts are a type of team that they're always going to play close games. Part of me wants to totally write off the Stealers because that's as bad a five-day stretch as you're going to see in terms of a team telling on itself and saying, Oh, we're not for real. You had your suspicions, and then we've proven all those. But it's the Colts. There is definitely a scenario where they win a game by three points here and they win a 21-18 game and they're eight and six and in good position for the playoffs. That's just the state of the seven and six mayhem. It is.

It's chaos.

We still don't have to take them.

Seriously, though. No, neither of these teams... It's weird. Mintry played, I thought, okay last week for once and they scored one touchdown. Usually he plays terrible and they score 30 points. The team makes no sense.

What was the name of the girl?

Mary Claire? It's factual, so you should know, but it was... My memory is foggy. Something St. Clair. Rachel Hayne Sinclair.

Rachel Hayne.

From the Sinclair family.

From the-Was that.

A-rachel Haynes was one of those two nameers or that's her middle name?

That's the Haynes, the fortune, right?

Yes. Those two fortune combined the St. Clair, fortune, and the and you were like, I don't know.

Long time since then, I guess it just got.

Foggy on me. You weren't into the money.

Part of it. No, that wasn't important to me. All right, finally, Connie, give us a little Detroit-Denver breakdown.

The prime time game of the triple header. Where are you going to be? I will be there. I will be in Detroit. I've never been. I've never been to Ford Field. I'm actually very excited about it. Nice. But for many different reasons, including that Sean Payton is visiting his old pal, Dan Campbell. And if you guys missed this, it's a nice little primer for this game. This is what Dan Campbell had to say about Payton visiting him.

It means we better be on our stuff because he's going to come here to try to embarrass us. That's what it means. That's our motivation. That's my motivation. It's about.

Winning, man.

All we got to do.

Is find a.

Way to win.

We're going to have to be at our best, and we will be at our best.

We didn't do that, by the way. Let's go. That was just naturally underneath that camera.

Whatever he speaks. Yeah, I mean, just like when he orders.

His.

Coffee, he starts playing all the time.

He has a speaker that was implanted in his biceps that just rips that song out.

Yeah. Two teams with the longest playoff droughts. When was the last time that The Lions have been this good this late in the season? I think it's been since the '60s.

Or last week, but yes, I mean, before this year. I'll raise my.

Hand and say the New York Jets have had a longer playoff drought.

Well.

Two of.

The longest. Two. I mean, they're up there.

It's been a very long time.

Yes. I just am excited to see Ford Field filled with a ton of excited Lions fans for this team. It's going to be a great team. This game matters so much for both of these teams. The Broncos are one game back from the Chiefs. They actually have a shot. There is a path for them to win the division. They're obviously in the wildcard race too. Then the Lions are just going through it right now. This is the time of year that you want to be playing your best football, and they've lost two of three, including that huge division game to the bears. I like the student-teacher connection. Sean Payton and Dan Campbell, they go back so many years. Payton was the giants quarterbacks coach and then the offensive coordinator when Dan Campbell was drafted by the giants. Campbell, if you guys didn't.

Know, third round pick. Keep vamping.

The clock hasn't started running yet. Oh, my God.

That's okay. Start the clock. I let.

Someone else go. No, keep going.

I want to hear more about that. The Liniens.

They were on a run. They were together in New Orleans. Certainly.

Yes, they were together in New Orleans. Although, Dan, I can vamp. You need me to vamp? No problem. Vamping for two and a half hours on Thursday in the pregame show. There you are. Take us on. Dan Campbell, he was on that Saints team, but he was hurt, I believe, in training camp. However, Sean Payden made sure that he got a ring. They were together in Dallas and then obviously together in New York with the giants. But he was a third round pick in 1999. They've been friends ever since, and now they're frenemies.

He learned how to coach from them, too, being on that staff, and I think he's such a good coach. I love the way he put it on Monday about his players. He said, I feel good. I think it's a positive because so many of our best players let us down on Sunday, which is just such an interesting way to put it. He said, It was the players that always show up, our toughest, best players who didn't show up for him. Who's he talking about? Aden Hutchinson thought had a really poor game, couple of big mental mistakes, gave a big plays. Jared Goff, 34th out of 34 quarterbacks over the last four weeks, according to PFF, one of the worst against the Blitz in the NFL. Third worst against a blitz, according to PFF, and Denver does a ton of blitzing. Their offensive line stunk, and that's what they are known for. Frank Ragnau and Taylor Decker, who were both banged up. Missing Ragnau, who was their center, was a big deal for them, and they're both back at practice. I think it's a good matchup for Denver. I'm surprised you're such a big underdog, but this would be a spot you'd love to see the lines respond.

Yeah, two ways this goes. The line's either crater now and we've begun to see them go down and then they're going to end up blowing their season here. Or like a lot of teams, there's peaks and there's valleys and maybe a prime time game is a chance to get right and flush the last few weeks of frustrations. I'm leaning closer to that because I don't think they just became a bad team overnight. I think they're in a slump. But if they don't get out of it now, then you get really concerned that this team is on the wrong track.

I like that they don't play a game outside the rest of the year. I think that this is good for them. But they aren't a bad team and I love their coaching and I think some of it's correctable. But since week 10, it's legitimately been a terrible defense. I mean, it's shown. They are 30th and points per game allowed, 30th on opposing pass rating, 29th on opposing third down, 28th and sacks, 30th and turnover differential. Golf's been up and down after being so clean for so long a season plus back. You're dealing with a Denver defense that might be the difference maker here because they're allowing less than 16 points to game since week seven, and they've been creating turnovers left and right. Golf has, I think, what, six turnovers? Right. He's been a turnover.

My hope is like it was against division opponents who maybe know him well, but man, he struggled. It's a nice match-up because the lines give up a lot of deep passes, and that's what Russell and Sutton are so good at.

That's right. Good work. That's going to be a fun pre-game show and half time and post-game. Mike Garifolo will be up there on the desk with us. Maurice Jones-Jruw, Michael Robinson.

Good.

Group.

You and Mike G got that good chemistry, too.

It's like he's my brother.

Yeah, I could see that. Italian. Exactly.

There you go again.

Colleen, you've said it all.

Thank you.

Anything else you want to plug?

Panic.

You could just say no. I think that's it, really. Check out Colleen on NFL Network Thursday and Saturday.

Oh, you know what? I do have something. Oh, go ahead. Guess what? I think I'm going to be flying with the Thunderbirds, who are basically the Blue Angels equivalent of the Air Force. What are you going to be flying with them? I'm going to go up in a fighter jet. Oh, Colleen. You say that's the land. I have to wear a G suit because you have a bunch of Gs and I'm so.

Excited about it. For NFL Network?

On behalf of that? It'll be Super Bowl related. I'm going to go up with one of the pilots that does the fly-.

You're going in a fighter jet.

-the fly over. I got medically cleared yesterday. Let's go.

That is wild. Yeah, I can't wait. Can you see if Greg can go, too? Maybe, yeah. Would you go?

I would go.

I'm really worried I'm going to pass out or.

Throw up, though. Yeah, do you not eat for a while beforehand?

I don't know. I need to find out if anyone has any tips about flying in a fighter jet.

Let me know.

You don't want to be a niche part of the audience, but there's got to be somebody out there. Yeah.

That's awesome. They used to love on the network showing this clip of Tarrell Davis completely passing out when they did something similar. That is a great one. He just was out-called. Don't do that.

What do I need to do to prepare myself?

Somebody out there. There's got to be somebody, a listener out there that has experience in the fighter jet. Let Colleen, which she needs to know not to pass out. That'd become a clip they used 700 times on.

This network. Don't have a burrito right before. I feel like it's a good movie.

That's.

A good one. Her DMs are open. Feel free to chime in with anything you have. Let me know.

All right, we will be back tomorrow, Thursday with our triple header, week 15 preview in bulk, NFL Plus, Dreamatorium, Thursday Night Football recap. Oh, it's all coming. It's all coming. Exciting. Until then, heat the call.