Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take we are back in studio with all the boys. It is a Tuesday part of my take so we're to talk college football playoffs first, no boomers this week because we're starting with college football. Then we're to talk about the higher weekend and all the NFL of Week 17. We are also going to do who's back. We've watched so much football in the last 15 days, I don't even know. It's been a lot of football, but we're here to talk about all of it. It's late, but we don't care. We're happy to be back and we're brought to you by our friends at HelloFresh. Whether your resolution is to save money, eat better, or stress less, Hellofresh is here to help you do all three say hello to the most delicious year yet with fresh ingredients, chef crafted recipes at a price you'll like delivered right to your door. Each Hellofresh box is packed with farm fresh ingredients, and everything arrives pre portioned right to your doorstep for less hassle and less wasted food.

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By now in the street there is violence and then a lot of work to be done no place to hang out on washing and then I can't name all on the sun oh no we gonna rock down to electric I renew and then we'll take it higher oh we gonna rock down to electric.

Pardon, my take isn't about Marshall sports.

Welcome to part of my take. Today is Tuesday, January 2, and it is Michigan and Washington in the college football finals. In the championship game next Monday night, we just watched two playoff games that were varying degrees of frustrating and incredible all bundled into one. Pft. I don't even know what to say. I think they go back and play it at the Rose bowl.

I'm surprised you didn't start with this. It's going to be Washington and Michigan, the Big Ten.

Yes.

Representing America. The Big Ten national championship.

Yes.

Well, no, I really do think they should just replay the game at the Rose bowl because Washington and Michigan is a classic PaC twelve Big Ten matchup. For the last time. It could happen.

Yeah, I do have one take and I might be a prisoner of the moment right here, but Michael Pennicks should be the first quarterback taking the draft.

Yeah.

Michael Pennix is so fucking and I have watched him all season. So I know the ups and downs of Michael Pennix. He was so good tonight. I think this might be the best college football performance from a quarterback I've seen in a very long time. He was going back to Cam Newton.

He was dropping dimes everywhere. He was incredible. Let's start with the Michigan Alabama game and then we'll talk about more about Michael Pennix in the Texas comeback. That was the weirdest comeback and the clunkiest comeback of all time. But Michigan Alabama. So that was our first game. It was a tough game to watch for a while there and then it turned into the fourth quarter where it became thrilling. And the reason why I say tough is it looked like both teams were feeling each other out and playing very sloppy offensive football. Even the first play, JJ McCarthy tried his best to throw an interception.

Yeah.

Should have been picked off.

Should have been picked off. You had miscues in special teams and it felt like Alabama had the game in hand in that. I think it was the start of the fourth quarter when they were up maybe four, I think. Yeah, I think it was 1713 and Jalen Milro fumbled the ball. And even though Michigan didn't get any points off that, it felt like that was the moment Alabama was going to take control and step on their throat. And Michigan, it was like a reversal because it was, at first, Alabama was hanging around, hanging around. They got dominated in the first half and then it was Michigan hanging around, hanging around, just keeping it close enough and they end up the winner in overtime.

I thought Millro stunk today. Yeah, Milro looked a lot like old Millro and not new. It was. It was frustrating. If you're an Alabama fan, he couldn't even connect on like a five, six yard pass. Everything looked a little bit out of sorts. Michigan was able to lean on him a little bit. Blake Corum's really good.

It was a lean off because Alabama felt like they were leaning on Michigan for a while.

Yeah, the big boys up front did their job on both sides. So from that perspective, you could look at that first half and say, oh, that's just great, hard nosed football. If you take out the skill position players, if we're just talking, it was great line play in the first half. Blocking and tackling was great, was pretty good overall. And then. Yeah, Milro just. He couldn't figure it out. He wasn't able to use his legs as much as he usually likes to. He also has, like, negative pocket awareness.

Yeah.

So when Michigan was blitzing, they were doing a pretty good job of waiting until the ball was snapped to show who was going to blitz, and then Milro would just be looking in the opposite direction, not see the blitz coming, getting sacked for infinity yards. It happened to McCarthy, too.

Yeah.

No, JJ McCarthy did not look good either.

He had bad pocket awareness today. But, yeah, we had a great handshake afterwards between Nick Saban and Harbaugh. Who do you think is the alpha in that handshake? I feel like it's. Harbaugh's never lost a handshake.

Yeah.

Today it was Jim Harbaugh because, like, outlasted them. And for a while there, it felt like it was going to just be the glaring example of special teams mattering and special teams being a third of the game because people say it all the time, but I think we all are like, come on, is it really a third of the game? But Alabama almost won this game with just special teams because it was their kicker kicking 250 yarders and their punter, I think he averaged 50. He had a long of 62 and he had four of them inside the or five of them inside the 20. And it was like that was for a while. That was the game. It was field position and Alabama just doing a better job with special teams and Michigan fumbling.

Yeah.

And a turnover on. And I love whenever they show that punter, they're just like six. 2240 Australian. Yeah, you got to say that when he's stepping up there. But he was like the best player on the field for Alabama for most of the game.

Yeah, Michigan, they had a fumbled punt and then they had their punt returner try to catch a punt from the 1 yd line with like 30 seconds left. If I'm Jim Harbaugh going into next week, I think that's the one thing you might consider is maybe firing the special teams coordinator. I'm going to look them up. Let's see who it is. Let me see. Okay.

I just wonder where Connor Stallions was during this game. All right, so probably sweating somewhere.

Michigan special teams coordinator. I don't know how you pronounce his last name. Jay Herbar. J. Harbaugh.

Jay Harbaugh.

Okay, Michigan special teams fire. Yeah, maybe that might be tough. So there's any relation.

He's probably going to fire him.

Moving on. A very difficult conversation after the debacle they had on special teams.

I don't know if you can blame so much of it on the special teams coordinator as you can just blame it on the players.

Well, you could just be like, hey, can you remind the punt returner to not try to catch a punt at the 1 yd line?

Yeah, actually, can you remind your players to do a better job blocking long field goals?

Well, they also missed a kick and they botched a snap on that extra point that ended up giving it the overtime.

So least valuable player goes to Alabama center who couldn't figure it out. And then I don't know what to make of this, but he had, I think, two consecutive snaps where he just bounced back to the quarterback and then he started throwing his hands up and trying to blame it on someone else. That's the one position it kind of sucks if you're a center, you can never blame your miscues on somebody. If you have a bad snap, it's because you fucked up. Yeah, there's really no way out of that.

And it was all game. It felt like all game. We were watching low snaps and, yeah, it was an ugly game for the first three quarters, and it turned into be a classic because anytime you get a college Football playoff overtime game at the Rose bowl, it's hard not to be romantic about football.

The one thing I would change, I would like the overtime game be the second game because the overtime.

Well, no. And then it would have been like 02:00 a.m.

But did they delay the start of the second?

They might have by a few minutes.

That's what I'm saying. If you're going to push it back, at least have us end on the overtime game.

Yeah, that's true.

You don't think about so much because in the second game, I just kept looking at the clock being like, I'm old.

This is too late. I don't know why they did. Why couldn't these games have been 02:00 and 06:00? Also, too many commercials. This is our old section of the show. Although I tweeted too many commercials. Everyone's like, no, that's not an old tweet. There's way too many commercials.

Well, a big deal is the sunset at the Rose bowl.

Right.

So if you push it earlier, you might not get.

True.

The sunset was. Yeah, yeah.

It was a beautiful sunset.

My start of the game was the sun.

Yeah.

The sun was actually wreaking havoc in the first half.

Yeah.

That caused one of the fumbles.

Yeah. Hank, you cosplayed as a Michigan fan today.

I did. It was a great day to be a Michigan Wolverine.

Yeah.

Big ten back.

I'm excited for next week.

Are you going to be a Michigan fan next week?

Yeah.

Going to keep it rolling. It was the first time I pledged my allegiance to a school and actually won, so it was nice to win one.

The Tom Brady connection. Yeah, that's pretty nice.

Dave Portnoy, Taylor Luan.

Suck up. You doing a little suck up thing?

What did I do when we went to Wisconsin?

I'm just saying you're doing a little suck suck up thing.

Then what does a wolverine look like?

He's got, like, he claws that come out of his hands.

Adamantium.

Yeah. He can't die.

Really good at recovery on injuries.

Logan can't go through airport security.

He's the leader of the X Men.

Yeah, I think you nailed you good for. Good for Jim Harbaugh, though.

Yeah.

America's team.

America's team.

Everyone's. I'm happy for Jim Harbaugh. I love Jim Harbaugh. I'll always love Jim Harbaugh. Even if he goes coaches the Chargers or he's I don't just. I said it before the game. If they just suddenly, right before kickoff were like, hey, we have a new rule. Head coaches can play, can take snaps in this game. How many snaps do you think Jim harbor would have taken?

He would put himself on the kickoff team, just run down there.

He looked so jacked up.

He was amped up. And I also love the quotes that he was given before, like, in the media day where they were talking to him about how he builds his team, his philosophy, and he goes, you know, I think we model ourselves after Jesus. Jesus would have been five star recruit. No doubt in my mind, Jim. Jesus was literally a one star recruit. That's kind of the entire point of. There was a giant star that appeared out of nowhere.

No.

Yeah.

The five star is like, after the fact, when you try to upgrade it and be like, look, our recruiting was so good. We had them at a five star.

No, they developed them.

Yeah, right. No, I'm saying, like, the other sites, they'll have, like, rivals, and then there'll be competing sites. There'll be a competing site that would be like, no, we actually had them. Five star.

Look at us.

Subscribe to our service. We can pick these guys out.

Jesus was a one star. Maybe a walk on. And then they just did a great job developing the talent.

Right?

He had a red shirt year. By the end of it, was really able to move the rock. He's a good player.

My only other note as a Michigan fan at a Michigan bar was when orgy, the backup quarterback, came in. The whole bar, just orgy, orgy. It was a whole chant. I was like, what is going on? He ran one play.

Yeah.

They bring him in for trick people.

It worked.

People loved orgy.

Yeah, she gets to wear a pineapple on his shirt.

Also shout out JJ McCarthy googling how to beat depression.

Yeah, it's pretty good. Pretty solid advice.

It was a funny moment, though, because they showed his pregame and he was relatable. He was doing, like, meditation under the goalpost. And our entire gambling cave was like, what a loser. It's like we're just a bunch of dudes just sitting around gambling way too much money on these games, eating way too much food. And we're like, this fucking dude who's an incredible athlete playing in the Rose bowl. Yeah, he thinks he's got it all figured out.

If you google how to beat depression, check out betterhelp.

Yeah, that's a fact. So, yeah, Michigan marches on. And then we had Washington, Texas. What do you say?

Guess the line.

I think it's going to be like four.

I think Michigan minus five and a half.

I'd guess around four. Let's see. Let's pull it up. It's going to be a lot of Michigan fans. I feel like that was going to be.

What do you got?

You got it? No mic on. We don't have race. We'll find it. I would guess Michigan around four. So now we have Washington, who. That was a weird game because it felt like Washington could have won by a million if they wanted to.

Penix was just the best player on the field by far.

Dropping just balls into a bucket. Just dimes everywhere. They kept on trying to run, which they couldn't do. That's the one thing Texas can just shut you down.

Yeah.

And then we get like. There was two moments. One was when I think it was like eight minutes left. Washington was up. Was it ten? No, they were up line. Someone's got it for me. Were they up ten? No.

Line's four and a half, by the way.

Oh, line is four and a half. Okay, so that's what was washington up before Texas scored their touchdown?

They were up.

They're up 1334.

21.

They're up 13. Right, because 13.

Yeah, Stark didn't go for two.

Didn't go for two. But they were up 13. And they did like back to back trick plays with like eight minutes left. We're like, this is kind of weird. And they punted and then Texas scored. And yes, Sark should have gone for two. I don't know how no one says anything because the situation is they're down 13. He kicks the extra point to go down six. Why not go for two? Best case scenario, you're down five. A field goal doesn't kill you. Worst case scenario, you miss it and you're down seven. That's a no brainer go for two situation that he just missed.

Yeah.

Every coach has a chart that says what you do in that situation. He just didn't look at the chart.

He just didn't look at the chart because then Washington, quote, unquote, killed them with a field goal to go back up nine. We thought it was over. And then Texas went and got a field goal. And then the weirdest thing ever at the end of the game that was so straight.

I felt bad for Washington fans that were watching that. Just the idea of them losing that game because their running back got hurt on a fluke play and then the clock stops so they get a bonus timeout instead of getting the ball back with 20 seconds left or 19 seconds left. Texas got the ball back with what, 50. Yeah, 50 seconds left. And then credit to yours, he threw a great ball. But Quinn Ewers did not play good today. No, I started as a joke. We were saying the gambling cave put in arch Manning. By the end of it, I was like, put in arch Manning. Let's see what the kid can do because yours did not play his best game. He did have that one nice long bomb and then the very last play of the game credited defensive back. That was a great play that he made.

It was a great play. And it was just a weird, clunky game for Texas offense where it felt like they never really got a rhythm and everything looked so easy for Washington. And even when they got a little bit of rhythm, they'd have a fumble or a big sack and it was just, yeah, Texas. I feel like Texas is going to walk away being like, that was a game we could have won. If they just never felt comfortable, it's crazy.

They could have won it, but they definitely also got.

No, I'm saying, yeah, they like, they could have won at the end. Washington was a better team.

The better team, don't get me wrong.

But Texas, it felt like Texas had more the mistakes that you can look at and be like, man, I regret that because Washington's defense was phenomenal. That was the big bugaboo all year. Washington's defense, they were all up in the backfield like they were all over Quinn Ewers all game. Washington's defense has completely transformed and played great football. Last month, there was something weird with.

The timing, too, between Ewers and his wide receivers. He probably had six or seven passes that he threw before his receivers were turning around to look at the ball.

Yeah, they just looked off like never had a rhythm.

You know what? My start of this game goes to the ESPN producers that put a live camera on Bourbon street, and then there was a movie that slipped out. Yeah, great job, guys. If you're going to put a live camera anywhere in America, let's just go to Bourbon street. Nothing bad's going to happen there. Also, there was like a kid in a stroller. I don't know if it was a lady's kid, credit to her, if she was flashing with one hand and pushing the stroller with the other, but there was a baby, like right underneath her. Probably saw that was like, that's dinner.

Yeah, that's dinner, man. Right there. We also had the great story about Ryan Grubb, the offensive coordinator for Washington, who quit football and was living in his sister's laundry room, pouring cement.

Living in his sister's laundry room. That guy's cheap. If you're pouring cement, you have enough money to have your own apartment. This guy was just trying to save money. I'm sure. But also, I can't think of a worse place to live. I've never been in a spacious laundry room before. Yeah, they always have the folding door. Usually has the slats on it. He was just sleeping on a dryer.

Yeah. Football guy.

Football guy.

Football guy. And he called a great game. I honestly think if Washington had just been like, we're not going to run at all this game, they probably could have put up 60. Probably. Every pass worked.

Except after the end of the game.

They don't know.

Deborah doesn't know how to run out of clock.

Yeah.

He could not do that to save his life. This was the most obvious. Run the clock down. Run the ball. Run the ball. Run the ball. Take the play. Clock down. Every single play. And he just refused to do it. So it was kind of weird that Texas got back in at the very end, but the reason they had that opportunity to begin with was because Daboard doesn't understand how time works.

Yeah.

And Washington, I mean, they've been doubted all year, 14, and we got an undefeated versus undefeated. It's going to be awesome. I also have to live with the regret of cashing out of my Washington future, which I've said it before, I'm a gambler. Lose bets, win bets, make mistakes. On to the next one. Yeah. You can't get hung up on it. I did it because I thought Oregon was better. I was wrong. I fucked up. But it's going to be.

It's going to be a good championship.

I'm excited.

Two teams we haven't seen in there in a very long time. Yeah, it'll be interesting. I feel like I'm leaning Michigan, but I've also been.

But that's.

I've been disrespecting. Me personally. If you're looking for somebody in the media that's been disrespecting Washington, hand up. And I feel bad about disrespecting.

Yeah. I feel like everyone's going to be leaning Michigan and that's exactly where Washington wants to be.

Yeah.

Because that's every single game they've played.

They were underdogs against Oregon, who they had beat.

Yeah.

It's just every single game. And so I might just have to bet on Washington. A shitload of money just no. Oh, yeah, I forgot your go blue. You're Michigan fan. What was that?

That was Wolverine claw.

That was.

There you go.

Work.

Wolf up.

Wolf up.

You'll still CGI.

Yeah.

All right, memes, take care of be.

It's a great matchup, too, because it's like Michigan's defense is the best unit on the field. Well, Michigan's defense is obviously better than. I shouldn't say way better. Better than Washington's defense. But Michael Pennix is so much better than JJ McCarthy.

Am I crazy to think that he's going to be a first round pick?

Yeah, well, no, he could be a first round pick because the problems with Michael Pennix and I don't want to be nit picky, but he's 24, so there is always the are you good at college football? Because you're now been playing it for so long, Bo Nicks kind of thing and his injury history and he's a lefty, which some people can't get over. I think it's absolutely worth, like, I think he could absolutely be a good.

Pro, but he's 24 because of the injury history.

Right.

But you know what I'm saying? When you're 24 and you're playing against like 18 and 19 year olds, are you good because you've been playing college football for this?

There's also the school of thought of like, if you're 24, this is as good as you're going to get. He's pretty fucking good.

No, he's really good.

Just strictly from a passing performance night. Like, I haven't seen a quarterback in college football deliver strikes like that consistently over the course of a full game in a very long time. Yeah, I'm wrapped up in it right now, but I don't know. That didn't seem fluky to me.

No, he's legit. I think he will be a good starting quarterback in the NFL. I don't know if a team will take a first round pick with him, but maybe we could pull up a mock draft. I don't know where he's mocked. Those are always exactly correct.

I've been looking on Tankathon.

Oh, where they got him 40. See, they have JJ McCarthy 42 and Michael Pennix 43. That just feels like age and injury because Michael Pennix has played so much better than JJ McCarthy. McCarthy played well. They haven't gone to the Vikings. That actually makes sense.

Yeah, that'd be good.

Same colors.

So with lefty quarterbacks when they're in college. I love lefty quarterbacks. When they're in the NFL, that person's a witch.

Yeah.

That looks like witchcraft.

It's hard for your brain to understand.

But isn't also harder for defenses to intercept a lefty quarterback?

What's harder for your wide receiver?

I know that's catch it. That's a knock. But they don't think about the fact that it's hard for a safety to.

Catch the spin of the ball.

Yeah, I'm looking at Tankathon right now. It's a beautiful site.

Yeah, there's some good.

I mean, bears first, commanders second, patriots third.

Yeah.

The draft runs through us. Draft runs through us. I tweeted today, if you want to talk draft, come to this podcast. Everything goes through us. We decide the draft.

We own the draft.

We own the draft.

We are the draft.

We are Mr. Drafts. Okay. Should we talk some NFL?

Let's do it.

Okay.

Before we do that, pft, you got a couple of ads, and then we'll get into all of the week 17 madness.

Yeah.

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Okay, let's talk some NFL week 17 pft I feel like week 17 was even though it was less than 24 hours ago. As we're taping this, it feels like it was a million years ago because we've got so much other football going on, traveling, everything.

Every time a new sport happens, it pushes something I remember about an old sport out of my brain. Yeah, I mean, there's like a little time capsule for myself. And we talked about this weekend of NFL before we did it. For me it was a red zone Sunday. Did you do red zone Sunday?

I didn't. I actually was able to get so we were in Arizona. Max and Jake are going to be joining us in a minute, so they're not going to be here for the first few games that we do. Don't worry, we will not do the Eagles recap without Max. So if you don't hear him, that's was so we were still in Arizona. Pfe and I flew back this morning I was able to set up. I felt like a real degenerate because I basically took my kids to the park all morning, went to party city. I feel like I got robbed because they just walked in. It was like my two kids. And then I had my niece and my nephew and they walked in, grabbed so much stuff. I was like, let's get out of here. It was like $200 worth of shit and not one actual item that was worth anything. Yeah, beads and the fucking noise makers. So anyway, so I get back at 11:00 for the kickoff mountain time. And I went into my bedroom. I had a tv on, I had my laptop open. I had six different little tiny things on YouTube, tv, and then an iPad as well.

So I was able to see all.

The games, but just on tiny little screens.

But the smallest screens ever.

Yeah, you had no idea. You probably couldn't even see. It was like, there's a ghost running through the Philadelphia secondary.

Yeah, but so you went red zone.

I went red zone. I went over to my old college professor's house. Professor majors. He was my comedy writing professor at JMU. He lives in Arizona. Went over to his house, hung out with him, watched red zone with him and his wife. I had to make a call. It's like, okay, we were supposed to go out for a hike. But then I remembered, oh, yeah, it's Sunday. It's NFL Sunday. He was very understanding. So we were like, okay, let's just watch red zone. But as a compromise, I'm not going to be on my phone tweeting the entire time.

Okay.

I will be present in the redu.

While I'm staring at the red zone screen.

Right, that's good.

But being, yeah, doing red zone. It's nice, man. It's football crack.

Well, it was actually because it was ten games, so I was actually on red zone for about ten minutes because I was still out with the kids. So I was like, oh, fuck, it's 11:00. Like, games are starting. Mountain time. Scott Hansen, you could tell. He's like, we got ten games. So much action. There was a few games that you could just not pay attention to. Yeah, there was a few games that you just could be like, that game is over.

It's actually terrible game three games on here that they didn't really show on.

Red zone, which was good.

Which was good. And all the highlights from those games came from things that happened off the.

Uh, but we will start and we will go through all these games. We'll start with Saturday night, which actually PFT. And I were. We finished the Arizona bowl and we drove back from Tucson to Scottsdale, and I brought my kids iPad. So we watched the game in the car together, driving back, which was great because we were basically doing a podcast. We were making fun of Jerry Jones. Like, we were doing a live podcast, just the two of us in the car. Mike McCarthy.

It'll never be released. If you're wondering, were the tweets that big cat was sending during that game, were those written and posted while he was driving and watching the game? The answer is yes, they were.

Pft was holding the iPad.

Yeah, I was holding the iPad, which is just as dangerous as driving.

Well, listen, the Arizona highways are great. You can go 85, there's no one on the road. It was great. But yeah, we were making fun of. We watched the ring ceremony. What is it? The Ring of Honor.

I like Jerry Johnson or Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy Johnson is a cool guy. It's sad that he has to represent the Cowboys. They shouldn't get anybody that cool and likable. But it was such a good moment when he went out there and he made me like the Cowboys for about.

15 minutes, and he had that line where he was just like. And the Cowboy fans like, we gave you something to be proud of. And he basically was like, we gave you 30 years of unearned arrogance. After what we did in the 90s, that's the last time we were really good. So we watched the game. Controversial game. We should just jump right into it. Dan Campbell, at the end of the game, two point conversion, the Lions go down the field. It was actually a really well played game. Like, both defenses showed up. I thought the Lions defense was very impressive and the Cowboys defense was pretty good as well. But anyway, the two point conversion with Taylor Decker, the play that works, and then they call the ineligible. They call Taylor Decker ineligible because 70 reported and not 68. And essentially, everything I've read from this is the refs just got confused by Dan Campbell's own trickeration that he tried to explain to them before the game.

So he talked to the refs. He said he explained it to a t before they went out there. You can see Decker goes up to the ref. He says something to him. The ref nods. Then number 70 comes on, right? And number 70 runs at the ref, too. And the ref kind of looks at him and runs away. And then the ref immediately says over the loudspeaker, number 70 has reported as eligible before they snap the ball. So the ref was confused by everything, even though Dan Campbell did explain it. But if you look at the formation. Taylor Decker was eligible. He was the eligible guy at the end. So it was a great play. Ballsy call.

It worked.

And then the crazy part, which I actually like, yes, they backed it up. Yes, they backed it up because of the ineligible receiver. And Dan Campbell said, fuck it. I'm going to go for two crazy, crazy things from the seven. It's insane. There's no way that it makes sense except for the fact that he's letting his players know, like, we're in fuck it mode.

Well, so I was thinking about it more, because obviously, the reaction from everyone watching the game, the media, everyone's like, you don't do that. You kick the extra point, you go to overtime. And I was thinking about it more. I think Dan Campbell, it's crazy to all of us. I don't think it's crazy at all to his players. No, because I think he tells his players before the game, here's the plan. If we're ever in this situation, we're going for two. We're trying to win this game. This is how coaching. So all those guys are gung ho, ready to go. It's not a surprise to them when he says, get back out there. Go for two again. So I think it's weird for us, but for them, they're like, no, this is how our coach coaches and my whole thing is. Because people kept on bringing up like, well, you didn't like it when Brandon Staley did it. Brandon Staley stopped being consistent. Brandon Staley was awesome his first year because he was aggressive, and then he started doing, like, a wishywashy. When Dan Campbell is aggressive and consistently aggressive, I'm all for it, because you know the type of coach he's going to coach, it's when guys go, like, back and forth and they're like, oh, maybe I won't be aggressive.

He went for the fake punt. He went for it on fourth down to goal line in the first half. He goes for two twice because they actually ended up going for it. What? It was offsides?

It was offsides, then it was like.

The three yard line.

Yeah, I think it was half the.

Play that almost worked as well. So, yeah, we're on the same page. Like, as crazy as it seems, I think Dan Campbell, in that locker room, they know that this is how they're getting coached. They know they're going to be like, go for it.

Yeah, I don't mind it at all. It's telling your players, like, we're in fuck it mode. This is what we do. You can live with the fact that you got fucked by the refs and you still tried to win the game and you couldn't do it. You can live with that if you're a Detroit Lions player. Yeah, you're not happy with the way it turned out, but you're happy with the way that you competed until the very end of it. And, yeah, Dan Campbell, you know that he's going to call that fake punt in the first half. He doesn't care if it's on his own 23 yard line or wherever. He's got that ready to go. It's probably going to work. If I'm a Lions player, I'm not looking back on this game and saying, I wish we could have done certain things differently. It's like, you have the valid excuse.

That they got, and so the actual play, I'm a little maybe don't make a play that's so confusing that the ref could fuck it up.

Now.

I'm not taking. The ref is a fucking asshole.

It sounds like victim blame.

No, the ref is an asshole. The ref deserves 95% of the blame, but there is, like, 5% of me that's like, just like, if it's that confusing that you have to explain to them, and then they still got confused.

So the refs are part time employees. That's what we always forget, right? They're part time. This is not their full time job. It's like going to wendy's and asking for very specific instructions on your cheeseburger and be like, let me get one tomato. Yeah, I want a tomato slice on there. And then the person that's making 725 an hour comes back. There's three tomatoes, and you're like, what the fuck? Stuff is liable to get messed up when you're dealing with NFL refs who this year, I feel like they've been.

Worse than ever, and it's a very human thing. Again, the ref is a fucking asshole. I'm happy that he is not going to be refing in the playoffs. He probably shouldn't ref anymore because this was such an egregious mistake. But the way that it looked, like Taylor Decker reported, and then number 70 comes up and talks to him, like, as a human being. The last person who ever talks to me, I'm going to be like, yeah, that was the one who reported.

But I don't think he said anything.

I don't think he talked to me.

Coming up, he just ran towards the ref. And then Sewell was also in that meeting, too, because confuse it he usually reports as eligible. He's caught a few balls, right? So he's usually the guy they throw it to. So they're trying to confuse the other team by having all these people go up to the refs. The ref screwed it up big time.

But you know what I mean? If you have to explain how confusing it is before the game, and then it's still confusing again, the ref is an asshole, but maybe make a play that's a tiny bit less confusing.

At what point do the refs become complicit in part of the play, too? If they know the tricky part of the play that's going on now, are you expecting the referee to act like number 70 is reporting? And look at number 70, right? Dan Campbell told you, hey, this guy's going to pretend that he's reporting, fake reporting. So look at him. Maybe even like, brush your tummy off and then just know that Decker is actually the guy that's going to catch the pass at some point, the refs become part of that. But you could tell after the game was over, I think it was about 30, 40 minutes after the final whistle, the hit got called in to Shefter.

Oh, yeah, the shepherd has been doing it.

They called in a hit because out of nowhere, Schefter just starts tweeting the greatest hits of this officiating crew, the previous mistakes they've made this season. I think there were the refs at the end of that Kansas City Green Bay game on the egregious pass interference call that they missed. And then there were multiple other calls that happened earlier in this game that Schefter started tweeting out, like the all 22 before the all 22 even hit.

Cowboys got no, then he did the reverse hit. I think the NFL then came and got involved. No, but I was like, I think it was hit.

But they were all hits on the same crew.

No, but then he reverse hit it because he was like, the leg tripping penalty was actually supposed to be on the Lions, so the Cowboys would have won anyway.

Right, but it was a hit. Still on the same officiator.

Right, but it was more like.

It was like overkill.

But that was a hit.

You shouldn't be mad at the Lions.

Yeah, that was a hit. That was basically like Shefter saying that the refs didn't affect the outcome of the game. Well, they did, but they already had fucked over the Cowboys. So the Cowboys were the rightful is.

It's butterfly effect.

So that's what he was. That leg tripping tweet was literally him tweeting. I think Adele probably called him personally, was like, hey, we can't have people like Mike Florio taking us to the Supreme Court saying that this whole game should be overturned, say that the trip happened so that we can be, like, the Cowboys would have won anyway.

Mike Florist is actually on the side of the refs. He's kind of saying that the trick play was too deceptive.

Okay, so then I'm disavowing my own opinion of the 5%.

Okay, there you go. But at any rate, the hit was called in for Schefter to take this crew out.

He did it all.

And make sure that this crew does not work another down, especially, like, in the postseason. We don't want to see this crew out there. But it was a crazy interview. I actually agree with you. Both teams played pretty well for the most part. Yeah, there was the CD lamb, like, 92 yard touchdown pass, which was incredible. And then CD lamb fumbles through the end zone, gets called for a touchback. Everybody out there tweets the same thing. This is the worst rule in sports. Fuck you. It's not. It's actually a great rule.

I hate the rule.

It's a good rule. I'll explain to you why, Hank, I agree. Yeah, it's a good rule.

Well, I hate the rule.

If it wasn't a rule.

No, as an overbeder, I hate the rule.

That's fine.

Yeah, if you bet, then that's sad. But it's a great rule.

It's tragic.

People say, like, oh, how come if you fumble the ball and it goes out of bounds, your team still gets the ball, but if you fumble it through the end zone, then it becomes a turnover? Well, it's because the end zone exists as a special place in football. There's different rules. In the end zone, a player can reach a ball over the line, and if it crosses the line and then they fumble, guess what? It's a touchdown. It's a special zone.

Okay?

So the rules of the regular field don't apply to the end zone. Every rule change that's been put in the last 30 years has been trying to help the offense. There's nothing that helps the defense at all. This is one that encourages guys to play down to the one inch line, and it actually is a rule that helps the defense a little bit. Also, on kickoffs, what happens when the ball is not possessed by anybody and it rolls through the back of the end zone? That's a touchdown. If the ball is not possessed or a touchback. If the ball is not possessed by anybody and it goes through the end zone, that's a touchback. Not just on fumbles, on kickoffs, on punts, on the whole thing. I like the rule. And there's been some awesome plays that have happened in NFL history like that. You remember Ben Watson when he corner flagged champ Bailey? Remember that play? That was a sick play. Calvin Johnson against the Seahawks. I think there's been some great plays. I like the rule. The people that are complaining about it are the same people that are saying, wait a second.

How come we make every single rule change to favorite quarterbacks and wide receivers?

Let the defense have something counterpoint. It's the most tragic play in sports. If you have the over. Yeah, that's fair. So I can't take you seriously with that pen. What is that?

Pen?

This has been on the desk for a long time.

You were getting on your soapbox.

It's Evans.

Pen, you're just shaking a fucking. I'm like, what is that, a troll doll, Pen?

No, it's some company. I don't know. I think it's pugs. Pen.

It was a good speech.

It's pugs.

Pin, I agree with you. I'm being completely biased when I say that. Obviously. Whenever it happens, I'm sad because it's the worst play for an over, because you're so close to six points and then you just reverse. No, I agree. There has to be something. You can't just be Willy nilly throwing the ball to the end zone.

Yeah, it's an agent of chaos, too, which I like. That little bit of uncertainty when you get down to the goal.

This is so tragic. We also need to.

It's my serious. Pen. I'm going to use this for rant.

That's how you know I'm not fucking big. The other big story from this game, which we have to talk about, because Dan Campbell basically saved Mike McCarthy from looking like the biggest dummy ever, which he is a big dummy. Shout out Mike McCarthy for finally going with just a straight hoodie on the sideline. That's a fat guy move. I respect that. Mike McCarthy and his late game clock management will. When we do our. What do we call it?

Back of the head.

Back of the head. When we do our back of the head. For every team, it's Mike McCarthy in the late game clock management, because that pass play where he gave the Lions 40 extra seconds to drive down the field and then he went into prevent defense.

Well, it was a mix up.

Big cat and on top of that, the one thing that completely gets lost. So there's, I think, 26 seconds left when the Lions score a touchdown and they're going for two. Mike McCarthy, you have probably the best kicker in football right now. They were talking on the broadcast how he has a 70 foot range or 70 yard range. Right. Mike McCarthy used a timeout before the two point conversion. If they get the two point conversion, you have two timeouts. You can easily get into 70 yard range with a couple of pass plays and a timeout with 26 seconds left. He is so fucking stupid. So fat. He will be the downfall for the Dallas Cowboys.

So, big guy, it was just a mix up, according to Jerry Jones. So after the game, Jerry Jones said the Cowboys hated to give the Lions those 40 seconds and that he thinks it might have been a mix up. So. Okay, that's explained away. It was a classic. It was a mike mix up.

It was a mix up.

And these things happen with Mike McCray. He does get mixed up. It was bad. It was really. But the play calling was just atrocious at the end. It's like he's never been in a close game. Every time he's in a close game.

And the best part is he spent the entire game running on first down when they couldn't run the ball. Tony Pollard, I think he broke one for like eleven or twelve yards. Other than that, if you took the long run that Tony Pollard had out, I think he averaged like 1.6 yards per carry. So he spent the whole game trying to run, and then the moment he was supposed to run, he's like, nah, fuck it, let's pass.

Yeah.

And on that, he did try to give the ball to Tony Pollard, but that was the tripping call that got missed.

Yeah, but remember, this happened against the Seahawks, too. He did the same exact thing.

Yeah, he's a dummy. He's a dummy. After that game, he got saved big time. Yeah, big time. By the fact they won that game.

And Dan Campbell got all the. And the refs. All the stories about Dan Campbell going for two again on the seven yard line and the refs fucking up. Mike McCarthy just snuck right under the microscope and was like, I'm not here.

Those are two Cowboys wins. But I'm counting them as two Mike McCarthy losses.

Yes.

Because it's going to happen. His brain just stops. It stops. He cannot. Maybe the games need to be shorter for Mike McCarthy. Maybe he shouldn't coach the first quarter. Maybe he runs out of gas. He just gets tired. Because, look, when we did the Arizona bowl. When we were up in the booth, we had to stand the whole time. I was fucking gassed by the fourth quarter.

Yeah.

Like standing. If you're overweight, might as well be running a marathon.

Who are they going to put in? In, like, the late fourth quarter? Dan Quinn, he's never given up a big.

That's what I'm saying. That's what need to. You need to just. Maybe Mike McCarthy starts the game in a chair.

Just let Dak do it.

Why can't he sit in a chair? Why can't football coaches sit in chairs?

You can't.

Well, coaches, do you sit in a bed?

Yeah.

Why not? But, yeah, Dak has been playing while C. D. Lamb broke the record for yards and receptions for the Cowboys, which is insanely impressive given their history at the wide receiver position. And he did it in a regular 16 games.

I like that. Yeah, we're going to get some records next week that are going to have asterisks next to him, but that's legit.

Yeah.

So he went, what, 13 for 227? A touchdown. But, yeah, I walked away from this game being like, the Lions defense played a lot better than I expected against a Cowboys offense that did look like it was rolling. And, yeah, I go back to it, but the NFL playoffs are so wide open. And I know this was devastating for the Lions because they were still in line to possibly sneak into the number one seed. If they had won this game, they would have been the two seed, which would have meant two playoff games at home if they had won the first round. That sucks.

I've also seen a little bit of discourse regarding the hip drop tackle with Aiden Hutchinson.

Oh, okay.

So he had, what do you have, three sacks?

Yeah, he was all over the place.

And so they were saying that two of the sacks would be considered hip drop tackles. You can't hit the quarterback below the knee. You can't hit him above the shoulders. He hit him around the waist.

Get your pen. He hit him up on defense. He hit him up for defense.

Which camera? That one. Aiden Hutchinson hit Dak Prescott in the midsection. The only place where you're allowed to hit a quarterback and then his body takes him to the ground because that's how the fucking laws of gravity work.

Okay?

So if you're going to sit here.

And tell me that the hip drop tackle is going to get added to the list below the knee tackle and the above the shoulders tackle, well, guess what? Just put flags on these quarterbacks.

Okay. Yeah.

Just turn into flag football because there's no such thing as a sack anymore.

Yeah.

Hip drop tackle is a figment of your imagination.

It's not real.

It's not real. Let the boys play. Let them tackle.

Let them tackle. Rant over tackle. Boom.

Congrats, Hank.

Thank you. I mean, that was huge for you, Hank.

Huge.

The Cowboys are now the reverse. They're going to get two home playoff games. We'll get to the Eagles later, but they're going to get two home playoff games. They have only looked like a Super bowl contending team at. I mean, hopefully we get Lions. Cowboys, part two. We'd love to see it, because the Lions would. If all the higher seeds won, the Lions will be the three seed. The Cowboys are the two seed. Lions would go to Dallas. As long as Dallas doesn't blow this against the commanders. Yeah, they can still blow it.

They can still blow it.

They can still blow.

Blew it last year.

We're not going to do that. Max is here.

Commanders are set. We're good.

Max is here. Oh, Max. We're probably not going to get to the Eagles. You got to put on your headphones. Put on your headphones. Put on your headphones. Max just walked in. Max.

Max.

We're not going to get to the Eagles till later. But that Cowboys win was awesome.

I didn't watch that football game.

Oh, the fuck?

It's a really good game.

How do you not watch that producer for this podcast? You didn't watch it.

Yeah, I know. Imagine. Imagine a producer with implications on that game not watching it.

Sickening.

Yeah.

So what'd you think about it, though?

It was crazy.

Yeah, it was crazy. Good win for the Cowboys.

What'd you think, Hank? What were the keys to that game?

The keys to that game were just getting that call at the end of the game.

Can you give a key to the game that we didn't talk about already?

No, I also did not watch it. I was at a concert, and then I was at the bar after, and I was, like, sitting next to my friend, I was like, oh, we need a cowboys win. We need a cowboys win. Saw it. They won by one. Was like, let's go. And then yesterday, on the way back, I was reading about what happened. I was like, holy fuck.

What a win. What a win.

The Lions got screwed. The Lions got screwed.

What a fucking win.

Hank also just found out yesterday, I believe, that he officially lost the 1 hour stand up pick thing.

Yeah.

No, he was rooting yesterday. Like it was.

Like it meant.

It meant something.

Yeah. I thought if I went perfect and you went like, no.

Defeated.

But unless you want to do one.

More, I think even if we did three picks this weekend, I think, I don't think so because I went one in one.

Yeah. Maybe on Friday I'll decide if we're.

We can do three.

Well, no, I think I'm like six or seven games ahead of you. I might just do seven and I'd have to go o and seven. You'd have to go seven and o. I might give you that just for fun.

I'm ready. I've been preparing.

Okay. All right, next game. Ravens 56, Dolphins 19. Ravens the one seed. This was an ass kicking. Lamar Jackson, MVP. Happy we can be done with that discussion. All right, Hank's going to Duffy's right now for the Michigan game.

Hank came back to work for 20 minutes and now he's going to a bar.

The Ravens killed them.

It was a forget about the noise and pressure around fitness at New Year's. I use a peloton bike. I'm getting back on my bike in the new year, going to get back in shape. But guess what? You shouldn't feel any pressure to have your body ready in three weeks. It's a process. You got to find joy in the process. The best way to do that is with Peloton this new year. Peloton is making it easier to get started with up to $600 off Peloton bike purchases and two months free membership. Shop Peloton's New Year's offer@onepeloton.com deals. That's onepeloton.com deals. Terms apply. Is a shit pumping. The Ravens are like almost too good. The Ravens are what I thought the 49 ers were a couple of weeks ago, right? They are beating great teams. They've beaten three division leaders by a combined 62 points.

And their three losses are weird. Losses that you can, like. They were leading in all three of their losses late in the look, they're just like playing on a different level right now. And Lamar is. The best part about Lamar is like, you know that there's a handful of times a game where he will just make a play that no other quarterback can make for you and he'll save their ass. And their offense looks like the Tod monkey offense is finally clicking, throwing the ball deep. We also had one of my favorite tweets of 2023 because it actually happened in 2023 from Joe Shad. I'm sure you saw this, pft. But he tweeted, that's pretty terrible that John Harbaugh and the Ravens just passed for another touchdown. Up 40 919 with a few minutes left. And moments after Bradley Chubb was carded off with a potentially serious injury. It's 50, 619.

Disgusting.

He wrote an article about it. Too.

Disgusting. I can't believe that a football team continued to play football.

Yeah.

Also, I'm just going to read just a random box score line. I'm taking a random game from this year. This is completely random. It's almost as random as the lottery. Ball two.

Attack.

Levo pass. Short middle to Devon. A chain. Ten yards. Touchdown. Extra point.

Good.

Dolphins 56, broncos 13.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Listen, if you're playing against a really good opponent, you're going to step on their throats.

Who cares?

Yeah, who cares?

It sucks that Bradley Chubb got hurt. Like, that's actually a huge blow for the Dolphins.

But the better question is, why was Bradley Chubb still in that game?

A great question. Yeah, he shouldn't have been.

I agree with that.

Yeah.

But the Ravens are playing on a different level and now they get the one seed. They probably won't play anyone next week. So now we get the Russ versus rest because we might get a two week Ravens. Everyone get.

Yep. Yep.

So it's the Steelers and the Ravens next week. Do you think that anything in the Ravens dna is like, we don't want the Steelers to beat us twice.

I think Tyler Huntley might win that game.

Okay, Pro Bowler.

I think Tyler Huntley might win that game just because I think they'll rest all their key guys. And I think Tyler Huntley might still win that game.

You know what's really turned a corner for Lamar this year is the touch passes.

Yeah.

He's got great touch passes.

Yeah, because that was a problem. Even at Louisville. It was like a guy in the short flat and he would just miss. Like, that was an easy throw. He's playing at a different level.

Odell Beckham says the best team he's ever played on right now. I don't know if that's coming from his dad's film breakdown. I want to hear a film break, like a PFF style grade from Odell's dad comparing this team to the Rams team that he was on. Yeah, but I think he's probably right because if we're going to get into some nerdy statistics, we like DVOA. Even though we're not exactly sure what it means. The Ravens have become the first team in NFL history to put up over 100% DVOA in four games in a season. No team had done it three times. So the Ravens just became the third team or the first team to ever do it three times in a season, and now they're the first team to do it four times in a season.

And I believe, according to DVOA, they're, what, top five defense, offense, and special teams.

I believe so.

Which is like. Because that's the thing, is, you see, a lot of times, a team will be great in two thirds of the phases, and you forget, oh, special teams is very important. I actually have special teams written down as the back of the head for the Rams.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, they just got rid of their kicker.

Oh.

They had Gunnar Olshevsky return. A kick against them was tough.

A lot of stuff going on with that. Also, Lamar now has as many perfect passer ratings as Tom Brady.

Ooh, damn.

358.3. Again, no idea how they calculate that. I think they just make it up, but still, that's impressive.

It's a shit like. So I tweeted this out because this is back to back years. I'm getting my preseason pick for the Super bowl to the one seed, and people are like, don't worry, because Max isn't a Ravens fan. So I think I should be a little bit safer. What do you mean, Max isn't a Ravens fan?

But why does that matter?

Because all he does is finish second place and lose.

But you had the Eagles last year.

The Eagles last year, and Max is Ravens.

Max is an Eagles fan.

I'm putting a future on the Ravens right now.

You're fucking asshole.

Actually, Max, bad price you got.

Bad price, you got to fight fire.

Fuck.

Max is finally learning how to fight fire with fire.

Yeah, I don't think it matters because you're going to put, like, $10 on plus 300 after they've shown themselves all year. It's about the preseason pick. I do look forward to, though. If the Ravens can get deep in the playoffs, I will be buying a pair of purple cargo pants.

Oh, for sure.

Have to.

The purple camo pants are elite. I love seeing Stavi before the game on the Ravens official account. Yeah, you see that on the sideline? You could tell there were some things that Stavi wanted to say as Ronnie from Dundalk, and he was like, fuck. I can't say that. I'll just say he built a homemade weapon and let everybody else fill in the blanks.

It does feel, though, that the is. This is a legacy playoffs for Lamar Jack coming up, because if they fall short of, I would say they have to get to the Super bowl because Super Bowls, anything can happen. They have to get to the Super Bowl.

I don't think so. I think they have to win two.

Games because that would be getting to the Super bowl. That would be getting.

Yeah, you're right. Okay. Yeah, I was thinking they have to.

Get to the Super bowl because the.

Narrative right now on Lamar is he can't win in the playoffs at all.

But if he wins one game and then lose game. Yeah, they have to get to the Super bowl.

Yeah.

I think that it's a legacy playoff.

I would agree with that.

Yeah. Okay. Next game, Saints $23.13 this was such a classic case of just always bet the bet that makes you so uncomfortable. And we talked about on Friday, I was like, I kind of love the Saints this week just because they look so bad and the Bucks look so good. And then the Saints played better than they've played all year. Their defense was all over the place. The first $8 drives were four, three and outs, two picks and a fumble.

Baker looked very confused, very. Taysom Hill looked good out there.

Juan Johnson was awesome.

I like this because there's so many scenarios in week 18 now. Like so many different things can happen. So I like the fact that it's mixed up a little bit, but yeah, Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, they weren't on the same page in the first half. I still think that the Bucks are good. I think that they're an above average team and that they're better than the Saints, regardless of what happened last weekend. Just kind of a weird scenario.

I think they're average. I think they're average. I mean, the record would tell you they're average.

They're average.

Yeah.

I think they're an average team. I think the Saints are an average team. This is actually kind of torturous for Saints fans because you saw them finally put together a complete game and now going into week 18, they don't control their own destiny, which sucks because you could see the Saints maybe put together two great games at the end of the season and then Saints fans be like, where was this all year?

What do you think the percentage of Saints fans are that don't want to see them make the playoffs?

I think once you get to week 18, you have to just.

You want to get in it knowing that you're going to run it back with Alan and Carr next year, right.

I think once you get to the final doorstep, it's such long season. You want more football.

Losing that last game of the season would be so much better for you next year, though. It would make every week. So much better for you.

Yeah, but if you lose and you could have gotten in with a win, I don't know, maybe that's actually what's going to happen, then they're going to win and still not get in.

That would be good.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

That's the torture part where they look at it and they say, we were playing good football at the end, literally at the end, because it was the last weeks and we don't get an extra football game.

But I think that would be good, though, because you could lose, still not get in and then your coach gets fired and then you're happy going to next year, you're like, oh, we should have made the playoffs. Would be the real heartbreaking scenario is if you didn't get in the playoffs and then the Bucs went on a little roll. If the Bucs got to the NFC championship game, because then you could say, fuck, that could have been us.

Who would the Bucks play in the first? Would they play the Eagles?

I think they play the Eagles well. It depends on what happens in the last week of the season with the Cowboys and the Eagles. I don't know if the Eagles are. Are they favored to win against the Giants?

Shouldn't be.

Shouldn't be.

Shouldn't be. Why not?

We'll get to that later.

Okay.

We'll get to that later.

Yeah.

The Eagles and the Bucks.

Yeah.

I just think the Bucks are perfectly average. I don't think they're very good. I think on their a plus game they could beat everyone but the Niners and probably the Cowboys. But they're very easily could throw out. Their c plus is very bad.

I think they could lose to anybody.

Right. Their c plus is bad. Whereas you could say, like, oh, the Niners c plus could win a playoff game still.

Yeah.

Or the Ravens c plus could win a playoff game. If the Bucks throw out a c plus, they'll lose by 20. Okay, Rams Giants. This was an ugly win for the Rams. Stafford didn't look great and we said it, the special teams is a problem. But the Rams have clinched a playoff berth in a season where they were supposed to be rebuilding in a season when their over under was six and a half. Sean McVeigh is a very, very good coach. Matt Stafford is still very good. And even though they struggled with the Giants, I'm going to keep the dangerous tag on them.

Yeah.

The way that they built this team is interesting because they had to get young, they had to get cheap because they've been in cap hell. It's like the Rams and the Saints are always going to be in cap hell. The cap might not even really exist, but the way that they're managing it is let's get some mid round guys, start a bunch of them, hope we can coach them up and do well. And they've been really good. Also, Nakua, that's been a hell of.

A bonus for him. And Williams.

Williams, he's. How many games in a row now? Does he have a. Just seems like he scores twice every single week, but, yeah, the Rams are awesome. The Rams are very good compared to what the expectation for the Rams should have been going into this year.

Yeah.

So this was scary. The punt return was really bad, and the kicking game, obviously is going to be an issue. I don't know who they're going to sign.

So did the Rams put out a blueprint on how to run a team? It's basically go win a Super bowl, go in cap hell, and then get two of the best offensive players in the NFL in the fifth round? Yeah, that's it.

That's it.

It's as easy as it could be.

It's either that or have your quarterback be dating and married to a brazilian supermodel.

Yeah.

Those are the two ways that you can succeed despite winning championships.

That's it. Just get your fifth rounders. Be, I mean, Puka Nakua and Kyron Williams, both fifth rounders in their respective positions. They're both top ten players this year.

I'd say Nakua is probably pretty close.

I think Kyron Williams is. Yeah, he has to be. So it's pretty crazy to think that those two guys, that's good drafting, good scouting.

Yeah.

Way to go, boys. Less snead.

Fuck them picks.

Still a hilarious name. The other part of this game, Tyrod Taylor. I actually think in the season of backups, I might put Tyrod Taylor as the first or second best backup in the league.

He's like a long term backup. He's a dependable.

If you're. If you're listening and you think your team signs Tyrod Taylor, I'd be pumped.

I don't blame Tyrod Taylor for that. Missed pass to Saquon. Saquon should have caught that.

It also easy.

Then he should have caught the other one. He dropped two of those.

Sometimes a pass is too easy. It becomes hard.

That's true.

That's exactly what it was.

You overthink.

It was like, you're right. They were standing next to each other.

Yeah.

Could have handed it to him.

Right.

He probably also could have just run it.

He definitely could have run himself. But yeah, the Giants are in a weird spot because I was thinking about this. Remember Daniel Jones? He still is owed a lot of money.

He's probably pumped, though.

Yeah.

Next year he's owed 35 million. They can cut him after next season. So at least they have an out there. But that's such a bummer to be like, oh, we got to go. We're just going to do Daniel Jones again.

Yeah, he's lurking back there. Justina Anderson had a, had a report earlier today. I don't know if you saw it, big cap, but it said that in the NFC east, there's two teams that could be making coaching moves. One, Ron Rivera, obviously. And then the two might surprise you.

Now, do you think, would you think. Hold on. Before you tell me this, would it be the most shocking thing in the world if Ron Rivera kept this job?

Yes, it would.

I'd agree.

Yeah.

I would be shocked.

I'd agree.

Like there's, the universe is not real. If Ron.

I'd agree. I'd agree.

So is it Sirianni or is it going to be dable? Who's the interesting one?

Because I think McCarthy say the quote again.

I don't have the direct quote in front of me, but it was like there are two teams that are expected to make coaching changes. One might be surprising. McCarthy maybe, but maybe Sirianni. Maybe dable.

Sirianni's look bad. I'm trying to think. I'm going through the Rolodex real quick.

David's back apparently might be talking about wink Martindale.

Who would be the other Dan Quinn.

But he's not going to get fired. He might get hired somewhere.

Yeah. Who would be other coach. That would be like, shocking. Oh, Matt. Patricia. Maybe Pete Carroll.

No, in the NFC east.

Oh, NFC east. Only NFC?

Yeah, there's some more bird team.

I was thinking only NFC. Then it has to be dable or sirianni. It's got to be Siriani.

Siriani.

Has to be Siriani.

Siriani. I kind of love the fire that Eagles fans have, though. I love the fact that you guys were just in a Super bowl last year and now you're like, fuck this guy.

I saw people blaming Howie Roseman later.

We'll get to it later.

Howie Roseman is now on the hot seat.

Yeah.

People are mad about the construction of the defense, but we'll get to it later.

He's built, arguably, if you go like position by position, the only team that probably is more loaded is the Niners.

He built Georgia.

He built Georgia. So NFL Georgia.

If you're mad at Howie Roseman, just be mad at Kirby smart.

Yeah. Okay.

Sounds like you're a little mad.

Yeah.

You're not mad at. We'll get to it later.

Okay.

We'll get to it later. All right. Now we're getting to a run of games that we don't care about as much. Although this one. Colts, Raiders Colts are similar to the speech I just gave with the Rams. Shane Steichen should be coach of the year. He's got my vote. He's had my vote for a while. Colts were over under six and a half wins. They're now going to play for a win and get in with the Texans on Saturday night. Also, Shane Steichen's coach of the year. Entire resume should happen with the Eagles in conjunction. How bad the Eagles have lost. Like, Shane Steichken was the mastermind. Yeah, Shane Steichen was the coach that got away, Max. That's a fact. Yeah, Shane Steichen is the guy.

Coordinator merchant. Nick Sirianni, I would say.

I like that. We'll get to it later.

Is he a coordinator killer?

Get to it later.

We'll get to it later.

So Garden Minchew, I would put right up there with Taylor being a backup.

That's why I said two. I said one or two.

Yeah, Garden Minshew, man, he had some nice balls. Some nice deep balls in this game. I didn't watch too much of it, just what they showed me on red zone. And from what I saw, he can still sling it.

So I bet on the Raiders. So I watched the majority of this game. The Raiders couldn't do anything besides Aidan O'Connell to Devante Adams. And they had a chance at the end where the Colts lined up for a kick, missed the kick. The Raiders were off sides, so.

They.

Had cut it to a seven point game. They missed the kick. Get to rekick, hit. It's a ten point game. Raiders cover in the back door with like a minute left. But yeah, the Colts controlled this game for the majority of it.

And if the Raiders wanted to win this game, they just should have deleted the interim tag. Yeah, Antonio Pierce. And they would have won that game.

Yeah, the Raiders fought to the dying end and they were still alive going into this game.

Mark Davis, if you're a listener, I hope you are a listener of this podcast. Think about how cheap it would be to hire Antonio Pierce. All you have to do, you have to just hire a guy with one of those scrapers to go to the door and just scrape the word interim off.

Yeah.

You don't even have to change anything.

That's true.

Just do it, do it.

Get some whiteout. The Raiders defense also, you can build on that because they had Gardner Minshew running around for his life a few times, and Max Crosby is a game wrecker. So I think they have to figure out the quarterback. I don't know. Maybe it's a O'Connell.

Maybe it's AOC.

Maybe it's AOC.

Seemed to like him a lot.

Whatever happened to Jimmy? Did he ever get healthy?

I think Jimmy was. He got injured and then they were just like, okay, we're going to silently, you know what it is? He's Josh McDaniels guy.

Yeah.

So they can say, we don't want to go with Jim anymore because Josh was the one that was standing on the table being like, hey, have you called Jimmy yet? Have we gotten Jimmy over yet?

Yeah.

How's Jimmy's physical looking? Oh, that shoulder looks fine to me. That ankle looks good.

Yeah, you're right. And AOC, I mean, credit to him, he realized that, hey, Devontae Adams is still one of the best wide receivers in the league, so he just spammed that play. They couldn't cover it. But yeah, the of, it's tough because Colts, Texans, like, I kind of want to see both teams in the playoffs now. They're both great stories this year.

If you're playing against those teams, definitely you'd rather play against the Colts, right?

Correct. Because I think the ceiling is higher with CJ just being crazy.

I'd rather play against the Jags.

Yeah.

I would rather play against Jags.

Yeah.

That's the team I would want to go up.

Mean that the Browns. Browns fans are big Jags fans this weekend.

Yes.

Coming up. Because that would be a nice matchup. So the Texans Titans is the other game. This game was so bad. I'm actually happy that it was bad because I said in my head, I was like, this game's going to be bad. I don't really have to think about it too much. And then it completely delivered because the Titans, they got in the red zone once.

Will Levis got knocked out.

He got knocked out. Ryan Tanhill came back in. The Titans got in the red zone once. They had 170 yards of offense total, and they were one for twelve on third down. And Will Anderson, is he officially now going to win defensive rookie of the year? He must.

No, there's another player.

Oh, yeah.

Your guy.

Well, also the guy you're thinking of, kalaja cancey.

Yeah.

This guy that plays on the Eagles. That's pretty good, too.

Oh, Jalen Carter, right? Jalen Carter. I forgot about Jalen Carter. Is he going to win rookie of the year? Yes, he is. Defensive rookie of the year. Will Anderson, two sacks.

Jalen Carter's going to win.

Are you sure?

You guys have a pretty good defense then?

No.

Very bad defense.

Oh, no.

Jalen Carter is still minus 550.

Yeah, he's probably going to win. He is a wrecker, man.

Will Anderson, though, making big plays in important games.

Will Anderson is a beast.

Say that Jalen Carter had a sack yesterday.

I think that Will Anderson had two.

Okay.

That's double the amount of sacks.

Okay.

And also Will Anderson's team. One.

Also, Will Anderson's an edge rusher and Jalen Carter's interior. But it's fine.

I got to figure out Will Anderson's team won.

How many tackles for loss did Kalijah Cansey have yesterday? That's big for me. I'll look that up later.

Will Anderson's also not playing on a line of just like, what was the best defensive line?

We'll talk about that later.

We'll talk about that later.

The last game of the season where they didn't have any sacks.

Yeah, but no, you plugged them in and Will Anderson, they traded up for Will Anderson and people thought it was an overpay and it wasn't. Yeah, he's awesome.

I think that Mike Vrabel is saving one last treat for the last game of the season.

The Jags for the think.

I think this is a look ahead game for Mike Vrabel. He doesn't give a shit if the Texans win this game.

Yeah, I'd agree. All right, let's take a break and then we'll come back and we'll finish the rest of the early games. Okay, next up, we took a break to watch college football, so now we got everyone here, 49 ers, 27 commanders, ten pft. I'll let you say whatever you want to say.

I mean, good. This was good. It was a good thing that happened. I've reached the point where I'm feeling more the clean slate vibes for next. If anybody has been a part of the Dan Snyder era, I kind of want them gone. I wouldn't be distraught if they were gone. We have some good players. Terry McLaurin looked better today. We got him the ball some. That was great. Sam Howell didn't look so hot. I still think he's here. Also shout out Jacoby Brissette for. I think he just pretended to have that hamstring.

Yeah.

And he was like, let Sam start. It was like in Rudy where they bring their jersey into coach and Ron Rivera was like, ron Rivera probably got the call from upstairs bench. Sam Howe put in Jacoby Brissette. Ron Rivera probably went to, said, hey, you know, if you had a hamstring injury, wouldn't be the worst thing ever. I don't know what actually happened, but it doesn't really matter because this game didn't really matter. We knew that the Niners were going to win. The Niners losing to the Ravens just solidified in my brain and most people's brains. They were going to destroy the commanders. So basically all I did was watch the game, nodded my head in approval when we went down and stayed down. And then I kept refreshing the tankathon and just looking at the second overall pick and thinking about Marvin Harrison, thinking about Drake May, thinking about Caleb Williams.

You're taking a quarterback.

You guys could use a UNC quarterback.

Let's be honest. You're taking a quarterback.

This podcast is more familiar with UNC quarterbacks than any other podcast in the history of the spoken word.

Yes, that's a fact.

It is a damn fact.

You're taking a quarterback.

We will probably be taking quarterbacks.

I think you need to say it.

We will most likely be taking you.

To say that you're taking a quarterback.

I think you need to understand that Sam Howe is probably hurt. Maybe.

Yeah, he might be. And I'm not saying Sam Howe should still be on the roster.

Yeah, but he'd be a damn good.

Backup taking a quarterback. Sam Howe, damn good backup taking a quarterback.

And I'm excited about whatever brand. Listen, I want a brand new slate of everything I'm talking. We got a new owner. I would like a new head coach, new general manager, new showers in the facility, new team name. I wouldn't even.

New tvs.

New tvs.

That was probably the funniest, most notable part of the game.

Yeah, after the game, the 49 ers were watching the Eagles, which we'll get to in a little bit, right, Max?

Yeah, we'll get to that.

They were watching the Eagles Cardinals the end of that game, and they were. You remember that r. Kelly tv that he was watching? That's kind of what we have in the locker room, which actually, I don't hate the fact that our opponents have to watch that tv. If that's the same tv situation that we have in our own locker room.

100%. Is it?

Probably is. That's an issue. But, yeah, just everything different. I've actually even thought about a different color scheme now. I don't want that.

I just bought you those.

Don't.

Yeah, they're great shoes. Thank you. I don't want that. But I'm okay with everything. I want to wipe Dan Snyder's memory from my brain entirely.

Taking a quarterback?

Yeah, maybe.

What color scheme would you like?

In a perfect world, I'd have to think about it. Probably Burgundy and gold. Still. That's my ideal. But why?

I'm just curious. I would love to know what your color combination would be.

A Carolina blue. Match my eyes.

And, like, burgundy.

Carolina blue and burgundy? That'd be sick.

What about black and Carolina blue?

That'd also be cool.

Like, that's the secondary color, is Carolina blue.

Yeah, I like that. And we can even do the Argyle diamonds on there.

Futuristic.

Yeah.

Everything needs to change. Everything in DC that's happened in the past 25 years needs to be done exactly the opposite. So, Hank, can you look up what the opposite colors of Burgundy and gold are? That's more of a Jake project. Jake, can you look that up?

As for the 49 ers, maybe just watching what happened with them against the Ravens and then watching them kick the shit out of the commanders, it just feels different. It feels different. I don't see the 49 ers the same way.

Like, it's boss bitches.

Yeah.

It just, like. It's kind of the step brothers. Step brothers scene when they fart and you're like, all this just kind of fucked up now. It's kind of weird. I don't know. It's like, yeah, okay. You beat the commanders soundly.

Yeah.

They did what they were supposed to do.

Right. Like, you can beat teams when you get a lead.

Yeah.

And they're probably not going to play many players next week.

Right.

Christian McCaffrey is going to be out. He's going to be resting up.

Yeah. My fantasy championship is fucked next week.

Next week is going to be tough for you.

Fucked.

You have Christian McCaffrey.

I have Christian McCaffrey in three out of four of my league.

That sucks. You probably have Lamar, too, right?

I do have Lamar. Is he not going to play?

Probably not.

God damn it.

Why would he?

God fucking damn it.

Yeah. All right.

But, yeah. Do you agree with me that the 49 ers, the only thing that will fix it is they got to win their first round playoff game by, like, 100. And then I'm like, okay, now they're back. But they beat the commanders, and I was like, oh, that's cool. Of course they did. They beat everyone who's worse than them.

The Ravens just might be that good.

Yeah.

Because remember, they beat the Dallas Cowboys and they beat the Eagles. Right?

Who?

The 49 ers.

49 ers.

Yeah.

So they're a good team. They're a good team in the NFC.

You know who else beat the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles?

Well, you have to be a good. That's my point. Big cat team. Yeah. If you're good enough to beat the two juggernauts, supposed juggernauts, of the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, you're an excellent team that's contending for a Super bowl.

Yeah.

You have to be.

That's a good point.

Thank you.

Point. Really good point. Purdy, by the way, broke the franchise record for yards.

I saw that, which is crazy. My first instinct was, yeah, but it's a 17 game season. And then I remembered, oh, yeah, they've played 16 games. Yeah, there have been a couple of other good quarterbacks for the 49 ers over the years. And Brock Purdy also missed, what, three games? Two games.

No, one game. No, he didn't miss any game.

He got bounced out of a couple of games, didn't he?

Yeah, he got concussed and then he didn't miss a game. Remember?

I thought he missed at least a few halves of games.

He missed some halves, but I don't think he ever missed a start, which was curious.

Well, good for him.

Yeah, good for him.

Good for Brock.

Brock Purdy.

I think the Brock Purdy haters are few and far between at this point.

TFT.

The opposite color of burgundy is teal, and the opposite of gold is royal blue.

Teal and royal.

Wouldn't the opposite gold be silver?

I'm just looking according to the color.

Wheel, that'd be second place to go.

Yeah, that's the opposite of first place.

The opposite of gold is actually a participation trophy.

That's true.

I don't know what? Teal and royal blue.

Coastal Carolina.

Okay, maybe shit clears.

That's only teal. That's a big time college. Or, like, minor.

Yeah, you can't be too college.

Yeah.

Okay, let's stick with burgeoning. That's the only thing that can stay. You just got the shoes. I know.

You just got the shoes. Okay, next up, Bills Patriots. The Bills are now going to play for the most bills. Way to end this season. And I know that obviously they have other paths to get in, but judging how everyone else is motivated. Like the Ravens aren't going to play hard. The Jaguars, they could definitely lose the Titans, but let's assume the Jaguars and the Steelers win their games on Sunday night. The Buffalo Bills will be playing for the second seed in the playoffs or not being in the playoffs, which is so perfectly. 2023 Bills, they could play for the 6th seed, too. I think. I'm saying if the Jaguars and Steelers win before they play, they will be playing officially for the second seed or.

Be out of the playoffs at game time.

Yeah.

Which is wild. And I think the Bills are going to do it because I think the Dolphins are frauds and the Patriots in this game, Bailey Zappi did not put together a good half. Yeah, but they hung around well.

The Bills, yeah, the Bills didn't play well either. We had old school Josh smashing all the buttons. That one lateral that he made while he was getting torn down, sick lateral, though. Their offense did not look great. Razul Douglas, who we've talked about a lot on this podcast, was incredible. Two interceptions. I think he had actually another one where it was called back where he forced it.

Yeah.

He's the greatest signing midseason signing in NFL history.

He is.

He's a nice boost. The Patriots. This game did not matter to our Patriots. Next week is our Super bowl against the jets. Factor fiction.

Fiction.

Why you want to lose?

Because as you know, PFT, as a Patriots fan, we're looking at Tankathon.

But you know, Bill Belichick can't. He can't tank against the jets.

They won't. But it's not the most important game in our franchise.

It could be, though.

We're going to beat the jets. It's the fucking jets. It's going to be an easy win.

Yeah.

And I'm going to be upset about it. How are you?

No, listen, I love Bill. I love Bill. I love him so much. I want to see him go out with a win. I think it mean a lot to all Patriots nation, greater new.

He's not going anywhere yet.

Well, I read something that said that he was from. Was it Jeff Howe? He's plugged.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I, listen, I think that what's most important is we want to send Bill out on a high note. It's funny because next week I'm going to be rooting for Hank. Max is going to be rooting for Max again because he's selfish.

He only roots for Max.

He's selfish. But Memes is going to be rooting also for Hank next week. I think we're just on Team Hank next week.

You don't want the Jesso and memes?

No, I want the Patriots to fall now because I'm in fear of them.

Getting.

To try to. How are you going to tank?

I don't know.

You could maybe start Mac Jones. That would be hilarious.

Well, there is a comparison. There is a graphic floating around out there of the two quarterbacks stats of this year, and they're basically exactly the same.

Yeah.

Mac Jones is.

I told you that with my eyes.

Slightly better.

Yeah, well, Mac Jones at the end was way worse.

Yeah.

Like he had the yips and he was just lofting balls to defensive.

But the two interceptions, Bailey's happy. Threw away.

Yeah, no, they were bad. They were really bad.

I don't know.

That's not the yips.

They were Mac Jones. Like, there was one that he underthrew by about six yards and that screamed Mac to me.

We're also Hank, we're going to have.

To be on our P's and Q's with the strength of schedule because I don't know how that's going to shake out. There's like other matchups that we have to watch in case the Patriots do lose that game. The commanders also lose. There's like three other games across the NFL that we have to root to go a certain way because that's how they're going to decide who would get the second pick, who would get the third, who would get the fourth, who.

I'm sorry, but this is foreign to me. You guys still don't know what pick.

You'Re going to have.

We don't know what.

I know I'm going to have just one pick.

Yeah.

So explain this.

Unless the NFL takes away the draft pick from David Tepper as a punishment.

It'S not their draft pick anymore.

I just.

They could take away next year's.

Right now it says it's Carolinas.

They could take away our next year's. What has to happen? I'm not sure exactly.

If we both lose, then there's three other games. Week 18.

Oh, for the strength back schedule strength, I got to figure that out.

I think I'm rooting for the Saints.

I don't know.

You don't know who you're rooting for?

The Jets. I got to have all my scenarios in front of me by game time on.

Jets win, commanders win, Patriots win.

I do think it needs to be repeated because I just had a memory of that video of the Bills fan lighting himself on fire, which was awesome. Bills mafia just going crazy for the last home game. The fact that the Bills could potentially have two home games in the playoffs because if they were the two seed, they'd have two home games if they won their first game. Orton be sitting on the couch is insane. I don't know if that volatility has ever happened in week 18.

I don't know, but it is going to be nuts. And I'm hoping that the Bills win because it would be great to see Buffalo get those home playoff games.

Yes.

Two of them. Oh, that's funny. Tua tua. Two of them. Two of them. Two of them. Okay, next up, Bears. Falcons. Bears killed the Falcons. The Bears are building something. I don't care what people say. I know people are going to trash me. Bears are building something. They're basically identical to what the Lions did last year in the fact that they.

That was a funny laugh by Hank. I'm not laughing at your statement.

This is the problem. People like you. They're your idiots.

Okay, all right.

Tell me. Tell me how it's different. Tell me how it's different. The Lions started one in six last.

Year and then they finished. Made the playoffs.

Yeah, and the Bears almost made the playoffs this year.

They beat, weren't they out of the Browns last week?

No, they were eliminated on Sunday Night Football. Idiot.

Oh, God.

Week 17 and now they get to play the packers and maybe bounce the packers. It was basically like six days different that the Bears got eliminated versus the Lions last year.

Apologies.

This is what I deal with every. I just listen to you talk about.

The Bears and it's like, they're bad, they're bad.

They're bad.

They're. Whoa, whoa, hold on now.

They're the Lions.

They were bad for the start of the season. Have I not been talking PFD? Hank, the Bears are rallying around their.

Coach and they have a quarterback that.

Everyone in the city loves. Let me talk. I don't think so. Let me talk.

PFD.

Have I not been saying the Bears are, like, playing really good ball for the last month and a half?

Here's how the season went. They're bad. They're bad. They're terrible. They suck. They won a game, but they're still bad. They're bad. They're bad. They're bad. Their defense is pretty good. Their defense is good again. Their defense is really good.

Yes.

They're not a bad team.

Yes.

I'm depressed because they lost against the packers. That sucks.

No, the Browns.

The Browns, that sucks. That way we won't be playing to get into the playoffs against the packers.

Right.

The Bears are still okay. The Bears are all right. They're pretty good now.

It's been a trajectory upwards for the last month and a half of me saying the Bears are playing good football and they're better than the Eagles right now. Max admitted that that's true. Objectively, they actually probably might be playing the best ball in this room because you guys say it right now.

You guys played the Cardinals, right?

Yeah, we kicked the shit out of the Cardinals.

Okay, interesting. Kick the shit out and they beat the Eagles, the Cowboys and the Cowboys.

We'll get to that.

Sorry. I'm excited about my team, Hank.

I'm sorry. I mean, to laugh.

No, it was really hurtful. That's what I deal with every day on. The Lions have a coach, the city.

And the team rallies behind, and they have. Quarterback in the city is behind the quarterback. The Bears have the debate every single.

Day and no one knows where to go.

Guess what? I'm not having the debate anymore. Here's where the comparison falls apart. I've stopped having the debate. Justin Fields. We're keeping Justin Fields. We're taking all the picks. We're getting more picks for drafting. Can't decide. I don't decide that. He's back, so I have to say he's got the guys playing hard.

That's where the comparison falls apart. One team has a coach that is coaching with focused rage and is intense and awesome. And the other coach is Dan Campbell. Is Dan Campbell. The other coach spends all this time thinking about what he's going to feed his cats for dinner.

Fine. You guys don't want to want me to be happy, it's fine. No, I do want you. I'm more pointing. You shouldn't be being a real dick.

I know it's beyond your control, but you should not be happy that Matt Eberflu is coming.

What do you mean, you don't want me to be happy? We want our teams to be happy in this room.

The three guys that control the draft.

No one wants my team to be good.

No, but I can't even say they're good.

Max.

Airport. Max.

I want your team to be good, and I've been.

Fuck off.

You want my team to be.

I want your team to be good. I do not want your team to be great.

Last year, I wanted your team to win the Super bowl, you fucking asshole. Same. I rooted for them the entire year. People were mad at me because I was so fucking pro Philly.

Last year, same.

What?

Does that not count?

Yeah, no, that's all for not.

That's not my fault. That's the fucking turf's fault. Either way, I'm very excited about the Bears future. I think everything's in front of them. I still trust in whatever Ryan pulls. The Carolina trade is going to go down as one of the worst trades for one team ever. The fact that we got the first pick overall, DJ Moore and their second rounder next year, it's crazy. So the draft goes through. Ryan poles again.

So I was thinking about again, Max is going to be rooting for me. I'm going to be rooting for Hank. Hank is going to be rooting for memes and you and me. And then big cat is going to be rooting for Caleb Williams to not get hit by a bus.

We're not drafting Caleb Williams.

I know, but you don't want him to get.

Yes, that's true.

I do not trade.

Yes.

And I'm rooting to beat the packers because now, week 18, I'll say it, it's my Super Bowl. I don't care. It should be. And guess what? If the Bears win, Packers fans will be crying, crying, crying, and it'll be great. And I'll fucking love every second of it. You don't even know that we're playing to bounce the packers.

Yeah, I do.

Lions did it last year.

Oh, that's very interesting.

I know.

All right, you know what, Jake put a reminder on this exact conversation. Week six. Next year when the Bears are four and two or five and one.

This is going to age nice.

Oh, I can't wait for this. I can't wait for this. The Bears are going to be good next year. They are.

That's on the big cat soundboard.

The Bears are going to be good in 2024. I'm saying it right now. This team is playing fucking good football. Justin Fields guys are playing for each other. The defense is legit. We have all the draft capital. We have all the fucking cap space. I don't care that this might be a terrible sound bite for me next year, but I'm saying it right now.

And I believe my, my Justin fields over Trevor Lawrence take is not as smelly as it used to.

I here's what it really comes down to is I'm scared the grass is not greener. So let's just keep loading up all the weapons. And we need a new offensive coordinator. That's a fact. What?

You just never want to pay your quarterback.

Oh, what happened?

Pay your quarterback the rest of the team just sucks.

This is different because your guy is like, he's a big threat with his legs.

Oh, true.

He still could be a good player.

I think the league years, we have two years.

Yeah, you got to pay maybe how many more years?

But maybe he becomes so good that it's like, I would love to pay.

Him, but that's always the case. And then you pay him and the.

Rest of your team sucks.

Quarterbacks are the new running backs.

Yeah, no, I never pay a quarterback.

I'm ready for that.

Also have, we also have a ton of picks, so maybe all the guys will be young and cheap.

How many picks do the Eagles have in the first?

We're not talking about the Eagles right now.

Yeah, we'll get to that later.

Hank.

Really fucking, no, we have one more game. Hank really fucking bummed me out. He didn't even watch football this week.

It was a funny laugh Hank gave, though. It's so the, what do you think.

The Bears record is in the last seven games?

Five and two.

Oh, you did know that. So you're a fucking, just, I feel.

Like they've been playing tomato cans, though.

They beat the Lions. They almost beat them twice. Did that not happen?

They should happen.

They should have beat the Lions.

Yeah, they should have beat them twice. They should have beat him twice. Should have beat the Browns. If that fucking guy doesn't drop, who's the tight end that we got from?

I guess it's more my laugh just because of the.

Robert Tunyon.

Yeah, he dropped that ball.

We're in Chicago. I live here now. I'm a resident. I see the discourse. People are all over the place about the Bears.

We're very confused.

That was not the case with the Lions. Everyone last year with the Lions was like, this is our team. This is our city. We're going. The Bears is like, get rid of the coach, get rid of the quarterback.

Well, no, we other side of. I know, but he's back. But people, that's been decided.

That was why I laughed.

That's what I would be concerned about. Dweeba fluce.

It's fine. Everything's going to be fine. I still want Harbaugh, but, yeah, that would be great. Would you think the Bears can be good if they had Harbaugh? Yes. Okay, son. I'll fucking work on it.

I'll figure out a way you can't do.

Was trusting. I said I was giving my mind, body and soul over to Ryan Poles and he decided we're doing Dweeber Fluce. All right, so there's nothing I can do. You give your mind, body and soul over to a GM. There's literally nothing that I will follow him to the depths of hell.

He should take a good.

He's a good defensive.

He should say, you know what? Being a head coach sucks. He clearly doesn't like being a head coach. I think he likes coaching football as a head coach. I don't think he likes any of the extra stuff that goes along with it, because no sane person would like to do that. Like, talk to the media when you stink. Try to dispel rumors about your coaches getting fired for HR reasons that you never disclose. That part of being a head coach is the worst.

Yeah.

So he should just be like, you know what? Being a position coach is actually not that bad. I'm happy to do it. Let's just let somebody else come in, and he'll be the COVID guy for me.

I just want. Yeah, no, you're right. Everything you just said is correct. And especially if you just let him keep his parking space. He's probably got the best parking space.

Yeah.

It's like, dude, you get to keep it. Doesn't have to keep your office.

Changing schools.

Yeah.

Harbor doesn't even need an office. Football field is his office.

That's right.

I just want the record to show whatever timestamp you maybe even put it in the YouTube timestamp. That, Hank, really hurt my feelings. Okay. Jaguars panthers.

You did.

You hurt my feelings.

I'm sorry.

Really badly been. I'm really excited about the Bears future, and you just dumped cold water all over it and kicked me in the nuts.

Hurt people. Hurt people.

Yeah.

Good point, PF.

And his team's trying. Not very good. Our team's not very good.

I'm ungaslighting you. You're gaslighting. No, by letting him believe that this is all good, and I'm just trying to.

The Bears have been good.

What do you want me to say?

Attention to football.

You don't watch football.

Win a bet.

True.

You hate football.

Play corum.

Touchdown.

You hate football. You like Tom Brady.

Facts.

Yes.

Okay.

That's a fact.

Last game before the game, we want to get to. Jaguars 26, Panthers zero. This game, the story is, well, the Jaguars played well. Their defense woke up. It was against the Panthers offense, and Trevor Lawrence didn't play. Jaguars are now in a. If they win, they win the AFC south. If they lose, they can still maybe get in, but they would need help. Can't really judge the Jaguars if they're back to being the early season Jaguars off a game against the Panthers. The big story is David Tepper is now officially he's the new Dan Snyder because there was a video of him.

He's got about 20 years left of doing this type of stuff.

He's on the path.

Yeah.

He is the number one as the most.

He might be fast tracking it. So he threw a drink at a fan, a Panthers who was heckling him. Sorry, was it Jaguars?

I think it was Jaguars.

Jaguars fan.

We don't know what was said to him. We don't know what words were exchanged.

You know what? I don't really care what words are exchanged, because if you have over a billion dollars, I don't think words should be able to hurt you to the point where you throw a drink at someone.

Yeah.

I blame Taylor Swift. She was the one that started the whole alcohol and the sweets thing this season, and I think Tepper saw that and was like, oh, that's cool. I think that's a cool thing to do. All the popular celebrities are doing it. So he's up there with his drink, and there is actually a quote I looked up for Miss Swift. Sounds exactly like it describes the situation. I left you out there standing crestfallen on the landing. Champagne problems. Oh, it sounds exactly what he was doing was dumping some vuve or some moe.

Yeah, it was Hepper. We support you. If you come out and say that it was Taylor Swift's fault, yes, we will 100% support you and have your back.

So it's a bad look, bad thing to do. Scumbag move.

I think it's. Yeah, like, bad look doesn't even. Scumbag doesn't even qualify. It's like. It's the worst look you can have as an owner of an NFL franchise.

Yeah.

Listen, I'm not going to make excuses, but Tepper might have some of that affluenza. You remember that defense that that kid gave a while ago?

Yeah.

He grew up wealthy, so he didn't know that drunk driving was a crime. He might have affluenza to the point where he's so rich that he cannot be held liable for anything that he does.

He doesn't realize that was a crime.

Yeah, I mean, say what you want about Dan Snyder, but he would never waste a glass of non expired alcohol on a fan.

That's true. David Tepper, your problem is not that you threw. Well, your problem is that you threw a drink at a fan, but your big problem is Mike Florio's on your ass.

Now.

Mike Florio said throwing a drink on to paying customers violates the NFL's personal conduct policy. The NFL needs to make a swift and strong statement about Panthers owner David Tepper's behavior in Jacksonville. He's getting suspended.

He might get suspended, which is a very funny thing to do for an owner.

Yeah.

But could you imagine, like, that Panthers might become the most attractive job if David Tepper is no longer there to bother you. 100%.

It would.

Yeah.

I think, personally, the response from Godella should be not to take away the Panthers draft pick. That seems too harsh. I would move their draft pick down one slot next year. I think that's fair.

Next year, you can. Can't take what's not yours.

But, yeah, it was funny because he threw the drink and then he tossed the cup, and then he walked away, and he had his goons step in instead of standing on business, packing it up. If he had gotten to a fight, like a fight that you see in the stands from that suite with the fan, I would have respected that more. But he threw the drink and then walked away. It was a coward drink.

Yeah.

David Tepper's so dumb. He might just be like, well, he said something racist to me. Yeah, like what, Baldis, where's David Tepper?

Yeah.

What's David Tepper's nationality or ethnicity? Let's find this Pittsburgh. He might have said something about Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

Well, he's one of those.

I think there's, like, four owners in the NFL that used to be. Here's what it is. He was a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, so he considers himself to be a. Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, I wish you were still a minority owner.

Yeah.

Drink.

Drink in your face.

Yeah.

But this is when I had dinner with his wife.

She wasn't spilling any drinks, if you know what I mean.

Yeah.

They were all finding a home.

I do know what you mean. It will be very interesting what happens, though, because he really is the worst owner. Very quickly. This happened so fast.

It's cartoonish. It's like Cruella Deville stuff.

He's one away from kicking a kid like a sick kid or like, stealing a kid's candy.

Yeah.

Taking candy from a baby, running over a dog, that sort of thing.

He might do all of these. Pushing old lady in a wheelchair into oncoming traffic. Yeah, David Tepper could do any of these.

He is the worst. I still do love the story that he bought his former boss's mansion just to bulldoze it to the.

Have a. I have a fucked up question. Is David Tepper the one guy in America right now.

Who.

It wouldn't be the worst if he was on the Epstein thing because then they wouldn't talk about the true. It's like just bury the headline.

I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons.

There's levels to fires and he'd have to put out that fire before he puts out the drink.

Everyone would forget about it for sure.

Immediately. His PR team would be focusing on a way bigger, different problem.

Yeah.

So that one gets solved.

Wonder if there's going to be anybody in sports that gets caught up in that.

Whitlock.

Whitlock. He was going to be my who's back of the week.

But, yeah, let's save that. I want you to tell the whole story.

It's the tweet of the year.

Yeah, it is. It's 2024 ratio of the year for sure. Okay, before we get to the game, we want to talk about. We are sponsored by Stella Blue Coffee. Stella blue coffee. You see it behind me right here. It is delicious coffee. You can buy it on Amazon. You can buy it on stellabluecoffee.com. It's really good coffee. We have different flavors, I think still some holiday flavors left over. The butter cookie is delicious. The regular cookie comes in everything, beans, grounds, cups. So you can buy it@stellabluecoffee.com. We give some of the money to paws Chicago, where I adopted Stella from. So we give back to the dogs. If you're a dog lover, if you're a coffee lover, if you got kids, if you got to drink coffee all the time. I'm like at four or five cups a day. Stellabluecoffee.com. Go check it out. It's really, really good coffee. We drink it in the office all the time. I drink it every morning, so I believe in the coffee. Stellbluecoffee.com. Go get it right now and get yourself some coffee. Help some dogs feel good about your life. Stellbluecoffee.com. Okay, Cardinals 35, Eagles 31. That's your cue.

This is your show.

Okay, Cardinals 35 35, Eagles 31 31. Are there any Philadelphia Eagles fans on this show?

Correct.

That's not an answer.

Pug.

Pug. Pug was at the. God, Pug.

What were your thoughts on the game? In two words or less? One miserable.

One of them is.

Yeah, I was going to say, how do we know that was Pug?

This was embarrassing for the Eagles. The fans are upset. They want everybody fired. I saw some people want Howie fired. Some people want Nick Siriani fired. Turning on all your guys. Disappointed. Some are saying that maybe Jalen's not the guy anymore. People are upset at of. There's a lot of blame to go around.

Gilly banned the players from going out.

On New Year's Eve, banned them from going out to celebrate. You can't celebrate something like that. Max, from your perspective as an Eagles fan, how much did this game make you want to not exist anymore?

No. There was a sense of relief.

I want to know.

I stand by that. There was a sense of relief because now you just know this team is bad. There's no expectations at all going forward. It's like a kind of a weight lifted off your shoulder because if they found a way to win that game late, you still would have been like, this team is really bad. But whatever, we won and we're still in play for the one c, blah, blah, blah. Now that they lost, it's like this team's bad. This team is just legitimately bad, and there's no reason that they should win any playoff games rather than get the one seed.

Okay, so rank the things that are bad about this team right now in your mind, what are the top three problems?

Coaching, number one?

Yeah.

Nick Sirianni. Remember we talked about this? Not so funny anymore.

Yeah.

And that was the whole thing, is that there was never a moment of philly galvanizing. Everyone thought that Nick Sirianni was corny all the time. But it was like, oh, he's winning. He's winning football games. So we can handle the corniness. We can handle him doing the bullshit at the press conferences, wearing all the whatever. But now that he's losing and losing because of him or because of the coaching is just an easy reason for Philadelphia to just latch on to how bad of a coach he is. An unlikable guy and piece of shit.

He's a piece of shit.

Yeah, he's a piece of shit.

That seems personal. That goes beyond coaching.

He's a bad coach.

What about big Dom? Yeah, because they're owing four. He's back for two weeks, though.

Beat the Giants.

Oh, you beat the Giants. I forgot about that.

You forgot about that yesterday too.

I did.

Yeah. I hate when people are like, oh, this team won their week seven Super bowl, but since you beat the Chiefs and Nick Sirianni walked in the tunnel and said, see ya, and held his crotch and did that whole thing, you guys are two and.

Yeah, well, one of those was the bills the next week. So it's really since the bills.

You know what the worst since the Bills. The worst is you thought you had such a big window, and now it seems like there might not be a window at all.

Yeah.

I don't know. Paying the quarterback. You pay the quarterback, the window closes.

Yeah.

So are you upset with the contract or are you upset with mean.

I'm not upset with the contract. I'm upset with the, like, that's just how the NFL works right now. Good quarterbacks need that money. But then the team just isn't as. I don't think the Chiefs are going to win Super bowl this year.

Scale one to ten, though.

But the Chiefs do have a home playoff game.

That's a good point.

And they won their division. That was the first fuck about a.

Home playoff game after what just happened to them yesterday.

But that's the first step when you do the whole thing. Got to win your division.

Yeah.

Then you got to win a playoff game. The Chiefs did win their division.

I don't care about winning divisions. We're not hanging banners. That's the first winning fucking division.

Are you only saying that because you're not winning your division? No.

I think they quite literally put up banners.

That's definitely, like, in every.

Maybe they put champs with the years.

Yeah, with the years, but your banner.

But the best.

No, you know what the fuck? See, you guys always do this. You know what the fuck I'm saying? Like, the actual.

No, they do. Have you been to a sports stadium?

The banner is like what the Colts did when they made it to the. That is the fucking banner. It's a standalone fucking banner putting the year under. Like, there's 25 different years on there. There's not, like, banner night for putting the year on a banner that already fucking exists. That's not the banner you're talking about.

Banner night.

You all know what the fucking banner is. No one fucking cares.

Is there a banner, though, flying there?

Actually, I'm looking right now. I'm seeing 2019 NFC east division champions. 2013 NFC east division champions.

Right next, there's a Super bowl banner.

There's individual banners.

Oh, no.

All right, fine. Whatever. No one gives a fuck about winning the division.

Well, no, the Banners, but there's banners.

I'm looking at also means you get.

A home playoff game.

Yeah, you get a home playoff game. Talk me through that last drive. I definitely went on the show being like, I'm not going to get worked up. And then he's like, we don't hang banners. That last drive was pretty bad, Max.

Quarterback run minus four yards. Quarterback run minus six yards. Time out with four minutes to go. Bubble screen.

What the fuck is that?

How is that winning football? How is it? How does that happen?

Max skill.

One to ten, though. How confident are you still that Jalen hurts is a guy?

Jalen Hurts played a good football game.

You didn't answer the question.

Jalen hurts crucial drive.

He lost ten yards combined in two plays.

It's fucking play calling. There was nowhere for him.

I have a special.

Deandre Swift.

There was, like, one.

What?

It's actually Max from right after the game. He sent us a personal video. So let's make sure this gets on the podcast.

Today's December 31. We're going to do this whole thing.

No, we don't do the whole thing.

This is your extended cameo. Philadelphia Eagles may as well be the worst team in the NFL this year. Their offense is putrid. Well, the offense actually played pretty well today. Jalen Hurts has got to be better decision making. That last drive where you have to go win the football game, you have to make better plays to finish a drive and put seven points on the board. If there's a quarterback run to the right. The fact that you think that you can. That was bad. That was bad. But they scored points on that drive. And lose seven yards is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen.

It sounds like you don't think he's the guy.

Yeah.

You're having doubts.

No, I'm not. Jalen hurts played. Look at his game. He had a good game yesterday.

How's the Matt Patricia?

He didn't get the ball. Matt Patricia's bad. The defense is just bad. There's nothing you can do.

So back to my question that you didn't answer on Friday, and I've had memes answer. How do you feel knowing that your season is going to end tragically and there's nothing you can do about it?

It ended tragically yesterday.

Oh, it's over.

Yesterday was the tragic end.

So will you be watching the playoff game?

Yeah. Playing spoiler.

The playoff.

What if you win the playoff game? What happens then?

They just go to the next spoiled.

What if you win the spoiler?

2024. They're just trying to spoil everyone.

Jake was very helpful. He sent over a tweet from the Philadelphia Eagles. Here it is. A tweet from July, July 24 of 2020. It says, it's been a banner day.

Shut the fuck up.

Fly, Eagles, fly. And it's the banner hanging day that they're celebrating.

That's cool.

It was during COVID so they were.

Full of shit, yeah. Who gives a fuck about winning divisions? Who gives a fuck about winning divisions?

It's important.

It's not important.

Winning Super Bowls is important.

Hey, credit to Jonathan Gannon, by the way, for keeping the Cardinals playing. They're frisky.

Yeah.

Playing teams tough seemed a little personal. Players. Where did.

I hate this.

A.

What did you call him earlier? Nick Sirianni. He's a coordinator. Merchant.

Yeah.

I mean, Shane Steichen must have been the head coach last year.

So do you think there's a chance?

More so than not, I think there's a chance.

Whoa.

Even if they make the playoffs?

That would be the playoffs.

So they make the playoffs and they spoil somebody in the.

If they lose in the first round.

First round, that's where the line is gone.

Okay.

Holy shit. What a fall from grace. Yeah, that would be.

I don't know what he does. I don't know. Like Shane Steichen going on and doing what he's doing and then the offense looking. What it is without him is like he has to be gone. He's so bad. He has to be gone.

And howie.

Howie's fine.

Okay.

But didn't get any linebackers.

Linebackers are atrociously bad. He tried like Shaq Leonard. I don't mind throwing a dart and giving it a chance, but he's bad. Nick Morrow is a joke out there. I mean, our two linebackers must run forty s that are over a five. They suck. Shut up, Hank.

I feel bad for you.

I agree with you.

Hank's being a little bitch today. Max, we can agree on. Yeah, we can agree on that. I'm sad for you.

No, you're not.

No, I am. I hate when you guys. No, I'm not lying because I didn't want you to. Like, you have given. It's not. The pain is not there. Like we didn't get to see it. I wish we had been together for the Cardinals Eagles game. We're getting robbed of that because the playoffs are going to come. And when you lose in the playoffs, you're going to be like, I knew they were going to lose in the playoffs. They stink.

Correct.

So we've been robbed. So I am sad for you.

You're sad for you?

I'm sad for you.

Sad for you.

No, but I'm sad for you because I wanted your sadness to be more around us.

I'm sad for the listeners.

Yeah, it's a dark day.

I think you'll figure out a way to get back up for them.

Yeah.

What if they beat the Giants by like 20.

They're dead.

All right. And Max will say, we're not being honest. I think we, Hank Pft and I, we need to root for the Eagles to win a playoff game because that will get him back. Right. So he plays cowboys. If you win a playoff, it depends.

How they go to.

He's already a little back. He's already a little back.

You go on the road to Tampa.

Bay, maybe he's already a little back.

Folks.

You beat Tampa Bay, convincing fashion, smush.

That shut him out. It would take three score, first round playoff win for me to be back, and then I'm fully back.

You're telling me you wouldn't get up for a game against the Cowboys?

I would get up, but we would lose. Going to Dallas.

The defense loser talk.

Divisional round game. The division is important.

What do you mean it's important?

Yeah.

Playing spoiler.

Yeah.

You could spoil the.

Yeah, yeah.

In the second round of.

First ever spoiler in a playoff.

Yeah.

You should spoil the Cowboys. Then you go to the NFC championship game.

Well, it would probably be against. It would probably be against the Niners. You have to go.

Yeah.

Unless there's an.

What?

I'm happy, actually. No, you're not.

You're happy.

No, I'm rooting for you. I'm rooting for you to win a playoff, Hank.

Yeah, same.

I'm in BFT.

Yeah. Yeah.

We're all rooting for you to win a playoff.

I want to see you happy before I see you sad.

Right. Exactly.

We need to get you back up before we can tear you down again. You got torn down when we were all on vacation. We didn't get our fill. The Maxiwana. We didn't get to smoke it.

Yeah. I don't know what you want me to say.

He's just like, I hate this show. He's down bad. I thought the Eagles were going to win that game convincingly. They were up.

Yeah, well, the Cardinals had the ball for two thirds of the game. Yeah, they kind of controlled the clock. Also, Max, did you know that the Eagles are 30th in the NFL on third down defense?

Yeah, it sounds about right.

Like almost the worst.

I saw someone write an article, Max, that said that was the worst Eagles lost in the last ten years.

Sure.

You think that.

What about the Super Bowl?

Super bowl?

Yeah, but that's different. Like, they played well in the Super bowl.

Yeah.

This is the stat that 28 days ago the Eagles were ten and one. Jalen Hurts was the clear MVP favorite.

Oh, no.

They had the number one rush defense in the NFL.

Oh, man.

Number six overall defense. Number four passing offense.

Your foot wasn't hurt.

Yeah.

Put that on a banner.

That's a banner. That's a banner. 28 days ago.

I'm just wondering, how does everything change?

So it is pretty crazy how fast they have fallen to a point where now you're talking about firing this coach who went to a Super bowl last year and was 28 days ago. Say it again.

I can't read it all again.

Okay, now just do it one more time. I talked over you for part of it.

I'm sorry.

Eagles were ten and one. Jalen Hurts was a clear MVP favorite. Number one rush defense in the NFL. Number six overall defense. Number four passing offense. Number four rushing offense.

That seems good.

What happened?

What happened? 28 days gauntlet. I told you the gauntlet.

No, this was in the middle of the gauntlet.

Yeah, I know, the gauntlet.

The gauntlet got you. You could say that before the gauntlet. But this was in the gauntlet, right?

No, I said that before the gauntlet. I said, the gauntlet's going to get you. And it did.

But I guess the end of the gauntlet got us.

Yeah, you got tired from the gauntlet.

The Cardinals are part of the gauntlet.

The gauntlet.

And we lost to the fucking jets.

Then you got the gauntlet next week with the Giants.

That Jets win isn't looking as good, memes. No, we're playing bcs. It's crazy. The Cardinals could finish with four wins. And depending on how week 18 goes, three out of four of the wins are going to be against playoff teams.

Yeah.

Steelers, cowboys and the Eagles. That's awesome.

If you're Gannon.

Yeah.

Point at that and be like, build on that. Yeah, he's kind of the. I'd say the Cardinals might be not like the Lions of last year.

No, but they're feisty. Only won four games. Okay. Speaking of Steelers 30, Seahawks 23, Mike Tomlin, 17 straight years, going over 500. This guy, he gets to his 9th win. It's incredible. I know. Steelers fans are not the happiest with Mike Tomlin right now because they judge it in Pittsburgh. They judge it by rings. They're not hanging banners.

No.

For winning AFC. Right. So they judge it by rings. And they haven't been to the Super bowl in, what, 13 years? But for everyone else in the NFL who roots for bad franchises, that's an insane stat.

Yeah, it's our dream. I would love that so much if I were a Steelers fan. But their pass rush is awesome. No matter what else you can say about the team? Tomlin's put together good defense. They've got some stuff to be excited about there. And Mason Rudolph is not bad. So Mason Rudolph. Tomlin announced earlier today, if Kenny's ready to go, they're staying with Mason. So they're going to ride the hot. Mean the Steelers might be getting hot at the right time.

Yeah.

And also Mason Rudolph realizes that George Pickens is really good and throwing the.

Ball, it also limits the crazy outbursts. If you just keep him.

Steelers are, Steelers have turned around to like, they're playing good ball. Najee Harris, you see that stiff arm?

Yeah.

They're sick. Little boydom. Yeah, big time.

You little small.

And the Seahawks are. I feel like they have to hit another reset button.

They've kind of been delaying the reset button because the quarterback situation, I don't think they truly believe that Gino is the long term answer.

Right? No.

The contract they gave him shows that they don't.

They don't. So they're probably going to address that at some point soon. But the rest of the team is really good.

I know they have so many. They just, this season just kind of got away from them.

If they had a really good quarterback, the Seahawks would be a contender.

Should we blame the stadium? Should we blame the fans?

Sure.

You couldn't go into Seattle and win a game there.

They're more focused on Huskies games.

Yeah.

You can't have both.

I'd agree. Okay. Wrapping up broncos 16 charger, six broncos eliminated.

Yes.

They're done.

And more news has trickled out about the Russell Wilson situation where they're actually, like, filing a grievance. They did file a grievance with the NFLPA when they told Russ back after they beat the Chiefs, you have to change your contract or else you're going to get benched. And now Russ, he's in this weird position where he does have. People are rooting for Russ.

Yeah.

No, I felt bad for him when I saw that press conference. They told me that they were going to bench me if I didn't change my whole contract. We were winning game. We had just beaten the Chiefs.

Yeah.

So it's weird. I, I imagine that this sort of thing happens a lot in the NFL. We just don't hear about it. And they probably don't tell the players straight up.

Right.

Like, hey, you need to take this much less money.

Right.

Or else we're just going to bench you for a while. So I think it happens a lot. The fact that it happened to Russ feels like, there's probably some other owners and gms out there that are pissed off that this news got of. Yes, we had a pretty good thing going until George Patton had to talk to Russ Wilson about it and then he gets on the phone with his agent and now it's a big news story.

Yes, I'd agree with you on that. And as for this game.

Yeah.

Jared Stidham, good job.

Yeah, this game stunk.

Yeah, this game stunk. Last one. Chiefs. Bengals. Chiefs 25. Bengals 17. Credit to us. We were the first to tell you that the Chiefs were going to win the AFC west. They just won their 8th straight AFC west title.

I think we said that in December of last year.

Yeah.

You know what?

They would do that again. Congratulations to the Chiefs for winning the 2024 AFC.

Yeah.

Let's do it.

Good job, guys.

Nine straight, one accomplishment reminder. No, we did it.

That's our reminder.

We just said it.

Okay.

We just said they won the AFC west next year.

They're going to do it.

Yeah.

They already did it.

Yeah, they just did it. We just congratulated.

I have a take about the Chiefs.

Yeah.

I think they might be dangerous because I think that this is the one time where the Chiefs actually have the nobody believes in us card that they can play.

That's a factory.

And they try to play it all the time. Remember when Travis Kelsey was like, nobody believes in us because the mayor of Cincinnati said he thought the Bengals were going to win. They will dig through the trash. They will go through a dumpster to find disrespect. Now the entire world is talking shit about them.

I mean, I've always thought they're dangerous because it's Patrick Mahomes.

Yeah.

Also that.

Yeah.

Patrick Mahomes. In the playoffs, I've wanted to count out the Chiefs a million times and be like, no chance they could win the Super bowl, but it's Patrick Mahomes.

Yeah.

I think that part makes it so that they could always win the Super Bowl.

I think they're very scary in the playoffs.

Yeah.

I mean, they won this game with defense. In the second half. They completely shut down the Bengals and kicking. They kicked six straight field goals to win by eight.

And at some point they have to find a receiver. At some point it's got to happen.

Yeah. And also special teams. Did you see Richie James return a punt from the end zone? That was special.

Yep.

That was very special.

Yeah.

They have a lot of bad things, but they have Patrick Mahomes and a defense that can bow up and I.

Get the feeling like they're going to be ready to go in the playoffs?

Yeah.

I don't know.

Did you see Jamar Chase get into it with Snead?

Yeah.

Said he wouldn't fight him. He got locked up.

Yeah.

Check the stats. Needs to check the stats.

Also love the name Legerius.

Legerius. Almost as good as we should have mentioned. It was a little Jordan.

Little Jordan Humphrey.

Yeah.

Little Jordan Humphrey did score a touchdown.

Yeah.

Great name, but.

Yeah. I like that the Bengals and Chiefs hate each other.

I would like to see the Chiefs just run the ball. Run the ball. Run the ball. Like convert your offense into being old school smashmouth.

I got two words that are a problem.

Pacheco.

Yeah.

Just let him stomp people out.

So I got two words that are a problem for that Andy Reed. Yeah, that's the problem.

Well, does Matt Nagy like to run the ball?

Jet sweeps.

Okay, that's a start. That's a start. It would just be interesting to see with that defense that they.

Yeah.

Like play ball, control football, and then let Patrick Mahomes handle a deep throw every.

Yeah.

Take a shot.

Yeah.

Have Tony drop a deep throw just to keep the defense. No, they're. They're Patrick Mahomes. I'll never count out Patrick Mahomes. He's the new Tom Brady in that respect. I don't think. Count him out.

I don't think that Tony even played this weekend, which was nice.

No, yeah, you might be right. He might not have.

That might be the key.

Yeah.

Addition by subtraction.

I saw a funny meme. It was like Cadarius. Tony needs three more drops to get $100,000 bonus. It's pretty good.

I like that.

I love week 18 when everyone tries to figure out they're like they've hacked gambling because it's very public thing about incentives.

Yeah.

They still have to play. You have to do it.

But sometimes you can get a beat on a guy that a coordinator or a quarterback likes.

Yeah.

He's going to get five catches.

True. Okay, last game, Packers 33, Vikings ten. The packers just kicked the shit out of the Vikings. Jordan Love looked awesome. I still don't understand why they started Jaron Hall.

I don't really get it either, but I guess they want to evaluate in.

A must win game. Like, I know Nick Mullins threw four interceptions, but Nick Mullins can at least maybe get into a shootout and win you a game.

Yeah, I think this was a case of. This has kind of happened with the Vikings in their backup situation all year where some guy will be hot for a second. And so their coach is like, I want to just magically figure out which guy is going to be hot.

Right.

And I'm getting a good feeling about Jaren hall. He'll be hot. Lightning in a bottle. He chose the wrong guy.

Yeah.

Didn't work, but yeah. Jordan Love looked incredible. Jordan Love. Also, there was a lot of insult stats going around that he has more touchdowns than any bear in the history of the franchise. Might I remind you it's an 18 games or 18 week season now. So 17 games, not that impressive. Yes.

Good point.

Yes.

So keep throwing that stat around and I'll keep saying 17 games. Anyone could do it in 17 games.

Kirk Cousins was also in the crowd with his shirt off. Yeah, that was interesting. Didn't really work. That's probably why they got their shit kicked out.

Is Kirk Cousins going to come back?

I would guess that he's going to come back to the Vikings.

I think that's what's going to happen.

Because he's a family guy. He probably doesn't spend any of his money that he's getting.

Nope.

He'd probably be okay with taking a pay cut just to avoid the nuisance of having to move your family to a new city.

Right.

That's the vibe I get from Kirk.

Right.

He has to find a new kohl's to go shop at.

Yeah.

There's a lot of mean.

You've seen what's happened this year. It's kind of like a ringing endorsement of Kirk Cousins because you had a team that couldn't figure out the quarterback situation and Kirk Cousins is consistency. Yes. So Kirk Cousins back to the Vikings. We're announcing that right now.

Okay.

Anything else? Week 18. Let's just look at the schedule real quick. There is some fun like playoff seeding. There's a lot of teams that don't have to play for anything. That Bills Dolphins thing is going to be awesome to watch on Sunday night Football. We have a playoff game on Saturday night, Texans versus Colts. It's a win and get in. And then other than that, I think it's like a lot of teams are locked in their seats.

I've got one more stat. This is kind of an insult stat, but more of a pro Joe Flacco stat.

Okay.

Joe Flacco has one more touchdown to tie Deshaun Watson for most touchdowns thrown or to tie Deshaun Watson for amount of touchdowns thrown as a brown.

Wow.

Thought that was interesting.

That is an interesting stat.

They have a decision to make.

Who do you think is going to be in the playoffs if we fast forward to next Sunday night, you think it's going to be the Bills?

I think it's going to be the.

Bills and then the Texans.

Let me do the playoff machine real quick.

Oh, you think Colts? I kind of feel into Colts, too. That game's in Indianapolis.

We need to give away tickets.

Huge game. Yeah, huge.

Saturday night.

Huge.

We do. I also told our guy over there that we might go to a playoff game if they host one.

I think I said that.

Yeah, that was, I think what we're going to be looking at here is the Bills.

Yeah.

The Chiefs, obviously.

Yeah.

I also think the Colts.

Yeah.

The Browns.

You think the Jaguars might lose?

I think the Jaguars might lose.

So the Jaguars would be potentially out if the Steelers ended up winning.

I'm doing the math right now. If the Steelers win, it would be the Steelers as the seven seed Jaguars out and we'd have the Browns at the Colts.

Wow. Yeah.

AFC is muddled. And then the NFC, I think it's probably going to be 49 ers. Cowboys, Lions, Bucks in order. Eagles, Rams and then the Seahawks because the Bears are going to beat the packers.

That's so much harder. What, NFC than AFC?

You think so?

Yeah.

What about the, about what about the Browns, the Bills, the Chiefs, the Ravens? Those are all good teams. I feel like the NFC is trending down. I actually think the Lions are now like, why aren't the Lions the second best team in the NFC?

Yeah, but they lost the Cowboys.

Yeah, that's true. They did. Either way, I'm very excited.

I actually think that the Cardinals might beat the Cardinals.

If the Cardinals beat the Seahawks, they should be in. That would make take the Eagles spot.

That would make the Saints getting into the playoffs against Dallas.

They should just make one random game, week 18, win and get in. Just, that has no reason to be winning. Get in like the Broncos and the Raiders win and get in.

That'd be fun.

Yeah.

Why not just throw in an extra playoff spot? Okay, let's wrap up. We got who's back of the week. It is the rowback question. Rho back promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Rowback.com promo code take 20% off go right now. Qzips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, fleeces, everything. Rowback.com Henry, who's back the week? First of all, great to see you.

Great to see you guys.

Missed you this week. How was your week off?

My week off was delightful. Spent some time with some family, spent some time with some friends.

Oh, that's great.

It was very fulfilled life, very relaxing.

Playing golf.

Did play some golf.

Nice.

Saw some music, went on Bourbon street.

Listen to it.

What were you on?

Listened to it.

You felt the music?

Well, you see music when you watch it, right?

Well, if you hear it maybe under.

The influence of something.

Yeah, I guess I watched music. I listened to music live. Watched it with my eyes.

Got it. Some shit.

I felt it. Yeah, I felt the music. Nice.

Seem like you're actually in pretty good shape for being in New Orleans with a bunch of friends.

How old was the music?

What?

Just curious if you felt the curious.

Okay. No, go on, go on.

Yeah, I feel good. I do vacations. As much as shit as you give. It's very nice when you have a fun one and then you come back and you feel rejuvenated and excited to be back, which I am. Dry January, actually. Yeah. I'm not going to do anything until the stand up show.

Max and I are going to lift.

I'll be lifting as well. I'll be doing working out. I need something to talk about. I need to clear my mind. Pft, yeah.

Hank, today is January 1. It's actually January 2 right now. I noticed that you walked into the gambling cave with two beers today.

Yes, I did walk in with a cores light. That was for a video of a vlog. I had one beer.

Okay.

There's a huge difference between drinking a beer because you're doing a work thing and getting drunk.

Yeah.

No, you're doing pretty much dry January.

So you're saying like entertaining clients.

Entertaining like if. If there is a home Dallas playoff game, I might undry that weekend.

It might get wet that weekend.

Yeah.

Mai, who's back of the week is.

Wait, are you going to. I want. Do you have your Dac jersey still?

I think Shane has it. I also have. No, I have. I have gear coming. I have a ton my. Who's back of the week is Conor McGregor.

Oh, what do you do?

He is.

Could always be bad.

No, he's fighting again in June. 185 big boy. I forgot the name of the guy he's fighting.

Doesn't matter. He's going to kill him.

Colby.

There's only one Conor McGregor.

Michael Chandler.

Okay. Oh, no.

Chandler.

We like Michael.

Michael Chandler.

No, we like Michael. All right. We're rooting for Michael Chandler.

What?

I think he's like a barstool guy, and I think he's friends with the Boston boys. I think we're Michael Chandler.

I have no issue with.

I'm rooting for Michael.

Michael Chandler. But McGregor, winning is the best.

Okay.

I am rooting for Michael Chandler because he will 100% be at beer Olympics when we're competing. Pft. So we should root for Michael Chandler just in case.

Same reason why we root for Marvin Harrison Jr. All the time.

Yes. Michael Chandler. We're big fans of you, McGregor.

I'm a big fan of you.

Okay.

Will you be at beer Olympics?

Yeah.

You should come now.

Actually, that's Hank.

Hank will have to be. Hank will do the video.

So how heavy is McGregor normally way? This is 185. Seems like a lot.

He's a small dude.

He's a big dude. He's a big dude. He's looking chunk huge.

I love it when fighters do that at the end of their career, they step up in weight class just because they're out of shape.

Yeah.

I love that.

Yeah. Okay.

Pft. Your who's back.

My who's back of the week. I have two, if that's okay. First one is Mickey Mouse.

Oh, yeah.

Mickey Mouse is back because the original Mickey Mouse, steamboat Willie, just entered the public domain, meaning anybody can now use that version of Mickey Mouse in designs. We should make part of my take Mickey Mouse shirt.

Yeah.

How about that? Can we do that?

Yeah.

Steamboat Willie, part of my take shirt.

Get on that.

Love it.

No a's in Mickey Mouse, so you're good.

My other who's back of the week is Jason Whitlock. Jason Whitlock's back, front of the program. He tweeted out today. He was looking at the ESPN.com website doing some research on what the NFL standings were, and he took a picture of the screen with his phone and said, I'm looking at standings on ESPN.com. This is the ad running above the standings. How is this possible? Appropriate. The ad in question was a card that said, balls deep inside of me is a great way to spend your birthday. A nice, fun little birthday card. As many people have pointed out, those ads are based on your search history. They're cookies, something that Jason Whitlock is intimately familiar with.

Wasn't there more on the description of what it was like? Great gifts for your boyfriend or your partner?

It's a one pack. Funny. Happy birthday, him, husband, boyfriend, birthday gifts, decorations. The rest of it is cut off. And it's got the shop now button right on there. So the Internet has very politely answered his question about how it's possible. But Jason Whitlock has yet to tweet about any sort of reaction to the advice he's been. Just remember, clear that browsing history, Jason.

Yeah, that's. I love when that happens. That's an old school thing. That hasn't happened a long was. I remember when Google Ads first came on the scene. People would do that in the barstool comment section and just out themselves for looking at dildos and shit.

There was something. Somebody tweeted out a screenshot of, like, a gay cruise.

Yeah.

I forget what that was.

Like.

Tickets to go on a gay cruise. He's like, why am I being served this ad? Who was that guy?

I was like, a politics guy. I saw a nude cruise when I was in Mexico a couple of years ago. It was wild. Everyone was naked.

It's never the people that you want to see naked.

There's a lot of germans.

Yeah.

And they were just like.

I don't.

Understand how you go on a nude cruise and you're not just rock hard.

Just all banging each other.

Yeah, just be rock hard. And it'd be kind of awkward. Like, none of the dudes were, like, rock hard and there were, like, chicks grinding on them and stuff.

Yeah.

I was on a train one time in Spain, and we were going by a beach, and then on the beach, there was just a giant brown tarp that was probably, like, 100ft wide. And there were about 60 people just standing naked on it, looking at each other, not doing anything, just standing there like, we're naked. This is us. Nudist. I would interview a nudist on the show.

Yeah.

Nude.

Nude.

Have to be nude. Yeah, that'd be hilarious. Yeah. So I'm right next to Hank.

Yeah.

All right. That's a summer thing. We should do like it. Yeah, definitely. Like, what's it like being nude all the time?

Breaking nudes.

Yeah.

New segment.

Why not? All right, Mai, who's back of the week is a certain. Oh, Jake, do you have a pancake update? I'm awaiting one from.

No, not from week 16.

I'm waiting on that too.

Wait, what do you mean you're waiting on one? I'm waiting two. You're waiting on.

We're two weeks behind on the update.

Yeah, that's very important. But speaking of a player that I had to drop recently in our baseball draft, wander Franco is back in the news because I think he's, like, running from the law, I believe.

Okay.

He might have shown up to court in his home country, but I bring it up because there's a guy who tweeted, Greg Aaronberg said, two years ago, my brother won a tops redemption for a random piece of MLB memorabilia from an all star player. Yesterday it finally came in the mail. They sent him a pair of pants used by wander Franco. I'm actually nervous. This could be a piece of evidence.

Yeah, it is.

It's definitely a piece of.

When. When I saw this tweet, I immediately was like, ravel's definitely going to try to own this.

Yeah, he's going to own those pants.

He's got to own this. How much wander Franco memorabilia do you think he has?

At least one piece?

Yeah.

How much? Post the news that he might be a pedophile.

Is it worth more if it has dna on?

Probably. Yeah.

Yeah, probably to revel, but yes, definitely to revel. Two years waiting and that's what you.

Get when you get the semen authenticated.

That's a good job by the MLB. Really on top of it, the lawyer.

Definitely had all his pants and was.

Like, we get rid of these? Yes, definitely. All right, Jake finishes off.

Happy new year, guys.

Happy new year, Jake.

My who's back of the week is outdoor hockey. We had the winter classic.

Oh, yeah.

And big cat, you and Blooper are.

Not the only barstool employee versus mascot rivalry.

I saw this.

Our friend Biz beat up the Seattle Krakens buoy. He hit him with a microphone.

Yeah.

Good for biz. Put him in. Mascots. Can't imagine.

Tag team match.

You and Biz against Bowie and Blooper. I mean, blooper would fuck Blooper up so bad.

Destroy that.

Max, is this a way for us to get our friendship back together?

What?

Just hating blooper.

Yeah, we hate blooper.

Yeah, Max.

Also Nova basketball. Good.

Yeah, they're probably going to lose. They got a couple cupcakes on the schedule coming up.

They're going to lose.

Bad fashion.

Our boy is down so bad.

You got to get him late.

It's something.

Yeah, but those teams are from Philly.

It is late, but still, everybody be.

Nice to Max when you're listening to this because he had to stay up very late and then all of his teams suck. So don't complain about the button being pressed.

And he hates the show.

I'm sorry for yelling into the mic.

I was just about to tweet that we wanted passion. We got passion. I mean, we didn't.

I wasn't planning.

I never thought that it would come up with the banners. That's your history.

We don't hang banners.

We don't hang banners.

That was dumb. That was dumb. I'm sorry for yelling.

You don't celebrate banners you personally don't recognize.

I personally don't give a fuck about divisional banners.

They should take the banners down.

They should.

Then why do you hate Dallas so much?

I like beating Dallas because I don't like them.

They play in your division and you're playing for a division title.

Yeah, you're playing for a lot of things.

Wait, would this continue the streak in the NFC east of not having a repeat division champion going back to what, 2006?

It's crazy.

Yeah, it's crazy.

NFC beast. Beat each other up.

Beat the fuck out of each other. Okay, good show. Reminder, we have a show on Friday because it's a weird schedule this week and then we'll be back to Monday, Wednesday, Friday. All right. And I think we're going to have a very special guest on Friday. We have a couple of very special guests coming up. Oh, one hiccup. All right. Numbers 48.

I think he hiccups when he gets sad.

Yeah.

20.

I'm rooting for you here, Max.

Rooting for Pug.

71.

53. Same.

I'm with Pug.

Three.

Shane.

Ten.

Why are you going to root for Pug, Max?

All right, I'm sorry, Pug, dude, I'm.

Rooting for that, but he's never going.

To get it back.

Wow.

95.

95.

Love you guys.

I don't know what to say. I say it anyway. Today is on my day to find you shine away I'm coming for your love of grace shine away I'm coming for your love of grace

let's say don't let away Sunday to be telling the story say out to me like the baby don't world just things I say every little I just play my worry you all think I've got to remember shining away welcome

only take on me take on.

Jim Gaffigan here with some more straight talk now you can.

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