Coming up, our Super bowl matchup is set.

That's next.

We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast network where I hope you're following all of our sports and pop culture coverage there and on theringer.com as well. I am in Chicago right now because we have a big cold weather rewatchables tour this week. We are going to be in Chicago, where I'm right now, and then DC and Philadelphia and New York. Can't wait to see everybody. There will be a new rewatchables podcast this week, by the way, so stay tuned for that. And on this podcast, cousin Sal is joining me and we're going to talk about a bizarre day of championship weekend games. Baltimore against Kansas City, San Francisco against Detroit, and a lot of stuff happened. It's all next.

First, our friends from real jaming this.

At a time that ends with a 21. I'm in Chicago south LA. I have no idea what actual time it is.

I'm in Chicago, 421 in the morning.

What time is it in LA? Is it like four in the afternoon? Where am I?

Yeah, it's between the games.

Yeah. Okay, good. Wow. We have a Chiefs Niners Super bowl.

Yeah.

Who had the worst loss? Let's just start there. Worst loss, Lions or Ravens, where the Lions had in their hands and then squandered it for a variety of ways.

That we'll talk about.

Or the Ravens who got haymakered coming out of the gate and then just keeled over and all of the fears about that Ravens team and Lamar and the whole era just came seeping out for three solid hours. What was the worst loss?

Okay, I'm going to take this from a fan's perspective, and I think, believe it or not, I think the Ravens loss was worse.

Oh, explain.

Lions was a huge collapse. Right? Like, we'll not see one like that in the championship game probably for a while, but I think there's hope that they can win the NFC in the.

Next couple of years. The Ravens, you could say their Lions are a year away. So that's how you talk yourself into it.

Okay.

That's it. So, yes, on the day of the game, I think the Lions had the worst loss. But looking into the future, the Ravens have to be like, what the f. Just happened? What do we do wrong? What were we doing right?

Did any of it matter?

Does home field matter? Are we ever going to beat Mahomes?

Oh, yeah.

Burrows coming back, Josh Allen, all these other guys, we have to get through. So in that regard, I would say Ravens is worse.

Yeah.

The Lions could say our arrows pointing up. We'll work with our coach during the offseason on some clock management stuff. I can't wait to go into that. Well, now we're headed toward this big rematch from five years ago. Is it rematch? If the other game was like four years ago, I don't know if that counts as a rematch.

Maybe.

Yeah, I think it's within the four years semi rematch.

Let's just remember the last time these two teams played that year was horrible.

Right?

It was two weeks later. We were locked in our houses for what seemed like forever. But, yeah, I don't think that has anything to do with the matchup at all.

Well, I think the Lions loss was worse.

You do?

So let's talk about that game first. Because it just happened. Yeah, because it's 21 seven and you have the ball. First and goal from the seven yard line, under a minute left with a chance to end the game. Basically, a touchdown ends the game 28 seven. Nobody's coming back from that unless you have Tom Brady circa mid two thousand and ten s on your team. And they run. I think they ran. It was like incomplete pass, then it was like a 1 yd hand, then it was like a three yard pass and it was fourth and like maybe two and a half, always two. And Campbell went for the field goal when all year in that situation, we've watched this guy like, go, go, we're going for the kill. We're going for the kill. We're aggressive, we're going to take chances. And he went for the field goal. And when I was watching it, I actually agreed.

I was like. I agreed also.

Three possession game.

I like it.

This is smart. But where it goes askew is then in the second half when he gets super aggro aggressive again. And then you become the guy at the blackjack table that you're sitting next to who's like, wait, you didn't hit the 13 against the two the last time. You just hit it that time and you're just all over the place. Is there any rhyme or reason for how you play? No, I'm just feeling the cards, man. It's like, okay, well, there's no strategy here that you're sticking to. And that's how I felt about the line. I mean, 100 other things went wrong for them, but we could argue about that part forever. The unforgivable sin out of all of this was you get inside the ten, it's under two minutes left, you're down ten, it's third down there's like maybe a minute ten, something like that left, and you have to throw the ball because if you don't get a kick of field goal, you have all three timeouts left. And they run the ball up the middle and get stopped.

Yeah, terrible play.

Then they call a timeout, and it's like you've just lost. Nobody gets an onside kick anymore. We've seen it like twice all year. The game's now over. It doesn't even matter what happens. That was the dumbest thing I've seen all playoffs and one of the dumbest things I've seen all year. How do you explain that if you're Dan Campbell? How?

I don't think you can. I think in that situation, above everything you have to say, I have to keep these timeouts. I must keep these timeouts because I need all three. I need all three. I'm probably not getting the onside kick. No one recovers onside kicks anymore. I don't know if they ever did, but it's like 4% or something. I forgot what they said this afternoon. The only instance where you take a time out is if he's sacked and you have a quarterback that's like kind of out of it. But even if he was sacked, I think they would kick the field goal at that point.

You could rush the field goal, people on, and they could kick it, and there's still 35 seconds left. But now you have all three timeouts you can kick off. You can try to stop them, and you at least can have a Hail Mary, which has a much better chance than an onside kick.

I would rather be down seven with three timeouts than down. What were they down three with two timeouts?

Yeah.

I mean, it's a death sentence.

You're right. It's interesting because we watched this over and over again, and anybody who's been playing video games the last few years knows the same thing. We saw it in the first game. Baltimore, they need a stop to try to get the ball back. And first down, it's like they get a penalty. It's first down from the five, and the guy in the Ravens just jumps off sides intentionally and clocks the guy in the Niners because their goal was like, let's reset the first downs because we don't want to use timeouts on a first and five. And it was actually smart. It's what you do in a video game. 15 yard penalty. The ref was pissed, but it did reset it, and that was smart. And then you watch Dan Campbell and it's like once you're inside the 25 under two minutes with three timeouts, you have to throw the ball into the end zone. Driving methodically down the field does nothing because you need a field goal and a touchdown. So take three cracks of the end zone, then kick the field goal. You'll get it back. Maybe with the three timeouts just. And then all the funny.

We're leading with this, and I don't blame you. Well, first of all, you have to lead with the bad, right? We can never speechless. We all do.

Stupid.

It was.

But everybody, Lions fans, I think included, would go after the field goals. The passed on field.

I want to go through that, too. Okay, well, let's go backwards. So it's 21 seven. They settle for the field goal. They take the 24/7 lead. Going into halftime. Niners come down to kick a field goal to start the third 24 ten. Lions have the ball. All they've been doing is driving. They're just getting yards. It feels like they're getting eight to twelve yards of play. St. Brown can't be stopped. I think he had five third down catches. They lose the ball on downs on a play Reynolds should have caught, but a play. They also could have kicked the field goal to go back up 27 ten, which they just did at the end of the half. Well, all right. You got a little aggressive. I would have personally taken the points. So the Niners get the ball and they're still down 14. And Purdy looks like crap. And it just looks up. Here we go. Purdy. The clock has struck midnight for this guy. And he wings it downfield and he overthrows Ayuk. And the ball hits the Lions guy in the face, and it bounces up in the air and Ayuk catches it, and all of a sudden it's 20 417.

Hit him in the helmet. If it hit him in the face.

I could see like, oh, okay, maybe he's got an excuse, but it hit.

Him in the helmet.

Yeah, I got to say, we're old enough now. We've been watching sports long enough that you have these, uhoh, moments, and everybody's like, no, momentum doesn't matter. It's like, I've watched too many of these games. Momentum matters. We just watched a 50 yard pass hit somebody in the helmet, bounced straight up in the air, and now the Niners are down seven and the crowd is into it and they're going nuts. And Gibbs immediately fumbles, and all of a sudden it's 24 24. It just, didn't it feel to you like, that was one of those moments.

Not only did it feel to me like that, but when people write on our timelines and everything tomorrow, like, you didn't give Purdy enough credit, I'm like, okay, I apologize. We probably should have. But also, if that ball is intercepted, and it should have been down 24 ten, do they win that game if the Lions. No, because you're right. They had the momentum. So, okay, IU catches it, falls at the five. They throw a flag. They pick up the flag, and then they score, what, on the next play.

Or two plays later?

Yeah.

Gives fumbles. Niners score 24 24. Lions now have the ball. Another big Josh Reynolds drop. I don't know if he was the gold medalist of murdering the Lions in this game, but he's definitely on the medal stand. They punt, perfect punt. Guy booms it. It goes to the 1.

Lions.

Guy runs in, and instead of just tipping it back, he just runs in.

In the end zone with flying in like he's launching himself towards a goalpost.

19 yard difference. Niners drive down. Now they're up. 3427, 24. Lions drive down.

Here we go again.

Now they have a chance. It's either a 48 yard field goal.

To tie the game, and we're under.

Ten minutes at this point. 48 yard field, go to tie to the game, or let's go for it on fourth and three. You're not going to believe it. They don't get it. This one I had a real problem with, because I didn't like how their offense looked in the second half. I thought the crowd was really into it. I didn't love how golf looked. Their receivers weren't making plays. We hadn't seen St. Brown in an hour. And if your kicker can't make a 48 yard field goal in good conditions, seem like, yeah, why is he in the team? Don't just have your punter do kickoffs.

Right?

I'm with you. I don't know what happened there. Listen, I'm thinking about it, and we were on a text chain with house, and he's like, oh, he doesn't trust the kicker. It's like, well, first of all, I think he's glad. I think Dan Campbell's glad. He doesn't have a great Adam Vinitieri esque.

He wouldn't know what to do with a good kicker, right?

Yeah.

It allows him to go for it more. It's like, hey, I got this excuse. But then you see the stat. It's like, he's 78% from 40 to 49.

I was like, all right.

I take my chances on almost 80% out of four to five from that.

Of course. Also, I don't like how they're playing and that's the part. Get the moment, do the analytics, which I think the analytics are important. I didn't like how they were playing. I didn't have confidence that they would have the right play. And I like the way the Niners are playing. The crowd was into it. I just didn't feel like that stuff has to factor in. It can't just be blanket. Oh, here's the situation. It's going to be in or out. So anyway, they don't get it. Niners drive down, McCaffrey breaks this long run. Now the Niners are up ten, and this would have been the most improbable cover in how many playoffs, right. There's seven and a half point favorites all week and now they're up ten. And then it leads to that last drive where they get the touchdown on fourth down. But it really doesn't matter. So the Lions cover. Congratulations.

Yeah.

If I were to power rank, what led to their demise, though? I know you want to put the field goal. The call is not passing on the points first. I put the drops up there. I always look to blame the players before the referees or the coaches. And they just at halftime inherited a herd of the cadarius Tony's. They really did like just every pass was either dropped.

The Gibbs fumble was terrible. Olsen pointed out how he probably ran the wrong way in the run and never had the ball, and that was a murder.

Drop after drop after drop. And even there was a great catch over the middle where it almost could have been picked off if they land differently. So I don't know. I think Lions fans are bummed at the receivers more than the coach at this point. That's the thing with Campbell. He'll say something like, hey, man, this is what we do. We're aggressive all the time. It's like, all right, I always wear shorts. Okay, but your wife is nominated for an academy award. Can't you get dressed for this? One occasion didn't really make a lot of sense.

Well, two things. The two Reynolds drops really hurt. The Gibbs fumble really hurt the fact that their defense gave up 27 points in the second half half. Like, their defense could have tried to close the game out. I mean, that was the reason I couldn't get there with the Lions, with my picks this week, because I just felt like the Niners were going to be able to move the ball up and down the field. On them. But the Lions came out of that game like a bad out of hell, and it was just one of all the Niners just felt like they were on their heels from the moment the game started. And it's just like, oh, my God, are we going to give up 48 points? So the game had a different feel. And purdy. I thought it took purdy like 2 hours to get going, but that was the other. If you're going to talk about all the reasons the Niners won than the boneheaded shit the lions are doing, Purdy had a couple of just backbreaking scrambles. He was four for 51, and they needed, like all 51. They were really, like big parts of the game where it didn't feel like anybody was getting open.

I thought he was really good down the stretch.

I did too. And I think he did it last week, too, against the packers. Right? That last drive was phenomenal. But what happens to him? Doesn't it seem like he sits there the first and second quarter, and I know he has good numbers, so this doesn't really make a lot of sense, but it seems like early in the game, he'll let the pocket close on him. He won't step up. He's like, I'm sticking to my plan here. And it leads to tip passes and stuff like that. In fact, the stat should be much worse because of that. And then later on, he decides to take off. It's like, oh, where is that in the first half? Why do I have 49 ers? Money line? Why are you giving me a heart attack here?

Right.

Yeah, you're right. It was a great comeback. And, yeah, I don't know what, wait.

Can I say one purdy thing?

Sure.

Because they showed him at some point when it looked like the game was going sideways, and he just had a sad look on his face and was like, oh, sad, purdy. I don't like where this is going. And then he hulked up and did it. I was thinking we were kids. This is going to be dated for anybody probably under 45. But the incredible Hulk was an iconic show, right? With Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner.

Still happens in the marvel. Yeah, in the universe, no, but I'm.

Saying the actual show, which we grew up with was kind of a sad show. Like Dr. Banner, he would just go from town to town. He had his one bag, and each episode it was like, is he going to make it this time? And then halfway through the episode, he'd get mad. It would always be like the 25, 28 minutes mark. And then he would calm down again, and then one last time he'd get mad at the end and then he'd have to leave wherever he wreaked the havoc and he'd sadly walk away, strap.

The backpack on, you'd see from behind and go, never really had a home. He just had this one reporter who had it out for him wherever he.

Yeah.

Just was the only guy who was on to him. And Purdy's like sad Dr.

Banner.

And then he hulks up and it's awesome. But I do wonder if this Mahomes Super bowl, this is the end where it's like Purdy with the backpack. I came so close, but I'm going to have to. Time for another was a reach of an analogy, but it made me just like the swings with that dude. It's like there's two brock purdies because you watch him for an hour and you're like, man, this guy sucks, right? And then you're watching him an hour later, it's like, this guy's like, see one of the three best quarterbacks of the, um.

I don't. You know, we're going to talk about the Ravens, too. And it's just sometimes you just get off to a slow start and a team is just more pumped or more energy or more hulk in them or whatever. But yeah, that first hour, it looked like everything was weird. The Lions looked fast. Debo looked like the fourth fastest guy on the field. Gibbs is like jogging to the sticks on third and twelve and making it, converting. Didn't you feel we were long? Third down, patent situations.

Me and Mallory were watching the second game and she was in a borderline coma from the Ravens. When that second game started, it seemed faster and more violent than the first game. Do you notice that?

Definitely.

That Ravens Chiefs game. I know. I thought the Chiefs played well, but I didn't feel like there was the same level of speed. It was more like methodical, like people.

Trying to measure scientific.

Like a scientific athletes flying around, man. Yeah, right.

We'll go 50 years back again. It was like a Bob backwood match. I thought, let's go more old guy reference against himself.

Yeah.

So Warren Sharp tweeted that here are the teams that blew a 17 point halftime lead in the playoffs and lost by three points. It had to be their 17 plus at halftime or they lost by three plus points. The Lions right now, the Falcons in 2017 in the Super bowl of the Pats, the 93 Oilers against the Bills. Did you bet on that game?

Yes, I did. Frank wreck wrong way.

I think I had the right side on that game.

Really.

We've had so many bets, I don't even remember. But I have positive memories of that. And then the 1957 49 ers, ironically, against the Lions, who came back and beat them. But this is a pretty rare occasion. Like, you're up, had the Lions money line or you had a Lions NFC title ticket, or if you had a Lions Super bowl ticket, it's fair to lock in, I think.

Right.

So you really took one of the chops. We should.

The only saving grace is that it wasn't at home in front of those.

But yeah, but at home, I think they probably win.

Right?

This is a good example. Home field actually kind of matters. Let's talk about the Lions. Because the fans, because we had Buffalo last week, this was way worse. But somehow back to back weeks, Buffalo fans and Detroit fans just getting annihilated in the go nads with the hardest kicks possible. This is probably a little worse than the Buffalo game, but the Lions were like, this was one of those at halftime. There might have been some people that bought tickets for Vegas flights.

Right, right.

You're like, should I get them now? Oh, my God. There's only two aisle seats left and you're just, oh, I got to lock down a room. And you're kind of in the mode because you don't think they're going to lose, right?

Yeah, I don't doubt that at all.

Yeah.

Lions, Buffalo last week, Lions this week. And then the coup de gras. Could be Taylor swift fans in two weeks. That would be the most awful loss.

Of all if they had swifties lost the bowl.

Yeah.

Eminem did not.

He seemed angry.

Was it weird seeing an angry version of Eminem?

Yeah.

What happened to that upbeat guy that he usually. Can I read you some of my notes that I wrote down in halftime, assuming the Lions were going to win and I wanted to get a jump ahead. Note number one, can we hire purdy for the ringer? Because I wasn't sure he was going to be in the league next year. Note number two, the golf trade. Now an all timer. And I went through and I researched, like, exactly what was in the trade, and it was 22 and 23 first and 21 3rd. They made these other trades. They end up with Williams and Gibbs and Laporta. And then the Rams won the Super bowl with Stat. I was ready to do a whole thing on that. And then I wanted to have the should the Niners think about Belichick or vrable discussion? I know Shanahan's done really well last five years. Lost Super bowl. He's lost three conference title games, but maybe it's time for a change. Something's wrong. I just wanted to talk it out, and then they came back and won.

Can I read you?

What?

I had one note written down.

Would you have it says tonight, ask.

Bill if you can borrow $36,500, payable by Christmas, 2% interest. I had so much on the Niners money line. So much.

Oh, did you?

I'm so damn lucky. Yeah. I'm not complaining. For a long, long time after that was.

Uh, in real life, I had a Ravens Niners tease because it was somehow it was better ods than the parlay. So the Ravens lost. I did the chase bet with the Niners and the. Over the. Yeah, that one. That one felt good. I don't recommend chasing in.

No, yeah.

Million dollar picks. I finally had a bad. Hated the. I don't like the favorites. When it's too many points like this, I never feel good about it.

Well, I was looking at, at one point, we were looking at, wow, two favorites in the championship games ever this bad on the same day, and I couldn't find it. The worst examples offensively I found were Raiders against the Ravens. What year was that? That was when the Ravens went to the Super bowl against the Giants. Is that like 25 years ago?

Yeah, that was a magical Super Bowl.

I think the Raiders scored six or something. And then the other example, it didn't happen the same year, but Eagles Bucks. I think the Eagles scored like six at home when Tampa went to the.

But, uh.

But, yeah, other than that, we were looking pretty like, wow, we're going to get bamboozled in the same day by these home teams.

I don't think the Niners defense is that good, but they made a couple of big stops and got a little mean, there's no question. Like, Reynolds had two big drops. Gibbs had a big fumble. Goff missed a couple guys. Goff missed a guy in the end zone for a touchdown at one point. Jameson Williams felt like he could have caught that flea flicker or whatever that long pass was. He didn't.

But at the same time, the Niners.

They stepped up at least a little bit. I'll be interested to see them against Mahomes next week. Let's take a break and we'll do the Chiefs Ravens recap. Happy Super bowl to all who celebrate from Fando, America's number one sports book. And if you're like me, Super Bowl Sunday is all about scoring. The best seat grabbing your favorite football snacks, placing some fun bets, some fun props. We are going to be breaking down all those bets and props over the next couple of weeks, leaning right now toward the Chiefs and the tees because you can get them over a touchdown. So plenty of time to talk about that. But Fanduel, however you want to do it. I'm in Illinois right now and it was so much fun to go on the FanDuel app and bet on a bunch of football and basketball stuff. You can do that.

You can go on there and bet.

Who'S going to win Super Bowl 58. You can bet on which players will score a touchdown. How many points are scored? So many prop bets. Sal and I are breaking it down next Sunday on this podcast. And if you're new to Fanduel, join today. You'll get $200 of bonus bets. When you win your first $5 bet. Just visit fanduel.com bs to sign up. That is fanduel.com bs. Make every moment more with Fanduel an official sports betting partner of the NFL, you must be 21 plus in president select states gambling problem call winning 100 gambler or visit theringer.com rg $10 1st deposit required bonus issue does non which are all but bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Cterms at sportsbook fanduel.com all right, Chiefs Ravens, here's the best compliment I can give to the Chiefs. It was a Belichick Brady Pats era win where they looked. They had a good hour in them and they stacked the game at the top. They put the good hour at the top. There was a kitchen sink at one point at the end of the first half, Pacheco had 14 carries. Like, he doesn't 20 is like amazing for him, 14 carries for him.

Nine Kelsey catches and six rice catches and they had the ball for 21 minutes and it was like they ran.

All their good plays in the first.

Half and we're just like, we can win this game in the first half because Baltimore can't come from behind and their sphincters are going to tighten and we can beat these guys in the first, basically ten minutes of this game and they did timely defense.

I mean, it was 17 seven at half and it was almost 14 seven if they don't get that field goal. And I was like, this is ridiculous. It should be 28 seven and they never score again.

Nobody scores. There are no points in the second half.

They scored three points. Yeah, right. No points in the second half. But I was like, well, they get the ball back at halftime. So as long as they get seven on one of these drives, they had three. I mean, it was two teams playing, giving the other team an opportunity to.

Win the whole time. Well, they made the biggest play of the game was that punch out on flowers would have been a touchdown, they would have been down three. And the guy made an awesome play, the safety. And then they got the backbreaker, third down to Valdez scantling, who two weeks in a row has made a huge, really high degree difficulty catch to either keep momentum going for them or in that case, clinch the game. So the Chiefs made enough plays to win and the Ravens didn't make any.

And you know that zay Flowers, first of all, dumb name. We could say it. Zay Flowers is a dumb name, okay? But he gets that taunting penalty, right? And he hit all three factors of the taunting. Like, we hate the taunting penalty, right? These are men, these are grown men. They're football players. They could take somebody doing the chicken dance in their face 6ft away. But he did the thing where he hovered, he spun the ball and he tapped the guy on the head like that.

He tapped the guy on the head, hovered and talked shit and spun the.

Ball and spun the ball.

There was a couple of penalties they had and they were eight for 95. It was one of the reasons they lost the game. They had some losers.

They were dumb. They played good defense, but they had dumb plays.

Right?

Well, they played good of defense as the Chiefs in the second half, obviously, you said they didn't score.

Yeah.

Clowny, when he hit Mahomes, helmet to helmet, it's like, oh, my God, they're going to call that. And then you watch the replay and it's like, yeah, they've called that all year. You hit the quarterback. Helmet. Helmet, they're calling it, period. And he could have shoved them. That was the frustrating thing. But they shot themselves in the foot a couple of times. The big thing to me, and I would love to hear a good explanation about know. And I watched it with Mallory, who was just going through the seven stages of grief. And we were trying to cheer up by doing imitations of Tony Romo, announcing other things, just Tony Romo doing directors, commentaries of movies. Just anything to get a smile on her face, right? They panicked, the Ravens. They fell behind 14 and seven to seven and just completely lost their identity. Their two running backs only had five carries. Their whole team was built around running the ball and controlling the clock. And they fell behind by seven and they just lost their minds. That was it. The rest of the game they're just chucking the ball around. And Lamar never looked comfortable, composed.

He looked panicky. He was throwing like even screen passes. He's throwing 100 miles an hour. He must have missed how many guys deep? At least four or five. He was just bad. For him. That was a bad game. That's like for a Lamar Jackson game. That was an f minus, no doubt about it.

And it didn't have to be. And I think Warren sharp, we'll bring him up again, had the this is the Key stat and you hit on it. They had three rushes on early downs for 17 yards. So it's not even like those failed three rushes for 17 yards on early downs. This team is 20 eigth in the EPA against the run. The Chiefs, the Ravens third in any analysis you heard this week. If it went longer than a minute, you would hear that this is how the Ravens should do it. Whether it's Lamar running or justice or Edwards or Dalvin Cook, whatever it is, that's how it does it. And you're right, they didn't do it. And the Chiefs weren't scoring. So it wasn't like they had to throw to come back from to get to.

They had two and a half quarters to know, try to get some shit going. If you had told me before that game the Ravens are only going to use their running backs five times for run plays, I would not have picked the Ravens. I can promise you the whole reason to take the Ravens was like they're going be to able to run the ball down the Chief's throat. You can run in these guys.

What if I told you pacheco 2.8 yards of carry. They have Mahomes, 240 yards passing. One touchdown. How much will we put on the Ravens? It's so weird when we're looking at that game.

Kelsey was awesome for 2 hours. Again, I think he has 2 hours in him, but he made a bunch of big plays and was all over the place. They had 16 1st downs in the first half and then on defense they were blitzing Lamar. Then they weren't blitzing him. I just felt like he was confused. They sped him up and just some uncharacteristic weird raven shit like Lamar had that strip sack fumble. He just didn't sense the guy behind him. Flowers had the fumble at the goal line and then Lamar's interception and triple coverage was the worst throw of the playoffs. You couldn't have it. I still felt like they had a chance to win because their defense had really figured out what the Chiefs were doing, and it was just an abomination of a throw. It was so bad.

Really.

I don't know. This Lamar thing. Mallory was saying they hadn't played from behind, like, in two plus years, which is true. The last time they were down ten was December 2021. And she was saying, they just don't know what to do when they're behind.

It's, what do we do?

We're trailing. That's a weird skill not to have to not know. And I almost made me wonder, is that something I think about for the playoff manifesto? Has a team shown that they can come from behind in a game this season?

Right?

Because you could have said about the Niners, too, but then they actually did it in the game today. But do you care about that? Do you think resiliency is an actual skill?

Yeah, I think so. I don't know. It's part of leadership, right? It's like, hey, can I calm these guys down? Can I get them on the same page? And on the other side of it, Mahomes didn't let it happen because that seven minute opening drive takes the air out of the stadium. It really does. It's hard for everybody to get back in the game. I know it because Jordan love did it to the Cowboys. Next thing you knew, we were down 27, nothing at home. And then you got, we believe in momentum. I'm sorry, we do. And that's just how it was. Mahomes like, let me take care of this. The defense is like, we'll take care of you. You've had your share of three touchdown performances. Just manage the game well.

And he did.

He was like, he wasn't missing on any passes. Everything they threw at him was perfect.

He was like, eleven for eleven. Yeah, a couple of things from the opening. So they deferred and kicked the ball off and stopped them. Three and out. Just stone cold. Three awful ravens plays, too. It's like a weird. It was like all of a sudden, third and seven. It's incomplete. They're throwing over the middle to Nelson Aguilar. Like, I could tell you, having had him on my team, probably not catching that one. And then the Chiefs lay the smackdown. And Mahomes was so good. And this was unlike the Lions Niners game. He's driving down and I'm like, oh, my God, why did I bet against Patrick Mahomes? I think he's the guy now for, like, I was trying to think of every sport. The guy who even you're in the first quarter, first period, you pick anything of a game. And you're like, why did I bet? Why? All week I want to take the Chiefs. And all the evidence was like, don't take the Chiefs. The Ravens are better. Here are all the reasons. Statistically they're better. And I got sucked into it because I didn't think the Chiefs were good, and maybe they weren't because they only scored 17 points, but I don't think.

I ever felt more like an idiot. I really did. And they talk about cognitive tests. We're going to hear about a lot in the news in the next ten months or something. This was like a cognitive test for the sports gambler, for the football gambler. And it's like, hey, the Chiefs are getting points. They're against the spread and the hood.

It was up to four and a half.

Four and a half. It got to five and some.

You could have teased it to ten and a half, eleven.

Not only that, they're getting points and the books get crushed. If Baltimore covers. Okay, what do you want to do? That should be at the very top of the playoff.

And they assigned Sean Smith, the guy who loves being on the road as a referee and is a little Chiefs favorable. That guy's ref in the game.

You and I are like, yeah, I know the Globetrotters kick the crap out of the generals all the time, but I want to bet the generals. I think it's their time. But how many games you have to see? No, that doesn't matter. We got to go against the casino. We got to go against Mahomes. He doesn't lose as an underdog. Why did we do this?

He was so great. I mean, the thing that he does, and it reminds me of a basketball player, how basketball players can grab the pace and tempo and control of a game with the guys who really know how to dissect an offense and just control. Just. They sped it up. They knew the Ravens were playing too far off them. It was just all these quick passes, little screens. They were always, like, perfectly on target, or he'd roll out, he'd find Kelsey, and he just was like one of those boxers that had figured out the distance for the first quarter. Those two drives were really. It was like the Buffalo game. Like, if I'm San Francisco, I'm like, look at this team. The last two, they, their offense kind of died in the last hour of the. Like that would give me hope, but he was so good. And then on the flip side, lamar just didn't seem like he had any kind of grasp of that pace or tempo.

Yeah.

But I think I just want to mention, not that it matters, but we're going to hear everybody going into discussions and not mention Steve Spagnola at all. And that defense was phenomenal.

Yeah. All right.

Lamar's having a bad game, but, my God.

Blitzing the hell out of him.

Nothing's.

And then faking the blitz. Oh, no one blitzing again. And his head was spinning.

Hitting hard.

They did a good job.

So Lamar is a rookie. He's in the playoffs. I think he'd only had half a season of starts. And they fall behind to the Chargers 23 to three. They end up losing by six, but it was some garbage time stuff in the end.

The next year, they play Tennessee, and.

That was his mvp season. They fall behind 28 to six. They lose by 16. In 2020, they play Buffalo. They lose 17 to three. And that's when they had the 101 yard interception touchdown to clinch the game. Then this game loses to Casey, 17 to seven. Two big turnovers. So four bad losses. I had more than one person I know who likes the Dodgers and or baseball texted me Kershaw for Lamar, and I was, prove. He's got to prove it's not guess, but I don't know how many years he's been a starter, but these are just. He doesn't look in the playoffs.

Yeah, no, I know what you're saying. It's funny. I was talking with the against all ODS guys on another text. Like, it would be really hard to rank the best quarterbacks based on this year's playoffs. Right? Like, Dak was terrible, and in the last two weeks, he moved up the charts. Based from everyone else, who would you say after? Like, if somebody landed here from Iceland who had never seen football before, they'd be like, all right, Baker Mayfield's good. That cop guy is pretty good sometimes. What'd you do?

Yeah, purdy. All right.

In spots, he's good. And Mahomes, I guess. Although he had one touchdown today, so I don't know. It's very strange. A lot of teams would be like, yeah, I don't know if we have the right quarterback, but he's in the top three to six or seven, so we have to keep him because nothing else is out there.

Clearly, there's something wrong. That they can only succeed when they're controlling whatever is going on and they have a lead and they can run. And if they're building a team that can't come back now, maybe they didn't have chances to come back because they were so dominant, but this team was a dominant regular season team.

Yeah.

And even last week against Houston. Houston, I thought, did a good job of rushing him, making him work around, but then they get that punt return TD, it's 1010 at halftime. And then Baltimore came out and they were lights out in the second half this game. They're not lights out. Maori's thing that she was saying about the big picture of it, chill out, was interesting. I mean, she was devastated that all the Lamar stuff talks again because now he's going to have to make the Super bowl before the narrative gets pulled off of him because this is now part of, when you talk about Lamar, it's, well, different guy in the playoffs and there's no way to refute it. What she was saying was this was their best chance with a Lamar foundation, with the people they had. Burrow goes out, Deshaun Watson goes the. The AFC west is a mess for the most part. AFC South's a mess. Rogers gets hurt. All these things had a line for them off year from the homes. Yeah, but even the Chiefs look vulnerable the whole time. The Chiefs lose to Vegas on Christmas day and we're like, that team just doesn't have it.

And they get the home game, first one in 50 plus years, and it's like, you're just never going to be in a better position than this. And they still couldn't beat Mahomes, so what's going to ever make them think they're going to beat Mahomes?

Yeah, well, that's why I said it was a worse loss than the Lions, even though it sounds crazy, but I will say this, let's take three things away from this before they even put the ball on the field. First of all, my New Year's resolution, however you say that was, I'm not going to buy into injury talk, right? So when they said, well, gay was out and Tooney and like, oh, boy, oh, boy, these are huge. It doesn't matter. It's baked into the line. Don't worry about it. Go with who you're going to go with. Anyway, the other thing is when the Chiefs are six to one to win the Super bowl in August, just bet it. You're going to be able to hedge against it. Just always bet it. Always bet the Chiefs at six to one.

Well, raheem had it. Raheem, your wise guy's co host.

Yeah.

He took the Chiefs ten to one, I think. Was it before the playoffs or was it week 18?

It was right before the playoff started, right before the.

And he was all pumped about it. We all looked at it, we texted about it, we talked about it. I just didn't like the oDs. I felt like if you're going to take them, just bet them game to game, which I think if you bet a game to game, probably a little safer, but maybe it's the same.

Yeah, they were plus, what were they today?

Yeah, plus 190 today. You could have put that. And now they still have to win one more game. But, yeah, I think for Baltimore, man, you look back at, those are the tough ones in football. When you have the whole season, you did everything right, and just a game doesn't go wrong for an hour, you can't get it back and it's like, holy shit, that was it. What just happened? Yeah, I felt that way. I'm trying to think if the Pats had a year like that, maybe not in other sports that's been that way. Where you have, like a baseball season is like that, where the Dodgers have had a million seasons like that.

The point you should make is that's why the pat and I don't want to say this, and maybe you're just baiting me into saying it, but I want to do the pat's run is so phenomenal because of this, because you could screw up year to year and because you have all these monster quarterbacks looking at you down the pike, it's like, all right, well, now you're the guy that needs to be beat. You're the one that everybody's afraid of. And they just put it together year after year.

Go ahead.

Which is what that, by the way. And then the torch got immediately passed to the Chiefs, who are now doing the exact same thing. If you're in the AFC now, there's no signs of hope because this is probably the.

I don't know.

I'm not going to say it's the worst of all the Mahomes teams, but it's in the running. The only thing that's going to change down the road is Kelsey's probably going to retire at some point, I would imagine. I don't know if he's on his last legs, but he's getting close.

I don't think so. What would he do with the rest of his life?

He's screwed.

He needs to play football.

Well, now, I guess Taylor Swift can go to the Super bowl now. There's a concert the night before, and then it's like if you fly and whatever. She can get there in time, I'm sure.

Plenty of time. Yeah, I'm sure.

They're going to find the fastest jet possible to get her butt.

Let me ask you this. I said to my wife, I said, she's at the game. They win the Super Bowl. Travis takes a knee post game.

With a ring.

Yeah, with a ring.

Top three live tv moment. And she's like, oh, shut up. They would never do it like that. They would do it in a private setting. I was like, what are you talking about? Everything's a circus. Why wouldn't they do it like that? She's like, that's ridiculous. It's not happening.

He was keeping the ring in his cup.

Yeah.

Where would you keep the ring for the whole game?

The only place Randy Reid could keep it, in his belly button or something. A player did that on Boise State.

Taylor. Andy Reid has kept this ring in his belly. Mean, I think this is.

Just don't give it to Kadarius, Tony. He's the only one you can't give it to.

This would be the highest rated Super bowl we're probably ever going to have.

Like, going forward.

I don't know if it's the highest rate of our life, but, yeah, because there's all these extra Taylor Swift fans.

Are going to watch it.

5 million extra people who would have no interest in this game. Let's take a break and then we'll talk about the storylines for the next two weeks.

All right.

You want to guess the line first and then we'll do storylines?

Yeah, that's fine. Let's do it now. This is it. We should build some drama here. We went 21 weeks.

You won eight.

I won eight. We tied five. I have not looked at the line. I swear on my children, even the ones I like. Huge line here, Jim. This is big, huge line. Did you write down, did you do lions, Chiefs before?

No. Not only that, but I'm going to do the guest live. I'm just going on gut instinct. I've not written down. I've not seen it.

Do you want to hear mine first? My analysis?

Okay. No, do walk through, do your analysis, make your pick, and then I'll do mine.

Yeah.

All right.

So I was thinking about it and I said, well, Vegas Fandel obviously don't give a crap about the Chiefs. They ran that all the way to four and a half. All right, now, maybe they're a little more impressed now with them after they went to Baltimore and won. And maybe it's like, okay, we can't do this anymore. There's going to be a lot of Chiefs backers, and then I'm thinking, I know the 49 ers power ranking was higher by a couple few points than everybody, even the Ravens, I think, going in. And then I was thinking maybe since the Tic tac zone has been such a big theme for us all year, maybe I'm going to go one and a half. I think the 49 ers are favored, but I settled on 249 ers favored by two.

This is awkward.

I was going to say two, and now I almost want to change it so one of us can win for the season.

Go ahead. Should we pick do it?

No. Should we do the over under as the type record?

That's not fair. I saw it. I saw the over under, because now.

I'm looking at give you. I'm going to give you my thought process.

All right.

Ravens were four and a half, and that was in Baltimore, which is worth probably two, two and a half points. But then there's some Mahomes juice. But I kept thinking, like, because Craig Horribk was here, though, who produces the rewatchables. He's on the fantasy football show, produces the town shout out Matt Bellany. And he was like, why can't this game be a pickham? This is the most obvious pickham game ever. And I was like, they don't do it that way. There's always got to be juice one way or the other. And also, if they do the line wrong, these groups will come in and bet some crazy amount of money to ship the line anyway.

When you say groups are like migrants, just different groups.

But I think the niners are going to be favored in this game, and we've never seen a minus one in minus one and a half. Maybe it settles there. You know what?

Fuck it.

Let's do it. Let's go. The ultimate tiebreaker. I'll do Niners tic tac zone, minus one and a half, just so somebody wins.

Well, you, my friend, are a motherfucker.

It is one and a half.

That's not fair. It's just not fair. You know? It's not fair. Come on. Want to split the title?

There's no splitting any title if you promise you didn't see it ahead of time. It's all you.

Swear to God. I wouldn't see it.

I know, but you weren't going to go.

I would have said two. I would have said two if you didn't say two. So we should split it because I would have said two if you had to go first.

I get hit with the subway sandwich. That's just how it is.

Nobody's ever been hit by the subway sandwich? I would have said two if I went first.

Do you think that's.

It was either one and a half or two? It had to be one and a half or two.

If you did it fair, then that's what it is. That's fine. I never saw it. All right, I believe you.

What the.

Why didn't I say one and a half? I had tic tac all over it. Of course. It's Tic tac zone.

It's the year of the Tic tac.

It really is.

So where does it end? We have two weeks for this to move around.

Well, I'm.

What's the over under, by the way?

What was it?

47 and a half.

That's high between.

It's right between both games today.

Right. Basically, I would have guessed 44 and a half or 45 for that. Because the Chiefs kind of secretly don't score a lot of points. Like, even today at seven, their drives are long.

His area yards are down from year to year to year to year. Like four years in a row, and then they don't care.

Well, it's tough when you've Richie James on third down is your best option. I'm guessing they're going to fix that stuff up.

Streaking.

Yeah.

All right, so the obvious moves here.

Are, well, so teaser in the over, teasing the cheese until they move this to even or whatever. But I was wrong. I thought it would go down to three. Three and a half today, and it was going the other way for the Chiefs.

Getting the Chiefs at seven and a half sounds fantastic, but I don't know which way I would tease the over under. Right. Because the instinct is always to tease it down because it's more fun to root four points than against points. So what's the money line? What's the Chiefs money line, then? Like, plus 120?

No, it's dead even.

It's plus 100. Niners are. -118 the interesting thing, though, is Mahomes is plus 130 for MVP. Purdy is two to one.

All right, I'm going to go to fandom now, which I have not done, by the way. I'm in Illinois.

I made some bets today.

Isn't it the best?

Yeah.

It's so much fun. I want to talk to you about NBA awards before we go, because there was somewhere I was like, how? And I'm not allowed to bet on it, which sucks.

Yeah.

So 47 and a half.

All right.

MVP.

Mahomes.

Purdy McCaffrey. Plus 430. Kelsey, 23 to one. Pacheco, Samuel Ayuk at 55 to one.

I mean.

If you're going to pick the Chiefs and you want to bet the Chiefs to win, just bet Mahomes to be the MVP would be our advice.

Right.

That seems to. You're just getting better, juice. What are the ods? One of the other Chiefs is winning MVP. Like today. Who would have been the MVP of today's game? Kelsey had an awesome game. That's as good as Kelsey would do. He would not have won the MVP. Mahomes would have won.

Yeah, for sure.

I think the MVP, it's not like the regular season MVP where it's absolutely the quarterback because a wide receiver has won two.

We've seen receivers won.

Right.

Edelman won. And who won recently? Someone won in the last two years.

Receiver.

I don't know why I'm blanking here, but the only way I could see it, Kelsey announces before the game he's going to retire. He has a game like he does today and they give it to him, Taylor and everything else. Wouldn't you want 23 to one?

At that point, Kelsey announces he's going to retire and proposes to Taylor Swift with the ring that was carried in Andy Reid's belly button for the 4 hours of the Super bowl. What's the parlay on that? 20 to 121.

Put that up, vandal.

Let's have some fun. So you and I, next week on this podcast on Sunday night, we're doing our big Super bowl prop preview and we're banging out all these. Sadly, we won't be together, but we'll be on Zoom like we are right now. And then you're going to Vegas, right?

Going to Vegas with the wise guys. Still trying to get house out there, but we're doing ringer wise guys. We'll be on the fandal set there.

On radio row, Cerudi points out Edelman and Cup were the two.

Edelman and cup, right.

Those are the two. Cup was incredible. But nobody on KC is going to have a game like cup had in that Rams game. And Edelman was. That was a pretty weird one, that game in general.

And they've been defensive guys, too. I think you could maybe take a shot at a couple of defensive guys. Edge rushers, sort of. I mean, Chris Jones, 110 to one.

So can we count down just to look ahead? Because it feels like we're going to take a little break here for a couple of days. Everybody takes a breath from football and then it kind of circles back. What is the biggest storyline to you from this game?

The biggest.

Huh?

Kyle? Shannon's got to get it done right.

I think for me, it's Mahomes getting three rings.

Yeah.

I think he moves to another stratosphere if he pulls this off with this.

Team, because I don't think.

What's the next stratosphere? Because I've had this conversation. He's still years away from Brady. So in your mind, he passes Montana for sure.

Well, I think it cements he's in that final group when we mentioned the greatest quarterbacks ever. But I even think, like, he's there. Yeah, well, I think he's young. His first full season was 2018, but no, I was thinking cross sport stratosphere becomes kind of interesting at that point.

The hell does that mean?

Well, you're comparing him to basketball players, baseball players, soccer, tennis.

Okay.

You're talking about, is this our greatest living athlete, I think, becomes in play at that point. Because to do this in football, in a 32 team league that's designed for nobody to be good for more than three, four years as a team, and then it dips down again to just be this good over and over again, I think that's a harder feat than, and he's playing the hardest position of any sport. So to do that, I think, puts him in another group. And now it's like, if we're arguing about him versus, like, he wins against anybody, you want to mention he wins again.

You're baiting me to bring up Brady and say we can't.

Brady doesn't play anymore. I'm talking about right now.

Okay. All right.

Yeah.

I'm talking about people.

Curry, current stars in different sports. He's holding the championship belt.

I kind of think he's there. You think he's at number one with that? You think he's over LeBron?

LeBron hasn't won a title since 2020. He's won one title in the last eight years. He's 39 years old.

Right.

So it's Yokovic and that Venn stopping that f one guy.

Yokovich just lost to sinner Harry's guy.

That's right.

In the Australian. Harry won for Harry.

$75 on it. He's very excited.

Yeah.

There's no golfer who I think has ascended above all the other golfers.

Right.

I don't think there's a soccer star. There's no boxer. Cerudi. Can you think of anyone, Cerudi Mahomes has this right. If he wins this, there's nobody in soccer. No. Is there anyone in any sport that.

You would have wouldn't be baseball because it's Verstappen.

Verstappen is the guy in f one. Oh, we're going f one.

Okay. No fun. But yeah. Wow.

That f one.

Yeah. We could just have a whole podcast on Verstappen versus Mahomes.

Imagine.

I am not prepared to participate in that podcast. Anyway. He's the chestnut. No one's passing, you know, who's kind.

Of in the running.

Unfortunately, it's a scripted sport with predetermined results. But Roman Reigns has had a pretty unbelievable last few years and he's had the title forever.

You're right.

He doesn't let up. He doesn't let up.

The 2020s belong to Roman Reigns and Pat Mahomes.

Right.

And then, so you would say the Uso brothers are sort of like when the referees help Mahomes a little bit.

Triple H is like Sean Smith today. So I have Mahomes going for three rings as the number one storyline. You're still sticking with Shanahan?

Yeah, I think that's number one. I mean, Mahomes, the Taylor Swift stuff is going to infiltrate.

I have that second.

I have actually, I wrote down Mr. Irrelevant versus Taylor Swift.

Right.

Because I think the Mr. Relevant thing is an unbelievable story. And Purdy is almost as good of a story as anything else because you could argue they might have won the title last year if he didn't get hurt. Now they're in the Super bowl again. The fact that he was the last pick of the draft, which I know has been discussed, but it really is incredible. This guy was the last pick of the draft. Like, what are the ods? I really like him. I like watching him. There's been a couple of times this year where we counted him out or like, here we go, the clock has struck midnight and then he seems to rally back. And I thought he made really good throws today. Once he kind of settled down, I thought he was good.

What do you think about Andy Reid being the best coach of any had that in. That's. Does he go to the top two or three in your had?

I had that as my fourth one. I have him as the active coach goat.

Yeah.

Because Belichick can't get a job. I can't believe, listen, I actually really like Raheem Morris. I thought that was like one of the best available coaches.

Right.

But it's hard for me to believe Belichick wanted to coach the Falcons and they were like, cool. Thanks anyway because I thought he was really good this year with a team that he had screwed up with. The roster selections but obviously they wanted a younger person.

I think you are playing some kind of practical joke on everybody. I think you and your Patriot fan friends get together and be like, we could foist Belichick on someone. He was three and 14 as a 71 year old.

Four and 13.

Four and 13. And he wants to run the organization wherever he goes. Let's make it.

I'm out on that.

McDermott loses, the Bills have to sign him. Oh, the Cowboys have to sign him. Why didn't. Atlanta? Atlanta might be the big winner. They avoided Lamar Jackson and Belichick. Good job for you, Atlanta.

Nice.

What about Joe Gibbs? Joe Gibbs, he has some hardware. He has some trophies.

He's only. You're telling me you'd rather have Mike McCarthy than Bill Belichick?

Yeah, at this point, why not? Why was.

Do you think Belichick's washed?

It's over. What?

He has to prove himself again.

He does.

I'm sorry. It just that you can't let four or five years go before you win and not take a year off or something.

All right. Fair.

You know it's true. I know you agree.

I thought he was unbelievable this year with one of the worst teams I've watched in the history of my life.

What is unbelievable? Was he supposed to win?

They were in all those games week after week. They were shutting offenses down and hanging around and then like their kicker would miss Slate.

He constructed that roster, though, but that's a different story.

I don't think he should ever be allowed near a draft.

That's the same. That's what he wants. That's why he should have stayed. He should have said, look, Kraft's just do this for me. Give me two years. Let me break the record. And they should have been like, all right, Bill will do this because nobody.

Else is going, oh, he's not coaching this year. There was a rumor Today that he might go to Fox. I saw that. Yeah, with Grady. If he goes to Fox, that means he lives here. Which opens the door for him to join guest alliance, which I officially made the invite next year. Me, you and Belichick. That's why you can't say mean things about him. Listen, he might be your co host.

I promise I'll start saying good things, but I am out on guest lines. He will cheat every week. He'll be staring at the fanduel page and he'll go, oh, wow, you went 16 for 16 for the 7th straight week. Good job.

Good job.

It would be so funny. It's so funny if he was just amazing against the lights.

We have to bite our tongues.

I have that as JAG sport have. Oh, you did it again, coach.

He's the ringer.

Taylor. Getting there from Tokyo is fun. Isaiah Pacheco. That'll be a fun story. What was he, 6th round, 7th round?

I can't remember.

He was late. Be. That'll be fun. Kittle trying to start shit about Kelsey. I'm sure he'll do in some way.

It's good stuff. I mean, it's great players. McCaffrey, you got hall of famers in this for sure, right?

Yeah. All right.

Are we done with football?

We are. Yeah, I guess so.

Did anything else you want to hit? We have two weeks. Oh, I see.

No, that's it. I'm one in eleven. I'm happy to move on.

Are you one in eleven for the one in eleven? The Steelers.

I had a shot when the Niners.

Were up ten, but one in eleven. Is that the worst you've ever done?

Yeah, by a lot.

I was eight and two and now I'm eight and four.

Really? Yeah.

Maybe I shouldn't have announced anything.

I was more excited until today, but I had a bad feeling about today. That's why I did one big bet. That's it. So the awards, a couple of things on the awards. And again, I'm not allowed to bet on this stuff, but I love talking about it, trying to help.

You already helped me. I'll say before you even toot your own horn, you helped me with SGA. He was ten to one. And you said, as MVP, was he now 320 or different?

Plus 340. Yeah. The fun thing about talking about NBA awards is just, it's a value play. It's just like, oh, that's good value. You should jump on that before the value goes down. To me, there's no real MVP value left except Luca at seven to one because there's a world where he goes nuts for a month. They get to, like, a four or five seed. He's averaging 37, nine and nine for the season. The big thing is that Embiid is the favorite, and he's probably not going to get to the 65 game minimum.

How many can he miss? Five? Four?

I think he's got, like, five left. Him missing the Denver game. I'm just done talking about Embiid and Yokich.

I'm not doing it anymore. I'm out. I'm completely out.

Yokich plays. Yokich has come through in big games, and Yokich won the title and his playoff performance resume for the age that he's at in his career is unbelievable. And we cannot compare and beat to him anymore because Embiid scored 70 against Zach Collins and Victor Wembadam on a Monday night and then missed the Saturday game.

I'm done.

And plus, you're probably further upset because you watch Curry against LeBron, both relics, and they put on a show and you're like, why?

I flew to Chicago and they had Wi Fi and the game started when we took off and it was ending as I landed. It was the most fun I've had on an airplane. The game was amazing.

Did you instruct the pilot? Did you give them. I was like, hey, can you fly around 150 grand? Like, here, take this cash, hover a little bit.

I actually left that game more optimistic for both teams because I think the warriors, they're going to get Gary Payton back at some point, so they'll finally be able to defend wings. But now that they have their framework back, Kaminga is playing better. I think they can get a play in. And Curry is still amazing. He's still like doing it for the coach, too.

There's a lot of emotion there, right?

Yeah.

So that's one of the bets I like, actually, this is on fando. The Lakers and Warriors to make the play in is plus 170 as a parlay.

All right, let me write it down.

Because I think the warriors are going to make the play in. I think they're going to beat Utah. Their guys are going to come back. The only thing that kills it is if Draymond loses his mind again. But anyway, Luca at seven to one, I thought was interesting, there are no Brandon Miller ods for rookie of the year, which I was surprised by. And I don't think he's going to win, but I was surprised that didn't even exist. Anyway, here's three players. Yeah, so I've never really figured out what most improved player was, but maxi is the favorite right now at -230 which is fair because he's having a good season. Then some people like Shangoon, he's plus 320, the shocking one to me. And this is just a pure value play because I can't believe these are the ODS, but Jalen Williams on OKC is 60 to one. He's the second best player in that team. He's gotten better in every phase of the game. I think he could have made like a stealth all star case for him. He's one of the best two way players in the league. His shooting percentages, I think he's like 55% field goal, 45% three point.

He's just awesome. And he's getting better.

You love that team, too. You love that.

Yeah.

And they're going to be a one seed. So first of all, I was shocked that he didn't have better ods, but 60 to one, I was like, what the fuck? I'm convinced nobody's watching OKC. I just don't think people watch the games because if you watch, you would know how good that guy was.

Well, let me just say, that's not a good sign for him winning the award then if nobody's watched.

Well, people are going to voting, but this is the best time to bet these awards because this is January. Nobody's paying attention. And then it's like, wait a second. And then all of a sudden the od shift, that was one. The other was coach of the year, which right now the OKC guy is basically even ods, and he'll probably win.

That's a really good bet.

But will Hardy is 25 to one, which if Utah somehow got like a seven seed, I could see him sneaking in. And then the other one, although it took a hit after that clipper game because they were so bad. And then Tatum kind of took a shot at him after the game. But Missoula was 18 and one, and the Celtics might get the one seed by like six games. I thought those ods were off.

Well, yeah, I have to disregard all your Boston picks, right, but I know what you're saying. The odds aren't shouldn't.

Well, it's just like if they're the one seed by seven games, then the other one, Tibeto, is 95 to one for coach of the year. The Knicks have been.

Friends are going to love this.

The Knicks have been the best defense in the league for five weeks. They've over and over again beaten good teams. They just lost Randall for three weeks.

But they, we don't even know if they're going to make their over, although they'll hit their over under the adjustment.

Well, they also might make a trade. But what if the Knicks get to like a three seed or a four seed? Yeah, not bad.

Yeah.

So those were the ones, I think, that jumped out. I think MVP. I don't see the value, but just the fact that Yanis is ten to one. What happens if he goes nuts with Doc Rivers there?

Now, this isn't on vandal.

Over under five and a half teams that can win the title this year can actually win it.

Okay, let me look. Celtics plus 310. There's one you already screwed up. Okay, Celtics, Denver plus 440.

There's two.

Are you saying definitely or could?

Could. All right.

I'm including Milwaukee just because I honest. Five to one. Clippers seven to one. And it. I personally would put OKC at 19 to one because I think they can make a trade. Philly, I guess. But, man, I will book that action. Philly, eleven to one.

That's the cut off.

OKC.

Philly. I would put Miami in there, too. At 34 to one.

Yeah.

I mean, would you have put Miami in there this time?

I put Miami over Philly.

Right? Yeah.

Because I don't think they care about the regular season.

Right? Yeah.

All right, so you go over.

Listen, if the Celtics don't have Porzingis, it's open. They could not be more beatable in the east. You could pick. Give me four teams that could beat them. I'll be honest. The Knicks, 34 to one, a trade away from. They still have the Fourier contract and some picks. If they got one more big guy, they'd become pretty interesting. I don't know if they could win the title, but this is the most.

Interesting since probably before I met you, I think.

How many would you put in?

I thought it would be five and a half. I thought it'd be. Didn't. I had Philly instead of OKC. But you like OKC more than most, I think.

Yeah.

Because they have a trade to make.

Who was it last year? It was Memphis was a one seed.

Yeah.

They were up there. I don't know if they were one seed. Thought Denver was the one seed. Miami at twelve to one, I thought was pretty good. I don't know what to make of the Cavs because they've been playing well for five weeks, and some of it makes sense to me because they lost a couple of guys, but then all of a sudden now they basically have shooters, Donovan Mitchell and Jared Allen, and they play better defense for reasons that I still don't totally understand, but they make sense more as a team versus like, all right, you get the ball now. All right, now it's your turn to have the ball. And I was looking at them at that. Plus 350 to win the Central division over Milwaukee, because I don't think they're far away from them. They are Milwaukee dancing out of their.

System, and then they're only two games.

In the lost calm. Two games in the lost column behind Milwaukee.

Is that what it is?

Yeah.

So I thought that was interesting. All right, let's do parent corner. Today's parent corner is brought to you by Carmax as any parent knows, there's always two things we can't get enough of, and that's time and money. That's why Carmax is making it fast and easy to shop by your budget when you get pre qualified for your next car. And when I say fast, I mean fast. And the time it takes you to make a pot of coffee, you can get personalized items so you can start shopping that nationwide inventory to find a car within your monthly budget. And even better, pre qualifying won't impact your credit score. Save time, start shopping for a car you'll love and get pre qualified today. Carmax, the way car buying should be. See details@carmax.com all right, cuz, what do you got?

All right, so my son is wrestling, my middle son, freshman high school. It is really crazy being a wrestling parent. You have these tournaments and this is the last tournament of the year for the freshman JV and he had a weigh in at 730, 40 minutes away. And wrestling starts at ten, which means I got to leave here at 645 on Saturday. I got to get him there. And then I just got to sit in my car and bet English Premier League soccer and watch on my phone from like eight to ten. And then he gets a match. So he has one win this year. It's probably like one in ten. But let me just say the circumstances and quality of opponent of that one year was questionable. I'll leave it at that. But God bless him, he went through it. He's got a maniac coach who drives him. This guy wrestled for Dan Gable, he trained for the Olympics. And they'll do like 1000 sprawls and they'll do like, what do they call it? Like hand fighting for 40 minutes straight and he comes back and he's a mess and he just goes right to sleep.

But he's like staying with it, right? So I'm not expecting much from him in this tournament. In his first match, he gets taken down, but he's got his arm overhooked. Even though the guy's got control. This is going to be inside baseball a little bit, but just bear with me. So he's got the arm overhooked and then he hips in and he hooks the leg. And so now he's got like position and this move is called the Peterson. And while the guy has the. Now if he hips back into him, he's now going to pin the kid or come close, right? So it's hard to picture, but he's basically got a fireman's carry now.

It looks like he's in trouble, but it's the opposite, right?

And they're on the ground and he's hipping back and he's like pinning the kid. And I'm screaming, squeeze, squeeze. And I posted it to Instagram, and I'm squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. And he's hipping in, I'm yelling, squeeze. And he does it. And he pins the kid with 1.7 seconds left in the second period, which is the same amount of time left where the kid hit the three pointer in my last parent corner, which is crazy, right? So he pins a kid and I'm going nuts. And the whole section sees what's going on. They're going nuts. And he jumps up and he goes wild and he kicks his foot in the air and he thrusts his head back, and as we're driving home, and then he loses his next couple of matches. So whatever. But we're driving home, I said, wow, jack, that was really exciting. Where'd you learn that move? And he said, you taught me in the beginning of the year. And I melted.

Simmons.

I was like, I taught you that.

I remember.

I taught you like a Grammy roll or something. He's like, no, you taught me the Peterson how to do. I said, wow, I'm so bad at everything else. I was able to teach you this.

I'm one in eleven in football picks. But you paid by weekend.

Hold on. I was one in nine until then. Give me a break. This was Saturday, and I was almost like, pulled over. I get choked up. And then we drive for a couple of minutes. I said, what about that celebration? Where'd you get that from? He's like, oh, that was in honor of TJ Watt. I said, what? He says, yeah, you know, he does the thing. He moves his head out and he kicks his leg up and he puffs his chest. I said, oh, all right, because he's a steeler fan, even though I named him Romo. We went through this and I said, really? Why are you doing that for TJ Watt? And he says, well, if he's not going to win defensive player of the year, I have to honor him somehow. I swear he got. He said that, wow, you just ruined it for me, kid. But good job.

So we honored you and TJ Watt.

Me and TJ Watt. So I think as parents, we need to come up with a slogan or a symbol, even if it's a heart or whatever, so that our kids, when they do something good, they look to us and they mimic our celebration or our whatever instead of TJ freaking Watt. Anyway, I watched on the Peterson.

Yeah, I watched the Instagram video three times.

You did?

My favorite part was that Jack and the panda. Oh, that was great. It was you screaming during the squeeze.

Squeeze.

I was dying laughing. It's so people. Does everyone yell out in the audience or is it just a select few? Everyone's supposed to yell at the matches.

Yeah.

I've been arrested. Positive. And you're saying something.

Yeah. Why?

You only heard me.

Well, your voice was right next to the phone. It was great.

I loved it so much.

Well, I did it for TJ.

My son, Ben Simmons.

Yeah.

Who has listened to the Joe Rogan podcast from time to time when he has comedians on that Ben likes. And I guess Joe Rogan pushes this thing called alpha Brain, that it's like some thing. It helps with clarity. It's a supplement. It might be a placebo, who knows? But for some reason my son decided I'm going to buy Alpha brain. So we get at Amazon, it comes to me. I always just open. I always think it's for me because I at C and it's like, oh, let's get this alpha. I'm like, ben, what the hell is this? He's like, oh no, I need that. It helps you lock in. I'm going to take it for an exam or whatever. So he takes it for a couple of days and he's telling us, alpha brain, it's been great.

I really like it.

Okay. My wife gets concerned. She googles it for every thing for 3 hours and it seems fine, whatever. The next day we get an email from Ben's history teacher, which I read, and the first paragraph of it is really good. And she's like, she's basically praising Ben because he's put in a lot of work and he's raised his grade and says with continued effort he'll keep improving. And blah, blah, blah, thumbs up. And then she writes, I'm actually writing to let you know that Ben had a bottle of alphabrain in class today and started to hand them out to his neighbors before I caught them. We re emphasized him that he cannot do this. I would really appreciate it. And then closes with, I really hope he can continue his strong. So now my wife is furious. It's like an Alphabet dealer. That's great. So he comes home and we're yelling at him. He's like, it's fine. It's like a vitamin. Like you can't hand out shit in class anymore. He's old enough to drive at this point. When do these kids get smarter, Sal. I don't know.

Alpha brain should help them get smarter.

Apparently the alpha brain didn't help with this one.

Wait a minute. So I need to know. Did the teacher at first know that he was handing out alpha Brain, or did she?

I think she saw him handing out supplements to a couple of his friends in class.

She think it was the worst. And then he said, no, it's Alpha Brain.

You don't understand. He's like, no, it's Alpha Brain. I think he tried to defend it. And that led to a very pleasant email from her just kind of giving us a heads up.

Did you write back yet? Because if you.

We did. My wife sent her a long, mortified email back. She's a great teacher. She's been.

You should be like, hey, what's wrong, Teach? You worried all the kids are going to ace their exams because they're on Alpha brain?

We get confidential. You leave my son alone if he wants to alpha brain it up. I forgot I was going to take one before tonight's podcast to see what happened. But then I came to Chicago and I forgot to take, oh, I got.

To get one from him. I'll just go to school and get one from him, period.

Class.

We should do it before the props, the Super bowl props pod.

Yeah. So anyway, Alpha brain apparently doesn't help with common sense. There you go with parent corner. Today's parent corner is brought to you by Carmax. There's never enough time in the day, especially for parents. Carmax understands that they get it. That's why they're making it fast and easy to shop for your next car@carmax.com. You can get pre qualified in as little as five minutes with no impact to your credit score. And you can shop at nationwide inventory with your personalized monthly budget. With all the time you'll save, maybe you can start planning that family road trip or finally get a little you time, even if it's just for a little while. Carmax, the way car buying should be. See details@carmax.com. All right, Sal, what do you got to plug?

That was a good one. Through the ringer with Tate Frazier. You've heard of him, delightful young fella. We have against the oDs, a couple episodes this week, and cousin Sal's winning weekend, the playmaker Michael Irvin joins cancer.

Who knows? Yeah. Love Michael Irvin.

Lots of fun.

That's great. Big.

All right, well, next time we talk, it will be Super bowl props Sunday night on this podcast. This is probably your favorite week of the year. When you figure out the props, don't lose your confidence.

I love it.

You had an off playoffs, but that doesn't mean you can't win the big game.

No, I came back with the Niners. In a way, I have a little streak going here. Niners moneyline.

Jesus Christ. That was scary. All right, regardless, good job by you guys.

Good job by you, buddy.

All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Sarudi. As always, thanks to Cousin Sal. I'm going to be back on Tuesday with a new podcast here. I'm not sure about Thursday yet. Thursday is up near, but Tuesday is definitely happening. So stay tuned for that and I'll see you then.

On a waste of.

I don't have you live with him.

On the west side.

On the front side I don't have.

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